A DROP
The explosive encounter of Jamaican singer Winston McAnuff with the punk-rocksoul-reggae universe of Camille Bazbaz. A clashing mixture. A DROP is a musical meteorite, the result of a big bang generated by two energumens. A DROP is the fusion of two musical planets. Both a composer and a legendary voice of Jamaican roots reggae, Winston "Electric Dread" McAnuff hit the rock-funk-punk-dub planet of elusive French organist Camille Bazbaz. Nuclear fission or magic cauldron? What emerges of it is a highly improbable musical matter: halfway between orchestral nyabinghy and Jamaican electropop, stringed roots reggae and edgy seventies rock, folk-blues ballads and dub-rock hysteria, jazz piano and lion roar, A DROP sends musical labels into space like asteroid dust. An acid drop on a multicolored world…
Tracklisting Recorded at Studio Salam Aleikum (Paris) and Harry J's (Kingston) Mixed at Translab Produced by Camille Bazbaz and Yarol Poupaud Label BLACK EYE / MAKASOUND Publisher DISCOGRAPH
CAMILLE BAZBAZ BIOGRAPHY Here we are in 2004 and your third album is in store. Marked by a new maturity, "Sur le bout de la langue" results from 2 years of work in collaboration with producers Loo (Ex-Satellite Laurent Lupidi, who also contributed to your first album) and Placido (together they work for Brigitte Fontaine, Fred and Magyd from Zebda, and create many bootlegs). They push your pieces towards a concision that fits you well. Guitar/voice and piano/voice tracks cleared of all superfluous arrangements highlight breathtaking lyrics and your voice perches with emotion on blues. The lyrics take up your beloved themes: love, girls, sensuality, break-up, encounters, a cheerful melancholy. They are letters to the girls in your life. New maturity and simplicity, melodies with subtly mixed influences – reggae, blues, ragtime, Eastern rhythms both joyful and heartbreaking running through the blood, the coils of a hookah, tropical easy listening from the 40's, cha-cha-cha, beguine, rumba, mambo… Music that warms you up, words of quiet melancholy, pleasure stretching out, a cocktail on the piano. Even though the heart shivers, it is warm outside… In your music, echoes of soundtrack can be heard. That is because the bond between singing and cinema has strengthened. In 1997, the fundamental encounter with Pierre Salvadori led you to make the score of his last 3 movies – "Comme elle respire" (1997), "Les Marchands de sable" (2000) and "Après vous" (2003), where appear your cover of "Allô papa tango Charlie" and the eponymous song "Sur le bout de la langue". You composed an album for Sandrine Kiberlain, met on the set of "Après vous", and she signed and cosigned two pieces on your latest opus. You worked with Gerard Darmon, who took on your song "D'une balle" in his album released in 2003. You played for Brigitte Fontaine (Kekeland, 2001), Lady Laistee, Fred… Absorbed in your film scores, you also worked with Scratch Massive, Lanzmann, Fauque, and Manoukian - who composed the music of "Fatale" for you. True, to get here, you've been around since you gave your first "Yeah!" You remember the reverses of fortune, the travels with your father, a good Sunday musician, listening to the radio - bossa, soul, jazz music. In high school, wearing out your pants in the back of the classrooms, you met other dunces that were like you. Together you would form Le Cri de la mouche. Charismatic rebels, you played a rock both pure and thick in the late 80's. Completely self-taught, you naturally stood out as a keyboard player – an organist, to be precise. If you were influenced by the seventies rock and the punk, it is soul music and blues that left an indelible print on you. Le Cri broke up in the early 90's. You went on tour with The Satellites. It was the beginning of a period marked by a series of encounters, most of them on the tough side: Joey Starr (who intervened on you first album), the hip-hop world. In the meanwhile, you built your personality – a bit of a show-off, a bit of a lover, a sweet nonchalance covering a smoldering heart. And then the deciding encounter with a girl who encouraged you to stand on your own two feet. In 1996, Island released your first solo album, "Dubadelik". A blend of reggae-ragga and of soul music, with a hint of the 60's TV shows. The humor was already there, the seduction, the sex, a hoarse primate. The stage revealed you as a true showman, with the juice of a mustang. While composing soundtracks for Salvadori's films, you issued your
second album "Une envie de chien" (Island 2000). Still love and girl stuff. An indecisive but less hotheaded guy smilingly telling us about pain. And here we are in 2004. Crooner, show-off, lover… all that you still are. How shall we define you, dear Camille? Inspired eclectic, paradoxical animal, a lover that composes music and writes stories that speak to us. At last, a guy we love to love. Let's leave you with "sur le bout de la langue" (on the tip of your tongue) that burning word that you are so good at telling us… (from www.bazbaz.fr) Collaborations and soundtracks Soundtrack "Comme elle respire" Gerard Darmon's album (2004, several tracks composed and made
WINSTON MCANUFF BIOGRAPHY The son of a preacher, Winston was born in 1957, in the hills of Manchester parish, near Christiana, in Jamaica. His parents were very fond of music and it was only natural for him to sing in church. After his father died in 1971, Winston left his native home and moved to Kingston, where his sister was a teacher. In this new city environment, he became friend with Hugh Mundell, Earl Sixteen and Wayne Wade. Because he was sure of their talent, he went with them to their first auditions and even wrote some of their first songs, like Earl Sixteen's "Malcolm X", later taken up by Dennis Brown. From 1975 on, after introducing his friends to famous producers such as Joe Gibbs, Derrick Harriott and Yabby You, Winston recorded several songs for Derrick Harriott, which in 1977 gave birth to his first album: "Pick Hits to Click". Soon after, in 1980, Winston recorded a second album, "What a Man a Deal With", for Top Ranking, label of the group Inner Circle (Ian Lewis and Bernard Touter Harvey). He was very close to Jacob Miller, with whom he shared the same energy and enthusiasm, and was even approached to replace his friend in the band after his tragic death... In 1986, he recorded another album with Inner Circle, "Electric Dread", produced by Keneith Black. The same year, he created his own band, The Black Kush, along with his brother Tony "Makaruffin" McAnuff - now pursuing his career in Japan where he's been living for 15 years - Anthony Wilson and the bassist Peter Kush. They recorded 2 singles for Channel One, featured in the English documentary "Deep Roots Series" and toured in Europe. Since then, Winston has played with his children (the eldest being a drummer, the second a D.J. and the youngest a singer) as well as with other young musicians, like the members of Gumtion Band, a Kingston band with a solid reputation. He has also travelled a lot. He's been to Japan - where he toured several times with his brother and more recently with Derrick Harriot and Junior Murvin -, to the United States in 1987 - where he co-featured with Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas in "Miami Vice" (episode 72, "The Big Thaw", in which Japanese guys freeze an imaginary equivalent of Bob Marley!!!) -, but also to England, France and anywhere Reggae calls him... In 1999, he met the future Makasound crew, a label born in 2001. Since then, Makasound reissued two of his albums, "Diary of the Silent Years" (in its second release between your hands) and "What a Man Deal with". In 2002, he shared the New Morning stage with Derrick Harriot for a unique concert. Since then, Winston also participated in two of Horace Andy and his Home Grown Band national tours, as well as in many isolated concerts and sound-systems. In the meanwhile, Winston recorded a dozen titles for English producer Mad Professor, an album with producer Gussie P ("Bless Up" to be released soon), and another with French dubber Manutension from the Improvisator Dub crew. He also made a featuring on two tracks from Nzela latest album, "Toyé", released in April 2005. In 2002, the live at the New Morning was the occasion of a surprising encounter
between Electric Dread and Camille Bazbaz, that would give birth, 3 years later, to the amazing album "A Drop: Winston McAnuff & the Bazbaz Orchestra" (Black Eye / Discograph - 2005), released the 23rd of May 2005. An album recorded between France and Jamaica that now sends Winston McAnuff and the Bazbaz Orchestra on the roads of France. (from Makasound)
MUSICIANS Yarol Poupaud: co-maker [réalisateur d'un album, ça veut dire quoi ?] of the album and composer of the instrumental of "Rastafari is His Name", Yarol is particularly famed for his guitar playing with FFF. He already made several albums, including Mud's. Jérôme "Tchiki" Perez: a composer and associate in the solo work of Benjamin Diamonds, one of the voices of DAFT PUNK. Besides Bazbaz, he also accompanies Cuban [le seul que j'ai trouvé sur Internet, il est dominicain et pas cubain… A changer ?] singer Mangu on stage. Christiane Prince: she is the Drop of the album! Muse and metronome of the group, Christiane plays the drums like no one else up to the last second of any concert… Besides her Chock-Rock (Warp) electro-live training, she accompanied a wide range of renowned artists from Corneil to Thomas Winter & Bogue, via Mc Solar, Princess Erika, Cheik Tidiane Seck, Dave, Toops Bebey and many others… Laurent Lupidi: composed one of the tracks. Widely known for his composing and producing, he notably worked with Zebda and Brigitte Fontaine. Earl "Chinna" Smith: plays the second acoustic guitar on "Way Back Home". A legendary figure of Jamaican music, Chinna has accompanied The Wailers for many years. But above all, he was the leader of Jamaica's greatest studio band: The Soul Syndicate. Right now, he is very topical since his first opus as a singer was released in France in late January 2005: Earl "Chinna" Smith & Idrens Inna de Yard (Inna de Yard/Discograph). Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace: plays on "Common sense", "Rastafari is His Name", "Reggae on Broadway" and "Sentenced". Mythical drummer of the Studio One stable, Leroy Wallace has been playing for all the greatest Jamaican producers for 40 years. He is especially famous for his leading role in the movie "Rockers", and for his collaboration with French singer Pierpoljak. Earl "Bagga" Walker: plays on "Common sense" and "Reggae on Broadway". A musical profile similar to Leroy Wallace's, but without "Rockers" nor Pierpoljak. Official bassist of the Gladiators. Charles Farqueson: former keyboard player of the Inner Circle in the 1970's. Today, he works in Miami on R'n'B and dancehall productions. Richard "Richie" McDonald: makes most of the vocal harmonies on the album. This close friend of Bob Marley began a quiet career in the late 60's. An active member of The Chosen Few, he recorded solo in the 70's for varied producers (Glen Brown, Earl "Wire" Lindo) and wrote many vocal harmonies for Marley. Noel "Bunny" Brown: made two harmonies on only one track, "Common Sense", but what vocal harmonies! Noel Brown began his singing career at 9. At 11-yearold, he was already making constant vocal harmonies for producer Clement "Coxsone" Dodd. Then he rapidly joined Derrick Harriot's famous Chosen Few
before forming The Mighty Threes ("Africa Shall Stretch Forth Her Hands" Makasound/2004). He was the last singer to record an album for Coxsone before he died last year.
CONCERT TOUR A DROP is an explosive mixture that has to be experienced live. It's rock'n'roll that runs through the veins of these 5 disparate musicians! - Vocal: Winston "Electric Dread" McAnuff - Keyboard: Camille Bazbaz, Fender Rhodes funambulist - Bass and guitar: Yarol Poupault, arsonist rocker - Guitar: Jérôme "Tchiki" Perez, the mystery of the magic fingers - Drums: Christiane Prince, heartbeat and cornerstone of the quintet
LINKS www.bazbaz.fr : Camille Bazbaz official site www.makasound.com : Makasound / Black Eye site http://ladrc.free.fr : La détente par le rire et le chant. A program based on musical animations, musical awakening, and musicotherapy in schools, hospitals and offices, developed by percussionist Christiane Prince.