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)