A Blind Anatolian Bard

Aşık Veysel (d. 1973) was a blind Turkish poet and minstrel, who accompanied himself on the bağlama (a.k.a. saz, a lute common to many Muslim cultures). I picked up a CD of his music during a trip to Turkey a couple of years ago. I don't understand the poetic Turkish lyrics, but I do understand the beautiful sound of a man deeply absorbed in music-making. If you like melismatic Asian vocal music, or are an adventurous music-lover, you should check it out.

Here is an effectively translated sample of Veysel's poetry. Clearly I can't vouch for the accuracy of the translation.



Here is the CD for sale online, with sound samples. I can recommend the vendor.

French Suspender

Juste Avant La Nuit (Just Before Nightfall) is a superb, adult drama from the French master of suspense, Claude Chabrol (the so-called "French Hitchcock"). Dealing very maturely with the consequences of an extra-marital affair that ends in murder, the film is subtle but grips from start to finish due to its growing emotional and moral complexity. The acting is very impressive throughout.


I picked up the film on DVD as part of an 8-disc set of Chabrol's films, currently available at an absurd bargain price (~£13) from Amazon UK. Arrow Films, who produce the box, is a quality outfit. Highly recommended!

Jazz Rock Maloya

Sabouk is an electric band from Reunion Island. Their self-titled album from Discorama Production is groovy, full of jazzy improvisation and creative arrangements, and highly enjoyable. Discorama's catalogue classifies this music as Jazz Rock Maloya (Maloya being the dominant local voice-and-percussion traditional style), and who am I to argue?



The mp3 album is available (with sound samples) from Fnac. The CD is available from Discorama.

Obscure West Coast Cool

Earl Anderza is not a household name, even in Jazz fanatic circles. But he is (was) a fine player and improviser on the alto sax with a varied style - a bag of tricks that captures my interest throughout his sole album as a leader: Outa Sight (Pacific Jazz). It's a beautiful record, and a minor classic of West Coast Jazz.


The other musician featured on the album is Jack Wilson, another fine West Coast musician (with a couple of Blue Note recordings to his name). Wilson switches from piano to harpsichord for a couple of tracks, an unusual choice which works well for me (the rattling clunkiness of the harpsichord actually makes for a pretty good blues instrument).

The tracklist is a mix of group originals and standards (there's a great version of Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home to"). The mood is plaintive, longing, downbeat, with Earl's sax responsible for much of the tension.

Too bad Earl Anderza never made it bigger - he had the talent.

Sounds samples from HMV Japan, CD available from Amazon.

Great Unknowns from a Troubled Island

Following on from my Ibo Combo post, here's another great group, Les Difficiles de Petion-Ville, that's inexplicably obscure outside Haiti and its diaspora. This guitar band demonstrates a truly rare mastery of musical excitement - their records feature wave after wave of driving rhythms and tasty, stinging guitar riffs, further buoyed by catchy call-and-response vocal choruses (a typical Africanism). Great for dancing, this is music to animate the dead!


"Coq Qualite", their 5th album, is a superb example of their style of Konpa (a.k.a. Kompa, Compas). It's typically hard to come by - Sakapfet is probably the best online source, although you may need to telephone them to arrange international (i.e. non-US) shipping. I've been unable to find sound samples for this particular album, but here are samples from another (somewhat more laid-back on the whole, but track 07 gives a decent preview of what to expect on "Coq Qualite").

And here's a good reference for learning more about this style of music.

(Reunion) Island Charm, Nostalgia and Swing

Claude Vinh San (a.k.a. Bao Vang) is the son of the last Emperor of Annam (Vietnam), Duy Tân, who was exiled to Reunion. As is briefly noted in Vinh San's Wikipedia page, he is an accomplished musician, and a little Reunion label named Takamba have just beautifully reissued his early (1960's) musical output.


"Claude Vinh San et le Jazz Tropical" is a winner of a disc, recommendable to those with an interest in French music (lovely musette and chanson here...), African music (plenty of tasty rhythms), 1960's music, or indeed music with charm and swing to spare.

This is the latest in a series of discs from Takamba devoted to the patrimoine musical of the Indian Ocean. The dics's packaging is fantastic - a small book containing great archival photos (including a comprehensive set of album covers), plus liner notes in English and (in far more detail...) French. I've sometimes been annoyed by Takamba's audio restoration efforts - too much clean-up can rob old recordings of body - but such problems are hardly in evidence here.

Sound samples (and mp3 files for download) are available here. If, like me, you're still hooked on those little shiny discs, buy this from Discorama on Reunion.

Japanese New Wave Cinema: Masahiro Shinoda's "Pale Flower"

Masahiro Shinoda's "Pale Flower" is a terrific yakuza, or gangster, film made in the mid-60's. It was inspired, according to the director, by Japan's post-war malaise, in particular its side-lining by the major players of the Cold War. It's main characters are accordingly frustrated, bored, spiritually bereft, as they speed between high-stakes gambling venues in search of thrills.


Gambling is central to the story, and the film features many excellent scenes which present the activity in artful, almost fetishistic, detail. Indeed, the repetitive, rhythmic monotones of the dealer, the spellbound congregation in the hall, seem to bring the characters as close to church as they ever get. I should mention that Shinoda's presentation of gambling in "Pale Flower" led to the film being banned in Japan!

The superb modernist soundtrack was composed by Toru Takemitsu.

"Pale Flower" is sheer class all the way through, and a must-see for fans of classic cinema. American Cinemateque's DVD contains a very good transfer of the film.

I can also highly recommend Shinoda's "Silence" (a forerunner and companion piece to Joffé's "The Mission"), and "Assassination".