Great Spirits

Will The Chantels Get Justice?

Will The Chantels get justice at last?  They are the seminal girl group of the rock 'n' roll era yet for years they haven't even been on the consideration list for the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame nominations. But this year's list of prospective nominees have been announced and one of the nine artists is The Chantels! I have been on an informal mission to get them nominated for years now so this news is exciting. In fact that quest started over fifteen years ago, when I wrote a long piece about them for The Village Voice's Rock 'N' Roll Quarterly supplement, only to see the Quarterly eliminated before the piece could run...

Some of you may be saying, who are The Chantels?  Some may know the name, possibly even know their signature hit "Maybe" (later covered by Janis Joplin and The Three Degrees), but little else. And some of you may be familiar with the special magic of the greatest girl group of the rock 'n' roll era.

Why should The Chantels be in the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame?  Here's a few reasons. First, as mentioned they were the greatest female vocal group of the rock 'n' roll era (pre-1961). In fact, they were the first female group to score more than a one-off hit; they hit the charts eight times from 1957 to 1963, with such hits as "Maybe" (one of the greatest vocal group records ever), "The Plea", "He's Gone, "Look In My Eyes" , "Well I Told You" (an answer record to Ray Charles' "Hit The Road Jack"), "Every Night(I Pray"), "I Love You So" etc. Lead singer Arlene Smith was the greatest female voice of rock 'n' roll's golden age--=and continued to be an original and great voice up until the present time. Though a Black group, their hits were pop hits from the git-go, not cross-overs from the r & b charts--thus breaking down barriers. They proved that five Black teenage girls from The Bronx could crack the mainstream market on their own terms. They were the direct inspiration for The Shirelles and many other girl groups who ushered in the fantastically successful "girl group" era of 1960-1963. And they were trained musicians who could play instruments (even occasionally opening shows by playing a rock 'n' roll instrumental on electric guitar, electric bass, drums, piano and maraccas! there's priceless publicity photo of them looking like  a rock 'n' roll band even though they are also wearing gowns!).

      I had the pleasure of interviewing all of them (all but one of them in person). Like so many groups, they had had a split, with Arlene eventually performing with a couple of other women as Arlene Smith & The Chantels and the other four--Sonia Goring, Jackie Landry, Rene Minus-White and Lois Harris--performing as The Chantels with a new lead vocalist. I saw the latter Chantels in performance at a World Trade just two months before the 9/ll attack; they were magnificent. When I met with Sonia, Jackie, and Lois at Jackie's home, I was struck by the fact that even in middle age, with successful lives outside of music, they still had the passion to sing together and in fact wanted to re-unite with Arlene. Sonia said "we're the only group that could re-unite with all the original members." For various reasons that did not happen, although they did come together when they were presented a Pioneer Award by the R & B Foundation. Jackie, who wanted the reunion most fervently, unfortunately passed away soon after. A dramatic, spine-tingling moment came on one of the Doo Wop Spectacular Shows broadcast on PBS  stations nationwide, the group, minus Arlene, sang one of their post-Arlene hits "Look In My Eyes" and Arlene walked out onstage--a majestic diva--and joined them to sing an absolutely impassioned version of "Maybe", which she dedicated to Jackie Landry. A whole genre of music probably would not exist without The Chantels. They need to be in the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame!

This week's musical treat: a taste of Simphewe Dana

This week's musical treat is Simphewe Dana, who we raved about in a blog post the week before last. She has been variously compared to Miriam Makeba, Lauryn Hill and India.Arie....check it out in the "Musical Treats section"!

Great Spirits In LA

Randall will be making a couple appearances in LA on behalf of Great Spirits:

  On October 2nd at 7:00PM he will present "A Celebration Of Great Spirits" at Eso Won Books, 4331 Degnan Blvd. in Los Angeles; info: tel: 323-290-1048 or www.esowonbookstore.com

  on Oct. 4th at 3:00PM he will appear on a music writer's panel along with other notable music writers at The West Hollywood Book Fair in, you guessed it, West Hollywood!

A State Of Reggae Message

       I've been a passionate lover of reggae music for close to forty years now, both for its utterly unique and mesmerizing musical elements and its traditions of social commentary, spirituality and political content. I can't think of another popular music form that over the years has had so much of those elements. Not saying I don't enjoy reggae which is purely entertaining or sexy or romantic because I do--as long as the music is strong. 

     Recently I had a conversation with an old friend, a veteran of at least three decades of the reggae music biz wars. He made a statement that was surprising and disturbing even to him self, namely that the reggae scene in Jamaica is dead. On the dancehall side it has hip-hop-fied itself into irrelevance, more often than not becoming a hyped-up  bunch of beats with very little connection to recognizably Jamaican musical currents, in support of lyrics that are the most expedient and superficial sex-and-violence exploitation. In this trend, dancehall reggae mirrors hip-hop, which he pointed out is mostly high pop-inflected,  hook-oriented productions where the rap is more or less secondary to the vocal hook and the lyric content operates at the lowest-common-denominator of quality. On the "one-drop" "concious" side, he said, the new recordings in this style are mainly pale imitations of what has gone before. On a business level, it is difficult for producers to make economically-viable recordings, thanks to piracy, free internet downloads, the decline in the number of "riddim" compilations (especially with the consolidation of V-P Records and Greensleeves), and the disappearance of the market for 45's and 12" singles. 

       I couldn't disagree with any of this, though it hurts my heart to acknowledge it.  

       Therefore, I feel it is imperative to point to the few bright spots I see in the reggae realm.  The slow but steady rise of Tarrus Riley, for instance, is encouraging, not because he's doing  anything musically new, but because of the consistent quality of his songwriting, which has a solid melodic flair and thoughtful lyrics. He's a capable singer with a nice vocal sound who truly broke through about eighteen months ago with his hit "She's Royal",  an anthem for the woman in his life that was refreshing for extolling womanly virtues beyond the obvious superficial ones. His recent song "Cold Kisses" evocatively expresses the process of leaving a failed relationship. His lyrics avoid cliches and deliver a message with overt preaching.

      One of the strongest reggae singles I've heard lately comes from Queen Ifrica, a conscious singer/deejay who first made some noise a year ago with her single "Daddy', a surprisingly direct tale of sexual abuse suffered by a child at the hands of her father. Her new hit, "Lioness On The Rise" sounds vibrant and energized, not simply a copy of something that went before. It is from her new album "Montego Bay" , produced in association with Tony Rebel, a lyrically varied set with nicely produced riddims, that is largely a step up in song quality from her earlier singles. Queen Ifrica is not an especially great vocalist but like Tanya Stephens she can deliver a song with passion and authenticity.

     New vocalist Courtney John, brought to my attention by Sharon Gordon, is a throwback but a welcome one--he often sounds like a new incarnation of the legendary Slim Smith.  His "Lucky Man" cut, from his debut album "Made In Jamaica", is beautifully sung classic lovers rock and there's more where that came from on the album. Notable is a cut called "Save It All" which is Caribbean-inflected pop, a kicking crossover groove on a nice song.

     Veteran singer Ini Kamoze stepped forward with a new album entitled "5150 Rule", which draws as much from hip-hop as reggae. Ini's earliest Sly And Robbie-produced hits from 1983-4, such hits as "Trouble YouA Trouble Me" and "General" were edgy, electronica-infused reggae from the get-go, so it is not a departure for him to incorporate hip-hop elements (indeed his "Hot Stepper" re-mix was a hit on urban radio in America in the Nineties.  But on "5150 Rule" Ini does not simply ape hip-hop; he incorporates the feel and certain elements of it into his own sound. Not everything on the album is great but most cuts are interesting, with serious semi-poetic patois lyrics. Most interesting is "Rapunzel", which features American underground soul singer Maya Azucena; it uses the fairy tale character of Rapunzel as the basis for a love song.

       Terry Lynn's "Kingston Logic 2.0" would be the most original thing to come out of Jamaica in the past couple of years but it didn't exactly come out of Jamaica. She certainly did but the riddims--most electro dance-beats or hip-hop inflected grooves that only occasionally reference reggae riddims--were created in Europe. On the title cut is a lacerating run-down of the realities of Kingston ghetto street-life, a ten-times-worse portrait that Junior Murvin first outlined in "Police And Thieves"  thirty years ago. The video for this cut was filmed in a Jamaican meat abbatoir, a stark, compelling metaphor for the slaughter going on in Kingston streets. Cuts such as "IMF", "System", "Screaming In The Night" deliver some of the hardest hitting political lyrics to be heard anywhere today in any genre of music. But she closes the album with a version of "Rivers Of Babylon."  Powerful stuff.

       Finally, I should not shy away from mentioning the new Inner Circle album; I only hesitate because (full disclosure) the company I work for has released it. But check out such cuts as "Gun Ting", "Real Soldiers"(featuring a vocal by Gramps Morgan of Morgan Heritage), "Never Give Up" and see if you agree that there is melodic and lyrics content there that is not too common these days. 

      So there are a few points of light in the wasteland that is the reggae music scene right now. Historically Jamaica has been a consistent source of creativity, though, so we can hope something rises up to lead the way into a new era. But let's hope it happens soon!

  

        

new musical treat posted

    the second portion of our mystery world music mix is posted in the "musical treats" section...it includes cuts by by Funkadesi (Canada), Cool Riddims & Sister Teedy (New Orleans), Etzer (Haiti), Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingo, and Tanbura (Egypt)....look next week look for a track from the wonderful South African singer Simphiwe Dana who we talked about in the blog post immediately proceeding this one....enjoy!

the next miriam makeba or next Lauryn Hill--or both?

     A long-time music business acquaintance recently did me the favor of introducing me to the music of Simphiwe Dana of South Africa. She prepped my by saying she was "the India.Arie of South Africa."  That intriguing intro plus my respect for her taste in music created quite a lot of anticipation in me to hear this lady's music.  The CD cover only added to the anticipation. It presented  Simphiwe in a black and turquoise outfit, a kind of vaguely Asian/ somewhat Star-Trekian pantsuit. Huge cylindrical indgo headgear, an exaggeration of traditional female Zulu or Xhosa headgar and more than a little reminiscent oof Erykah Badu's towering wrap, perched on her head, decorated by mystical turquoise symbols. The attractive, youthful, bronze-complected young woman stares dead at you from a background that could be desert but looks more like the surface of the moon, bathed in turquoise light.

     Put on the CD, which is her debut album from 2004, entitled "Zandisile." The album opens with "Yukani", an atmospheric vamp with a slinky Badu-esque vocal. Another cut, "Ndiredi", opens with stark, evocative vocal lines over what sounds like a harp, joined by luscious harmony vocals...it then ships into an uptempo groove rooted in gospel but inflected with township jazz and then opens up into pop choruses. Most of the songs are sung in Xhosa but there are couple of songs with English lyrics, "Tribe" ( love song, surprisingly) and "Troubled Soldier," (sample lyric: "felt the chains pulling me down/ all the way down deep underground/ saw my heroes dropping yeah yeah/ lethargy set in like disease/ CHORUS: troubled soldier in the know/ burdened by the future passed/ fighting fighting we're all fighting/ for a chance at the sun. The album is an unclassfiable collage of jazz, soul, South African township styles, Zap Mama-esque vocal interplay and more. Though some of the songs are not distinguished,  they all sound wonderful on the surface. The quality of musicianship, singing and production is a rare delight in these times.

    

         The quality of Zandisile made me immediately seek out her 2nd album, "The One Love Movement On Bantu Biko Street" , which sports another intergalactic cover.  It opens with rich female harmonies, a Sweet Honey In The Rock kind of vibe but soon a acoustic ensemble of string, bass, drums, piano and percussion comes in, the piano playing jazz chords. Dana's voice is marvelous, rich, strong, alternately intimate and soaring. Overall this album is a little more jazz-oriented and the township elements are more prominent but it delivers the same wondrous quality of the first. It just is damn good to listen to.

        Simphiwe Dana has been performing in Europe and a buzz is building apparently. A number of video clips of her performing are on YouTube as is her very striking video clip for "Zandisile". These can give you a flavor of her better than any description I could come up with. Some folks are evidently saying she's the new Miriam Makeba (which tends to happen to any strong-voiced female singer from South Africa); it is not a crazy comparison but when I first listened to her I didn't immediately think of Makeba. Others compare her to Lauryn Hill, though she doesn't rap at all as far as I can tell. The India.Arie comparison is fair enough except that Simphiwe is far more jazz rooted than India. If pushed to make a comparison, I would come up with Diane Reeves, except that Simphiwe is coming from South African milieu and roots and incorporating jazz and soul and Western pop, whereas Diane Reeves is coming from an American milieu and incoporating African elements at times. Whatever the comparisons or labels, ultimately Simphiwe is unclassifiable--and wonderful!  Do yourself a favor and check her out. Both cd's availabe on Amazon.