4 July 2012, World Cafe

1 Ragnhild Furebotten – Jag kan inte fela (Telik)

Fiddler Ragnhild Furebottom specialises in playing traditional music from northern Norway – both interpretations and her own compositions. Backing her is a stunning brass 6-piece, with arrangements by trombonist Helge Sunde and sax player Geir Lysne – two of the most highly regarded jazz composers in Norway. That’s from Furebotten’s newish album “Never on a Sunday”.

2 Valkyrien Allstars – Ne’ve Elva (Folkelarm)

The Valkyrien Allstars are one of the most popular folk bands in Norway. They are basically a trio all playing Hardanger fiddles (like a normal violin but with 4 to 5 extra strings in a hollow neck, which while not fingered end up being bowed as far as I can make out), backed by a rhythm selection. From their 2009 album, “To Maner”.

3 The Imagined Village – New York Trader (ECC)

Containing the magnificent singing and fiddle playing of Eliza Carthy. “New Yorker Trader” is a traditional song is off the Imagined Village’s latest, “Bending the Dark”. The stunning arrangement there is by sax and flute player, Simon Clarke, and the normal melody has been thoroughly reworked by a good portion of the group. They’ve changed sound for this their third album to something edgier and spikier, more drum and bassy, and the whole thing is quite a success.

4 The Owl Service – King Henry VII & the Shipwrights (Stone Tape Recordings)

Sticking with the nautical theme, the Owl Service is one of the new crop of revivalist traditional groups who lovingly reproduce the English folk-rock sound of the 70s – in this case sounding a dead ringer for Steeleye Span. The song is off a recent album called “Collected Tracks”.

5 Meic Stevens – Capel Bronwen (Sain)

Iconic singer-songwriter Meic Stevens started writing folk-rock songs in Welsh in the late 60s – one of the first and few to do this. He’s produced quite a few albums over the years, many of them put out on the local Welsh label, Sain. “Capel Bronwen” and comes off his 1982 record called “Nos Du, Nos Da”.

6 Derek Gripper – Kaounding Cissoko (New Cape)

Capetonian Derek Gripper’s utterly phenomenal translation of 21 string kora music onto 6 string nylon string guitar. The tune is a tribute to the great Senegalese kora player Kaounding Cissoko, who died in 2003, composed by the great Malian kora player, Toumani Diabate. It’s from Gripper’s 2012 release “One Night on Earth” which he put out on this own label, New Cape. Check out his website for his musings on how the album was put together.

http://www.derekgripper.com/acoustic-guitar-albums/one-night-on-earth/

You can download the album for a price of your picking at the same address. I recommend you do - it’s an instant classic.

7 Sidi Toure – Ni See Ay Ga Done ( It is to you that I sing) (Thrill Jockey)

From the Mande culture of West Africa to the Songai who are further east and north – in fact, the Songai sprung from the Mande, which were originally located in Southern Mauritania. Sindi Toure is a very well known songwriter and guitarist in his native northern Mali. “Ni See Ay Ga Done” is from his second international album, “Koima”. Like his first one, it was released on the post rock Chicago-based label, Thrill Jockey. Instead of duets done on his back stoep, he’s playing as part of a quintet in a studio. The bowed instrument in there is called a sokou.

8 Ebo Taylor – Assom Dwee (Strut)

Ebo Taylor, the veteran Ghanaian guitarist, singer and songwriter, who’s been going since the 50s, has a brand new record out on Strut, “Appia Kwa Bridge”, named after a lover’s haunt in his home town of Saltpond. Tony Allen, the legendary Afro-beat drummer, and one of the keys to Fela Kuti’s success, guests. “Assom Dwee” has a religious message. The song we heard there is typical of the kind of stuff he’s famous for – a cross between highlife and Afro-beat.

9 Rob – Not the end (Soundway)

Sticking to Ghana and religious themes, keyboardist and singer Rob (he’s just called Rob, but full name is Rob Raindorf) who was a contemporary of Ebo Taylor – they shared record labels in the 70s – but a purveyor of something more hypnotic and stripped-down than Taylor. “Not the end” is from a classic Rob album “Make it fast, make it slow” which Soundway re-issued this year.

10 Eth – Heywet Endiet New (Buda Music)

Last month we played something from the Ethiopiques’ new collection of classic 70s Ethiopian music played by non-Ethiopians “Noise and Chill Out: Ethiopian Groove Worldwide”. This is another track. Couldn’t find out anything about Eth.

11 Dub Colossus – I dub the sound of breaking glass (Real World)

From their album of stripped down, dubbed up versions of tunes from their back catalogue - “Dub me tender”. The meditative piano is by the wonderful Samuel Yirga, and brass by “Horns of Negus”.

12 Hollie Cook– Sugarwater Dub featuring Horseman (Mr Bongo)

Hollie Cook is the daughter of Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook, and since 2006 she’s been playing with the reformed reggae punk band, The Slits. Her new album is a dub version of something she brought out last year, just called “Hollie Cook” – it’s called “Prince Fatty present Hollie Cook in Dub”. Dennis Bovell, The Slits’s bass-playing producer, provides the bottom end and Prince Fatty produces. Here’s what Fatty has to say: “All the dubs are mixed live in my studio in the same Rub a Dub style as was made famous in 70s Jamaica by King Tubby and others, i.e not with the use of computers for automation and endless digital nonsense but with fingers, late night vibes and re-arranged with a razor blade!”

13 Galatic – O coco de galinha (ANTI- records)

New Orleans band Galactic off their album celebrating Mardi Gras and carnival in general, including Brazil, called “Carnival Electricos”. “Coco da Galinha” features the Brazilian singer Moyseis Maques – 70s Brazilian sounds cut with New Orleans parade brass.

14 The Dirty Dozen Band – Don’t stop the music (Savoy Jazz)

Speaking of New Orleans brass bands, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band is celebrating its thirty fifth anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, they’ve come out with an album of mostly original new tunes called “Twenty Dozen”. This tune is a soul makossa type arrangement of a Rihanna song, “Don’t Stop the Music”.

15 George Lewis – Just a closer walk with thee (Membran International)

From the festive to the dirge and back again – well known New Orleans clarinettist, George Lewis’s version of the standard New Orleans funeral song, “Just a closer walk with thee.” Lewis was around from close to the birth of jazz – he started playing in 1917.

16 Gillian Welch – Red Clay Halo (Acony Records)

Keeping with getting closer to God, this is a classic tune by Gillian Welch “Red Clay Halo” from her 2001 album “Time (The Revelator)”.

17 Pelegongan of Kuta – Gonteng (djawa) pengwak solo (World Arbiter)

Some of the earliest recordings of gamelan music, recorded in 1928. It’s from Bali, and that’s by the “Pelegongan of Kuta”. A pelegongan is a particular ensemble configuration for playing an old, courtly style of gamelan which dates from the 17th century. It’s from the album “The roots of gamelan – the first recordings Bali 1928. NY 1941”.

18 Dulsori – Sailor’s Song (ARC Music)

Swinging substantially north from Bali to South Korea, but staying with similar musical roots, Dulsori are a wonderful group who started off playing mainly traditional drum and gong music, and later incorporated Korean zithers, flutes, oboes and shawms. “Sailor’s Song” is off something new by them out on ARC Music called “Binari: Well Wishing Music”.

19 M Ashraf – Dear I love you (feat. Nahid Akhtar) (Finders Keepers)

Lollywood, Pakistan’s version of Bollywood, has produced some great music, much of it by the pairing of composer, M Ashraf and singer, Nahid Akhtar. “Dear I love you” was from the movie “Zanjeer”, and I got it from one of Finders Keepers’s raids on the EMI vaults – they call it “Life is dance: Plugged-in Sounds of Wonder at the Pakistani Picture House”.

20 Zia – Heleyos (Finders Keepers Records)

Another ongoing project of Finders Keepers is to unearth lost and forgotten gems from 60s and 70s Iran before the revolution – “a time of tumult in Iran, bringing growth and freedom while exacerbating inequalities in the country”. One of their aims apparently is to offer some therapy to a generation of Iranians who live in self-imposed mental exile. This comes from one of their collections “Pomegranates”.

21 Selda Bağcan – Bad-I Sabah (Majör)

The well known Turkish protest singer and saz/ bağlama player, Selda Bağcan, was jailed in the 80s. “Bad-I Sabah” from a fairly recent album, “Turkulerimiz 6”, which came out in 2006. (Finders Keepers have actually also reissued some of her stuff from the 70s – we’ll get to that soon.)

22 Majid Bekkas – Fangara (BEE Jazz Records)

From Morocco, Gnawa musician, guembri player and singer Majid Bekkas is not averse to playing in different musical contexts. His 2011 album “Mabrouk” is a teaming of Senegalese kora player, Ablaye Cissoko, and percussionist, Khalid Kouhen, who sometimes plays tabla. The theory is that gnawa is open to other kinds of music because it is itself a mix of Berber song, courtly Arabian music and West African music.

23 Stefano Battaglia, Salvatore Maiore and Roberto Dani– Ararat Dance (ECM)

Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia from his ECM album “The River of Anyder”, named after the river that flowed through Thomas Moore’s Utopia. In it he celebrates mythical and legendary real places and tries to create “timeless” music within the confines of a modern trio. For him timeless music is “music without idioms … that might have been created on archaic instruments a thousand years ago.” He’s joined by bassist Salvatore Maiore and drummer Roberto Dani.