14 December 2011, World Cafe

1 Mercedes Peon – Anacos (Fol Musica)

From the Spanish northwestern province of Galicia, and sung in Gallego, the original language of the region. Peon plays nearly all the instruments on her newish record, “Sos”, which came out earlier this year – in fact about 20 instruments in all, and does most of the singing, producing and composing too.

2 Chet Nuneta – Roseda vieja sirena (Le Chant du Monde)

Shifting a little eastward to France, Chet Nuneta are four singers and a percussionist, who go for very rootsy peasant-sounding fusions. “Roseda vieja sirena” seems to be some kind of amalgam of French and Spanish – possibly Catalan? It comes from the new CD “Pangea” out on the Le Chant du Monde label.

3 Akale Wube – Mètché New (L’Arome Productions)

Akale Wube are a Paris-based French Ethiojazz band set up in 2008 who take their name from a tune by Getatchew Mekurya, the legendary veteran Ethiopian sax player. “Akale Wube” is Amharic for “Beauty of the Soul”. On their 2011 LP they do lovely versions of classic Ethiojazz tracks, mainly by Mulatu Astatke. “Mètché New” was written by the comparatively obscure singer, Téshomé Sissay.

4 Mahmoud Ahmed – Bemin Sebab Litlash (Mississippi Records)

Mahmoud Ahmed was one of the absolute greats of the early 70s Addis scene, and he’s still going strong. A bunch of his stuff from the so-called Golden Age has been available through the series “Ethiopiques” for some time now. “Bemin Sebab Litlash” is from 1978, just after the Golden Age, when the Derg had already started in Ethiopia, from the LP “Jeguol Naw Betwa” just reissued by Mississippi Records. His long-time backing band, the Ibex Band, is full cry on this tune.

5 Addis Acoustic Project – Etitu Beredegn (World Village)

The Addis Acoustic Project is one of the resident bands at the Jazzamba Lounge, Addis’s premier jazz venue which only opened in June this year in a space that had been derelict for 20 years. Their stuff is often a bit too smooth for comfort, but the mandolin playing by veteran Ayele Mamo is worth the entry price. They say that Mamo is the only mandolin player in Addis.

6 Bako Dagnon – Fadeen To (Styllart)

Malian Bako Dagnon is sometimes called the griot’s griot – although she is not very well known in global circles, she is in fact a mentor to Kandia Kouyate, recognized as one of the top jelimusos, or female griots. After an accident early on in her career, Dagnon has largely been working in the background, learning, promoting and preserving singing traditions at a village level, in the Segou area near to Bamako, where her family hail from. After 50 years she’s only produced two internationally-released albums, her second one coming out this year. It’s called “Sidiba”. Check out the flamenco guitar licks on “Fadeen To”.

7 Fatoumata Diawara – Bakonoba (World Circuit)

28 year old, Paris-based Malian, Fatoumata Diawara, exploded as a solo artist on the international stage just this year – although she’s been working as a backing singer and actor for many years. Her debut CD “Fatou”, out on World Circuit, is quite an understated slightly poppy affair, and is pretty wonderful.

8 JuJu – Halanam (Real World)

A few months ago I had several positive responses from listeners when I played something off Juldeh Camara and Justin Adam’s latest CD “In Trance”. Let’s listen to another one – “Halanam”. By the way, they are now calling themselves JuJu, and their CD is available in SA courtesy of Sheer Music – one of the top releases of the year I’d say.

9 Fikret Kizilok - Gozlerinden Bellidir (World Psychedelia)

From Turkey, the hopelessly obscure, cultish early 70s protest singer Fikret Kizilok. I culled the single “Gozlerinden Bellidir” from an underground reissue made in 2005 of his original singles. If you look hard enough, you’ll be able to find his stuff on the web.

10 Georgette Sayegh – Yay, Yay, Ya Nassini (EMI Greece)

When I was researching the next two tracks I turned up this quote by one Jim Knox: “Lebanese popular music was peaking in 1974 but the civil war that started one year later laid it all to ruin”. The Ghost Capital blog dug up “Yay, Yay, Ya Nassini”, recorded in 1973, from a holiday souvenir LP collection for Lebanon brought out by an airline.

11 Fairouz – Ba’adana (EMI)

Nouhad Wadi Haddad, known as Fairuz, is probably the top living singer of the Arab world. She’s now in her mid 70s but still very much performing. “Ba’adana” was recorded in 1966.

12 Brendon Bussy in collaboration with Renee Holleman – If walls could talk would they sing (played with permission of artist)

A few months ago, Cape Town composer and musician Brendon Bussy collaborated with artist Renee Holleman with “If walls could talk would they sing”. The piece was written for the opening of the new premises of the “WhatIfTheWorld” gallery at the old synagogue in Argyle Road, Woodstock – an area that now has a significant Muslim community. Bussy explains in a fascinating blog entry that on Holleman’s suggestion he used a Jewish scale Ahava Rabbah (meaning ‘Abounding Love’ in Hebrew) as a basis for the tune. It turns out that this scale is the same as the Freygish mode used in Klezmer and the Hijaz Makam used in Arabic music. There’s a lot more at work in this piece – and I would suggest checking out Brendon Bussy’s blog entry http://brendonbussy.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/if-walls-could-talk-would-they-sing/#more-616

13 Rashanim – Avodah (Tzadik)

Power jazz trio Rashanim with “Avodah”. Rashanim is one of the groups appearing on Tzadik’s 2003 release “Voices in the wilderness” - a double-disk collection of John Zorn’s free-jazz tinged klezmer compositions interpreted by a whole range of groups.

14 Wolf Krakowski – Drey, Dreydl (Sion Dreydl) (Tzadik)

Toronto-based Wolf Krakowski’s home language is Yiddish. He was born just after the end of WW2 in a camp for displaced persons in Austria, his Russian parents having survived the Holocaust. His countryesque arrangement of the traditional tune “Drey, Dreydl” is also out on Tzadik – on the CD “Goyrl: Destiny”.

15 Norman Blake – Little Sadi (Mercury)

It’s been 10 years since the release of “O Brother Where Art Thou?” and its soundtrack spurred a big resurgence of rootsy Americana. Mercury have just released a deluxe edition in celebration, which includes tracks recorded by producer T-Bone Burnett and not used in the movie, and stuff used in the movie but not released on the first incarnation of the soundtrack. Let’s listen to two tracks only available on the deluxe edition.

Norman Blake’s version of “Little Sadi” was recorded for the movie, but not used.

16 The Kossoy Sisters with Erik Darling – I’ll fly away (Mercury)

The Kossoy Sisters with 5 string banjo player Erik Darling’s version of “I’ll fly away” recorded in 1956. This was the version actually used in the movie, although a version by Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch came out on the official soundtrack. Both versions are great, if you ask me. The Kossoy Sisters are actual sisters – in fact they’re identical twins.

17 June Tabor & Oysterband – Bonny Bunch of Roses (Topic)

June Tabor’s been pretty active this year – she put out a solo record earlier this year called “Ashore”, and we’ve listened to some tunes from that. A few months ago she also put out something with the Oysterband called “Ragged Kingdom”. The trad song “Bonny Bunch of Roses” is quite sympathetic to Napoleon, which means that it’s probably Irish in origin.

18 Bert Jansch – Nottamun Town (Vanguard)

“Nottamun Town” is another traditional song. It might date from the late medieval period and might be about the English Civil War as Charles I raised his army around Nottingham at the beginning of the war. The very great and unfortunately late Bert Jansch died in October. The tune is from Jansch’s classic album, “Jack Orion,” in which he plays with John Renbourne. This album is considered a precursor to the kind of music Jansch and Renbourne played in the folk-rock group Pentangle.

19 Syd Kitchen – Fine Lines (Liaison Music)

Another big loss to folk circles this year was Syd Kitchen. Before he died he was invited to contribute a track to the tribute album to John Martyn. He recorded Martyn’s song “Fine Lines” with Martyn’s most recent backing band in Scotland. The PVC pipe has never sounded this good!

20 Lee Perry & Dub Syndicate – Music + Science Lovers (On U-Sound)

Lee Perry was actually a friend of John Martyn – they hung together in Jamaica in the mid 70s. “Music + Science Lovers” was recorded with the Dub Syndicate with Adrian Sherwood producing. It’s from the mid 80s album “Time Boom X De Devil Dead” – a great creative collaboration and one of the only really great things he’s put out since the 70s.

21 Bob Marley & The Wailers – Reaction (JAD)

In just about every show over the last while I’ve been spinning high points from Lee Perry’s career. Such a review wouldn’t be complete without listening to his production work for Bob Marley done in 1970 and 71. “Reaction” is from the LP “Soul Rebels”.

22 Aldona – You could carry me away (Jaro Medien)

Aldona is Poland-born Aldona Nowowiejska together with a stellar band that features a bunch of string instruments including the guembri, and the bass clarinet against the normal rhythm section. “You could carry me away” is from her 2011 CD “Sonnet”.

23 Olafur Arnalds – 33:26 (Erased Tapes)

From Paris to Poland and now to the Arctic Circle – Iceland has a rapidly expanding and pretty varied music scene, mainly driven by tech-savvy youngsters who do everything on a small DIY scale but come up with sweeping fusions informed by rock, folk, jazz and Western chamber music – but that’s chamber music with attitude and edge. Olafur Arnald is one of the prime movers in Iceland. Thanks to Douglas Gimberg for introducing me to this stuff.

24 Hauschka – Cube (Fat Cat)

Volker Bertelmann aka Hauschka is a Dusseldorf-based musician and composer whose main instrument is something called the prepared piano. He has played with a bunch of Icelandic musicians. This is from his 2011 release, called “Salon des amateurs”.

25 Hauschka and Hildur Guðnadóttir – Cool Gray 1 (Sonic Pieces)

Hauschka on the prepared piano and with Iceland’s Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir on cello. “Cool Gray” is from their 2011 release “Pan Tone”.