SOUNDTRACK: ANTONIO LIZANA-Tiny Desk Concert #615 (April 28, 2017).
I am fascinated by Lizana, but more for his voice than anything else. Lizana’s singing voice/style sounds a lot like the lead singer of Gipsy Kings (musicians from Arles and Montpellier in the south of France, who perform in the Spanish language with an Andalusian accent). Lizana is from Spain, but he has that same strained and fascinating delivery. The blurb here hints that maybe that is just the style of flamenco:
In many ways, the traditions of flamenco and jazz could not be further apart, but in the hands of a few Spanish jazz musicians, these two worlds commingle and find common ground. Antonio Lizana is one such musician, both a saxophonist and vocalist with one foot firmly planted in each tradition. As a vocalist he has mastered the Moorish, note-bending improvisations that make flamenco singing so beguiling, while the fluidity of ideas he expresses as a saxophonist place him in the time-honored tradition of composing while playing.
Indeed, between jazz-like saxophone, Lizana sings flamenco vocals. For these three songs, Lizana and Jonatan Pacheco (percussion) and Andreas Arnold (guitar) play quite a mix and it works very well. The band is also quite multicultural as well as Andreas is from Germany and Jonatan is from Spain (and he plays a mean box drum).
“Airegría” is about 6 minutes long. It begins with hims singing over the percussion. It after a minute and a half that the guitar comes in and not until almost 2 and a half minutes before the sax comes in. The guitar is kind of staccato while the sax is pretty fluid.
Introducing the band he says, “We’re very happy to be here playing. We have today on the stage or on the desk…”
“Déjate Sentir” more conventionally jazzy sax but the main melody comes from his kind of scat singing. Ad I find tat when the guitar kicks in I prefer him singing to guitar rather than playing the sax–I suppose traditional flamenco over jazz. But I can appreciate the sax too–especially when it seems to push aside the flamenco style for a bit.
“Viento De La Mar” is a smoother song with some pretty guitar and light jazzy sax. My favorite moments comes in the middle with the chiming percussion and the big ending.
[READ: June 24, 2016] Big Bad Ironclad
How cool is this series? It is so cool that this is the official author bio:
The spy Nathan Hale was executed in 1776. The author Nathan Hale was born in 1976.
Nathan Hale is the author/illustrator’s real name and he uses the spy Nathan Hale as the narrator of his stories about history (or in this case the future–for the spy, that is).
The book begins on September 22, 1776 as Nathan Hale is about to be hung for treason. The British soldier in charge of the execution is cross, but the executioner himself is kind of giddy because Hale is going to tell another tale.
After some amusing introductions, designed to antagonize the solider, Hale settles in to tell the story of the iron ships (iron doesn’t float!).
And thus he begins the story of the Merrimack and the Monitor. The year is 1861 and Abraham Lincoln has just been elected.
Hale uses some very funny narrative devices to get some of the salient battle points across, like General Scott’s anaconda plan–surround the enemy and squeeze. But how can they do that with only four, yes four, ships?
The North’s man in charge was Gideon Welles, nicknamed Father Neptune. Stephen Mallory is in charge of the confederate navy–the executioner dubs him “sharkface.” And in the most amusing nod to comics, Gustavus Fox (Foxy) is rendered as a fox (he’s a cute li’l fox).
As the South was beginning to secede, one of the North’s ships, the Merrimack was docked in the Norfolk Yard–which would fall to the South. Their plan was to go up and get the ship before the secession–easy-peasy. Except that while they were there, the South did secede so the Northern soldiers burned the shipyard, including the Merrimack.
Meanwhile, one of the major players in this story is William Cushing. He is in the navy and is called before his superior officer to be told that he has been discharged for being a goofball. He played pranks all over the place, which was not appreciated. But soon after, when soldiers were needed, they reinstated Cushing, although not as a potential officer. Rather, he was given the lowest job on the ship. But soon, when experienced sailors were needed, they brought him back up and offered him a ship to sail. And he was very successful. So they give him another and he soon becomes something of a hero. Until he did another prank which once again got him kicked out.
But then comes the shocking news for the North. The Merrimack wasn’t badly damaged (it sank before it could burn) and the South decided to raise it and cover it with iron sides.
In order to fight this, the North asked for suitable ships and John Ericsson had a plan for their own ironclad. Ericsson was notorious because his last invention–a cannon–exploded and killed many of the people it was designed to help. And, in a more amusing section of the book, the executioner has a good laugh that Ericsson’s ship will have an underwater toilet (which actually proves to be very useful). But the joke about pooping underwater brings much levity to the battle scenes.
Cushing is once again reinstated due to lack of sailors, and he once again proves to be brave and daring. Even when the ironclad Merrimack (now called the Virginia) sails into the harbor. The Virginia is a brute, doing all kinds of damage. But just in time the Monitor sails in to protect the harbor. They battle to something of a draw and then reconnoiter.
Later because of an unconsidered design flaw, the Merrimack shows a weakness and then its the South’s turn to try to sink her before the other side can take her.
Meanwhile the South had built a new ironclad, the Ablemarle. But Cushing (yes him) was able to detect a weakness an exploited it. And through more cleverness (and a kind of prank) Cushing was instrumental in cap truing a confederate fort.
Hale’s descriptions and cartoons really bring this exciting story to life.
At the end of the book he fills in some details of all the people involved (including old-timey photos). After describing some of the people involved: Cushing, Fox, Ericsson, Mallory (aka Sharkface, aka Bingo Fishpuncher–huh? “Sharkface has no claims on historical accuracy, that nickname was made up by the author…so was “Bingo Fishpuncher” which doesn’t even appear in the story but its fun to say, try it.” And then this great one: “Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) He was Abraham Lincoln. You should already know about him.”
The last few pages include a timeline of Will Cushing’s war (and all the things he did between 1861 and 1865) as well as an opportunity to build your own monitor with “plastic bricks you already have.” It’s hilarious!
And the final section before the bibliography is about babies–he has outsourced all of his research to babies, so if you see a problem, write to “Dear Correction Baby.” The babies are pretty good at answering questions until the last question make the baby cry.
This book was outstanding and I’m really looking forward to learning more about history from future books.
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