6 July 2011, World Cafe

1 Zim Ngqawana – Dirge (Sheer Music)

Ngqawana died in May. He was a fearless multi-instrumentalist, mostly on various reeds, and a composer – always crossing boundaries between cultures, and between structure and freedom. “Dirge” comes off his 2003 album, “Vadzimu” on Sheer Music. It’s one you should get if you haven’t already.

2 Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou – Von Vo Nono (Strut)

We’ve listened to Poly-Rythmo on this show many times, mainly drawing on recent reissues of the mid 70s stuff when they were at their peak, brought out by small specialist labels like Analog Africa. Orchestra Poly-rythmo had the wind taken out of their sails by the advent of the Marxist-Leninist dictatorship in Benin in 1972, which lasted until 1990, and began to bite from the late 70s. But they’re now back almost at full intensity on Strut Records with a core of original players (Loko Pierre, Vincent Ahehehinnou, Bentho Gustave, Melome Clement), largely thanks to the success of those reissues. This is their take on fellow Beninese music veteran Gnonnas Pedro’s classic tune “Von Vo Nono”. Pedro died in 2004, so I guess it’s a kind of tribute. Their new release on Strut Records is called “Cotonou Club”.

3 Imperial Tiger Orchestra – Etu Gela (Mental Groove Records)

The Imperial Tiger Orchestra is from Switzerland. They basically only play blistering, genre-crunching Ethio-jazz. You might have seen them in Cape Town round about September last year. The tune “Etu Gela” comes off their 2010 EP, “Addis Abeba”.

4 Teshome Meteku - Mot Adeladlogn (Buda Musique)

That we’re hearing that sort of furious Ethio-jazz fusion is in no small part due to Francis Falceto’s reissue series “Ethiopiques”, which he started in 1997, 10 years after the end of the Derg and six years after the end of communism in Ethiopia. The imprint mainly profiles music from the mid 60s till the military coup in 1974. There are now about 24 CDs in the series.

“Mot Adeladlogn” by keyboardist, Teshome Meteku (or Mitiku), is from Ethiopiques 1. Mitiku’s brother, Theodros, is on sax, and Seifu Yohannes sings. Mitiku emigrated to the US during the Derg, like many Ethiopian musicians. Since the Derg ended, he’s been back a number of times.

5 Dub Colossus – Guragigna (Real World)

The totally wonderful Ethiopian/British collective, Dub Colossus, thankfully have a new album out - “Addis through the looking glass”. “Guragigna”, is from an EP linked to the album called “Rockers meet Addis Uptown”. The pianist in Dub Colossus is a youngster, Samuel Yirga Mitiku, and I couldn’t help wondering if he’s related to Teshome, who we heard before Dub Colussus, but I couldn’t find anything confirming that he was.

Sheer Music bring out Dub Colussus in South Africa, and thanks to them for making the EP available.

6 Sidi Toure and Friends– Bera nay wassa (Thrill Jockey)

Sidi Toure is based in his city of birth, Gao, on the Niger River in Eastern Mali. Like Salif Keita he defied his noble family to become a musician. His latest record, “Sahel Folk”, only his second western release, is a collection of duets recorded in his sister’s house in Gao. On “Bera nay wassa” he plays the kurbu (a three-stringed instrument with a skin resonator which can be struck percussively) and sings, while Douma Cisse plays the guitar. The title means “Honour goes straight to the heart”.

7 Mamadou Diabate – Humanity (World Village)

New York-based Mamadou Diabate is the cousin of Toumani Diabate. “Humanity” is from his brand new album “Courage” which he went back to Bamako to record. All the musicians are Malian, except for his usual NY bass player, Noah Jarret. The wonderful balafon player (technically the instrument is a bala and balafon refers to the musician) is Lansana Fode Diabate.


8 Miriam Makeba - Dakhla Yunik (Stern’s Africa)

Miriam Makeba’s version of the Lebanese traditional song “Dakhla Yunik” which she recorded in the mid-70s during her exile in Guinea for well known Guinean label, Syliphone. The band contained some top flight Guinean players, like Seckou “Diamond Finger” Diabate, from Bembeya Jazz National. You can find that on Stern’s collection called “Miriam Makeba: The Guinea Years”.

9 Alexander Maloof and the Maloof Oriental Orchestra – Fatima (Rounder)

Syrian pianist, composer, orchestra leader, publisher and producer Alexander Maloof and the Maloof Oriental Orchestra with his tune “Fatima”. Maloof was very much part of the New York music establishment, especially in the 20s and 30s, when he played Carnegie Hall for the likes of Albert Einstein. His blend of western form, harmonies and orchestration with Arabic folk songs and classical music was widely embraced. That’s on Rounder’s collection of 78s from 1916 to the early 50s, called “Music of Arab Americans”.

10 Ferrante and Teicher – El Cumbanchero (Westminster)

Over the last few months we’ve been listening to all kinds of “possible musics” and “ethnological forgeries”, but studiously avoiding a closely related cousin – “lounge exotica” or “easy listening” – inventive but often maudlin, with highly plastic, droopy kinds of sounds – queasy listening. But I’ve come across something pretty exciting of late – the spiky, off-kilter sounds of Ferrante and Teicher, Julliard graduates active in the 50s and 60s. As one reviewer puts it, a “Dimension-X version of easy listening” – the influence of Joe Meek, John Cage, and Moondog writ large. “El Cumbanchero” is some kind of a Caribbean-Mexican mix. It’s from their 1956 LP, “Soundproof”.

11 Lucho Bermudez y Su Orquesta – Fiesta de negritos (Soundway)

Lucho Bermúdez y Su Orquesta with a mix of US big band music and Columbian cumbia. Bermúdez’s career spanned from the 1930s through to the 1960s, and the orchestra toured throughout the US and Cuba. They did some lovely stuff with Trinidadian calypso singers that we’ll listen to in the coming months.

12 Pedro Laza y Sus Pelayeros – La Picua (Soundway)

We listened to some Disco Fuentes stuff from Columbia last month, and there’s a lot more to come.

Both of these tunes come from a series of limited edition 7” vinyl only reissues just released by Soundway.

13 Bienvenidos – Systema Solar (Trikont)

I must say I find the Discos Fuentes sound of the modern rooted in the old, rural and peasant extremely compelling. Popular amongst students in Columbia, Systema Solar do the same in a post-hip hop kind of way.

14 Lee Perry – Better Days (Trojan)

A Lee Perry production of the Carlton & His Shoes single “Better Days” from 1973. “Carlton & His Shoes” are Carlton Manning, a founding member of the reggae roots group, the Abyssinians, and his brothers Donald and Lynford, who also joined the Abyssinians.

15 Atilla the Hun & Lord Executor – Jim Congo Meyer (Rounder)

Trinidadian calypso giant Attila the Hun was born Raymond Quevedo. Apart from touring all around the US and the Caribbean, he was active in local politics in the 40s and 50s, and even wrote a history of calypso. “Jim Congo Meyer” comes from the Rounder collection “Shango, Shouter and Obeah: Supernatural Calypso from Trinidad 1934 - 40”.

16 Snooks Eaglin – St James Infirmary (Smithsonian Folkways)

Playing different versions of “St James Infirmary” is turning into some kind of a custom on this show. A few months ago Sean O’Connor spun Allen Toussaint’s recent instrumental version, and we’ve heard versions by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band from New Orleans. Veteran guitarist and singer Snooks Eaglin’s lovely version was, I think, used in a UK Budweiser TV ad, horrible as that might seem. Incidently, Eaglin was in Allen Toussaint’s 1950s band, the Flamingoes.

17 David Johansen and Larry Saltzman – The Last Kind Words (Luaka Bop)

In the early 2000s David Johansen, the singer for the glam rock, proto-punk band, The New York Dolls, reinvented himself pretty convincingly as an old-time blues singer. This is his version of Geeshie Wiley’s fine song, “The Last Kind Words”. It’s from the soundtrack to the 2003 documentary “Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus”.

18 Ola Belle Reed – High on the Mountain (Smithsonian Folkways)

“High on the Mountain” is probably Ola Belle Reed’s most famous song. Ola Belle Reed was a singer-songwriter and banjo player from North Carolina very rooted in Appalachian music and culture. Smithsonian Folkways brought out a wonderful collection of her stuff last year, “Rising Sun Melodies”.

19 Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard –- Working Girl Blues (Rounder)

Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard with a classic Dickens’ song “Working Girl Blues”. As I mentioned last month, Hazel Dickens, an old timey West Virginian singer-songwriter – one of the best, from what I’ve heard – died a few months ago. She met Alice Gerrard, Mike Seeger’s wife, when she moved from Mercer County to the Baltimore-Washington area to seek factory work, and their musical partnership lasted 20 years, although they played some reunions in the 90s.

20 John Wright – Dornoch Links - The Shepherd Crook – Iochiel’s Awa to France (Topic)

John Wright is a pretty obscure English folk musician who’s lived in France for decades now – so long that he was very much part of the French folk revival of the 70s. Here’s a medley of three traditional tunes played on the jew’s harp and recorded for Topic. The track appears on the LP “Unaccompanied: vocal-jew’s harp-fiddle-mouth organ”.

21 unknown – Gamelan Gabor # 2 (Sublime Frequencies)

From the Sublime Frequencies release “Night recordings from Bali”. Apparently Balinese Gamelan music is faster, tighter, and louder than their mighty neighbours to the west, the Javanese. Gamelan music is played by the Hindu minority in Bali.

22 Bo Hein and Bo Mein – Master of the nine cities (Sublime Frequencies)

This is a “nat pwe” from Burma. A “nat” is the spirit of a historical figure who met a tragic or violent death, and if recognized can either assist or devastate a person’s life. And a “pwe” is a ceremony to appease a nat. Pwes happen all the time in Burma - for success in business, happy marriage and good health. It’s from “Music of Nat Pwe: Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar Vol 3”.

23 The Son of P.M. – Asava Leela (Sathit Tra Kon Khu)

From Thailand in the 60s. At the beginning of their career, PM stood for Payong Mukda, the driving force behind the band, and then later Pocket Music. The band was key to the development of “glassic” music or “progressive classical music” aka “Thai Modernised Music” aka “Shadow Music”, after the Shadows. The song is from the LP “Glassic Goes Modern Dance” and that particular dance rhythm is a “guaracha”.

24 Sun City Girls – Black Orchid (Abduction)

I was talking about “ethnological forgeries” earlier, and the Sun City Girls are prime proponents. “Black Orchid” is something from their last ever album, “Funeral Mariachi”, which came out last year, and is built posthumously around the drum tracks of Charles Gocher, who died some time ago. “Black Orchid” is some kind of Indonesian rock thing.

25 Bijan Chemirani with Ross Daly - Makrinitsa (L'empreinte Digitale)

The magnificent teaming of zarb or frame drum maestro, Bijan Chemirani, and Ross Daly on a lyre of his own invention (a cross between a Cretan lyre and an Indian sangari), on Daly’s tune, “Makrinitsa”. Bijan comes from the great dynasty of Iranian percussionists, the Chemirani. His father Djamchid and brother Keyvan also play on the tune. Daly is an Irishman who been living in Crete for over 35 years.

Earlier in the post I referred to Zim Ngqawana’s adventurous openness – he actually played with Djamchid Chemirani in Rylands a few years ago at the Galaxy, I think it was, with, strangely enough, another Irishman transposed from Ireland, Christy Doran.

26 Emily Portman – Two Sisters (Furrow)

From the lyre to the harp, Emily Portman’s version of a traditional song from her 2010 release, “The Glamoury”.

27 Martin Carthy – Bold General Wolfe (Topic)

Martin Carthy has just turned 70; actually he pipped Bob Dylan to the post. Martin Carthy has been at the forefront of the English folk revival since its inception, more or less, and helped introduce loads of important sonic innovations (percussive acoustic guitar playing, mysterious unaccompanied polyphonic singing, droney electric guitar, brass) and literally spawned a key mover in the current folk scene, fiddler, singer and songwriter, Eliza Carthy. Toby Shippey provides the trumpet, Ben Ivitsky, the trombone and Eliza Carthy the melodeon or was it the harmonium? It’s from his 2004 album, “Waiting for Angels”.

28 June Tabor – Jamaica (Topic)

About three months ago I played you one of the two instrumentals from June Tabor’s new album, “Ashore”, an album of songs which contemplate from the safety of the shore the sea and its crossing. “Jamaica” is the second instrumental from the album. It features Andy Cutting on accordion, Mark Emerson on violin, Tim Harries on bass and Huw Warren on piano.