I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: JUPITER & OKWESS-Tiny Desk Concert #784 (September 7, 2018).

Jupiter Bokondji comes from the troubled capital of Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He and his band Okwess dress in wonderfully colorful garb.  Jupiter’s jacket is practically a zoot suit with blue and white stripes on one side, a red field on the other and giant white stars  He has a big hat as well.  But he can’t hold a candle on the shirtless drummer who is wearing a red white and blue wrestling mask the whole show.

The guitarist has a beautiful patterned gold shirt with blue lapels and the percussionist in addition to wearing another cool hat has on a terrific sweater.

The band plays “the vibe of Kinshasa street musicians, that feels both African and American” and indeed, “their fierce energy here is an astonishing performance.”

Then of course there’s Congolese rumba, the popular dance music from as early as the 1940s, not too dissimilar from some Cuban music of the day. And the message of the music has been steeped in the complicated politics of the region, stumbling between chaos, anarchy and oppression.

This is urgent music … that stems from the gut but has thought and theatrics to flesh out the feelings. It’s music to be experienced. This is your entry point.

They play 3 songs each with a similar feel but with a very different sound.

“Ofakombolo” is so wonderfully catchy with the percussionist and drummer chanting the chorus on the first time around.  On the second the rest of the band sings too, for a nice harmony.  The bassist gets what sounds like a rap guest verse before playing a kind of funky bass solo.  The percussionist is great for shouts and trills animals noises, too.  The music is nonstop, propulsive and fun, with a distinctive guitar solo sound.

“Pondjo Pondjo” starts with a quiet guitar intro.  But it is joined by the drummer whistling and the percussionist pulling a string through a plastic container, making a crazy squeaky sound that works wonders as a percussive sound.  The bassist seems to be singing lead on this song (a very different voice).

 Jupiter introduces “Ekombe” by saying “Let’s go to dancing!” It opens with a funky bass line and the drummer playing a fast hi-hat beat and chanting.  It’s a very dancey with a slinky guitar line running throughout the song.  There’s a nifty breakdown in the middle which features some fun on the bass and a wild solo to end the song.

This is a wonderful introduction to Congolese music.  Stay for the end, as they end the show with a post-credits kung fu pose.

[READ: January 5, 2017] “In the Act of Falling”

Boy this was a dark, dark story.  After the last line I actually said aloud, “Jesus, Danielle, what the hell.”

This is the story of a family: a woman, her husband and their nine-year-old son, Finn.  Finn was recently suspended from school for punching a fellow student in the mouth.

They live in a an old house that they imagined fixing up but two years later even the dining room is unfinished.

Finn is in the yard setting up a volleyball net–but he is doing it sideways like a hammock.  It turns out he is setting it up to catch ducks as they fall from the sky.  Birds were the next heralders of the apocalypse.  And, she had seen that all of the ducks in St Stephen’s green were dead–all of them.  She probably shouldn’t have told Finn this, but she did.

She asks if Bill will take Finn to school since his suspension ended more than a week ago.  But he says he doesn’t want to rush anything.  Finn eats only peas and potatoes. The peas one at time and then the potatoes.

She is annoyed with Bill–it is easier  for him if Finn doesn’t go to school. Bill is unemployed and enjoys spending a lot of time with his expensive art books (a luxury his wife would love to enjoy but can’t bring herself to because of the price).

As she heads off to work she asks Finn if the preacher came buy.  Finn asks if she means Molly?  She wants to know why Finn knows her name, but he just speaks of her instead, how she looks a bit like Angelina Jolie.  She is jealous, even though she knows she shouldn’t be, but she is broken from this, thinking when he says We are living in the last of days.  He was reading from one of Molly’s pamphlets.

The next day Bill informs her that he has a job interview.  Not doing what he is qualified to do but as a museum docent. She wonders if it pays anything but doesn’t ask him.  She just encourages him to go to the interview.  She can’t take off to watch Finn, but she says she will leave a little early to make sure she’s home in time.

Unfortunately she gets home two hours late.

There is no sign of Finn so she goes into the yard to call for him.  There she encounters a strange man.  Their house abuts a housing development that was being abandoned. He says he saw Finn and he brings her to one of the abandoned houses.  She is nervous, naturally but then she seems some of Finn’s things along with the man’s things–he’d obviously been here before.  There’s also a rug in the middle of the room.

But when she gets closer she sees that the rug is a dead dog.   Jesus, Danielle.  And then the man does something horrifying to the dead dog.  Jesus, Danielle!

She screams at the man and he says that he was there this morning.  So she flees the house and calls Finn’s name.

Then she heard Finn yell joyfully.  He was down by the pond near their house.  He was waving stick around like a sword.  She was relieved until she saw that he was with someone.  It was the Bible woman whose eyes did look like Angelina Jolie’s

Molly is happy speaking of the glorious day.  She says that they come down here often when the weather is good.

She wants to yell at Molly to stay away from her son, but she can’t bring herself to.  And then her husband walks across the field towards them.

There isn’t really an ending to the story which is incredibly frustrating–the hopelessness of everything is just so bleak.  Jesus, Danielle.