Get to know me?
Yoooo - yall remember Myspace, and people would blog survey posts lol. Well thats me, I’m people. And I just wanna write my lil heart out and avoid all of my real life responsibilities. So found a lil questionnaire thing and I’m gonna fill it out. Also lowkey like doing this every so often so I can look back on it and reflect and see how much I may have grown/changed/shifted viewzzz ya feel? :)
Sooo here yall go <3
1. Who was the last person you held hands with?
My neice maybe?
2. Are you outgoing or shy?
People who know me would tell me to put outgoing, but I honestly feel shy on the inside, so it just depends.
3. Who are you looking forward to seeing?
Literally anyone lmao fuck this quarantine
4. Are you easy to get along with?
Definitely
5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you?
Lets hope so
6. What kind of people are you attracted to?
Kind souls <3 always notice how they talk to their friends and family, but even people they don’t know like servers or janitors, etc. that shit matters heavy.
7. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now?
Probably not
8. Who from the opposite gender is on your mind?
A few homies
9. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable?
Nah not really, just depends
10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with?
Not sure -it’s been a min since I had a “deep” connection or convo that I can remember - but was probably with my bestie R’Bo
11. What does the most recent text that you sent say?
“Google that shit” lmao me, giving advice to my friends
12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now?
TOUGH!!!! After Hours by The Weeknd is up there, Cayendo by Frank Ocean (been jamming his shit HAARD lately) and Inside Friend by Leon Bridges & John Mayer….but also been listening to albums - like Childish’s new album, Floreyyy for lo-fi shit, and also got into 070 Shake recently just to name a few.
13. Do you like it when people play with your hair?
FUCK YA
14. Do you believe in luck and miracles?
Yeah budddyy
15. What good thing happened this summer?
Idk, my bday party was lit?? And lots of river floats happened
16. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?
Lol
17. Do you think there is life on other planets?
Cant deny that there isn’t so yaaa
18. Do you still talk to your first crush?
No
19. Do you like bubble baths?
Yes
20. Do you like your neighbors?
Just moved, so don’t know em
21. What are you bad habits?
Procrastination lol and biting my nails
22. Where would you like to travel?
Literally ANNNYY-fuckin-WHERE!
23. Do you have trust issues?
Hmm I wanna say generally no, but I also always keep it one hunnnid with myself, and as much as I’d like to say I don’t have any - I think I def have insecurities with myself, that have the potential to become “trust issues” in certain relationships, but overall no. I live by the whole “you have my trust til you fuck it up” mantra
24. Favorite part of your daily routine?
Coffee in the morning lately, missed it and forgot how energized it makes me - gives me time to wake up and reflect/set daily goals
25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with?
Stomach forever :((((
26. What do you do when you wake up?
Scroll on my phone, pee usually, or feed my cat lol
27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker?
Tanner maybe?
28. Who are you most comfortable around?
My mom or my best friend R’Bonney - but any of my close friends and fam honestly
29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up?
Not directly
30. Do you ever want to get married?
Lol ok, so this is always changing…but lately (and by lately I mean the past few years) its been a no. I’m open minded though and am aware that I’m always changing my mind sooo who knows
31. Is your hair long enough for a pony tail?
yeppperoo
32. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with?
Honestly, those aren’t my “thing” lollike id prob laugh or be awkward or just have to be hellllla drunk - but like I wouldn’t mind Jason Momoa and Tom Hardy tossin me around
33. Spell your name with your chin.
hjaylkee
34. Do you play sports? What sports?
Scocer back in the day - actually went and kicked it like a week ago for the first time in YEARSSSS - felt so damn good
35. Would you rather live without TV or music?
TV, music forreeevverrr
36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them?
Lol story of my life
37. What do you say during awkward silences?
“Soooo” then probably ask a question or some shit lol
38. Describe your dream girl/guy?
Hmmm…definitely have to be funny/have a good sense of humor. They’d have to be open-minded for sure. Up for trying new things, places, cultures, food, music, etc. Just have an adventurous spirit I guess when it comes to that. Have a good line of communication/openness - and just be able to have a deep/intellectual convo about anything and everything. Bonuses: taller than me, likes cooking, and going to music shows.
39. What are your favorite stores to shop in?
Amazon lol I hate shopping
40. What do you want to do after high school?
To go back to high school :( lmao so much id re-do, cant believe its almost been a decade
41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?
Hell yeah, this is life my dudes, dont take it so seriously - we all fuck up at some point or another
42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean?
Something is on my mind for sure, or im just tired lol
43. Do you smile at strangers?
Yeah
44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean?
DAMNNN WHAT so hard - I guesss if I had to pick, space…just because it’s more rare/harder to do I’d think.
45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning?
My cat lol with his meowing ass
46. What are you paranoid about?
Lowkey a lot lol
47. Have you ever been high?
8)
48. Have you ever been drunk?
Who hasn’t????
49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about?
naw
50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore?
Black probably, like half my wardrobe
51. Ever wished you were someone else?
Of course
52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself?
My bad habits
56. Favourite colour?
Yelllllow :)
57. Favourite food?
Oh gaaawwd, literally anything - lately: PB&J’s, fries, wings, Mediterranean, Mexican, pickles, ice cream, ramenzzzz
58. Last thing you ate?
Pistachios
59. First thing you ate this morning?
Cofffeeee w creamer
60. Ever won a competition? For what?
Idk, not off the top of my head - maybe something back in elementary
61. Been suspended/expelled? For what?
Nah
62. Been arrested? For what?
Yeah lmao
63. Ever been in love?
Yes
64. Tell us the story of your first kiss?
No its really not that interesting and idc to type it out
65. Are you hungry right now?
24/7/365
66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends?
Lol yes a few of them <333
67. Facebook or Twitter?
FB
68. Twitter or Tumblr?
Tumblr
69. Are you watching tv right now?
Noooo
70. Names of your bestfriends?
R’Bonney is number 1
71. Craving something? What?
Foooood, and companionship? Lol
72. What colour are your towels?
Idk, random, mostly blue
72. How many pillows do you sleep with?
A lot lol
73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?
Lol no, but I have my one from my childhood in my room
74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have?
1 - shout out to you Mr.Fluffy
75. Favourite animal?
I am fascinated by sharks; and like gators/crocs. But I have mad respect for elephants, they’re sooo damn smart and beautiful.
76. What colour is your underwear?
Dont have any on
77. Chocolate or Vanilla?
BITCHHHH CHOC
78. Favourite ice cream flavour?
All of them
79. What colour shirt are you wearing?
Tie-dye
80. What colour pants?
none
81. Favourite tv show?
Game of Thrones prob
82. Favourite movie?
Avatar or Shawshank Redemption
87. First person you talked to today?
Sissy
88. Last person you talked to today?
Friend on FT
89. Name a person you hate?
No one, maybe Trump? lol
90. Name a person you love?
Everyone, fr fr
91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now?
Nah
92. In a fight with someone?
Nah
93. How many sweatpants do you have?
Not enough <3
94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have?
Not enough <3
95. Last movie you watched?
The Decline on Netflix, short lil foreign oil, was deep/interesting
96. Favourite actress?
Not sure-Sandra Bullock? Or Meryl
97. Favourite actor?
Denzel or Morgan Freeman
98. Do you tan a lot?
Nah not anymore honestly
99. Have any pets?
Yessss
100. How are you feeling?
Mediocre
101. Do you type fast?
Ya
102. Do you regret anything from your past?
Im sure
103. Can you spell well?
Ya
104. Do you miss anyone from your past?
Lol im nostalgic af, so yes
105. Ever been to a bonfire party?
Yes litttty tittyyy
106. Ever broken someone’s heart?
Probably :(
107. Have you ever been on a horse?
Hell yeah brother, I’m from TX
108. What should you be doing?
So much shit lol
109. Is something irritating you right now?
The fact that I ain’t doing all the shit I should be lol
110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt?
Yooo yes
112. Who was the last person you cried in front of?
Prob my sister or my mom?? Lol I cry a lot, idk and idc
113. What was your childhood nickname?
Hayls?
114. Have you ever been out of your province/state?
Yes
115. Do you play the Wii?
Back in the day
116. Are you listening to music right now?
Surprisingly, no
117. Do you like chicken noodle soup?
Nah, unless maybe if its homemade
118. Do you like Chinese food?
Yeah occasionally, more of a Thai food chick or Japanese
119. Favourite book?
Kite Runner
120. Are you afraid of the dark?
Low-key sometimes lol
121. Are you mean?
Hell noooo
122. Is cheating ever okay?
Ok, this is an interesting one lol I mean no, it’s not “okay” - since it usually constitutes lying/hiding/hurting someone - BUTTTT, for a lack of a better term - I wanna say it’s “normal”? But thats because I, personally, am on the fence about the concept of monogamy. Like no, I’ve never cheated nor experienced that in return - but the whole concept of monogamy and like that a person can love and only love or be with one person is WILLLLDDD and I can’t help but note that its a social construct that we, as a society, are conditioned to from the time we are born. Idk if that makes sense bc im high af lol but those are my thoughts…like to sum it up - cheating is fucked up and sucks, but at the same time its not all that surprising/shocking anymore, like borderline “normalized” just as divorces are and shit, so I feel like bc biologically we aren’t made to be with one person lol. I don’t condone it tho. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.
123. Can you keep white shoes clean?
Hell to the naw naw
124. Do you believe in love at first sight?
Hmmm idk about that one, but also can’t deny it
125. Do you believe in true love?
Yeah of course, you’re talking to a hopeless romantic
126. Are you currently bored?
I guess we could say that
127. What makes you happy?
Food and close, loved ones
128. Would you change your name?
Nah, too much paper work
129. What your zodiac sign?
Cancer, with my lil moody, sensitive ass
130. Do you like subway?
I did lol
131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?
Story of my mf life lol literally all my exes are “best friends turned lovers” situation, so guess it would just depend lmao
132. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?
133. Favourite lyrics right now?
Lol oh godddd; ok off the top of my head - Tupac - Keep Ya Head Up is what comes to mind; just a timeless song and the lyrics are still relevant/apply to this day and idk just really resonate with the message behind that song <3
135. Dumbest lie you ever told?
Idk, but it was probably SO dumb, and told to my parents lol
136. Do you sleep with your doors open or closed?
Either or, lately open so my cat can go in and out lol
137. How tall are you?
5’6 mayyybeee 5’5 actually lol
140. Summer or Winter?
Fall!!
141. Night or Day?
Def a lil night owl, always have been
142. Favourite month?
April and October for weather at least
143. Are you a vegetarian?
No but I try, and go through phases, I’m definitely mindful the older I get and more focused on my health I become
144. Dark, milk or white chocolate?
FUCKIN ALLLLL
145. Tea or Coffee?
Coffee but I like tea too, just seem to drink coffee more regularly
146. Was today a good day?
The grateful-to-just-be-alive in me wants to say yes lol but idk, felt off/unaccomplished and cried a lot, so no.
147. Mars or Snickers?
Snickers
148. What’s your favourite quote?
“This too shall pass”
149. Do you believe in ghosts?
Sure why not
150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page?
“After all, what he had always wanted was just that: to know new places.” -The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
15 notes
·
View notes
XXII: 1922
On Cavalier Adoptions, Damned Conventions, and the Inertia of the Dispossessed
1. A. C. (Eck) Robertson: “Sallie Gooden”
The story goes that the two Texans entered New York City in full fancy dress, 35-year-old Eck Robertson in a spangled cowboy outfit, and his 75-year-old partner Henry C. Gilliland in old Confederate Army togs, his own. They went straight to the Victor offices and insisted on cutting a record; whether because the talent manager thought he could sell it, or just to get the hicks out of the office, “Sallie Gooden” b/w “Arkansas Traveler” was the result. “Traveler” was the duet, “Gooden” a solo piece by Eck: and if it’s not exactly the first country record (studio professionals had been cutting Ozark reels and string-band minstrelsy for years), it’s the first made by genuine rural Southerners. Thirteen variations in three minutes: Robertson rarely recorded again, but he laid a pattern for all old-time to follow.
2. Ory’s Sunshine Orchestra: “Society Blues”
Meanwhile, the first genuine Black New Orleans jazz records were recorded in the sleepy backwater then still becoming the cinematic boomtown of Los Angeles, California, to be sold out of a store also owned by the proprietor of the recording studio. Edward “Kid” Ory was a successful Creole jazz trombonist whose band had included King Oliver and a young cornetist named Armstrong back in the Crescent City; he had decamped to the West Coast after Storyville’s closure in 1917, and the band he put together in the Golden State was, if not the toast of Rampart Street, respectable. Ory would wend to Chicago within the next few years, where he would fall in with old Orleanian friends, but that’s a story for another time. “Society Blues,” halfway between classy and kidding, is mellow as a porch conversation.
3. Alberta Hunter: “Down Hearted Blues”
Another legendary figure of twentieth-century music bows onto the stage. Alberta Hunter, who was born and bred in Memphis but made her name in Chicago, is of the generation of performers who, like her fellow Southern-born, Northern-famed peers Ethel Waters and Florence Mills, fell halfway between the stools of cabaret and the blues, and was nearly forgotten by a history that prized the blues over cabaret and (which would come to mean the same thing) men over women. She had already toured Europe to great acclaim by the time she settled down to a Harlem club gig and cut this immortal blues, co-written with pianist (and possibly sometime lover) Lovie Austin. The following year, the century’s most famous blues shouter would notch it as her first smash record, but Hunter’s sly, sashaying take emphasizes its essential theatricality.
4. Marion Harris: “I’m Just Wild about Harry”
The biggest hit from Shuffle Along, the all-Black musical which took New York by storm in 1921 and kickstarted a decade of Black excellence, “I’m Just Wild about Harry” took a year to get onto record. Partly the delay served to deracinate the tune, to transform it from an unembarrassed declaration of Black love (it was originally written as a waltz, in an even more overt challenge to racial norms) to a raggy burst of pep that anyone, in these dance-band days, could turkey-trot or whistle: F. Scott Fitzgerald coined “the Jazz Age” in 1922, the perfect descriptor of such cavalier white adoption of Black forms. Marion Harris had always sung Black, sometimes exaggeratedly so, but only the broad syncopation and extra pep of the last few choruses gestures in that direction here; she simply sounds American.
5. Ed Gallagher and Al Shean: “Oh! Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean”
The background hum to popular culture in the 1920s—as it had been since the 1880s—was vaudeville, the stage circuit mechanism by which the entire country absorbed roughly the same songs, dances, slapstick, patter, and acrobatics as the big cities, though delayed. Ephemeral by design, but calcified enough that the right act could get forty years out of the same routine, the ethos of vaudeville was desperation; you never knew what would work, so you played as broad as possible. Gallagher and Shean, an Irishman and a German Jew respectively, reportedly loathed each other, but their shared song, as tightly structured as a sonnet, was bigger than either of them: they could and did swap out verses every time, which makes this double-sided record’s domestic-abuse and skin-color jokes revealing as an indication of what sold.
6. Jack Buchanan: “And Her Mother Came Too”
While the Broadway theatrical songwriting machine was entering its second decade of eminence, its West End equivalent was rather more sedate. The young British songwriter who posed the greatest challenge to the imported Berlins, Kerns, and Gershwins was Welshman Ivor Novello. “Keep the Home Fires Burning” had been a wartime favorite, but it was in the 1920s that his songwriting really bloomed. This entry, on the surface a mere one-note mother-in-law joke in age-old music-hall tradition, has a more nuanced harmonic structure than strictly necessary, and especially given eternal Drones Club habitué Jack Buchanan’s urbane, ever so slightly camp delivery, the joke destabilizes, becoming less about a too-enthusiastic chaperone and more like a Wodehousian parody of Vincent O’Sullivan’s classic 1912 Decadent novella The Good Girl, about a simpleton increasingly entangled by a family of moral vampires.
7. Sara Martin: “Tain’t Nobody's Bus’ness if I Do”
On the right hand side of the label is printed the legend “Contralto Solo / Piano Accomp. by T. Waller.” And so another of the giants of early jazz piano bobs to the surface here, accompanying Miss Sara Martin, one of the half-dozen or so essential blues-not-blues singers of the decade, on a song that will become an urban blues standard, evolving in many directions over the course of the century. But here, in its original ragtime-blues form, written by African-American songwriter Porter Grainger and Mamie Smith sideman Everett Robbins, “Nobody’s Business” is a perfect marriage of defiant, antisocial (because society is dangerous) blues tradition and Tin Pan Alley hokum, setting the template for the theatrical blues tradition of the 1930s and 40s which songwriters like Harold Arlen or Hoagy Carmichael would turn into vernacular American pop.
8. Lucille Hegamin and her Blue Flame Syncopaters: “Aggravatin’ Papa (Don’t You Try to Two-Time Me)”
In fact, some white songwriters were there already. Composer J. Russel Robinson, a Hoosier, was a ragtime pianist who had supplied W. C. Handy’s publishing company, and lyricist Roy Turk was a New York native whose slangy, sentimental songs helped to define the Jazz Age. Three years earlier, “Aggravatin’ Papa” might have been a Coon song—the Southern setting, the stereotypically trifling man, the understated threats of violence could all have been delivered by a blackface singer for laughs—but instead Black singers and players adopted it and turned it into a blues standard, starting with Lucille Hegamin. Her delivery, using the blues trick of repeating the end of a line where a solo would otherwise go, is cheerful, almost delighted to tear into the juicy threats she’s making, while her Syncopaters swoon woozily around her.
9. Trixie Smith and the Jazz Masters: “My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)”
The confluence of the words “rock” and “roll” in such a way that makes it obvious they were already conjoined in a familiar phrase decades before they got pinned to a backbeat is perhaps the least noteworthy thing about this record. Trixie Smith was a genuine Southern Black singer, born and raised in Georgia, but not a gutbucket blues singer: her upbringing had been genteel, and her singing, as here, tended toward the light and winsome. Nevertheless, “My Man Rocks Me” is among the first great single-entendre blues records, so hot (though entirely by implication) that a parental warning logo would have had to be slapped on it in the CD era. Written by Chicago-based songwriter and publisher J. Berni Barbour, it’s performed here at such a languorous drag, with a deep-stroking trombone, that it’s practically tantric.
10. Eva Tanguay: “I Don’t Care”
In 1922 she was forty-four and long past her wasp-waisted prime; but back when she was the chaotic, hair-flowing, man-eating, lung-bursting Quebecois-born sensation of the Naughty Oughts, she hadn’t bothered to step before a recording horn, and so this is all we have of her: her signature song, some fifteen years late. But if this is a shadow of her former self, what must she have been like in her strength? Her voice is blown out, her tempos all scattered as the studio musicians attempt to keep up with her lurches from faux-maudlin verses to the roaring, flippant chorus, still as strong a fuck-you to the propriety, daintiness, and demureness of the ideal woman as it ever was. If the fuck-you sounds rather more ghostly today, it isn’t because women are expected to care any less.
11. Georgel: “La garçonne”
But the “I-Don’t-Care Girl” had been a model for a whole generation of women now reaching adulthood who disdained the voluminous skirts and hairstyles of their mothers. The flapper, as she was known in English, had her equivalent in every nation: but when Victor Margueritte’s sensationalistic lesbian 1922 French novel La garçonne was bowdlerized into English the same year, it was called The Bachelor Girl. The topical song of the same name by Vincent Scotto (lyrics by a pair of hacks) sneers at women who bob their hair, dress in mannish attire, and choose not to flirt with men, predicting a lonely, cruel dotage for any woman who doesn’t embrace motherhood. Georgel’s rendition was a hit, but the last verse was often omitted, and the androgynous garçonne’s sleek, stylish, and damn-the-conventions poise became a decade’s aspiration.
12. Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra: “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise”
Having come into a minor fortune on the unexpected success of “Swanee,” the young, prolific, and ambitious composer George Gershwin soon found himself writing music for George White’s Scandals, meant as stiff competition for Ziegfeld’s Follies. The first (and perhaps only) immortal song from that series of revues, “Stairway to Paradise” was the young man’s first compositional triumph, a winding musical ascent to match the twin curved staircases in the stage show, with blues harmonics to accentuate its modernity and jazz it away from typical revue politesse. The orchestra pit for the number was directed by celebrity conductor Paul Whiteman, and his later recording with his Orchestra, leaving out the less-impressive lyrics, is one of the great dance-band records of the era, sweetly winging Gershwin’s hypermelodic expression of that rarest of emotions in pop music—joy.
13. Conchita Piquer: “El florero”
Among the many sensations which took place seemingly nightly on New York stages in the early 1920s, the debut of a sixteen-year-old Valencian soubrette in drag as a flower-selling boy in El gato montés (The Wild Cat), a successful Spanish operetta undergoing a respectable Broadway run, has largely been forgotten in English-language circles. But the tale goes that a representative from Columbia rushed backstage during the intermission to sign her to a two-year recording contract, only to discover that not only didn’t she speak English, she had only a vague grasp of Castilian. Thirty years later Concha Piquer would be the grand dame of Spanish copla, a long-reigning movie star and one of the most recognizable Spanish-language singers in the world; Broadway’s ability to generate stars without even noticing was at its peak in the 1920s.
14. Baiano: “Eu só quero é beliscá”
In February of 1922, the Teatro Municipal of São Paulo hosted a week of art exhibitions, lectures, concerts, and poetry readings called the Semana de Arte Moderna: it was ground zero for Brazilian modernism, an explosive, controversial, and thoroughly regional rejection of European norms in favor of miscegenated, tropical Brasilidade. But the middle-class intellectuals and artists promoted by the Semana were conflicted about the street-level sambas and batuques with which the urban masses—not to mention hustling commercial songwriters—expressed themselves, just as Anglo modernists were ambivalent or worse towards jazz. This cateretê (tr. “I Just Want a Pinch”) by Eduardo Souto, with its dense paulista slang, faux-tribal rhythms, and anti-authoritarian stance (the song’s satirical object is cops shaking down street vendors) was just as modernist as Oswald de Andrade’s poems or Tarsila do Amaral’s paintings.
15. Alcides Briceño y Jorge Añez: “La soldadera”
Belisario de Jesús García was a soldier in the Mexican Revolution who fought on the side of the Carrancista revolutionaries who murdered Emiliano Zapata; the same year, he published his first song, “La soldadera.” The word literally means “the woman who receives payment for taking care of a soldier,” and could refer to a wife or domestic or (more likely) camp follower, but in the Mexican Revolution it was applied to the hundreds and thousands of women who took up arms in the cause, whether perforce or otherwise. This version of García’s imitation corrido was recorded in New York by a Panamanian-Colombian duo who would sing anything in Spanish regardless of nationality, with studio hacks on instrumentation; despite which, it’s been wisely adopted by Mexico as one of the great early records of Mexican vernacular pop.
16. Carlos Gardel: “El tango de la muerte”
Not the “Tango de la muerte” written by the little-known Horacio Mackintosh in 1917, which is an instrumental; this tango was written (music and lyrics) by Alberto Navión, a French-born, Uruguay-raised composer for the Argentine theater whose work was often uneven; the sainete which introduced this song has been dismissed as mediocre, but Gardel getting his pipes on any song elevates it. And in fact, a song of typically Latin despair which may have been risible or banal in the theater is transformed into a throbbing report from the depths of depression on record. Bounded by the strict strums of guitarists Guillermo Barbieri and José Ricardo, Gardel’s voice moors in self-pitying baritone melancholy, and flutters up to keening tenor remorse. He wants to die, and only the milonga (criollo dancehall, birthplace of tango) keeps him alive.
17. La Niña de los Peines: “Tango de la tontona”
It is a great piece of foolishness that she has not appeared here before: her first record was cut in 1905, when she was fifteen. But in 1922, the distinguished Spanish composer Manuel de Falla and a young, scarcely-known poet named García Lorca organized the first Concurso de Cante Jondo, or Deep Song Contest, in Granada, the Andalusian city which could reasonably claim to be among the birthplaces of flamenco. Pastora Pavón, already at thirty-two the greatest cantaora of all time, was the only woman on the judging panel. This song (set to the relatively new “tango” palo) addressing a foolish, heartbreaking girl was an early favorite of her repertoire, and one of a series of records she cut in 1922, accompanied by guitarist Luis Molina. It only hints at the astonishing depths of her voice.
18. El Tenazas de Morón: “Yo he andaito la Francia (Seguiriyas de Silverio)”
But the great revelation of the Granada Concurso was Diego Bermúdez of the Sevillian town Morón de la Frontera, a septuagenarian who had retired from flamenco singing in the nineteenth century after having been stabbed: flamenco was once a disreputable, dangerous field. His archaic style was received rapturously by the musicologists and mystic nationalists in the audience, who considered it a direct link to the authentic Roma origins of flamenco song as represented by the legendary prototypical cantaor Silverio Franconetti, and as opposed to modern syncretic theatricalized flamenco, sullied by commercialism and mass media. On being (re)discovered, Bermúdez (nicknamed Tenazas, or Tongs) recorded several platters of quavering, ancient flamenco, a set which Falla would carry with him into exile. But his moment in the sun was short-lived; the following year, El Tenazas was laid to rest.
19. Naftule Brandwein: “Kallarash”
We have heard him before on records credited to other bandleaders, particularly Abe Schwartz, but this is the moment where the foremost klezmer clarinetist of the era before anyone called the music klezmer struck out on his own. Born into a family of Hasidic musicians in what was then called Polish Galicia (present-day Ukraine) and having emigrated to the US in 1908 at nineteen, Brandwein was a showman, even a showboat, who would sometimes perform with a self-promoting neon sign around his neck, or play with his back to the audience so as not to give away his proprietary fingering techniques. “Kallarash,” subtitled “A Bridal Dedication,” is a slow-then-fast dance memorializing a town in Romanian Bessarabia. It’s a perfect showcase for his overtly emotional, flashily sentimental style, a virtuosic display for a Hendrix of the clarinet.
20. A. Z. Idelsohn und Männerchor: “Hava Nagila”
Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, born in present-day Latvia, worked as a cantor in Europe and South Africa before emigrating to Palestine in the years of the Second Aliyah, when European Jews fled pogroms in the Russian Empire in the hope of establishing a Zionist state in Palestine. Idelsohn’s musical training led him to take an interest in the Jewish music of Palestine, and his ethnomusicological work is some of the most comprehensive in the field. In setting his own words to an old melody traced to the diaspora in the Ukraine, he is considered the author of “Hava Nagila,” and when the German label Polydor, then making one of the first music-industry attempts to comprehensively document folkloric music, invited him to record some of his collection, he conducted a choir in one of the era’s folk-art hybrids.
21. Fisk University Jubilee Singers: “I Ain’t Goin’ to Study War No More”
The ancient Jewish poetic image, given in the prophet Isaiah, of reshaping implements of warfare into implements of agriculture is one of the most powerful in all religion: and one of its most beautiful expressions was the work of anonymous (to us, if not to Heaven) men and women enslaved in the southern United States, probably less than two hundred years ago. As with most art made by Black Americans, there are double and treble meanings to “Down by the Riverside”— the Ohio was perhaps more salient than the Jordan, whether the one in Israel or the one in Bunyan, and ending the study of war doesn’t necessarily mean forgoing violent struggle anymore than the end of school is the end of work. Even the pious, unhurried reading given by four Fisk men here contains multitudes.
22. Feodor Chaliapin: “Ey, ukhnem!”
First attested by Russian composer and folk song-collector Mily Balakirev in 1866, the title of this work chant could be transliterated “Hey, Heave To!” but became known in English as “The Song of the Volga Boatmen,” thanks to the widespread popularity of Russian basso Feodor Chaliapin, who toured constantly in Europe and the Americas starting in 1901. It became his signature song in solo concerts, as his rich voice raised in the cry of the vodoliv, or leader of a gang of burlaks (dispossessed peasants with nothing but muscle and the collective force of their own inertia to sell) who were hired to tow barges down the Volga, from Moscow to the Caspian Sea, in the ages before ships could run under their own power. That Russian solution of throwing raw population at a problem would recur.
13 notes
·
View notes