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. 

 

 

 

2 April 2014, World Cafe

Programme airs on 2 April 2014, 10 - 12pm South African time on Fine Music Radio, 101.3 Fm in the Cape Town area or via live stream http://infant.antfarm.co.za/fmr/fmr-player.asp

1 De Temps Antan – Petipetan (L-Abe)
Album: Les Habits de Papier

De Temps Antan are a power-house trio plying Quebecois music – fiddle, guitar, bouzouki, accordion and pieds percussion or seated clog dancing (although not on “Petipetan”).  And of course those magnificent voices. 

2 Blowzabella – Fulmine (Green Linnet)

Album: Vanilla

I’ve always been very partial to the diatonic button accordion playing of Andy Cutting, and was very pleased to discover this solo tune on an old Blowzabella album from 1990 called “Vanilla”.  The album first came out when Cutting joined the band at the age of 21.  The tune is “Fulmine”.  Blowzabella are another kettle of fish -  usually involving hurdy-gurdy - which I’m saving for the next show.

3 Melrose Quartet – Come and I will sing you (Private label/artist)

Album: Fifty Verses

Melrose Quartet consists of two terrific English trad duos – Nancy Kerr and James Fagan and Jess and Richard Arrowsmith.  “Come and I will sing you”  is obviously a very old round, which seems to be linked to “Green grow the rushes, o”.  Check out wikipedia for possible hidden meanings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Grow_the_Rushes,_O

4 The Bad Shepherds – Humours of Tullah/Teenage Kicks/Whiskey in the Jar/The Merry Blacksmith   (Monsoon Music)

Album: Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera

The Bad Shepherds play seriously inspired English and Irish trad versions of unlikely songs, many of them from the punk canon, if there is such a thing.  The Undertones classic “Teenage Kicks” is in a medley with “Humours of Tullah”, “Whiskey in a Jar and The Merry Blacksmith” and it’s from their 2009 album “Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera”, Cumbrian shepherd’s dialect for “One, two, three, four”.

5 Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas – Keys to the Cellar (Greentrax)
Album: Abundance

Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas are a duo who’ve been around for a number of years playing music inspired by and drawing on the Scottish and Irish fiddling tradition – he a Scottish fiddler (mainly) and she an American cello player.  Dominick Leslie supplies the deft mandolin playing.

6 The Gloaming – The Old Bush (Real World)
Album: The Gloaming

Speaking about inspired re-imaginings of Irish music, The Gloaming have come up with something really great.  The Gloaming are one of the great duos of Irish music – fiddling Martin Hayes and guitarist Dennis Cahill, plus hardanger fiddler, Caoimhin O’Raghllaigh and pianist Thomas “Doveman” Barlett. Sometimes singer Iarla O’Lionaird joins them, but not on this tune. 

 Agnes Obel – Katie Cruel (Prt 1 Live in Copenhagen) (PIAS)

Album: Philharmonics (Deluxe Edition)

Danish singer/songwriter Agnes Obel, recorded live in Copenhagen.  Over the years, I’ve played a number of versions of this American trad song, and there’ll be another version next month.

8 Pokey LaFarge – Close the Door (Third Man)
Album: Pokey LaFarge

Pokey LaFarge is a whiz with all kinds of Americana – Western swing, twenties jazz and country blues, he plays a bunch of instruments and he knows how to turn a witty, sardonic phrase too.  Here’s his take on health care in the US today. 

9 Adrian Raso & Fanfare Ciocarlia – C’est la vie (Asphalt Tango)

Album: Devil’s Tale

Sticking with gypsy swing or French Manouche, a grand pairing of Toronto guitarist Adrian Raso and the 12 piece Romanian brass band, Fanfare Ciocarlia. 

10 Tigran Hamaysan – Drip (Universal/Verve)
Album: Shadow Theater

Certainly more jazzy, but also heavily inspired by folk songs, this time from Armenia.    

11 Boban and Marko Marcovic Orchestra – Sljivovica (Piranha)
Album: Gipsy Manifesto

The Boban & Marko Markovic Orchestra are one of the greatest Serbian gypsy brass bands.  That is a remix dunkelbunt (alias of Ulf Lindemann), a producer and DJ who specializes in transforming Balkan music in all kinds of interesting ways often with a reggae undertow. 



12 Adama Koita – Fantainfalla Toyi Bolo (Transgressive)
Album: Africa Express Presents: Maison Des Jeunes

Keeping with the theme of guest producers, Damon Albarn, the guy from Blur a million years ago who has a long history of poppy collaborations with Malian musicians, brought a lot of luminary producer types to a youth club in Bamako in the middle of 2013 to work with local up-and-coming musicians.  “Africa Express Presents: Maison Des Jeunes” is the result. 

13 Tinariwen – Chaghaybou (ANTI-records)
Album: Emmaar

Tinariwen’s new album just out was recorded in Joshua Tree in Mojave Desert – still a desert, but not in the northern regions of Mali and surrounds, where the band have recorded in the past.      

14 TP Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo – Mirielle (EDL 12)

single

A few months ago I played an obscure single by a true, and perhaps under-sung, great of African music – Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou from Benin.  Mirielle is another obscure single.  Lohento Eskill is the singer.  And there’ll be more music from them next month.

15 La Yegros – Trocitus de Madera (ZZK)
Album: Viene de Mi

That’s something you don’t hear that often – trip-hoppy cumbia produced in Argentina.  La Yegros had a smash hit across Latin America a few years ago with “Viene de Mi”, the title of her internationally released album.  From the same album, here’s another catchy tune. 

16 Los Corraleros – Juana Patino (Discos Fuentes)
Album: Cumbias Solamente Cumbias

So I guess now we can play more cumbia.  Here’s something from the cradle of cumbia – the Colombian Atlantic Coast - and its heyday - the late 60s and 70s.  It’s from a 1976 collection on Discos Fuentes called “Cumbias Solamente Cumbias”. 

17 Zara McFarlane – Police and Thieves

Album: If you knew her

British Jazz singer Zara McFarlane’s wonderful version of Junior Murvin’s “Police and Thieves”.  That’s to mark Junior Murvin recent passing on the 2^nd of December last year. 

18 The Upsetters – Emotional Dub (Pressure Sounds)

Album: Lee Perry and the Upsetters present Roaring Lion

Lee Perry recorded the original “Police and Thieves” in 1976 and the song became a hit, so I thought I should also play a Murvin-Perry collaboration.  Here is something off a new collection of Perry obscurities from the Black Ark in the 70s on Pressure Sounds: a dub workout with some powerful Murvin vocals, “Emotional Dub”.

19 Prince Jazzbo – Prophet Live (Black Wax)

Album: Natty Passing Thru

2013 also saw the death of another reggae great – the toaster and dub producer Prince Jazzbo, in September.  “Prophet Live” is to the backing of “Satta massagana” from a lovely album called “Natty Passing Thru” also from 1976.

20 Dawn of Midi – Ymir (Thirsty Ear)

Album: Dysnomia

Dub is definitely one of the inspirations of Brooklyn based Dawn of Midi.  They play everything on piano, bass and drums but with a very different approach from normal piano trios.  There’re bunch of other influences in there too.  “Dysnomia” is one of my favourites from 2013.

21 Driss El Maloumi – Makan (Contre-Jour)
Album: Tawazoun

Driss El Maloumi perhaps the greatest living oud player.  He’s from Morocco and plays in the style of the legendary Munir Bashir.  On percussion is his brother, Said and Lahoucine Baquir.

22 Souha Abdel Amir – Kolli Ala Al Makshouf (Be honest with me) (Sublime Frequencies)

Album: Choubi Choubi! Folk & Pop Songs from Iraq vol 2

Sublime Frequencies have just put out a bunch of new albums, and we’ll be dipping into these over the next few months.  “Choubi Choubi! Folk & Pop Songs from Iraq Vol 2” collects songs recorded between 1980s and early 2000s in Saddam Hussain era Iraq. 

23 Oman, Doeleh & KOE Sabri – Tjikadjangan (Dust-to-Digital)

Album: Longing for the Past: The 78 rpm Era in Southeast Asia

Like Sublime Frequencies, Dust-to-digital is a collection label, but it specializes in vintage stuff often on 78 rpm and the packaging is ultra lavish (Sublime Frequencies is decidedly b-grade although their info and write ups are great).  Oman, Doelah and KOE Sabri are from Indonesia.

24 Burma Orchestra Saing Waing – I want you (Buda Musique)

Album: From Another World: A Tribute to Bob Dylan

The Burma Orchestra Saing Waing putting Dylan’s “I want you” through the wringer – from a collection of cruel and unusual versions of Bob Dylan classics.

25 Hong Thong Daw U-Don – Isan (Sublime Frequencies)

Album: Siamese Soul: Thai Pop Spectacular Vol. 2

From another Sublime Frequencies collection, this time from a few years back. 

26 The Maniapoto Voices – Patare Tainui (Zodiac Recordings)
Album: Songs of the Maori

The Andrew Sisters born in a Maori village? Well you don’t have to imagine that.  Kay, Kelly, Laura and Hinerangi Hikuroa were them.  They called themselves the “The Maniapoto Voices” and recording was made in 1966.

27 Kiyoko Itoh - ??     (Showboat)
Album: 23 Hour Woman, Love In

Kiyoko Itoh from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan did a brief stint has one of The New Christy Mistels when the American folk group toured Japan before heading back to the US with them – and then reinvented herself a some kind of orchestral torch songster.  That’s from an album called “23 hour woman, love in” released in 1971. 

28 Nik Bartsch – Module 4 (Tonus)

Album: Hishiriyo

Swiss pianist Nik Bartsch with one of his John Cage inspired pieces from this 2006 album.

5 February 2014, World Cafe

1 Mulatu Astatke – Azmari (Jazz Village)
Album: Sketches of Ethiopia

 
 
 
 

In the 1960s when he was studying in the UK and US, composer and vibes player, Malatu Astatke came up with the amalgam of “5 tone” Ethiopian folk against Western “12-tone music” – as he calls it -  which got called Ethio-jazz.  He’s just released a new album with an expanded version of his British band, Step Ahead, called “Sketches of Ethiopia” – the allusions in the title to the Gil Evans and Miles Davis classic are deliberate.  “Azmari” refers to a kind of Ethiopian bards or griots – and you can almost hear their declamatory style of singing in there despite the lack of vocals.

2 TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo & Honore Avolonto – Setche weda (International Disque (MA 001))

Single

We’re coming up for Mardi Gras in March, the second line parades will get going in New Orleans in February, so I thought we should focus a bit more than usual on the music of New Orleans this month. 

One of the many elements of New Orleans music, and that certainly isn’t one thing, is music of West Africa, especially music from Benin and Yoruba areas in Nigeria, as percolated through the Caribbean, especially Haiti.  Let’s start in Benin with one of the favourites of this show – the totally wonderful or Tout Pouissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo.  An obscure single.

3 Lord Nelson – Shango (World Music Network)
Album: The Rough Guide to Voodoo

The syncretic Haitian religion, Vodou, has also had some influence especially at the level of lyrics – and there all kinds references to Vodou mythology in New Orleans music.  Calypso has never been at a loss for words, and one of the greatest songs about Vodou is by Lord Nelson and focuses on the Shango cults of Trinidad and Tobago.  It came out in 1978.

4 Dr John – My Indian Red (Warner Bros)

Album: Goin’ back to New Orleans

Dr John perhaps made the obvious overtures to Vodou, in fact he named himself after a prominent Vodou medicine man in the Louisiana area.  But he has also paid heavy homage to the Mardi Gras Indians, an essential part of the Mardi Gras tradition.  A few years ago, I played his version of the traditional New Orleans song, “My Indian Red”, that came was recorded as part of the HBO series “Treme”, which sadly has come to an end after season 4.  It was based on a swing arrangement that Danny Barker put together in 1947.  Here’s another version based on the same arrangement that Dr John brought out on his 1992 album, “Goin’ back to New Orleans”. 

5 Allen Toussaint – Lipstick traces (Rounder Records) (Universal)

Album: Songbook

Allen Toussaint is another great of New Orleans music.  Amongst his many musical abilities is moving seamlessly from New Orleans stride and boogie to sophisticated, elegiac chords.  This take of his song, “Lipstick Traces” in from a set recorded at Joe’s Pub in 2009, which Rounder Records brought out in 2013.

6 Professor Longhair – Big Chief Part 2 (Soul Jazz)
Album: New Orleans Funk vol.3 – The Original Sound of Funk

Professor Longhair was another incredible, much loved pianist and composer from NOLA.  Dr John definitely learned a few tricks from him, and aided him in many sessions. “Go to the Mardi Gras” is perhaps Longhair’s most well known tune, but I’ve played that already some time back.  “Big Chief Part 2” is some kind of b-side or outtake of “Big Chief”, another fairly well known song by him.

7 Chris Kenner – I like it like that (Metro Select)

Album: New Orleans: Gris Gris - Voodoo Grooves from the Crescent City

In the 50s and 60s New Orleans became a nexus for rock and roll and soul, and some of the best ever sides came from there.  This classic track was cut in 1961 with Allen Toussant, the pianist and arranger. 

8 Tami Lynn – Mojo Hana (Metro Select)

Album: New Orleans: Gris Gris - Voodoo Grooves from the Crescent City

In 1971 New Orleans soul singer Tami Lynn from Gert Town, NO, had some kind of hit with this song written by Clarence Paul and Andre Williams in the early 60s.

9 Mahalia Jackson – Didn’t It Rain (Legacy)

Album: The Best of Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson was probably the most celebrated gospel singer ever.  She was born and raised in New Orleans. “Didn’t it rain” is an old gospel song dating back to at least the 19^th century that appeared as sheet music in 1920s.  This version was recorded in New York, August 11th, 1958.

10 Nathan Abshire & The Balfa Brother – Nathan’s Lafayette Two Step (Ace Records)

Nathan Abshire Master of the Cajun accordion: the classic Swallow Recordings

Although not strictly a part of Mardi Gras, there is space to consider Cajun music as part of the canon of New Orleans music – as pointed out in the series “Treme”. In fact there are zydeco/Cajun festivities held at the time of Mardi Gras.  Accordion player Nathan Abshire is one of the greats of Cajun music.  This track was recorded in the 1960s for Swallow Recordings.

11 Steve Earle & The Dukes (& Duchesses) – After Mardi Gras (New West)

Album: The Low Highway

Ending off our special on Mardi Gras: “After Mardi Gras” is written for the TV series “Treme” by Steve and Lucia Micarelli the violinist-actress from series.  Earle, himself, also appears in the series.

12 Shovel & Rope – The Fall of Charleston (ATO Records)

Album: Various Artists - Divided & United: The Songs of the Civil War

In 2013, Randell Poster, a so-called “music supervisor”, who worked on Broadwalk Empire, put together a wonderful collection of American Civil War songs specially recorded by a bunch of Americana luminaries.  Here’s something somewhat atypical of the project - a ramshackle version of the “The Fall of Charleston”, which is about evacuation of Confederate troops from Charleston and entering of Federal troops in 1865.

13 Lucy Ward – Marching through the green grass (Navigator)

Album: Single Flame

Lucy Ward released her second album in 2013.  This is her version of the traditional song.

14 The Full English – Arthur O’Bradley (Topic)

Album: The Full English

The English Folk Dance and Song Society has recently put together a digital archive of source materials called the Full English, which you should check out: http://www.vwml.org/search/search-full-english.

 

The Society commissioned Fay Hield, who we’ve heard from a number of times here, to create new arrangements for a number of songs on the archive and The Full English band and album was born.  The line-up is terrific – besides Hield, there’s Nancy Kerr, Martin Simpson, Seth Lakeman and Sam Sweeney. 

15 Georgia Ruth – Etrai (Gwymon)

Album: Week of Pines          

Welsh harpist, keyboardist, singer-songwriter Georgia Ruth Williams, or Georgia Ruth, as she’s now calling herself, released a fine album in 2013. 

16 Alasdair Roberts & Robin Robertson – Farewell to the Fowler (Stone Tape Recordings)

Album: Hirta Songs

The Hebridean archipelago of St Kilda was abandoned in 1930s and since then has become home to a number of bird colonies.  Alasdair Roberts’ latest project is a collaboration with poet Robin Robertson about the St Kilda.

17 The Waterboys – Fisherman’s Blues (2^nd Version) (EMI)

Album: Fisherman’s Box: The Complete Fisherman’s Blues Sessions 1986-1988

Before coming up with their fantastic album of 1988, “Fisherman’s Blues”, the Waterboys spent three years cultivating the new sound for the album and recorded a mass of stuff in the process, including several versions of the title track “Fishermans’s Blues”.  All that stuff has just been put on the 7CD collection called “Fisherman’s Box”.

18 Rant – Tha M’fhearann Saidhbhir (Own label)

Album: Rant

Rant are a fiddling supergroup of sorts – four of Scotland’s finest fiddlers, two from the Shetland Islands and two from the Highlands.  They are Bethany Reid, Jenna Reid, Sarah-Jane Summers and Lauren MacColl. 

19 Karim Baggili – Toummai (with Le Trio Joubran) (Homerecords)
Album: Kali City

Born in Belgium of Jordanian and Yugoslavian extraction, Karim Baggili normally plays classical guitar but for his 2013 outing, “Kali City”, he’s taken up the oud and the results are fantastic.  Here’s backed by what he calls his Arabic Band, the track was Toummai. 

Here a wonderful youtube of two tunes - Lea and Kash – watch to the end, you will not be disappointed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkm2qPGfhbA

20 Anoushka Shankar – River Pulse   -- written by Nitin Sawhney (Deutsche Grammaphon)
Album: Traces of you

Anoushka Shankar came up with a homage to her father in 2013 – remember, he died just over a year ago in his 90s.  This is a composition by Nitin Sawhney, who also produced the album.
 

21 Maziar – Bot (Pharaway Sounds)

Album: Goush Bedey: Funk, Psychedelia and Pop from the Iranian Pre-revolutionary Iran

Over the last few years I’ve played a bunch of pop music from pre-revolutionary Iran.  Pharaway Sounds have a new collection of that sort of thing. 

22 Jon Balke, Amina Alaoui, Jon Hassell, Kheir Eddine M’Kachiche, Barokksolistene – Ya Safwati (ECM)
Album: Siwan

In 2009 Norwegian keyboardist and composer, Jon Balke was commissed by the Oslo Club Cosmopolite to come with something reflecting a harmonious meeting of different cultures.  He took the Al-Andalus (or medieval Andalusia) as his basis and worked with a baroque ensemble, and musicians from Algeria, Iran, Morocco and Norway as well as trumpeter, Jon Hassel, to come with “Siwan” – which in the Latin-Arab hybrid language of Aljamiado, means “balance”. 

 

23 Augustus Pablo & The Upsetters – Pride (Pressure Sounds)

Album: Lee Perry and his Upsetters present Roaring Lion: 16 Untamed Black Ark Masters & Dubplates)

The great British reggae re-issue label, Pressure Sounds, have uncovered yet more unreleased material by Lee Perry from the Black Ark period in the mid to late 70s.  This is something with melodica player Augustus Pablo at the fore, a great producer in this own right. 

24 Carlton and the Shoes – Love Is All (Studio One)

Album: Love me forever

From the same period as those Black Ark recordings, Carlton and the Shoes with “Love is all” from their 1968 album “Love me forever” recorded at Studio One.

25 Debademba – Djiki (World Village)

Album: Souleymane

Debademba is a Paris-based paring of guitarist and percussionist Abdoulaye Traore from Burkino Faso and Malian singer, Mohamed Diaby. They have a new album out.  “Djiki” features the flautist, Naissam Jalal.

26 Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba – Poye 2 (Out Here)

Album: Jama Ko

Buried in the one of the great albums from 2013 is kind of a blues with very obvious links to delta blues – basically a celebration of west African blues with Taj Mahal guesting.

27 Van-Anh Vo – Green River Delta (Innova Recordings)

Album: Three-Mountain Pass

Van-Anh Vanessa Vo is an emerging composer and player from Vietman, who trained for decades in Hanoi and is now based in San Francisco.  This is a collaboration with the Kronos Quartet on which she plays the dan Tranh, which a 16 string zither resembling the koto.

28 Laraaji – I Am Sky (All Saints Records)

Album: Celestial Music 1978 – 2011 (Cosmic Tape Experiments)

Autoharp player Laraaji Nadabrahmananda is often associated with the new age, but that probably is to do him a disservice.  He’s a wonderfully inventive player who’s taken the instrument into new dimensions, especially with his tape experiments.  All Saints Record have collected a bunch of his stuff of his more obscure stuff from between 1978 and 2011 on “Celestial Music 1978 – 2011 (Cosmic Tape Experiments)”.

29 Andrew Bird – Hover I (Grimsey)

Album: I want to see Pulaski at night

Andrew Bird off his new EP with one of his own tunes.