1 Gnonnas Pedro - Dadje von o von non (Analog Africa)
The last few years have seen a plethora of small labels emerging to lovingly unearth long lost vintage gems from West and Central Africa and its diaspora in the West Indies. Samy Ben Redjeb from Analog Africa chanced upon some recordings from Benin and found a rich seam that he has now begun to explore and expose to the world – under full licence from the artists or their publishers, it must be added.
“Dadje von o von non” is by Gnonnas Pedro et Ses Dadjes. Its lyrics are in Mina, a dialect spoken in Benin and Togo, and the song became the anthem of Togo’s national football team. It comes from Analog Africa’s “Legends Of Benin”, showcasing legends from the Benin scene between 1969 and 1981.
No obvious themes in tonight’s show – it’s really another exploration along sonic lines – with some loose geographic clusterings.
• Norway features quite heavily, inspired by the concert Mari Boine gave in Cape Town in late November last year.
• There is also music from Southern Africa.
• And some favourites of this show - Ethiopia, the Touareg and Sahrawi regions of north western Africa, and Central Asia.
Vokoka are a collection of musicians from all around Madagascar which grew organically when an aid worker, Sean Whittaker, teamed with up Nathalie Raomiala, the owner of Antananarivo restaurant Grill de Rova, to host a show in 2002. The show became a series of shows and then a recording project. This is Vokoka with a song called “Salama” written by singer Gabin.
2 Vokoka – Salama (World Music Network)
3 Raymond Mbele - Balela Ekhaya (Gallo Music)
From the 1990 collection of music from KwaZulu Natal first on Gallo and then Rounder Records, “Singing in an Open Space”, that was “Balela Ekhaya” which means “Write Home”. It’s the only song in Xhosa on the collection and was penned and sung by Raymond Mbele, who was discovered playing at a bus stop in the rural Eastern Cape by a producer for Gallo Records, David Thekwane. Mbele recorded an album’s worth of songs, was paid a flat fee and went to the mines with no forwarding address. Meanwhile the album sold quite well, but in the absence of Raymond the royalties ended up with one Robert Mbele, totally unrelated. If any listener has that Raymond Mbele LP, please contact us immediately.
We haven’t managed to track down Mari Boine’s new album yet, which is surprising as it features Cape-based Madosini and the acappella group, the Abaqondisi Brothers from Khaya Mandi, Stellenbosch. But here is something from her previous CD with the same guitarist and drummer from the band she had in Cape Town. This is the title track, “Idjagiedas (In the hand of the night)”. Gambian Sanjally Jobarteh plays the kora.
4 Mari Boine - In the hand of the night (Idjagiedas) (Universal Jazz)
5 Hege Rimestad - Towing the darkness (Grappa)
Hege Rimestad, the fiddle player in Mari Boine’s band in the 90s, arranged that traditional piece and she plays it with the other members of Boine’s band at the time. It is called “Rimfakse” or “Towing the Darkness”.
Boine was born in Samiland, the northern-most region of Scandinavia that also crosses into Russia. She incorporates the regional singing style called joik into her folky, jazzy style. We’ll hear unadulterated joik later in the show.
Slightly south of Samiland is another cultural region that spans across Scandinavia into Russia, Karelia, home to an ethnic Finnish minority. In the late 90s, Swedish/Finnish band Hedningarna headed off to the Russian part of Karelia. The singing in Karelia is just as startling as that in Samiland. Here is Hedningarna with the rather tweely titled “Forest Maiden”. The music is far from twee, though.
6 Hedningarna - Forest Maiden (Silence Records)
Ever wandered what happened to that branch of folky traditional Pedi jazz started by Philip Thabane and Molombo? No one of any consequence took over the baton until Tlokwe Sehume. He’s really taken the spirit of the music as a starting point and produced something altogether more porous, more boundless. A composer and multi-instrumentalist, he sings and writes in Sepedi, isiZulu, Xitsonga and Sesotho. Here is “Mankwelenkweditse” which features the sax playing of McCoy Mrubata.
7 Tlokwe Sehume and Medu – Mankwelenkweditse (Gallo Jazz)
8 Haruna Ishola and his Apala Group - Kise Tenu (IndigeDisc)
Haruna Ishola was a praise singer from the Ogun State in Nigeria. He died in the mid-70s, but still apparently enjoys mythical status in the area according to the wonderful sleeve notes on the IndigeDisc collection from which the piece we listened to is culled. The recording was made sometime between 1967 and 1971.
We can’t resist featuring Ethiopian music on this show. Why? The American film director, Jim Jarmusch, who can probably be held most responsible for the current wave of popularity of Ethiopian music because he featured Mulatu Astatke’s music in his movie, “Broken Flowers”, puts it very nicely in a recent interview in Wire magazine. He calls Ethiopian music “a little garden of eruption of music”. He says “it’s got an African thing, a kind of Middle Eastern thing, somewhere in there as well, and then that funk kind of sound, and jazz”. Here is Mulatu Astatke and the British band, the Heliocentrics, with “Anglo Ethio Suite”.
9 Mulatu Astatke & Heliocentrics - Anglo Ethio Suite (Strut)
10 Alemayehu Eshete - Kenoru Lebetchahe (Buda Musique)
From the Ethiopiques Series, that was Alemayehu Eshete with the piece “Kenoru Lebetchahe” – “If you live alone”.
Ali Farka Toure’s son Vieux Farka Toure is emerging as a talent and star in his own right. The track we are going to listen to now is “Fafa” from his second album, “Fondo”, which came out in 2009.
Also from the desert regions of Mali, but further north than Timbuktu from where Vieux Farka Toure hails, is Touareg group, Tinariwen. After Vieux, we’ll hear Tinariwen with “Tenhert”, which means “The Doe”, based on a poem by Mohammed Assori Ahmed, and is sort of rapped rather than sung to great effect as you’ll hear.
11 Vieux Farka Toure – Fafa (World Circuit Music)
12 Tinariwen – Tenhert (Independiente)
13 Group Doueh - Dun dan (Sublime Frequencies)
The Sahrawi are from Western Sahara, a disputed territory under Moroccan occupation. Unlike Tinariwen, Group Doueh are not keen to get into a studio to record and would rather stick with their home-based set-up, although the music is just as fiery. Luckily for us Hisham Mayet of Sublime Frequencies managed to persuade them to release some of their home recordings. We heard “Dun Dan”. As Mayet says “Fidelity be damned”.
We featured the Beijing-based band, Hanggai, last month. Here they are again with something called “Flower”.
14 Hanggai – Flower (World Music Network)
15 Christy Doran & Boris Salchuk - Chylgychyng yry (a herder’s song) (Melt 2000)
Boris Salchuk is a member the Tuvan group Shu De and in the “herder’s song” we’ve just heard, he teamed up with Christy Doran, the Irish-born, Switzerland-based guitarist who we spoke about last month.
Joik is the traditional singing style from Samiland, and here is Wimme Saari, like Mari Boine a broadminded collaborator, with “Morning Coffee”, his own song, sung in a pretty, austere, authentic joik style.
16 Wimme Saari - Morning Coffee (Rockadillo)
17 Frode Halti - Jag haver ingen karere (ECM)
ECM records a lot of Norwegian musicians. Accordian player Frode Halti collaborated with trumpeter, Arve Hendriksen, viola player Garth Knox and singer Maja Ratkje on the album “Passing Images”. The piece we’ve just heard was a traditional Swedish song “Jag haver ingen karare” or “No one is dearer to me” from a region called Smaland.
Almamegretta are a reggae band from Naples who sings in Napoletano, a regional dialect. Here they are with a track titled “Sanacore”, which was mixed by Adrian Sherwood, the magnificent English dub producer and owner of the On-U-Sound record label.
18 Almamegretta – Sanacore (BMG Recordi Spa)
19 Andy Palacio & the Garifuna Collective - Weyu Larigi Weyu (Day by day) (Cumbancha)
Heading off to the Caribbean after Naples, to Belize in fact, we heard Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective.
And now to Jamaica - King Tubby and Soul Syndicate with the track “Ethiopian Version” from the mid-70s.
20 King Tubby & Soul Syndicate - Ethiopian Version (Blood and Fire)
21 Jah Wobble - Tyger Tyger (Thirsty Ear Recordings)
Jah Wobble is a kind of global bass player who we’ve been playing a lot recently. This version of the William Blake poem, “Tyger Tyger”, is off an album of stuff inspired by Blake.
Levon Helm, the drummer from the Band, produced a fantastic record in 2007. This is “Calvary” from that record and is written by Byron Isaacs, the bass player for this album.
22 Levon Helm – Calvary (Vanguard)
23 James Yorkston & the Big Eyes Family Players - Low down in the broom (Domino)
A terrific arrangement of the traditional ballad “Low down in the broom” by the Scottish musician James Yorkston, here playing it with the Big Eyes Family Players.
Up until a year ago Michael Toye was a Cape Town-based musician. He now lives in Spain. The piece comes from a self-released CD called “Ithaca”.
24 Michael Toye - Under the hill (Michael Toye)
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
2 December 2009, World Cafe
1 Four Brothers - Ndivumbamireiwo (ZMC)
That was the Chimurenga sounds of the Four Brothers from Zimbabwe. Twin guitars uncannily emulating the interlocking mbiras of traditional Shona music. Recorded in the late 90s, it comes from a collection of Zimbabwean guitar music by Earthworks, which put out some wonderful African stuff in the 80s and 90s. An apt quote by probably the grandfather of world music DJs, BBC presenter Andy Kershaw, appears on the CD: “there isn’t a guitarist in the West fit to fondle the plectrums of these guys”.
The World Café show tonight is a real mix – we’re jumping around, not sticking strictly to any continental ordering, looking for sonic rather than geographic connections. We’ve got:
• Klezmer-inspired fusions mingling with Iranian music
• International dub connecting up with a kind of slam poetry from Cape Town
• A Moroccan-Iranian collaboration leading us to flamenco-style kora playing
• Music from the grasslands of North Western and North Eastern China rubbing shoulders with Touareg music from the Western Sahara
• West African rumba slowed to a reggae beat, and an Ethiopian rumba, of all things
• Music originally from the rural hinterland of Kinshasa retooled for the city, and segueing to Scandinavian dance music and finally to rootsy Americana via Scotland and England
First up – a triple play: The legendary percussion group from Iran, Trio Chemirani, gives way to John Zorn’s band, Masada, and then to the Cracow Klezmer Band from Warsaw, both on Zorn’s label Tzadik.
2 Trio Chemirani - Yazdah (World Music Network)
3 Masada – Ravayah (Tzadik)
4 The Cracow Klezmer Band - The Warrior (Tzadik)
First we listened to Trio Chemirani, based in Paris and founded by Tehran-born Djamchid Chemirani. The Trio is a family band; Djamchid sons Keyvan and Bijan make up the rest of the trio. Djamchid played in Cape Town a few years ago, at the Galaxy in Rylands, with Irish jazz guitarist Christie Doran.
Next was Masada, one of John Zorn’s bands, in which he replicates Ornette Coleman’s 60s combination of trumpet, alto sax, bass and drum that Coleman used in his free jazz explorations. Zorn applies an early free jazz aesthetic to klezmer. Instead of Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins, Zorn has Dave Douglas, Greg Cohen and Joey Baron.
In the third piece, the Cracow Klezmer Band melds new wave tango to klezmer.
Back to Iran, from the same stunning collection we drew on earlier, the Rough Guide to the Music of Iran, we have the group Jahle. Jahle’s members are of Arabian and African extraction and the band hails from the coastal port of Bandar-e Abbas in the Persian Gulf. The piece we’re going to hear is a BBC recording made especially for a show on Iranian music put together by Andy Kershaw.
5 Jahle – Lullaby (BBC/World Music Network)
That was “Lullaby” by Jahle. Now for some global dub …
6 Jah Wobble with Jaki Liebezeit and Neville Murray - Nev 12 (Warner Chappell Music Ltd)
7 Khoi Konnexion – Oor uitgestrekte dorre vlaktes vaal (Khoi Konnexion)
We first heard Nev 12 by Jah Wobble with Jaki Liebezeit and Neville Murray, and then from Cape Town, the Khoi Konnexion with the rather harrowing “Oor uitgestekte dorre vlaktes vaal” built around a mouth bow sample and a menacing buzzing sound.
All members of the Chemirani Trio are prodigious collaborators. From Kevyan Chemirani’s CD of partnerings with vocalists, “Le rythme de la parole”, the next track is “The sea separates us”. It’s a piece with the singer Cherifa, who is from the middle of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Cherifa is a “cheikhat”, a professional female dancer and singer.
8 Cherifa & Kevyan Chemirani - The sea separates us (Accords Croises)
9 Kaouding Cissoko – Senegal-Mauritanie (Palm Pictures)
Last month we heard Toumani Diabate’s tribute to Kaouding Cissoko. Cissoko died in 2003. We’ve just heard Kaouding with something he calls “Senegal-Mauritanie”. To us it sounds distinctly Spanish. Perhaps it’s just the penchant that some West African musician have for dropping in flamenco licks, or perhaps it’s the Arabic roots that music from Western Sahara and flamenco share.
Another tie-in from last month’s show: we listen now to “Ko be na touma son” by Amadou & Mariam from Mali.
10 Amadou & Mariam - Ko be na touma son (Syllart Productions)
We now go to China for two 2009 releases: first to the Western Xinjiang region far from Beijing and then to Inner Mongolia, which is pretty close to the capital.
11 Mamer – Iligai (Real World)
12 Hanggai – My banjo & I (World Music Network)
The first track was by Mamer, who we played last month. Hanggai are a young group from Beijing who include local Beijingers and musicians from Inner Mongolia, just on the Chinese side of the eastern border with Mongolia. Robin Haller and Metteo Scumaci, British musicians and producers who seem to be specialising in spicing up grassland Chinese bands for Western audiences, produced both pieces.
Back to Africa …
13 Etran Finatawa - Naanaaye (World Music Network)
That was the Touareg and Wodaabe group, Etran Finatawa, from Niger. They played in Cape Town two months ago. Naanaaye is a Wodaabe healing song.
Now to two Caribbean rhythms transplanted to Africa: Orchestra Baobab from Senegal with a very slowed down reggae-ish type beat and Mulatu Astatke from Ethiopia with some kind of a rumba.
14 Orchestra Baobab – Dee moo woor (World Circuit Music)
15 Mulatu Astatke & His Ethiopian Quintet - I faram gami i faram – (Worthy Records)
That was, firstly, Orchestra Baobab off their great 2002 release, a comeback album after many years of silence, “Specialist in all styles”.
Then we had Mulatu Astatke & His Ethiopian Quintet from an LP released in the mid-60s, “Afro-Latin Soul”, which was reissued in 2005.
Now to Kinshasa for two groups from the Congotronics series on the Crammed Disk label. First up is Staff Benda Bilili with “Je t’aime” – which to us sounds like some kind of aberrant channelling of James Brown.
16 Staff Benda Bilili – Je t’aime (Crammed Discs)
17 Kasai Allstars – Kafuulu bulu (Crammed Discs)
We’ve just heard the Kasai Allstars and before that Staff Benda Bilili. This is some of the most lively and immediate African music being given international release at the moment.
Still sticking in the lively, dancey kind of vein – here is the Swedish/English band, Swap, with “Khazi”.
18 Swap – Khazi (Amigo Musik AB, East Side Inc)
19 Lena Willemark & Ale Moller (ECM)
After Swap, we heard a combination of musicians we’ve aired a lot in this show, Lena Willemark and Ale Moller, with a rendition of an old hymn, “Kom helge ande” (Come holy spirit).
You probably know that the Shetland Islands are part of Scotland, what you might not know is that until about 300 years ago the Shetlands were integrally linked to Scandanavia. Ale Moller has explored the Scottish- Swedish linkage a number of times with one of the greatest living Scottish fiddlers, Aly Bain, who actually hails from the Shetlands. The next tune is from their 2007 release, “Beyond the Stacks”. It’s called “King Karl’s Marsch” and uses the “Devil’s Tuning” or “Troll Tuning” – AEAC#. We go from Shetlands to the Scottish mainland.
20 Aly Bain & Ale Moller – King Karl’s Marsch (Whirlie Records and East Side, Inc)
21 James Yorkston & the Big Eyes Family Players - Martinmas Time (Domino Recording Co. Ltd)
We’ve just heard James Yorkston’s very recent version of the traditional song, “Martinmas Time”. He calls his band “the Big Eyes Family Players”. Martinmas is the feast of St Martin, which was on the 11 November.
We’re going to end the show tonight with two more traditional songs. First we have Anne Briggs’s version of “Blackwater Side”.
The second piece is Mike Seeger’s version of “The Golden Willow Tree”, which derives from the 17th century British broadside, “The Golden Vanity”, and is based on the 1937 field recording of Justis Begley from Hazard, Kentucky. Seeger died earlier this year.
22 Anne Briggs – Blackwater side (Topic Records Ltd)
23 Mike Seeger – The Golden Willow Tree (Smithsonion Folkways Recordings)
That was the Chimurenga sounds of the Four Brothers from Zimbabwe. Twin guitars uncannily emulating the interlocking mbiras of traditional Shona music. Recorded in the late 90s, it comes from a collection of Zimbabwean guitar music by Earthworks, which put out some wonderful African stuff in the 80s and 90s. An apt quote by probably the grandfather of world music DJs, BBC presenter Andy Kershaw, appears on the CD: “there isn’t a guitarist in the West fit to fondle the plectrums of these guys”.
The World Café show tonight is a real mix – we’re jumping around, not sticking strictly to any continental ordering, looking for sonic rather than geographic connections. We’ve got:
• Klezmer-inspired fusions mingling with Iranian music
• International dub connecting up with a kind of slam poetry from Cape Town
• A Moroccan-Iranian collaboration leading us to flamenco-style kora playing
• Music from the grasslands of North Western and North Eastern China rubbing shoulders with Touareg music from the Western Sahara
• West African rumba slowed to a reggae beat, and an Ethiopian rumba, of all things
• Music originally from the rural hinterland of Kinshasa retooled for the city, and segueing to Scandinavian dance music and finally to rootsy Americana via Scotland and England
First up – a triple play: The legendary percussion group from Iran, Trio Chemirani, gives way to John Zorn’s band, Masada, and then to the Cracow Klezmer Band from Warsaw, both on Zorn’s label Tzadik.
2 Trio Chemirani - Yazdah (World Music Network)
3 Masada – Ravayah (Tzadik)
4 The Cracow Klezmer Band - The Warrior (Tzadik)
First we listened to Trio Chemirani, based in Paris and founded by Tehran-born Djamchid Chemirani. The Trio is a family band; Djamchid sons Keyvan and Bijan make up the rest of the trio. Djamchid played in Cape Town a few years ago, at the Galaxy in Rylands, with Irish jazz guitarist Christie Doran.
Next was Masada, one of John Zorn’s bands, in which he replicates Ornette Coleman’s 60s combination of trumpet, alto sax, bass and drum that Coleman used in his free jazz explorations. Zorn applies an early free jazz aesthetic to klezmer. Instead of Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins, Zorn has Dave Douglas, Greg Cohen and Joey Baron.
In the third piece, the Cracow Klezmer Band melds new wave tango to klezmer.
Back to Iran, from the same stunning collection we drew on earlier, the Rough Guide to the Music of Iran, we have the group Jahle. Jahle’s members are of Arabian and African extraction and the band hails from the coastal port of Bandar-e Abbas in the Persian Gulf. The piece we’re going to hear is a BBC recording made especially for a show on Iranian music put together by Andy Kershaw.
5 Jahle – Lullaby (BBC/World Music Network)
That was “Lullaby” by Jahle. Now for some global dub …
6 Jah Wobble with Jaki Liebezeit and Neville Murray - Nev 12 (Warner Chappell Music Ltd)
7 Khoi Konnexion – Oor uitgestrekte dorre vlaktes vaal (Khoi Konnexion)
We first heard Nev 12 by Jah Wobble with Jaki Liebezeit and Neville Murray, and then from Cape Town, the Khoi Konnexion with the rather harrowing “Oor uitgestekte dorre vlaktes vaal” built around a mouth bow sample and a menacing buzzing sound.
All members of the Chemirani Trio are prodigious collaborators. From Kevyan Chemirani’s CD of partnerings with vocalists, “Le rythme de la parole”, the next track is “The sea separates us”. It’s a piece with the singer Cherifa, who is from the middle of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Cherifa is a “cheikhat”, a professional female dancer and singer.
8 Cherifa & Kevyan Chemirani - The sea separates us (Accords Croises)
9 Kaouding Cissoko – Senegal-Mauritanie (Palm Pictures)
Last month we heard Toumani Diabate’s tribute to Kaouding Cissoko. Cissoko died in 2003. We’ve just heard Kaouding with something he calls “Senegal-Mauritanie”. To us it sounds distinctly Spanish. Perhaps it’s just the penchant that some West African musician have for dropping in flamenco licks, or perhaps it’s the Arabic roots that music from Western Sahara and flamenco share.
Another tie-in from last month’s show: we listen now to “Ko be na touma son” by Amadou & Mariam from Mali.
10 Amadou & Mariam - Ko be na touma son (Syllart Productions)
We now go to China for two 2009 releases: first to the Western Xinjiang region far from Beijing and then to Inner Mongolia, which is pretty close to the capital.
11 Mamer – Iligai (Real World)
12 Hanggai – My banjo & I (World Music Network)
The first track was by Mamer, who we played last month. Hanggai are a young group from Beijing who include local Beijingers and musicians from Inner Mongolia, just on the Chinese side of the eastern border with Mongolia. Robin Haller and Metteo Scumaci, British musicians and producers who seem to be specialising in spicing up grassland Chinese bands for Western audiences, produced both pieces.
Back to Africa …
13 Etran Finatawa - Naanaaye (World Music Network)
That was the Touareg and Wodaabe group, Etran Finatawa, from Niger. They played in Cape Town two months ago. Naanaaye is a Wodaabe healing song.
Now to two Caribbean rhythms transplanted to Africa: Orchestra Baobab from Senegal with a very slowed down reggae-ish type beat and Mulatu Astatke from Ethiopia with some kind of a rumba.
14 Orchestra Baobab – Dee moo woor (World Circuit Music)
15 Mulatu Astatke & His Ethiopian Quintet - I faram gami i faram – (Worthy Records)
That was, firstly, Orchestra Baobab off their great 2002 release, a comeback album after many years of silence, “Specialist in all styles”.
Then we had Mulatu Astatke & His Ethiopian Quintet from an LP released in the mid-60s, “Afro-Latin Soul”, which was reissued in 2005.
Now to Kinshasa for two groups from the Congotronics series on the Crammed Disk label. First up is Staff Benda Bilili with “Je t’aime” – which to us sounds like some kind of aberrant channelling of James Brown.
16 Staff Benda Bilili – Je t’aime (Crammed Discs)
17 Kasai Allstars – Kafuulu bulu (Crammed Discs)
We’ve just heard the Kasai Allstars and before that Staff Benda Bilili. This is some of the most lively and immediate African music being given international release at the moment.
Still sticking in the lively, dancey kind of vein – here is the Swedish/English band, Swap, with “Khazi”.
18 Swap – Khazi (Amigo Musik AB, East Side Inc)
19 Lena Willemark & Ale Moller (ECM)
After Swap, we heard a combination of musicians we’ve aired a lot in this show, Lena Willemark and Ale Moller, with a rendition of an old hymn, “Kom helge ande” (Come holy spirit).
You probably know that the Shetland Islands are part of Scotland, what you might not know is that until about 300 years ago the Shetlands were integrally linked to Scandanavia. Ale Moller has explored the Scottish- Swedish linkage a number of times with one of the greatest living Scottish fiddlers, Aly Bain, who actually hails from the Shetlands. The next tune is from their 2007 release, “Beyond the Stacks”. It’s called “King Karl’s Marsch” and uses the “Devil’s Tuning” or “Troll Tuning” – AEAC#. We go from Shetlands to the Scottish mainland.
20 Aly Bain & Ale Moller – King Karl’s Marsch (Whirlie Records and East Side, Inc)
21 James Yorkston & the Big Eyes Family Players - Martinmas Time (Domino Recording Co. Ltd)
We’ve just heard James Yorkston’s very recent version of the traditional song, “Martinmas Time”. He calls his band “the Big Eyes Family Players”. Martinmas is the feast of St Martin, which was on the 11 November.
We’re going to end the show tonight with two more traditional songs. First we have Anne Briggs’s version of “Blackwater Side”.
The second piece is Mike Seeger’s version of “The Golden Willow Tree”, which derives from the 17th century British broadside, “The Golden Vanity”, and is based on the 1937 field recording of Justis Begley from Hazard, Kentucky. Seeger died earlier this year.
22 Anne Briggs – Blackwater side (Topic Records Ltd)
23 Mike Seeger – The Golden Willow Tree (Smithsonion Folkways Recordings)
4 November 2009, World Cafe
1 Khoi Khonnexion - Jan jan jan (Khoi Khonnexion)
You’ve just heard the Khoi Khonnexion from Cape Town. Garth Erasmus, Glen Arendse and Jethro Louw. That piece was called “Jan Jan Jan”. It’s a slice of life from the Cedarberg and the Kouebokkeveld.
Tonight it’s the usual mix - with some of the usual suspects.
• In the Ethiopian slot we are going to play two dubbed-up versions of the same piece both involving the great, musical polyglot bass-playing producer Bill Laswell. In fact, as you will see, bass-playing global fusion producers are a mini theme in tonight’s programme.
• We will go to Kinshasa for another injection of urbanised rural music from the Belgium-based imprint, Congotronics.
• From the Indian sub-continent we’ll hear sort-of field recordings of Indian radio.
• We will go to northwest China, swing to west to Norway, and then to Sweden.
• In the Anglo American section of the show, we’ll bring you sounds from late 60s and early 70s English folk revival, and then “American folk music revisited”, as one of the records we are going to play puts it.
• We’ll end with some very spacey stuff, firstly, from Mali and secondly, from some non-place, fusion space.
Next, we have two pieces from the deserts of Western and Northern Africa. The first one is by the great Touareg group from northern Mali, Tinariwen, and is titled “Lulla”. Lulla appears to be one of a number of impassive women the singer tries to court in the song. At one point the singer exclaims, “ the situation is hard”.
2 Tinariwen – Lulla (Indepiendiente Ltd)
3 Hansa el Becharia - Djazair Johara/Ah Oueja (Indigo France)
First we heard Tinariwen, with their song, “Lulla”, from their new CD “Companions”. That was follow by Hansa el Becharia. Hansa el Becharia is a rare women gnawa musician and song-writer from Southern Algeria. This recording comes from her sole CD released in 2001 which features musicians from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Niger. As you have heard, her guitar playing is completely stellar and that’s what originally attracted attention to her in Paris in the late 90s.
We go now to West Africa for a double play, first to Mali and then Nigeria.
4 Amadou and Mariam - Djama (Nonesuch)
5 Sir Victor Uwaifo - KiriKisi (Ekassa 24) (Soundways)
First we had Amadou and Mariam, the king and queen of West African pop, at least in Europe. After a sojourn with Manu Chao as a producer for their breakthrough CD, “Dimanche a Bamako”, they’re back together with their long-time Paris based producer, Marc-Antoine Moreau.
After that was Sir Victor Uwaifo who hails from Benin City, in Edo State, Nigeria. The piece, “KiriKisi”, dates from 1973. Victor Uwaifo, we are pleased to report, is still going strong. The track comes from a recent collection of his 70s stuff out on Soundways, called “Guitar-boy superstar 1970 - 1976”.
Now to Ethiopia, or more correctly NYC, for 2 closely related pieces.
6 Abyssinia Infinite - Alesema (Rykomusic)
7 Bill Laswell and Jah Wobble – Alsema Dub (Palm Pictures)
That was “Alesema” flowing into “Alsema Dub”. Both pieces have Ejigayehu “Gigi” Shibabaw at their centres. Bill Laswell produced both. The dub version is reinforced at the bottom end by Jah Wobble, who, like Laswell, is also a global-fusion bass-playing producer-collaborator. The dub version was actually made about 2 years before the regular version. The regular version is driven by a number of Ethiopean musicians, while the more dubby version has the normal stable of musicians associated with Laswell’s Axiom label.
From the Congotronics stable this is Kasai Allstars and the very trancey “Quick as White”.
8 Kasai Allstars - Quick as white (Crammed Discs)
That was the Kasai Allstars, from Kinshasa. It comes from the 2008 release, “In the 7th moon, the chief turned into a swimming fish and are the head of this enemy by magic”.
And now for something completely different: field recordings of Indian radio, if we can call them that. This stuff has been collected by the Seattle-based label Sublime Frequencies. We can’t improve on the blurb on the CD – so here it is: “Radio stations in India assault the listener in a variety of ways. DJs, adverts, drama and music are juxtaposed seamlessly to create improbable and spectacular audio art. This is Radio collage with minimal contextual identification as a Visa requirement. This is a map without a key. This is an encyclopedia without an index.” What we are going to hear now is called “Radio Hill Station”. Don’t adjust your sets – it’s complete with static, hum and poor tuning.
9 Radio India - Radio Hill Station (Sublime Frequencies)
That was Radio India, but you’re on FMR 101.3.
Now to Bengal for a song by Paban Das Baul:
“In my room is some bird,
who lives here from time to time.
If I try to catch it,
the bird eludes me.
What shall I do?”
10 State of Bengal vs Paban Das Baul – Kon Ek Pakhi (Real World)
That was Saifullah Zaman (aka State of Bengal) – yet another bass-playing producer. On the piece, “Kon Ek Pakhi”, he collaborated with singer, poet and musician Paban Das Baul. Paban also makes the instruments he plays on the track: the dubki, a sort of tambourine; the khamak, a plucking drum; and the dotora, a five-stringed lute.
Now music from the Qitai County in China’s northwest Xinjiang province, far from the ambit of Beijing (2000 miles away). The song we are going to hear is by Mamer.
11 Mamer – Mountain Wind (Real World)
12 Varttina – Lumotar / The Enchantress (Real World)
13 Frifot - Sluring (Amigo Music AB)
First in that triple play was Mamer, drawing on grassland songs and music from northwestern China. It comes from his recent Real World CD called “Eagle”.
We then had Varttina from Finland, and after that Frifot from Sweden.
Set your controls for England in the 1971. The first is by guitar maestro Bert Jansch and is the traditional “Reynardine”. As the sleeve notes say: “the song of the fox, played here in D major with the bass string down to D”.
14 Bert Jansch - Reynardine (Transatlantic Records Ltd)
15 Anne Briggs - Willie-o-winsbury (Topic)
After Bert Jansch’s “Reynardine” from the LP “Rosemary Lane”, we had “Willie-o-Winsbury” sung by Anne Briggs, with John Moynihan and Briggs on bouzouki. Moynihan was more or less responsible for bringing the bouzouki into English folk in the late 60s.
Off to the US for two old-style, rootsy blues songs, both off newish CDs. The first by Ramblin Jack Elliot, “Please remember me”. The second is by Seasick Steve, who introduces it himself.
16 Ramblin Jack Elliot - Please remember me (Anti)
17 Seasick Steve – Chiggers (Warner Brothers)
First we had Ramblin Jack Elliot off his 2009 CD “A Stranger Here”. The CD consists of his interpretations of country blues music from the depression era and is deftly produced by Joe Henry. The song we heard was “Please remember me” and was written by Walter Davis. Van Dyke Parks played the piano.
More “American folk music revisited…”
18 Bob Neuwith and Eliza Carthy - I wish I was a mole in the ground (Shout Factory)
From Hal Willner’s tribute to “The anthology of American folk music” - the very influential collection of 78s from the 20s and 30s put together by Harry Smith, which he put onto 6 records and released in the 50s, that was “I wish I was a mole in the ground”. Bascom Lamar Lunsford, who hailed from North Carolina, wrote the song. Here Bob Neuwith and Eliza Carthy played it.
You’ve just heard the Khoi Khonnexion from Cape Town. Garth Erasmus, Glen Arendse and Jethro Louw. That piece was called “Jan Jan Jan”. It’s a slice of life from the Cedarberg and the Kouebokkeveld.
Tonight it’s the usual mix - with some of the usual suspects.
• In the Ethiopian slot we are going to play two dubbed-up versions of the same piece both involving the great, musical polyglot bass-playing producer Bill Laswell. In fact, as you will see, bass-playing global fusion producers are a mini theme in tonight’s programme.
• We will go to Kinshasa for another injection of urbanised rural music from the Belgium-based imprint, Congotronics.
• From the Indian sub-continent we’ll hear sort-of field recordings of Indian radio.
• We will go to northwest China, swing to west to Norway, and then to Sweden.
• In the Anglo American section of the show, we’ll bring you sounds from late 60s and early 70s English folk revival, and then “American folk music revisited”, as one of the records we are going to play puts it.
• We’ll end with some very spacey stuff, firstly, from Mali and secondly, from some non-place, fusion space.
Next, we have two pieces from the deserts of Western and Northern Africa. The first one is by the great Touareg group from northern Mali, Tinariwen, and is titled “Lulla”. Lulla appears to be one of a number of impassive women the singer tries to court in the song. At one point the singer exclaims, “ the situation is hard”.
2 Tinariwen – Lulla (Indepiendiente Ltd)
3 Hansa el Becharia - Djazair Johara/Ah Oueja (Indigo France)
First we heard Tinariwen, with their song, “Lulla”, from their new CD “Companions”. That was follow by Hansa el Becharia. Hansa el Becharia is a rare women gnawa musician and song-writer from Southern Algeria. This recording comes from her sole CD released in 2001 which features musicians from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Niger. As you have heard, her guitar playing is completely stellar and that’s what originally attracted attention to her in Paris in the late 90s.
We go now to West Africa for a double play, first to Mali and then Nigeria.
4 Amadou and Mariam - Djama (Nonesuch)
5 Sir Victor Uwaifo - KiriKisi (Ekassa 24) (Soundways)
First we had Amadou and Mariam, the king and queen of West African pop, at least in Europe. After a sojourn with Manu Chao as a producer for their breakthrough CD, “Dimanche a Bamako”, they’re back together with their long-time Paris based producer, Marc-Antoine Moreau.
After that was Sir Victor Uwaifo who hails from Benin City, in Edo State, Nigeria. The piece, “KiriKisi”, dates from 1973. Victor Uwaifo, we are pleased to report, is still going strong. The track comes from a recent collection of his 70s stuff out on Soundways, called “Guitar-boy superstar 1970 - 1976”.
Now to Ethiopia, or more correctly NYC, for 2 closely related pieces.
6 Abyssinia Infinite - Alesema (Rykomusic)
7 Bill Laswell and Jah Wobble – Alsema Dub (Palm Pictures)
That was “Alesema” flowing into “Alsema Dub”. Both pieces have Ejigayehu “Gigi” Shibabaw at their centres. Bill Laswell produced both. The dub version is reinforced at the bottom end by Jah Wobble, who, like Laswell, is also a global-fusion bass-playing producer-collaborator. The dub version was actually made about 2 years before the regular version. The regular version is driven by a number of Ethiopean musicians, while the more dubby version has the normal stable of musicians associated with Laswell’s Axiom label.
From the Congotronics stable this is Kasai Allstars and the very trancey “Quick as White”.
8 Kasai Allstars - Quick as white (Crammed Discs)
That was the Kasai Allstars, from Kinshasa. It comes from the 2008 release, “In the 7th moon, the chief turned into a swimming fish and are the head of this enemy by magic”.
And now for something completely different: field recordings of Indian radio, if we can call them that. This stuff has been collected by the Seattle-based label Sublime Frequencies. We can’t improve on the blurb on the CD – so here it is: “Radio stations in India assault the listener in a variety of ways. DJs, adverts, drama and music are juxtaposed seamlessly to create improbable and spectacular audio art. This is Radio collage with minimal contextual identification as a Visa requirement. This is a map without a key. This is an encyclopedia without an index.” What we are going to hear now is called “Radio Hill Station”. Don’t adjust your sets – it’s complete with static, hum and poor tuning.
9 Radio India - Radio Hill Station (Sublime Frequencies)
That was Radio India, but you’re on FMR 101.3.
Now to Bengal for a song by Paban Das Baul:
“In my room is some bird,
who lives here from time to time.
If I try to catch it,
the bird eludes me.
What shall I do?”
10 State of Bengal vs Paban Das Baul – Kon Ek Pakhi (Real World)
That was Saifullah Zaman (aka State of Bengal) – yet another bass-playing producer. On the piece, “Kon Ek Pakhi”, he collaborated with singer, poet and musician Paban Das Baul. Paban also makes the instruments he plays on the track: the dubki, a sort of tambourine; the khamak, a plucking drum; and the dotora, a five-stringed lute.
Now music from the Qitai County in China’s northwest Xinjiang province, far from the ambit of Beijing (2000 miles away). The song we are going to hear is by Mamer.
11 Mamer – Mountain Wind (Real World)
12 Varttina – Lumotar / The Enchantress (Real World)
13 Frifot - Sluring (Amigo Music AB)
First in that triple play was Mamer, drawing on grassland songs and music from northwestern China. It comes from his recent Real World CD called “Eagle”.
We then had Varttina from Finland, and after that Frifot from Sweden.
Set your controls for England in the 1971. The first is by guitar maestro Bert Jansch and is the traditional “Reynardine”. As the sleeve notes say: “the song of the fox, played here in D major with the bass string down to D”.
14 Bert Jansch - Reynardine (Transatlantic Records Ltd)
15 Anne Briggs - Willie-o-winsbury (Topic)
After Bert Jansch’s “Reynardine” from the LP “Rosemary Lane”, we had “Willie-o-Winsbury” sung by Anne Briggs, with John Moynihan and Briggs on bouzouki. Moynihan was more or less responsible for bringing the bouzouki into English folk in the late 60s.
Off to the US for two old-style, rootsy blues songs, both off newish CDs. The first by Ramblin Jack Elliot, “Please remember me”. The second is by Seasick Steve, who introduces it himself.
16 Ramblin Jack Elliot - Please remember me (Anti)
17 Seasick Steve – Chiggers (Warner Brothers)
First we had Ramblin Jack Elliot off his 2009 CD “A Stranger Here”. The CD consists of his interpretations of country blues music from the depression era and is deftly produced by Joe Henry. The song we heard was “Please remember me” and was written by Walter Davis. Van Dyke Parks played the piano.
More “American folk music revisited…”
18 Bob Neuwith and Eliza Carthy - I wish I was a mole in the ground (Shout Factory)
From Hal Willner’s tribute to “The anthology of American folk music” - the very influential collection of 78s from the 20s and 30s put together by Harry Smith, which he put onto 6 records and released in the 50s, that was “I wish I was a mole in the ground”. Bascom Lamar Lunsford, who hailed from North Carolina, wrote the song. Here Bob Neuwith and Eliza Carthy played it.
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