7 September 2011, World Cafe

1 Kekele – Yo Odeconer (Sterns Africa)

Congolese singer M’Bilia Bel guests with veteran singers, Bumba Massa and Loko Massengo, on Kekele’s 2006 album, “Kinavana”. Kinavana is a contraction of Kinshasa and Havana, a neat handle for their sound – old style Congolese rumba with more Cuban reinforcements than usual. Kekele’s members are nearly all luminaries from the Congo music scene in the 60s, 70s and 80s – including one of Franco’s chief guitarists, Papa Noel.

2 Orchestra du Bawobab – Ndaga (Disques Buur Records)

Sticking with Cuban-infused vintage West African sounds, “Ndaga” is a totally wonderful recording by Orchestra du Bawobab, from Senegal. It’s from around 1974 when the band included griot singer Laye M’Boup singing in Wolof and Thione Seck, who brought Maninke and Malinke songs into the mix. The tunes come from the LP “Senegaal Sunugaal”.

3 Vieux Farka Toure – Gido (feat. John Scofield) (Six Degrees)

This track is Malian Vieux Farka Toure’s startling teaming with one of the greatest American jazz guitarists of the last 30 years, John Scofield. It’s off Farka Toure’s seriously wonderful new album, “The Secret”, out on Six Degrees.

4 JuJu – Jombajo (Real World)

Another lovely new album just out is Juldeh Camara and Justin Adams’s – called “In trance”. They are now calling themselves JuJu, which I suppose is marginally better than Jules and Just. In the tune “Jombajo” the pair draw mainly on Fulani music, as in a lot of their stuff. Adams is on guitar, Camara on the ritti, a one-stringed fiddle, and the rhythm section from Bristol consists of Billy Fuller and Dave Smith --- whom I’ve never heard of.

5 Trembling Bells – Sir Richard’s Song (Folk Police)

The track comes off a new collection of Peter Bellamy’s settings of Rudyard Kipling’s children’s poems published between 1900 and 1910. Bellamy is one of the great English folk revivalists from the 60s, and the new collection, featuring many of the recent crop of folk revivalists, is called “Oak Ash Thorn”. We’ll be hearing more from the English folk label, Folk Police, in coming months.

6 The Duellists – Miserden/Indigo (Panic Attack)

The Duellists are a trio of Nigel Eaton, Cliff Stapleton & Chris Walshaw. They combine bagpipes with hurdy-gurdies and play newly and largely self-written dance music rooted in the English and French traditions. “Miserden” and “Indigo” are two tunes from their album called, rather one-sidedly, “English hurdy-gurdy music”.

7 Penguin Café – Landau (Penguin Cafe)

Arthur Jeffes is continuing in the footsteps of his father, Simon, the founder of the folk minimalist collective, the Penguin Café Orchestra. He’s calling his all-new collective, Penguin Café. “Landau”, which has Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell on board, is off their new album, “A Matter of Life …”.

8 Khyam Allami – An Alif/An Apex (Nawa Recordings)

Khyam Allami, who started his musical life as a rock percussionist in London, has discovered his Syrian and Iraqi roots. He has a new album of self-composed solo oud music called “Resonance/Dissonance”.

9 Hijaz – Leaving Adana (Zephyrus Productions)

From Middle Eastern classical music, with its structured improvisations and inventiveness, to some kind of Arabic folk jazz … Hijaz are a band of musicians from Tunisia, Greece, Morocco, Armenia and Belgium. The tune comes off their 2011 album “Chemsi”.

10 Uri Caine – Ladino Medley (Knitting Factory Works)

Sephardic/Moroccan singer Aaron Bensoussan with his arrangement of a bunch of traditional songs sung in Ladino. Ladino is a mixture of Hebrew and Spanish, much like Yiddish is a mixture of Hebrew, German and probably other central European languages. American jazz pianist, Uri Caine, who’s been working the seam between jazz and Jewish music for a long time now, is also upfront in the mix. The recording comes off Caine’s 1999 album “Zohar Keter” – Zohar being the founding text of the Kabbalah.

11 Vijay Iyer – Falsehood (ACT)

On his new record, “Thirta”, NY based jazz piano maestro Vijay Iyer definitely invokes the spirit of 70s Indian folk jazz fusionists, Shakti. He plays with guitarist Prassana and tabla player Nitin Mitta. “Falsehood” is Prassana’s composition.

12 Janie Hunter – Jack and Mary and the Three Dogs (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)

13 The Moving Star Hall Singers – See God’s Ark A-Moving (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)

14 Ruth Bligen – Moonlight in Glory (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)

15 Brian Eno & David Byrne – Moonlight in Glory (Nonesuch)

In earlier shows, I’ve gone on at length about the influence and importance of Brian Eno’s and David Byrne’s 1980s record “My life in the bush of ghosts”. A prime example of something I’ve been calling, maybe wrongly, “possible music” – which is a term linked to Eno – I’ve been referring to it as a kind of seamless mix of found and played global sounds, musique concrète techniques and dark and ambient jazz and dub. Whatever!

Eno and Byrne used some pretty incredible field recordings as a central part of their sound. In the piece “Moonlight in Glory” they drew heavily on the 1967 recordings made by archivist, civil rights activist and musical director Guy Carawan of singers from the relatively isolated St John’s Island off the coast of South Carolina. Those recordings were put out on the Smithsonian Folkways Collection, “Been in the storm so long”.

16 African Head Charge – Stoned Age Man (On-U Sound)

One of the groups of musicians directly inspired by “My life in the bush of ghosts” was a bunch on the On-U Sound label, including founder Adrian Sherwood. On-U Sound is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

African Head Charge (basically Adrian Sherwood, Bonjo I a Binghi Noah and a rotating array of On-U Sounders) actually explicitly reference their debt to “My life in the bush of ghosts”. Their first LP was called “My life in a hole in the ground”. “Stoned Age Man” is from their new album “Voodoo of the Godsent”. By the way, On-U Sound have some new branding to tie in with their 30th anniversary. How do you like this as a logo -- “Disturbing the comfortable – comforting the disturbed”.

17 Prince Fari and the Arabs – Mozabites (Pressure Sounds)

Adrian Sherwood started his career as a dub producer in his late teens on an extremely high note. That was one of his earliest production efforts, five years before the advent of On-U Sound. It’s off the album “Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Chapter 1”, a co-production by Fari I and Sherwood.

18 Fool’s Gold – Nadine (Iamsound)

Fool’s Gold are an LA-based band whose numerous members are Israeli, Argentinean, Brazilian and Mexican, and link African and Middle Eastern music in all its guises to Western indie pop. They sing in Hebrew and English. “Nadine” is off their eponymous 2009 album.

19 Shohreh – Del (Secret Stash)

From pre-revolutionary Iran, this is off the collection simply called “Persian Funk” just out on the label Secret Stash. Nearly all of this kind of stuff was originally on a label and its imprints set up by the Ministry of Culture under the Shah.

20 Googoosh – Koh (Caltex)

The legendary Iranian singer Googoosh was active during the same period. “Koh” is from a collection of stuff called “Golden Songs, volume 1”.

21 Corinne West and Kelly Joe Phelps – Whiskey Poet (Tin Angel Records)

Californian singer-songwriter Corinne West and country blues slide and finger style guitarist of astonishing ability, Kelly Joe Phelps, with one of West’s songs, “Whiskey Poet”. It’s off their really nice 2010 album, “Magnetic Skyline”.

22 Gillian Welch – Silver Dagger (Acony Records)

Gillian Welch, after a long break, has a new album out - “The Harrow and the Harvest” – and boy is it great – in the top 10 albums of the year, and probably the decade, without a doubt, if you like this kind of paired-down old timey Americana blues as much as I do.

23 Colin Stetson – Lord I just can’t keep from crying sometime (Constellation)

Colin Stetson’s multi-phonic sax playing is all done live, no overdubs, with the use of multiple mike placings and circulatory breathing. He plays there with Shara Worden on the traditional spiritual "Lord I Just Can't Keep from Crying Sometimes”. The song is from Stetson’s “New History Welfare Vol 2: Judges”.

24 The Unthanks – Close the coalhouse door (Rough Trade)

The Unthanks are from Northumberland and have been developing their sound since 2004. “Close the coalhouse door”, off their new album “Last”, started out as a stage song written by Alex Glasgow for a play of the same name put out in Newcastle in the 70s. The Unthanks’s version apparently draws heavily on the Wilson Family’s version – the Wilson Family being one of those trad English folk vocal family groups, like the Watersons.

25 Matthias Loibner – Chasen Senem (Cinq Planetes)

Matthias Loibner is an Austrian hurdy-gurdy player. With multiple mike placings which capture the different sounds and voices of the instrument, this is pretty close to Colin Stetson’s saxophone music. It’s off a cd titled “Vielle a roué” or “Hurdy-gurdy”.