Mark Turner (mturner@netcom.com)
Thu, 18 Feb 1999 15:25:34 -0800 (PST)
>
> Garth Trinidad (DJ for "Chocolate City", KCRW, Los Angeles) had Les Nubians
> on his show last night and I really enjoyed their perspective and sound.
> Has anyone else heard their full-lenth? I'm thinking about it but wanted
> to know what others thought. They (2 sisters) were saying that their music
> was influenced by their upbringing in Chad but was made to bring Bordeaux
> into the modern world (they cited racism and ignorance in rural France as a
> driving force behind their attempts to get their sound out- in an effort to
> educate and enlighten.) I'm not sure how to classify their sound but it
> was very funky and beautiful and reminded me of the feeling when I first
> heard MC Solaar and how impressed I was then (although Les Nubians don't
> sound anything like MC Solaar...)
I have their album and I'm a sucker for French vocals (especially
FEMALE French vocals), but I'm sorry to say I found the album a
little too slick/commercial for my tastes. There are a couple of
good tracks, their cover of "Sweetest Taboo" and one other but
the rest of the album left me pretty cold. A BETTER album (IMHO)
which is sort of French and on the same label (Higher Octave?) is
JAZZ A SAINT GERMAIN, a collection of jazz standards from the 40's
done in a 90's style, by folks like Angelique Kidjo, Francoise
Hardy & Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry & the Jazz Passengers, etc. Anyone
else heard this one?
-- Mark Turner | "Jazzadelica" with Rocky Rococo on KFJC mturner@netcom.com | Sundays 10pm-2am, 89.7 FM, Los Altos Hills, CA
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