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Balagan Cafe Band

by Balagan Cafe Band

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1.
2.
Central Line 04:33
3.
Mobius Blues 04:17
4.
5.
6.
7.
Flow, my tears, fall from your springs!
 Exiled for ever, let me mourn;
 Where night's black bird her sad infamy sings,
 There let me live forlorn.

 Down vain lights, shine you no more!
 No nights are dark enough for those
 That in despair their lost fortunes deplore. 
Light doth but shame disclose.

 Hark! you shadows that in darkness dwell,
 Learn to condemn light
 Happy, happy they that in hell
 Feel not the world's despite.
8.
9.
Douce dame jolie, Pour dieu ne pensés mie Que nulle ait signorie Seur moy fors vous seulement. Qu'adès sans tricherie Chierie Vous ay et humblement Tous les jours de ma vie Servie Sans villain pensement. Helas! et je mendie D'esperance et d'aïe; Dont ma joie est fenie, Se pité ne vous en prent. Douce dame jolie. Mais vo douce maistrie Maistrie Mon cuer si durement Qu'elle le contralie Et lie En amour tellement Qu'il n'a de riens envie Fors d'estre en vo baillie; Et se ne li ottrie Vos cuers nul aligement. Douce dame jolie. Et quant ma maladie Garie Ne sera nullement Sans vous, douce anemie, Qui lie Estes de mon tourment, A jointes mains deprie Vo cuer, puis qu'il m'oublie, Que temprement m'ocie, Car trop langui longuement. Douce dame jolie, Pour dieu ne pensés mie Que nulle ait signorie Seur moy fors vous seulement. English: Sweet and pretty lady, For God’s sake do not think That anyone has power Over me except you alone. For always without trickery My dear I have humbly All the days of my life Served you Without any base thought. Alas! I am without Hope and help; So my joy is ended Unless pity seizes you. Sweet and pretty lady… But your sweet rule Rules My heart so harshly That it fights with [my heart] And binds It so in love That [my heart] desires nothing Other than being under your power; And yet your heart gives it No relief. Sweet and pretty lady… And since my illness Will be Cured in no way Without you, sweet enemy, Who are happy At my troubles, With joined hands I beg Your heart, since it forgets me, To kill me quickly, For I have languished too long. Sweet and pretty lady, For God’s sake do not think That anyone has power Over me except you alone.
10.
11.

about

Balagan Cafe Band - LIner Notes

We first played to gather in an informal jam in late 2012 in a front room in Brixton - starting with a few polite Django Reinhardt tunes, I quickly recognised Richard and Shirley as the sort of musicians who really had no hang ups about styles or norms in music and had a group chemistry right away. We became Balagan Cafe Band - taking the string band jazz of the pre war era as a starting point but with a sense of adventure and nothing off limits.

The name? Shirley - a fluent speaker of Hebrew since her time in Jerusalem came up with that: ‘Balagan’ means ‘a big mess’ and is used in Hebrew to describe everything from an untidy room to Middle Eastern politics - and seemed to fit our version of organised chaos quite aptly.

Jazz has always been a difficult term to pin down… but the flexibility of the music makes it a natural way to combine musical traditions. If you think about it, that’s what jazz has always been. Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton were drawing from the American blues, Cuba and the Caribbean, West African drums and Western European harmonies which mingled promiscuously in early 20th century New Orleans. So there is no such thing as ‘pure jazz’ and never has been.

credits

released July 1, 2018

Richard Jones - Violin
Christian Miller - Guitar
Shirley Smart - Cello

Alice Zawadski - Vocals on tracks 7 & 9
Joe Browne - Soprano Saxophone on tracks 4 & 10
Tommie Black - Roff - Accordion on tracks 1, 5 and 6

Recorded January 2017 at Porcupine Studios London
Engineer - Nick Taylor

Special Thanks
David Benyahia (for the loan of your Super Ego)

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Balagan Cafe Band London, UK

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