JS (JOERG SOMMERMEYER): Total Overdrive

JS (Joerg Sommermeyer)

Total Overdrive

© 2003 JS (Joerg Sommermeyer) (634479582820)

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A wide variety of styles. Eclectic mix of Jazz, Blues, Funk, Folk, Rock, Pop, Crossover, Electronica, original and fresh.

tracks

1 Berlin Autumn (Sommermeyer)
2 The Total Overdrive (Sommermeyer)
3 Abschied (Sommermeyer)
4 Saint James Infirmary (Traditional, arr. Sommermeyer)
5 Escape In The Land Of Mordor or Frodo And The Orks (Sommermeyer)
6 More Funk In Spain (Sommermeyer)
7 The Streets Of Laredo (Traditional, arr. Sommermeyer)
8 Like A Motherless Child (Trad., arr. Sommermeyer)
9 Stay A While (Sommermeyer)
10 Go To Hell (Sommermeyer)

notes

JS (Joerg Sommermeyer) started at the tender age of ten with a dust-ridden 'beater' Harmony six-string acoustic dreadnought passed down from his father. While growing up in South Germany he first cut his teeth every evening around sundown while playing for his family. Later, he played in a band, hit the local scene and studied classical guitar with Victor von Hasselmann and Anton Stingl.
Eclecticist in the positive sense, in broadest terms between Classical Music, Blues, Country, Folk, Rock, transforming himself into the entire variation of styles, with elements of Jazz, without fear of venturing into Pop, for the past five years, JS (Joerg Sommermeyer)
has been performing with his group The Black Djemba.
The band has enjoyed playing to their ever-increasing following in the Southern Germany Area and has gotten favourable reviews. Their material seems to be ever changing and hard to pin down categorically. What always remains the same is the unique and wide-ranging musical personality of JS (Joerg Sommermeyer).

The album offers a wide variety of styles: Eclectic and ambitious mix of Jazz, Blues, Funk, Folk, Rock, Pop, kind of lush-but-rootsy Crossover, Electronica, all original and fresh without ever seeming forced.
"Berlin Autumn" with a nice relaxed groove and a soothing jazzy guitar - this'll get you through the autumn and the winter too. The perfect music for cold, cloud-shrouded days when the weather can't decide to drizzle or snow.
The very impressionistic "The Total Overdrive" is always sexy with a nice bluesy touch of mouth harp, excellent electronic and rock sonics and a raw, funky groove. Listen & Love!
And the 8 other jewels, melodic, idiosyncratic, funky, great grooves, smooth vocals, new country with a rock edge, good urban contemporary music.

**Berlin Autumn** was #1 on the BeSonic.com All Genres Global Chart for a number of weeks!
And most of the other songs from this disc were (are) as well in the Charts on BeSonic.com and (MusicLeague) Musikliga.de!!!

BeSonic Scout Jens Hausmann about Berlin Autumn: "A nice relaxed groove and a soothing jazzy guitar, this'll get you through the autumn in Berlin, Cool!"

BeSonic Scout Childe Roland about The Total Overdrive: "Raw, funky groove - proves that good music is always sexy, because it is good music. Excellent electronic and rock sonics, and... Total Overdrive!"

BeSonic Scout ChapmanJames about The Total Overdrive: "Demiola/Santana style instrumental with a nice bluesy touch of mouth harp. Really will get you into overdrive!!!! Listen & Love it!"

BeSonic Scout Karl Kalbaugh about The Total Overdrive: "Funk organ (I LOVE it!) overlayed with clav, bass, harmonica, with guitar solo. Very impressionistic! Downloader!"

BeSonic Scout Alien VS über Berlin Autumn: "Dieser exzellente Song wirkt wie ein Balsam....und sicherlich nicht nur für meine Ohren...überzeugen kann sich ja jeder selbst...!!!"

reviews

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  • Legendary Music
    author: Neil w Young

    Here I was tonight looking for something to save me from the depths of gloom, compliments of the winter storm currently slamming us with almost two feet of snow since this time last night. It's the worst snowstorm we've had in these parts in years. Old Rascal and I had just come back into the cabin looking for sure like the abominable snowman and pal snowdog. I jump-started the fireplace with a couple of handfuls of dry cedar kindling, stretched out in my Lazy-boy rocker and uncorked my laptop, scanning the screen as it loaded up the IAC page. Rascal had already curled up on his old Navajo blanket in front of the hearth and was dozing dreamily as he is most apt to do. My immediate mission was to explore and sample the music of Joerg Sommermeyer, aka JS. You know the drill - click click double click click click, and then you listen, waiting for the song to begin. As the funky bluesy "Twin Peaksy" intro to JS's cover of "Saint James Infirmary - Gambler's Blues" poured into my ears, my eyes lit up, honing my senses and perking me to attention. My thoughts of the winter storm blustering outside my window instantly evaporated. Saved by a song I said to myself. No sh*t Sherlock! No sooner had my musical mind computed and bought into the perfect enchantment of this haunting melodic intro when JS brought down the hammer so to speak - actually the "axe"(guitar) in this case, closing the sale for me with his equally, and perhaps even more so, amazingly bang on and uniquely distant sounding vocals giving this familiar old song a wonderful and refreshing new life. No question about it - I was hooked. From beginning to end, JS brings this traditional lyrical masterpiece to story-book life, telling it in a spellbinding anecdotal fashion accented by an endless supply of awesome and riveting riffs. Your years of performing shine brilliantly throughout this tune JS. You now have a new fan - perhaps two if we can count Rascal. I'm truly honoured to welcome you to Legendary Music. Added to station 3/9/2008 3:56:49 AM --Neil w Young, Legendary Music, KIAC Internet Radio

  • author: Max Dorfman

    This release is very interesting.

  • author: Elizabeth Vahanyan

    I love this CD. It sounds honest and true.

  • Cross over of cultures and sensations
    author: Gregory MacManious, Dublin

    Very talented musician. The performances are excellent. Cool experimental, rich music, a cross over of cultures and sensations.

  • Neue Interpretationen mit hohem Repertoirewert
    author: Georg Metsch, Berlin

    Die neuen Versionen bekannter Standards mit hohem Repertoirewert gefallen mir sehr! Dabei ist der Song "St. James Infirmary" ein Klassiker des 20. Jahrhunderts, angesiedelt zwischen Folk und Blues, ein Standardstück nicht nur für New Orleans Dixieland Bands. Der Song zirkuliert in hunderten von Versionen auch unter Titeln wie "St. James Infirmary Blues", "Gambler's Blues" oder "Those Gambler's Blues" u.a., interpretiert von einer Vielzahl von Künstlern darunter Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Stan Kenton, Pete Seeger, Josh White, Dave Van Ronk, Jackie Wilson, Joe Cocker, White Stripes, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Snooks Eaglin, um nur einige wenige Interpreten in seiner Rezeptions- und Versionsgeschichte zu nennen. Cab Calloway nahm den Song am 23. Dezember 1930 auf und gab für das Copyright "Primerose - arr. of traditional folksong -The Gambler's Blues" an. Wohl deswegen wird "St. James Infirmary" teilweise bis heute Joe Primrose zugeschrieben, der den Song angeblich 1929 komponiert haben soll. Louis Armstrong aber hatte "St. James Infirmary" schon vorher, nämlich am 12.12.1928, aufgenommen, mit Earl Hines am Klavier. Nach S. Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, Random House, 1948, S. 612), basieren "Gambler's Blues" bzw. "St. James Infirmary Blues" auf einer traditionellen Melodie von 1899. Und Carl Sandburg veröffentlichte den Song bereits 1927 in seinem Buch "The American Songbag" unter dem Titel "Those Gambler's Blues". Das historische Krankenhaus "St. James Infirmary" in New Orleans soll der Legende nach ein Gebäudeteil des während des amerikanischen Bürgerkriegs in ein Miltärhospital umgebauten St. James Hotels gewesen sein. Seit Juni 1999 gibt es in San Francisco übrigens die "St. James Infirmary", eine einzigartige Klinik für "sex workers" (gegründet von "COYOTE" - Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics - und der "Exotic Dancers Alliance", die mit dem Department of Public Health von San Francisco eng zusammenarbeiten). Die berühmte Cowboy-Ballade "The Streets of Laredo" ist mit Interpreten verbunden wie z. Bsp. Jim Reeves, Willie Nelson, Tom Jones, Arlo Guthrie, Duane Eddy, Johnny Cash, John Cale, Joan Baez, Gene Autry und Chet Atkins. Der Evergreen gehört zur umfangreichen, besonders in Amerika immer beliebten Gattung von berufsbezogenen Balladen. Es gibt ihn nicht nur als Cowboy-Song, sondern auch in Holzfäller- und Soldatenversionen. In der Rom-Episode des Jarmusch Films " Night On Earth" setzt sie der Taxifahrer Roberto Begnini vor sich hin trällernd wirkungsvoll in Szene. Auch "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child", ein Arrangement des afro-amerikanischen Spirituals, wurde bereits von einer Vielzahl von Künstlern der unterschiedlichsten Couleur interpretiert, etwa: Louis Armstrong, Bobby Womack, Ella Fitzgerald, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Witherspoon, Fats Waller, Sarah Vaughan, Jack Teagarden, Artie Shaw, Pete Seeger, Odetta, Van Morrison, Memphis Slim, Wynton Marsalis, Golden Gate Quartet, Maria Farantouri, Duke Ellington, Harry Belafonte. Und JS (Joerg Sommermeyer) Interpretation vermag auch hier eine wertvolle Ergänzung beizusteuern. Die Filmmusik "Escape In The Land Of Mordor or Frodo And The Orks" ist Joerg Sommermeyer's Hommage für J. R. R. Tolkien und sein Werk "Lord Of The Rings". Dem Stück liegt ein Programm zugrunde, das uralte Lied, der ewige Antagonismus: Licht gegen Dunkelheit, schnöder Kommerz gegen Kunst und Ästhetik, "La Belle Et La Bête", Ruhe und Sturm, Freiheit gegen Zwang! Eine romantische, vielleicht antiquierte Auffassung: die Sehnsucht nach einer schöneren, anderen Welt oder nach Heimkehr in die Idylle. Der naive und gute Held überwindet das Böse und seine ihm dienenden Monster. Wahrlich, eine alte Geschichte, in vielen verschiedenen Ausprägungen. Im Lande Mordor schlägt sich Frodo durch die Wüstenei des Bösen, verfolgt von Monstern, den Orks, geflügelten Ringgeistern, usw. Frodo wird dargestellt von einer schlichten, zarten Melodie, "gesungen" von der akustischen Gitarre. Dieses zarte, gefährdete Stimmchen muss sich behaupten und/oder fliehen vor all den Verfolgerhorden (repräsentiert von einem elektroakustischen, perkussiven Toben), ihren mordlustigen Attacken, ihrem Lärm, ihrem Getöse und beständigem Nachstellungeifer, ihrem hartnäckigen, unbeugsamen Willen, Frodos habhaft zu werden, ihn einzufangen, ihn zu killen, auf dass das Universum für immer in Boskeit und Hässlichkeit versinke.

  • author: Carlo Marchese, Roma

    Saint James Infirmary is a much recorded standard that dates back to Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Stan Kenton, Pete Seeger, Josh White, Dave Van Ronk, Jackie Wilson, Joe Cocker, White Stripes, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison and many others. Joerg's excellent version makes a worthwhile addition. His vocal on this song is rough and human, shows real emotion, a very good performance.

  • Wunderbar relaxter Groove!
    author: Jens Hausmann

    Ich finde "Berlin Autumn" besitzt einen wunderbar relaxten Groove mit herrlich warmer kuschelig jazziger Gitarre. Dieses Stück hilft sicher über den „Autumn in Berlin" und funktioniert auch im Frühling!"

  • Many different styles, much experimentation, perfectly in tune with the CD as a
    author: Jeanne Coilly

    I have a few thousand CD's. This one is beyond my expectations, so many different styles and much experimentation and it rules, it rocks and it flows perfectly in tune with the CD as a whole. Very Stylish! I'll be playing this one for a long time to come... Phenomenal!

  • Opinion of an American girl: mellow, brilliant bang of wisdom and funk and downt
    author: Andrea Etienne Harley

    The opinion of a woman: Place blank CD on floor. Have superb bonk on top. This is how fantastic sound of Total O must have transferred itself to masterdisk. Speaking as an American girl often dragged by eager men into London and German spots spewing eclectic jazz blues funk of the frankly horrid woman-repelling sort, Total Overdrive was a brilliant surprise. An eclectic mix yes, but an intelligent finely hewn one that will attract a woman with fine lingerie, not send her screaming to nearest taxi. Nice on a rainy Berlin autumn day? Coffee will get you through that! Ah, but tired of being alone in technically superior monk's den with your Sartre and bad memories? Then smarten up, blokes: this CD with its warm intelligent sound is a very attractively powerful, then mellowing, bang of wisdom, funk, and innately clever interpretation. Has a subtle but unmistakable smack of true Chicago blues club do-me downtown eros to do the trick for you if you let it. (Or if not, then you're really not trying.) Andrea Etienne Harley

  • An absolute pleasure to review, and an even greater pleasure to own!
    author: Colin Lynch

    JS is a truly gifted artist/composer whose work tends to stay with you long after the stop button has been pressed. His outstanding bluesy vocal is carried along an intelligent and informed musical arrangement that oozes intense musical skill and experience. It’s an absolute pleasure to review, and an even greater pleasure to own!

  • Great Music
    author: Ahmed

    I tell you from Tunisie, that this is a great CD. I recommend it deep from my heart. Berlin Autumn is just a jewel and the other pieces demonstrate the diversity and capability of JS.

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