Jazz, Soul, Funk & World Music

Ms. Lauryn Hill plays at Baloise Session

While hip-hop diva Lauryn Hill delayed coming on stage for an hour at the Basel Event Hall in Switzerland, when she finally did arrive she set the house on fire in 2018. (Earlier in Atlanta, she made the audience wait two hours before she came on which set her disgruntled fans aflame on social media.) Announcing that the Baloise show was a celebration honoring the 20th anniversary of her break-out solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, she's in top shape here after a number of years off the circuit (tax evasion, jail time, lack of inspiration).
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She sings with a buoyant soul and passionately talks about social injustice. She says, "We fight every day to hold the highest standard." Musically that was certainly the fuel that makes this show quite spirited and grooving. Hill's been at the top echelon of pop singers, beginning in 1988 when she co-founded the Fugees that in 1996 scored a huge recording, The Score, that sold 17 million copies.
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Since then she's had sporadic success in overcoming her own foibles, but while even late to stage, Hill played it successful at Baloise Session with her blend of neo-soul, hip-hop and dance-friendly tunes.

James Brown - Live at Chastain Park

“James Brown, James Brown, James Brown.” His name is repeated like a mantra at the Chastain Park Amphitheatre, as if people were calling a Messiah who had swapped Christianity for funk. Although this 1985 concert’s grainy images and editing are deliciously dated and incredibly vintage (it was the pre-smartphone time when people got out lighters during ballads), the Godfather of Soul’s music sounds downright timeless. Before his fellow citizens of Georgia, the man from Augusta doesn’t look his 52 years when he puts the pedal to the metal on “I Got You (I Feel Good)” and “Get on the Good Foot.” Afterwards, when he throws himself into a split for “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” he comes back up as if it’s nothing.
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As usual, James Brown sees his concert as choreography. While pushing the limits of his vocal cords, the American waves his arms to lead his band (where we find his regulars, Martha High, Maceo Parker, and St. Clair Pinckney) and get them to dance. He covers the whole length and breadth of the stage. Dressed in electric blue for the first half of the show, he changes into bright red after a surprising version of the local anthem, “Georgia on My Mind.” And when he mimes his departure at the end of “Please, Please, Please” like a boxer in his robe, he returns all of a sudden to shake the audience’s hands like a campaigning politician. Singer, dancer, composer, band leader, politician, boxer, godfather, and messiah: James Brown was all of these thing at the same time. And even more.

BB King - Live at Jazzopen 1997

All you need is one note and you can identify guitarist B.B. King, the man they called “The King of the Blues.” As an electric guitarist and forthright singer, King came to personify urban blues, first in the United States, and, as his fame increased during his seven-decade career, around the entire world. Combining sophisticated musicianship, raw emotionality and a passion for performing, King came to be regarded as the modern bluesman par excellence.
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During this emblematic Stuttgart concert King displays all his musical gifts, peeling off beautiful single note solos, singing with soul and wit and expertly leading his crack band. Kicking off with his customary opener, “Let the Good Times Roll,” (adapted from the repertoire of the great R&B pioneer Louis Jordan, one of King’s idols), B.B. proceeds to rip through some of his signature tunes including “Ain’t Nobody Home,” “Please Accept My Lover,” “Why I Sing the Blues” and, of course, his trademark song “The Thrill Is Gone,” the 1969 landmark recording that transformed him into a blues superstar.
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While giving members of his fine touring band (complete with dual drummers) room to shine, King remains the focal point of the performance, his superb guitar playing shining like a beacon and his heartfelt vocals dripping with emotion. What made King special was the way he synthesized different musical elements into his style. One can hear strains of rural blues, jump band jazz, R&B, pop and urban Chicago blues blending and brewing. A genius of the blues, King was America’s musical gift to the world.

12 Qwestions - Erykah Badu

The first memory linked to music, the meaning of the word "jazz," and the song too moving to listen to; the American soul, hip hop, and R&B singer Erykah Badu did us the honor of answering the 12 Qwestions in the backstage excitement of the Montreux Festival, where stars flock in large numbers every year.

The woman who began her career as a rapper alongside D'Angelo quickly became a success and a major figure in hip hop and R&B. In 1997, she released the huge Baduizm, featuring the famous “On & On,” which won many awards. On this track, with a few delays that will only increase expectations, the singer would have a series of successes, collaborating with Flying Lotus, Rocketjuice & the Moon, Robert Glasper, and Tyler, The Creator.

Paco de Lucia and Group

With his permanent sextet and two regular guests (guitarist Juan-Manuel Cañizares and bailador Joaquin Grilo), Paco de Lucia shows that when it rises to this level of musicality, Flamenco Nuevo overtakes everything in its path, removing all prejudices.
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Flamenco Nuevo, whose foundation is well established during this concert, emerged in the late 1960s by refuting the concept of purity. Paco de Lucia used instruments that didn’t fit into the usual framework (flute, saxophone, Peruvian cajon, and electric bass) and innovative harmonic suites. Yet he didn’t abandon its fundamentals. He confided, “Flamenco has always known how to assimilate what could be assimilated into its spirit and nature. I think it is vital not to lose sight of tradition, because that is what holds the essence, the message, and the foundations; that is where your identity, and the taste and the scent of flamenco can be found.”
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The scent of flamenco is felt throughout the concert, and Paco reveals his identity when he expresses himself as a soloist with virtuosity that is never gratuitous. The emotion stirred by his brother Pepe's rough voice, the voice that wounds and that we call “sharp,” doesn't waver from the cante jondo's message.

Roy Hargrove Quintet - Live at Jazz en Tête

Through the many tributes that have been made since his death, we can measure the depth of the footprints left by Roy Hargrove for thirty years, in every category of jazz he touched. It’s with great emotion that we now watch the trumpeter here in his favoured format, the quintet.
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The year is 2017 in Clermont-Ferrand, and Hargrove is accompanied by Justin Robinson (saxophone), Tadataka Unno (piano), Ameen Saleem (double bass) and Quincy Phillips (drums) – they roll out a repertoire divided between original compositions and songs from Donald Brown ("Cape Town Ambush"), Miles Davis ("The Theme"), Joe Henderson ("Shade of Jade"), and Sam Cooke (" Soothe Me"). Among the highlights are a piano-trumpet duo version of the standard "Wild Is the Wind" and a spirited conclusion with Michael Jackson's "Rock with You.” Talent, class, and performance: that was Roy.

Gilberto Gil: The Power of Music

A concert at the UN headquarters, with Secretary General Kofi Annan at the Congas, opens this wonderful portrait of Gilberto Gil. The story begins in Salvador de Bahia, where a 2-year-old boy tells his mother that he will become a musician. He would go on to make good on this prophecy, and even more. Gilberto Gil, a Beatles fan and co-founder (with Caetano Veloso, in particular) of Tropicalism, wanted to "modernize music" in Brazil. His activism resulted in prison and in him being forced into exile (1969-1972) by the military dictatorship. When he returned, he built bridges between the Nordeste and Africa, fought against racism, and promoted black cultures, eventually becoming Minister of Culture (2003-2008). Gilberto Gil describes this extraordinary journey, which ends on stage with his son Bem, to whom he is passing the torch.

Ella Fitzgerald - RTBF Archive 1957

Ella Fitzgerald and an all-star combo swing, sway and scat in Brussels. By the late 1950’s, the incomparable vocalist Ella Fitzgerald was at the pinnacle of her powers. Riding high on the success of her “songbook” series, Fitzgerald, accompanied by her manager/producer Norman Granz and a brilliant array of musicians including pianist Oscar Peterson, bassist Ray Brown, drummer Jo Jones and trumpeter Roy Eldridge, embarked on a 1957 European tour as part of Granz’s iconic Jazz at the Philharmonic contingent. This joyful Brussels concert, captured by Belgian television, finds Ella and her crew in top form, giving their all to an appreciative crowd.  Fitzgerald was as enchanting and persuasive an interpreter of ballads as she was a hard swinging improviser. Here, she displays both sides of her unparalleled artistry.
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The luminous ballads “Angel Eyes,”“Love for Sale,” and “Tenderly”are set off against swinging renditions of“Lullabye of Birdland”“April In Paris”“Just One of Those Things,”“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” (complete with Ella’s affectionate nods to other current singers including a dead-onLouis Armstrong impersonation!) And when she digs into her celebrated scatting numbers, she turns the house upside down.  Oscar Peterson, fronting a quartet that includes his regular trio mates Ray Brown and Herb Ellis, is also joined by Jo Jones, the innovative drummer who revolutionized the role of his instrument with the Count Basie band. And when the ensemble is joined by the great trumpeter Roy Eldridge on the concluding numbers, the excitement only intensifies. If there are any doubts that Ella Fitzgerald was the greatest jazz singer of her era, this concert will erase them all.

Manu Dibango - "Musicalmente con" TV Show

To many, he’s a hearty burst of laughter. But let’s not forget that Manu Dibango was one of the very first Africans to have a hit in the United States with Soul Makossa. More than two million records would be sold… In 1972, when he penned this hit that would later be copied many times over, the native of Douala was nearly forty years old. That is, old enough that this incredible success didn’t turn his head. Arriving in Europe in the late forties, where he pursued his studies, the native of Cameroon quickly distinguished himself in the music world, under the patronage of poet Francis Bebey, who introduced him to jazz. And if he dabbled at keyboards and the vibraphone, it was on alto sax that Dibango would soon win fame for his taut sound, smacking of rhythm 'n' blues. So it wasn’t for nothing that, a few years later, he would become one of the key figures around Nino Ferrer, without a doubt the best soul singer France had ever known. As for Dibango, he began recording songs, which would later be eagerly sought out by lovers of rare groove.
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All of that simply to say that there really was a “Before-Soul-Makossa.” And after? Dibango would release album after album, playing just about every imaginable style of music. As a result, he rubbed shoulders with Fania All Stars during a memorable American tour and went on to direct the new orchestra of the Ivorian TV and Radio Broadcast Organization for four years. He also worked with Robert Shakespeare and Lowell Dunbar, better known as Sly and Robbie, one of the essential Jamaican rhythm sections! He has even tried his hand at mixing it up with hip hop, in addition to playing with founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic Bernie Worrel and Blue Note artist Herbie Hancock… Here, we see him in 1983 in a concert recorded for Swiss-Italian Television. A rare document.