SOUNDTRACK: FRÉDÉRIC YONNET-Tiny Desk Concert (July 9, 2018).
Dave Chappelle introduced his friend Frédéric Yonnet as “an unlikely talent from an unlikely place, Normandy France. He plays an instrument I didn’t even know I liked. Fred, give them a sample of how we became friends [plays a glorious harmonica melody].”
Fred has toured with all the greats Stevie Wonder, Prince (and more, see below). With the Band With No Name welcome Frédéric Yonnet.
The blurb fills in
Harmonicist Frédéric Yonnet has played with Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu, John Mayer, Ed Sheeran … even Prince. But his biggest fan and supporter is Dave Chappelle, who worked with the Normandy native on Dave Chappelle’s Juke Joint, a series of intimate parties featuring Yonnet, his Band With No Name, and an all-star cast of unannounced special guests.
That’s how the comedian came to introduce Yonnet (pronounced YAH-nay) at his Tiny Desk concert. From the moment the NPR staff first heard his pocket-sized harmonica, you could feel the electricity in the room. There are virtually no limitations to this instrument in the hands of Yonnet, who is famous for his ability to play chromatic notes on a diatonic harmonica.
During Chappelle’s introduction, he told the crowd about how Yonnet met Wonder at the Grammys and eventually was asked to hop on the Songs In the Key of Life tour. “He’s so good at playing harmonica that another man good at harmonica [Wonder] hired him,” Chappelle has been known to say.
They play three songs.
Yonnet began the show with a mélange of reggae, hip-hop and New Orleans funk, and his Band With No Name were right in the pocket with original funky numbers “Four20” and “FRéEDlosophy,” both of which will appear on his upcoming album, Reed My Lips.
“Four20” starts with strange harmonica riff and then the band come in with an incredibly funky jam (with Christopher Bynum on drums), Dennis Turner on bass). Yonnet plays some incredible soloing over this really jam from full mouthed harmonica to incredibly dextrous (or whatever that word is for your mouth) single notes the likes of which I’ve never heard on a harmonica before. Midway through he slows things down points to saxophonist Matthew Rippetoe and says “solo?” which he proceeds to rip out.
After the sing he introduces Kailen “our mascot.”
“FRéEDlosophy” requires some participation from the audience (which includes Chapelle dancing up a storm). There’s a great heavy riff that propels the song forward as well as some really rocking guitar. Yonnet moves pretty much nonstop and his playing is really wonderful.
Chappelle’s desire to hear some of that “Mississippi Delta blues” prompted an improvised tune, “No Smokin’ Blues,” which gave guitarist Robbie McDonald, saxophonist Matthew Rippetoe, trumpet player Joe Herrera and keyboardist Daryl Hunt a chance to shine.
Dave encourages them to “Jam it out a bit” blues. Start with the blues, you can take it anywhere, play yourself out. But Dave wants “Mississippi Delta blues… sweltering heat I don’t get paid enough blues.”
Yannet obliges. He puts down the mic (no idea if it’s the same harmonica) and proceed to play a pretty classic blues. There’s solos from all of the above (McDonald’s is pretty stormin’)
[READ: July 9, 2018] “Under the Wave”
This is a terrifying story. Well, the first section is terrifying and the rest is the uncomfortable aftermath.
It’s the complete lack of details that make it so terrifying. A woman and her husband and son are separated by a wave. That’s all we know. It must have been huge. Earthquake? Tsunami? Hurricane? No details are given. She is asleep and then she is alone.
She walked to the city center where a warehouse was set up and people were huddled. Food was given out, cots were prepared. And she sat, for two days, unloving. Then she saw a girl, a feral girl, crawling through the warehouse sneaking people’s food.
When the girl got to her, she grabbed the girl’s wrist and held her.
The girl is untrusting at first but soon the woman proves herself and the girl feels more comfortable. And then the woman–who has lost everything–gets a ride away from the warehouse and through some charity is able to get home–for her family was on vacation.
Now the woman, who has lost her son, has a daughter. The daughter looks nothing like her, but the daughter fits into the son’s clothes. And it’s easy for them both to pretend. To pretend that the girl is her boy. To pretend that she is the boy’s mother. To pretend that all is normal.
That’s when the story grows sad, or confusing, or heartwarming. It’s hard to know how to feel. Especially when the woman registers the girl in school under her son’s name. Especially when they go out together. Especially when someone might recognize the girl.
This was a wonderfully suspenseful story–unsettling from the get go for many different reasons.
I Just Read About That... 
Leave a comment