Posts Tagged ‘Claude Nobs’
A Montreux Jazz Festival Moment Jamiroquai – Little L (2003)
This corner of the earth is like me in many ways
I can sit for hours here and watch the emerald feathers play
On the face of this I’m blessed
When the sunlight comes for free
I know this corner of the earth it smiles at me
So inspired of that there’s nothing left to do or say
Think I’ll dream, ’til the stars shine…
Yasmine Tamara on the Stage in Geneva – Did I hear Annabel Lee?
Yasmine Tamara is one of the greatest voices I discovered that the Montreux Jazz Festival although she never took the stage. I met this pleasant and hospitable woman as I raced off the Miles Davis Hall, before the doors got closed and the show began. Claude Nobs, the Founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival gave explicit instructions to anyone in the front row that they must be present and seated before the concert begins, or bad luck – wait outside til the artist takes a break. CLAUDE’s HOUSE RULES!
When I was introduced to Tamara I think I was on my way to see Simply Red. Although I heard that she was an artist I met her as a woman – a mother, who had been at home tending to her children afflicted with chicken pox all week long. She was naturally beautiful and there was a casual elegance to her that evades much of the Swiss I met on this trip. When she reached out her hand to shake mine and delivered the three polite kisses of the French, you felt substance to her. There was a bonding of kindred sympathies and her warmth and kindness shown through her and reached me.
I put her CD in my briefcase and on return to Sydney played it in my office for the first time. I listened. My staff listened. Each of us choosing a favorite song for one reason or another. In my search to actually see her belt out a song, I came across this video. The editing is such that we do not get to see her complete any of the songs however I relished at getting to watch the beginning of what is my personal favorite song off the Auguries of Innocence album, Annabel Lee. Annabel Lee is a famous poem written by Edgar Allen Poe of lost love. Legend states that Ms Lee was the last woman Poe is reputed to have loved before his death. She could be a fictional character because Poe was delirious in the days just before his demise in 1849. I love that poetry leaves us with mysteries and a story of great love and separation. You will recognize the first stanza as the last few seconds of what Yasmine Tamara delivers video.
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
Tell me your first reactions on Annabel Lee.
Got a favorite poem or new artist? Share it with me and leave me a comment, please.