5 January 2011, World Cafe

Tunes from 2010 releases – mostly new music, but also some re-issues, and mostly from CDs not yet played on the show. Some totally wonderful stuff came out last year!

1 Samy Izy – Igny Ihany (Network)

A tribute to the legendary Madagascan singer, Mama Sana, from the south of the island.

2 Spirit Talk Mbira – Huyai Muone (Ingoma)

Spirit Talk Mbira is a band that’s been around for about 13 years led by Chartwell Dutiro, who used to be the chief mbira player and a sax player for Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited. Dutiro relocated to England from Zimbabwe in the 90s and his band consists mainly of European musicians. As its name suggests, their sound is built on the traditional Shona sound of the mbira, hosho shakers, and hand clapping. The tune is from their 2010 release, “Dendere Ngoma (Music Nest)”.

3 Salma - Yanas Baridouh (Piranha)

The German label Piranha brought out a nice collection in 2010 of what they call “Nubian Soul Treasures” – music made by first or second generation migrants to Cairo from the south of Egypt following the forced removal of towns and villages during the creation of the second Aswan Dam and the flooding to form Lake Nasser. There are some famous early players in the collection, for instance, Ali Hassan Kuban and Mahmoud Fadl, and some later, lesser known ones like Salma who’ve smoothed out the music, but vocally kept things rough and soulful.

4 Mariem Hassan – Azzagafa (The Culture) (Nubenegra)

Another North African people affected by exile are the Sahrawi of the Western Sahara, which Morocco invaded and now rule after a botched attempt at decolonization by the Spanish in the mid 70s. Mariem Hassan is one of the most well known and outspoken Sahrawi musicians. After spending 26 years in an Algerian refugee camp on the border of Western Sahara, she now lives in Spain. Her latest CD is “Shouka” – which means “thorn” – a thorn in the conscience of Morocco, Spain and the rest of the world. The music is reminiscent of Mauritanian music and, with her fiery lyrics, brings to mind Malouma, who we’ve heard on the show before. Hassan sings in Hassaniya, a local Arabic dialect, and this is her song, “Azzagafa” (The Culture).

5 African Head Charge – Surfari (On-U-Sound)

African Head Charge is the longstanding project of Bonjo I A Binghi Noah and Adrian Sherwood, the producer behind the London-based label “On-U-Sound”. The story goes that they got the idea of combining dub, niabinghi drumming and psychedelia from Brian Eno’s and David Byrnes’s “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, and a comment made by Eno in which he spoke about “having a vision of psychedelic Africa”. Bonjo I hails from Jamaica and now lives in Ghana, and AHC are a revolving group of musicians drawn from the On-U-Sound stable. “Surfari” is probably named after the twangy surf guitar on the track, and comes from an album actually called “Vision of Psychedelic Africa”, first given an exclusive Japanese release in 2005, which was made more widely available in 2010.

6 Mulatu Astatke – Mulatu (Mochilla)

2010 has been a great year for the founding father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke. He released his first fully-fledged LP in 20 years for Strut, toured extensively (which included coming to Jo’burg in September), and a few months ago released an album recorded live at the Luckmann Theatre in LA in February 2009, with a huge band of American musicians, including jazzers of high credibility like saxist, flautist and bass clarinetist Bennie Maupin, who played with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 70s, and others from Miles’s 70s bands.

7 Natacha Atlas – Taalet (World Village)

Belgium born, and London bred and based, Natacha Atlas is becoming one of the great living Arabic singers. She released an album in 2010 aimed at continuing her exploration of the connections between Middle Eastern and Western orchestral and chamber music, in something she calls “baroque meeting Beirut”. It was largely co-written with and arranged by classical violinist, Samy Bishai. Unfortunately, it’s not a resounding success, but does have some totally wonderful moments – like the love song “Taalet”.

8 Elena Ledda – Andu (Sulfur Music)

Elena Ledda is from Sardinia and sings in Sardo. She plays with some fabulous musicians on “Amargura”, her 2010 release. Neapolitan Lino Cannavacciuolo plays a bunch of different violins including the kemange - a Persian spike fiddle. Paolo Fresu plays the flugelhorn (flicorno) and the nun's violin (tromba or Nonnengeige - an elongated, medieval monochord).

9 Koes Bersaudera – Bilakan Kamu Tetap Disini (I wish you would stay here) (Sublime Frequencies)

Koes Bersaudera, or Koes Brothers, were a legendary Indonesian band active in the 1960s. Part of their legend comes from being arrested and spending 3 months in prison for performing a Beatles song at a private house party in 1965. That was just before a military coup following which some of the Beatlemania restrictions were lifted. In 2010 Sublime Frequencies re-issued their 1967 LP – the Guilties, plus some other EPs and singles.

10 Paban Das Baul – Gopon Prem (Secret Love) (Riverboat Records)

2010 also saw Paban Das Baul’s first release of traditional Baul music in a long time – over the last 10 years or so, he’s been making fusion records with the likes of The State of Bengal. The album, “Music of the Honey Gatherers”, refers to the music of mendicant, itinerant Baul singers from Bengal who, drawing on rites of early Tantric Buddhism, gather spiritual rather than physical honey from the “blooming lotus chakras of energy” of their listeners. That was quite a flowery mouthful. Baul performs with Rajasthan musicians Nathoolal Solanki from Pushkar, on nagara or hand drum, and Chugge Khan from Jaisalmir.

11 Bob Brozman, John McSherry, Donal O’Connor – A Mhaire Bruineall (Riverboat Records)

Itinerant Hawaiian guitarist Bob Brozman playing with uilleann piper and whistle player John McSherry, fiddle player Donal O’Connar and singer Stephanie Makem, with a County Donegal song, “A Mhaire Bruineall”, from the mid-1700s, originally composed by Tadhg O Tiománaidhe. Through the song the writer tries to woo back his true love. It comes from a lovely album, “Six days in Down”.

12 Fay Hield – Two Brothers (Topic)

In 2010 Topic Records released a CD by its first new signing in a number of years, Fay Hield. The CD is called “Looking Glass”. She plays with her partner Jon Boden from Bellowhead, and the better known Sam Sweeney, also from Bellowhead, on fiddle, viola and nyckelharpa and a few other musicians.

13 Richard Thompson – A brother slips away (Proper Records)

Richard Thompson released a pretty good album in 2010, “Dream Attic”. It’s an album of new songs recorded live in concert, but there was also a limited edition with an accompanying album of stripped down demo versions of all the songs, often with just voice and guitar.

14 Inasmuch – live track from Trill Rd concert (Inasmuch)

In May 2010 the improv band “Inasmuch” gave a house party in Trill Road, Observatory, before they had found their name. Inasmuch consists of Gareth Erasmus on a number of homemade instruments and sax, Niklaas Zimmer on drums and Brendon Bussy on mandolin. This is a track from that concert. Erasmus plays one of his inventions – a bunch of San bows strapped to an oilcan which acts as a resonator with an electric pick-up – the bows are scraped and plucked. Thanks a lot to the band for sending this to me … hopefully there will be some kind of an official release soon.

15 Chicago Underground Duo - Laughing with the sun (Thrill Jockey)

The Chicago Underground Duo is cornet player Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor on percussion and drums. In “Laughing with the sun”, Taylor plays the mbira, and both Mazurek and Taylor use a range of electronic effects. The piece comes from a lovely release, “Boca Negra”, which means “Black Mouth”, and was recorded in Sao Paulo.

16 Glen Kotche vs Konono No 1 – Traducteur de Transmission (Crammed Discs)

In 2010 Crammed Discs brought out “Tradi-mods vs Rockers: alternative takes on Congotronics” – on which what appears to be a random mix of musicians and groups in post-rock, avant rock and electronica camps were asked to produce pieces inspired by groups within the Congotronics stable – like Konono No 1 and the Kassai Allstars. Glenn Kotche is the drummer for Wilco, and his piece is inspired by “Kule Kule” from Konono No 1’s first album. The piece is called “Traducteur de transmission” – translator of transmission. Thanks to Sheer Music, who distribute Crammed Discs in South Africa, for the disk. The double CD will be in the shops next month.

17 Konono No 1 – Guiyome (Crammed Discs)

Konono No 1 also brought out a new album in 2010, “Assume Crash Position”.

18 Danyel Waro – Kenya (Cobalt Records) (L’Autre Distribution)

Danyel Waro was born and raised on a small farm on Reunion, which despite being a tiny island east of Madagascar, is actually part of France. It wouldn’t be if Waro could help it. For at least 30 years he’s been promoting the revival of Maloya – a creole of African, Madagascan and Indian elements with its origins in slave music, banned in Reunion until the 60s and adopted by the independence movement in the 70s. That was the tune, “Kenya”, that opens Waro’s 2010 release “Aou Amwin” – an album that incidentally features South African, Tumi Molekane.


19 Dick Khoza – Chapita (Matsuli)

In 2010 the blog Matsuli, run by South African Matt Temple, aided and abetted by Chris Albertyn, of the Electric Jive blog, got its South African reissue programme going with the release of the vinyl reprint of an LP by Dick Khoza, “Chipita”, which originally came out in 1976 on Rachid Vally’s well known label, As-shams or The Sun. The original artwork is lovingly reproduced, and there are additional sleeve notes. All details are available on the Matsuli and Electric Jive blogs – Matsuli are bringing out a CD issue round about now.

20 AfroCubism – Djelimady rumba (World Circuit)

Apparently the Buena Vista Social Club album was an accident. The plan was that the Malians Djelimady Tounkare and Bassekou Kouyate were supposed to play with a bunch of Cubans in Havana, but the Malians never arrived. World Circuit, who brought out the Buena Vista Social Club, have used this story as the pretext for their AfroCubism project – a collaboration between members of the Buena Vista Social Club and some serious Malian musical elder statesmen – the two who were supposed to have come plus Toumani Diabate and balefon player Lassana Diabate. On “Djelimady Rumba”, Tounkare obviously takes the lead.

21 Cheikh Lo – Il n’est jamais trop tard (World Circuit)

World Circuit also put out Cheikh Lo’s latest album, “Jamm”, in 2010. “Il n’est jamais trop tard” is a Bembeya Jazz National tune.

22 Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal – Halinkata Djoube (No Format)

The wonderful pairing of Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal, from the album, “Chamber Music”, brought out on the French label, No Format. The album was recorded in Salif Keita’s studio, Moffou, in Bamako.

23 The Abramson Singers – Fool’s Gold (White Whale Records)

The Abramson Singers is in fact only Leah Abramson. She’s on the small Toronto based label White Whale Records, which is really just a collection of musicians. “Fool’s Gold” is her own song.

24 Alasdair Roberts & Friends – The Burning of Auchindoun (Drag City)

Alasdair Roberts usually only records his own songs, generally drawn from the wellspring of folk – in the sense that Rob Young, author of “ Electric Eden”, refers to folk as derived from the Teutonic word “Wald” - “the wild wood where society was organized very differently, ad hoc, bottom up and frequently savage”. On his 2010 album, “Too long in this condition”, Roberts dived straight into the wellspring and only plays traditional songs.

25 Lobi Traore – Moko ti y lamban don (Glitterhouse)

2010 saw the sudden death of Malian blues guitarist, Lobi Traore. Traore developed something he called “Bambara Blues” – traditional songs from the historic Bambara Empire filtered through his own take on Mississippi Delta Blues. From this base he wrote his own songs. Just before he died, Traore recorded a quick acoustic set in one take. The recording has become the album “Rainy Season Blues”.

27 Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate – Warbe (World Circuit)

Also released in 2010 were recordings of the other great, dead Malian blues guitarist, Ali Farka Toure. World Circuit put out part 2 of his and Toumani Diabate’s sessions recorded in 2005, about a year before Farka Toure died. It’s called “Ali and Toumani”. The tune “Warbe” includes Farka Toure’s son, Vieux, the wonderful Cuban bassist, Orlando “Cachaito” Lopez, who died in 2009 (in fact tracks he contributed to on “Ali and Toumani” were his last official recordings), and percussionist Tim Keiper, who plays a lot with Vieux Farka Toure.