Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
May 11, 2007
The Louise Blackwell Quartet

Commentator remembereringgiap endows some precious fruitcake music to his comrades here at the Moon of Alabama.

These songs are from a CD that will be released later this year in France and Australia.

The group is The Louise Blackwell Quartet. The CD’s title is Sea is turning.

All lyrics by remembereringgiap

Comments

sweet

Posted by: slothrop | May 11 2007 18:52 utc | 1

awesome, music, thanks comrades!
I really like the words to ‘making me believe in make believe’. I would love to hear this live, w/friends and good drink. Cheers.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 11 2007 23:59 utc | 2

Perfect fit for a sunny laid back Fri afternoon in SoCal. Thanks!

Posted by: Ben | May 12 2007 1:05 utc | 3

that makes two of us, uncle scam – i too like “making me believe in make believe.” thank you, r’giap, for sharing – lovely, the mix of your words and blackwell’s music. and thank you, bernhard, for posting.

Posted by: conchita | May 12 2007 4:27 utc | 4

I have been absent for a long time, unwilling to post anything and just stopping by once in a while to see what the fellow conspirators are about. But I must leave the shadows and the self-imposed silence for a while to thank you for this present, R’Giap. Beautiful music, somehow reminds me of a 70’s group called Renaissance. You do have a unique, generous and passionate soul, my French friend. I do hope life is treating you well.

Posted by: Pedro | May 12 2007 7:39 utc | 5

Thank you, just great.

Posted by: Noirette | May 12 2007 14:06 utc | 6

Great! Thank you for this guys.
And I am sooo glad to see Pedro here again. I am still quoting some of his words from Dkos (or Billmon) from long time ago…

Posted by: vbo | May 12 2007 14:09 utc | 7

Thank you rememberinggiap, it is beautiful. Please let us know when the CD is released.

Posted by: Alamet | May 12 2007 14:31 utc | 8

Very nice, rgiap.
I agree with those above – my favorite is the last song — I hear your voice as I know it most clearly there. As far as the genesis of the lyrics, did the group take poems and put them to music or did you write specifically for songs? I always find these sorts of things interesting to know.
do you go back to oz very often?

Posted by: fauxreal | May 12 2007 14:32 utc | 9

awesome rgiap.

Posted by: ran | May 12 2007 17:12 utc | 10

wonderful to hear from pedro again
fauxreal, the songs were written nearly twenty years ago; they were written while an old comrade-in-arms & very gifted composer lisa blackwell who had written music in the celtic tradition with some of the greats – christy brown, donal lunny, paul brady & who michael sullivan( for the life of me i forget his gaelic name) – they were written when i left australia in 1987. i would listen to melodies of lisa & work around that writing as i went along or brought lines from some of my poems & improvised with them
they were very important to me in that – they were the moment of realisation that i could not live in that country & the truth be told already by that time – i had lived in vietnam, china, sweden, italy, france, holland & many other places besides but it was the moment when i made the commitment to live & work in france
since then i have returned only twice in 1993 & 1994 – the first to participate in a sort of festchrift (though i was a bit too young for that) of my work performed by a very large experimental circus, splinters – who worked in the tradition of arkaos- i lived & worked with them for all that time – several weeks & the only time i left was for a book launch. i also was hospitalised with gall bladder problem (which was in & of itself a little history). i went the year after with a french film group who wanted to focalise a bit on my life & work (i still thought i was too young for that – so it was a month in australia cocooned by the film ensemble & visiting elements of my past – that only confirmed my decision. since that visit i have never been back nor deisre to tho i have been invited either by universities or for work. i will die here in my loved france but perhaps sarkozy might decide otherwise
lou who sang with her sister in a women’s accapella singing group ‘hells bells’ was familiar with the songs & who was working here in europe in the last seven years – decided to do the songs as an album with some of france’s best young jazz players
relistening to them again i hear the profound melancholy through the simplicity of the lyrics – at the time it was written i was more well know for the violence, complexity, density & erudition of my texts
they were as mosts songs are – another form of crying

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 12 2007 17:27 utc | 11

thanks for the explication. as I said, I love to hear about the genesis of creative projects. sounds wonderful, tho surely a more complex mix of emotions for you.
do you have any of your work with Lo’Jo available that b can also put up? As I’ve mentioned to you before, I love their live performances…I wonder if I already have something of yours.
The most recent thing I heard from them was Jah Das Kool Boy with Django from the Concert in the Sahara…so that’s a few years.
I wish I could find an mp3 of a song that, as far as I know, is only available thru a past issue of Believer magazine. I’d love to share it with you. It’s called My Fair, My Dark by Ida. Maybe b has it on something at his place…b, do you have “odds and india” at your place? (one of those new year moments from dj fauxreal…) somewhere around 11, maybe.
anyway, an interesting juxtaposition of formal, solemn harmonies and lyrics like “My baby comes in threes…and I never know which she’ll be…” and “My baby… slices dices and cores, behind her cupboard doors, eggs and traces of early morn.”

Posted by: fauxreal | May 12 2007 18:37 utc | 12

the song for lo’jo is on the cd boheme du cristal & its called ‘in the commotion’ – i am very proud of that – they are incredible musicians & people of honour – completely uncharacteristic in that business. i heard them record the song & i was deeply deeply moved – both by the transformation & truth – i hear it often on the radio here – they play often & often outside of france
i’ll try to find the cd & email it to b – i’m working with a bass clarinettist who teaches with me – who works as i do – in that he was the star of the paris conservatoire & of the concert stage but his necessity to play what is true to him has meant that he teaches & administer – but when i play with him i feel very priveleged indeed. we sometimes work with an american banjo player from the appalachi who makes it sound like an oud – we may record something in the future
i think because i commenced my vocation before a mass of twenty thousand people in a demonstration against the vietnam war – i have always enjoyed collaborations – it is part of the emerveillement – when words i have written – commence their independant lives as songs, pieces of theatre or film

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 12 2007 19:02 utc | 13

eh, voila!
Yes, In the Commotion is very nice!
…and so again… was this a poem before it was lyrics? Would you post the lyrics? I think that the members of Lo’Jo are very fine people, what little I know of them… they’re here every two years or so. In person their musicanship is phenomenal.

Posted by: fauxreal | May 12 2007 19:19 utc | 14

most beautiful, always so much more here.

Posted by: anna missed | May 12 2007 19:55 utc | 15

‘in the commotion’ – was a part of an epic poem of mine published here as bateau bleu (ed. nouveau commerce – jose corti) & in that case – a documentary was being made here & lo’jo were going to do the soundtrack but denis – the singer & director who is also a poet loved the poems & chose a sequence – he demanded counsel but i felt very very, safe in their hands
& it was a little strange – because it was written – in great resignation, almost elegeic – lo’jo transformed it into a song of rage – exposing the wheels on fire – it was really pwerful experience to watch those words fly & wm blakes word on not hanging on to joy but releasing it – always is pertinant for me in relation to creation, love too
i was just looking for the cd fauxreal – perhaps you have it & could put it on yr computer & sending it by email to b ; i sent the songs originally to be as a thank you for his recent posts – but my technical incompetence is legion so i didn’t know if it would arrive in his email box – i am glad that it did

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 12 2007 21:36 utc | 16

thought i posted this but i guess typepad didn’t agree. r’giap, faux, and b – check your email.

Posted by: conchita | May 12 2007 22:42 utc | 17

thanks conchita – perhaps mine is at the bureau – it is really a wonderful piece of music – even hearing it like that – i think it must be the only song regularly on the airwaves here that includes marx engels & wm blake
like fauxreal – i’d suggest anybody who hasn’t heard lo jo (lo’jo triban) to listen to them – they are still producing the best music in france & instead of being scared in front of difference, multiplicity & polyphony – they embrace it
so thank you my new york pal

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 12 2007 22:56 utc | 18

thanks conchita and r’giap. I got a copy of the song (it’s on iTunes). (see eh, voila above) I don’t have that cd. I have mojo radio and ce soir là and au cabaret sauvage. don’t have the cd of The Festival in the Desert, tho I know they did that song on another cd. I like the concert in the desert version because they brought in Django, who played off Yamina and Nadia so well. And, being sisters, they create a nice sonica dada (whatever that is, I just made it up.)
I should get that cd, or look at it to see if it has ali farka toure or afel bocoum that I don’t have. b should have jah das kool boy, some ali farka toure and afel bocoum at his place cause I left him some things.
I’ve asked b before how to make an mp3…the only thing I see that I can do is a podast to i-whatever.
if anyone else knows how to mac it up, let me know (and I know there are some swift computer folks here.) — the freer/open sourcier the better.

Posted by: fauxreal | May 13 2007 0:09 utc | 19

oh, and I’m requesting lyrics again.
I heard William Blake and my pointy little ears just perked. his mixed media is a favorite of mine, along with the intellectual history of his circle of compatriots. I don’t like to separate his words from his images. have you ever been to the William Blake archive (online). just google it. the images are stunning.
he was there when it started.

Posted by: fauxreal | May 13 2007 0:16 utc | 20

Lovely R’Giap, and thanks b, for hosting.

Posted by: PeeDee | May 13 2007 22:19 utc | 21

encore!

Posted by: b real | May 14 2007 2:35 utc | 22