Amanhã é a minha partida para Luanda.
Este pensamento não deixa com que outros passem pela minha cabeça. A ansiedade é muita, a expectativa é enorme, a saudade ainda maior. Enquanto faço as malas, tentando empurrar as encomendas da última hora como de costume (todo mundo que viaja pra Luanda recebe sempre aqueles telefonemas: Cláudio me traz só....!), tenho a minha playlist francesa a tocar, e uma sequencia sublime de canções fez me parar a meia-mala para escrever e partilhar estes tesouros com vocês.
A primeira canção que vos trago é da autoria dos
Thievery Corporation, como não podia deixar de ser. Estes mágicos de Washington, D.C. convidaram a cantora LouLou (Ooldouz Ghelickhani), iraniana de nascença, criada em França e agora residente da capital americana, para ser a vocalista da hipnótica canção La Femme Parallel. A voz de
LouLou é arrasadora, altamente sensual. Ela nem parece que se esforça. Os seus versos franceses dão asas a música, fazendo-a voar, e com a entrada das trompetas no último coro esta canção voa alto mesmo, e eu voo com ela sem nunca tirar os pés do chão. Vi esta música ao vivo e foi uma sensação única. Hoje faz me companhia enquanto conto as horas até pisar o 4 de Fevereiro.
Ja a segunda música deste post também não deixa os seus créditos em mãos alheias. É uma bela bossa nova, toda ela em francês, cantada, ou melhor, sussurada por
Coralie Clement, uma cantora francesa no verdadeiro sentido da palavra ‘cantora’ e alguem que
um dos meus parceiros nestas andanças vos pode descrever muito melhor que eu. Samba De Mon Couer Qui Bat (Samba do meu coração que bate) é um casamento feito nos céus: a combinação da sensualidade de Coralie ao je ne sais quois do bossa nova. Espero que gostem, e au revoir.
La Femme ParallelSamba De Mon Couer Qui Bat
Tomorrow I leave for Luanda.
This thought has effectively monopolized my brain, letting nothing else through. The anxiousness is high, the expectation is enormous, the saudade even more so. As I pack my suitcases, cramming into it the assortment of goods my mother has asked that I bring (any Angolan leaving for home will tell you all about the midnight calls they receive from their families asking for the latest in all sorts of electronics and whatnot), I have my French playlist on the stereo, and a sublime sequence of songs made me stop mid-pack and share these treasures here for you.
The first song I feature here is La Femme Parallel, a hypnotic track by none other than
Thievery Corporation and featuring
LouLou (Ooldouz Ghelickhani), an Iranian born but French raised femme fatale who now resides in DC and tours regularly with Thievery. Her voice is the perfect complement to this downtempo jam and it’s slick bassline, and it makes the song drip with sensuality. The lyrics themselves further add to the mystique of the song, as any French-speaker will happily tell you. By the time the horns come in towards the climax of the song it’s hard to keep your head still. Seeing this song live was a dream come true, and today it helps me count the hours until I touch down at 4 de Fevereiro.
The second song of this post has a totally different kind of vibe when compared to the first. It’s a beautiful, classic bossa nova with the added twist of being sung entirely in French by one of the best voices to sing, or in this case, whisper in that language, a certain
Coralie Clément. She’s the face that adorns the header of Guuzbourg’s
francophone blog, a man who is much better at describing the sweet sunshine that is Coralie. Samba De Mon Couer Qui Bat is a match truly made in heaven: the sensuality of Coralie with the je ne sais quois of bossa nova. I hope you enjoy it, and au revoir.
-Photo: LouLou, by
Jazmin Million, and Coralie Clement, by
Flaviochan
There are some places that politics doesn’t belong, and this site tries to be one of them, even though Lusophone music tends to have strong political connotations (Azagaia, MCK, the strong musical independent movement in Angola and other Portuguese ex-colonies in the ‘60s and 70s). But sometimes it’s hard to be impervious to such an affront to democracy and good governance. During the ongoing CAN championship Angola’s state party approved a new constitution which strips us of the right to directly elect our next president in a free and fair election; rather, the president will be elected during the legislative election process where whoever is the first MP on the list of possible MPs of the winning party is automatically chosen president.
Amanhã é a minha partida para Luanda.
Tomorrow I leave for Luanda.
Breezy, Brazilian, and jazzy, Bïa Krieger's music is made for those balmy summer nights that only seem to happen once in a very long while. This Canadian-based but French-raised Brazilian singer’s tracks have a low key, sultry smooth jazz quality, perfect for a calm, lounge atmospehere. And then she is quadrilingual...some of her songs start in Portuguese and end in French (Eu Vi /J’ai Vu), whicle others are in English or Italian. Bïa is also notorious for singing Chico Buarque’s bossa nova renditions in flawless French, and also does covers for her favorite Italian musician Gianmaria Testa and her favorite French artist Henri Salvador. So tracks like Je N'aime Pas are the best of both worlds, really - sexy French crooning to a bossa nova beat. Both songs featured here are from her cd Carmin, put out in 2003 by the same people who backed Monica Freire.
Posts
