7 May 2014, World Cafe

1 The Souljazz Orchestra – Kingdom Come (Pierre Chretien) (Strut)
Album: Inner Fire

The Soul Jazz Orchestra are a six piece from Ottawa – but they play more than 30 different instruments and dabble in just as many offshoots of jazz from all around the world.  Some people have pointed out that “Kingdom Come” sounds like Salah Ragab’s brand of Egyptian jazz.  They’ve been talking about coming to SA in recent interviews, and let’s hope they do.

2 Salah Ragab – Egypt Strut (Art Yard)

Album: Egyptian Jazz

Salah Ragab is the drummer, composer and military band leader who more or less introduced big band music to Egypt in the late 60s with his Cairo Jazz Band.  I played “Egypt Strut” on the show 5 or 6 years ago, but it’s a pretty magnificent tune, so here it is again.

3 Angelique Kidjo – Ebile (ft. Kronos Quartet) (429 Records)
Album: Eve

Angelique Kidjo with the Kronos Quartet and one of the 10 Beninese choirs she sings on her new album.  The album is Eve and is named after her mother and dedicated to the women of Africa.

4 Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou – Houzou Houzou Wa (Analog Africa)
Album: The Skeletal Essences of Afro Funk 1969-1980 Vol 3

Last time I mentioned I’d be playing more from the great Beninese band Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou.  In 2013 the reissue label Analog Africa brought out their third of collection of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo stuff – called “The Skeletal Essences of Afro Funk 1969 to 1980 – vol 3”.  All of the tracks were originally released only in the 70s and early 80s on very small labels and recorded in peoples’ houses or gardens using one or two mics. 

5 Mamani Keita – Mogobaou (World Village)

Album: Kanou

Mamani Keita, a veteran Malian singer who started out backing Salif Keita, has spent a good deal of her career in fusionist rock, electronic and jazz settings with producers like Nicholas Rapac (who I’ve actually played here before) and Marc Minelli.  Her new album is a totally different kettle of fish – she’s writing her own songs and has teamed up with another veteran – Rail Band guitarist Djeli Moussa Kouyate and with ngoni player Moriba Keita and tuned into her Bambara heritage. 

6 Aziza Brahim – Aradana (Glitterbeat)

Album: Soutak

Aziza Brahim grew up in refugee camps outside Western Sahara, a disputed territory that’s ruled by Morroco now.  She’s one of a number of Western Saharan musicians who reside in Spain and who sing about the plight of Western Saharans. 

7 Group Doueh – Madam Jat Faabuni (Sublime Frequencies)

Album: Hassaniya Music from the Western Sahara and Mauritania

Group Doueh are a group from Western Sahara we’ve heard from on the show a number of times.  They still live in the country, in the port city of Dakla, record in a homemade studio, and play at weddings and local festivals, but also in musical festivals around North Africa, Spain and Portugal.  Since the late 2000s they’ve found a broader audience thanks to Hisham Mayet of Sublime Frequencies who went to hunt them down after hearing a mysterious song on radio in Essaouira in Morrocco.  

8 Blowzabella – L’Ange (Blowzabella)

Album: Octomento

Blowzabella, have just had their 35^th anniversary – we’re more an institution than a group.  Octomento is a fairly recent release – from 2007.  On hurdy gurdy is Gregory Joliyet from Bourges, France.

9 Gaiteiros de Lisboa – Terra de ninguem (Aduf Edicoes)

Album: Macareu (Tidal Wave)

Gaiteiros de Lisboa or Pipers of Lisbon with incredible collection of instruments, old, invented, modified, improvised, detuned – and the reinvention of peasant music.  “Macareu” or “Tidal Wave” is from 2002.

10 Maria Pia De Vito & Huw Warren – Bello tiempo antico (De Vito)

Album: O pata pata

Maria Pia De Vito is a Naples-born singer and guitarist steeped in opera and jazz, and bringing those sensibilities to the music of the Mediterranean and the Balkan.  Her she is with Welsh pianist, Huw Warren, who regularly crosses the boundaries between folk and jazz.  This is “Bello tiempo antico”. 

11 Layale Bourg El Hamam – Azef el Leyl EMI Greece Voix de L’Orient Series

Album:  “Belly Dance Nights vol 2”

Layale Bourg El Hamam appears to be from Lebonon.  The tune is from 1977 with Toni Frangieh on bazuk and Setrak Sarkissian on tabla.

12 The Bombay Royale – Karle Pyaar Karle (from Jhutha) (Kalyanji-Anandji)

Album: The Bombay Royale (EP)

The Bombay Royale are an 11 piece from Melbourne obviously inspired by Bollywood soundtracks, and that tune, “Karle Pyaar Karle” is the movie 1970 “Saacha Jhurta”.  The legendary Asha Bholse is the playback singer on the original and composer is Kalyanji Anandji.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDa42EkgO1A

The singer for Bombay Royale is Parvyn Kaur Singh, and daughter of a shabad singer as one of the vocal centres – a shabad is a devotional song from Sikh scriptures.   

13 Sergio Mendoza Y la Orkestra – Traicionera (Cosmica Records)

Album: Mambo Mexicano

Sergio Mendoza Y la Orkestra from Arizona combines mambo with a bunch of other latino sounds like ranchera. 

14 Los Rancheros – Cana Brava (Decca)

Album: Mexican Cowboy Songs

Los Rancheros, a trio from Mexico, with Cana Brava from some time in the early 50s – there’s no date on the sleeve of the record. They originally called themselves “Los Tres Murcielagos” (“The 3 Bats”) – for their love of night life.  The song is a Son Huasteco – a traditional form from the northeastern part of Mexico and is from their Decca album “Mexican Cowboy Songs”.

15 Les Fantaisistes de Carrefour – Panno Caye Nan Bois Chene (Strut)

Album: Haiti Direct – Big Band, Mini Jazz and Twoubadou Sounds, 1960 - 1978

In the 60s and 70s Haiti was home to some fabulous musical hybrids.  In urban areas there was big band Cadence Rampa and Mini-Jazz played in a rock setup.  In the country side, twoubadou rooted in the Cuban Son and Guaracha.  Sofrito, that amazing DJ collective who specializes in dredging up mainly Caribbean stuff, has collated a great collection for Strut called “Haiti Direct”. 

16 DJ Comrade - Xao Trap – (Mr Bongo)
Album: Funk Globo: The Sound of Neo Baille

DJ Comrade and is purveyor of some called Neo Baile which derives from 1980s Baile Funk or Favela Funk from Brazil.  Baile Funk in turn comes direct from another 1980s dance music can Miami Bass – Miami being a destination for record buying trips from Rio. 

17 Tackhead – Exodus (Dubvisionist Dub Mix) (Dude Records)

Album: For the Love of Money

Tackhead are one of the great funk bands of the last 30 years.  Doug Wimbish, Skip McDonald and Keith Le Blanc were originally the core of the Sugarhill label’s house band which basically invented rap and hip hop and then went on to play for Adrian Sherwood’s On U-Sound label in all kinds of guises, including Tackhead.  Tackhead haven’t operated as a unit for more than 20 years until this year when the put out a covers album on Dude Records.  Here’s their version of Bob Marley’s “Exodus”.

18 Prince Far I – Johnny Get Worse (Blood & Fire)

Album: Silver & Gold 1973-1979

Prince Far I was a legendary DJ and toaster who sadly is no longer with us.   He was murdered in his own home in Kingston in 1983.  This is his version of the classic reggae song – Johnny Too Bad.  He calls it “Johnny get worse”, and it’s on a Prince Far I collection called Silver and Gold on that inestimable reggae re-issue label, Blood & Fire.

19 Singer and Players – Prodigal Son (On-U Sound)

Album: Golden Greats Volume 1

Sticking with Prince Far I, in the early 80s Adrian Sherwood brought together a collective of some reggae’s most cutting-edge singers and players - called “Singers and Players” - and stuck them in some quite radical dubbing settings.  Far I is the vocalist here.   

20 Black Dirt Oak – Florian’s Wind-Up (Mie)

Album: Wawayanda Patent

Black Dirt Oak is a kind of Psychedelic American Primitive super group with members from Desert Heat, Violators, Pelt and Black Twig Pickers and more.  Nathan Bowles wields that stripped down banjo.

21 Salt House – Katie Cruel (Make Believe)

Album: Lay Your Dark Low

Salt House is from Scotland and that was lovely countryesque version of the old traditional song, “Katie Cruel”.  It’s from their debut album, “Lay your dark down”. 

22 Carolina Chocolate Drops – Day of Liberty (Ato Records)

Album: Divided & United: The Songs of the Civil War

We’ve heard before from the wonderful collection “Divided & United: The Songs of the Civil War”, and we’re talking about the American Civil War here.  The Carolina Chocolate Drops contributed “Day of Liberty” written in 1864 by Henry Clay Work, probably the most famous composer of the Civil War era.

23 Blowzabella – Jacky Tar (Blowzabella)

Album: Octomento

A stripped down version of a traditional tune.

24 Roseanne Cash – When the Master Calls the Roll (Decca)

Album: The River and the Tread

A song set in the Civil War period written by Roseanne Cash, her current husband John Leventhal and former husband Rodney Crowell off her new album. 

25 Shanren – Thirty Years (Riverboat)
Album: Left Foot Dance of the Yi

The mountains of Yunnan are in south-west China and home to the Chinese folk-rock group, Shanren, which means “mountain men”.  They draw on the traditional music of the local Yi and Wa groups. 

26 Various? – Amukadela (Sublime Frequencies)

Album: Ethnic Minority Music of Southern China

Also from Yunnan are an incredible ensemble with something called “Amukadela” which is a song of daughterly love.  It was collected by Laurent Jeanneau who spent 6 years in Southern China collecting music. 

27 Stein Urheim – Beijing Blues (Hubro)
Album: Stein Urheim

Stein Urheim is fantastic guitarist and player of string instruments including the Norwegian zither or langeleik and on his new album called Stein Urheim he takes in all kinds of influences, like a more worldly John Fahey.  It was recorded in 19^th century violinist Ole Bull’s old wooden house in Lysoen, near Bergen – we’ve actually heard a bunch of stuff recorded there on this show.

28 Marilyn Mazur – Joy Chant (ECM)
Album: Elixir

Norwegian percussionist Marilyn Mazur and the great Jan Garbarek.