Manafonistas

Eine feine, zum Glück nicht typisch sonnendurchflutete, vielmehr überraschend raue Reggaeplatte ist Jimmy Cliff mit REBIRTH gelungen. Mindestens zwei Songs weisen direkt auf alte Zeiten von Clash und dem viel zu früh gestorbenen Joe Strummer, dessen Radiosendungen bei der BBC heute noch ihre Zeitlosigkeit im Netz beweisen. In eInem Interview wurde der unverwüstliche Jimmy Cliff zu seinem alten Freund befragt:

It seems like a part of this new record is a tribute to your old friend Joe Strummer.

The last song that he recorded in the studio was a song called „Over the Border,“ with me. He just walked into the studio and said „I have some lyrics, and I hear Jimmy Cliff singing these lyrics.“ I was doing the album with Dave Stewart and Dave said, „Well, how does the melody go?“ And he said, „I don’t have a melody. I just hear Jimmy Cliff singing these lyrics.“ So Dave took up his guitar and started playing some chords, and I came up with the melody and we put the lyrics together. Joe was one of the stalwarts of social justice expression in his music, so I felt like I really had to lift my hat to him this time.

Dear friends – hope you are all well? Some news – I have a new web site and address – on it you will find a page dedicated to my latest project „Walking In Ubin“ which i recently completed as a response to a month as ‚artist in residence‘ on Pulau Ubin – a small island close to Singapore as guest of The Artists Village group based in Singapore.

You will find a free audio download / a video and copious notes and links to other relevant sites and information.

Hope you have time to spend there and find it enjoyable and informative. I welcome feedback of any kind.

Mike Cooper

„Walking In Ubin“

Free Download mp3 „Sound Files“

Vimeo Video

www.cooparia.com

… ”Not quite Delta and not entirely free, he mines a sort of netherworld of sampled loops and hypnotic rhythms to create a garage sale of music. Let’s call it post space-age folk music.” – Radio Paradise Review – Is It Jazz?

Raise me high, raise me high,
That I may see my fallen kindred seated.
Who met with death upon the battlefield,
Who, in the end, fell and were defeated.

And the way they were tricked by death,
Betrayed, betrayed, leveled and mistreated.
I’ve stuck a knife in a man for less,
But Death is not so easily defeated.

And you can pray, pray and pray for Life.
But know my friend, my dearest friend, please know this,
That Life is but Death’s own right-hand man.
In every piece of his own left-hand business.

So, arm in arm, we’ll run toward that pair
And, we as they, join them double-threaded
And, arms flung wide, we’ll run towards that pair
And never fear that which once we dreaded.

„Farewell Sorrow“ (Video) – performed by Alasdair Roberts