1 Fanfare Ciocarlia – Crayfish Hora (Asphalt Tango)
Album: Onwards to Mars!
Fanfare Ciocarlia have
been going for 20 years this year – and are still largely intact from their
early days when came up to storm the world from a tiny village in the NE Romania . A hora is a Romanian round dance.
2 The Spike Orchestra – Hakha (Tzadik)
Album: Cerebus: Book of Angels, Vol 26
Since the early
90s, John Zorn has, so far, written 3 multi-volume books of tunes– the Masada songbook – 613 tunes in total. He gets great bands to play them and usually
records them on his label Tzadik. The
Spike Orchestra is an 18 piece group from London
3 Debo Band – Blue Awaze (FPE)
Album: Ere Gobez
Ethiojazz band
Debo Band from Boston
4 Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics – Chik Chikka
(Strut)
Album: Inspiration Information 3
On the subject of classic
sounds from the golden age of Ethio jazz and pop, a few years ago Mulatu
Astatke, one of the great composers, pianists and band leaders of the golden
age and beyond, teamed up with the London-based collective, The
Heliocentrics. The wonderful sax player,
Shabaka Hutchings, was in the mix.
Hutchings did an
extended, blistering version of the Astatke tune, Chik Chikka, with the Kyle
Shepherd Band at Straight No Chaser in January this year. You can catch this on youtube, and you should
definitely do that.
And then check out
this preview of Shabaka’s new album recorded with SA musicians in Johannesburg
5 Dieuf-Dieul de Thies – Rhumba Para
Parejas (Taranga Beat)
Album: Aw Sa Yone Vol. 2
The very excellent
Dieuf-Dieul de Thies is from Senegal
6 Adama Yalomba – Harkas (Allah’s Blessing/Personal
Happiness) (Studio Mali
Album: Waati Sera
Adama Yalomba is a
big star in Mali, but not really known outside although he’s played with Ali
Farka Toure, and plays with Rokia Traore, Oumou Sangare and others. “Waati Sera” (The time has come) is his
seventh album.
7 Imarhan – Assossamagh (City Slang)
Album: Imarhan
Imarhan, from
southern Algeria
8 Derek Gripper – Miniyamba (New Cape )
Album: Libraries on Fire
Capetonian Derek
Gripper has a new album out and as you’d expect, it’s seriously great. Miniyamba
is a tune by Toumani and Sidiki Diabate originally played two koras –
about 40 strings – now played on 6 strings.
Check out this
article about Gripper’s trip to Bamako
9 Guy Buttery – Two Chords and the Truth (Guy Buttery)
Album: Guy Buttery
Another SA
guitarist has a nice new album out which seems to be called Guy Buttery. Derek Gripper is in there, as well as Shane
Cooper from Kyle Shepherd’s band.
10 Carlo Mombelli – Picasso’s Dove (Mombelli Music)
Album: I press my spine to the ground
And while we’re on
SA string instrumentalists, here’s something by one of bass player Carlo
Mombelli’s many ensembles - pianist Kyle Shepherd, drummer Kesivan Naidoo and
vocalist Mbuso Khoza who learnt his music in the mountains of KZN herding
cattle, and from Zionist churches and Shembe songs.
11 Luther Dickinson – Ain’t no grave (New West)
Blues & Ballads: A Folksinger’s Songbook
Luther Dickinson
is son of the great US
12 Leyla McCalla – Les Plats Sont Tous Mis Sur la
Table (Jazz
Village
Album: A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey
Leyla McCalla, the
cello, tenor banjo and guitar player from Carolina Chocolate Drops has a new
album out – it’s a collection of Haitian folk songs and stuff from the
Louisianan creole tradition. Here’s one from
the Louisianan side. Louis Michot from
the The Lost Bayou Ramblers (from Pilette , Louisiana
13 The Reveler – Juste Un Tit Brin (Audio & Video
Labs Inc/The Revelers)
Get Ready
Sticking in Louisiana New Orleans
14 Kia Kater – White (Kingswood
Record)
Album: Nine Pin
Heading to Appalachia , well actually Canada
15 Robbie Fulks – America
Upland Stories
Off his new Steve
Albini produced album.
16 Hackensaw Boys – Ol’ Nick (Free Dirt Records)
Album: Charismo
Sticking with the
old timey music and religion of the American kind kind-of. That rattling percussion is courtesy of a
strange tin can arrangement they call the charismo
17 Rant with Julie Fowlis – Thug thu chonnlach as an
t-sabhal (Make Believe Records)
A strathspey from
the seriously wonderful all fiddle band, whose members hail the Shetland Islands and the Highlands . A
strathspey is a dance in 4.4 time similar to a hornpipe only slower, and the
singing there is from Julie Fowlis.
18 9Bach – Brain (Real World)
Album: Anian
The Welsh band
produced a pretty great record last year, and this year’s one is quite a lot
better. It’s called Anian (which
translates as Nature). The song, Brain,
is told from a crow’s point of view – the crow is asking a child to accept the
gifts it’s bringing. Not as sinister and
ominous as the set up suggests though …
19 The Heliocentrics – Into the vortex (Now-Again)
Album: From the deep
A record that came
out earlier this year
20 Fahir Atakoglu – Trapped (Far&Here)
Album: Live at Umbria Jazz
Turkish pianist
Fahir Atakoglu recorded live at Teatro Morlachi in the Italian city of Umbia
21 Natasha Atlas – Nafs El Hikaya (Decca/Universal)
Album: Myriad Road
Belgian Egyptian
singer Natasha Atlas has being heading off into more jazzy territory of late,
with quite sizable Arabic inflections.
She continues this on Myriad Road
22 Melt Yourself Down – Yazzan Dayra (Leaf)
Last Evenings on Earth
Unhinged, brass-heavy
and off their new record. And yes, the
blow-out, post Ayler sax towards the end is from Shabaka Hutchings. The bonkers singer is Kushai Gaya.
23 Los Chapillacs – Marcha de Chullachaqui (Deltatron
Remix) (Tigers Milk Records)
In June I played
some Peruvian Tropical Bass. Here is
some more. A bass-heavy retread done by
Deltratron of a cumbia originally by Los Chapillacs, who tend to be quite
rooted in the sound of the 60s and 70s.
24 La Yegros – Atormentada (Soundway)
Album: Magnetismo
Mariana Yegros or
La Yegros with her wonderful infusion of folky Argentinean and Columbian
25 Elza Soares – Firmeza (Mais Um Discos)
Album: The woman at the end of the world
In a similar, but
more radical vein is the latest thing by veteran samba singer and songwriter,
Elza Soares, from Rio . Her style of samba is called samba sujo
or dirty samba. Soares has had an epic
life and career dating back to the 50s, which included being exiled by the
military junta in mid 60s after she became a widow and then got involved with
some soccer legend. She teamed up with
some of the best musicians is Sao Paulo
26 Victor Rice & Bixiga 70 – 100% (Victor Rice
Dub)
Album: The Copan
Speaking of Bixiga
70 their producer Victor Rice recently did a limited edition dub version of
their third album for Record Store Day. I’ve
been struggling to find something to play off the third album – for some reason
it lacks spark. The dub album is much
better, though.
27 Dub Specialist – Roots Dub (Soul Jazz)
Album: Soul Jazz Records Presents Studio One Dub Fire Special
Some dub from one
of the many rough and ready pick-up bands that Studio One put together to back
their singers in the 70s. Some of Jamaica
28 New Age Steppers – Some Love (On U-Sound)
Album: Foundation Steppers
From 1983, a
version of a Chaka Khan song “Some Love” which came out in 1978 at the height
of disco. Singer Ari Up really made this
song her own.
Here is the Chaka
Khan original.
29 Fabes de Mayo – Vaqueiros (Fabes de Mayo)
Album: Fabes de Mayo
From the small
town of Villaviciosa Northern Spain .
