08-08-19 | Songs for Listening | Rob Gibson
Rob Gibson picked tunes for Thursday, August 8 at Songs for Listening. Rob has been producing musical events, radio programs & recordings since his college years in Athens, GA during the late 70's. From 2002-2018, he was the executive and artistic director of the Savannah Music Festival, Georgia’s largest musical arts event and one of the most distinctive cross-genre music festivals in the world.
Here’s Rob’s annotations on his selections:
"As a guy who grew up collecting records but spent most of his career producing live musical events, I've always understood that different music has different functions. For the past 6 months I've spent 8 hours a day listening to recordings again since I'm programming music for lobbies, bars, spas, rooftops, restaurants & fitness centers of hotels. Sunday mornings are reserved for classical music from 6-10am, but music with a groove rules most of the zones the remainder of the week. Our newest hotel has a bar called the Baobab Lounge, which showcases only African music for 14 hours a day from 11am to 1am.
The late Issa Bagayogo created some wonderfully modern grooves, including 'Dunu Kan', which work extremely well in this setting after 5pm. Oumou Sangare's lovely 'Mali Niale' (which also has a beautiful video on YouTube ) is more killer groove music best suited for the late morning & early afternoon. [Note: Video for 'Mali Niale' is posted beneath the playlist below.]
Beirut, the brainchild of Zach Condon, teased the arrival of their latest album 'Gallipoli' by gazing across the Mediterranean and creating 'Corfu', which shares its name with the Greek island that sits directly across the Ionian Sea from Lesse in Italy, where much of Gallipoli was recorded. It's a short & evocative instrumental piece that grows increasingly darker as it goes on, while maintaining a steady groove.
The other two selections, 'Ay Jona' and 'Ai Mi Morena' are both fun late night groove songs by different German-based groups, The Bahama Soul Club and Mo' Horizons respectively, who blend soul, jazz, funk, blues, bossa nova, afro, and Caribbean influences."
In addition to his work on the Savannah Music Festival, Rob was the founding director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, the world’s largest not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to jazz, which he co-led with Wynton Marsalis from 1991-2000. Gibson has produced events at The White House, the Museum of Modern Art, the High Museum of Art & across five continents. He has created educational & artistic programs throughout more than 30 countries and served on the faculty of The Juilliard School and New York University. He has 40 years of experience producing radio programs including the Peabody Award winning Jazz From Lincoln Center & the Savannah Music Festival Live. Now the Music Director of The Kessler Collection, a visionary hospitality brand, Gibson programs every zone in nine hotels and is planning live productions for Kessler's imaginative new Plant Riverside District that includes a 500-capacity outdoor plaza (Martin Luther King, Jr. Park), a 350+ capacity music venue (Power House), and three rooftop terraces.
'Dunu Kan' by Issa Bagayogo from 'Mali Koura'
'Mali Niale' by Oumou Sangare from 'Mogoya'
'Carfu' by Beirut
'Ay Jona' by Bahama Soul Club from 'The Cuban Tapes;'
'Ai Mi Morena' by Mo' Horizons from 'Nine'
