Laolu Senbanjo's - Everything Is His Canvas

Laolu Senbanjo

Here's a young contemporary artist living in New York, who's art and personality are very compelling. He impressed me so much, with his energetic talent so I had to find out more about him and his art. He's a testament to those who are committed to follow their dreams no matter what.

Laolu Senbanjo's art work is exciting, spiritual, socially conscious and epitomizes the phrase art is life and life is art. In the numerous ways he actualizes his creativity, is remarkable and life affirming.

There was a very insightful interview this morning on Q with Laolu that I invite you to listen, and check out his site which is full of his art and you can see some time lapsed videos of his incredible creations.

Christmas With A Laugh

The Hawk

I'm not a big fan of Christmas music with some exceptions. But when Ronnie Hawkins gets together and collaborates with Gordon Lightfoot and Robbie Robertson, well I listen. This interview with The Hawk and Gordon Lightfoot is priceless, and I really like the song they've written and performed.

I love to hear Ronnie Hawkins talk. He's so full of stories and good badness, with a wicked sense of humour. The dialogue back and forth between these two legendary talents is a real treat, and I'm sure to go down in the CBC Radio archives.

Whenever I hear Ronnie Hawkins, I always think about my brother, who idolized him so much, having grown up in Toronto during the 50s with his music.

Web Junkies - Shosh Shlam - Film Maker

In China, “Internet addiction” is a clinical disorder. 'Web Junkie' enters a Beijing rehab center where Chinese teenagers are "deprogrammed". (Shosh Shlam/Web Junkie)

In the days long before Bill Gates and the internet, I had a part-time job working the switch board for the University I was attending. My work space was an isolated cement walled, windowless room, containing the switch board, and a very large machine like contraption, a monstrous and monolithic like computer that took up the length of one wall. It made all manner of noises and I saw no one from the time I started work until I finished my shift.

In the early 70s I knew nothing about computers, nor did I want to know anything about them. although many of us who grew up in the 60s wanted to think of ourselves as open minded. You know, free love, peace, 'down with the man' and all that Hippie jargon. Many of us thought computers were like making a deal with the devil, they were going to be just plain bad for our world, and for human beings generally.

I remember in my late teens living in the city of Halifax there was a young man I considered rather odd. He was in retrospect he was way ahead of the learning curve, being very involved with computers, working for Dalhousie University in computer science. I thought this was a strange a mysterious thing to study, and I just dismissed him as being quirky.

Fast forward over forty years, really not that long ago, it's a whole new world thanks to computers and the internet. It's simultaneously wonderful and terrifying, as this technological development, has not  only changed our world 360 degrees, but has indeed changed human beings and most importantly our children.

This film is disturbing, and has an important foreboding message and commentary about our "connected" society. Perhaps those of us that grew up in the 60s weren't so far off the mark after all regarding our concerns about computers.

Here's a link to listen to the interview with the documentary's film maker Shosh Shlam on CBC Q

Eyes On The Prize

Knowing Mavis Staples was going to be interviewed on CBC Radio ,Q this morning, I was really looking forward to it. She sure didn't disappoint, and it was a wonderful interview. She takes you back to a time in history that is very relevant in so many ways to what is happening in the world now. I could listen to her talk all day.

Mavis is not only an inspiration and example of hope, but the message she conveys through her music is a real wake-up call, and reminder to keep up the good fight against racism and all the other troubles in the world.. I could  hear in her voice, and by what she said in relation to recent events in Ferguson, how she sees things getting worse in our world.

In spite of this, she is still filled with hope and holds on to her deep faith.


This is a great bio I found on the CBC site.

biographical info

On their second collaboration, legendary singer Mavis Staples and Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy have
crafted a gospel album for the 21st century, a music that strives for faith in a world where nothing can be taken for granted.

On One True Vine, Mavis Staples gives voice to something new in her repertoire, something deeper and
more resonant with our times; longtime fans will notice a new reserve in her singing, a muted, plaintive quality that serves the darker, more nuanced songs collected here perfectly.

If her Stax hits spoke for a growing black social consciousness, and her seventies collaborations with the Band and others gave spiritual weight to the rediscovery of traditional American music, then in our post millennial drift, Jeff Tweedy has crafted a pulpit from which Mavis lends her voice to a search for grace.

One True Vine is a dark night of the soul, a journey from a search for faith to glorious belief.  Starting with Alan Sparhawk from Low’s down tempo “One Holy Ghost” – a song that feels the presence of God without
fully comprehending it – and moving through the Jeff Tweedy original “Jesus Wept,” a questioning of the darkness in the world, the album begins in the depths.  Even the perfectly chosen Funkadelic classic “Can You Get to That?,” a high-flying respite in an otherwise subdued first half, is built around a question of the spirit. Then at mid-point, Nick Lowe’s “Far Celestial Shores” picks up the pace, and the album opens up like a parting of the clouds. The tempo kicks in with a tent-revival throb, and even when things slow for a moment with the greasy funk reworking of the Staple’s “I Like the Things About Me,” it’s a second half of
light and redemption.  Closing with the beautiful ballad “One True Vine” (the third of the Tweedy originals), the album ends on a note of salvation, with Mavis cradling the lyric like a prodigal son.

No one should be surprised at this new Mavis Staples; for six decades she has been the solid rock of American music.  Alongside the family group she is so identified with, the Staple Singers, Mavis has managed to transform herself as she goes, yet never alter. From the delta-inflected gospel sound she helped create in the 1950s, to the engaged protest of the civil rights era, and then, amazingly, on pop radio in the Stax era with a series of soul anthems, from “I’ll Take You There” to “Respect Yourself:” through all these Mavis carried on, her warm embrace of a voice the only constant.  How many musicians can claim this: to exist outside any scene, outside genre, yet weaving themselves into the fabric of soul, R&B, jazz, gospel, rock and blues?

Many of the maverick names that come to mind are composers as well; that Mavis has created her legacy as an interpreter of others – an underestimated talent since the days of the band singers – makes her achievement all the more impressive.  She gives voice to others; more than that, she gives voice to entire movements, to eras, to songs so old their roots are lost.  And she manages to work a little PFunk in there too.

Recently, recognition of Mavis’ unique role in American music has been growing beyond her longtime
fans, dipping into the wider world of pop as she performs alongside Justin Timberlake at the White House tribute to Memphis Soul, or with Elton John in a show-stealing Grammy tribute to Levon Helm of the Band.  Her first album with Tweedy at the controls, You Are Not Alone, won a much deserved Grammy.

Now, on her second collaboration with Tweedy – Mavis calls him “Tweedy” all day long, and they are a pleasure to watch in the studio, riffing like some old vaudeville team – she has made an album to match her new national profile.

One True Vine is an album that will both surprise longtime fans and solidify her position at the helm of
American music.

 http://music.cbc.ca/#!/artists/Mavis-Staples

Listen to the CBC Q interview with Mavis Staples here.


One of my very favourite songs she has done is "Eyes On The Prize". It is a collaboration with the very talented musician Ry Cooder, whom I love so much.

Mavis she's surely keeping her 'eyes on the prize', and we would do well to do the same.

Renzo Martens - A Shift in Power - Gentrification of the Jungle

 

Renzo Martens

Being a little on the down low during the holiday season, I've had a rather easy going reflective attitude about my blog posts, as I reflect on the past year.

That said, this article by Stuart Jeffries in the Guardian is not easy going, nor is it on the down low. Many folks I'm certain, are unaware  of what Renzo Martens is attempting to do, and that is to establish an arts scene in the extremely impoverished area of the Eastern Congo, in the midst of a cocoa plantation.

  Some may not agree with this project, but I believe the CBC Q interview with Renzo Martens gave him a platform to clearly defend his position, which was very well defined, and presented. He really sparked my interest, compelling me to to find out more about this visionary artist, who wants to shift the balance of power within the confines of the art and corporate world. He refers to his project, as being it a kind of gentrification of the jungle, allowing for a shift in power, that ways on the side of the artist. I will be watching closely in 2015 to observe the development of this project.

Part of the Artes Mundi exhibition with Martens's chocolate sculpture in Cardiff

Kent Monkman

" Art functions to communicate ideas. " - Kent Monkman

I don't really know how I missed learning, or even hearing about , Kent Monkman, a Canadian multimedia artist.
I recently listened to an interview he gave to Jian Ghomeshi on Q CBC Radio. 

Kent Monkman is a remarkable artist and person. I think he is at the forefront of change within an art world, that historically had been controlled from a top down dominance, by those in power and control, as a result of the colonization of art history, found within museums, and galleries throughout the world, and in particular found in Euro-American ideas of history and culture.

The artist engages the viewer, inviting them to participate in examining, in questioning, and in re-thinking this cultural dialogue, on a number of levels.

He has found a way to communicate his ideas. Kent Monkman is committed to narrative painting, and   re-frames the unchallenged idea of narrative history within the media, via his own redefined iconography, that challenges colonial history.

The cultural tensions and balance between First Nations culture, and settler culture, is very evident in his work, depicting a different perspective on history. It is both exciting, poignant, and encouraging to see such an artist.  I believe he is contributing and will continue to be very influential toward changing the role of art and artist in society, and how we perceive and teach art history. I think Kent Monkman is an artist who in communicates his ideas brilliantly.

                                                  Kent Monkman   Jody Rogac Photography

Trailer for lost Johnny Cash album 'Out Among The Stars' unveiled – watch | News | NME.COM

I have been been a long time dedicated fan of the Carter family, and of Johnny Cash and so I was heartened and excited to hear about this soon to be released album  Out Among The Stars  that John Carter Cash is responsible for finding 12 unheard tracks in among his parents many items after they died.


Trailer for lost Johnny Cash album 'Out Among The Stars' unveiled – watch | News | NME.COM

Post script I overlooked linking Jian Gomeshi's interview with John Carter Cash so here it is!

Kehinde Wiley

Human beings are naturally drawn to the narrative in art. Not necessarily realism all the time but definitely narrative . That said one cannot help but be struck by high realistic rendering, though it isn't always everyone's favourite.
Here's an interesting and compelling artist. Kehinde Wiley  I heard about on CBC Radio Q.