7 July 2010, World Cafe

Imagined Village – The handweaver and the factory maid (ECC records)

The Imagined Village with the traditional song, “The handweaver and the factory maid”, which comes from their new CD, “Empire and Love”. The Imagined Village is a teaming of the producer musician, Simon Emmerson, of The Afrocelts, a bunch of luminaries on the English folk scene, including Martin and Eliza Carthy and Chris Wood, and some other worldish types, like Johnny Kalsi of the Dohl Foundation and the sitar player, Sheema Markerjee, and some electronica types too.

Cara Dillon – P stands for Paddy (Lament for Johnny) (Charcoal Records)

Cara Dillon is a pure-voiced Irish singer, who’s been on the scene for the last 10 years. She’s just set up her own label, Charcoal Records, and this tune comes from the first album on that label, “Hill of Thieves”.

Bassekou Kouyate – Musow for our women (Out here records)

I’ve just got the new Ngoni Ba album, “I speak Fula”, that all the world music mags have been making a big fuss over. And I see why. This is the most perfectly layered and arranged album, built around an ensemble of ngonis of various sizes and the astonishing voice of Amy Sacko, a griot who happens to be married to Kouyate. Kouyate pioneered the sound, taking what is normally an accompanying instrument, the ngoni, and assembling a number of them together for ensemble and solo playing. He also invented a bass ngoni along the way. The style has grown in popularity in Mali over the last few years to the extent that everyone is setting up ngoni bands. You don’t need much, just a bunch of acoustic ngonis. The ngoni has a stick-like neck and hollowed-out, elongated, bowl-shape body covered with skin and some gut strings – a forerunner of the banjo, many believe.

Youssou N’dour – Baay Faal (Nonesuch)

Bassekou Kouyate has also been a guest musician of choice for some time. He features on Youssou N’dour’s “back-to-basics” mbalax album of 2007, “Rokku mi rokka (give and take)”.

Etoile de Dakar featuring Youssou N’dour – Tu Veras (Sterns)

N’dour has been at the forefront of mbalax since its beginning – mbalax is a combination of Cuban horns, Congolese rumba guitar styles, traditional rhythms played on the “mbang mbang” drum and some local singing styles, sung in Wolof instead of Spanish. All this was coming together in the late 70s. Sterns have released a collection of very rare recordings from that period, a number of which were only ever available on cassette. The Spanish is still in evidence on “Tu Veras”.

Orchestre TPOK Jazz – Cheri Desi (Eva Corporation)

Speaking of the Afro-Cuban, the great Orchestre TPOK Jazz continued to perform and record after the death of Franco in the late 80s. “Cheri Desi” is from a tribute LP to Franco, “Les Mayeno a Gogo”. The track really starts to cook hypnotically at minute 3 and then takes off after the “sebene” – or the pivot point between the vocal section and the instrumental dance section – a defining part of the Congolese rumba of the 70s and 80s. Long-time TPOK vocalist, Josky (Kiambukuta Londa), who composed that track, really shows that he learnt a thing or two from the maestro.

Lobi Traore – Tiekoroba (World Village)

I’m sad to report that Lobi Traore, the great Malian adventurous blues guitarist, died unexpectedly a few weeks ago. Although from central Mali, in fact near Segu, where Bassekou Kouyate hails from, Traore collaborated with a number of guitarists from the north, including Ali Farka Toure. He helped create what is called Bambara Blues – Bambara being the language of central Mali, which has more linkages to the culture of north Mali than to the languages of Maninka and Mandinka in the south west – allowing those mixings to happen. “Tiekoroba” comes off the collection “Mali Blue”, which is a kind of best of compilation of four Traore albums made in the 90s.

Kalahari Surfers – Fish Effect (Microdot Music)

From the Kalahari Surfers’ latest, “One party state”.

Tommy McCook & the Skatalites – Freedom Sounds (Heartbeat)

Last month I played some mid 70s stuff from the saxist, Tommy McCook. McCook has been around since the dawning of reggae. He helped found one of the all time great Jamaican ska bands – the Skatalites. He wrote “Freedom Sounds”, and recorded it in the early 60s, for the great label and studio of the time, Studio One, owned by entrepreneur-producer, Clement “Coxsone” Dodd. Listen out for more sounds from Studio One in months to come.

King Tubby and Lee Perry are probably the two most famous names in dub.

King Tubby – Bottom Dub (Jigsaw Music)

King Tubby’s main method was to strip tracks right down to the bass and drums and then conjure up new rhythms and moods through adding effects to the beats like reverb and echo using an effects unit often of his own invention. Bottom Dub comes from the album “Herb Dub, Collie Dub”, which is a dub of a Skatalites’ LP – utterly changed from its ska original (thanks to Mario Pissarra for telling me about this LP).

Harry Mudie meets King Tubby – Dub with a difference (Moods)

King Tubby’s collaboration with a veteran record producer, Harry Mudie, probably best known for producing Gregory Isaacs, the super star of lovers’ rock. The string section of the original has been kept.

Lee Perry and the Upsetters – Three in one (Island/Mango)

On his album “Super Ape”, Lee Perry adopted almost the opposite approach to King Tubby – adding layers and layers to the murky sonic soup – instead of stripping down and accentuating beats and bass pulses.

Staff Benda Bilili – Sala Mosala (Crammed Disc)

From the streets of Kinshasa with a very infectious reggae lope.

Getachew Mekuria and the Ex and guests – Musicawi silt (Terp)

The mighty blast of veteran Ethiopean sax player, Getachew Mekuria, with Dutch punk band, the Ex. Mekuria helped invent that style of playing – called shelelle - in the sixties. It’s derived from war chants, if you had any doubts.

Fela Kuti – Jeun ko ku (Strut)

From the raucous, to the uber-precise – here is Fela Kuti’s The Africa 70 – circa 1971 – from The Abbey Road studio, London. This is Kuti’s rerecording of his 60’s Nigerian hit “Jeun Ko Ku” or “Chop N Quench” – proto Afro-beat with the legendary drummer, Tony Allen, laying down those ultra-controlled, insistent rhythms – never losing his cool.

Steely Dan – Rikki don’t lose that number

You probably know that Steely Dan didn’t come up with the bass figure and drum pattern at the beginning of “Rikki don’t lose that number”. They lifted it from the Horace Silver tune, “Song for My Father”, which came out in the mid 60s. But they weren’t the only ones doing heavy lifting.

Horace Silver – Song for my father (Blue Note)

Mulatu Astatke – Yekermo Sew (Strut)

Seyfrou Yohannes – Yekermo Sew (Buda Musique)

Mulatu Astatke – a music student in NYC round about when “Song for my father” came out, also lifted the tune in a way that was remarkable. He converted the song, blobs and staves and all, into a pure-bred Ethiojazz tune.

Malombo – Motshile (Kijima Records)

From Phillip Thabane and Malombo’s release in the early 80s, called “Malombo”.

Trembling Bells – Adieu, England (Honest Jons Records)

Trembling Bells, built around Alex Neilson, the multi-purpose, multi-directional drummer, and trained soprano, Lavinia Blackwall, emerged last year from the Glasgow folk scene – a wonderful throwback to 70s folk rock. Neilson wrote all the songs on their new LP “Abandoned Love” – and that was one of the them, “Adieu, England”. Are you reminded of Richard Thompson circa Fairport? I definitely am – “Crazy Man Michael” for the post-oughties or whatever decade we’re living in now.

Mary Hampton – Island (Navigator)

Mary Hampton is another UK songwriter up to her neck in tradition.

Sam Amidon – How come that blood (Bedroom Community)

Amidon draws on the same well of songs as Hampton and Neilson – English and Scottish ballads – this time filtered through the Appalachians. He’s deployed a really fabulous NY based percussionist, Shahzad Ismaily, on his new album “I see a sign”.

Mari Boine – In a blanket of warmth (Jazzland)

Mari Boine, from Norway, also works with great percussionists. From her 2003 LP “Eight Seaons”.

Kalahari Surfers and Greg Hunter – What is she saying to me? (Electric Melt)

The great maskanda star and tradition-breaker, Busi Mhlonga, provides the vocals. Amapondo providing backing vocals. UCT string quartet is also in the mix. Mhlongo died on the 15th June, after battling breast cancer. Hopefully her fiesty spirit will live on.

2 June 2010, World Cafe

1 TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou – Les djos (Soundway)

TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou palpably demonstrates their affinity for James Brown and the JBs by turning an introductory bridge typical of the JBs into a whole song. Lorhento Eskill shows off his James Brown imitation shouts and screams – which he admitted he spent an inordinate amount of time honing. Check out the downloadable Poly Rythmo mix that Jam Magica put out in the second half of May.

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2 Hedzoleh Soundz – Omusus da fe m’musu (Soundway)

Hedzoleh Soundz was the house band of the Napolean – a massive, labyrinthine and notorious nightspot in Accra in the 1970s, set up by a Ghanaian of Lebanese extraction – Faisal Helwani – who introduced all kinds of innovations into nightlife culture in Accra. Hugh Masekela would eventually play with Hedzoleh and re-record their 1973 LP, simply called Hedzoleh, adding trumpet tracks he produced in the US. The tune comes off the original Hedzoloh LP which has been recently reissued by Soundway.

3 African Brothers International Band – Oyonko brebo (Happy Bird, 1970)

The African Brothers International Band were one of the best known and most profilic and longest lived highlife bands of all time. “Oyonko brebo” is not strictly highlife – it’s a style they called Karakara on the LP’s sleeve notes. That tune was recorded in 1970, after they had already been going for 7 years.

4 Franco & TPOK Jazz – Youyou (Ndombe Opetum) (VISA)

In the 1960s and 70s both sides of the Congo River had an active music scene – the Brazzaville side being active largely due to members of TPOK Jazz crossing over the river and getting things going there.

Franco often stepped back and let the vocalists and guitarists from his completely fantastic band take centre stage. The singer Ndombe Opetum wrote that song, “Youyou”, and that terrific arrangement comes off the LP “A Paris volume 1”, which came out in 1980. The whole of this LP can be downloaded from the World Service site.

5 L’orchestre Congolais Les Bantous – Paris-Brazza (Papa Noel) (SV 13001) – Soukous - Vogue

Les Bantous were probably the best known band from the Congo Republic and a large amount of the reason for their fame was their wizard guitarist, Papa Noel. Noel adds more than a dash of twist and twang to the Congolese rumba here. Also available on the World Service blog. The LP was recorded in Paris, although it’s not clear when, and came out in the mid 70s.

6 Mulatu Astatke – I faram gami I faram (Strut) (Ichabod Music)

Mulatu Astatke is probably the most commonly played musician on this programme. He’s been a mainstay of Ethiopian music for decades, even during the reign of the Durg, which held power from 1974 for 18 years and crushed the extremely fertile Addis scene which had started in the mid 60s. But he had not really led a band or made recordings for more than 20 years.

Over the last two years we’re been extremely lucky as he’s given us two treasures – one with the British collective the Heliocentrics and now one under his own name, with the album “Mulatu Astatke Steps Ahead” - featuring the Heliocentrics and the Either/Orchestra from Boston which he’s played with over the years.

The tune which we’ve just heard is a reworking of something he put together with Puerto Rican musicians in NYC in the mid 60s – “I faram gami I faram”. It’s based on a traditional warrior song – the gist of which is the refrain “the youth are not afraid”. We’ll listen to the original 1966 arrangement, which is on the LP “Afro-Latin Soul”, sometime soon.

7 Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba – Segu Tonjon (Outhere Records)

Off Kouyate and Ngoni Ba’s 2006 CD, “Segu Blue”. The song is about a 19^th century Bamana ruler’s slave army, the Tonjon, a bunch who because of the slave status were unconstrained by the niceties of Islamic custom and got up to all kinds of weird stuff.

8 Tartit – Tabey Tarate (Crammed Disc)

Before all the recent hype about Tenariwen, well deserved it has to be said, Tartit, a Touareg band from Northeastern Mali, put out a fabulous CD in 2006, “Abacobok”. Like Tenariwen, Tartit met in a refugee camp, in Burkino Faso. They allow many more sides of Touareg tradition to filter into their music.

9 Jah Wobble’s Chinese Dub Orchestra – L1 (30 Hertz)

Jah Wobble’s frantic funky Chinese dub.

10 The Congos - La la bella (Cedric Myton and Rhoyde Johnson - publishers)

The Congos are another great spiritual reggae band. Remarkably, “La la bella” was recorded only four years ago despite its ultra-rootsy, murky sound.

11 Tommy McCook – Mandella (Clinch Records)

From the b side of the Abyssinians’ “Tenayisstillin” that I spun last month, here is an instrumental version of the Abyssinians’ signature tune, “Satta Masa Ghana”, arranged by the veteran reggae sax player, Tommy McCook. If you know the original, his slight shifts in timing slight give “Satta” a much more swinging feel, albeit a regal swing.

Tommy McCook was an original member of the Skatalites, a ska-rock steady band of star musicians set up in the mid-60s. Ernest Ranglin was probably the Skatalites’ most famous member.

12 African Head Charge – Treatment for a septic horn (On-U Sound)

Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah of African Head Charge has been exploring the outer edges of psychedelia, space rock and jazz, dub and nyabingi drumming since the mid 80s, aided and abetted by producer Adrian Sherwood. “Treatment for a Septic Horn” comes off their 2005 album, “Vision for a psychedelic Africa”, which was finally given an international release last year.

13 Sunny Ade & his African Beats – Ja fun fi (Strut)

A classic from the early 80s by Sunny Ade and his African Beats: the dub version of “Ja fun fi”. The original is on the LP “Juju Music”. After the death of Bob Marley, Island Records tried to market Sunny Ade as the next great thing. He was great, and came up with brilliant sounds and what he called rhythmic “systems”– but alas he didn’t have the same mass appeal, his songs being long, rhythmically complex and in Yoruba. Like Marley he was strongly rooted in his tradition. See below for another track.

14 Lura – Sukundida (Orlando Pantera) (Lusafrica)

Besides singing in Portuguese, the slick superstar of Cape Verde, Lura, and the Brazillian veteran Gal Costa, have something else in common – the musical melting pot of Bahia in Northern Brazil. “Sunkundida” was written by Orlando Pantera, a Cape Verde songwriter who formed his musical vision in Bahia, attracted there in part by Tropicalia and by its tradition of percussion playing. Quite a compelling MPB and tango fusion – you might agree.

15 Gal Costa – Vou recomecar (Sound Jazz Records)

Gal Costa was a pioneer of the Tropicalia scene in the late 60s – the scene was basically incubated in multicultural Bahia. That was her 1969 version of a song by Gilberto Gil, “Vou recomecar”. Costa went on to become a massive MPB star.

16 Seyfou Yohannes – Metche dershe (Buda Musique)

The Ethiopiques series have just brought out volume 24 – a round up of the a and b sides of singles brought out on Amha Records, the label integrally linked with the Addis scene in late 60s/early 70s. The ubiquitous Mulatu Astakte provides Seyfou Yohannes’s backing track of the single “Metche Dershe”. No infomation on who the guitarist is in the sleeve notes, which is a pity!

17 Sunny Ade and his Green Spot Band (African Songs Ltd)

The track is probably from about the 13 years before Ade’s juju dub rebirth, and is a fusion of highlife and juju. It comes from a “best of” series of four LPs on the African Songs label released in the mid to late 60s.

18 Mahotella Queens – Ihlokohloko

Electric Jive have put up a number of fabulous downloads of late.

19 The Mellotone Sisters - Jabulani Bazali

Mahlatini provides background growls to the Mellotone Sisters’ single from 76.

20 Theodore Bikel & Socalled – (Rock the) Belz (Label Bleu) – trad arr SoCalled

Theodore Bikel is a British actor, who had his heyday in the 50s and 60s. For instance, he played Zoltan Karpathy, the dialect expert, in My Fair Lady. In this tune he teamed up with the hip hopster Socalled. The tune comes from a brilliant Rough Guide collection, “The Rough Guide to the Klezmer Revolution” (World Music Network), well worth getting.

21 Don Byron --- Paisach in Portugal (Elektra Nonesuch)

Okay, so I’m two months too late, but that’s such a great song and fitted so well after Theodore Bikel, that I had to give it a whirl. Don Byron’s tribute to comedian and musical pasticher Mickey Katz – the song is Katz’s take on the Raul Ferrao and Jimmy Kennedy chestnut “April in Portugal”. The backing band is completely fantastic and you shouldn’t be surprised to hear that it includes NYC jazz musicians Mark Feldman, Dave Douglas and Uri Caine, all John Zorn collaborators. Jay Berliner guests on mandolin – the same Berliner who played the very distinctive chamber folk-jazz guitar on Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks”.

22 Dirty Projectors – Two Doves

Perhaps abandoning our world music mission for a moment with the Dirty Projectors. This is “Two Doves”, at a stretch perhaps it has shades of renaissance troubadour balladry – a lovely tune none the less, and one with suitably opaque lyrics, in keeping with this show. Dave Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors is known for his interest in African guitar music – and often that inspiration shines through, although not much on that tune.

23 Joanna Newsom – One (Drag City)

Another young upstart from the American folk scene who claims African inspiration is the harpist and singer-songwriter of mind-boggling ability, Joanna Newsom, although not very much African influence on this track – there’s more of an Irish harp here.

24 Pentangle – Springtime Promises (Shanachie)

Bert Jansch’s unmistakable warble – just this side of tunefulness, and all the better for it. That’s an early classic from Pentangle, “Springtime Promises”.

25 Les Triaboliques – Shine a light (World Village)

Staying on in Blighty – but with a mighty yearning for the Big Easy – this is probably the only supergroup of world music producers in the firmament, Les Triaboliques. It’s Ben Mandelson, Justin Adams and Lu Edmonds.

26 Nass Marrakech – Mash q’mani (World Village)

Moroccan Abdelaziz Arradi’s version of a traditional song.

5 May 2010, World Cafe

1 Orchestra Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou – Minkou E So Non Moin (Analog Africa)

The soaring 6-voice chorus, the precision drumming, the deft guitar playing of Papillon, driving brass section and the hugely powerful tenor voice of Lohento Eskill are just typical of songs that Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo recorded in the mid 70s. Poly-Rhythmo went over the border to Lagos to make those recordings in state-of-the-art studios for the Beninese label Albarika Store – and they still sound fabulous today. Lohento Eskill, who wrote that tune, is known in Benin as “Le Rossignol” – “the nightingale” – which can only refer to his fluency and agility, rather than delicacy. There’s much more of that kind of stuff on Analog Africa’s Orchestra Poly-Rhythmo’s collection, “Echos Hypnotiques” which came out last year.

2 Rail Band – Sinsimba (Styllart)

The Rail Band was home to three of the greatest modern Malian musicians: Salif Keita, Mory Kante and Djelimady Tounkara. In 1977, Mory Kante was singing for the band; Tounkara has been their lead guitarist all along. The song is a tribute to Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat – but instead of the tight and super tuned brass typical of afro-beat, the brass section is bracingly ramshackle and flat. The message of the song is celebratory – “When things go well, why we should we hide our happiness?”

3 Celestine Ukwu & His Philosophers National – Okwukwe Na Nchekwube (Soundway)

Nigerian Celestine Ukwu has an achingly soulful voice, very apt for what his songs are usually about – this song is titled “Faith and Trust” and was extremely popular when it came out in 1974. His Philosophers National was his backing band – a name that also echoes his concerns. The style of music is Highlife – and in this song you heard the Palmwine roots of Highlife strongly. Palmwine was a much earlier guitar and percussion based style that evolved in drinking holes of various kinds, as the name suggests, along the west coast of Africa. Celestine’s promising career was cut short in 1977 when he died in a car accident. The song comes off the Soundway collection “Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-sounds and Nigerian Blues 1970-6”.

4 The Sweet Talks – Akumpaye (Soundway)

The Sweet Talks were one of the most popular bands in Ghana in the mid 70s. In short the song comments “the chief is in a position to grant the requests of his subjects, but mostly he doesn’t”. Perhaps it is a critique of chiefly power, but it sounds too joyful for that. The really swingingly inventive drumming was supplied by one J Y Torty – according to those in the know the best drummer in Ghana at the time. The song comes from another Soundway compilation – “Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-sounds & Ghanian Blues 1968-81”.

Benga is a regional guitar-based music style from western Kenya. The style came to prominence in Kenya during the political and economic malaise of the 70s. Here are two fine examples - one over 20 years old, the other a little over a year old.

5 Daniel Owino Misiani and Shirati Jazz Band – Honourable Horace Owiti Ongili (Earthworks)

Daniel Misiani and his band, Shirati Jazz, are considered the kings of the Benga style. They played “Honourable Horace Owiti Ongili”, which was dedicated to a murdered MP from Western Kenya. The song comes from the Earthworks collection, “Benga Blast”, which came out in the mid-80s. The whole album can be downloaded from the Global Groove blog – and you can get there by following the links from this show’s blog.

6 Extra Golden – Ukimwi (Thrill Jockey)

The band, Extra Golden, is a mix of Kenyans and Americans who play and record in both countries. They’re on their third album now – “Thank you very quickly” – out on the American post-rock label “Thrill Jockey”. The band is saying thank you to American fans for helping its Kenyan members who couldn’t perform during the 2008 post-election violence in Kenya and thus couldn’t earn a living.

Back to the 70s. Last month we played you a bunch of tunes from mbaqanga’s golden age. Here are two more which are followed by a maskanda track. All the tunes come from either the Electric Jive blog or its sister blog, Matsuli – both accessible from this show’s blog.

7 Indoda Mahlatini & Mahlatini Band – Siyekeleni (Soweto Records)

The B-side of the single we heard last month, called “Siyekeleni”.

8 Makgona Tsohle Band – Diperekisi (Mohotella)

I love the tight jerky intertwining of mouth organ, guitar, bass and sax.

9 Abalandeli – Unogwaja (Rashid’s Red Label)

I know nothing about Abalandeli other than that they recorded that for Rashid’s Red Label. Matsuli blog are planning a bunch of vinyl re-issues from Rashid’s Red Label starting very soon. I’ll keep you posted.


There is a fine tradition of spiritual singing within reggae – vocal groups like the Abyssinians and the Congos moved away from a US soul style to a more sombre, hymnlike feel.


10 Abyssinians – Tenayistillin (Clinch Records)

From the 12 inch orginally released on their Clinch Records label.

11 Yabby U – Homelessness (Blood and Fire)

Jamaican producer Yabby U developed a particularly stripped down dub sound.
A committed Christian, he disputed the divinity of Haile Salassie, and for that reason was known as “Jesus Dread”. I guess Yabby U is getting to know something about his maker – sadly for us still in the land of living, he died a few weeks ago.

12 Ian King – Black Eyed Susan (Fledg’ling)

Ian King has teamed up with the great English dub producer, Adrian Sherwood, to come up with a concoction of traditional balladry and dub. Not exactly unprecedented – Sinead O’Connor and Sherwood did something similar for Irish music some years back. Ian King is also a dry stonewaller who plies his trade in Yorkshire. There’s a whole album of the stuff called Panic Grass and Fever Few – and it’s mostly fabulous.

13 Davy Graham & Shirley Collins – Proud Maisrie (Fledg’ling)

No less innovative is Shirley Collins – one of Ian King’s champions, as it happens. With Davy Graham she created one of the touchstone albums of the early folk revival – “Folk roots, new routes”. Combining rhythmically and harmonically inventive guitar playing with unaffected, unadorned traditional singing, the album set the template for generations of singer-guitarists working the seam of tradition – like Martin Carthy, Bert Jansch, Nic Jones, Dick Gaughan, Martin Simpson.

14 Fairport Convention – Genesis Hall (Rykodisc)

In 1969 Fairport Convention brought out “Unhalfbricking”, a breakthrough album on the English folk scene, maybe the first one to seamlessly join folk and rock without any trace of feyness or rumpty tum tum tum ness. Richard Thompson, Fairport’s guitarist, also started writing killer songs on that record. “Genesis Hall” is one.

15 Darko Rundik & Cargo Orkestar – Ista Slika (Piranha)

In the 90s Darko Rundik, a Croatian singer, actor and theatre director, emigrated from Zagreb to Paris to escape the Balkan wars. His 2004 concept album involves inter alia a cargo ship, Cuba, French theatre, and immigration …

16 Albert Kuvezin & Yat-Kha – In a gadda da vida (Yat-Kha Recordings)

Iron Butterfly’s troglodyte bash – “In a gadda da vida” – as done by Yat-Kha - sounding only slightly more elegant than the original.

17 Uyghur Musicians from Xinjiang – Mudan Khan (Globe Style)

Just south of Tuva, Yat-Kha’s homeland is the Xinjiang region of China. From a great record by a collective calling themselves “The Uyghur Musicians from Xinjiang”, this is Mudan Khan. According to the sleeve notes, it’s a tragic love song.

18 Mulatu Astatke – Mulatu (Strut)

The biggest name in Ethio-jazz is probably pianist, vibes player, composer and band leader - Mulatu Astatke. Coming up is one of his most classic tunes, “Mulatu”, from the 1972 album, “Mulatu of Ethiopia”. Strut Records have re-issued this and other Astatke tracks from the period on the collection “

19 Maurice El Medioni – Ahla Ouassala (Piranha Musik (GEMA))

Maurice El Medioni’s astonishing fusion of latin and algerian rai – that was called “Ahla Ouassala”. El Medioni was the first to introduce the piano into rai, but he always did it with more than just a tinge of latin, betraying his musical rights of passage - playing to American soldiers and learning American styles from them in the 40s in the coastal town of Oran. The track comes from the relatively recent album Oran Café produced for Piranha Records.

20 Kalahari Surfers and Greg Hunter – Garuda Express (Electric MELT)

From a 2009 Kalahari Surfers album, “Turntabla”, which is co-credited to Greg Hunter who is part of the electronica experimentalists, the Orb. All kind of things bubbling up from the mix there – including a massed pizzicato onslaught from the UCT string quartet.

21 Bask – Arabiskan (X Source)
Bask are from Sweden – and as you’ll hear they like to explore the resonance between fiddle, sax, flute and percussion. “Arabiskan” is a “springlek” – a kind of Swedish dance tune.

22 Hoven Droven – Myhrpolska (North Side)

Sweden is home to pretty unhealthy sounding heavy metal – that was decidely more wholesome, founded as it is on a folk dance tune – “Myhrahalling”. Recorded live on Hoven Droven’s tour of the US a few years ago, it is on the record “Jumping at the Cedar”. The Cedar is in Minneapolis, in case you’re wondering.

23 Imagined Village – Rosebud in June (Proper Records)

The Imagined Village have moved their sound on from a multi-cultural re-invention of traddish ballads to something perhaps a little less contrived. Their latest album “Empire and Love” has just been released; from it we’ll listen to “Rosebud in June” – a traditional song which was given a recent airing by Steeleye Span – recent in traditional terms being about 40 years ago.

7 April 2010, World Cafe

This show is dedicated to Charlie Gillet – the grand uncle of world music djs - who died a few weeks ago. Links to his website are available on this blog.

1 Oumou Sangare – Wele wele wintou (World Circuit)

Off Oumou Sangare’s great 2009 album entitled “Seya” that was the tune “Wele wele wintou”. A song against forced marriages. The album is thick with luminaries from the Mali scene, and that track features the legendary guitarist, Djelimady Tounkara.

2 Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou – Se ba ho Composed by Amoussou William – legendary trad singer (Analog Africa)

The opening track on Analog Africa’s collection of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou material “From the vaults of Albarika Store, 1969 to 1979” had label head Samy Redjeb and his Beninese sound team’s jaws dropping to the floor. It dates from the early 70s and is set to a “sato” rhythm, which draws heavily on traditional vodoun rhythms from the region. Vodoun rhythms were strongly present in Beninese daily life at the time. You can watch a movie of that song being performed on Analog Africa’s blog – check out the link.

3 Franco – Quatre Boutons (Sheer Sound)

From 1965, that was Franco and TPOK Jazz with the song “Quartre Boutons”. It’s a comic, slightly racy ditty about a woman who attracts many men, including lovers of her friends and has sassy answers for all. She asks her detractors to ask the men about why they are attracted to her. The four buttons refer to a certain item of men’s apparel which is unfastenable, although we are not sure about which precise item she is referring to.

One of Franco’s long-time guitarists, Simaro (or Simon Lutumba Ndomameuno) played guitar – reverb-drenched, with a very smeary, shimmering break – all utterly fresh sounding to our ears. Simaro was with TPOK Jazz from 1963 until Franco’s death in 89.

The tune comes off a quite magnificent collection “African Classics – Franco” locally released by Sheer.

4 Christy Azuma & Uppers International – Din Ya Sugri (Soundway)

Christy Azuma and Uppers International played music strongly influenced by the music of the upper regions of Ghana – in 1974 a backwater, but a backwater earmarked for tourist development. The Uppers International were drawn from all over Ghana as the house band of a hotel in the upper regions gearing up for the tourist onslaught. Their residency, however, banished them, more or less, to obscurity. Soundway, on their collection, “Ghana Special”, have dug them out.

5 Ali Farka Toure – Cherie (World Circuit)

Speaking of obscurity, in 1984, when the track we’re about to hear was released by French Sonodisc on the album entitled “Red”, Ali Farka Toure was basically languishing in it. Some years after its release, the godfather of world music DJs, Andy Kershaw, came across the album in a bargain basement bin in Paris. He managed to convince World Circuit to get Ali Farka Toure into their stable on the strength of this album and another released more or less at the same time, “Green”. From “Red”, this is the song “Cherie”.

6 Mahlathini Indoda & the Mahlathini Band – Kudala Besibiza (Soweto label)

From 1975, that was the famous Zulu groaner Mahlathini without the Mahotella Queens, when he called himself Mahlathini Indodo. Mahlathini, or Simon Nkabinde, was very proud of his rural heritage – “mah” refers to someone who was just emerged from the bush. On this track he plays with the groundbreaking Makgona Tsohle Band – his backing band for many years – which basically pioneered the classic mbaqanga sound, and were probably mbaqanga’s best players. They were the backing band for many mbaqanga hits.

You can download the whole of this Mahlatini album from the Electric Jive blog – check out the link. Electric Jive’s sister site, Matsuli, is also worth a visit. Our next two tracks come from either Electric Jive or Matsuli.


7 Soweto Boys – Loading Zone (Soweto label)

A year before the Mahlatini track came out, the Soweto Boys released an extremely catchy bunch of sax jive tunes on the Soweto Label. Sax jive grew out of the penny whistle jive, and by the mid 60s had evolved into mbaqanga, having added electric bass and guitar to the line-up.


8 Abafana Be Nala – Wesayoni (Mabob Records)

This track comes from 1976.


9 Akli D – Tabrats (Le Message) (Because UK)

Akli Dehlis is a Berber. A few years ago he produced a lavish album with Manu Chao under the moniker Akli D. This is “Tabrats” from that album.


10 Oum Kalsoum – Wehakkak ental mona waltalab (Mantego) Composed by Abu Al, El Sheik, Mohamed, Ola, Shabrahi, Elham Abdullah El)

We got this from the Mantego collection “The Legend: the Arab World’s Greatest Singer,” which sums up Oum Kalsoum’s reputation quite neatly.

11 Natasha Atlas – Wahashini (N Atlas, N Sparkes, Dubulah – co-ordinator of Dub Colossus (Mantra Recordings)

Although born in Belgium and making her name in England as the singer in Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart, Natasha Atlas is steeped in Oum Kalsoum’s tradition of voice-led orchestral music. Wahashini was co-written by Dubulah, the coordinator of the Dub Colossus project of ethiojazz and vintage Addis music fused with dub that we’ve explored in past programmes…


12 Jump to Addis – Abebayehush (traditional arr Dawit Guebreab) (Buda Musique)

… a neat lead to our next song – “Abebayehush” by Jump to Addis – a collection of European musicians from the Amsterdam Conservatory and Addis’s finest from the “azmaribat” scene. Azmaribat are traditional minstral cabarets in Ethiopia. The song, in all its live ragged glory, celebrates the arrival of spring, which Ethiopia is experiencing round about now.

13 Ashkabad - From the station to the mill (World Music Network)

14 Adulkhamit Rayimbergenov - Sary Arqa (World Music Network)

Two tracks from Central Asia – from the Rough Guide collection to the Music of Central Asia.

15 Wareika Hill Sounds – Africa Freedom March (Honest Jon’s)

Soul, blues and rock have all left their mark outside their places of origin – and so have reggae and dub. But we’ll start our mini crossover reggae segment in the foothills of Kingston with the nyabinghi-infused sounds of veteran trombone player, Calvin “Bubbles” Cameron and his collective “Wareika Hill Sounds”. Another veteran of the Kingston scene accompanies Cameron – sax player Deadley Headley Bennet. This comes from a 2007 album on the label Honest Jon’s.

16 Kalahari Surfer – Leka-leka (trad arr W Sony) (African Dope Records)

In the early 90s South African multi-instrumentalist and producer, Pops Mohamed, headed off to the Kalahari with a sound and camera crew, to record the music of Khoisan people living in the area – the primary impulse being preservation. Some of the resultant recordings were released in 1995 by Melt 2000 as “Bushmen of the Kalahari”. Instead of remaining pristinely preserved behind glass, these recordings have provided the basis for two rounds of quite fundamental remixes in which layers of electronic and reprocessed analog sounds have been added – “Sanscapes” 1 & 2. Warrick Sony of Kalahari Surfer also did a remix of the song, “Leka-leka”, which came out on his 2001 album “Akasic Record” – and that was what we just heard …

Tonight, over the course of this show, we’ve actually heard all the musicians featured in this year’s African Soul Rebels tour which took place in the UK in February and early March – Oumou Sangare, Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo and Kalahari Surfers. More information about the musicians and the tour is contained in a podcast you can find on the Jam Magica blog – check out the link.

17 Amsterdam Klezmer Band – Sadagora Hot Dub (World Music Network)

Klezmer-inspired reggae from Amsterdam …

18 Bentho Gustave Titou & l’International Poly Rythmo – Gbe sou ve gnin (Libert)

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo played just about every style including reggae. The song we’ve just heard was written by their bass player, Bentho Gustave Titou, and the whole LP is credited to Bentho Titou & l’International Poly Rythmo. To distribute composition credits and revenues that flowed from them more evenly, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo got different members to compose whole albums. The album was released in 1980 and you can download it from the Oro blog – check out the link.


19 Jack Rose – Everybody ought to pray sometime (Thrill Jockey)

Jack Rose was a guitar player who died late last year. His old-timey, blues ragas are reminiscent of John Fahey’s – an acknowledged inspiration. This is something in the ragtime vein he also liked to play, from this latest album just released – “Luck in the valley”. It’s called “Everyone ought to pray sometime”.

20 Mawkin Causley – Botany Bay (Navigator Records)

From the 2008 EP “Cold Ruin”.

21 The Imagined Village – Cold Haily Rainy Night (Real World)

The Imagined Village are a collection of English musicians from all kind of traditions who usually take an English ballad as a starting point and interpret it in all kinds of interesting ways. Chris Wood and Eliza Carthy did the vocals, and Johnny Kalsi from Dhol Foundation played the dohl – a huge Indian double-headed drum strapped to the front of the body and played with curved sticks.

22 Cheb I Sabbah – Lagi Lagan (6 Degrees)

Cheb I Sabbah is an Algerian-born, San Francisco based DJ, or more correctly coordinator and producer of electronically reinforced recordings of traditional music mainly from North Africa and India. We’re going to hear the north Indian tune “Lagi Lagan”. Bill Laswell, no stranger to this show, supplies the bottom end, and South African Deepak Ram plays the bansuri – an Indian bamboo flute.

3 March 2010, World Cafe

1 El Rego et Ses Commandos – E nan mian nuku (Analog Africa)

In the late 60s American soul and funk were impacting heavily on the West coast of Africa. A number of bands were getting in on the action, producing what was called “jerk”, often with lyrics in English. El Rego says that he probably recorded the first Beninese jerk tune. That was in 1968. El Rego et Ses Commandos went on to do a number of jerk tracks. “E nan mian nuku” was one – it is collected on the Analog Africa collection “Legends of Benin”.

The CDs from which we’ve culled a number of tracks we’re playing tonight come from Sheer Music, who distribute such great labels as World Music Network, World Circuit, some Real World, Crammed Records and Soundway. Thanks a stack to Sheer.

2 Baaba Maal – Tindo (Palm Pictures)

Baaba Maal’s latest CD, “Television”, was four years in the making. You can hear he has built up the sound through an accretion of layers – much like his landmark album from the 1990s “Firin’ in Fouta”, although “Television” has a more international sound. He co-produced it with Barry Reynolds, a long-time guitar player at the legendary Compass Point Studio in Nassau in the Bahamas.

Didi Gutman and Sabina Sciubba of New York’s latin reggae electro fusion outfit, Brazilian Girls, take a number of the keyboard and song writing and singing credits. Sciubba, who grew up in Nice and Munich, sings with Maal on “Tindo”.

3 Abyssinia Infinite – Gole (Network Medien Gmbh)

Abyssinia Infinite is a collective of Ethiopian and New York based international musicians, including South African, Tony Cedras, with the well known Ethiopian singer, Gigi Shibabaw at the helm. Gigi’s husband, the famous bass-playing producer co-produces with Gigi, and plays acoustic guitar. “Gole” is a very old devotional song, sung half in Amharic and half in an older language, Agewna. Gigi has added some of her own words.

4 Franco & Le TPOK Jazz – Sandoka (Sterns Africa)

Franco is generally recognised as Africa’s top bandleader of recent times. He started his professional career in the 50s as a teenager and by the 80s his band, Le TPOK Jazz, numbered more than 20 players, and he had one foot in Europe and the other in Kinshasa. He came from a poor family, had no formal musical education, but he went on to be one of the key creators of “soukous” - a fusion of Cuban and African rhythms, sometimes called the Congolese rumba, propelled by interlocking guitars. He wrote some of the most enduring songs from the DRC and put together some of the most beautiful vocal arrangements.

Collected on vol 2 of Stern’s “Francophonic” retrospective put out to mark the 20th anniversary of Franco’s death, we’re going to hear “Sandoka”. Ken Braun’s CD notes describe the track very nicely. He says “it involves six voices in chorus and in antiphonal duos and trios, calling to one another, almost in the style of a European Renaissance motet… The vocal parts take roles: a girl named Sandoka, the boy with whom she’s smitten, her parents, and their neighbours.” Basically, the parents object, and the neighbours intercede.

5 Lura – Tabanka (Lusafrica)

Off the coast of Senegal lies Cape Verde, about a third of the way west towards the Caribbean. Its music is often characterised as Afro-Caribbean. Lura, whose parents were from Cape Verde, grew up in Lisbon. Here she does Orlando Pantera’s song, “Tabanka”, in the style of Musica Popular Brasileira (MPB) or popular Brazilian music. Pantera was a songwriter from Cape Verde who died in 2001, having never released any recordings, but whose songs since then have been much recorded. He spent his formative years in Angola, and wound up in Bahia, Brazil, studying percussion – which explains the Brazilian affiliations.

6 Orchestra Poly-Rythmo – Jolie Beaute Africaine (Albarika Store)

Tout Puissant Orchestra Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, from Benin, were one the great West African bands of the 60s, 70s and early 80s, using Caribbean and voodoo rhythms. Up until recently, they have been largely unsung but since the interest from labels like Soundway and Anolog Africa, they have reformed and begun to play again. In fact, they have recently been touring the UK with Oumou Sangare and Kalahari Surfer.

We found this next vintage track, which is based on the rhythm called “cavacha”, on a magnificent blog “Oro” on which you can find quite of a bit of stuff from TP Orchestra Poly-Rythmo as well as loads of other great stuff. There’s a link to Oro on this blog.

7 Sixto Silgado, Paito y Los Gaiteros de Punta Bravo – Merengue Faroto (World Music Network)

Sixto Silgado, Paito and Los Gaiteros de Punta Bravo played some typical drum and fife street music from the Caribbean part of Colombia.

8 Les Triaboliques – Gulaguajira (I, the dissolute prisoner) (World Village)

Les Triaboliques, who we’ve just heard, are string players Ben Mandelson, Lu Edmonds and Justin Adams, who all also happen to be great global collaborators and producers. Here they sing Russian Gleb Gorbovsky’s song “Gulaguajira (I, the dissolute prisoner)”.

9 Lord Pretender – Human Race (World Music Network)

The Rough Guide to Calypso Gold collects rare recordings from the 30s, 40s and 50s. Lord Pretender or Adric Farrel, was one of Calypso’s greats. He was apparently a master of improvisation, being able to pluck choruses and verses from thin air, upon being given random topics.

10 Seprewa Kasa – Towoboase (World Music Network)

Ghanaian group “Seprewa Kasa” play some pretty laid back highlife music. The sound of the band is constructed around two seprewas. The seprewa is related to the kora, but is smaller and has fewer strings. Seprewa playing nearly died out, but according to Kari Banaman, the guitarist from Osibisa who plays in Seprewa Kasa, the instrument is becoming popular again. Banaman worked with Baffour Kyerematen and Osei Korankye to develop a unique sound – each instrument playing in its own tuning. This was done because of the difficulty of tuning two seprewas to each other, and to the guitar.

11 Anzala, Dolor, Velo – Ti fi la ou te madam (Soundway)

From the Soundways collection of 60s and 70s music from the French Caribbean, “Tumbele”, Anzala, Dolor and Velo from Guadeloupe play in a style called gwo-ka, which is strongly afro-caribbean, having its roots in rural plantation music. The irrepressible sax playing is actually atypical of gwo-ko and, on this track, the player is not known. Monsieur Dolor sings, and Velo, a very important figure in Guadeloupe, plays drums together with Anzala.

12 Solomon and Socalled featuring Michael Alpert – alt.shul Kale Bazetsn (Piranha)

Assaulting the traditional institution of marriage, in the fine radical traditional of Yiddish music, next is Sophie Solomon, Josh Dolgin (aka Socalled) and Michael Alpert. Alpert does the traditional hassidic chant vocals. From the Rough Guide to the Klezmer Revolution.

13 Klezmer Klub – G minor ser (Klub Records)

The London-based Klezmer Club is much more conservative-sounding than Solomon and her crew. That was the traditional tune, “G minor ser”. According to the sleeve notes, “a ser is a kind of Jewish square dance”.

14 Mahmoud Fadl – Ana Wehabibi (Piranha)

From an album of Cairo love classics this is Mahmoud Fadl with a composition by Mohamad Abdel Wahaab that Fadl arranged. Samy El Baby plays the qanun, which is a sort of plucked zither with obvious affinities with the koto.

15 Kim So-hee – Kayaguem Sanjo (Elektra/Wea)
The kayaguem sanjo is a koto-type instrument from Korea. That piece was played by virtuoso player Sung Keum-Yun, and it comes from a CD of equally startling music from the P’ansor tradition of Korean Opera, credited to singer Kim So-hee and released in 1988. It’s out of print now, but you can borrow it from the Cape Town Public Library.

16 Davy Graham – Bruton Town (Fledg’ling)

Acoustic guitar from the English folk revival which started in the 60s never sounded the same after Davy Graham’s debut. He introduced different tunings, Eastern modal scales and rhythms that were all over the map. Here he is with the equally innovative Danny Thompson on bass with a 1968 recording of the traditional song, “Bruton Town”.

17 Brass Monkey – The trees they grow high (Topic)

Brass Monkey are also innovators on the English folk scene – as you heard, they have introduced brass instruments in fabulous arrangements, which include the accordion, into traditional ballad playing.

18 Espers – Meridian (Drag City)

Espers are folk-rock revivalists from the US.

19 Extra Golden – Piny yore yore (Thrill Jockey Records)

Extra Golden released their third album in 2009, “Thank you very quickly”. Extra Golden were originally a combination of Otieno Jagwasi and Onyango Wuod Omari from Kenyan group Orchestra Extra Solar Africa, Alex Minoff from US group Golden, and Ian Eagleson. The collaboration grew out of Eagleson’s research project documenting the Benga music of Kenya, which Jagwasi helped him with. Jagwasi died in 2005.

20 Maddy Prior & Tim Hart – Of all the birds (Sanctuary)

Off their “Heydays” box set, here is Maddy Prior & Tim Hart with “Of all the birds”.

21 Frank Fairfield – Cumberland Gap (Tompkins Square)

Frank Fairfield, a young up and coming traditionalist from the LA area, gives us his version of “Cumberland Gap”.

22 Bert Jansch – Blackwaterside (Vanguard)

A version of “Blackwaterside” recorded in 1966. Jansch was one of the first to pick up on Davy Graham’s radical guitar stylings, and perhaps even his vocal style.

23 Levon Helm – Kingfish (Dirt Farmer Music/Vanguard)

Levon Helm’s version of Randy Newman’s “Kingfish” taken from Helm’s latest CD, “Electric Dirt”. The Kingfish was actually Huey Long, the 40th Governor of Louisiana, who governed between 1928 and 1932 at the height of the Great Depression, and was Senator after that. He created a social programme in 1934 called “Share our wealth”, which had the motto “Every man a king” – a line you’ll hear in the song. He died at the age of 42 of gunshot wounds administered by his own bodyguards, but it’s not clear whether he was assassinated or accidentally shot in an attempt to stave off what looked like a an attempted assassination by a stranger.

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17 February 2010, World Cafe

1 Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou – Se We Non Nan (Analog Africa)

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou were the giants of the Benin music scene in the mid-70s. Taking the raw energy of James Brown and rock instrumentation, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo honed a number of the traditional rhythms from the region into highly infectious precision African funk. Rhythms that failed to sit still, shifting, pulling in and out. They recorded a mass of stuff all over Benin, and a number of collections have recently been released on Soundways and Analog Africa. The track, “Se We Non Nan”, comes from a collection of stuff they recorded for small labels in Benin in 1972 and 1976 that came out on Analog Africa in 2009, titled “Volume One: The Vodoun Effect”.

Tonight’s programme will cover:
• Fusions of western rock and pop with Arabic music
• Central Asian mixings and collaborations with American musics and musicians
• Folk rock from England and Scotland
• And a bunch of other of stuff

We continue with some recent releases from West Africa, mainly Mali.

Juldeh Camara from Gambia and Justin Adams produced a great record in 2009, “Tell no lies”. They build their meshing of one-string fiddle, African banjo and guitar on a chassis of old style Chicago-based r’n’b.

2 Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara – Banjul Girl (Real World)

3 Oumou Sangare – Donso (World Circuit)

Oumou Sangare released her first recording in 13 years in 2009. The song we listened to was called “Donso” which means “hunter”. It’s based on the rhythm of a traditional hunter’s song from the Wassoulou region from which Sangare hails.

Rokia Traore is a much quieter and more restrained singer than Sangare. From her 2008 release, this is “Aimer”. Listen out for how the ngoni interlaces with the rhythm guitar played in buffed reggae style and the way this all floats on a cushion of rubbed percussion. Enough to give you goose flesh.

4 Rokia Traore – Aimer (Nonesuch)

5 Tinariwen – Bismallah (Wayward Records)

6 Group Bombino – Boghassa (Sublime Frequencies)

Two great Touareg rock tracks. The first is from Tinariwen’s debut international release, “The Radio Tisdas Session”, recorded in 2000 but only coming out in 2002. The song features Kheddou Ag Ossad, who is not in Tinariwen’s current line up. Kheddou leads the group Terakaft, a very fine Tinariwen off-shoot. Justin Adams, who we heard earlier, produced the Tisdas Session.

After Kheddou, we listened to the young up and coming Touareg player, Oumara Al Moctor (aka Bombino) and Group Bombino, from Niger in full electric cry. A rough and ready recording made by Hisham Mayet of Sublime Frequencies.

We now go to Addis Ababa…

7 Either/Orchestra – Antchim Endelela (Buda Musique)

In January 2004 the Either/Orchestra from Boston, after years of playing Ethio-jazz, collaborated with a number of veteran musicians from the Addis scene in 1970s in a series of concerts given at the third Ethiopian Music Festival. That was the tune “Antchim Endelela” from that concert. It featured Bahta Gebre-Heywet on vocals.

The Devil’s Anvil album “Hard Rock from the Middle East”, originally released in 1967, was reissued in 2009. The group, a collection of Americans of Arabic extraction living in Greenwich Village New York, was the brainchild of Felix Pappalardi, who went on to become a successful rock producer, putting together Cream’s “Disraeli Gears” at New York’s Atlantic Studio. Unfortunately, its release coincided with the Arab-Isreali War, and the record sunk more or less without a trace. Here is the traditional song “Selim Alai” from “Hard Rock from the Middle East”.

8 Devil’s Anvil – Selim Alai (Song Music Entertainment / Rev-Ola)

9 Holger Czukay – Persian Love (Mute Corporation)

Holger Czukay, the bassist from the Krautrock group Can, composed that last piece around clips of an Iranian singer he found while trawling the short waves. Some of the members of Can provide the backing. The singer alas went uncredited on the original release which came out in 1980. And from what we can gather, the singer still remains unknown. If you want to read an entertaining extended riff on the song, go to Julian Cope’s “Headheritage” website – it’s in the “unsung” category.

The hyperactive, bass-playing polymath Jah Wobble has worked with Czukay a number of times. In one of his latest projects Wobble has put together what he calls “The Chinese Dub Orchestra”. Basically this is a collection of his usual band, which includes his wife, Zi Lan Liao, a guzheng player, and some Chinese singers, dancers and mask changers whom he found in China, and the Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra from Liverpool, where he now lives. “The Kang Ding Love Song” features the singer Gu Yinji from the Sichuan Province. She sings in a Mongolian style on this track.

After Jah Wobble, we’ll listen to the guitarist and singer, Mamer, who hails from the Xinjiang Province in Northwestern China, dueling with the great American banjo player, Bela Fleck.

10 Jah Wobble & The Chinese Dub Orchestra – The Kang Ding Love Song (30 Hertz)

11 Mamer (with Bela Fleck) – Celebration (Real World)

12 Kongar-ol Ondar & Paul “Earthquake” Pena – Kaldak Hamar (The other side of the mountain) (Genghis Blues Music)

In the mid to late 90s Paul Pena, a veteran blues singer of serious pedigree, worked with Tuvan master-singer, Kongar-ol Ondar. Their collaboration was captured in the documentary movie “Genghis Blues”, which is available in Cape Town for hire if you look hard enough. Pena got deeply into Tuvan singing and won the world title in the kargyraa division of Tuvan throat singing in 1995.

Staying in Tuva, which is part of the Russian Federation, here is Yat Kha from their 1995 release, “Yenisei-Punk”, with the traditional song “Karangailyg Kara Hovaan (In the endless black steppe)”.

13 Yat Kha – Karangailyg Kara Hovaan (Global Music Centre)

14 Debashish Bhattacharya & Bob Brozman – Sujan Re (World Music Network)

Both Debashish Bhattacharya and Bob Brozman are fabulous slide guitarists – and we use that adjective advisedly. They play here with Debashish’s siblings, Subhashis on tabla and percussion and Sutapa, who sings. The song, “Sujan Re,” was written by Debashish.

Now to three disparate pieces that we’ve strung together, because basically they sound related. Tune one is fiddle-based; two is built around the fiddle and accordion; and three, the mouth organ and guitar.

15 Laurie Lewis – Sophie’s House (Spruce and Maple Music)

16 Mawkin: Causley – Todos los bienes del mundo (Navigator)

17 Dizu Plaatjies Ibuyambo Ensemble – Idresi (Straight Line) – composer: Nokuthembela Maka (Mountain Records)

Bluegrass fiddler Laurie Lewis, who has played with Ralph Stanley, first gave us a fiddle tune from her latest CD, “Sophie’s House”.

Mawkin: Causley is a co-joining of the English traditional group, Mawkin, and the singer Jim Causley. The second piece we heard was a Spanish song “Todos los bienes del mundo” and it comes from their 2009 release, “The Awkward Recruit”.

The third track was by the Dizu Plaatjies Ibuyambo Ensemble, from Cape Town. It was called “Idresi” and featured Nokuthembela Maka, who wrote the song, on mouth organ and Ntombetongi on guitar.

From the first volume of the Sterns collection of the music of Congolese musical giant, Franco, this is “Kinsiona”. Volume 2 has just been released and we’ll playing from it in March.

18 Franco – Kinsiona (Sterns Africa)

19 Dave Rawlings Machine – Bells of Harlem (Acony Records)

We also think that the Franco track and the track we played after that by the Dave Rawlings Machine are somehow sonically related. Dave Rawlings is Gillian Welch’s guitar playing and harmonising partner. That was “Bells of Harlem”, which they wrote together. The great music writer, Barney Hoskyns, suggests in a review in Uncut music magazine, that it “feeds discreetly off Dylan’s ‘Girl from the North Country’”.

Tim Hart was one of the founding members of Steeleye Span. He died in January, aged 61. To honour him and the folk rock he helped invent, here is the traditional ballad, “The Female Drummer”, by the early 70s version of Steeleye Span, when Martin Carthy was part of the band.

20 Steeleye Span – The Female Drummer (Libra Music/Sparta Florida) – trad arr Hart/Hutchings/Prior/Carthy/Knight

Over the last year, we’ve played a lot of Scottish folk on this programme and we see no reason to stop. From Alasdair Roberts’s utterly fantastic 2005 collection of traditional songs, “No Earthly Man”, here is “Admiral Cole”, which seemed to have first appeared in 1670 as a broadside.

After that we’ll listen to the Black Flowers’s version of “Polly on the Shore”. Amongst Black Flower’s personnel are the same Alasdair Roberts and his long-time drummer, Alex Nielson.

21 Alasdair Roberts – Admiral Cole (Drag City)

22 Black Flowers – Polly on the shore (Bo’Weavil Recordings)

23 Ray Fisher – The twa corbies (Topic)

That was Ray Fisher’s version of the Scottish ballad “The twa corbies” recorded by Topic Records, which celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2009. A 7 CD collection “Three score and ten: A voice to the people” was released to mark this event. That track is on the collection.

We’ll go now to something off the first Unthanks album, when they still called themselves Rachel Unthank and the Winterset. The song “20 long weeks” is from the North East of England and is written by Alex Glasgow. It features Jackie Oates on five string viola and some stunning piano playing by Belinda O’Hooley.

The Rosenberg 7 from Sweden will end the show with the traditional hymn, “Pris vare Gud” (Praise be to God).

24 Rachel Unthank & The Winterset – 20 long weeks (Rabble Rouser)

25 Rosenberg 7 – Pris vare gud (Drone Music AB)