Belgium - Brussels Part II

 Whilst in Brussels we can't skip Belgium's greatest musical star, Jacques Brel (1929-1978), who was born in the Brussels neighbourhood of Schaerbeek.  Coming from a Flemish background, his family chose to speak French.  He was not academically gifted, and was bored working in his father's cardboard factory, as his creative genius wanted to burst out.  He relocated to Paris in 1953 and became an international star, his many songs covered by international stars, but rarely equalled in intensity and passion.  His breakthrough hit came in 1957 with Quand On N'a Que l'Amour:

Probably his most famous song, which has been covered in various languages, but never as good or as emotionally intense as the original is Ne Me Quitte Pas:

Also born in Brussels was Jazz composer and harmonica player Toots Thielemans (1922-2016).  He had a long and distinguished career playing with just about any of the Jazz greats, too many to list here.  He popularised the harmonica as a genuine voice in the genre.  He was active into a venerable age and gave a concert on his 90th birthday, from which this clip is taken: Midnight Cowboy:

Rapper Paul van Haver, aka Stromae, cites Jacques Brel as one of his early influences, but he has a much more modern take with rap and electronic music.  He was born in 1985 in the Brussels neighbourhood of Etterbeek to Rwandan Tutsi father and a Belgian mother.  He has achieved quite some international success.  Here's one of his hits called Papaoutai:

That's it from Brussels, next we'll be heading north to the province of Antwerp in Flanders.  As usual you can follow my virtual road trip on my tripline map. 

France - The Northeast

The town of Trimbach in Alsace

 Before leaving Paris, there is a new album out by Gypsy Balkan band La Caravane Passe called Nomadic Spririt.  It's a joyous celebration of Balkan and Gypsy inspired music blended with punk, rap, chanson, Gnawa and Latin sounds.  The title song of the album perfectly sums up the idea of this blog of borderless music.  It features Moroccon Mehdi Nassouli:

Next we are heading south to Nevers in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, where contemporary accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier was born, for something altogether more calm.  He comes from the Jazz tradition and has fused it with various world music styles, notably collaborating with Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem.  In his latest collaboration he just released an album called Rivage with classical and jazz guitarist Kevin Seddiki from Clermont-Ferrand.  Here are 3 songs, 2 of them feature on the album.  Schumansko, the opening track draws on a Bulgarian melody combined with a theme from Schumann.

I'm not sure where bagpipe and banjo player Julien Cartonnet was born, but he did record an album in 2013 called Musique Traditionelle du Nivernais-Morvan (which is proving tricky to get hold of), so we will visit this region next within the Bourgogne-Franche-Comte region.  Here he plays a rousing Scottish with accordionist Jean Thiery:

Together with accordionist Andy Cutting (whom we met in London) and James Delarre, Cartonnet is also part of Anglo-French folk outfit Topette!!.  Here's a piece from their 2019 album Rhododendron called Oblique Jig / Miss Heidi Hendy:

Next we are heading into the Vosges mountains to Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in the Grand-Est region, where singer/songwriter Frédérique Dastrevigne, known simply as Fredda was born.  This song called Jours Heureux is from her upcoming album Bisolaire (available from the 13th November): 

Also from the Grand-Est region, singer/songwriter Pascal Parisot was born in Pompey, just north of Nantes. He specialises in children's songs and puts on fun shows for them.  The following song called Allons Z'enfants features on the 2011 compilation The Rough Guide to Paris Lounge:

And finally with Halloween coming up, here is an extract from a fun looking kids show he did called Mort de Rire:

This concludes our tour of the northern half of France.  We will return to explore the south of France on our way south, but next we will be heading into the Benelux countries.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my tripline map.

 

County Limerick, Ireland

There once was a man called Rick

He came from the town of Limerick

He wanted to write

Poems of shite

But instead played some nice music

So much for my poetry...  I'll stick to music will I?  It's in fact not entirely certain that Limericks came from Limerick. Moving on, 6-member, all female band Líadan describe their origins as from Limerick and Galway.  They formed in 2004 and churn out beautifully crafted traditional tunes and songs in both Irish and English.  Here is a set of polkas by them (in my opinion there aren't enough polkas around) that are collectively known as Limerick Polkas and can be found on their album Casadh na Taoide / Turning the Tide:

And talking about polkas they are particularly popular in the Sliabh Luachra (Anglicised Slieve Logher), which is an upland area bordering counties Limerick, Kerry and Cork.  The members of the trio Sliabh Notes hail one each from these 3 counties and here is a set of polkas by them, which can be found on their 2005 album Gleanntan:

Four Men and a Dog were founded in Limerick in 1990, but the band members hail from Tyrone, Tipperary, Donegal and Dónal Murphy who was born in Birmingham, but grew up in Limerick.  They play traditional Irish music, but often combined with rock, jazz, blues, bluegrass, swing, salsa and even rap.   There's a bit of rap and bluegrass on this number, Wrap It Up from their 1991 album Barking Mad:

As usual you can follow my virtual journey on this link.  Next stop County Clare.