Moussu T e lei Jovents, made up of the founder and singer of Massilia Sound System, Tatou (alias Moussu T, Mister T), and his guitarist, Blu, are now a major presence on the French music scene: an uncontested figurehead of Occitan music, the group is now making a name for itself beyond the frontiers of their homeland.
\nOver the thirty years of their encounter-rich career (Massilia was founded in 1984), they have connected with many people, notably those in the Nordeste region of Brazil and singers like L\u00e9nine, Silverio Pessoa and Jamilson Da Silva. From this, the group has drawn their inspiration and fundamental principles. The influence of Marseilles music from the thirties and the popularity of its light operas have also made a major contribution to building the group\u2019s repertoire. And aside from these influences, Moussu T e lei Jovents have managed to come up with their own style, half-way between chanson and Mediterranean blues. Now recognised around the whole world, Moussu T e lei Jovents have come – like other world music groups – to represent the music of their home town.
\nMoussu T e lei Jovents work with almost the same team on their recordings as on stage: Tatou on vocals, Blu on guitars, banjo and vocals, D\u00e9li K on percussion and Denis Lo Bramaire on drums. For this occasion, the Brazilian percussionist, Jamilson Da Silva, with whom the group has worked since they started out, also accompanies them (here, he plays on the tracks \u2018Le bateau\u2019, \u2018Monte vas can\u00e7oneta?\u2019, \u2018Mon drapeau rouge\u2019 and \u2018Embarcatz!\u2019). For stage performances of their new repertoire, they will be joined for the first time by the bass player Fred Simbolotti (Raoul Petite, Royal de Luxe, IAM), for a show which will be, as always, full of good cheer but even livelier!
\nOn this album, \u2018Art\u00e9mis\u2019, which is their fifth, the influence of blues music stands out more than ever (cf. \u2018Embarcatz!\u2019, \u2018Te\u2019n vas de matin\u2019, \u2018Mistral\u2019, \u2018Lei rainards\u2019, \u2018Occitanie sur mer\u2019 etc.), whether it\u2019s in terms of the subjects the songs deal with (\u2018Tout mon temps\u2019) or in terms of their structure. This never descends into a purely pedantic style, but instead calls on modal forms and open tuning, which is very common in blues music (particularly in the work of Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones). Moussu T e lei Jovents find their inspiration in many different sources, from Brazilian compositions (\u2018Le bateau\u2019, \u2018Mon drapeau rouge\u2019) to Floyd-style pop forms which are borderline progressive, but they never leave the chanson style behind (cf. \u2018Monte vas can\u00e7oneta?\u2019). The prominence of the acoustic guitar on this album gives it a less electric feel than ’Putan de can\u00e7on\u2019, their previous work, although it\u2019s still definitely rock music!
\nThere are more songs than ever in Occitan here, since it’s when they work in this language that the group feels the most independent. As in the past, they use a clever mix of light-heartedness and nostalgia, rebellion and powerful hints of poetry, always without the slightest ostentation. This time, it’s the goddess Art\u00e9mis who serves as Moussu T e lei Jovents\u2019 muse.
\nArt\u00e9mis, the goddess of Phocaea and the guardian angel of Marseilles. She is both a symbol of the struggle for change and against exploitation, and the immutable image of motherhood and the sweetness of home life: an ambivalent sentiment which keeps cropping up in the group’s work as each song goes by. It is incidentally this same principle which was behind the work of Occitan troubadours in the Middle Ages (they composed love songs and poems dedicated to the \u2018Lady\u2019) and which can also be found in the work of more contemporary artists. Their repertoire subtly combines the mildness of the climate and ocean-side landscapes with the harshness of naval construction work and the smell of steel, and it all smacks of the fight for social justice. Once again, the group\u2019s favourite topics (sometimes presented from a very \u2018masculine\u2019 point of view: war, steel, oil tankers) are expressed under the watchful eye of a protective female guide, Art\u00e9mis, who follows logically on from the female figures on the group\u2019s previous albums: a school crush in \u2018Mademoiselle Marseille\u2019, neighbourhood girls in \u2018Forever Polida\u2019 and the tomboy in \u2019Home Sweet Home\u2019.
\nArgentine-Uruguayan Alt-Electrorock-Tango Band BAJOFONDO Releases Presente
\nDebut Album With Sony Masterworks
\nFeaturing Academy Award-Winning Composer\/Musician
\nFounder and Producer Gustavo Santaolalla
\nAvailable April 1st, 2013
\nSONY MASTERWORKS announces the release of Presente, the new album by Latin Grammy-winning band Bajofondo, available April 1st, 2013. The album\u2019s title refers to what the band is at the present moment: a stirring mix of tango, milonga, folklore, rock, hip-hop, electronica, jazz, classical, and a world of sounds from the R\u00edo de la Plata, the river that separates and unites Argentina and Uruguay. One of the most acclaimed live acts in the world, Bajofondo\u2019s Presente is also the biggest \u201cpresent\u201d (both in size and scope) the band has delivered to diehard fans and new converts: an epic 21-track high energy tour de force that blends a multitude of traditionally dichotomous genres seamlessly.
\n\u201cAfter playing in virtually all corners of the world, having Sony Masterworks as our new home could not be more appropriate to present the album that most closely resembles what we are as a live band,\u201d said Gustavo Santaolalla, Bajofondo\u2019s decorated founder and producer (winner of a Golden Globe, 2 Oscars, 2 Grammys, and 12 Latin Grammys). \u201cThe music that comes out of the R\u00edo de la Plata has a distinctive accent but is universal. We could not have been in better hands.\u201d
\nWhen Bajofondo began they came out swinging \u2014 the debut Bajofondo Tango Club album won a Latin Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental album in 2003. Then the group became a full-fledged band with the addition of Adri\u00e1n Sosa (the drummer that gives BAJOFONDO\u2019s rhythm its human traction) in the follow-up Mar Dulce (2007), which featured guests like Elvis Costello, Julieta Venegas, and Nelly Furtado, among others.
\nPresente is Bajofondo as you\u2019ve never heard it before! Unlike previous efforts that dropped energetic dance floor bombs from the get-go, the new album opens on a low-key, string-based note: it\u2019s the mysterious beginning of a brand new Bajofondo trip that takes the listener to the high-octane energy of its live shows and its ingenious experimentation in the studio. The production team of Santaolalla and guitarist Juan Campod\u00f3nico have once again captured the common links and individual features of the music found on both sides of the river, but this time on a decidedly international approach that turned Presente into BAJOFONDO\u2019s most ambitious album to date.
\nThe lead single \u201cPide piso\u201d is named after a rioplatense slang term literally referring to someone unpleasant who \u201casks for the floor\u201d (to be knocked to the ground, that is), but it could also refer to somebody anxious to bring sparks to the dance floor. All the Bajofondo ingredients are in this song: the beat, the organic mix of modern electronica and old tango bandone\u00f3n and violins, the milonga piano, and the double entendre that flows throughout the album (another example of this is found in the powerful \u201cC\u00f3digo de barra\u201d that follows the contrasting, mellow intro and comes at you like a full-frontal sonic assault; the title simultaneously refers to a simple bar code and to figures of speech only understood by tango barflies or groups of friends).
\n\u201cOlvidate\u201d (\u201cForget it\u201d) illustrates Bajofondo\u2019s unique ability to blend sophistication with more mundane, popular cultural manifestations. It starts with a pulsating beat where disco meets bandone\u00f3n and then, when least expected, Bajofondo turns into a chorus taken straight out of an Argentine football stadium. The tongue-in-cheek bragging has Bajofondo boldly declaring that \u201ceven the dead\u201d dance with them, with a bragadoccio that owes as much to hip-hop as it does to tango itself.
\nMore than in any other album, Bajofondo\u2019s own roster take a starring role in the vocal department. Santaolalla delivers a passionate version of \u201cPena en mi coraz\u00f3n\u201d (\u201cSorrow in my heart); Campod\u00f3nico (fresh off a Latin Grammy win in 2012 as producer of Uruguayan rock band El Cuarteto de Nos) leads on \u201cLluvia,\u201d and Sosa debuts as a singer over a wicked bandone\u00f3n line in \u201cCuesta arriba.\u201d
\n\u201cOigo Voces\u201d Bajofondo\u2019s first-ever a capella song, deserves its own paragraph. This gem is inspired by Argentina\u2019s legendary neo-tango vocal group Buenos Aires 8, which in turn was inspired by France\u2019s four-time Grammy-winning The Swingle Singers. But Santaolalla \u2014 who sang all the vocal parts himself and always had the Beatles and Brian Wilson as a source of great inspiration \u2014 took the style to a whole new level and the song became a Fab Four-meets-Beach Boys hybrid by way of Astor Piazzolla, the man who revolutionized tango.
\nAfter hundreds of dates throughout the world, Bajofondo has become a live music machine. It is a band made up of well-established artists in their own right. Besides the above-mentioned, Bajofondo is Mart\u00edn Ferr\u00e9s (the most visible exponent of the younger generations of Argentines taking up a complex instrument such as the bandone\u00f3n), Ver\u00f3nica Loza (the woman responsible for the film\/video projections that are a key component of BAJOFONDO\u2019s live performances), and Gabriel Casacuberta (a versatile bassist who has played anything from Hip-Hop to traditional Uruguayan folk. Javier Casalla\u2019s contribution to the magic of BAJOFONDO has always been remarkable, and in Presente his extraordinary violin has a monster string section playing along with him, arranged and directed by Argentina\u2019s renowned Alejandro Ter\u00e1n.
\nWith 11 violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, and 3 stand-up basses, Presente is the most string-based album in Bajofondo\u2019s history. \u201cThis time we really worked on the orchestral parts,\u201d said Santaolalla. \u201cWe had done something similar in Mar Dulce, but Presente is a much bigger project and the album required extra time spent in that area. We\u2019re thrilled with the results.\u201d Several album tracks also include brass, woodwinds, and percussion.
\nAt this point in Bajofondo\u2019s career, the band has long transcended \u201celectrotango\u201d to become one of the world\u2019s most eclectic acts on record and one of the most irresistible on the dance floor, all wrapped with the energy and attitude of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll.
\n\u201cI think the most accurate description would be: Bajofondo makes Bajofondo music,\u201d says Santaolalla. \u201cAnd Presente is a trip that takes you from the most magical to the most epic urban moments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moussu T e lei Jovents, made up of the founder and singer of Massilia Sound System, Tatou (alias Moussu T, Mister T), and his guitarist, Blu, are now a major presence on the French music scene: an uncontested figurehead of Occitan music, the group is now making a name for itself beyond the frontiers of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":295,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press_releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/295"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}