7 November 2012, World Cafe

1. Debo Band – Ney ney weleba (Sub Pop/ Next Ambiance)

Debo Band’s version of the Ethiopian singer Alemayehu Eshete’s song “Ney ney weleba” first recorded in 1972. It’s off Debo Band’s fabulous debut album called “Debo Band” which came out a couple months ago on Next Ambiance, a subsidiary of Sub Pop. They’re an 11 piece from Boston – “debo” is the Amharic word for “collective effort” – led by ethnomusicologist Danny Mekonnen, an Ethiopian born in Sudan and raised in the U.S., and vocalist Ethiopian Bruck Tesfaye raised in France.

2. Akale Wube – Marye (Nabligam Production)

Paris-based “Akale Wube” also play stuff inspired by the Golden Age of Ethiopian music – from the late 60s and early 70s. There first album came out in 2011. This is something off their second, “Mata” - a tune that appears to be actually written by the band.

3. The Toure-Raichel Collective - Experience (Cumbancha)

A pairing of Israeli global fusionist, pianist Idan Raichel and guitarist Vieux Farka Toure – Ali Farka Toure’s son. It’s from a collection of spontaneously composed tunes, “The Tel Aviv Session”, which was recorded on a whim directly after a concert where two played together for the first time. The two call themselves “The Toure-Raichel Collective” and in the mix are also bassist Yossi Fine and calabash player Souleymane Kane.

4. Derek Gripper – Djourou Kara Nany (New Cape)

Derek Gripper’s new album, “One Night on Earth”, is mainly translations of kora tunes by Toumani Diabate and Ballake Sissoko to 6 string classical guitar. It’s now available as a physical CD. “Djourou Kara Nany” is by Diabate.

For details on how to obtain album, check out: http://newcape.bandcamp.com/album/one-night-on-earth-music-from-the-strings-of-mali

You can see Derek Gripper playing with Madosini this Saturday 10th November at about four in the afternoon at the Cape Town World Music Festival. Check out: http://capetownworldmusicfestival.com/

5. Rachel Newton – The Last Minute/The Groupie/Height of Rudeness (Shee Records)

Singer, harpist and fiddle player Rachel Newton is a probably more well known as member of the The Shee or the Emily Portman Trio. She just brought out a solo album “The Shadow Side”. The medley of “The Last Minute/The Groupie/Height of Rudeness” is from it with added guitar by the ever-evolving multi-instrumentalist Kris Drever. More about him later.

6. Katie Rose – Witches’ Reel (Folk Police)

“Weirdlore: Notes from the folk underground” is a collection out on Folk Police. As the magazine fRoots, points out, the title suggests older, weirder stuff than the normal traditional fare. “Witches’ Reel” is definitely from the weird side.

7. Warsaw Village Band – My Fate (Jaro)

The wonderful Polish roots band, the Warsaw Village Band, from their brand new album, their sixth one, “Nord” – meaning North. The album has a range of Scandanavian guests plus a Native American one, but “My Fate” is a straightahead Polish number with singers Magdelena Sobczak Kotnarowska and Sylwia Swiatkowska at the centre.

8. Samech – The Dream of Rabbi Levy (Tzadik)

Also from Poland, Samech is a string trio with percussion. “The Dream of Rabbi Levy” which is their recent album, “Quachatta”.

9. Opa Cupa – CPT, due inutili parole (World Network)

Italian brass band, Opa Cupa, from Lecce, one of crop of young bands that have arisen all across Italy, inspired by the 19th century brass banda, which were kind of co-operatives set up to take Italian folk music and opera into the country side often using stunning arrangements. The new stuff packs in many more kinds of music, with “CPT, due inutile parole” having a distinctly Eastern European flavour.

10. Enzo Avitabile – Mai cchiu (feat. Co’ Sang) (PID) (CNI Distribution)

Speaking of Italian institutions, singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Enzo Avitabile, raised in a poor area on the outskirts of Naples, is definitely one. One of the things he’s known for is bringing bottari, a peasant music involving wine barrel drums, into pop music. From his new album, “Black Tarantella”, “Mai cchiu” is a kind of Bottari rap, featuring Co’Sang.

11. Giant Giant Sand – Carinito (Fire Records)

Howie Gelb has been exploring a kind of post-rock Americana for years now. For his 2012 outing which he calls “Tucson” he’s added 6 musicians from Tucson to his regular band of mainly Danish musicians called Giant Sand – the new band being called Giant Giant Sand. One of the sounds they get into is a sort of Tex-Mex, Cali-tex fusion, especially on this tune.

12. Josephine Foster & the Victor Herrero Band – En Esta Large Ausencia (Fire Records)

Classical trained, opera school dropout, American Josephine Foster has been living in Spain for a while. The Victor Herrero Band is her husband’s band, and they’re recently released a collection of old Spanish popular songs, many anonymous, called “Perlas”.

13. Guillermo de la Roca – Bailecito Boliviano (Disques Alvares)

Guillermo de la Roca plays a Bolivian folk tune on an Indian Flute, a kind of wooden flute found in the Andes. This track is on vintage 4 track EP “La Flute Indienne: Aires del Tawantinsuyo” brought out by the French label, Disques Alvares, probably dating from the early 70s.

14. Mas Ka Kle – Lese yo Pale (Strut)

Sofrito, the London-based club night and record label, specializes in re-edits of little known African, Caribbean and South American dance gems both old and new. Strut has just put out a collection of their stuff called “Sofrito International Soundclash”. Mas Ka Kle are from Guadeloupe.

15. Chicha Libre – Muchachita del Oriente (Asian Girl) (Barbes Records)

Brooklyn band Chicha Libre, are as they name suggest heavily inspired the late 60s and 70s vintage psychedelic cumbia from Peru, referred to as chichi, with its “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” aesthetic. The band members are from all over the place: Venezuela, Mexico, America and France. This is Chicha Libre’s take on “Muchachita del Oriente (Asian Girl)” originally by Los Mirlos, one the classic bands from the dawn of chicha. It’s from Chichi Libre’s latest, “Canibalismo”.

16. Lil’ Band O’ Gold – It keeps raining (Dust Devil Music)

From Peru via NYC to the Gulf of Mexico or the Northern Caribbean – we’ve talking about New Orleans. Lil’Band O’Gold is one the greatest current working swamp pop bands –– they’re a 10 piece super group containing some the living greats from the vintage scene. “It keeps raining” is a classic Fats Domino tune from their new album “Lil Band O Gold plays Fats” and has Robert Plant guesting on vocals.

17. Wayne Toups, Steve Riley, Wilson Savoy – Convict Waltz (Valcour Records)

And speaking of greats, Wayne Toups, Steve Riley (who also happens to be Lil Band ‘O Gold) and Wilson Savoy are three wonderful accordionists behind three generations of Cajun revival. Well, in fact, they are multi-instrumentalists – playing guitar and fiddle too. They call themselves The Band Courtbouillon, after a tomato sauce used in Cajun cooking. “Convict Waltz” is by one of the great Cajun accordion players and songwriters, Iry LeJeune, who was active in the 1940s and 1950s and died at the age of 27.

18. Old Crow Medicine Show – Mississippi Saturday Night (ATO)

Sticking in New Orleans, well kind of – OCMS is the Nashville-based old timey string band. They call “Mississippi Saturday Day” a topical song. It’s sung with massive punk attitude – wild nights in the post Kartina post Gulf oil spill Louisiana.

18. KonKoma – Lie Lie (Soundway) From the ashes of the great Ghanian Afro-rock band, Osibisa, arises KonKoma with former’s guitarist Alfred Bannerman and keyboardist Emmaneul Rentzos at the centre. They’re aided and abetted by saxophonist Max Gruhard and producer Ben Lamdin, who are really the drivers of the project, and joined by an array of guests.

19. Ebo Taylor – Yaa Amponsah (Soundway)

Guitarist, singer and songwriter, Ebo Taylor, is another great veteran of the Ghanian scene. I played something of his album, “Appia Kwa Bridge”, a few months ago. “Yaa Amponsah” is a kind of Ghanian folk song, hugely popular, that dates back to the 1920s.

20. Duffy Power – Johnny too bad (Dusk Fire)

Another veteran, this time of the English jazz rock blues scene, Duffy Power, from his first album of new material in 40 years called “Tigers”. A slowed up, soulful and mournful version of the old reggae song by the Slickers.

21. Bella Hardy – Henry and Clara (Noe Records)

Bella Hardy was brought up in the Peak District in central and northern England and together with Kris Drever, has put together quite a stunning collection of new settings for songs that appeared in “Songs and Ballads of Derbyshire”, a 19th century book of songs, and new material based on the history and legends of the area. The recording was funded by the Peak District National Park’s Sustainable Development Funds. In the great ballad “Henry and Clara” Hardy adds her own lyrics to those of Rev Arthur George Jewitt. The song is from 1815.

22. Fay Hield & the Hurricane Party – Wicked Serpent (Topic)

The Peak District runs through Yorkshire, birthplace of the up and coming folk star, Fay Hield, which, as my friend Keith Kattell points out, is a spoonerism of Hay Field. “Wicked Serpent” is off her new album out on Topic called “Orfeo”. Her star studded line up includes Jon Boden on fiddle and bunch of other string instruments and the magnificent button accordianist, Andy Cutting.

23. The Old Dance School – Ras Al-Maa (Transition)

Staying in that central England neck of the woods, The Old Dance School is a 7-piece band from Birmingham. Their new album, “Chasing the Light”, has an intensely hybrid sound. This tune “Ras Al-Maa” is apparently inspired by Moroccan music, although I’m hearing both Irish and Scandanavian music here.

24. Petter Udland Johansen – Om Kvelden (ECM)

Adrianna Savall and band co-leader Petter Udland Johansen describe their project as a journey linking the Mediterranean and the North Sea. Petter Johnasen is a Norweigan singer, hardanger fiddle and mandolin player and “Om Kvelden” is a traditional song. Sveinung Lilleheir is on dobro.

25. Henning Kraggerud & Bugge Wesseltoft – Om Kvelden (ACT)

A lovely arrangement of the same Norweighan folk tune by jazz pianist Henning Kraggerud and classical violinist Bugge Wesseltoft off a uniformly lovely record “Last Spring”.