If you're anything like me, your mood varies wildly depending on the happenings of the day. Today, for example, Mukasey's HJC testimony got me pretty glum. While republican self-destruction is schadenfreudelicious, it is also depressing; this is not what representative government should be. Sigh.
I've already made indignant phone calls to Senators (had sarcastic fun with staffers in the offices of Schumer and Feinstein, asking if they were disappointed that Mukasey wasn't actually a reasonable guy). I've sent dozens of faxes, albeit with small hope that I'll have any effect. I've given money all the way into bloody April....it's wearisome, isn't it?
When I need a break, I turn to music, and I mostly turn to music from my elders. To me, the beauty of song often emerges more powerfully once the voice has suffered the inevitable erosion of time...and with that in mind, please follow me below the fold to hear some magnificent musicians from all over the world sing their experience, their suffering, their wisdom.
Pop culture treats artists like commodities, using them up and tossing them into the dumpster. To me, in this disposable world, the voice of an elder is a doorway into a longer view, demanding a way of listening that embodies respect for experience. The singers I'm sharing below come from a variety of different world musical traditions, but they all share the same characteristic: they have survived, and they've stood the test of time. Some have suffered more than we can imagine, and some have spent decades languishing in obscurity before being rediscovered (in some cases to the astonishment of audiences who assumed they'd died years before). Some have been celebrated all over the world, singing for royalty, and some never achieved recognition outside a small circle. No matter. Listening to any of these elders, I'm reminded of the good things we humans have accomplished, and I come away with a modicum of hope.
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Sippie Wallace (1898-1986), at 83, singing with Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Albert King, Etta James and John Mayall's band, in 1982:
Can you imagine how much crap she had to put up with as a blues-woman in the 1920s? I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it.
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Ralph Stanley (1927- ), singing "O Death" (you might have heard this in "O Brother Where Art Thou?"):
Ralph Stanley and his brother Carter Stanley were among the first exponents of Bluegrass, the new music pioneered by Bill Monroe, but their approach hewed much more closely to the older traditions of mountain music. Carter Stanley died in 1966, but Ralph is still singing strong, recently leading the crowd in Amazing Grace at a rally for John Edwards (no word as to who'll get the Stanley endorsement now).
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Mabel Mercer (1900-1984), doing an adaptation of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now":
Frank Sinatra said that he'd learned everything he knew about handling a lyric from Mabel Mercer. You might also enjoy her version of "These Foolish Things," which never fails to move me.
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The legendary Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum (1904-1975), singing "el Atlal"(the ruins"(Nagi Ibrahim/Riad el sombati) at a Paris concert from 1968:
I know very little about Egyptian music, but the compelling voice of Oum Kalthoum (sometimes spelled "Oum Kalsoum") has always cast a spell over me. I am told that all vehicle traffic stopped throughout Egypt during her radio broadcasts. Her funeral in 1975 brought over 4 million mourners to the streets of Cairo to pay their last respects.
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Bhimsen Joshi (1922 - ) is perhaps the most famous living Hindustani classical singer. Here he is in his 80s, bodily weakened by paralysis (hence the cloth draped over his lower torso), singing a song in khyal style, in the raga Darbari Kanada:
Bhimsenji's personal story is the stuff of legend; he ran away from home at age 12 and traveled throughout North India seeking guidance from countless traditional artists. I heard him perform many times in India during the 1980s and 1990s, and spent a year doing daily practice at his home in Pune. In his heyday he was the most active performer in India, some years doing as many as 400 4-hour concerts per year.
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Mallikarjun Mansur (1910-1992), in his 70s, singing a khyal in the raga Nat Bihag:
Mansur was perhaps the most joyful singer I have ever heard (and the heaviest smoker; his lung power was astonishing when you think of how much poison he inhaled). A tiny, birdlike man, he radiated happiness to an uncanny degree. I've heard him perform three times, once just a year before he died, and each time stands out in my memory as a vortex of joy and beauty. In this video his son Rajshekhar Mansur gives him vocal accompaniment; savor the love between them! Also savor the endless stream of variations he comes up with between iterations of the main theme (which translates as "jhan jhan jhan my ankle-bells are ringing / my in-laws are awake and they'll hear me (as I sneak out to meet my lover)"). The word khyal means "imagination," and Mansur exemplifies musical creativity to me; he is heavily represented in my "Desert Island Discs."
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Roshan Ara Begum (1917-1982), extolled as the "Queen of Melody" in her native Pakistan, singing a romantic song in the dadra style:
Roshan Ara Begum migrated to Pakistan in 1948 at the time of the partition of India. She was acclaimed for the purity of her intonation, for her improvisational genius, and for her richly nuanced expression of emotion.
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M.S. Subbulakshmi (1916-2004), singing a song in the Carnatic style:
Subbulakshmi is a universally revered figure among South Indians. While other singers of Carnatic music may have had wider ranges or greater technical accomplishment, her presentations are considered models of simplicity, clarity and humility.
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B.B. King (1925 - ), telling us about being a blues man (he once said that being a professional blues musician "was like being black twice.":
Really, what else can you say about B.B. King?
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Frank Sinatra (1915-1998), singing Harold Arlen's "One For My Baby," in 1991, when he was in his 70s:
My wife and I heard Frank in 1989, and it was absolutely wonderful. His phrasing and expression remained absolutely true to the intent of the song; like all great artists, his approach was surprising in the moment, but inevitable in retrospect.
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And now...well, it's not yet quarter to three, but I'm done with this diary. Compiling it has given me an interlude of welcome respite from the depressing madness. I hope listening and watching can do the same for you.
Feel free to ask questions, or to post some gems of your own from those elders who give you hope and inspiration.
Love,
WarrenS