Miguel– All I Want Is You- Kaleidoscope Dream (Album Review)

Miguel is not a regular Grammy-Award winning singer. His aesthetic speaks louder than his sound—a fuse of the 90s music feel and an inexplicable futuristic vibe that probably made Vibe Magazine recently brand him and Kendrick Lamar as “The New Classics.” From his sturdy creative direction, velvety voice, naughty yet catchy lyrics like [I don’t wanna be loved, I just want a quickie) to simply how he adorns and moves in the classic black trench coat in How Many Drinks? music video; it’s literally hard to point at what’s not to love about this man.

His debut album All I Want Is You, released in 2010 was pretty solid but still wasn't impressive enough for a lot music critics. I thought it was an ode to lost R&B and probably the first sign of Miguel coming to the rescue of the genre that in a few years would be overtaken by pop. Jodeci or Shai would in this decade easily produce a song like Miguel’s Teach Me—it’s lazy sexy and slurry beat echoes Jodeci’s baby-making hit Freek'N You. Only Quickie, Sure Thing and the album’s title track All I Want Is You featuring J. Cole shone, the latter’s hip hop/R&B combi pushing both artists to topping radio charts.  My stand out tracks in this album was My Piece and Girls Like You. In the latter, Miguel sings about single-hood  There’s always that guy/girl you can’t have but will always remind you that you’re lonely. Here, his electric guitarist delivers a stellar recording. Sure Thing is my all-time favorite Miguel song, also from this album. [Love you like a brother, treat you like a friend, respect you like a lover … this love is a sure thing]. I appreciate the poetry in this masterpiece.

In early 2012, Miguel released Art Dealer Chic Vol 1 & 2 EPs. The six-tracked two-part record birthed songs like Adorn and Gravity that would later feature in his sophomore album Kaleidoscope Dream, released later in the year ( September). The album’s first single Adorn went on win him many fans and the 2013 Grammy Award for R&B Song.

It’s a dream come true to find an album like Kaleidoscope Dream that needs no skip-a-track dial. The vocal arrangements in its title track Kaleidoscope Dream give the listener a whimsical and smooth welcoming into the album’s experience. I like that here Adorn was given the entirety it deserves. The first Adorn off the EP was only two minutes long and ends even without a bridge. Anyway, Adorn has probably one of the sickest kicks I ever heard and it’s just cute for anyone to say, “Let my love adorn you.” Other Must-Listens in this album include Do You (whose video’s love interest is Miguel’s actual girlfriend Nadia –sweet), The Thrill and Where’s The Fun In Forever? (Miguel originally wrote this song for Alicia Keys and took it back when it didn’t fit into her Girl On Fire album) that features Alicia Keys only shouting “Music Break” at the rear end—bizarre doesn’t start to explain this collaboration that never really was.

How Many Drinks? 4.33

This song slowly overtook my love for Adorn as my best Miguel song off the new album. I just like its feel-good vibe and story line. Here, Miguel wears the shoes of a man in the club and in need of a lay. Unlike the old trick of buying a woman gallons of vodka, he sings [How many drinks will it take for you to go home with me? I don’t want to waste your time or my time] The message in this song is deep. I am not championing picking girls or men in the club but the policy that when you want something, whatever it may be—go for it! [I aint’ judging if you decide that you might be f* tonight] How Many Drinks? Remix featuring Kendrick Lamar is a fantastic marriage and its video –clean, classy and classic! (Check that alliteration am ill

Pussy Is Mine 3.13

I just want to know why R&B lovers crucified Brian McKnight for singing about pussy yet Miguel’s pussy song wasn’t jeered at all. It must be an age thing. It just sounds wrong singing about pussy in your 40s but which girl wouldn’t want the sexy 28-year-old Miguel singing raunchy things into her ear? I love that the naughtiest song had to be the only acoustic song in Miguel’s entire discography and absolutely hate that I sometimes find myself singing it out loud [Tell me that pussy is mine]. Do guys actually go around saying, “That P* is mine?”

Candles In The Sun 4.56

A lot of good and bad things alike happen in life; while some happen around, others are miles away. But we are brought together by the power of media and music to know of gang rapes in Syria, illegal drug trafficking in Mexico, foreign house helps being mistreated in Dubai, Kony marshaling child soldiers in Uganda and our own country’s inequality among worldly events. This song is about such times. It equates humans to silly creatures that light candles in the sun, blowing in the wind. Miguel sings [If there’s a God is He watching? Is She watching? If not, where are we going? What are we doing? … They say that we are all created equal but that’s not how we treat each other… When the sun goes down, heroes are shot; will it be too late to find out?]

BONUS: “May we all live long, may we all be brave. And the bridges we burned only light our way,” Miguel. I just reviewed Miguel’s entire discography in one post. Biggest Kenyan fan.

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin- Louis de Berniéres (Book Review)

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is an extremely comedic yet awfully emotional story about love, war and music. Set in the mid 20^th century during the World War, Berniéres first introduces the reader to the beautiful abyss of the Cephalonian Greek Island, where Dr. Iannis, also a budding literary resides with his lovely daughter Pelagia, an extraordinary cook whose secret wish is to one day, even if just a teensy bit, be a doctor like her father.

She gets engaged to a fisherman Mandras, the first man who makes her swing her hips unconsciously in foolish young love. Soon he joins the army as a non-partisan Greek in a war mainly between the Italians and Germans in the hope of returning to his fiancée as a hero, and not just a poor fisherman. Unfortunately, the man returns affected by the war—sick, enraged and psychopathic. It’s only the island’s cloud of aroma from preparations for Easter’s scrumptious feast that get Mandras out of bed and into lighting a candle and rejoining believers in a holy march, during which both his mother and Pelagia wonder inwardly, if indeed Mandras has also risen like the Christ. After the ceremony, the man goes back to his old crazy and helpless self. During Pelagia’s stay with her man, she finds out that illiteracy hindered him from reading any of the love letters she had sent him during his time in the war. Just as Mandras is coaxing Pelagia to read to him old letters, some of which their intent and heart had since changed, Italian soldiers invade the island—a relief for Pelagia who then thanks heavens and runs away in realization that she’s fallen out of love with Mandras, who then finally rises and heads back to war. Oh the satire.

The Italian invaders chose Dr. Iannis house for their Captain, also a mandolin player Antonio Corelli mainly because the doctor happens to be one of the best Italian-speaking Greeks in the island. The uninvited but noble guest is forever embarrassed by having led this invasion, and even further by displacing Pelagia from her own bed as directed by her father so as to get medicinal supplies in exchange. Corelli spends most of his free time alone with Antonia, his mandolin. He’s mostly dreaming of being a musician while playing and composing songs for Pelagia, who shyly notices. The captain even recruits his officers to sing in his La Scala band, whose memorable times would include singing out loud together with Corelli’s mandolin by the sea and outside the doctor’s house on silent nights.

When the war erupts, two lovers are caught between race, history and allegiances. It’s hard enough to keep alive during war, let alone being in love with an invader. When the Germans invade the invaders, the island becomes crippled as Corelli and his officers face a firing squad. Carlo, one of the captain’s men shields him from the firing bullets with his gigantic body and empowered by the memoir of his long-lost unrequited love, Francesco, a former fallen soldier and ally. The doctor and Pelagia then save Corelli’s life afresh in a night-long surgery with hardly any equipment and medicine apart from a pittance and the captain’s mandolin strings, which the doctor uses to sew up his broken ribs. And would forever be part of his ribs. The captain is forced to flee the island for safety after he and Pelagia promise each other life-long marriage after the war. The now accomplished world musician never returned for at least another 40 years when he coincidentally meets a boy, Pelagia’s grandson Iannis playing [his] old savior Antonia, also after which the boy’s mother was named.

This book is an inspiration that life doesn’t have to be inclined on either side. Whether or not in war, love or music, we are part of history and should make the best of it in the time we have. Long before the war, Corelli complements a woolen colored coat that Pelagia was making for Mandras as “a masterpiece”, even though the owner had just rejected it citing asymmetry. “The human heart likes a little disorder in its geometry,” says the captain who let his rifle rust, and even lost it once or twice, but still won battles armed with nothing but a mandolin. If there were no arms or machines in the world and we had to go to war, what would be your only cover? Maybe not a mandolin or anything as sophisticated, but Louis de Berniéres reminds us all that sometimes to fight the biggest of war, it’s the seemingly most irrelevant things and people around us that will mostly save us.

BONUS: Quote from Carlo, “If there was only some way of contriving that a state or an army should be made up of lovers and their loves, they would be the very best governors of their own city, abstaining from all dishonor, and emulating one another in honor; and when fighting at one another’s side, although a mere handful, they would overcome the world. For what lover would not choose rather to be seen by all mankind than his beloved, either when abandoning his post or throwing away his arms? He would be ready to die a thousand deaths rather than endure this.”

To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee (Book Review)

Set in a fictional town, Maycomb County in the 1930s, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is an extraordinarily powerful book essentially about how one’s life is influenced by upbringing and society as a whole, and how [that] affects one’s view on bias, in this case—racism and societal segregation.

The book’s utter beauty lies in its narration by 9-year-old Scout Jean Louise, the assertive tomboy daughter of Atticus Finch, a white lawyer faced with the challenge of balancing single-parenthood and a demanding profession. Through Scout’s eyes, the reader walks inside her world revolving around her family [comprising her father, elder teenage brother Jem Finch and their nanny Calpurnia (a Negro)], school and how the conscious of a town affects [her own].

Atticus has developed a strong relationship with his kids; so much that they call him Atticus or Sir (in dire situations), hardly ever Dad. The lawyer, an avid reader and man of wisdom encourages his children to always remain impartial in a world full of people with different opinions, preferences and beliefs. “If you can learn a simple trick, you’ll get around better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view,” he advises his daughter after a rough first day at school, words that haunt Scout up until an incident that happens to her later in life, becomes an embodiment of her father’s counsel.

When Atticus takes on a case to defend a black man charged with the rape of a white girl, Scout and Jem are ostracized by neighbors, kids at school and even extended family, all calling their father a ‘nigger lover’. Scout confronts her father wanting to know what it means and if he [really is one]. He says, “Ignorant, trashy people use the term when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes over and above themselves. It’s slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody. I certainly am a nigger lover. I do my best to love everybody … It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.”

The case of a white man defending a black man is unheard of in Maycomb County. It’s an intriguing court battle that brings together a people in a battle of the better color instead of what should have been justice. In a case closely followed by citizens entangled in group think, it’s no surprise that Atticus’ children come out among few souls in the town neutral to the case.

To Atticus, it’s not a crime to be of whatever race, color, belief or association, and nobody should counter what you stand for. When he gets his children air rifles as gifts, it’s the first time Scout hears her father say that it’s a crime to do something—to kill a mockingbird. She asks Miss Maudie (a neighbor) about it. “Mocking birds make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird,”she says.

While Atticus Finch defends Maycomb’s real mockingbird, the county’s deep-rooted racial differences, hypocrisy and sycophancy is exposed. Atticus is criticized for defending a nigger and ironically still celebrated as Maycomb’s top attorney. Regardless, his initial worry is his integrity and what will be left of it for his children to emulate or despise after the case (which later takes an unexpected turn).

To Kill a Mockingbird’s key message is skillfully packaged in subtle humor. As the book celebrates its 50^th anniversary this decade, it still transcends generations and societies. Harper Lee gave the world a timeless and beguiling book that unchains Django and ultimately, inspires readers to reason beyond society’s group think mentality. We are reminded to respect songs of those who sing, even though we might not dance to their tunes. For in one way or the other, we are all mockingbirds flying and singing, sometimes dreaming that someone will listen, but mostly hoping that we’ll live to be heard.

BONUS: The character of Atticus in the book has been humanized by many over the decades, and when some felt like the lawyer has passed on, his legacy never did. The book, his epitaph and tribute always remain celebrated—whose words remain to be among the most shared in this generation. Read Atticus Obituary here.

11 QUOTES from Living to Tell the Tale, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I recently bumped into some quotes I compiled from Living to Tell the Tale, a book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez also posted a book review on the same last year and surprisingly forgot about the quotes, well till I found them. So, here are my best 11, enjoy

1. “What you need is a good woman.” For my brother Abelardo, there were no problems in life that could not be reserved in bed.

2. “If this bed were the academy and you were the student, I’d be number one not only in class but in the whole school,” An adolescence Gabriel to his cougar lover (who was a teacher by profession).

3. I do not know what in fact I learnt from my captivity in the Liceo Nacional (elementary school), but the four years of harmonious coexistence with everyone instilled a unitary vision of the nation in me. I discovered how diverse we were and what we were good for, and I learnt and never forgot that the entire country was in fact the sum total of each one of us.

4. Bored with studying, I left everything to the mercy of chance. The reality was that I did not understand why I had to sacrifice my talents and my time on courses that did not move me and therefore would be of no use to me in a life that was not mine.

5. “If poetry does not make my blood run faster, open sudden windows for me onto the mysterious, help me discover the world, accompany this desolate heart in solitude and in love, in joy and in enmity, what good is poetry to me?”—a poem by one of Gabriel’s acquaintances.

6. Stealing books is a crime but not a sin.

7. Today, trying to recount my past days, I do not find them in my recollection, and I have come to believe more in forgetting than in memory.

8. I discovered the miracle that all things that sound are music, including the dishes and the silverware in the dishwasher, as long as they fulfill the illusion of showing us where life is headed.

9. In 1953, March 6 I would be twenty-seven years old. In the midst of the good wishes of my friends, I felt ready to devour raw the seventy-three I still had left before I celebrated the first hundred.

10. We did not use a tape recorder. They had just been invented and the best ones were as large and heavy as a typewriter, and the magnetic tape would tangle like angel-hair candy. Transcription alone was a great feat. Even today we know that recorders are very useful for remembering, but the face of the person interviewed must never be neglected, for it can say much more than the voice, and at times just the opposite.

11. There are books that do not belong to the person who writes them but to the one who suffers them, and this is one of them,” of his book, Memoirs of a Shipwrecked Sailor.

Soul sister Erykah Badu rocks Nairobi

Erykah Badu loves her personal space. While at her exclusive press conference at Sankara hotel in Kenya, she first requests to move back the dozen microphones on the table staring closely at her. “Hi Nairobi, hello, how’s everyone doing?” The presence of the queen of neo soul in the room is overwhelming, so much that nobody greets her back, at first. It’s 3pm, about 14 hours since her arrival in the country and four hours since the cancellation of her first press conference. But despite jet lag and sleepiness that she confesses to fighting, Ms Badu looks pretty well rested. When the moderator opens the floor for questions, it’s not a fist-fight as you would expect, everyone seems to be intimidated—I am. But as soon as the soft-spoken singer starts to chat, the air around the room becomes more conducive.

She immediately states that music and performance is therapy to her. “Music is almost like the fifth element, it brings about emotion and change in many ways. Its frequency is specific; each note has its own vibration that can be measured. I write lyrics according to what the music makes me feel.”

Erykah is also a songwriter, actor, director, producer and activist—a personification of artistry. From her 90s turban, long dresses and Afros to now—long flowing and kinky hair easy-going with vintage hats; her image has evolved over the years. Erykah’s brass African-map-shaped ring stands out in her fashionable ensemble of cobalt pajama-esque pants, a navy blue top, and numerous humongous wooden bangles. “My taste in humor, fashion, music and film are all in the same category. I like to hear what I like to feel and see, I just gravitate towards things that I get attracted to aesthetically, it’s the art of creating an experience for people to share”, she says. Her music is however unmoved, she’s remained consistent, versatile and unparalleled— almost like she’s has always been in her own world.

The next day at exactly 9.15 pm at Carnivore gardens, Erykah gets on stage. From hard stepping hip hop to mellow sounds, Erykah is a fierce and fearless vocalist/performer. She’s also playing an electronic drum kit in a crazy dance-set with her band. Constantly sipping from her little thermos flask what could be water or vodka or whatever, that nevertheless fires her up at every sip. “At the back! What the fuck you looking at!?” She engages the audience who roar back at her. She sings out loud mixing cussing words with banter, unrelated. Here, she’s self-assured and at home.

I finally get the balls to shoot a question at Ms Badu on her connection to the motherland.

“My first connection to Africa is because about three generations back my family was brought to America from Africa. As Africans living in America, it’s hard to trace our roots so we have to sometimes create our own history, communities and tribes to identify with. Because our birth right is not in place we want to belong to Africa in some kind of way.” Erykah is also involved with the Kemetic community (the study of Egyptian writings) which influenced her stage name. Originally named Erica after a famous soap opera star of the 70s, soon after becoming a recording artist, she changed her name’s suffix to Kah (The inner self that cannot be contaminated). “I wanted to have a name that would have some kind of vibrational frequency that could connect me to my past and future. Badu means 10th born in Ghana, I don’t know why I am [one] but we’ll find out, I am still evolving and creating every day.”

Erykah is also a doula (an assistant to a birthing mother). And she equates birth of life to music. “As a doula I have to be like water, always out-of-the-way to help. But when am on stage am a different kind of servant, I am the mother and the audience is helping me give birth.” On stage, she feeds off the audience’s energy and seems taken a back at Nairobians serenading most of her songs word-for-word. This is where she gives her all. Her typical raspy voice suddenly sounds like three soul singers in one and still manages to outshine her two powerful vocalists paired with her tight six-man band—in a good way. When the ‘Badu, Badu, Badu!’ rhythmic chant overwhelms Erykah, she asks each member of the audience to yell out their own names instead. “What? Are you afraid to scream out your name?” She prods.

It’s a two-hour long concert (non-stop) that sees Erykah, after every couple of minutes shed something. From her shawl, socks to heels—period. When she performs Window Seat, nobody is certain she won’t drop more clothes. She doesn’t.

“Window seat video was performance art and nudity always played a big part in it because [it] demonstrates the bareness of the subject. My issue was group think, which affects all spheres of life from politics to media. I shot the video is Dallas as at the site where JFK was assassinated. As I took each step I eliminated a piece of clothing that represented a thought or something I had learnt forcefully or not here on the planet and as I was totally nude—I was assassinated. In America nudity is grossly misunderstood when it’s not packaged for the consumption of men, I hope a lot of people got the point but if they didn’t, they don’t have to, you cannot censor art.”

My best moment at the concert is her performance of Gone baby gone and Bag Lady. The drum and electric guitar provide a sultry bouncy beat—that deep neo soul. When performing Love of my life (An ode to Hip Hop), her  collaboration with former boyfriend Common, she glows like a woman in love. Should have asked her to pass over Common’s number or Andre’s. WTF.

The four-time Grammy award-winning singer has five albums. Her first album (Baduizim) came out in February 1997. Her second album Live came out the same year  in November. The same day her son was born. “I spent the whole of my first pregnancy working at the beginning of my career; I had to breast feed and create a home on the tour bus. I know no music business without my children,” says the mother of three.

Her last song Call Tyrone leaves an absolute sense of satisfaction. She’s incessantly chanting ‘peace’ and bids a gratified crowd goodbye displaying with her hands heliograph signs for love and peace. The undisputed queen of neo soul doubles up as queen of the night. She exits. It’s just a few minutes to midnight: 12.12.12, Kenya’s 49^th Independence Day.

For more info: www.erykah-badu.com

Living to Tell the Tale, Gabriel Garcia Marquez [Book Review]

From Sucre to Aracataca, I’ve been to Colombia (solely via reading Living to Tell the Tale). The temperatures were almost always high above measure and occasionally the insomniac rain, if not storm, hit hard just to boast of immensity. But even then, men and women in long rain coats and fancy hats walked down the streets, protected by divine intervention, even more than their perfectly round-shaped umbrellas.

More than anything, this book brings out the ingenious grit and wit with which Colombians treasure Spanish, great writers and utmost—the power of literature. “The greatest invention of all must surely be writing. Despite its complicated early systems, anyone learnt it. The reason revealed in the ancient Egyptian scribal-training texts which emphasize the superiority of being a scribe over all other career choices. The earliest scribes understood that literacy was power—a power that now extends to most humanity, and has done more for human progress than any other invention,” writes Tom Standage for Intelligent Life, in the debate—what’s the greatest invention of all time?

The magic in this book, Gabriel being the unparalleled fiction writer and literature’s father of magical realism, lies in the tales of his real life, that shaped the creative writer and journalist he became. A powerful lesson is that, we can spend years, and time traveling in search of ourselves while what we were searching for all along was right home inside of us only needing to be triggered. Gabriel unexpectedly, finally finds the inspiration he’d been searching for, to write and be his own man, in his childhood memories (which he recounts candidly, from breaking his virginity to a whore to being prescribed ‘less reading’ as medicine when his life-long suffering from insomnia began at the age of twelve) when the then budding journalist, in his twenties, accompanies his mother on a journey back to their native. “My mother asked me to go with her to sell the house,” the first sentence in the first chapter.

If you are familiar with Gabriel’s works, this book’s utter beauty is in the encounters that inspired and shaped his thought process while writing his books, some of which top among the world’s best books of all time including One Hundred Years of Solitude—which he makes a shocking revelation about here. Gabriel writes about his brother, “Yiyo in the most difficult years of poverty became a writer and journalist by sheer hard work. He died at the age of fifty-four, almost not enough time to publish a book of more than 600 pages of masterful research into the secret life of One Hundred Years of Solitude, which he had worked on for years without my knowing about it and even making a direct inquiry of me.” My copy of Gabriel’s One Hundred Years of Solitude has 422 pages. Did he get some excerpts from his brother’s? It’s not mentioned, so we’ll probably never know. But did his brother inspire him? I believe so.

Some mind-blowing discoveries include the revelation of the origin of Gabriel’s imaginations, so real, like Macondo (a famous fictional magical town often existing in his novels). Also as interesting is the fact that Gabriel’s parents’ previously forbidden love inspired the premise of his book Love in the Time of Cholera— the unconventional love story of an old couple Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza, who were able to still fall in love in their olden days after their cat and mouse cataclysm that lasted half a century. When [his] grandparents finally permitted [his] parents to get married, Gabriel says [their] story was no longer captivating so to prolong and remodel his book’s characters he got inspired by the story of an old couple murdered on a deck (a case he encountered during his journalism days). To him, fascinating was the fact that the victims were at the time of death both married to different partners. FYI, Love in the Time of Cholera’s last scene is on a deck where Florentina and Fermina, old, are finally together, free from their former partners and falling in love. Anew.

It’s alleged that Gabriel locked himself in for over two years recalling and researching on [his] life whilst writing Living to Tell the Tale (his latest publication first out in 2002) in fear of looming death, right after his battle with lymphatic cancer. He writes, “While talking to papa about the difficulty many writers had in writing their memoirs when they could no longer remember anything, Cuqui, just six years old, drew the conclusion with masterful simplicity: he said, ‘The first thing a writer ought to write is his memoirs, when he can still remember everything’.”

At the point at which this memoir ends, Gabriel has risen from grass to grace and is now able to support his family. The bachelor sets on a trip to France for an international conference. The trip which was meant to take a few weeks eventually saw him stay there for a few years. At [it’s] onset he jokingly writes a letter to Mercedes, the woman he had been exchanging letters and pleasantries with, “This was not meant to be more than five lines to give her official notice of my trip. I signed it: ‘If I do not receive an answer to this letter within a month, I’ll stay and live in Europe forever.’ It was Friday. On Thursday of the following week, when I walked into the hotel in Geneva at the end of another useless day of international disagreements, I found her letter of reply.” That’s the last sentence in Living to Tell the Tale.

Mercedes waited years for Gabriel, who later married her. They have two sons.

By the time the book ends, none of Gabriel’s acclaimed books have been published, only his first novel ‘Leaf Storm’ which Gabriel (who BTW studied law under his father’s duress) highly recounts as his best expression and most honest to date. I have to find that book. Explains why Living to Tell the Tale was meant to be the first of a trilogy of Gabriel’s self-authored biographies but could sadly turn out to have been the last of his new works as Gabriel now suffers from dementia caused by the intensive cancer treatment. His brother J’aime whom in this book, he shared an affectionate relationship with says (via the Guardian UK), “Gabriel has problems with his memory. Sometimes I cry because I feel like I am losing him.”

At the finale, the man, who would years later, win the prestigious Nobel Peace prize of literature, has just discovered his calling for writing but still, is in search of himself. On the way to the airport now a well-respected writer in his country, Gabriel bumps into one of the porters from his former office who then asks, “What I don’t understand Gabriel is why you never told me who you are.” He answers, “I couldn’t tell because even I don’t know who I am yet.”

In essence, this book is about the struggle to find oneself, one’s art and path in a world filled with responsibilities and expectations.I pray that Gabriel writes again. If he doesn’t, I’ll still be happy he lived to tell tales and part of [his] tale. All that inspired me a whole load. The book is really deep and humanizes the legendary Gabriel Garcia Marquez making him that light-hearted vagabond and carousing yet insightful soul we all need to befriend. So much, sometimes I shed a few tears while reading it (Shhh … don’t tell anyone) that took me about five months—during which, my own life transformed a lot in many ways. It’s almost as if I was reading on his journey while I was on one myself. Heck, aren’t we all on one anyway?

BONUS: Living to Tell the Tale’s prologue, “Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it.”

Tuning into Channel Orange: Frank Ocean

Frank Ocean is no stranger to murky waters. Prodded by Hurricane Katrina from his native New Orleans, he moved to L.A to pursue a career in music. After experiencing waves with record labels, he broke out solo in 2011 releasing his debut, Nostalgia Ultra (NU), a mixtape. Its critical acclaim was a show for Ocean swimming good into genres broader than R&B/hip hop.

Delving deeper, Frank recently came out (labeling himself neither gay or bisexual) in an open letter via hisTumblr blog, declaring that a man was indeed his first love, amidst girlfriends and confusion. While some critics took the lackadaisical confession as uncalled for, a myriad of celebrities including Mama Blue Ivy, Jermaine Dupri and Russell Simmons showed their support. And Frank was well above his strokes at the verge of unleashing his official debut album cum sophomore effort; Channel Orange (CO) released in July 2012.

Half the time, there’s nothing (or nobody) like your first. So to speak, CO is rather a guaranteed will-fall-in-love-with album; as opposed to NU’s love-at-first-listen gift but nonetheless a befitting sequel, once again displaying Frank as an effortless juggler of innovative sounds, poetic lyricism and emotions running nude.

2. Thinking about you 03.20

This alluring entrée into the album is served with a falsetto that would put Usher to shame. The poignant composition is a quest of a carrier of love un-returned seeking THE answer, “Do you not think so far ahead? Coz I’ve been thinking about forever”. I heard so many covers of this song before this original version, and I’ve come to a conclusion that all other singers should be banned from it with immediate effect because only Frank killed it straight up that nothing was left.

7. Super Rich Kids feat Earl Sweatshirt 05.04

From big cars, money to drugs and servants, this is a story of the lives of super rich kids, laden with a heavy R&B beat, complete with a slurry hook, a melodic incarnation of Mary J’s chorus to Real Love. Earl’s lazy flow rap is the kind of stuff you want to be high on all year round. Sick collabo!

10. Pyramids 09.52

Half split into dance and dub step, respectively, this track is definitely a favorite! Also making for a serious club banger! The song is a weird yet beautiful lyrical journey starring Cleopatra as the stripper and the cheetahs; an analogy for ‘hungry’ men. They are set loose but her legion still stands tall as she’s working at the pyramids, a place where she makes many (including him) feel brand new and loved, though not for free. Someone please tell Frank to write me a book on poems. BTW the vocal arrangement in this one is the album’s most outstanding!

11. Lost 03.54

Certified iPod banger! Frank sings about love lost. The song is a mirror to the many worthless pursuits of the world. Like being hopeless in love with a girl who could never care that she was overweight more than unemployed, or her sightless thrills, even if urged to modify. Miami, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Spain, L.A, India or Kenya, wherever in the world, she’d still be lost and so would he, in the heat of it all, he sings.

Ok. I admit I added Kenya to that list. Nway the ad-libs on this one make me want to get so freaking lost that Frank would just serenade me back into my senses if not into his life. I mean I kinda have a model figure & a job too Something’s gotta give!

14. Bad Religion 02.55

‘If it brings me to my knees it’s a bad religion’.

The embodiment of short & sweet and probably the most beautifully written song I’ve heard since I can remember. It’s paradoxical twist will get to you if you listen keenly.  The song is a one-way verbal diarrhea at a taxi driver, the last resort to getting out burning emotions of love unrequited, a one-man cult, he sings. And after all that confession, the driver only said to him, ‘Allah Hu Akbar’.

It’s human nature that we nearly if not entirely worship those we truly love, even when they don’t return back the favor. Those un-reciprocating gods account for millions of followers of a bad religion (what Frank equates to being in love with someone who could never love you). He’s actually singing about [his] first love here. Did you cringe? I did, but probably for a different reason. The last 30 secs of his ad-libbing is the most heartfelt thing I’ve ever heard from Frank making me think of only two things I want to do: Kiss & Love Frank Ocean. I mean who could never love this man, and make him sad? Also this is the kind of song with two extremes, you either dig or not. And it’s true, we’ve all been in a bad religion, at least once.

15. Pink Matter feat Andre 3000

If you weren’t already acquitted to Frank Ocean, Pink Matter is by far the closest this album has channeled him back to the brilliance of NU. From Frank’s poetically jotted lyrics about a quest to know what lies beneath every matter (be it heart, a box or body), his sweet revarb-ing vocals, to Andre’s inexplicable rap/vocal prowess, this track is Frank’s best collaborative effort so far.

The complete Channel Orange has 17 tracks,  including must-listens like Forrest Gump and the guitaresque Sweet Life. I have new-found respect for Frank’s honest expression through his music. Away from fame and fortune or whatever else could come out of this, Frank is a beacon of redemption for any person ostracized for whoever or whatever they loved or stood for. For love is love. And music makes the world go round. And if anyone can’t understand that, then they should jump into an ocean already. I recommend Channel Orange, just be prepared for a good swim.

For more info dive into frankocean.com

BONUS: Check out this 9 minute interview of Frank talking about creativity, inspiration and how he appreciated his first chance to write his own songs for NU.

F_ck love! Introducing Kameron Corvet.

Contemporary RnB/soul fused in eclectic soft rock, best describes songs in Kameron Corvet’s new mixtape titled ‘F_ck Love’, released in February 2012. With a falsetto comparable to The Dream’s and some of that raw Frank Ocean lyricism and inexplicable genius, Kameron shows love the finger while sitting on its proverbial fence. The EP is a confession of rollercoaster love; from gooey heartbreak songs to egotistic flirtations and sexual show offs, it really is a hot whirlwind–begging the question, what’s love?

Must you fall to be in love? Must you lose yourself in love? Wait, must you love? That warm fuzzy feeling … is it love? ‘Fuck it, fuck love!’ You’ve probably said that once, twice or maybe never, but it’s highly likely that you’ve once had the secret dream to love or be loved, silently and peacefully.

2. Legends of the fall 03.32

Replay material. Great neosoul track. I loved how the guitars are laden by the hauntingly funky drums from The Gap Band’s, ‘Outstanding’ or if you remember better, Soul For Real’s ‘Every Little Thing I Do.’ He’s spotted a hot girl whose spotted a hot man, him. But she won’t fall into his arms because she’s heard of his bad reputation. And now she won’t pick up his call. I love this one because being a fine brother isn’t reason enough for a girl to be with a man.

3. Good Habits 04.10

This one a very beautiful song. The acoustic rock guitar in it makes me imagine Joss Stone or Alex Pelzer doing its cover. The story is about a man in desperate need for his estranged lover–a bad habit turned good, a fixture he can’t live without. ‘Tell me the secret to your love’ He sings. This one is a show of his splendid songwriting skills.

4. Sign Ur Name 04.08

Another replay material. Upbeat yet mellow, really love the guitars. Would you rather sign your name on the marriage certificate or across one’s heart? Oh the rhetoric. This is a song of a man distressed over the insecurity that his lady is cheating. He even sings in French (very sexy) that every other hour and minute, ‘Je pense a toi’. If Kameron marries me, I will sign his name, anywhere and everywhere, even across Nairobi city

5. Snap Out of It 03.27

This song is effortlessly soulful, and definitely one of my favourites. ‘Don’t you love the way I do you?’ The opening line with the undeniable Musiq Soulchild swag. It’s groovy sound and straight-up talk renders it a great RnB/quiet storm radio hit. He sings, ‘I can’t be the good guy and the bad guy at the same time, you’ve got to make up your mind.’ Relationships aren’t always a walk in the park, we all know that. One day it’s cold and another it’s hot. The wrong partner sometimes turns out to have been the right one and vice versa. Kameron’s one wish is for her to just, ‘Snap out of it’.

7. F_ck Love 05.05

The deep lyricism and acoustic lead guitar in this one can make you jizz! Eargasm doesn’t even start to describe this sound. For the EP title track, Kameron did a lot of justice to this song. ‘I can be honest, i don’t know where i am going. At this point I hardly know where I’ve been’.  You can feel his emotions of a conflicted love. An assertion that love can be evil, but a necessary one at that. I enjoyed the song’s verses melody better than the chorus and hook.

You won’t find a lot of Kameron Corvet’s info on Google, so for the record, I am highly rating this singer/songwriter and producer. Having gone by the stage name Jonz in his earlier career, he’s to date released two albums, Sayingthings and Korporate Rockstar. I think I like him better as Corvet. Well, despite love lost or meager lust, F_ck Love’s 7 songs will leave you with a lasting good feeling; for somewhere in this big bad world lies some good love, for you, and me too To listen/ download the free EP check  www.kameroncorvet.com

BONUS: The video to F_uck Love

Get ‘Back To Love,’ sings Anthony Hamilton.

With a voice unshakable and unmistakable, Anthony Hamilton’s singing can make even the blind see. At least his soul. He’s the deeper John Legend. They both share what I love to call the ‘church voice’–a matchless ability of fusing soul and spirituality in their music in a way appealing to both the gospel and secular music industry.

R&B has been drowning and seeking help since the start of the new millennium. Starting 2003 Anthony has been playing his part in the rescue mission. ‘Back To Love’ is his fifth album released in December 2011. I already fell for it head over heels, thanks M and now more than ever am convinced that the last sign of the apocalypse will be the halt of Anthony Hamilton’s animate lyricism and soul.

‘Back To Love’ is a show of his steady commitment to soul music. To consistently come out in honesty as he does and still be accepted and applauded in a decade hungry for trashy Riri and Maybach music-ego rappers is what I adore most about Anthony. A family man married with kids Vs Grammy award winning singer with a clean-cut image–his double stance is suave.

‘Who’s loving you’, is a man’s in-depth chat with the planets in pursuit of finding out why the love of his life is with someone else. Other songs in the album include praise to women, an account of self realization and prayer to God–most of which are packaged in an upbeat tempo. The dozen songs are a great party-or-kick-off-your-shoes-and-relax-your-feet compilation. Babyface co-writes and produces three of which deliver part of the album’s contemporary soul reminiscent of the 90’s musical thunder.

1. Back to love 3.20

R&B and neo soul at its best, this is a beautiful title track entrée. Most of us have experienced stormy relationships. In this song Anthony sings about one that needs God’s intervention for restoration. “How will we get us back to love? I want us to fall in love again,” he sings. Really love that Maxwell jazzy-quiet storm feel in this one. If you still have left the tiniest of hope in falling in love, again–this one is for you.

2. Writing on the wall 3.26

Contemporary R&B bordering on a hip hop beat spiced up with some horns, this one will make you bop your head and do a little jig. A continuation to the first song’s story, it’s a man’s assertion in rising above his fear of not loving. His relationship’s wall is jumbled mostly by people talking so he sings, “I don’t wanna listen, as I am grown and it’s my life.” If you ever had haters who couldn’t stand seeing you happy with someone, this is for you. Fuck what they say, only thing you should hear is your heart.

3. Woo 3.16

Oh this is a hard stepping killer, replay everyday baby! Every ensemble in it makes me believe that the babe Anthony is singing about was sure fly as hell. “I aint’ never seen a girl so bad, it feels so good,” he sings–witty pickup line if you ask me fellas Here I applaud Babyface for honoring the 90’s music feel. With a slightly slower tempo Woo’s spirit is inversely proportional to Earth, Wind & Fire’s ‘I love music.’

4. Pray for me 4.39

Another Babyface classic. I like the story. A man distraught after breaking up with his lady sings a prayer to God asking him to simply bring her back. I hated hearing Babyface in the BGV’s because his identifiable voice suddenly makes it sound like he was featuring in the track. When solely producing records Babyface and JD need to shut their mouths. Great song altogether, there are situations when nothing else is left to say other than a prayer. Really love where Hamilton sings, “If you take me back I will be so good even Oprah would be jealous!”

Other songs include the SEXY Jill Scott-ish-groovy-sounds of ‘Best of me’, a serenade to a beloved marveling at the power of sharing life’s litu pleasures. ‘Never let go’ feat Keri Hilson is a fantastic duo yet a waste of the album’s only chance of a collabo. Keri’s crispy flat voice doesn’t complement Anthony’s. If I had to pick candidates for this spot it would be Melanie Fiona or Beyonce. It’s somewhat awkward that the album’s certified baby making jam ‘I’ll wait for you to fall in love’ has an abstinence theme. Que-ce qui’il ya ici?

12. Life has a way 4.13

This song is a distant relative to ‘Salt’ by Lizz Wright. Smooth jazz marking a beautiful finale and my best song in the album. I appreciated it’s message and soul. Antony takes the persona of a man who just found his life’s meaning. He sings that after thinking he knew it all he still found out that there is more room to grow as, “life humbles you down”. The message in this one is universal and simply an emphasis on always remaining humble, no matter what. I am down for Antony’s work of genius. This album will either help you get back to love or uphold the live-and-love-life policy. Enjoy!

BONUS: Anthony reveals the inspiration behind my favourite song, turns out he has a special spot for it too

Winyo croons of ‘Benga Blues’

Best things in life are free. 98% of that statement is true, see in 2009 I had never heard of Rateng’ band. So a ‘free of charge’ sign on their concert cum album launch poster was what bought me in. At the end of the night I got myself the band’s debut album, ‘Thumology’. Little did i know that simply tucking it into my bag was the start of what would become my insatiable love for their music and certainly a voracious one for the band’s then composer and lead vocalist’s music–Winyo.

Over two years later and he still sounds crispy-good. Now an accomplished singer/songwriter and guitarist, Winyo has had successful international tours and recognition as the only Kenyan & two-time finalist in the Radio France Internationale (RFI) Discoveries Music Awards.

‘Benga Blues’ is Winyo’s solo debut–an album oozing a rich display of his love for Benga. Singing in Luo, Swahili and Kikuyu, you will additionally hear loads of the bass guitar fused in acoustic sounds of Taarab, R&B and Jazz. I am lucky to have gotten a sneak copy of the album from Winyo last year. Trust me, it’s great, smooth and relaxing–my mum loves it! I haven’t seen us jointly enjoy an album like this–well since Sauti Sol, Whitney, Billy Ocean and Skeeter Davis. To all those who don’t comprehend much of Luo, chill out. If you can jam to the likes of Diogal and Lokua Kanza, trust me Winyo is right for you.

1. Odongo 3.24

Upbeat and beautiful acoustic opening to the album. This is a confessional song to a beloved called Odongo. Winyo takes the persona of a woman in love with this man to an obsessive extent of always singing songs of him. Even while brewing tea and fetching water by the river.

2. Nakupenda 6.32

Definitely a favourite. The bare mix of shakers, acoustic drums and piano in verse one creates for an alluring intro. This is again a song to a darling saying, “Look inside you, when you realize that I love you–you will love me back.” Some serious mind-fucking-love right there.

3. Gari Teri 7.00 ( The car will take you)

This is real Benga, also a killer cover to Rateng’ Band’s original. All the guitars seem to be outdoing themselves in this one. Love Winyo’s incessant chants, ‘Romna romna baby’ in Luo means ‘receive me baby.’ This is a wise song dedicated to all ladies, single or hitched. It cautions that one day you will get into a car and leave your home to another one–marriage. Never forget that a home must be built under the foundation of respect and humility, even in the face of shortcomings. The song’s two climaxes render it very danceable at a live gig. Saliva would go all ape on this one–hell i would dance and shout to this on top of a roof top!

5. Nya Chula 7.07

There is a place called Chula so Nya Chula is a lady who hails from this region. This is a song about Nya Chula, a village woman who could not quench her heart’s thirst for money and dreams of moving to Nairobi. Winyo takes the persona of her husband, he sings cajoling her to relax and sit still right next to him. For if she does their home could make babies. Is Winyo a story-teller or what? Really love the part where he sings, “Ngima mi dwaro ohinga” (I can’t sustain the kind of life you want to live). This song is a caution that if and when two people decide to settle down together, their lifestyle demands should merge into one. The song’s climax has a Lingala beat. I can already picture Wanjeri, Marcus and I seriously getting down to this one on the dance floor!

6. Kimani 4.36

If my Kikuyu didn’t fail me, this is a song about a gentleman called Kimani. It’s a cheer-up song urging Kim to keep his head up despite life’s ups and downs, for there will be a better day. Shall I also award this as the first afro-acoustic fantastic Kikuyu song? Not taking any no’s.

8. Yaona Yoo 6.14 (Open way for me)

This is a very beautiful song–my best in the album actually. Not too sure if it’s the shakers fused in the acoustic guitar and soft drums or Winyo’s butterscotch-voice … Everything in this one just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. The song is a dedication to the one who got away saying, ‘I can tell you a secret, everything you do even in laze still pleases me so I sing through your way, stupidly hoping that you will let me through’. Deep stuff and a special song to the ones we never got over.

10. Gikalo 5.27 (They will pass)

My mum particularly loves this one, I think because she has witnessed all these kind of dramas in shagz. This song has stories of a typical village. Brothers fighting over land, women undressing in protest in the open—a taboo, mean gossiping and talk. In the song Winyo takes the persona of the society’s mirror that marvels at how friendships can turn into rivalry. Most of us can attest to this and the un-related fact that Winyo is a rock sitting gracefully on the Kenyan contemporary Benga scene.

With 13 tracks ‘Benga Blues’ is an outstanding album worth your money, time and life’s lessons kitty. It teaches on virtues like humility, kindness, patience and temperance.

The album was released in Europe last year. A Kenyan release is expected sometime this year. I will certainly be there tagging alongside mother. For more info visit http://www.ketebulmusic.org

BONUS: Read on Ten Mins With Winyo, a feature I filed for ARISE Magazine. And a throwback track–Ukoo Flani MM feat. Winyo