Welcome to the fifth edition of Wonderful Songs, my monthly blog entry outlining ten exceptional songs I listened to during the past month. Well, it's nine this month. The tenth was suggested by a very good friend.

Music, and more generally any other art form, is largely a matter of taste. Given this fact, some may wonder why I bother broadcasting my tastes to other people. The answer is pretty simple, at least if my experience counts. It's about broadening horizons. As any other part of our body, our ears evolve year after year and during this process, they may accept more musical genres than what you submitted to them at first.

My love of music started pretty early when I was a young boy. And I used to enjoy listening to the tapes of my bigger brother, Aziz. Aziz shared with me his tastes and I discovered great artists such as Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Peter Tosh and Stevie Wonder. Sadly, Aziz left home to follow his own path in life very early (from my boyish point of view) and during a few years, I had to shape up my tastes without exterior help and I discovered mainstream, commercial music. But sharing and interacting with other people broadened my musical horizons. I am for example grateful to my dear friend Jethro (his real name is Jerome Magnin if anyone cares) for enticing me into some wonderful musical fields. And more recently, Laurent Marechal, a coworker that I greatly appreciate, made me discover Rock music again.

The main reason that drives me each month into writing Wonderful Songs is about sharing. Trying to give back some of what other people gave me. Here we go then for a little sharing experience. And needless to say, if you have any great ideas about Wonderful Songs or you want to suggest an entry, just send me an email (saad _at_ docisland _dot_ org).

[Reggae] Fanga Den (featuring Tiken Jah Fakoly), Manjul
From the album Faso Kanou.

Reggae opens once more Wonderful Songs with an extremely good Dub. Manjul is a french artist who spends most of his time in Africa. Fanga Den incorporates very nice sounding african traditional instruments and it is backed by the nice voice of Tiken Jah Fakoly, a wonderful Reggae artist that I love. It is a rather untypical Dub song because of the presence of a singer. Usually, Dub contains only parts of the lyrics of an existing song. While Fanga Den is my favorite song, the album contains songs ranging from good to excellent.

[World] Silw, Thione Seck
From the album Orientissime.

After hearing Silw, the opening song of Orientissime, the only thing I could think of is: Thank you Thione Seck. One of Senegal's greatest singers, he is also an awesome composer. Orientissime is a masterpiece that bridges Western Africa and India through Egypt. Many expertly-played instruments from all these countries are used in a heavenly fashion to help Thione's voice (and his guest singers on some tracks) open some unsuspected, magical paths that will fill your heart with very positive feelings. Thione is a muslim from the Mouride brotherhood, an Islamic Sufi order and I think that his religious beliefs percolate through his music in an extremely positive way. Incredible beauty. There is no other word to describe Orientissime. It is so good that I really had a hard time selecting a single one for Wonderful Songs. So I can't really say that Silw is my favorite song. It is just one of many excellent ones.

[Folk] Emma Stanton, Tété
From the album A La Faveur De L'Automne.

Another great French artist who delivers here an excellent Folk album with good lyrics (if you happen to understand French) and a very nice voice. Tété is an excellent songwriter and gifted with a nice voice that integrates well with his guitar play.I love Emma Stanton's rather fast pace for a Folk song and its joyful rhythm.

[Smooth Jazz] Spanish Girl, The Rippingtons
From the album Wild Card. Available from eMusic

In my opinion, this is the best album of The Rippingtons, a well-known Smooth Jazz band that has helped define this genre along with other great artists such as Fourplay, Lee Ritenour, and Bob James. Spanish Girl has an excellent Latino tempo and I love how well the guitars are played on it, and also how they blend with the percussions. It'll cheer any Smooth Jazz lover in no time! The album contains other great songs such as Gypsy Eyes, Paradise, and King of Hearts. I discovered it through Smoothjazz.com, an excellent Smooth Jazz online radio.

[Rock] The Enchanter (Live version), Robert Plant And The Strange Sensation
From the album Mighty Rearranger (2 CDs version).

If you like Led Zeppelin, you must definitely hurry up and buy this awesome record. It's so good that I feel I am short on words to give you an accurate description of it. I am going to try anyway. Robert Plant is as strong as ever and his wonderful voice is just better than... ever. And he successfully created a sensational masterpiece with his great band, The Strange Sensation. The lead singer of Led Zeppelin, the greatest Rock band of the World, successfully accomplish his endeavor to fusion his excellent Rock with wonderful North-African (Moroccan and Egyptian) music. The result is a bewitching music that will take you to unsuspected lands of creation. The 2nd CD of the 2 CDs version of Mighty Rearranger (look for a dominating blue color on the cover, which distinguish it from the 1 CD version) is a Live session performed at Radio France in Paris and it contains a few Led Zeppelin reprises such as the excellent Whole Lotta Love. The Enchanter is the most bewitching song of all. During almost 8 minutes, Robert Plant And The Strange Sensation beautifully stimulate our senses . At times, you'd actually think you are in Egypt surrounded by Derbouka players. Enough talk. Go get it.

[Folk] Werewolf, Cat Power
From the album You Are Free. Available from eMusic

The melancholic tone of Cat Power's voice is very beautiful and the use of an acoustic guitar and violins brings a nice touch to this relaxing song. By using a minimal set of instruments, Cat Power makes her voice stands out and hits us straight with much frailty and sadness. And the lyrics are really good. They should give you a fair view of the artist's songwriting skills. You are Free contains other nice gems and is a safe buy.

[Jazz] Folly, Kora Jazz Trio
From the album Part Two.

Wonderful instruments played by top West African musicians and a beautiful voice blend with each other to create this Jazz masterpiece. This is one of the most beautiful songs I've listened to during this year. It starts with awesome Calabash played by Prince, the same incredible musician from Salif Keita's band during his Massy concert (link points to blog entry in French). After a few seconds, the Kora of Djeli Moussa Diawara joins in. Kora, previously featured in the third edition of Wonderful Songs, is an incredible 21 string harp-lute that produces heavenly sounds. According to many references, it is a very difficult instrument to play. That's not a problem for mister Diawara, a highly-regarded Kora player. Soon after, Abdoulaye Diabaté joins the party with his excellent jazzy Piano. To complete the picture, Moussa Cissoko adds percussions and his beautiful voice. There is no word to describe how beautiful this music is. Folly is my favorite song of this excellent album because of how it is constructed and also of the way Kora and Piano talk to each other. And if this album is called Part Two, that's because there is a "Part One" simply called... Kora Jazz Trio. I will definitely buy this previous album as well. Who knows? Maybe these excellent musicians will appear back in Wonderful Songs.

[World] When You Come Back, Vusi Mahlasela
From the album African Troubadours: Best Of African Singer-Songwriters. Available from eMusic

When You Come Back has a very joyful tone that reminds me a lot of Johnny Cleg & Savuka. The singer has a very sweet and mild voice that makes my interior Sun shine even in the gray sky of Paris. The album is worth getting as a whole since it contains many different African styles, instruments and artists.(Warning to eMusic subscribers: there seems to be a glitch in the 4th song. Could you please send me an email to tell me if you have the same problem so we can ask eMusic to fix it?)

[Alternative] Drunk On Dark Sublime, Elysian Fields
From the album Dreams That Breathe Your Name. Available from eMusic

This is quite the contrary of the previous song. It fits perfectly the gray sky of Paris (Elysian Fields means Champs Elysees in French in case you didn't notice). I love the singer's sweet voice and its melancholic tone alongside the general gloomy, darkish tempo of the album in general and the use of Indian instruments (Sithar and Tablas). Drunk On Dark Sublime isn't a masterpiece but it is a very pleasant song. And Wonderful Songs is just about that: musical pleasure!

[Folk] Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Bob Dylan
From the album The Essential BOB DYLAN.
Entry suggested by Jerome Leonard

Here is why Jerome suggested this song:
Many artists (good ...and not so good) have performed this song. The interpretation of Gun's and Roses is really great. I discovered the original version of Bob Dylan recently. This song sounds really different from many other versions I have already heared. It highlights many emotions and feelings as others songs on this compilation. A simply great artist.

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Depuis mi-novembre, le temps s'est sérieusement dégradé sur Paris. Il fait actuellement un froid de canard et bien que nous soyons gratifié de temps à autre d'un magnifique soleil, le ciel reste typiquement parisien. En d'autres termes ... typiquement gris. Il fait -2°c à l'heure ou j'écris ces quelques lignes.

Mais un autre soleil a brillé de mille feux et a réchauffé mon coeur et mon âme ainsi que ceux des autres privilégiés qui ont assisté au concert de Salif Keita à l'Opéra de Massy le 22 novembre dernier. Ce soleil, c'est celui de la musique africaine ou, plus correctement, d'une de ses branches maliennes. La voix de Salif, très riche en émotions et pouvant atteindre des hauteurs dont je ne suspectais même pas l'existence, m'a fait pleurer de joie. Littéralement. Cette richesse qui nous vient d'Afrique montre à quel point ce continent est fertile en musique et en bien d'autres choses.

Appuyé par 8 excellents musiciens et 1 danseur, Salif a fait preuve d'une étonnante fraîcheur. Vu l'âge de ce vénérable artiste, on se demande s'il n'a pas été faire un tour chez les marabouts pour avoir une telle énergie dans la voix et pouvoir sauter comme un cabri sur scène.

L'Opéra de Massy est une salle moderne dont les sièges sont très confortables et on s'y laisse facilement couler voire dormir. Malheureusement, ce n'était pas dans le programme que nous a concocté Salif. A peine entré sur scène, il nous demande de nous lever car, je le cite, "la musique africaine ça se danse". Un doute me submerge. Est-ce qu'on parle bien de M'Bemba, son dernier album ? Certes, c'est une belle oeuvre mais que je ne trouve pas particulièrement dansante (voir à ce sujet mes commentaires dans Wonderful Songs, Nov'05). Je me lève quand même. Et à mon grand étonnement, Salif réussit à transformer la plupart des chansons de M'Bemba en de formidables machines à danser. Le son m'a submergé et mon corps s'est mis à bouger, des fois sans que j'en sois totalement conscient, et un bref coup d'oeil autour de moi me confirmait dans mon sentiment que j'étais normal.

La dimension Live donne une toute autre texture musicale à M'Bemba. De plus la générosité et le sens du partage dont a fait preuve Salif, en invitant par exemple des spectateurs à le rejoindre sur scène à deux reprises pour danser, se sont transmis tout naturellement au public et a permis de véhiculer d'intenses émotions. Désormais, j'écoute M'Bemba avec une autre oreille et pour vous dire la vérité, j'ai fait fausse route concernant cet album. Je l'avais d'abord écouté en pensant à Moffou, le précédent chef d'oeuvre de Salif, et je l'avais trouvé moins bon car je pensais à un Moffou bis. Et ce fût là l'erreur. M'Bemba est bel et bien un album avec sa propre signature qui nous dévoile d'autres horizons et nous invite à écouter la richesse de la musique africaine.

Les musiciens étaient très très bons voire excellents : deux choristes à la voix mélodieuse bougeant leur corps en harmonie avec la musique, deux guitaristes dont un nous a gratifié d'une excellente imitation de George Benson, un batteur, un bassiste, un joueur de simbi et deux percussionistes. Le joueur de simbi fût exceptionnel. Il nous a gratifié d'un jeu bluffant et spectaculaire. Et un des percussionistes est multi-talent : djembé, calebasse, .... et c'est lui qui a clôt cette extraordinaire fête de musique africaine en faisant danser au djembé les deux choristes et une danseuse du public qui dansait divinement bien et qui conclut par un grand écart ... tout en continuant à danser.

Nous avons aussi eu droit à un Salif seul, sans musiciens, accompagnant sa voix d'une guitare sèche. Une voix d'or débordante d'émotions et qui a un grain très particulier, rappelant l'Afrique et sa magie.

Merci, Milles Mercis Ô Grand Salif.

Edité pour ajouter :

• Le percussioniste dont je parle un peu plus haut s'appelle Mamadou Koné, dit "Prince". J'ai reconnu sa signature sur l'album Kora Jazz Trio - Part Two (à ne pas confondre avec le premier opus de 2003), un excellent album de Jazz avec des instruments africains en plus du piano. J'ai acheté cet album par pur hasard hier soir et je viens de commencer à l'écouter. Le jeu de la calebasse ouvrant la deuxième chanson, Folly, me parût familier. Comme quoi, le hasard fait bien les choses ... des fois.
• Salif passe le 15 décembre 2005 au Zénith à Paris. Pour ses autres dates de concert, veuillez consulter son site officiel.

Sony includes malicious software in Get Right with the man, the latest Van Zant album, to prevent you from copying the CD but also cloaks itself and would crash your Windows system if you try to remove it.

After complaints, Sony released a "patch" to fix the issue. However, the patch just makes things worse. Bruce Schneier, a renowned security expert, made an entry in his blog about this subject. He has links to excellent information on the issue at hand. A recommended read.

This is sad and it erodes what little confidence I still have in companies such as Sony. It looks like they are spreading their rootkit to other records as well, such as the latest album from Chris Botti (look at the Amazon users' comments).

And that's why I keep advising getting your music from eMusic and other serious companies that have no DRM or any other stupid protection mechanism.