Author: Kim Simpson

It’s important to distinguish the instrument Abou Diarra plays as a kamale ngoni (or “hunter’s harp”), which is larger than the uke-size ngoni and probably more suitable for a “Jimi Hendrix of…” stage presence. An even larger harp called the donso ngoni would only anchor him down. The Malian prodigy learned how to play from the late master Vieux Kanté and with his third album Koya (named after his mother), he demonstrates the instrument’s flexibility and accessibility. Listen to “Koya Blues,” featuring Paris scenesters Vincent Bucher (harmonica) and Simon Winse (flute) and hear for yourself.

“Águas de Março” (1973) – João Gilberto * Written by Antonio Carlos Jobin * LP: João Gilberto * Label: Polydor

João Gilberto’s calm, singing-to-himself vocal delivery helped create a popular perception of Brazilian bossa nova as much as the compositions of Antonio Carlos Jobim did. Both men appeared on the 1964 hit album Getz/Gilberto, which also showcased American saxophonist Stan Getz and Gilberto’s then-wife Astrud. Throughout his career, Gilberto would pursue the ideal rendering of his “sound” while developing a difficult-artist reputation along the way. His manifesto of said sound may well be his 1973 self-titled album, which includes only voice, guitar, and spare percussion. The first song, a version of Jobim’s “Aguas de Marco” (the waters of March), turns like a pinwheel in a light afternoon breeze. The studio mic captures every micro-geometrical curve in Gilberto’s oral cavity, though, which is another way of saying that a little of this, for some listeners, may go a long way.

“October Song” (1966) – The Incredible String Band * Written by Robin Williamson * Produced by Joe Boyd * LP: The Incredible String Band * Label: Elektra

With “October Song,” the hymn-like second track on the Incredible String Band’s 1966 debut album, Scotsman Robin Williamson introduces himself to the world as a bard with the ability to mystify, educate, and delight all at once. “Sometimes I want to murder time,” the 23 year-old sings of that most vexing human construct, “but mostly I just stroll along the path that he is taking.” Although the Incredible String Band album attracted positive notice in the British press, the initial trio split up after its release, with Williamson pursuing some of the Eastern musical yearnings he’d been expressing in song. He wound up in Morocco, where he amassed instruments and ran out of money; by the following year he’d be back in a duo with Mike Heron—another inventive songwriter with his own knack for expressing complexity as childlike wonder—for a series of remarkable late sixties albums. Continuing to defy/succumb to the passage of time, Williamson remains musically active.

The Puerto Rican trovador (master of traditional song) Miguel Santiago Díaz assembled the first configuration of his group Ecos de Borinquen in the late seventies. The name translates to “echoes of Puerto Rico,” with the word “Borinquen” being the original name of the island before the Spaniards arrived. The title of this 2003 Smithsonian Folkways release—recorded with a new batch of younger musicians—translates to “Jibaro (mountain person) to the bone,” and the mountain music contained therein, with its ten-stringed cuatros at the forefront, is the very sound of Puerto Rican cultural heritage. Miguel composed the lyrics for most of the songs, including “Somos Los Puertoriqueños” (we are the Puerto Ricans).  A translation of some of its words, as taken from the liner notes: “Honest and generous, honorable, hardworking, tireless fighters, polite and religious, nice, caring, forgers of dreams with their most noble efforts, filled with profound love, an example for the world, we are the Puerto Ricans.”

“Getting Over You” (1973) – Andy Williams * Written by Tony Hazzard * Produced by Richard Perry * UK 45: “Getting Over You” / “Remember (Andy Williams and Noelle)” * LP: Solitaire * Label: CBS * Charts: UK #35

With his Solitaire LP, Andy Williams shook things up a bit by getting in the studio with producer Richard Perry, who had been on a hot streak with hit albums by Carly Simon, Harry Nilsson, and Ringo Starr, among others. The song selection included deeper album tracks along with the usual hit covers, while Williams’s vocal now popped or swirled with new audio effects. The soft-rock flirtation, overall, brought forth three especially effective tracks: a version of George Harrison’s “That Is All,” which rescues it from the vocal-range issues of the former Beatle’s original, a version of Harry Nilsson’s “Remember,” featuring dreamy Nicky Hopkins piano (as did Nilsson’s original), and a song called “Getting Over You” by Tony Hazzard, a British songwriter who’d written some early hits for the Hollies (“Listen to Me”) and Manfred Mann (“Ha! Ha! Said the Clown”). How satisfying it must have been for him to hear his song done by one of pop music’s classic voices, with an arrangement full of such cascading instrumental payoffs (you need to listen all the way; Tom Hensley did these arrangements and took a lifelong gig with Neil Diamond thereafter). Hazzard himself had released a version of “Getting Over You” the same year, as did Hermans Hermits’ Peter Noone, but Williams’ was The One. Not released as a single in the US, it reached #35 in the UK with a B-side that included “Remember” revamped with shared vocals and dialogue with Williams’s daughter Noelle. (This all gets in the way of the sublime arrangement, so stick with the album version of that one.)

“Brown Eyed Handsome Man (TV version)” (1970) – Waylon Jennings * Written by Chuck Berry * Produced by Al Quaglieri * CD: The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show 1969-1971 * Label: Columbia

The Johnny Cash Show celebrated the cross-pollination of American musical genres for two seasons between 1969 and 1971. Among the Man in Black’s guests were Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Ray Charles, the Monkees, and Derek and the Dominos. In January 1971, Waylon Jennings appeared with his then-current incarnation of the Waylors, a group whose various personnel all shared a strong Phoenix, Arizona connection. Because Jennings’s contract with RCA forbade him from using anyone but studio vets on his records, his live sound distinguished itself with an alternate edginess. While his late-1969 country chart hit version (#3) of Chuck Berry’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” trotted along tamely to Charlie McCoy’s harmonica, the 1971 TV version (link below) jangled and snapped to the rhythm of Jimmy Byrd’s twelve-string guitar, which looks like a double-neck Mosrite. An archived website alludes to double-necks that Byrd had developed by himself.

Since the early ’90s, when she started releasing her first solo albums, the Polish singer songwriter (in a post-punk vein) Renata Przemyk has had a way of keeping audiences in her pocket. “Elastic” is a suitable way to describe her voice and lyrics, which can bend and stretch in terms of expression and meaning. Her 2012 Akustik Trio brings the unplugged approach to previous hits and the sound suits her well. On “Drzewo” (tree), a song from 2001, she uses Adam and Eve images to explore how personal choice, in itself, can seem to complicate the very boundaries between good and evil.

“The Mosquito” (1972) – The Doors * Written by Robby Krieger, John Densmore, and Ray Manzarek * Produced by The Doors * 45 B-side: “It Slipped My Mind” * LP: Full Circle * Label: Elektra * Charts: Billboard Hot 100 (#85)

Jim Morrison’s death in the summer of 1971 left the other three Doors with a glaring front-man vacancy, but they kept making music, including “The Mosquito,” a surprising borderline novelty hit. It wasn’t the single’s sales that registered surprise so much as the song itself, which had more in common with “La Cucaracha” than “Light My Fire.” Over a lightly engaged acoustic guitar, Robby Krieger mumbles for a mosquito to not bother him so he can eat his burrito, making way during the proceedings for two distinct instrumental interludes. One of these features Ray Manzarek’s organ, which overdoes it on the five-minute-plus LP version but bugs out mercifully on the under-three-minute 45. The single connected instantly with the international market, perhaps faster than any other Doors track. Before the year was over, cover renditions had begun sprouting up in Mexico, Spain, France, and beyond (none of which included the line about the burrito). Buyers of the Doors’ Full Circle album, incidentally, could enjoy the challenge of assembling a zoetrope included in the album packaging. Placed atop the record label, it would spin along at 33 1/3 rpm while showing a rudimentary animation of an evolving homosapien.

“Var det du?” (1964) – Anna-Lena * Trad. arr. Bruno Glenmark * Lyrics by Cornelis Vreeswijk * Produced by Anders Burman * Sweden EP: Åh, Vilken Fröjd Och Lycka * Label: Metronome

The late Swedish schlager singer Anna-Lena Löfgren had an especially fruitful decade in the 1960s both at home and in West Germany (although she did manage, off and on, to chart in Sweden all the way up to 1995). Due to a lifelong struggle with polio, Löfgren often made her television appearances sitting down, a visual image that matched the clear but gentle assurance in her voice, a refreshing sound from the standpoint of our present climate of vocal affectation. Among her most sublime recordings was “Var det du” (was it you), which appeared on the B-side of her 1964 version of “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” Although the melody for “Var det du” comes from a folk waltz called “Var det du eller var det jag” (was it you or was it me) from the southern province of Småland, her recording of it used an updated arrangement by Bruno Glenmark with alternate lyrics by Cornelis Vreeswijk (the Dutchman soon to launch a prolific career as a Swedish troubadour). Worthwhile hit versions of the song soon appeared in Finland (Anki Lindqvist) and Norway (Kirsti Sparboe), but Anna-Lena’s remains the quintessential, full-color version. Perhaps John Sebastian came across this arrangement before crafting his “Coconut Grove.”