Charming Hostess - Sarajevo Blues (Tzadik)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 8/12/05
Bay Area vocal trio wandering from World (traditional Jewish, Eastern European, Northern African) to jazz to human beatbox to spokenŠ Often the instrumentation is entirely vocal, sometimes there are musical instruments, all of it of significant musical sophistication. Some bits are exquisitely beautiful, some are difficult to listen to, but that's undoubtedly intentional, given the subject matter, most of which deals with attempting to live in a war zone. Since there is often disturbing imagery, the songs that are not in English tend to be easiest to listen to. I believe the non-English language is mostly Bosnian. No direct FCCs, but again, some pretty gnarly subject matter.
Tracks 1 and 15 great for World. 3, 4, 8 probably best cuts for the edgier subjects/jazz.
1. 4:36 ***traditional Tunisian Jewish wedding song with drum and percussion. Very close harmonies (remember Bulgarian Women's Choir?) Lovely.
2. 1:53 **another trad number with drum and percussion, but this sounds more like Warsaw Village Band.
3. 2:41 **vocal percussion and instrumentation, more jazz than trad, mostly in English.
4. 4:56 starts out whispered, then jazz violin and cello accompaniment. Disturbing imagery of crawling through a tunnel around dead bodies.
5. 2:54 **beautiful vocals (non-English) with single hand drum. Very eastern European traditional in sound.
6. 2:56 string accompaniment, English and non-English lyrics about madness. Cacophonous in mid-song and end.
7. 0:49 All vocals, all singing in jazz harmonies about a dis-allowed marriage.
8. 3:54 **Harmonium (?) and drum, some Eastern European, some English - "What will you remember?"
9. 1:44 ** all vocals, some human beat box, some jazz harmonies, about the desecration of a Jewish cemetery.
10. 3:13 **again all vocals with human beat box, rather funky vocals about being under sniper fire.
11. 2:47 **pretty vocals, death on a "relatively calm day".
12. 4:11 strings, jazz style, weird song about touching and biting.
13. 0:44 spoken word, not sure what the point is.
14. 3:09 horns, guitar, piano, non-English, free-form jazz. Apparently about sexual abuse of a young boyŠ
15. ***3:18 flamenco-jazz instrumentation, North African vocals. A guy singing!