You Can Do Magic: Jazzamor and "Nuit Magique"

Today's song is by Jazzamor, a duo founded in 2002 by Bettina Mischke and Roland Grosch. Originally part of a jazz quartet, they decided to explore jazz in a different direction by minimizing the instrumentation and blending in bossa nova rhythms and a lounge sensibility. Jazzamor's first album, Lazy Sunday Afternoon (2003), yielded a hit in the song Way Back, which was picked up by Nikon for an ad campaign. Since then, they have released five more albums to date. This song, Nuit Magique (Magical Night), is off of their 2006 CD release Travel and can also be found on the 2008 compilation Putumayo Presents: Euro Groove.

Going Provincial: Moussu T e Lei Jovents and "Embarcatz!"

In less than a year, we are thinking of going with some friends to France. I have never been to France - well, let me clarify. I've been in France, but I've never been to France. I was traveling on an itinerary and took a train from Austria through France, stopping in Paris to change train stations, and then on another train to the coast where I set sail for Ireland. So while I've been in France and seen some pastoral countryside and experienced the Metro in Paris while changing train stations, I didn't really spend any time there. In hindsight, that was stupid. I should have spent a few days in Paris at least. But I was young, on my first trip to Europe, and didn't have any sense that I could just make my own schedule and do my own thing.

I'm hoping to rectify that now. Some friends are planning to rent a place in Provence, and the plan is to fly into Paris and spend a week, and then spend another week in the countryside in Provence. We will join them for the trip. And what I am hoping for, besides seeing the sights that I need to see, is to hear some music. France has a wonderful music scene, with so many different kinds of musicians and groups from many genres, including North African, and I find myself really enjoying a lot of the French music I hear.

One of those groups that would be great to see is the provider of our random tune for today. Moussu T e Lei Jovents is a band that splits its time between Marseilles, a French commune called La Ciotat, and Recife, Brazil. They are inspired by the music of Marseilles between 1920 and 1930 and the melting pot that the city was and remains. They range musically from the blues to reggae to Brazilian music to music hall, and they are very comfortable singing in Occitan, the regional language of the southern third of France. They have released eight albums. Embarcatz! (All Aboard!), your tune for the day, is a really fun tune that you can turn up. The song is about traveling once bridges are burned and heading toward new adventure. As the refrain says:

In the world's great salad bowl

We'll add our pinch of salt

Here we are when the music starts

Let the ship sail away!

To the planet's great hymn

We want to bring our energy

Like a never ending groundswell

We will visit every port.

Embarcatz! can be found on their 2013 CD Artemis. The video starts out with a little movie with the music beginning about a minute into the video.

A Little Night Magic: Jazzamor and "Nuit Magique"

Why is it that I am not enamored of French? It's a fine language, but I've never felt it to be the most beautiful language as the movies and Francophiles make it out to be. Sorry, French people and people of French descent and those who speak French. Perhaps I have a tin ear for languages, or something.

It is different for me, however, when French is used in music. When I listen to a jazz song in French, the music elevates. It doesn't especially matter if the voice singing is male or female, though I must say that given my gender I do find a female voice singing French to be very irresistible. However, French just seems to make the song that much more sophisticated, mysterious, sexy, longing, romantic, whatever.

Here's my biggest surprise. I am not a huge fan of rap and hip hop, though I like some offerings. I don't go in for the "gangsta" rap and all of the hypersexualized, treat women as objects to be passed around and used type of rap and hip hop but I do like rap and hip hop with social messages. Again, it's nothing personal against anyone. However, when I heard my first rap song in French, I didn't care. They could have been singing about anything, even reprehensible things that I would never agree with, and yet the language somehow made it different and interesting even within the conventions. I've since heard rap and hip hop in other languages as well, such as German, Dutch, Spanish, a couple of different African languages, and I find it more interesting than what I get in English.

So I'm strange, I suppose.  But, if you like songs in French you'll find today's selection very interesting.  It's not hip hop or rap (at least this time) but it's a jazz selection infused with bossa nova by a German duo named Jazzamor.  Jazzamor was founded in 2002 by Bettina Mischke and Roland Grosch.  Originally part of a jazz quartet, they decided to explore jazz in a different direction by minimizing the instrumentation and blending in bossa nova rhythms and a lounge sensibility.  Jazzamor's first album, Lazy Sunday Afternoon (2003), yielded a hit in the song Way Back, which was picked up by Nikon for an ad campaign.  Since then, they have released five more albums to date.  This song, Nuit Magique (Magical Night) is off of their 2006 CD release Travel.