3 November 2010, World Cafe

1 Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet – Kangding Qingge /Old Timey Dance Party (Nettwerk)

Four great American string players fusing old timey Americana with Chinese music. Round about 2005 Abigail Washburn, banjo player and singer from old timey, bluegrass band, Uncle Earl, who, amazingly sings on the tune in Madarin without skipping a beat, got together with some virtuoso string players, Bela Fleck also on banjo, Ben Sollee on cello and Casey Drissen on fiddle, to form the Sparrow Quartet to tour China. Washburn had been in China on and off since finishing high school in ’96 during her years as an Asian Studies student and picked up Mandarin there pretty quickly. The track came from their 2008 album, when they went back to China with the band to perform during the Beijing Olympics.

2 Le Thu – Sao Bien (Sublime Frequencies)

“Saigon Rock”, out on the somewhat cultish label “Sublime Frequencies”, is proving to be one of the best crate digging exercises of the year. The tunes were all recorded in makeshift studios (and even US army facilities) while the Vietnam War raged. During this period, only a handful of Saigon record companies were involved and only 45s were produced. Much of the stuff was done by leading Vietnam crooners who used 60s pulp ballads as a template, but drew on traditional forms too.

3 Pumpuang Duangjan - Sao Dok Kum Tai (Lady From a Flower) (Sublime Frequency)

The fusion of 60s pop rock with traditional forms was certainly not confined to Vietnam. From another Sublime Frequencies CD “Thai Pop Spectacular”, that was Pumpuang Duangjan with “Lady from a flower”.

4 Rokia Traore – Tchamantche (Nonesuch)

Rokia Traore brings a kind of quiet, folkish meditative sensitivity to traditional Bamana griot music from Bamako and surrounds. “Tchamantche” means “Balance”, and is the title track from her 2008 release. She plays guitar and belaphone.

5 Orchestra Baobab – Adduna Jural Naawo (Buur Desques)

In the title track of Orchestra Baobab’s 1975 album, “Adduna Jural Naawo”, singer Ndiouga Dieng remembers the nights after his father’s death, in which he sees the true meaning of time as being disappointment and cruelty. Barthelemy Attisso supplies the truly wonderful guitar.

Orchestra Baobab reprised the song as “Dee Moo Woor” on their 2002 album, “Specialist in all styles”.

6 Hedzoleh Soundz & Hugh Masekela – Languta (Blue Thumb Chisa)

In 1973 Hugh Masekela moved to Ghana after having been based in NYC since the mid 60s. He hooked up with Hedzoleh Soundz, who we’ve heard on this show before, to record an LP in Lagos, “Masekela introducing Hedzoleh Soundz”.

7 Tony Allen and Jimi Tenor – Selfish Gene (Strut)

Tony Allen has just turned 70. In concerts in NYC and London to celebrate this, he chose several collaborators. One of them was Finnish tenor player, Jimi Tenor, who he actually worked with last year in a studio outing for Strut Records. On the Strut record they brought some Nigerian, Finnish and American musicians with them to Paris, Berlin and Finland. Tenor added some retro keyboard sounds. “Selfish Gene” was written by Allen and sung by Tenor.

8 Dub Colossus – Ophir Dub (Real World)

Dub Colossus was at first a studio creation laid down in a makeshift set-up in Addis and smoothed out in the Real World Studios in Wiltshire under the driving force of Dubalah – the bass playing producer from Transglobal Underground. But last year Dub Colossus actually got together as an entity to tour Europe. Over the course of the last 2 years I’ve played nearly every track from their fantastic record, “Town called Addis”. This is another one. In future shows we’ll hear from their 2009 EP.

9 Unknown (Sublime Frequencies)

Another unknown title by an unknown band from Iraq during the rule of Saddam – brought to you by Sublime Frequencies on perhaps their best collection, “Choubi Choubi – Folk and pop sounds from Iraq”.

10 Group Doueh – Min binat omum (Sublime Frequencies)

From the 2009 Sublime Frequencies release “Treeg Salaam”, culled from home-made recordings of the singer, guitarist and writer for Group Doueh, Salmou Doueh Baamar. Baamar also plays the tinibit, some kind of string instrument not pictured or described in detail anywhere on the web.

11 Ella Jenkins – Wade in the water

Ella Jenkins is probably best known for her children’s songs. Here she is with a traditional gospel track “Wade in the water”, probably recorded in the 1960s with the Goodwill Spiritual Choir. One theory about the song is that it gives coded instructions to slaves about how to escape. I got the Jenkins version off the rather fantastic CD that came with the September edition of UNCUT. The song was apparently first published in 1901.

12 War – Slipping into darkness (Rhino)

From 1971, off WAR’s second LP “All Day Music”. According to them the song’s about standing on the brink of self-destruction and wondering which way to go.

13 Carl Bradney – Slipping into darkness (Blood and Fire)

The little-known Carl Bradney from a collection of reggaefied soul and funk tunes “Darker than blue: Soul from Jamdown 1973–1980” on the Blood and Fire label.

14 The Heptones – Serious Time (Island)

One of the greatest reggae vocal groups, the Heptones, with something from their Lee Perry produced 1977 album, “Party Time”.

15 The Heptones & the Observer – Way of life (Heartbeat)

Dub maestro and producer, the Observer (or Winston Niney), also worked with the Heptones. This is from his reworking of Heptones’ songs largely removing the vocals called “Heptones – Observer’s Style”.

16 The Toreadors – Gwinyitshe (Mavuthela Music Company)

Speaking of inspired collections, this year Strut put out a 3 volume collection of SA music, “Next Stop … Soweto”, covering mbaqanga, township funk, pop and r’n’b and jazz. This Toreadors song comes from volume 2, which covers pop and organ rock music from the late 60s to the late 70s.

17 The Mgababa Queens – Akulalwa Soweto (African Music Publishers)

“Akulalwa Soweto” means “‘We-don’t-sleep’ party in Soweto” and it’s also from volume 2 of the same Strut collection.

18 Malombo Jazz Makers – Vukani (Continental)

Phillip Tabane split from Malombo to form Malombo Jazz Men in 1967. The remaining Abbey Cindi, Lucky Ranku and Julian Bahula called themselves the Malombo Jazz Makers. This is from the Jazz Makers’ second album, “Volume 2”, released in 1971.

Check out the Electric Jive blog for some nice stuff on Tabane, including a link to a PhD thesis on the man.

19 African Brothers International – Ahyewa and Asaadua (Ambassador)

African Brothers International was one of the greatest Ghanaian highlife bands. “Ahyewa and Asaadua” comes from the LP “Afrohili” and is a kind of reworking of traditional Akan music using a modern rock instrumental line-up. The Akan people controlled the West African gold trade from the 17th century, but were colonized by the British and the French in the early 1900s. Their music is called Ashewa.

20 Mahmoud Ahmed – Bekifir Atkelidg (Mahmoud Records)

In 1974 Mahmoud Ahmed put out a number of singles on his own Addis-based label, Mahmoud Records. Thanks to the Oro blog, here is “Bekifir Atkelidg”. As far as I know, this stuff has yet to be reissued.

21 Tarika Samy – Fanaon’ny ankizy (Shananchie)

That was Samy’s Group, or Tarika Samy, off Volume 1 of the David Lindley and Kaiser collection of Madagascan music “A world out of time”. When Samoela (or Samy for short) Andriamalalaharijaona left them they became just “Tarika”.

22 James Blackshaw – White Goddess (Tompkins Square)

Twelve-string guitarist James Blackshaw started out as the British answer to the “New American Primitive” scene. The American scene includes musicians like Jack Rose (deceased earlier this year), whom I’ve played before, who were inspired by John Fahey and Robbie Basho. But Blackshaw quickly expanded his palette to include piano and voice and widened his musical scope to include early music and minimalism.

23 The Poozies – Planxty Colonel (Greentrax)

The Poozies were started by harp players Patsy Seddon and Mary MacMaster in the 1990s. They added a guitarist, fiddler and accordionist to the line-up to form the Poozies. MacMaster in fact plays the Camac electro harp – a harp that the Breton harpist Alan Stivell helped develop in the early 70s. The French company, Camac, was one of first to market the electro harp.

24 Richard Thompson – Here comes Geordie (Proper)

Richard Thompson in fine sardonic form, off his latest album, “Dream Attic”. No prizes for working out to whom he’s referring?

25 Karan Casey & John Doyle – False Lover John (Compass)

From their magnificent 2010 collection “Exiles Return”, recorded in Nashville.

26 Chris Smither – Miner’s Blues (Signature Sounds)

Chris Smither has been producing gruff, finger-style folkish blues and ragtime for many years. This is his version of a Frank Hutchison tune, and comes off his 2009 album “Time Stands Still”. Frank Hutchison played something the aficionados call “white country blues”. Hutchison died in 1945 and first recorded this song in 1928.

27 Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson – Bonaparte’s Lament (Topic)

Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy, mother and daughter English folk royalty, with a traditional tune popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Check out the demon triangle playing.

Elisabeth Higgin Null’s notes on Peggy Seeger’s recording of the same song say: “The song contrasts the loneliness of Boney’s exile with his former grandeur, advising those with wealth to beware of ambition as fate is unpredictable”. Null goes on to point out that there were lots of songs sympathetic to Boney around about the mid 19th century. Boney was a symbol of hope for Irish nationalists who seemed to prefer French dictatorship to their home-grown variety.

28 The Handsome Family – Fallen Peaches (Carrot Top Music)

Brett Sparks singing a chilling song set in the American Civil War written by his wife, Rennie. The song is about death on battle fields and the ghosts of the Confederate dead. It comes from a CD accompanying the August edition of Mojo.