Speaking in Tongues: Flight of the Conchords and "Foux du Fa Fa"

I don't have too much to say about today's random selection, other than I considered whether I should include it and decided that we need some levity once in a while. I did a post previously on the languages. My problem is that I never learned a second language. I have a smattering of Spanish and a smattering of German, and that's it.

That's why I find this particular video so amusing. For one who doesn't know a language, it would be easy to sound ridiculous in it. Fortunately, when I spent a couple of months in Germany, I was able to delve right in and even though I probably annoyed some people, I learned enough to even have small conversations, despite the fact that I probably mangled pronunciations. But when you mix a beginner's skill level with trying to impress the opposite sex, well, that can be funny, especially with a language like French which is supposed to be the language of romance.

Our random tune today is therefore a little bit light and comedic. Foux du Fa Fa is by Flight of the Conchords, a New Zealand-based comedy band who once referred to themselves as "New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo." Consisting of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, the duo had a BBC radio series in 2005, followed by an HBO series on American television for two seasons starting in 2007. Premised around the idea that the band is trying to find success in New York City, the cast included Rhys Darby and Kristen Schaal, and often had at least one video-style montage where the band spoofed genres of music and even artists (a memorable one was an early series spoof of the Pet Shop Boys style of music). However, they were continually denied funding by New Zealand television, who deemed them too "Wellington," meaning that their humor would not travel outside New Zealand's capitol. The pair have since been working on their own projects, but there were plans for a reunion tour in 2012 and an eventual Flight of the Conchords movie. "Foux du Fa Fa" follows a scene where Clement tries to impress a young woman at a bakery counter with French, and consists of lyrics almost entirely in beginner French, replete with grammatical errors. Foux du Fa Fa was part of the first season's eighth episode, titled Girlfriends.

Speaking in Tongues: Blick Bassy and "Donalina"

Not being able to speak another language often makes many people not care about other traditions, other cultures and other peoples.  That's been a salient criticism of the United States - our citizens tend to not speak other languages and therefore we take a very Ameri-centric view of the world and don't place a lot of value on cultures and peoples that aren't like us.  Of course, it doesn't hold in all instances.  Germany and France and other European cultures have their share of nationalism and xenophobia, not to speak of the rest of the world.  But it seems to me there is an expectation in most countries that they will learn more than one language.  Many people in Africa speak French as well as their own native language.  Many in Europe speak more than one language, even if the second language is English.  Yet in the US, speaking a second language is hardly the norm unless you are an immigrant who has to learn English.

Language, however, is the key to understanding and learning about cultures different than our own.  The reason that so many other cultures seem so cosmopolitan, at least to me, is that they have the understanding of other cultures and countries that comes with knowing other languages and being generally open to other experiences.  When a language is lost, or worse, a language is denied, then a wealth of understanding is lost.  Blick Bassy, who is the artist behind Donalina, our song of the day, addresses this problem in an interview he did in 2012 with National Public Radio.  Bassy, who is from Cameroon, sings specifically in his native language Basso.  Basso is one of 250 or so languages that is spoken in Cameroon, and Bassy is doing his contribution to keep the language alive.  The interviewer, Guy Raz, asked Bassy (who now lives in Paris) if he would ever make an album in French (his second language) and he said no.  It struck me that here is a man who is raised in a language, learns French (probably because he had to) but also does his interview in English!  How much cultural knowledge he must have - and as a musician he probably is doing himself and his career a favor by having that knowledge that comes from language.

Some more information about Bassy.  He was born in 1974, and formed in first band, The Jazz Crew, in 1996 at the age of 22.  He then went on to help form the band Macase, which went on to win numerous African music awards.  He released his first solo album, Léman, in 2009 and his second solo CD, Hongo Calling, in 2011.  This song, Donalina, is from Léman and is also included on the compilation CD Putumayo Presents: Jazz Around the World.

The Heart of the Plain: Lo Còr de la Plana and "Sant Trofima"

One of these days I will visit France. Actually, I have been in France but I never really visited France. I was passing through on a train, through the French countryside, and into Paris where I got off the train, took the subway to a different train station, got on another train, and headed through the French countryside to Le Havre where I caught a ferry to Ireland. So, I literally saw France from the inside of a train and I saw Paris from underground, and that was it.

A friend and his wife are planning to rent a villa in Provence next year. Every so often, they travel someplace interesting like Italy or France, rent a little villa, invite some friends and enjoy 2-4 weeks traveling around and seeing the countryside, enjoying the local fare and pretending that life just stops for a while. They have invited us over the years, and over the years we have found reasons not to go, usually because we are too busy or we have something else going on or we have work obligations. But I'm 50 now, and as I am now firmly ensconced in the last half of my life I think it is important that I indulge the things that give me joy. Those things are travel, food, music, and friends. And what better way to get them all in than spending 2-4 weeks in Provence where all of these things would be available to me?

And perhaps, when I am in Provence, I will get to see Lo Còr de la Plana. While prepping for a world music show about a year or so back, I found them. It is my practice to find and buy 10-15 new songs for each show, usually from albums released relatively recently. So, in my iTunes search, Lo Còr de la Plana popped up. Their unique sound, just voice and percussion and hand clapping and foot stomping, was different enough to catch my attention. It turns out there is more to their unique approach. Lo Còr de la Plana was formed in Marseilles in 2001, and they sing most of their songs in Occitan, a language I had never heard of but which apparently is the regional language of Provence. The songs are polyphonic chants in that language, but they apply chants and songs to a modern sensibility. According to Womad, they are not interested in reviving a long-dead past or culture, but appropriating what they need and applying it to the realities of Occitan life today. The band has released three albums to date, and their first album, Es Lo Titre (2003), won the prestigious Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles-Cros in the world music category.

This song, Sant Trofima, is from their 2012 CD Marcha!

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.