| In 1996, I was wandering around a CD shop in Southampton (as you do) and was blown away by the music they were playing. It was by an artist that I didn’t know at that time and who has since become a big favourite. The artist was Angelique Kidjo and the album was “Fifa”. Soon after that time, I moved to Cardiff and “Fifa” was a CD that I played continually during my time there – I never tired of it and still haven’t and therefore it is NUMBER 7. I was living on a marina in Penarth at that time and the sun was shining a lot and the energy and feel of the CD fitted nicely with the mood of the environment.
When I arrived in Melbourne in 1998, the first gig I went to was the penultimate show by Hunters and Collectors which was a hell of an introduction to local music. What a collection of songs they had put out. I have seen Mark Seymour (their lead singer and writer) a number of times since, but he has never recreated the magic of that night. But he has evolved into another beast now and deserves to be judged on his merits and not just a period of his life.
Around that time, I first heard the voice of Eva Cassidy who had died in 1996 but had become popular in the UK when she was played a lot on the radio by Terry Wogan. I bought the CD “Songbird” and was blown away by the emotion of her voice and the arrangements of the songs that she sang. It would have been incredible to have seen her live, but at least we got to hear her.
When I think of singers, the standout voices all tend to be females – men’s voices can be good of course, but few male artists are known for their voices as much as their performances. But there is one man whose voice I consider to be his greatest talent and that is Solomon Burke – it doesn’t really matter what he sings, it is the voice that makes it – luckily, he sings fantastic soul music, so that double’s the pleasure. There are no special albums to mention really (maybe 2002’s “Don't Give Up On Me”), but he’s worth a mention anyway. I guess that the female equivalent of Solomon is the incredible rich-voiced Mavis Staples – either solo or with the Staple Singers, her voice is a special thing indeed.
A couple of years ago, somebody had mentioned that I should look out for a group called Anthony and the Johnsons, so when I saw that they were in town, I contemplated going, but the gig sold out before I could. Then I heard that they were doing an extra gig at a small venue in Richmond so I got a ticket to that. I turned up never having heard the band and found myself a seat and then the show began. I don’t know whether I’ve been amongst so many people who were silent at a gig before – Anthony (Hegarty) had us in the palm of his hand and provided some incredibly gentle and moving performances – he had a band with him, but it was mainly him singing and playing the piano. It was a very unexpectedly moving gig and I then bought what was his latest CD “I Am A Bird Now” which is a great CD and it has great songs, but it is the memory of the gig that makes it special. It was a favourite for a time.
A few years back, a mate of mine back in the UK (Alison) told me that she was enjoying the debut album of a chap called Damien Rice – the album was simply called “O”, so I thought that I’d have a listen and found it to be an incredible album – it carries a lot of emotion and works as a complete album as opposed to a collection of songs. I tend to have my ipod playing random songs from the 10,000 I have copied onto it and when a track from this CD comes on, it makes me go and listen to the album – like a song on it’s own isn’t enough. Another CD that works the same way on me is last year’s “An Other Cup” by Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens). I found this CD to be fantastic – great songs and performances and intelligent too. I hope that he releases more stuff.
Now having mentioned Squeeze earlier, I have to dedicate a paragraph to Jools Holland who is a bit of a hero of mine. I first knew of him vaguely from Squeeze, but then he became co-presenter with Paula Yates of a live music program called The Tube that began in 1982. It was watching that program that I got to experience more and more different artists and with the humour of Jools and his love of music, it was a great program to watch. He played keyboards/piano with so many of the acts too - what a job it must have been for him. After The Tube, he dabbled in many things and now has the best music program there has ever been called ‘Later with Jools’ that attracts just about every artist/band that there is. I have been to see him a few times with his big band behind him, they belt out the best music around and his albums and DVDs feature many incredible pieces of music and incredibly talented and famous acts. I love boogie woogie music and there is no better exponent of that than Jools. I want to pick a Jools album for my top 10, but I can’t decide which to pick. The one I have been listening too recently is the rather excellent one he released in 2004 with Tom Jones. But to pick one, I will pick the 2005 release called “Swinging The Blues Dancing The Ska” as my NUMBER 8. Other than being a great CD musically, it also features guests such as Sam Brown, Solomon Burke, Ruby Turner and Beverley Knight. Oh boy! |
