Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata

Just happened to hear a clip of this on some random commercial... brought back a flood of memories.

Wintley Phipps - Amazing Grace

Continuing with this month's theme, here's a video you need to watch from start to finish. You'll never forget it.

Calixto Ochoa - El Africano

While we're on the subject of race, here's the original version of a song I heard in Bogota this June. There are lots of versions of it, the most famous being by Wilfrido Vargas.

The song is controversial, for reasons discussed at some length here. But it's also very catchy and versions of it keep cropping up. One by Sonora Dinamita is here, a hip-hop version by Pitbull here, the Vargas version here, and a fragment by Chico Che here.

And here's an interview (in Spanish) in which Ochoa discusses the song he wrote and first performed:

Carolina Chocolate Drops - Cornbread and Butterbeans

See my last post for an explanation...

Pomplamoose - Single Ladies

Haven't posted anything for ages but just came across this via Andrew Sullivan's blog and couldn't resist. Interesting take on the Beyonce song... also check out their version of September here.

Andrew Sullivan, by the way, is a national treasure. His blog is always interesting, often surprising, and occasionally reaches vertiginous heights of brilliance. In responding a recent rant by Pat Buchanan about "traditional" Americans losing their nation, he started a thread under the title Whose Country? in which he made the provocative claim that "white Americans do not realize how black they are." This was followed up by a post on the African origins of the banjo (including a memorable video clip from Deliverance), an excerpt from an extraordinary 1970 essay by Ralph Ellison entitled What America Would Be Like Without Blacks, a link to Saul Bellow's 1952 review of Ellison's Invisible Man, and a video clip of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Rod Dreher dived into the conversation here, as did a reader discussing Huckleberry Finn here; other readers chimed in here, here, here and elsewhere.

When most people speak of "The West", they usually have Europe and the United States in mind, perhaps together with some of the countries of the old Commonwealth (Australia, New Zealand, Canada). For many years now I have objected strenuously to the inclusion of America in this group. This country is as African as it is European, not simply because of a vibrant black subculture, but also because mainstream American culture itself has been shaped by the black experience in so many ways, large and small. The video clip at the top of this post is in some ways a metaphor for this.

Chocquibtown - Somos Pacifico

Posting this from Bogota... this takes about 20 seconds to get started so be patient, it's worth the wait.

Jurassic 5 - Work It Out

Monie Love - It's a Shame

Still among the best of the Brits...

Queen Latifah (ft. Monie Love) - Ladies First

Both ladies were members of the Native Tongues collective, and both were nineteen when this was released. The track is from All Hail the Queen.

The Roots - The Seed (2.0)

Originally called The Square Roots (should have kept that name). This track is from Phrenology.

Jungle Brothers - Straight out the Jungle

Founding members (together with De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest) of the Native Tongues Collective...

A Tribe Called Quest - Check the Rhyme

This track is from The Low End Theory, reviewed by Dave Heaton here. The following extract from Heaton's review is on the band's Wikipedia page:

Any 30-second snippet of The Low End Theory will go further to convince of the album's greatness than anything I can write. I could easily write an entire book on this one album and still feel like I've hardly said anything... The Low End Theory is a remarkable experience, as aesthetically and emotionally rewarding as any work of music I can think of.

And here's the album's brilliant opening track, Excursions:

De La Soul - The Magic Number

Among the greatest hip-hop innovators of all time. I bought 3 Feet High and Rising at the time of its release in 1989 and remember being startled by it. Now I'm going back to discover all the bands that were inspired by De La Soul. There are quite a few geniuses in that crowd, as you'll see this month.

Brace yourself...

AR Rahman - Jai Ho

Finally saw Slumdog Millionaire a couple of weeks ago on DVD, with heavily sanitized subtitles... the banter among the kids was hilariously coarse but didn't get translated that way for some reason. Untranslatable maybe? Or tailored to the audience?

Irrfan Khan, as usual, was brilliant.

That's it for the month... next month will feature Alternative Rap: De La Soul, Digital Underground, A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers and other great innovators...

Mika Singh - Mauja Hi Mauja

Another from Jab We Met...

Shreya Ghosal & Rahat Fateh Ali Khan - Teri Ore

From Singh is Kinng. Apparently the extra 'n' in the title was inserted at the suggestion of a numerologist.

Lata Mangeshkar - Teer-e-Nazar Dekhenge

From Pakeezah... the song ends with Meena Kumari dancing on broken glass (about four minutes into the video). Hema Malini did the same a couple of years later in a famous Sholay scene, video here.

Asha Bhosle - In Aankhon Ki Masti

From the original (1981) Umrao Jaan, starring Rekha.

AR Rahman - Khwaja Mere Khwaja

From Jodhaa Akbar...

Alka Yagnik - Ek Do Teen

From Tezaab... Madhuri Dixit in her element.

Lata Mangeshkar & Udit Narayan - Mehndi Laga Ke Rakna

From Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge... Kajol looks lovely here.

Udit Narayan - Papa Kehte Hain

From Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, based on Romeo and Juliet. This was a watershed movie, and Aamir Khan's first.

Shreya Ghoshal - Ye Ishq Hai

From Classical to Bollywoood... this is from Jab We Met, which I saw on a flight to Delhi a couple of weeks ago.

Beethoven - Symphony No. 5

Let's end the month as we started, with Beethoven. Here's some amazing footage of Herbert von Karajan from 1966.

Mozart - Symphony No. 40 in G minor

Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts the Vienna Philharmonic...

Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor (2/2)

Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor (1/2)

Kurt Masur conducts the New York Philharmonic, Sarah Chang on violin...

Carl Orff - Carmina Burana

Reminds me of Hakan Arslan, Hawthorne Street, and the movie Excalibur...

Bizet - Carmen (Prelude and Habanera)

Maria Callas sings... her expressions during the prelude (and at the end, during the applause) are priceless. Pure elegance. I love this video.

Beethoven - Ode to Joy (3/3)

The finale...

Beethoven - Ode to Joy (2/3)

Beethoven - Ode to Joy (1/3)

Leonard Bernstein conducts the Vienna Philharmonic. The first three minutes or so are riveting, as Bernstein talks about the universality of the music.

This reminds me (among other things) of A Clockwork Orange, one of the greatest movies ever made.

This is the first ever classical month...

Flogging Molly - Drunken Lullabies

Dresden Dolls - Shores of California

The name of the band is from a song by The Fall...

The Fall - Dead Beat Descendent

As requested...

I remember seeing The Fall at Southampton University when I was an undergrad there... must have been about six feet from the stage, which was about a foot and a half high. What I remember most about Mark E. Smith was the clothes... he looked like he had walked into a random Marks & Spencer and picked up the first thing he saw. Totally unpretentious. Interesting guy.

Pete Shelley - Homosapien

Gogol Bordello - Start Wearing Purple

If this doesn't get you to start wearing purple, I don't know what will...

Regina Spektor - Fidelity

Two very different videos featuring the same song: the official one is above, and a brilliant new ad from the Courage Campaign below...

Death Cab for Cutie - Title and Registration

The glove compartment isn't accurately named...

The Postal Service - Such Great Heights

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Spanish Dance Troupe

The Shins - New Slang

The New Pornographers - Challengers

One of the most original bands I've heard in years...

The Smiths - What She Said

This is an interesting video - starts off with a live performance and then cuts to an interview with Morrissey, who says that it's only on stage that he can be "the normal me". If it was anyone other than Morrisey, I'd find that hard to believe...

What she said: I smoke
Because I'm hoping for an early death
And I need to cling to something

The Style Council - My Ever Changing Moods

Aztec Camera - Oblivious

The Trash Can Sinatras - Obscurity Knocks

Brilliant song title...

Echo And The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon

Orange Juice - I Can't Help Myself

The Monochrome Set - I'll Scry Instead

In case you're wondering about the lyrics:
s.a.e. = stamped addressed envelope...

Magazine - A Song From Under The Floorboards

Elvis Costello and the Attractions - The Beat

This is the first post of 2009 so I should begin with - Happy New Year!

I'm going to start posting more often from imeem because the sound quality is better, the selection broader, and I can embed entire playlists. So at the end of each month I'll post the full set of songs for that month in the order in which they were posted, and you can listen to the whole lot with one click. Feel free to post also (from YouTube if you like) and I'll add the song to the playlist for the month.

This one is from This Year's Model, the best of Costello's brilliant first five albums.