The Entroporium

After yesterday’s unfortunate loss to France, it seems appropriate to show a sadder side of one of the Cup’s participants. Carlos Paredes, "The Man With A Thousand Fingers," was the master guitarist of Fado, a traditional Portugese music that has its roots in Moorish times. Alternately playful and mournful, Fado evokes the country’s strong relationship with the sea and its feudal past. Paredes himself was an exemplar of the form. The son of another Fado master, Artur Paredes, Paredes was himself something of a tragic figure: jailed in the 50s and 60s as a Communist sympathizer, and forced to spend the last eleven years of his life unable to play because of a nerve disorder. He passed away in 2004.

The first track is from Paredes’ debut album called, naturally, Guitarra Portuguesa. The second is from his 1990 collaboration with Charlie Haden, recorded shortly before Paredes’ disability ended his playing career.

Carlos Paredes – Divertimento.mp3
Carlos Paredes & Charlie Haden – Danca de Camponeses.mp3

After the dominant performance in the Group Round and with “The Hand Of God” as personal cheerleader, I figured Argentina was a sure thing for the Final. But always beware playing the home side!

Astor Piazzolla was the master of 20th century tango and one of its great composers — touring, recording and composing ceaselessly for nearly 50 years before his death in 1992. He was about as close as you can get to a country having a National Musician; thankfully for Argentina and its musical reputation, Piazzolla was more Mozart than Salieri. (Or, to torture a simile, perhaps more Duke Ellington than Nelson Riddle.) Any description of Piazzolla’s music seems to have the phrase “not your Grandfather’s tango” attached, and really I have no idea what that means because I’m not sure I’ve heard much tango that’s not by Piazzolla. I think what’s being referred to was his triumph in getting tango out of the brothels and into concert halls & cafe society. I guess people don’t think much of their grandfather’s reputation.

Here are recordings of Piazzolla playing original compositions in two entirely different settings, the first with his nonet shortly before he passed away and the second a piece he commissioned for Kronos Quartet:

Astor Piazzolla – Milonga Del Angel.mp3
Kronos Quartet & Astor Piazzolla – Anxiety.mp3
Lots more Piazzolla and tango recordings are housed at piazzolla.org

Meanwhile, with Tango now the hoity-toity music of Argentina, Cumbia villera (“shantytown cumbia”) is now the dominant popular music form among the underclass. According to Wikipedia, “Many bands were propelled into fame when emerging football stars from the shantytowns (such as Carlos T?vez) proclaimed their allegiance” so I guess this is what you might have heard if you walked into the Argentine locker room before the game.

Imagine gangsta rap played with Casiotones on the latin rhythm setting just al little too slow setting. You can hear several examples and read about the genre (in Spanish) at this site. And, as always, seek on YouTube and ye shall find.

Another country with music I know way too much about. Plus I work for Brits — – and I’ve got the challenge of trying to avoid rawther obvious use & abuse of Mojo’s recent “50 Best British Songs” list. Hmm, better step carefully here.

OK, how ’bout:

Fairport Convention – Come All Ye.mp3
XTC – Respectable Street.mp3
Peter Sellers – A Hard Day’s Night.mp3

Covered by these three songs: minstrelsy, “England’s green fields,” folk tradition, proto-prog, music hall, classism, comedy, post-war suburbia, Britpop Mark 1, art school, The frickin’ Beatles, guys who want to sound like the frickin’ Beatles, post-punk, post-punk pop, eccentrics that can’t tour because of stage fright.

Things missed: Manchester, Madchester, bedsit, immigration & imperial fallout, Britpop Mark 2, punk, prog proper, Victoria Beckham and her friends, Pop Idol, mods, rockers, The frickin’ Stone Roses.

Well, I tried. I’ll meet you at the Cemetry Gates.

Two very different types of dance music compose my last entry covering a Group Round knockout:

Saban Bajramovic – Hanuma.mp3
Saban is known as the “World of Gypsy Music.” Why? Because Indira Gandhi dubbed him so! Yugoslavia’s leading artist in the 1960s, he has apparently gone missing after the former republic’s turbulent ’90s. “Legend also has it that Gypsies respect and love Tito the most, Saban second and then, after ten empty places, once again Saban.” More on Saban’s incredible story here.
UPDATE: Saban is still out there doing his thing. Here is an account of a performance last month in London: ROMA ROMA: Saban!

dZihan & Kamien – Stiff Jazz.mp3
d & K hail from Sarajevo, but moved to Vienna to study music after the hometown fell into a bit of chaos last decade; you may have heard something about this. Hmmm, that looks suspiciously like K&D. As well it should, as dZhihan & Kamien specialize in the same feckless yet pleasant and popular pseudo-jazz that their Austrian mates Kruder & Dorfmeister specialize in. I’m always torn whether to like this kind of music; it’s easy to enjoy and the playing is strong, but I tire of it as an indicator of Big-Money Cool at boutique hotels and high-end restaurants. I swear the W Hotel hasn’t changed the CD it plays at the bar in seven years, or since I first heard this genre as Business Manager for the ill-fated club-music magazine, Revolution.

Paraguay is surprisingly absent from the Internet. Hardly any pictures. No music. Wikipedia’s entry on "Music of Paraguay" mentions more reggaeton artists from Puerto Rico than anything native. The first few pages of a Google Images search on its capitol, Asuncion, returns a large proportion of pictures of a local Mormon temple. I am indebted to Call Me Mickey for finding something, anything.

Agustin Barrios – Los Indios Paraguayos.mp3