"A brandnew compilation by Jonathan Fischer for his
Series of BLACK RADICAL MUSIC published by Trikont
 
 Compiled by: Jonathan Fischer
 
TRIKONT CD US-0392

Digipak + detailed Booklet in English & German
 

“Long before Elvis rolled his pelvis, the Rolling Stones coopted the Mississippi-Blues and legions of white bands made their electrified guitars roar, black Blues-, Gospel- and Jazz-artists had laid the cornerstone for the musical revolution, that would profoundly shatter the western world: Rock’n Roll. Much less known than their white imitators, nonetheless they produced the grittier originals: As performers, who combined the archaic drive of the Blues with Country-melodies and the feverish beat of black Gospel services, and pepped up African-sounding rhythms with electric amplification in order to please their audience and its steady hunger for new thrills and sound effects. Besides well-known names like Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf or Bo Diddley, the compilation “Roll Your Moneymaker” also honours many unjustly overseen Rock’n Roll-pioneers: From gospelsinger Rosetta Tharpe to Jimi-Hendrix-idol Johnny Guitar Watson, from Ike Turners early Rockabilly-blueprints to the Doo-Wop-Rock of Ruth Brown. Besides dazzling musicians as Magic Slim, Andre Williams, Big Maybelle, Rufus Thomas, Lazy Lester, Etta James and Jesse Stone."

featuring o.a.: Ike turner, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James, Snakey Jake, Lazy Lester, Rufus Thomas, John J. Moses, Andre Williams, Ruth Brown, Bill Davis Trio, Big MayBelle, Johnny Guitar Watson, Slim Harpo. Otis Rush, Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Bo Diddley, Billy The Kid emerson, Magic Sam, Chuck Berry, Jesse Stone, Joe Tex, Junior Parker

"I strongly approve a project started by the Trikont record label, surely the only commercial organisation on earth with offices in Munich and Hebden Bridge, to release a seires CDs featuring nothing but recordings of LA PALOMA. So far, four CDs have brought us, from memory, 108 LA PALOMAS. I hope there are more to come." JOHN PEEL, Radio Times, 2001. The legendary Radio-DJ played for half a year one song from the four Volumes of 'LA PALOMA' in every of his radio shows on BBC, Radio One.

THIS IS 'LA PALOMA' NO 5 - Songs from the film

featuring a.o. Makame Faki, Los Jovenes Del Cayo, Harry Koizumi, Ahmed Zahir, Regina Box, Eugenia Leon, Live in Peking, Trio Universal, The Humpbacks.

La Paloma: no other piece of music has ever been interpreted, arranged, printed or played as often as La Paloma. And the number of recorded versions can only be guessed, we know of a little more then 2000 different ones, but the total amount presumabely would be at least twice as much.
It might be difficult to find a person in the western hemisphere, who would not recognise this notorious melody, but even in places like Japan, India or China La Paloma represents something like a (rather concealed) worldwide musical common denominator.
Although sung as often as no other song, La Paloma lived a life of strange obscurity, became something like a folksong in countries as diverse as Hawaii, Mexico, Germany and Zanzibar, and almost secretly accompanied the history of popular music for almost 140 years. Like many other songs it was almost played to death during the 60s and 70s, appearing on countless cheaply produced easy-listening albums, discredited by boring arrangements and faceless production. But it remains a fascinating fact (one of many concerning the history of this song) that La Paloma intrigued artists at home in so many different musical worlds whether it be Tango, Jazz, Pop, Opera, Twist, Surf, Contry, Reggae and Rock. What other piece of music may link Hawaiian slide guitar, Benjamino Gigli, Elvis, Charlie Parker, German "Schlager", Dean Martin, Chinese musicians, street singers in Paris and even the Callas, to name but a few?
All over the world, La Paloma seems to capture the musical daydreams of humming, whistling and singing people. Its text might vary from one country to another, still everyone seems to feel the basic contents: longing, loneliness, separation, love, reunion, sometimes death. Evoking images of the ocean, doves and islands, it serves as a tool to abandon oneís own closed world for the beautiful unknown, at least for a moment. But that is only one part of a possible explanation, why La Paloma is such an exceptional tune. Even considering the catchy melody that never seems to loose its basic charme no matter what style is taking care of it, the reason for this kind of both persistence and diffusion, unparalleled in the history of music, remains a mistery.s

THIS IS 'LA PALOMA' No 6 with 19 more great tracks

featuring a.o.

Laurel Aitken, Dead Brothers, Curd Jürgens, Artie Shaw, 3 Falkner, Al Melgard, Tony Astarita, Six Brown Brothers, Engelbert, Pepe Romero, Helen Merrill, Bob Wills, The Little River Two, La Joya de Guatemala

The are numerous musicians, singers, songwriters and rockbands who pick up the Christmas topic and compose something new or make their own version of a Christmas classic. Christmas knows both extremes - kitch and beauty, joy and sorrow.

featuring a.o Florence Dore, The Debonaires, The Enchanters, Jimmy Butler, Nacy White, Brenda Lee, NRBQ, Peter Bandit, The Twang, The Christmas Jug Band, Riff Rufin, Little Esther Phillips, Gatemouth Moore, Louis Prima, Coconami, Otto Lechner, Andrews Sisters

Most Christmas songs cause a kind of allergic reaction by its listeners. Not these tracks. They are anthems for alternative Christmas celebrations. Here are even more musicians, singers, songwriters and rockbands who pick up the Christmas topic and compose something new or make their own alternative version of a Christma classic.

featuring a.o. Clarence Carter, The Staple Singers, Binky Griptite, Booker T. & The MGs, Sons of Heaven, Big John Greer, The Voices, Marianne Dissard, The Waitresses, The Ramones, Coconami, The Flirtations, Carla Thomas, The Nic Nacs, Jimmy Whitherspoon, Ernest Tubb, Bill Monroe, Sonny Boy Williamson II, The Band.

LaBrassBanda is an ensemble of five musicians from the lake Chiemsee in Upper-Bavaria. They have a powerful and extravagant sound - a mix of funk, soul, mariachi, punk, dub, polka, Gipsy and Balkan beats and tunes from their Bavarian homeland. All five musicians are highly skilled players, who can make people dance whereever they perform. What Fanfare Ciocarlia is for Roumania, LaBrassBanda is for Germany - the Kings of Brass!!!

Coconami are Miyaji and Nami - two Japanese stranded in Munich, Germany. They founded Coconami in 2006. Miyaji is playing his ukulele with virtuosity. Nami enchants with her singing and is playing ukulele, recorder and kalimba, too.
Coconami has left Rock ‘n’ Roll behind and simply wants to please in a pure and simple way. Two ukuleles, one vocalist - that's all! Nami twitters like a bird, just more beautifully. Miyaji swapped his electric guitar for a sweet-sounding ukulele. They play covers of song by the Ramones, Japanese and Hawaiiean songs plus Bavarian folk tunes - very sweet!

John Tchicai / Hans Joachim Irmler / Jan Fride / Roman Bunka / Hanna Tuulikki / Aby Vulliamy / Chris Hladowski / George Murray  

Schlachtfest Session 2

Avant folkies, krautrockers and a free jazz pioneer 

Through the windows, a heron could be seen flying past and disappearing into the reeds on the banks of the river Danube. Inside the FAUST studio, located in an ex-paper factory in the small town of Scheer in Southwest Germany, three generations of musicians are gathered for a recording session of spontaneous improvisation. 
They came from all corners of the musical spectrum. The newcomers: avant folk improvisors from the ensembles Nalle and Scatter from Glasgow: Hanna Tuulikki (vocals), Aby Vulliamy (viola), Chris Hladowski (bouzouki), George Murray (trombone). Then the middle generation: the German Krautrock pioneers: Faust’s Hans Joachim Irmler (keyboards), Kraan’s Jan Fride (drums, percussion) and Embryo’s Roman Bunka (oud). They were joined by the ‘grand old man’ of the free jazz saxophone - a survivor of the 60s jazz revolution: John Tchicai, who had played with Archie Shepp and Don Cherry, in the New York Art Quartet and is heard on John Coltrane’s landmark recording ‘Ascension’.
The recording session took place in the Faust-Studio in Scheer, the day following the 2nd Schlachtfest, a small festival of experimental music. The 2006 festival took place in The Alten Schlachthofs - The Old Slaughterhouse - in Sigmaringen, Southwest Germany. The musicians who performed at Schlachtfest took part in the recording session. 
Each CD is presented in an individually printed cardboard cover by artist Berhard Maier.

The modern age, driven by science and technology, made a promise: to put an end to all the evils of the past, once and for all. At last mankind would be freed from the horrors of disease, fire, plague, drought, floods and earthquakes. But progress also produced new horrors. Mega-technology in transport, and a drive towards ever larger capacity and higher speeds unleashed catastrophes on a scale previously unknown. Now a railway crash, a blazing zeppelin or a shipping disaster could inflict not dozens, but hundreds or even thousands of casualties. In the 1920s and 30s a series of disasters created a climate of fear, affecting the psyche in a way similar to today, when wars, fanaticism, terrorism, natural disasters, global warming, bird flu, tsunami, hurricanes and tornados all contribute to a gloomy atmosphere of uncertainty and constant dread. Hillbilly and blues musicians in the 1920s and 30s expressed the general mood in a poignant way. They sang of catastrophes and disasters, whether far away or on their doorstep. They talked of the effects these events had on the lives of ordinary people; they described what happened when disaster struck, as seen through the eyes of the victims. Perhaps the articulation of these awful events in songs helped to ease feelings of despair, offering a crumb of comfort to those listeners dealing with the brutal reality.

FEATURING:

BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON - ROY ACUFF AND HIS CRAZY TENNESSEEANS - CHARLIE POOLE WITH THE NORTH CAROLINA RAMBLERS - BIG BILL BROONZY - THE CARTER FAMILY - COFER BROTHERS - CAROLINA TWINS - THE DIXON BROTHERS - THE ALLEN BROTHERS - RICHARD ("RABBIT") BROWN - CASEY BILL WELDON - BESSIE SMITH - CHARLEY PATTON - and many more.

BBC Radio 3
"DOOM & GLOOM on the wonderful Trikont label. They do so many good compilations and this is the latest." Charlie Gillett


VILLAGE VOICE, 28. August 2007
"Man, I almost didn’t want to remove this one from the plastic, such was my sweet anticipation: a picture of what is presumably the Hindenburg airship disaster on the sleeve; 24 songs (with none of this crap digital cleaning up of sound; but none of this crap ‘crackles and all’ stuff, either—pristine, in the right way) with titles like ‘When The Atom Bomb Fell’, ‘High Water Everywhere—Part 1,' ‘Sinking Of The Titanic’ and ‘School House Fire’ by artists like Bessie Smith, Charley Patton, Blind Willie Johnson and Kansas Joe & Memphis Minnie. . . how could this even remotely, even possibly fail?. And how could anyone—any fan of music or of human suffering and pain, and furthermore loving a good tale well-spun within a song—resist an album like this once they’d stumbled across it? Don’t bother answering that: if you’re cynical ‘bout this, there ain’t no helping you." Everett True


THE INDEPENDENT, Andy Gill, 28. Sept. 07
"The notion of living on the eve of destruction may have reached its apogee in the Sixties, but apocalyptic fear was a popular interest long before then. Drawing together mostly pre-war folk, blues and country songs, Doom & Gloom confirms that bygone America was smitten by more than enough disasters to warm the heart of the most pessimistic balladeers. Floods were a notable feature, judging by the commentaries, the most notable being Charley Patton’s “High Water Everywhere” and Kansas Joe & Memphis Minnie’s “When The Levee Breaks”. Elsewhere, the downside of the era’s burgeoning prosperity was marked by the series of automobile accidents and train derailments favoured by early country acts such as Roy Acuff & His Crazy Tennesseans, whose “Wreck On The Highway” offers a textbook example of high-lonesome lamentation."


fROOTS, November 07
"Doom & Gloom is worth wallowing in." Jamie Renton.

"Featuring classics by Sylvester, the Kinks, and the Ramones alongside little known discoveries by Chris Robison, the Miracles and Curt Boettcher, Queer Noises tells the hidden history of gay pop music. Beginning in 1961 with drag queens and camp records on tiny labels, the compilation passes through mid sixties' pop, early seventies' soul and singer songwriters, glitter rock, and punk to end with Sylvester's 1978 "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" - the first international hit by an out gay performer. The gay contribution to pop music has always been ignored and written out of history: with detailed sleeve-notes and track by track rundowns, as well as many period photos, "Queer Noises" tells the story of how gay music went from the closet into the charts." Jon Savage.