Fumio Yasuda - Mother Gooses Melodies '2013

Tracks list

Mother Gooses Melodies presents a total new side of Theo Bleckmann who is able
to slip into very different roles. Fumio Yasudas arrangements and Theo
Bleckmanns performance have put new faces on the Mother Goose characters. 

Fumio Yasuda and Theo Bleckmann have put new faces on the world famous songs of
Mother Goose. Mother Goose (published for the first time by Charles Perrault
under the French title »Contes de ma mère l’Oye« in the late
17th century) is a literary character of nursery rhymes and fairy tales, which
are specially but not only known in the United States and the Commonwealth
countries in the present time. Often Mother Goose is portrayed as an old woman
farmer or as a goose with a cap. The Mother Gooses Melodies are entertaining,
humorous verses, learning rhymes, and sometimes even nonsensical poems for
children and adults. Like the Brothers Grimm Charles Perrault has collected and
documented this oral tradition of poetry and his work has made it possible that
the Mother Goose songs are still amazingly popular three hundred years later in
the 21st century. It is incredible how many pop musicians were inspired to adapt
or sing a Mother Goose song. Just to name a few: Paul McCartney and Wings play
»Mary Had A Little Lamb«, the blues legend Lead Belly sings »Blue Tail
Fly«, Judy Garland performs »Skip To My Lou«, Johnny Cash »Camptown
Races«, Mae Questel as Betty Bebop »Polly Wolly Doodle«. But also
classical composers were fascinated by Mother Goose, Mozart composed twelve
variations on »Ah vous dirai-je, Maman« (»Twinkle, Twinkle Little
Star«). 

The producers Mariko Takahashi and Stefan Winter have had for many years the
wish to record new and colourful versions of Mother Gooses Melodies. Mariko
Takahashi spent her childhood in Australia surrounded by sounds of Mother Goose
songs, and Stefan Winter was fascinated by Hal Wilners »Stay Awake«, an
album featuring music from Walt Disney cartoons. The idea was born to create a
totally new album with various interpretations of songs like »Tom, Tom, The
Pipers Son« for adults. The album »Mother Gooses Melodies« is a tribute
to Mother Goose and to remember the great Dan Leno (1860 – 1904), who was
a very famous actor, singer, clog dancer and pantomime in England. Mother Goose
turned out to be one of the most challenging roles of Dan Lenos career. He
slipped into the roles of the same woman in several different guises. The ugly,
unkempt and poor Mother Goose eventually became a rich and beautiful but
tasteless parvenu, searching for a suitor. The Japanese painter Mikiko Fujita
adapted for the front cover an image of Dan Leno as Mother Goose. 

Stefan Winter asked the composer and pianist Fumio Yasuda to adapt and arrange
these nursery rhymes for a carefully selected ensemble around the voice of Theo
Bleckmann. The primary idea was to create a record with quite different musical
influences performed by one group of musicians. Yasuda and Bleckmann have
already worked together many times (»Kastanienball«, »Las Vegas
Rhapsody«, »Schumann’s Favored Bar Songs«, »Berlin: Songs of
Love and War, Peace and Exile«). For the album »Mother Goose’s
Melodies« special talented players – running the gamut from jazz to
pop to experimental and new classical music – were selected. A group of
excellent musicians came together: Caleb Burhans [violin, viola, guitar] who can
also be heard on »Hello Earth! – The Music of Kate Bush«; Bohdan
Hilash [woodwinds] who has worked with Meredith Monk, Leonard Bernstein, Kurt
Masur, Zubin Mehta and Leonard Slatkin; Rubin Kodheli [cello] from the
avant-rock band Blues In Space; Drew Gress [bass] who can also be heard within
the ensembles of John Abercrombie, Don Byron, Uri Caine, Ravi Coltrane, Mark
Feldman, John Hollenbeck, Tony Malaby, and John Surman; John Hollenbeck [drums,
percussion], leader of the wonderful John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble; Akimuse
[vocals] known as a Japanese song writer and singer who also performed with
Fumio Yasuda; and last but not least Jo Lawry [vocals, violin], a member of
Sting’s Back To Bass Tour in 2012. 

»Blue Tail Fly« is arranged like a music piece for a TV series, »Mary
Had A Little Lamb« like an American country pop song, »Three Blind
Mice« like a drum- and rhythm-oriented composition with electric guitar and
organ sounds, »Sing A Song Of Sixpence« turns into a duet which could play
in an old black and white movie, and »Hush-A-Bye Baby« plays in the style
of a song from a Broadway musical. Each song has its very own character. Sixteen
Mother Goose melodies wear new musical clothes. Béla Bartók dances like
Rumpelstiltskin »... Round The Mulberry Bush«, »Tom, Tom, The Pipers
Son« turns into a sweeping a-cappella chant, and »Polly Wolly Doodle«
plays in a jazz club. The beautiful »Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star« gets
an almost absurd twist, like a mixture of good and bad childhood memories, and
»Skip To My Lou« risks a trip into the world of trash-rock. The last track
»Hey Diddle Diddle« starts like a dream sequence, ending in a crazy
medieval-like anthem. 

Akimuse, vocals
Theo Bleckmann, vocals, electronics, toys
Caleb Burhans, viola, violin, guitar
Drew Gress, acoustic bass, pedal steel guitar
Bohdan Hilash, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophones
John Hollenbeck, drums, percussion, vibraphone, glockenspiel, crotales
Rubin Kodheli, cello
Jo Lawry, vocals, violin
Fumio Yasuda, piano, fender rhodes 

Tracklist:
01. Fumio Yasuda - Blue Tail Fly (feat. Theo Bleckmann)
02. Fumio Yasuda - Mary Had a Little Lamb (feat. Theo Bleckmann)
03. Fumio Yasuda - Three Blind Mice (feat. Theo Bleckmann)
04. Fumio Yasuda - Sing a Song of Sixpence (feat. Theo Bleckmann)
05. Fumio Yasuda - Hush-A-Bye Baby (feat. Theo Bleckmann)
06. Fumio Yasuda - Little Bo Peep Has Lost Her Sheep
07. Fumio Yasuda - Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (feat. Theo Bleckmann)
08. Fumio Yasuda - Tom, Tom, the Pipers Son (feat. Theo Bleckmann)
09. Fumio Yasuda - Polly Wolly Doodle (feat. Theo Bleckmann)
10. Fumio Yasuda - Camptown Races (feat. Theo Bleckmann)
11. Fumio Yasuda - Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (feat. Theo Bleckmann)
12. Fumio Yasuda - Oh, Dear! What Can the Matter Be (feat. Theo Bleckmann)
13. Fumio Yasuda - Old Folks At Home (feat. Theo Bleckmann)
14. Fumio Yasuda - Skip to My Lou (feat. Theo Bleckmann)
15. Theo Bleckmann - Row, Row, Row Your Boat
16. Fumio Yasuda - Hey Diddle Diddle (feat. Theo Bleckmann)

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