Smoking Bambino is the stage handle for Catalan singer/songwriter Esteve Saguer Costa, whose newest record Lampigots Bufarandes is an intimate album churned out during three intense days in the studio. The first word means lightning but don’t rush to your Catalan dictionary for the second one; Costa made it up. “Nit” (Night) suggests the vibe at which he is aiming. His baritone voice has hints of gravel, but his tones are as understated as the shadows of a backlit video with a cigarette burning through. We can make out a wine glass, a woman’s laughter, and dancing but the rest is left to your imagination. “Animal de bosc” (Animal of the Forest) is café-like with its quiet keys and gentle melody/vocals. The keys and voice in “He escrit et teu nom” (I Wrote Your Name) feel as if Costa wandered into an empty room and sat down at an old upright. His voice goes to a smoky rasp that again invites us to write our own story. Even if you have not a word of Catalan, you might be able to surmise that Bukawsky and Keroauc are among his literary heroes and that Costa has spent time singing in small late-night New York City venues. This recording proves once again that there is poignancy is keeping things intimate and raw.
Sully Bright hails from the Blue Ridge of North Carolina and, as songs such as “Appalachia” and his faded Ektachrome slide-like videos reveal, he retains a bibbed overalls nostalgia for those days. Darling Wake Up is a bluegrass-influenced acoustic album. He accompanies his light tenor with banjo, piano, guitar, and mouth harp. According to his bio, he struggled emotionally for a time. “Dark” has hints of anxiety, but song such as “It’ll Be Alright” and the away-from home love song “Oh Honey” bring back the light. The record could use more energy and diversity, but is also exudes a sense of honesty in its bare feet.
To say Galeet Dardashti has musical cred is an understatement. She comes from a musical family, has fronted the band Divahn, holds a Ph.D. in anthropology, teaches at NYU, and is the granddaughter of famed Persian Jewish singer Younes Dardashti. That’s his image on the cover of Galeet’s new album Monajat and we hear his recorded voice on the album. That’s appropriate because Monajat is an album of Selichat prayers Galeet learned from him. Selichat are candlelight services for forgiveness sung the Saturday before Rosh Hashanah. “Adon Haselichot” (Master of Pardons) is an amazing track featuring layered instrumentation of doumbek (drum), ney (flute), oud, fiddle, bass, and hammer dulcimer that creates a mix that’s almost psychedelic. Listen as Dardashti keens, ululates, implores, and powers her way through. “The Awakening” uses the ney to invoke a Middle Eastern call to prayer before oud and other instruments set the pace for demanding vocal tonal shifts. “El Norah Alilah” (God of Awe) is both hypnotic and energetic with background singers following Dardashti’s lead in response fashion. This is an impressive record no matter what your faith or lack thereof. If all that’s not enough, Dardashti also likes to weave multimedia art into her music. Poke around on YouTube and you’ll find examples.
In the Monty Python cheese shop sketch, a bouzouki player inexplicably plays by the door. At one point a frustrated John Cleese screams to shut up the “bloody bouzouki player.” I doubt you’d feel that way about the playing of Dimitris Papageorgiou whose Greek Bouzouki Classics is far from an archival rendering of old songs. He is known in the U.S. for his TV and film scores and he brings that sensibility to old tunes that he updates. “Sundance” has the strong cadences that inspire people to dance, but it also moves crispy and has a modern flair. “Minore of Greece” has a quirky frame but Papageorgiou’s runs and precise picking incorporate classic elements and bouzouki virtuosity that would induce envy among the finest mandolin players. “Te Lemonadika” also pulls a switcheroo, its plinky almost childlike opening notes sliding easily into a sunny swaying tune that suggests an ouzo is in order rather than lemonade. Another tune is titled “Play in Athens” and that’s exactly what you’ll wish to do upon hearing it. Stay away from the cheese shop and snack on this album instead.
I had mixed feelings about Seeking the Divine, a solo guitar project from Jason Carter. Like Peter Blanchette, Carter plays an arch guitar. As you can tell from “Guten Morgen Mein Engel,” Carter is very talented. Like this one, though, I found my attention drifting in segments that put me in mind of New Age music. I much preferred more lively tunes such as “So Small” with its stronger bass and melody lines. It both enthralled me and made me understand some of the potential of his instrument. I grant that six-minute explorations like “Letting Go” are introspective and mysterious, but I much prefer the pieces like “The Colour of Silence” that evoke images over the contemplation. By the way, “The Colour of Silence” was recorded in Finland; Finnish is one of four non-English languages the British Carter speaks. And I’ll cut him a break, as part of the record was filmed in Sri Lanka where he played for the children at a tsunami-damaged orphanage.
Rob Weir
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