Anyone who’s checked out the Electric Jive blog will have marveled at its greatness - a huge resource for anyone with an interest in South African music. If you are not a regular visitor, I suggest you check it out now. The site has just expanded its pool of contributors, and there’s even more stuff being dug up and aired. There is a link to Electric Jive from this blog.
1 Natacha Atlas & Mazeeka Ensemble – Beny Ou Benak (World Village)
Although born in Europe, as an Arab singer, Atlas is inexorably drawn towards Egyptian music. Her 2008 album “Ana Hina” is a celebration of two of the greatest modern Arab singers – Lebanese singer, Fairuz, and Egyptian, Abdel Halim Hafez. I’m not sure if “Beny Ou Benak Eih” was sung by Hafez, but it could well have been as it was co-written by one Hafez’s collaborators, the composer Kamel Al Taweel. The magnificent accordion there is courtesy of Gamal Al Kordy, who is apparently a veteran of the Egyptian scene.
2 Abdel Halim Hafez – Zay El-Hawa (Like the wind) (Soutelpan Records)
3 Oum Kalthoum (Umm Kulthum) – Arooh le Meen Prt 4 (To whom should I go) (Arabian Diamond Records)
Two of the greatest Egyptian singers … both pieces are extracts from pretty extended live versions of epic love songs.
4 Omar Khorsid – Alf Layla wa laya (A thousand and one nights) (A. Chahine & Fils)
Guitarist Omar Khorsid, whom we heard on last month’s show with his brand of Arabic surf music, worked in Oum Kalthoum’s orchestras. He did a sort of tribute LP of instrumental versions of classic Oum Kalthoum songs (“Tribute Oum Koulsoum”), sometime in the 80s.
5 Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara – Ngamen (No Limit) (Real World)
Justin Adams partly cut his musical teeth living in the Middle East and immersing himself in Arabic electric guitar music. I’m pretty sure he must have played along to Omar Khorsid records. He’s played with Natacha Atlas over the years, and over the last decade he’s played with a number of African musicians and has infused what is often called “desert blues” into his sound. Desert blues is actually pretty diverse and probably has some Arabic bits and definitely some American delta blues bit (via Chicago). One of Adams’s best partnerships has been with Gambian, Juldeh Camara, where he really lets rips, Chicago style. “Ngamen” (No Limit) comes off their very fine 2010 EP, “The Trance Sessions”.
6 Group Doueh – Badbada (Sublime Frequencies)
Group Doueh from Western Sahara have been on the show a number of times. Over the last few years the label Sublime Frequencies have been bringing out a CD per year by them, most of them culled from home recorded tapes. 2010’s release, “Beatte Harab”, slightly better recorded, draws more on classical Mauritanian music, and uses Moorish instruments like the tinidit (a three-stringed Mauritanian lute), the ardin (a kora-like harp played traditionally by women), the tbal (a clay drum) and the kass (tea glasses) alongside the guitar and Korg synth.
7 Ream Daranoi – Fai Yen (Soundway)
Soundway, like Sublime Frequencies an expert crate-digging label, in 2010 released a fabulous collection of Thai tunes from the mid 60s to the mid 70s, “The Sound of Siam”. It includes Ream Daranoi’s take on sultry Bollywood love songs. It’s called “Fai Yen” (Cold Fire), and it’s actually from the sound track for the movie “The magical love of the common people”.
8 Bich Loan and CBC Band – Con tim va nuoc mat (Saigon Rock & Soul) (Sublime Frequencies)
This song is culled from the collection, “Saigon Rock & Soul” – basically a collection of music produced during the Vietman war, in Saigon. “Overheated entertainment set up to distract grunts on leave”, the on-line mag, Dusted, puts it.
9 The Skatalites – Ghost Town (You can’t sit down) (Top Deck)
The Skalalites with their pre-reggae ska-jazz sound from mid-60s Jamaica.
10 Horoya Band National – Daba (African Pearls – Guinee 70) (Styllart)
11 22 Band – Sin Kon Mina (Mankan (Syliphone SLP 68)
In the 60s and 70s there were a number of post-independent West African governments who promoted and bankrolled Authenticité movements. Perhaps the best resourced and organized was in Guinea. The Guinean state set up the Syliphone record label to release the best of the best stuff that came out of villages and towns across the country. These two lovely recordings seem to come from the mid to late 70s. The first is on the Styllart collection “African Pearls: Guinee 70”.
12 Bavon Marie Marie & Negros Succes – Libangana libumu (Congo 70 – Rumba Rock) (Syllart)
I’ve been punting the Global Groove blog for ages on this programme – and if you can, you should really check it out. In January they put out a 7 volume collection of out-of- print stuff from the Congo (“Congo, Tours de Force”), and boy, is it fabulous. Listen to this track from Volume 1 by Bavon Marie Marie and Negros Succes. Bavon is actually Franco’s younger brother. He died in 1970 in a car crash, allegedly after a fight with Franco over a mutual girlfriend.
13 Sammy Izy – Tomany ny tamny (The Owner of the Earth) (Network)
From Sammy Izy’s wonderful 2010 release “Tsara Madagasikara”. Rageorge, a veteran musician beloved in Madagascar, plays the flute. He’s one of the veterans who have never recorded before and whom Samy features on the CD.
14 Alberto Beltan y su Conjunto Tipico – Cana brava (Ansonia)
Sammy Izy brings to mind gutsy and dextrous accordion playing. From the Dominican Republic circa 1975 here is some meringue.
15 Oidupaa Vladimir Oiun – Kaldak-Khamar (Divine Music from a Jail) (Friend Records)
Tuvan Oudupaa Vladimir Oiun spent 33 years in Soviet work camps apparently for singing protest songs, although the authorities said he was a murderer and corruptor of minors. That’s a long time to hone a sound – and it’s a pretty singular one. He describes throat singing as the sound and speaking of the spirits. He apparently still performs today.
16 Albert Kuvezin & Yat Kha – The Cry (Yat Kha Records)
From Albert Kuvezin’s new album.
17 The Wackies Rhythm Force – Betrayers Call (Wackies/Basic)
18 Harry Mudie & King Tubby – Where Eagles Dare (Moodisc)
From two series of dub encounters: The Harry Mudie and King Tubby tune comes from “Dub Conference Vol 3”, from 1978; Wackies is a New York based dub studio and collective and “Betrayer Call” comes from the LP “African Roots Act 1” made in 1980.
19 Missing Brazilians – Crocodiles Court (Warzone) (On-U Sound)
This show very often documents the largely organic, spontaneous and enthusiastic
infusion of so-labelled Western musical forms into non-Western music or world music, if you like, to create dynamic and unsettled hybrids, but what about the other way around? Like musicians everywhere if they get half a chance, musicians in the West have been mixing this up for a long time - in classical music, jazz, pop, arty rock etc. Think of Debussy, Sun Ra, Martin Denny and his lounge exoticisms … and there are many more. I’m not sure where this idea for some kind of a focus is going to go over the next few shows – but I’ll start things off in this show in psychedelic and experimental music of the late 60s and early 70s and its jazz, funk and even, perhaps, dub off-shoots into the 80s – the kind of mix one of its most well known instigators, Brian Eno, called “possible musics”, and part of something that music writer, David Toop, has called the “ocean of sound”.
In January I mentioned how Eno and Byrne’s “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” was an inspiration for Adrian Sherwood and Bonjo I A Binghi Noah to soundtrack their visions of a psychedelic Africa and form African Head Charge. Missing Brazilians was another one of their collaborations, and is certainly harsher and more extreme than Head Charge.
20 Chicago Underground Duo – Funeral of Dreams (Thrill Jockey)
Jazz has seen all kinds of exotic disruptions since Sun Ra. That Chicago Underground Duo track comes from their 2006 release “In praise of shadows”. Its lineage can be found in Sun Ra, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Miles Davis, Don Cherry … we’ll be listening to those in months to come.
21 Brian Eno & David Byrne – A Secret Life (Nonesuch)
Speaking of the touchstones of these kind of fusions, infusions, diffusions – here is something from “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”. “A Secret Life” is built around a fragment from a tune by Egyptian singer, Samira Tewfik, that Eno and Byrne found … some time we’ll listen to the original.
22 Can – Smoke (Ethnological Forgery Series No. 59) (Mute)
Can had a franker, more self-deprecating name for “possible musics” – “ethnological forgeries”. This one comes off their 1976 LP “Flow Motion”.
23 Ewan McLennan – As I Roved Out (Rags and Robes) (Fellside)
Newcomer Scottish trad singer Ewan McLennan’s version of “As I Roved Out” – harking back to classic Dick Gaughan, although perhaps slightly more ornate and mannered than Gaughan.
24 Nils Okland – Rite (Monograph) (ECM)
From Norway, the improvvy, neo medievalist, hardanger fiddler and violist off his “Monograph” album, out on ECM
25 Supersilent – 10.6 (Rune Grammafon)
Norway’s Supersilent with the sixth track off their tenth album, “10.6”.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
2 February 2011, World Cafe
(1) Mercedes Peon – Deroran (Do Fol)
Mercedes Peon draws mainly on peasant music from the Galician region, in NE Spain. Her singing and tambourine (or pandeireta) playing is distinctively Galician. “Deroran” comes off her latest CD, “Sos”, which means “alone” in Gallego. On the cover of the CD, Sos is given another meaning by translation into Morse code – SOS. Peon is also keen to emphasise the connections with Portuguese, Moroccan and Berber music.
2) Gaiteiros de Lisboa – O Fim da picada (Sony UK/Zoom)
Wizard vocal polyphony, clattering farm-implement peasant percussion, early music and jazz are all grist to Gaiteiros de Lisboa’s mill – and they also bring in instruments of their own invention. “O fim de picada” literally means “the end of the pinprick” and comes off their 2006 release, “Satiro”. The bass line is provided by something Cape Town’s The Honeymoon Suites used to play and called the “Plastic Fantastic” - basically PVC pipes of different lengths, hit end on with beaters that look like the soles of flip flops.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_KKFb-b1Ws&feature=related
3) Dupain – Au Jovent (Virgin France)
On a slightly heavier note than Gaiteiros de Lisboa, Dupain hail from the Occitan-speaking city of Arles in Southern France, and are proud of it. “Au Jovent” is Occitan for “To the youth”, and is hurdy-gurdy and snare drum propelled.
4) Andrew Bird & Sobanza Mimanisa – Ohnono/Kiwembo (Crammed Discs)
“Tradi-mods vs Rockers” is basically a 2 CD collection of post-rock and electronica luminaries’ reinterpretations of tunes from the Congrotronics stable. Congrotonics was a bunch of Kinshasa street bands brought to the global market by the Belgian label Crammed Discs … bands like Konono No 1. “Ohnono” is Andrew Bird’s take of the same tune we heard in January – Konono No 1’s “Kule Kule”.
5) The Good Ones – Eduia (Dead Oceans)
The Good Ones are from Rwanda. Africa has recently become the hunting ground for new gritty, unaffected, edgy urban sounds – probably sparked by the success of Congrotronics, and the plethora of boutique reissue, crate-digging labels, like Analog Africa. US-based independent Americana and folk-rock label, Dead Oceans, recently sent crack producer Ian Brennan to Rwanda to see what he could find. According to the press release, he looked long and hard, and towards the end of his stay, stumbled across a 3 piece band called The Goods Ones – a pretty destitute, often instrumentless, group. Their CD is called “Kigali Y’Izahabu”.
Both “Kigali Y’Izahabu” and “Tradi-mods vs Rockers” hit the shops this month. Thanks to Sheer Music for sending through the review copies.
6) Tiyiselani Vomaseve – Vanghoma (Honest Jons)
Another of bit of African grit which came to the global market in 2010 hails from South Africa and has been given the handle Shangaan Electro. It’s basically Shangaan pop music, the raw and soulful singing still intact, and the guitar, bass and drum stripped out and replaced with some of the cheesiest, trashiest, obnoxiously in-your-face electro pop I’ve heard in a long time – mostly created by producer “Dog” for a new generation of urbanizing rural Xitsonga-speakers strung out between Jo’burg and Limpopo and Mozambique. Over the last while some of the tunes became global viral hits on Youtube, one thing led to another, a record deal ensued, and the collection, “Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa”, came out, much to the horror of some people who seem to consider themselves insiders. The Mail & Guardian published a story about it towards the end of 2010.
For more of the story, also check out:
http://www.thefader.com/2010/02/24/ghetto-palms-90-new-styles-shangaan-electro-south-africa-road-epic/
and
http://www.mahala.co.za/culture/curio-dance-music/
7) Lee Perry and Adrian Sherwood – All will be well in the garden (On-U Sound)
Since Lee Perry burned down his legendary Jamaican studio The Black Ark in the late 70s and more or less went into decline, Adrian Sherwood (the driving force behind one of the bastions of roots reggae and dub, British label “On-U-Sound”) has probably been responsible for nearly all the quality stuff coming out from Perry. “All will be well in the garden” comes off “Dubsetter”, the dub version of 2009’s “The Mighty Upsetter”.
8) Dub Syndicate – Dubaddisababa (On-U-Sound)
In David Katz’s tome on Perry, “People Funny Boy”, Sherwood tells how he’s got into the habit of recording Perry’s gnomic utterances, which he says are often way stranger, wittier and insightful than what is formally recorded for albums. In the mid-90s he wove some of these utterances into Dub Syndicate’s ultra icy, clinical reggae on “Dubaddisababa”.
9) Dub Colossus – Habasha Dub (Real World)
Very much in the spirit of Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound, that was Dub Colossus, producer Nick Page’s collaboration with a bunch of Ethiopian musicians. It’s from their 2009 EP “Return of Addis”.
10) Muluken Mellesse – Ete endenesh gadawo (Buda Musique)
From the Ethiopiques’ very first release, “Golden Years of Ethiopian Music 1969 – 1975”.
11) Omar Khorsid – Sabirine (Sublime Frequencies)
Egyptian Omar Khorsid is often called the greatest Arab guitarist, but is not very well known in the west. Sublime Frenquencies’ 2010 “Guitar El Chark” (“Guitar of the Orient”) collects some of the stuff he put out in Beirut between ’72 and ’78, and from that collection, we just heard “Sabirine”, the guitar heavily cloaked in really sumptuous synthy strings. Half the glory of the tune is probably due to sound engineer Nabil Moumtaz, who has managed to weld together very rootsy, multilayered Arabic percussion to synth, organ and guitar. Prior to the heady days in Beirut, Khorsid had formed a beat group in Cairo and played in orchestral settings with Oum Kalthoum.
12) Los Beltons – Cumbia Pop (Vampi Soul)
Cumbia is popular South American dance music. 1960s Peruvian cumbia is perhaps an unlikely place to find some of the most scorching surf guitar you’ll hear anywhere. Besides Hank Marvin, think Link Wray. The tune comes from Vampi Soul’s 2010 collection “Cumbia Beat Vol 1: Experimental Guitar Driven Tropical Sounds from Peru 1966 to 1976”.
13) Manzanita – Agua (Roots of Chicha 2 – (Crammed Discs)
Peruvian Cumbia played on guitar and other pop instruments is also often called chicha. Crammed Discs also put out a fine collection of 60s and 70s cumbia in 2010, “The Roots of Chicha 2: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru”.
14) Franco – Mario (Sterns)
In 1985 Franco released what would become his biggest hit in the DRC and beyond, “Mario”. Its success was surprising for several reasons. Firstly, the tune wasn’t rhumba or soukous, for which Franco was best known. It was something of Franco’s invention which he called “odemba”, which he claimed came from a kind of ritual dance, although no one has been able to trace it. Secondly, there were two versions of the single released, which thinned out record sales, and, thirdly, both versions were in excess of 13 minutes long, which didn’t make them radio friendly. Lastly, the song was told from a woman’s point of view – in the song a rich woman of independent means complains about her over-educated slacker boyfriend. People have looked for hidden meanings that reflect Franco’s life in the lyrics, but according to Ken Braun’s notes in Stern’s “Francophonic vol 2” collection, the song is just an example of what he calls Franco’s “social portraiture”.
15) Mayaoula Mayoni – Potopotoville (Disc’orient)
Mayaoula Mayoni is clearly a great Congolese singer and guitarist, although there’s not much information out there on him, besides the fact that he sang in Franco’s band at some point. “Potopotoville” is also not standard soukous or rumba. It was released on the LP “Le Grand” and is long out of print. You can find it on the Global Groove blog.
16) Celestine Ukwu and his Philosphers National – Ebemi (Phillips Nigeria)
Heading briefly into some laidback highlife territory, this is Celestine Ukwu and his Philosphers National from Nigeria, off a fantastic LP “Ndu Ka Aku”, which you can also find on the Global Groove blog.
17) Ruth Theodore – Overflow (River Rat)
Relatively new on the scene and invoking all sorts of comparisons to Lili Allen and other lippy London widegirls and boys, Ruth Theodore brought out a new CD in 2010 – “White Holes of Mole Hills”. She’s much folkier, jazzier, and generally wittier, quirkier and darn right more inventive. That was her single “Overflow”. Something to do with evolution, communication and effluent – who knows, but it’s pretty infectious
18) Andy Cutting – Edges/Thin Waltz (Lane)
Andy Cutting has long been on the cutting edge of button accordionists. His 2010 release was his first solo one, and it’s just called “Andy Cutting”.
19) Dalla – Gannel Crake/ Cribbar/ Two Borders (Dalla Records)
Staying with traditional dance music from British Isles that was Dalla from Cornwell, who actually sing in Cornish. Hilary Coleman provides the wonderful bass clarinet on the tune we’ve just heard “The Gannel Crake”, and that comes off their 2010 release “Cribbar”. Buried in the mix is the crowdy crawn, which is kind of Cornish bodhran or frame drum.
20) Huun Huur Tu – Kozhamyk (World Village)
Tuvan band Huun Huur Tu return to a more traditional sound on their new CD “Ancestors Call”. It’s a fine CD, possibly their best.
21) Albert Kuvezin and Yat Kha – The Way my Poetry should Go (Yat Kha Records)
Tuvan Albert Kuvezin’s latest CD, “Poets & Lighthouses”, was recorded on a remote Scottish island and is just out on Kuvezin’s own label, Yat Kha Records. On the album Kuvezin sings texts and translations of Japanese, Russian and Tuvan poetry. The wonderful clarinet playing there is by Sarah Homer.
22) Moondog – Fog on the Hudson (425 W 57th Street) (Honest Jons)
New York street musician, Moondog, demonstrates his love for non-Western timings, with something clearly recorded in the field, the totally atmospheric, in-the-place, “Fog on the Hudson (425 W 57th Street)”.
23) Yim Yames and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band – St James Infirmary (Preservation Hall Recordings)
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band from New Orleans (which both preserves New Orleans jazz and helps support aging musicians from the scene) put out what they call a benefit and outreach album in 2010. Basically it’s an album of pairings between the band and well known guests, largely from the current Americana scene. Yim Yames is also Jim James, the singer from My Morning Jacket. Some people credit the song “St James Infirmary” to 19th century songwriter Irving Mills (aka as Joe Primrose), although it seems to be based on the 19th century English song, “The Unfortunate Rake”.
Mercedes Peon draws mainly on peasant music from the Galician region, in NE Spain. Her singing and tambourine (or pandeireta) playing is distinctively Galician. “Deroran” comes off her latest CD, “Sos”, which means “alone” in Gallego. On the cover of the CD, Sos is given another meaning by translation into Morse code – SOS. Peon is also keen to emphasise the connections with Portuguese, Moroccan and Berber music.
2) Gaiteiros de Lisboa – O Fim da picada (Sony UK/Zoom)
Wizard vocal polyphony, clattering farm-implement peasant percussion, early music and jazz are all grist to Gaiteiros de Lisboa’s mill – and they also bring in instruments of their own invention. “O fim de picada” literally means “the end of the pinprick” and comes off their 2006 release, “Satiro”. The bass line is provided by something Cape Town’s The Honeymoon Suites used to play and called the “Plastic Fantastic” - basically PVC pipes of different lengths, hit end on with beaters that look like the soles of flip flops.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_KKFb-b1Ws&feature=related
3) Dupain – Au Jovent (Virgin France)
On a slightly heavier note than Gaiteiros de Lisboa, Dupain hail from the Occitan-speaking city of Arles in Southern France, and are proud of it. “Au Jovent” is Occitan for “To the youth”, and is hurdy-gurdy and snare drum propelled.
4) Andrew Bird & Sobanza Mimanisa – Ohnono/Kiwembo (Crammed Discs)
“Tradi-mods vs Rockers” is basically a 2 CD collection of post-rock and electronica luminaries’ reinterpretations of tunes from the Congrotronics stable. Congrotonics was a bunch of Kinshasa street bands brought to the global market by the Belgian label Crammed Discs … bands like Konono No 1. “Ohnono” is Andrew Bird’s take of the same tune we heard in January – Konono No 1’s “Kule Kule”.
5) The Good Ones – Eduia (Dead Oceans)
The Good Ones are from Rwanda. Africa has recently become the hunting ground for new gritty, unaffected, edgy urban sounds – probably sparked by the success of Congrotronics, and the plethora of boutique reissue, crate-digging labels, like Analog Africa. US-based independent Americana and folk-rock label, Dead Oceans, recently sent crack producer Ian Brennan to Rwanda to see what he could find. According to the press release, he looked long and hard, and towards the end of his stay, stumbled across a 3 piece band called The Goods Ones – a pretty destitute, often instrumentless, group. Their CD is called “Kigali Y’Izahabu”.
Both “Kigali Y’Izahabu” and “Tradi-mods vs Rockers” hit the shops this month. Thanks to Sheer Music for sending through the review copies.
6) Tiyiselani Vomaseve – Vanghoma (Honest Jons)
Another of bit of African grit which came to the global market in 2010 hails from South Africa and has been given the handle Shangaan Electro. It’s basically Shangaan pop music, the raw and soulful singing still intact, and the guitar, bass and drum stripped out and replaced with some of the cheesiest, trashiest, obnoxiously in-your-face electro pop I’ve heard in a long time – mostly created by producer “Dog” for a new generation of urbanizing rural Xitsonga-speakers strung out between Jo’burg and Limpopo and Mozambique. Over the last while some of the tunes became global viral hits on Youtube, one thing led to another, a record deal ensued, and the collection, “Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa”, came out, much to the horror of some people who seem to consider themselves insiders. The Mail & Guardian published a story about it towards the end of 2010.
For more of the story, also check out:
http://www.thefader.com/2010/02/24/ghetto-palms-90-new-styles-shangaan-electro-south-africa-road-epic/
and
http://www.mahala.co.za/culture/curio-dance-music/
7) Lee Perry and Adrian Sherwood – All will be well in the garden (On-U Sound)
Since Lee Perry burned down his legendary Jamaican studio The Black Ark in the late 70s and more or less went into decline, Adrian Sherwood (the driving force behind one of the bastions of roots reggae and dub, British label “On-U-Sound”) has probably been responsible for nearly all the quality stuff coming out from Perry. “All will be well in the garden” comes off “Dubsetter”, the dub version of 2009’s “The Mighty Upsetter”.
8) Dub Syndicate – Dubaddisababa (On-U-Sound)
In David Katz’s tome on Perry, “People Funny Boy”, Sherwood tells how he’s got into the habit of recording Perry’s gnomic utterances, which he says are often way stranger, wittier and insightful than what is formally recorded for albums. In the mid-90s he wove some of these utterances into Dub Syndicate’s ultra icy, clinical reggae on “Dubaddisababa”.
9) Dub Colossus – Habasha Dub (Real World)
Very much in the spirit of Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound, that was Dub Colossus, producer Nick Page’s collaboration with a bunch of Ethiopian musicians. It’s from their 2009 EP “Return of Addis”.
10) Muluken Mellesse – Ete endenesh gadawo (Buda Musique)
From the Ethiopiques’ very first release, “Golden Years of Ethiopian Music 1969 – 1975”.
11) Omar Khorsid – Sabirine (Sublime Frequencies)
Egyptian Omar Khorsid is often called the greatest Arab guitarist, but is not very well known in the west. Sublime Frenquencies’ 2010 “Guitar El Chark” (“Guitar of the Orient”) collects some of the stuff he put out in Beirut between ’72 and ’78, and from that collection, we just heard “Sabirine”, the guitar heavily cloaked in really sumptuous synthy strings. Half the glory of the tune is probably due to sound engineer Nabil Moumtaz, who has managed to weld together very rootsy, multilayered Arabic percussion to synth, organ and guitar. Prior to the heady days in Beirut, Khorsid had formed a beat group in Cairo and played in orchestral settings with Oum Kalthoum.
12) Los Beltons – Cumbia Pop (Vampi Soul)
Cumbia is popular South American dance music. 1960s Peruvian cumbia is perhaps an unlikely place to find some of the most scorching surf guitar you’ll hear anywhere. Besides Hank Marvin, think Link Wray. The tune comes from Vampi Soul’s 2010 collection “Cumbia Beat Vol 1: Experimental Guitar Driven Tropical Sounds from Peru 1966 to 1976”.
13) Manzanita – Agua (Roots of Chicha 2 – (Crammed Discs)
Peruvian Cumbia played on guitar and other pop instruments is also often called chicha. Crammed Discs also put out a fine collection of 60s and 70s cumbia in 2010, “The Roots of Chicha 2: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru”.
14) Franco – Mario (Sterns)
In 1985 Franco released what would become his biggest hit in the DRC and beyond, “Mario”. Its success was surprising for several reasons. Firstly, the tune wasn’t rhumba or soukous, for which Franco was best known. It was something of Franco’s invention which he called “odemba”, which he claimed came from a kind of ritual dance, although no one has been able to trace it. Secondly, there were two versions of the single released, which thinned out record sales, and, thirdly, both versions were in excess of 13 minutes long, which didn’t make them radio friendly. Lastly, the song was told from a woman’s point of view – in the song a rich woman of independent means complains about her over-educated slacker boyfriend. People have looked for hidden meanings that reflect Franco’s life in the lyrics, but according to Ken Braun’s notes in Stern’s “Francophonic vol 2” collection, the song is just an example of what he calls Franco’s “social portraiture”.
15) Mayaoula Mayoni – Potopotoville (Disc’orient)
Mayaoula Mayoni is clearly a great Congolese singer and guitarist, although there’s not much information out there on him, besides the fact that he sang in Franco’s band at some point. “Potopotoville” is also not standard soukous or rumba. It was released on the LP “Le Grand” and is long out of print. You can find it on the Global Groove blog.
16) Celestine Ukwu and his Philosphers National – Ebemi (Phillips Nigeria)
Heading briefly into some laidback highlife territory, this is Celestine Ukwu and his Philosphers National from Nigeria, off a fantastic LP “Ndu Ka Aku”, which you can also find on the Global Groove blog.
17) Ruth Theodore – Overflow (River Rat)
Relatively new on the scene and invoking all sorts of comparisons to Lili Allen and other lippy London widegirls and boys, Ruth Theodore brought out a new CD in 2010 – “White Holes of Mole Hills”. She’s much folkier, jazzier, and generally wittier, quirkier and darn right more inventive. That was her single “Overflow”. Something to do with evolution, communication and effluent – who knows, but it’s pretty infectious
18) Andy Cutting – Edges/Thin Waltz (Lane)
Andy Cutting has long been on the cutting edge of button accordionists. His 2010 release was his first solo one, and it’s just called “Andy Cutting”.
19) Dalla – Gannel Crake/ Cribbar/ Two Borders (Dalla Records)
Staying with traditional dance music from British Isles that was Dalla from Cornwell, who actually sing in Cornish. Hilary Coleman provides the wonderful bass clarinet on the tune we’ve just heard “The Gannel Crake”, and that comes off their 2010 release “Cribbar”. Buried in the mix is the crowdy crawn, which is kind of Cornish bodhran or frame drum.
20) Huun Huur Tu – Kozhamyk (World Village)
Tuvan band Huun Huur Tu return to a more traditional sound on their new CD “Ancestors Call”. It’s a fine CD, possibly their best.
21) Albert Kuvezin and Yat Kha – The Way my Poetry should Go (Yat Kha Records)
Tuvan Albert Kuvezin’s latest CD, “Poets & Lighthouses”, was recorded on a remote Scottish island and is just out on Kuvezin’s own label, Yat Kha Records. On the album Kuvezin sings texts and translations of Japanese, Russian and Tuvan poetry. The wonderful clarinet playing there is by Sarah Homer.
22) Moondog – Fog on the Hudson (425 W 57th Street) (Honest Jons)
New York street musician, Moondog, demonstrates his love for non-Western timings, with something clearly recorded in the field, the totally atmospheric, in-the-place, “Fog on the Hudson (425 W 57th Street)”.
23) Yim Yames and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band – St James Infirmary (Preservation Hall Recordings)
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band from New Orleans (which both preserves New Orleans jazz and helps support aging musicians from the scene) put out what they call a benefit and outreach album in 2010. Basically it’s an album of pairings between the band and well known guests, largely from the current Americana scene. Yim Yames is also Jim James, the singer from My Morning Jacket. Some people credit the song “St James Infirmary” to 19th century songwriter Irving Mills (aka as Joe Primrose), although it seems to be based on the 19th century English song, “The Unfortunate Rake”.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
5 January 2011, World Cafe
Tunes from 2010 releases – mostly new music, but also some re-issues, and mostly from CDs not yet played on the show. Some totally wonderful stuff came out last year!
1 Samy Izy – Igny Ihany (Network)
A tribute to the legendary Madagascan singer, Mama Sana, from the south of the island.
2 Spirit Talk Mbira – Huyai Muone (Ingoma)
Spirit Talk Mbira is a band that’s been around for about 13 years led by Chartwell Dutiro, who used to be the chief mbira player and a sax player for Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited. Dutiro relocated to England from Zimbabwe in the 90s and his band consists mainly of European musicians. As its name suggests, their sound is built on the traditional Shona sound of the mbira, hosho shakers, and hand clapping. The tune is from their 2010 release, “Dendere Ngoma (Music Nest)”.
3 Salma - Yanas Baridouh (Piranha)
The German label Piranha brought out a nice collection in 2010 of what they call “Nubian Soul Treasures” – music made by first or second generation migrants to Cairo from the south of Egypt following the forced removal of towns and villages during the creation of the second Aswan Dam and the flooding to form Lake Nasser. There are some famous early players in the collection, for instance, Ali Hassan Kuban and Mahmoud Fadl, and some later, lesser known ones like Salma who’ve smoothed out the music, but vocally kept things rough and soulful.
4 Mariem Hassan – Azzagafa (The Culture) (Nubenegra)
Another North African people affected by exile are the Sahrawi of the Western Sahara, which Morocco invaded and now rule after a botched attempt at decolonization by the Spanish in the mid 70s. Mariem Hassan is one of the most well known and outspoken Sahrawi musicians. After spending 26 years in an Algerian refugee camp on the border of Western Sahara, she now lives in Spain. Her latest CD is “Shouka” – which means “thorn” – a thorn in the conscience of Morocco, Spain and the rest of the world. The music is reminiscent of Mauritanian music and, with her fiery lyrics, brings to mind Malouma, who we’ve heard on the show before. Hassan sings in Hassaniya, a local Arabic dialect, and this is her song, “Azzagafa” (The Culture).
5 African Head Charge – Surfari (On-U-Sound)
African Head Charge is the longstanding project of Bonjo I A Binghi Noah and Adrian Sherwood, the producer behind the London-based label “On-U-Sound”. The story goes that they got the idea of combining dub, niabinghi drumming and psychedelia from Brian Eno’s and David Byrnes’s “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, and a comment made by Eno in which he spoke about “having a vision of psychedelic Africa”. Bonjo I hails from Jamaica and now lives in Ghana, and AHC are a revolving group of musicians drawn from the On-U-Sound stable. “Surfari” is probably named after the twangy surf guitar on the track, and comes from an album actually called “Vision of Psychedelic Africa”, first given an exclusive Japanese release in 2005, which was made more widely available in 2010.
6 Mulatu Astatke – Mulatu (Mochilla)
2010 has been a great year for the founding father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke. He released his first fully-fledged LP in 20 years for Strut, toured extensively (which included coming to Jo’burg in September), and a few months ago released an album recorded live at the Luckmann Theatre in LA in February 2009, with a huge band of American musicians, including jazzers of high credibility like saxist, flautist and bass clarinetist Bennie Maupin, who played with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 70s, and others from Miles’s 70s bands.
7 Natacha Atlas – Taalet (World Village)
Belgium born, and London bred and based, Natacha Atlas is becoming one of the great living Arabic singers. She released an album in 2010 aimed at continuing her exploration of the connections between Middle Eastern and Western orchestral and chamber music, in something she calls “baroque meeting Beirut”. It was largely co-written with and arranged by classical violinist, Samy Bishai. Unfortunately, it’s not a resounding success, but does have some totally wonderful moments – like the love song “Taalet”.
8 Elena Ledda – Andu (Sulfur Music)
Elena Ledda is from Sardinia and sings in Sardo. She plays with some fabulous musicians on “Amargura”, her 2010 release. Neapolitan Lino Cannavacciuolo plays a bunch of different violins including the kemange - a Persian spike fiddle. Paolo Fresu plays the flugelhorn (flicorno) and the nun's violin (tromba or Nonnengeige - an elongated, medieval monochord).
9 Koes Bersaudera – Bilakan Kamu Tetap Disini (I wish you would stay here) (Sublime Frequencies)
Koes Bersaudera, or Koes Brothers, were a legendary Indonesian band active in the 1960s. Part of their legend comes from being arrested and spending 3 months in prison for performing a Beatles song at a private house party in 1965. That was just before a military coup following which some of the Beatlemania restrictions were lifted. In 2010 Sublime Frequencies re-issued their 1967 LP – the Guilties, plus some other EPs and singles.
10 Paban Das Baul – Gopon Prem (Secret Love) (Riverboat Records)
2010 also saw Paban Das Baul’s first release of traditional Baul music in a long time – over the last 10 years or so, he’s been making fusion records with the likes of The State of Bengal. The album, “Music of the Honey Gatherers”, refers to the music of mendicant, itinerant Baul singers from Bengal who, drawing on rites of early Tantric Buddhism, gather spiritual rather than physical honey from the “blooming lotus chakras of energy” of their listeners. That was quite a flowery mouthful. Baul performs with Rajasthan musicians Nathoolal Solanki from Pushkar, on nagara or hand drum, and Chugge Khan from Jaisalmir.
11 Bob Brozman, John McSherry, Donal O’Connor – A Mhaire Bruineall (Riverboat Records)
Itinerant Hawaiian guitarist Bob Brozman playing with uilleann piper and whistle player John McSherry, fiddle player Donal O’Connar and singer Stephanie Makem, with a County Donegal song, “A Mhaire Bruineall”, from the mid-1700s, originally composed by Tadhg O Tiománaidhe. Through the song the writer tries to woo back his true love. It comes from a lovely album, “Six days in Down”.
12 Fay Hield – Two Brothers (Topic)
In 2010 Topic Records released a CD by its first new signing in a number of years, Fay Hield. The CD is called “Looking Glass”. She plays with her partner Jon Boden from Bellowhead, and the better known Sam Sweeney, also from Bellowhead, on fiddle, viola and nyckelharpa and a few other musicians.
13 Richard Thompson – A brother slips away (Proper Records)
Richard Thompson released a pretty good album in 2010, “Dream Attic”. It’s an album of new songs recorded live in concert, but there was also a limited edition with an accompanying album of stripped down demo versions of all the songs, often with just voice and guitar.
14 Inasmuch – live track from Trill Rd concert (Inasmuch)
In May 2010 the improv band “Inasmuch” gave a house party in Trill Road, Observatory, before they had found their name. Inasmuch consists of Gareth Erasmus on a number of homemade instruments and sax, Niklaas Zimmer on drums and Brendon Bussy on mandolin. This is a track from that concert. Erasmus plays one of his inventions – a bunch of San bows strapped to an oilcan which acts as a resonator with an electric pick-up – the bows are scraped and plucked. Thanks a lot to the band for sending this to me … hopefully there will be some kind of an official release soon.
15 Chicago Underground Duo - Laughing with the sun (Thrill Jockey)
The Chicago Underground Duo is cornet player Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor on percussion and drums. In “Laughing with the sun”, Taylor plays the mbira, and both Mazurek and Taylor use a range of electronic effects. The piece comes from a lovely release, “Boca Negra”, which means “Black Mouth”, and was recorded in Sao Paulo.
16 Glen Kotche vs Konono No 1 – Traducteur de Transmission (Crammed Discs)
In 2010 Crammed Discs brought out “Tradi-mods vs Rockers: alternative takes on Congotronics” – on which what appears to be a random mix of musicians and groups in post-rock, avant rock and electronica camps were asked to produce pieces inspired by groups within the Congotronics stable – like Konono No 1 and the Kassai Allstars. Glenn Kotche is the drummer for Wilco, and his piece is inspired by “Kule Kule” from Konono No 1’s first album. The piece is called “Traducteur de transmission” – translator of transmission. Thanks to Sheer Music, who distribute Crammed Discs in South Africa, for the disk. The double CD will be in the shops next month.
17 Konono No 1 – Guiyome (Crammed Discs)
Konono No 1 also brought out a new album in 2010, “Assume Crash Position”.
18 Danyel Waro – Kenya (Cobalt Records) (L’Autre Distribution)
Danyel Waro was born and raised on a small farm on Reunion, which despite being a tiny island east of Madagascar, is actually part of France. It wouldn’t be if Waro could help it. For at least 30 years he’s been promoting the revival of Maloya – a creole of African, Madagascan and Indian elements with its origins in slave music, banned in Reunion until the 60s and adopted by the independence movement in the 70s. That was the tune, “Kenya”, that opens Waro’s 2010 release “Aou Amwin” – an album that incidentally features South African, Tumi Molekane.
19 Dick Khoza – Chapita (Matsuli)
In 2010 the blog Matsuli, run by South African Matt Temple, aided and abetted by Chris Albertyn, of the Electric Jive blog, got its South African reissue programme going with the release of the vinyl reprint of an LP by Dick Khoza, “Chipita”, which originally came out in 1976 on Rachid Vally’s well known label, As-shams or The Sun. The original artwork is lovingly reproduced, and there are additional sleeve notes. All details are available on the Matsuli and Electric Jive blogs – Matsuli are bringing out a CD issue round about now.
20 AfroCubism – Djelimady rumba (World Circuit)
Apparently the Buena Vista Social Club album was an accident. The plan was that the Malians Djelimady Tounkare and Bassekou Kouyate were supposed to play with a bunch of Cubans in Havana, but the Malians never arrived. World Circuit, who brought out the Buena Vista Social Club, have used this story as the pretext for their AfroCubism project – a collaboration between members of the Buena Vista Social Club and some serious Malian musical elder statesmen – the two who were supposed to have come plus Toumani Diabate and balefon player Lassana Diabate. On “Djelimady Rumba”, Tounkare obviously takes the lead.
21 Cheikh Lo – Il n’est jamais trop tard (World Circuit)
World Circuit also put out Cheikh Lo’s latest album, “Jamm”, in 2010. “Il n’est jamais trop tard” is a Bembeya Jazz National tune.
22 Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal – Halinkata Djoube (No Format)
The wonderful pairing of Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal, from the album, “Chamber Music”, brought out on the French label, No Format. The album was recorded in Salif Keita’s studio, Moffou, in Bamako.
23 The Abramson Singers – Fool’s Gold (White Whale Records)
The Abramson Singers is in fact only Leah Abramson. She’s on the small Toronto based label White Whale Records, which is really just a collection of musicians. “Fool’s Gold” is her own song.
24 Alasdair Roberts & Friends – The Burning of Auchindoun (Drag City)
Alasdair Roberts usually only records his own songs, generally drawn from the wellspring of folk – in the sense that Rob Young, author of “ Electric Eden”, refers to folk as derived from the Teutonic word “Wald” - “the wild wood where society was organized very differently, ad hoc, bottom up and frequently savage”. On his 2010 album, “Too long in this condition”, Roberts dived straight into the wellspring and only plays traditional songs.
25 Lobi Traore – Moko ti y lamban don (Glitterhouse)
2010 saw the sudden death of Malian blues guitarist, Lobi Traore. Traore developed something he called “Bambara Blues” – traditional songs from the historic Bambara Empire filtered through his own take on Mississippi Delta Blues. From this base he wrote his own songs. Just before he died, Traore recorded a quick acoustic set in one take. The recording has become the album “Rainy Season Blues”.
27 Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate – Warbe (World Circuit)
Also released in 2010 were recordings of the other great, dead Malian blues guitarist, Ali Farka Toure. World Circuit put out part 2 of his and Toumani Diabate’s sessions recorded in 2005, about a year before Farka Toure died. It’s called “Ali and Toumani”. The tune “Warbe” includes Farka Toure’s son, Vieux, the wonderful Cuban bassist, Orlando “Cachaito” Lopez, who died in 2009 (in fact tracks he contributed to on “Ali and Toumani” were his last official recordings), and percussionist Tim Keiper, who plays a lot with Vieux Farka Toure.
1 Samy Izy – Igny Ihany (Network)
A tribute to the legendary Madagascan singer, Mama Sana, from the south of the island.
2 Spirit Talk Mbira – Huyai Muone (Ingoma)
Spirit Talk Mbira is a band that’s been around for about 13 years led by Chartwell Dutiro, who used to be the chief mbira player and a sax player for Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited. Dutiro relocated to England from Zimbabwe in the 90s and his band consists mainly of European musicians. As its name suggests, their sound is built on the traditional Shona sound of the mbira, hosho shakers, and hand clapping. The tune is from their 2010 release, “Dendere Ngoma (Music Nest)”.
3 Salma - Yanas Baridouh (Piranha)
The German label Piranha brought out a nice collection in 2010 of what they call “Nubian Soul Treasures” – music made by first or second generation migrants to Cairo from the south of Egypt following the forced removal of towns and villages during the creation of the second Aswan Dam and the flooding to form Lake Nasser. There are some famous early players in the collection, for instance, Ali Hassan Kuban and Mahmoud Fadl, and some later, lesser known ones like Salma who’ve smoothed out the music, but vocally kept things rough and soulful.
4 Mariem Hassan – Azzagafa (The Culture) (Nubenegra)
Another North African people affected by exile are the Sahrawi of the Western Sahara, which Morocco invaded and now rule after a botched attempt at decolonization by the Spanish in the mid 70s. Mariem Hassan is one of the most well known and outspoken Sahrawi musicians. After spending 26 years in an Algerian refugee camp on the border of Western Sahara, she now lives in Spain. Her latest CD is “Shouka” – which means “thorn” – a thorn in the conscience of Morocco, Spain and the rest of the world. The music is reminiscent of Mauritanian music and, with her fiery lyrics, brings to mind Malouma, who we’ve heard on the show before. Hassan sings in Hassaniya, a local Arabic dialect, and this is her song, “Azzagafa” (The Culture).
5 African Head Charge – Surfari (On-U-Sound)
African Head Charge is the longstanding project of Bonjo I A Binghi Noah and Adrian Sherwood, the producer behind the London-based label “On-U-Sound”. The story goes that they got the idea of combining dub, niabinghi drumming and psychedelia from Brian Eno’s and David Byrnes’s “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, and a comment made by Eno in which he spoke about “having a vision of psychedelic Africa”. Bonjo I hails from Jamaica and now lives in Ghana, and AHC are a revolving group of musicians drawn from the On-U-Sound stable. “Surfari” is probably named after the twangy surf guitar on the track, and comes from an album actually called “Vision of Psychedelic Africa”, first given an exclusive Japanese release in 2005, which was made more widely available in 2010.
6 Mulatu Astatke – Mulatu (Mochilla)
2010 has been a great year for the founding father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke. He released his first fully-fledged LP in 20 years for Strut, toured extensively (which included coming to Jo’burg in September), and a few months ago released an album recorded live at the Luckmann Theatre in LA in February 2009, with a huge band of American musicians, including jazzers of high credibility like saxist, flautist and bass clarinetist Bennie Maupin, who played with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 70s, and others from Miles’s 70s bands.
7 Natacha Atlas – Taalet (World Village)
Belgium born, and London bred and based, Natacha Atlas is becoming one of the great living Arabic singers. She released an album in 2010 aimed at continuing her exploration of the connections between Middle Eastern and Western orchestral and chamber music, in something she calls “baroque meeting Beirut”. It was largely co-written with and arranged by classical violinist, Samy Bishai. Unfortunately, it’s not a resounding success, but does have some totally wonderful moments – like the love song “Taalet”.
8 Elena Ledda – Andu (Sulfur Music)
Elena Ledda is from Sardinia and sings in Sardo. She plays with some fabulous musicians on “Amargura”, her 2010 release. Neapolitan Lino Cannavacciuolo plays a bunch of different violins including the kemange - a Persian spike fiddle. Paolo Fresu plays the flugelhorn (flicorno) and the nun's violin (tromba or Nonnengeige - an elongated, medieval monochord).
9 Koes Bersaudera – Bilakan Kamu Tetap Disini (I wish you would stay here) (Sublime Frequencies)
Koes Bersaudera, or Koes Brothers, were a legendary Indonesian band active in the 1960s. Part of their legend comes from being arrested and spending 3 months in prison for performing a Beatles song at a private house party in 1965. That was just before a military coup following which some of the Beatlemania restrictions were lifted. In 2010 Sublime Frequencies re-issued their 1967 LP – the Guilties, plus some other EPs and singles.
10 Paban Das Baul – Gopon Prem (Secret Love) (Riverboat Records)
2010 also saw Paban Das Baul’s first release of traditional Baul music in a long time – over the last 10 years or so, he’s been making fusion records with the likes of The State of Bengal. The album, “Music of the Honey Gatherers”, refers to the music of mendicant, itinerant Baul singers from Bengal who, drawing on rites of early Tantric Buddhism, gather spiritual rather than physical honey from the “blooming lotus chakras of energy” of their listeners. That was quite a flowery mouthful. Baul performs with Rajasthan musicians Nathoolal Solanki from Pushkar, on nagara or hand drum, and Chugge Khan from Jaisalmir.
11 Bob Brozman, John McSherry, Donal O’Connor – A Mhaire Bruineall (Riverboat Records)
Itinerant Hawaiian guitarist Bob Brozman playing with uilleann piper and whistle player John McSherry, fiddle player Donal O’Connar and singer Stephanie Makem, with a County Donegal song, “A Mhaire Bruineall”, from the mid-1700s, originally composed by Tadhg O Tiománaidhe. Through the song the writer tries to woo back his true love. It comes from a lovely album, “Six days in Down”.
12 Fay Hield – Two Brothers (Topic)
In 2010 Topic Records released a CD by its first new signing in a number of years, Fay Hield. The CD is called “Looking Glass”. She plays with her partner Jon Boden from Bellowhead, and the better known Sam Sweeney, also from Bellowhead, on fiddle, viola and nyckelharpa and a few other musicians.
13 Richard Thompson – A brother slips away (Proper Records)
Richard Thompson released a pretty good album in 2010, “Dream Attic”. It’s an album of new songs recorded live in concert, but there was also a limited edition with an accompanying album of stripped down demo versions of all the songs, often with just voice and guitar.
14 Inasmuch – live track from Trill Rd concert (Inasmuch)
In May 2010 the improv band “Inasmuch” gave a house party in Trill Road, Observatory, before they had found their name. Inasmuch consists of Gareth Erasmus on a number of homemade instruments and sax, Niklaas Zimmer on drums and Brendon Bussy on mandolin. This is a track from that concert. Erasmus plays one of his inventions – a bunch of San bows strapped to an oilcan which acts as a resonator with an electric pick-up – the bows are scraped and plucked. Thanks a lot to the band for sending this to me … hopefully there will be some kind of an official release soon.
15 Chicago Underground Duo - Laughing with the sun (Thrill Jockey)
The Chicago Underground Duo is cornet player Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor on percussion and drums. In “Laughing with the sun”, Taylor plays the mbira, and both Mazurek and Taylor use a range of electronic effects. The piece comes from a lovely release, “Boca Negra”, which means “Black Mouth”, and was recorded in Sao Paulo.
16 Glen Kotche vs Konono No 1 – Traducteur de Transmission (Crammed Discs)
In 2010 Crammed Discs brought out “Tradi-mods vs Rockers: alternative takes on Congotronics” – on which what appears to be a random mix of musicians and groups in post-rock, avant rock and electronica camps were asked to produce pieces inspired by groups within the Congotronics stable – like Konono No 1 and the Kassai Allstars. Glenn Kotche is the drummer for Wilco, and his piece is inspired by “Kule Kule” from Konono No 1’s first album. The piece is called “Traducteur de transmission” – translator of transmission. Thanks to Sheer Music, who distribute Crammed Discs in South Africa, for the disk. The double CD will be in the shops next month.
17 Konono No 1 – Guiyome (Crammed Discs)
Konono No 1 also brought out a new album in 2010, “Assume Crash Position”.
18 Danyel Waro – Kenya (Cobalt Records) (L’Autre Distribution)
Danyel Waro was born and raised on a small farm on Reunion, which despite being a tiny island east of Madagascar, is actually part of France. It wouldn’t be if Waro could help it. For at least 30 years he’s been promoting the revival of Maloya – a creole of African, Madagascan and Indian elements with its origins in slave music, banned in Reunion until the 60s and adopted by the independence movement in the 70s. That was the tune, “Kenya”, that opens Waro’s 2010 release “Aou Amwin” – an album that incidentally features South African, Tumi Molekane.
19 Dick Khoza – Chapita (Matsuli)
In 2010 the blog Matsuli, run by South African Matt Temple, aided and abetted by Chris Albertyn, of the Electric Jive blog, got its South African reissue programme going with the release of the vinyl reprint of an LP by Dick Khoza, “Chipita”, which originally came out in 1976 on Rachid Vally’s well known label, As-shams or The Sun. The original artwork is lovingly reproduced, and there are additional sleeve notes. All details are available on the Matsuli and Electric Jive blogs – Matsuli are bringing out a CD issue round about now.
20 AfroCubism – Djelimady rumba (World Circuit)
Apparently the Buena Vista Social Club album was an accident. The plan was that the Malians Djelimady Tounkare and Bassekou Kouyate were supposed to play with a bunch of Cubans in Havana, but the Malians never arrived. World Circuit, who brought out the Buena Vista Social Club, have used this story as the pretext for their AfroCubism project – a collaboration between members of the Buena Vista Social Club and some serious Malian musical elder statesmen – the two who were supposed to have come plus Toumani Diabate and balefon player Lassana Diabate. On “Djelimady Rumba”, Tounkare obviously takes the lead.
21 Cheikh Lo – Il n’est jamais trop tard (World Circuit)
World Circuit also put out Cheikh Lo’s latest album, “Jamm”, in 2010. “Il n’est jamais trop tard” is a Bembeya Jazz National tune.
22 Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal – Halinkata Djoube (No Format)
The wonderful pairing of Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal, from the album, “Chamber Music”, brought out on the French label, No Format. The album was recorded in Salif Keita’s studio, Moffou, in Bamako.
23 The Abramson Singers – Fool’s Gold (White Whale Records)
The Abramson Singers is in fact only Leah Abramson. She’s on the small Toronto based label White Whale Records, which is really just a collection of musicians. “Fool’s Gold” is her own song.
24 Alasdair Roberts & Friends – The Burning of Auchindoun (Drag City)
Alasdair Roberts usually only records his own songs, generally drawn from the wellspring of folk – in the sense that Rob Young, author of “ Electric Eden”, refers to folk as derived from the Teutonic word “Wald” - “the wild wood where society was organized very differently, ad hoc, bottom up and frequently savage”. On his 2010 album, “Too long in this condition”, Roberts dived straight into the wellspring and only plays traditional songs.
25 Lobi Traore – Moko ti y lamban don (Glitterhouse)
2010 saw the sudden death of Malian blues guitarist, Lobi Traore. Traore developed something he called “Bambara Blues” – traditional songs from the historic Bambara Empire filtered through his own take on Mississippi Delta Blues. From this base he wrote his own songs. Just before he died, Traore recorded a quick acoustic set in one take. The recording has become the album “Rainy Season Blues”.
27 Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate – Warbe (World Circuit)
Also released in 2010 were recordings of the other great, dead Malian blues guitarist, Ali Farka Toure. World Circuit put out part 2 of his and Toumani Diabate’s sessions recorded in 2005, about a year before Farka Toure died. It’s called “Ali and Toumani”. The tune “Warbe” includes Farka Toure’s son, Vieux, the wonderful Cuban bassist, Orlando “Cachaito” Lopez, who died in 2009 (in fact tracks he contributed to on “Ali and Toumani” were his last official recordings), and percussionist Tim Keiper, who plays a lot with Vieux Farka Toure.
Monday, November 29, 2010
1 December 2010, World Cafe
1 Ozlem Ozil and Guler Duman – Bir olursak hur oluruz (Duygu Muzik)
Ozlem Ozil and Guler Duman are both saz players. There’s nothing I can find on the web about these musicians, but their 2008 “Yollarina kar mi yagdi” is a terrific affair, if you can overlook some production overkill here and there. It’s a fine example of Turkish folk music built on Ottoman court music. There’s a vast scene of this sort of stuff in Turkey, and a tiny sample of it on this playlist.
2 Orchestre National de Barbes – Jarahtini-Marhba-Jibouhali (Le Chant du monde)
Orchestre National de Barbes take their name from the “Barbes” neighbourhood in Paris, near the Sacre Coeur – a sort of African enclave, which they imply is almost its own country. The members of the band are Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian, Portuguese, and French. From their latest album, “Rendez-vous”.
3 Cheikka Remitti – Annaini annaini (MLP)
Barbes was the home to many African exiles, including famously Cheikka Remitti, the grande dame of rai, who started her career during WW2, but only really became famous in the 50s. Although rai is often associated with a kind of fast hip-hop rock fusion-type sound, this sound only emerged in the 80s and 90s. It was the subject matter and language that really defined rai – it focused on taboos like the pleasure of sex, love, alcohol, friendship, and the hardships of war - in a slangy creole language, much to the annoyance of orthodox religious authorities in Algeria.
4 Hasna el Becharia – Rabi lik (Lusafrica)
Hasna el Becharia is another taboo breaker from Algeria, but from a different background to Cheikka Remitti. El Becharia comes from a Berber community in the south of Algeria, where she started playing wedding music, but broke out in the early 70s with a solo career. She started writing her own songs and playing in public, string instruments only usually played by men. “Rabi lik” comes from her 2010 CD “Smaa Smaa” (which means “Listen Listen”). Some of the singers and players on this album she started out with in the beginning of her career.
5 Saadoun Al-Bayati - Gypsy II (Songs of Iraq) (Samar Industries)
Saadoun Al-Bayati was born in Iraq, but has been living in the US for a long time, where he studied acting. He has had a successful movie and stage career – he wound up in the movie “Passage to India”. But he is also an incredible musician, who had a good dose of Sufi music in his childhood in Iraq, sang in the mosque, and, much later in his life he also trained under the oud player Hamza El-Din. Here he is with something off an LP he put together in 1973, “Songs of Iraq”, playing all the instruments and singing. This is called “Gypsy II”, and is his take on ghajar music (or Iraqi gypsy music).
6 Hanggai – Xig Xile (World Connection)
The leader of Hanggai, the Beijing-based inner Mongolia inspired folk band, started his music career in a punk band – and I guess his origins shine through on the tune “Xig Xile”. A bit like the Tuvan band, Yat Kha. The tune comes from “He who travels far”, Hanggai’s new CD, just out.
7 Jah Wobble and the Nippon Dub Ensemble – K Dub (30 Hertz Records)
From Chinese folk-rock, to Japanese folk-dub.
8 Keith Hudson – Satta (Blood and Fire)
Utterly bleak, stripped dub from Keith Hudson in 1974: one of the earliest examples of dub being developed and released as a stand alone form, not linked to sound systems, deejaying or toasting. Remarkably, it’s a dub version of the Abbyssians-penned classic reggae tune, “Satta Amassagana” - the original version as released 2 years after this one, and recorded in 1969 for Studio One, but not released by Clement Dodd at the time for some reason. For those who’ve been wondering, “Satta Amassagana” is mispronounced and misspelled Amharic, meaning something along the lines of "Give thanks to God continually".
9 Junior Murvin – Roots Train (Island Music)
10 Junior Murvin – Roots Train Number Two (Pressure Sounds)
Junior Murvin and Lee Perry worked together on the LP “Police and Thieves” released in 1977. “Roots Train” is the opening track. The “Number Two” version is a dubplate version culled from the thoroughly wonderful collection of Lee Perry dubplates, “Sound System Scratch”, that’s just come out.
11 Baba Zula – Sevsem Oldururler Sevmezsem Oldum (Doublemoon)
Baba Zula are from Istanbul and have been going since the mid 90s. They are into all kinds of things – dub, folk, bellydancing music, rock and psychedelia. This is a slow dubby lope shot through with shards of electric saz.
12 Cengiz Ozkan – Feraye (Kalan)
Cengiz Ozkan is another famous Turkish folk musician with a serious pedigree, and years of teaching and performing experience. The tune comes from a nice collection of various Turkish folk music called “Remains of Anatolia” out on the Kalan label.
13 Syriana – The Great Game (Real World)
Nick Page or Dubalah, the driving force behind the Ethio-jazz-dub project, Dub Colossus, has a new project – this time with English bass player, Bernard O’Neill and Syrian qanun (81 string Arabic dulcimer) player, Abdullah Chhaden, and a bunch of London-based musicians from the Middle Eastern diaspora.
14 Hosam Hayek – Samaee in Maqam Huzam (Doublemoon)
Palestinian oud maestro, Hosam Hayek, plays here with Istanbul’s Taksim Trio and other musicians. Hayek teaches Arabic music in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is a fabulous composer.
15 Asmara All Stars – Ykre Belni (Outhere)
The Asmara All Stars are Eritrea’s answer to Dub Colossus, with Paris-based producer, Bruno Blum, taking the part of Nick Page. There are some differences: their entire LP “Eritrea’s Got Soul” was recorded on site, in the Admas Studio in Asmara with no post recording additions. Although even more dormant than the current scene in Ethiopia, the Eritrean one turns out to still have some major talent brewing – in fact, many of the musicians from the 70s Addis scene were Eritrean.
16 Getatchew Mekurya – Gedamay (Ethiopiques)
A recording from the early 70s channeling Albert Ayler, the 60s American free jazz sax player. Mekurya says he had never heard the free American players at the time of making this music. If you’re a regular listener (and reader), you will know that Mekurya is still going strong.
17 Orchestre Poly Rythmo De Cotonou – Malin Kpon O (Analog Africa)
From the Analog Africa collection of Poly Rythmo, “Echos Hypotiques”.
17 De Frank Professionals – Afe Ato Yen Bio (Analog Africa)
Analog Africa released a new collection of 70s obscurities a few months ago, this time from Togo and Ghana called “Afro-Beat Airways”. From Accra here are De Frank Professionals. The track is basically a pretty obscure one-off – a session drummer playing with a session backing band – the kind of nugget we’ve become reliant on Samy Ben Redjeb to dig up. And appropriately for this time of the year, the song’s title translates as “We lived through another year”.
18 Samy Izy – Maro (Network)
Samy Andriamalalaharijaona’s first band was Tarika Samy, from the 80s, when he was in his 20s. “Maro” is from his new band, Samy Izy (pronounced “easy”) – in which he explores the music he’s always been into – vintage rural music from the remote reaches of Madagascar. He is aided by a great of band of youngsters, although he does have some veterans guesting. On “Maro” it’s Rageorge (or Ranaivoson Georges, more fully), a lovely flute player who’s never recorded before, despite his iconic status in Madagascar.
19 Inzintombi Zasi Manje Manje – Awufuni Ukulandela Na (Strut)
20 Mahlathini and Mahotella Queens – Umkhova (Strut)
A pair of tunes by two rival groups off Volume 1 of Strut’s 3 volume collection of SA music, “Next stop .. Soweto”, which deals with mbaqanga and mqashiyo.
21 Emily Portman – Bones and Feathers (Furrow Records)
Concertina player and singer, Emily Portman from Newcastle, mostly writes her own songs on the first album under her own name, “The Glamoury”, which came out earlier this year. Her songs are largely inspired by the darker, more mysterious side of the English and Scottish traditional canon. “Bones and Feathers” is a fine example. In the song, a woman at a busstop suddenly turns herself into a bird type creature. Christi Andropolis, who plays with Portman in the band, Rebus, supplies some stunning viola playing on the track.
22 Justin Townes Earle – Halfway to Jackson (Bloodshot Records)
Justin Townes Earle, Steve Earle’s son, has been building up a solid profile over the last few years. “Halfway to Jackson”, some kind of a theme song for him and the name of a website dedicated to him, comes from his 2009 LP, “Midnight at the Movies”.
23 CW Stoneking – Brave son of America (King Hokum Records)
CW Stoneking comes from the town of Katherine, in the Northern Territory, Australia. “Brave son of America” is a wonderful old timey jazzy take on an old calypso tune by Wilmoth Houdini. CW Stoneking actually spent some time bumming around the Caribbean.
24 Cath and Phil Tyler – Long Time Travelling (No-Fi Recordings)
Cath and Phil Tyler are an American-Anglo, wife and husband group, who seem to be based in Newcastle upon Tyne at the moment. “Long Time Travelling” is a song they cobbled together from various sources. Cath Tyler puts it this way: “Phil Tyler wrote the tune, the verses are by Isaac Watts and the chorus is from possibly an 1810 book called Dobell's Selection, but its has been folked around with for ages...” By the way, Dobell’s Selection can be found on Google Books, if you simply Google it.
25 Taksim Trio – Ussak Oyun Havasi (Doublemoon)
The extremely competent Taksim Trio plays a composition by Skru Tunar, which they’ve arranged. This has an incredible interplay between saz and qanun, the likes of which I’ve never heard before.
Ozlem Ozil and Guler Duman are both saz players. There’s nothing I can find on the web about these musicians, but their 2008 “Yollarina kar mi yagdi” is a terrific affair, if you can overlook some production overkill here and there. It’s a fine example of Turkish folk music built on Ottoman court music. There’s a vast scene of this sort of stuff in Turkey, and a tiny sample of it on this playlist.
2 Orchestre National de Barbes – Jarahtini-Marhba-Jibouhali (Le Chant du monde)
Orchestre National de Barbes take their name from the “Barbes” neighbourhood in Paris, near the Sacre Coeur – a sort of African enclave, which they imply is almost its own country. The members of the band are Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian, Portuguese, and French. From their latest album, “Rendez-vous”.
3 Cheikka Remitti – Annaini annaini (MLP)
Barbes was the home to many African exiles, including famously Cheikka Remitti, the grande dame of rai, who started her career during WW2, but only really became famous in the 50s. Although rai is often associated with a kind of fast hip-hop rock fusion-type sound, this sound only emerged in the 80s and 90s. It was the subject matter and language that really defined rai – it focused on taboos like the pleasure of sex, love, alcohol, friendship, and the hardships of war - in a slangy creole language, much to the annoyance of orthodox religious authorities in Algeria.
4 Hasna el Becharia – Rabi lik (Lusafrica)
Hasna el Becharia is another taboo breaker from Algeria, but from a different background to Cheikka Remitti. El Becharia comes from a Berber community in the south of Algeria, where she started playing wedding music, but broke out in the early 70s with a solo career. She started writing her own songs and playing in public, string instruments only usually played by men. “Rabi lik” comes from her 2010 CD “Smaa Smaa” (which means “Listen Listen”). Some of the singers and players on this album she started out with in the beginning of her career.
5 Saadoun Al-Bayati - Gypsy II (Songs of Iraq) (Samar Industries)
Saadoun Al-Bayati was born in Iraq, but has been living in the US for a long time, where he studied acting. He has had a successful movie and stage career – he wound up in the movie “Passage to India”. But he is also an incredible musician, who had a good dose of Sufi music in his childhood in Iraq, sang in the mosque, and, much later in his life he also trained under the oud player Hamza El-Din. Here he is with something off an LP he put together in 1973, “Songs of Iraq”, playing all the instruments and singing. This is called “Gypsy II”, and is his take on ghajar music (or Iraqi gypsy music).
6 Hanggai – Xig Xile (World Connection)
The leader of Hanggai, the Beijing-based inner Mongolia inspired folk band, started his music career in a punk band – and I guess his origins shine through on the tune “Xig Xile”. A bit like the Tuvan band, Yat Kha. The tune comes from “He who travels far”, Hanggai’s new CD, just out.
7 Jah Wobble and the Nippon Dub Ensemble – K Dub (30 Hertz Records)
From Chinese folk-rock, to Japanese folk-dub.
8 Keith Hudson – Satta (Blood and Fire)
Utterly bleak, stripped dub from Keith Hudson in 1974: one of the earliest examples of dub being developed and released as a stand alone form, not linked to sound systems, deejaying or toasting. Remarkably, it’s a dub version of the Abbyssians-penned classic reggae tune, “Satta Amassagana” - the original version as released 2 years after this one, and recorded in 1969 for Studio One, but not released by Clement Dodd at the time for some reason. For those who’ve been wondering, “Satta Amassagana” is mispronounced and misspelled Amharic, meaning something along the lines of "Give thanks to God continually".
9 Junior Murvin – Roots Train (Island Music)
10 Junior Murvin – Roots Train Number Two (Pressure Sounds)
Junior Murvin and Lee Perry worked together on the LP “Police and Thieves” released in 1977. “Roots Train” is the opening track. The “Number Two” version is a dubplate version culled from the thoroughly wonderful collection of Lee Perry dubplates, “Sound System Scratch”, that’s just come out.
11 Baba Zula – Sevsem Oldururler Sevmezsem Oldum (Doublemoon)
Baba Zula are from Istanbul and have been going since the mid 90s. They are into all kinds of things – dub, folk, bellydancing music, rock and psychedelia. This is a slow dubby lope shot through with shards of electric saz.
12 Cengiz Ozkan – Feraye (Kalan)
Cengiz Ozkan is another famous Turkish folk musician with a serious pedigree, and years of teaching and performing experience. The tune comes from a nice collection of various Turkish folk music called “Remains of Anatolia” out on the Kalan label.
13 Syriana – The Great Game (Real World)
Nick Page or Dubalah, the driving force behind the Ethio-jazz-dub project, Dub Colossus, has a new project – this time with English bass player, Bernard O’Neill and Syrian qanun (81 string Arabic dulcimer) player, Abdullah Chhaden, and a bunch of London-based musicians from the Middle Eastern diaspora.
14 Hosam Hayek – Samaee in Maqam Huzam (Doublemoon)
Palestinian oud maestro, Hosam Hayek, plays here with Istanbul’s Taksim Trio and other musicians. Hayek teaches Arabic music in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is a fabulous composer.
15 Asmara All Stars – Ykre Belni (Outhere)
The Asmara All Stars are Eritrea’s answer to Dub Colossus, with Paris-based producer, Bruno Blum, taking the part of Nick Page. There are some differences: their entire LP “Eritrea’s Got Soul” was recorded on site, in the Admas Studio in Asmara with no post recording additions. Although even more dormant than the current scene in Ethiopia, the Eritrean one turns out to still have some major talent brewing – in fact, many of the musicians from the 70s Addis scene were Eritrean.
16 Getatchew Mekurya – Gedamay (Ethiopiques)
A recording from the early 70s channeling Albert Ayler, the 60s American free jazz sax player. Mekurya says he had never heard the free American players at the time of making this music. If you’re a regular listener (and reader), you will know that Mekurya is still going strong.
17 Orchestre Poly Rythmo De Cotonou – Malin Kpon O (Analog Africa)
From the Analog Africa collection of Poly Rythmo, “Echos Hypotiques”.
17 De Frank Professionals – Afe Ato Yen Bio (Analog Africa)
Analog Africa released a new collection of 70s obscurities a few months ago, this time from Togo and Ghana called “Afro-Beat Airways”. From Accra here are De Frank Professionals. The track is basically a pretty obscure one-off – a session drummer playing with a session backing band – the kind of nugget we’ve become reliant on Samy Ben Redjeb to dig up. And appropriately for this time of the year, the song’s title translates as “We lived through another year”.
18 Samy Izy – Maro (Network)
Samy Andriamalalaharijaona’s first band was Tarika Samy, from the 80s, when he was in his 20s. “Maro” is from his new band, Samy Izy (pronounced “easy”) – in which he explores the music he’s always been into – vintage rural music from the remote reaches of Madagascar. He is aided by a great of band of youngsters, although he does have some veterans guesting. On “Maro” it’s Rageorge (or Ranaivoson Georges, more fully), a lovely flute player who’s never recorded before, despite his iconic status in Madagascar.
19 Inzintombi Zasi Manje Manje – Awufuni Ukulandela Na (Strut)
20 Mahlathini and Mahotella Queens – Umkhova (Strut)
A pair of tunes by two rival groups off Volume 1 of Strut’s 3 volume collection of SA music, “Next stop .. Soweto”, which deals with mbaqanga and mqashiyo.
21 Emily Portman – Bones and Feathers (Furrow Records)
Concertina player and singer, Emily Portman from Newcastle, mostly writes her own songs on the first album under her own name, “The Glamoury”, which came out earlier this year. Her songs are largely inspired by the darker, more mysterious side of the English and Scottish traditional canon. “Bones and Feathers” is a fine example. In the song, a woman at a busstop suddenly turns herself into a bird type creature. Christi Andropolis, who plays with Portman in the band, Rebus, supplies some stunning viola playing on the track.
22 Justin Townes Earle – Halfway to Jackson (Bloodshot Records)
Justin Townes Earle, Steve Earle’s son, has been building up a solid profile over the last few years. “Halfway to Jackson”, some kind of a theme song for him and the name of a website dedicated to him, comes from his 2009 LP, “Midnight at the Movies”.
23 CW Stoneking – Brave son of America (King Hokum Records)
CW Stoneking comes from the town of Katherine, in the Northern Territory, Australia. “Brave son of America” is a wonderful old timey jazzy take on an old calypso tune by Wilmoth Houdini. CW Stoneking actually spent some time bumming around the Caribbean.
24 Cath and Phil Tyler – Long Time Travelling (No-Fi Recordings)
Cath and Phil Tyler are an American-Anglo, wife and husband group, who seem to be based in Newcastle upon Tyne at the moment. “Long Time Travelling” is a song they cobbled together from various sources. Cath Tyler puts it this way: “Phil Tyler wrote the tune, the verses are by Isaac Watts and the chorus is from possibly an 1810 book called Dobell's Selection, but its has been folked around with for ages...” By the way, Dobell’s Selection can be found on Google Books, if you simply Google it.
25 Taksim Trio – Ussak Oyun Havasi (Doublemoon)
The extremely competent Taksim Trio plays a composition by Skru Tunar, which they’ve arranged. This has an incredible interplay between saz and qanun, the likes of which I’ve never heard before.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
3 November 2010, World Cafe
1 Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet – Kangding Qingge /Old Timey Dance Party (Nettwerk)
Four great American string players fusing old timey Americana with Chinese music. Round about 2005 Abigail Washburn, banjo player and singer from old timey, bluegrass band, Uncle Earl, who, amazingly sings on the tune in Madarin without skipping a beat, got together with some virtuoso string players, Bela Fleck also on banjo, Ben Sollee on cello and Casey Drissen on fiddle, to form the Sparrow Quartet to tour China. Washburn had been in China on and off since finishing high school in ’96 during her years as an Asian Studies student and picked up Mandarin there pretty quickly. The track came from their 2008 album, when they went back to China with the band to perform during the Beijing Olympics.
2 Le Thu – Sao Bien (Sublime Frequencies)
“Saigon Rock”, out on the somewhat cultish label “Sublime Frequencies”, is proving to be one of the best crate digging exercises of the year. The tunes were all recorded in makeshift studios (and even US army facilities) while the Vietnam War raged. During this period, only a handful of Saigon record companies were involved and only 45s were produced. Much of the stuff was done by leading Vietnam crooners who used 60s pulp ballads as a template, but drew on traditional forms too.
3 Pumpuang Duangjan - Sao Dok Kum Tai (Lady From a Flower) (Sublime Frequency)
The fusion of 60s pop rock with traditional forms was certainly not confined to Vietnam. From another Sublime Frequencies CD “Thai Pop Spectacular”, that was Pumpuang Duangjan with “Lady from a flower”.
4 Rokia Traore – Tchamantche (Nonesuch)
Rokia Traore brings a kind of quiet, folkish meditative sensitivity to traditional Bamana griot music from Bamako and surrounds. “Tchamantche” means “Balance”, and is the title track from her 2008 release. She plays guitar and belaphone.
5 Orchestra Baobab – Adduna Jural Naawo (Buur Desques)
In the title track of Orchestra Baobab’s 1975 album, “Adduna Jural Naawo”, singer Ndiouga Dieng remembers the nights after his father’s death, in which he sees the true meaning of time as being disappointment and cruelty. Barthelemy Attisso supplies the truly wonderful guitar.
Orchestra Baobab reprised the song as “Dee Moo Woor” on their 2002 album, “Specialist in all styles”.
6 Hedzoleh Soundz & Hugh Masekela – Languta (Blue Thumb Chisa)
In 1973 Hugh Masekela moved to Ghana after having been based in NYC since the mid 60s. He hooked up with Hedzoleh Soundz, who we’ve heard on this show before, to record an LP in Lagos, “Masekela introducing Hedzoleh Soundz”.
7 Tony Allen and Jimi Tenor – Selfish Gene (Strut)
Tony Allen has just turned 70. In concerts in NYC and London to celebrate this, he chose several collaborators. One of them was Finnish tenor player, Jimi Tenor, who he actually worked with last year in a studio outing for Strut Records. On the Strut record they brought some Nigerian, Finnish and American musicians with them to Paris, Berlin and Finland. Tenor added some retro keyboard sounds. “Selfish Gene” was written by Allen and sung by Tenor.
8 Dub Colossus – Ophir Dub (Real World)
Dub Colossus was at first a studio creation laid down in a makeshift set-up in Addis and smoothed out in the Real World Studios in Wiltshire under the driving force of Dubalah – the bass playing producer from Transglobal Underground. But last year Dub Colossus actually got together as an entity to tour Europe. Over the course of the last 2 years I’ve played nearly every track from their fantastic record, “Town called Addis”. This is another one. In future shows we’ll hear from their 2009 EP.
9 Unknown (Sublime Frequencies)
Another unknown title by an unknown band from Iraq during the rule of Saddam – brought to you by Sublime Frequencies on perhaps their best collection, “Choubi Choubi – Folk and pop sounds from Iraq”.
10 Group Doueh – Min binat omum (Sublime Frequencies)
From the 2009 Sublime Frequencies release “Treeg Salaam”, culled from home-made recordings of the singer, guitarist and writer for Group Doueh, Salmou Doueh Baamar. Baamar also plays the tinibit, some kind of string instrument not pictured or described in detail anywhere on the web.
11 Ella Jenkins – Wade in the water
Ella Jenkins is probably best known for her children’s songs. Here she is with a traditional gospel track “Wade in the water”, probably recorded in the 1960s with the Goodwill Spiritual Choir. One theory about the song is that it gives coded instructions to slaves about how to escape. I got the Jenkins version off the rather fantastic CD that came with the September edition of UNCUT. The song was apparently first published in 1901.
12 War – Slipping into darkness (Rhino)
From 1971, off WAR’s second LP “All Day Music”. According to them the song’s about standing on the brink of self-destruction and wondering which way to go.
13 Carl Bradney – Slipping into darkness (Blood and Fire)
The little-known Carl Bradney from a collection of reggaefied soul and funk tunes “Darker than blue: Soul from Jamdown 1973–1980” on the Blood and Fire label.
14 The Heptones – Serious Time (Island)
One of the greatest reggae vocal groups, the Heptones, with something from their Lee Perry produced 1977 album, “Party Time”.
15 The Heptones & the Observer – Way of life (Heartbeat)
Dub maestro and producer, the Observer (or Winston Niney), also worked with the Heptones. This is from his reworking of Heptones’ songs largely removing the vocals called “Heptones – Observer’s Style”.
16 The Toreadors – Gwinyitshe (Mavuthela Music Company)
Speaking of inspired collections, this year Strut put out a 3 volume collection of SA music, “Next Stop … Soweto”, covering mbaqanga, township funk, pop and r’n’b and jazz. This Toreadors song comes from volume 2, which covers pop and organ rock music from the late 60s to the late 70s.
17 The Mgababa Queens – Akulalwa Soweto (African Music Publishers)
“Akulalwa Soweto” means “‘We-don’t-sleep’ party in Soweto” and it’s also from volume 2 of the same Strut collection.
18 Malombo Jazz Makers – Vukani (Continental)
Phillip Tabane split from Malombo to form Malombo Jazz Men in 1967. The remaining Abbey Cindi, Lucky Ranku and Julian Bahula called themselves the Malombo Jazz Makers. This is from the Jazz Makers’ second album, “Volume 2”, released in 1971.
Check out the Electric Jive blog for some nice stuff on Tabane, including a link to a PhD thesis on the man.
19 African Brothers International – Ahyewa and Asaadua (Ambassador)
African Brothers International was one of the greatest Ghanaian highlife bands. “Ahyewa and Asaadua” comes from the LP “Afrohili” and is a kind of reworking of traditional Akan music using a modern rock instrumental line-up. The Akan people controlled the West African gold trade from the 17th century, but were colonized by the British and the French in the early 1900s. Their music is called Ashewa.
20 Mahmoud Ahmed – Bekifir Atkelidg (Mahmoud Records)
In 1974 Mahmoud Ahmed put out a number of singles on his own Addis-based label, Mahmoud Records. Thanks to the Oro blog, here is “Bekifir Atkelidg”. As far as I know, this stuff has yet to be reissued.
21 Tarika Samy – Fanaon’ny ankizy (Shananchie)
That was Samy’s Group, or Tarika Samy, off Volume 1 of the David Lindley and Kaiser collection of Madagascan music “A world out of time”. When Samoela (or Samy for short) Andriamalalaharijaona left them they became just “Tarika”.
22 James Blackshaw – White Goddess (Tompkins Square)
Twelve-string guitarist James Blackshaw started out as the British answer to the “New American Primitive” scene. The American scene includes musicians like Jack Rose (deceased earlier this year), whom I’ve played before, who were inspired by John Fahey and Robbie Basho. But Blackshaw quickly expanded his palette to include piano and voice and widened his musical scope to include early music and minimalism.
23 The Poozies – Planxty Colonel (Greentrax)
The Poozies were started by harp players Patsy Seddon and Mary MacMaster in the 1990s. They added a guitarist, fiddler and accordionist to the line-up to form the Poozies. MacMaster in fact plays the Camac electro harp – a harp that the Breton harpist Alan Stivell helped develop in the early 70s. The French company, Camac, was one of first to market the electro harp.
24 Richard Thompson – Here comes Geordie (Proper)
Richard Thompson in fine sardonic form, off his latest album, “Dream Attic”. No prizes for working out to whom he’s referring?
25 Karan Casey & John Doyle – False Lover John (Compass)
From their magnificent 2010 collection “Exiles Return”, recorded in Nashville.
26 Chris Smither – Miner’s Blues (Signature Sounds)
Chris Smither has been producing gruff, finger-style folkish blues and ragtime for many years. This is his version of a Frank Hutchison tune, and comes off his 2009 album “Time Stands Still”. Frank Hutchison played something the aficionados call “white country blues”. Hutchison died in 1945 and first recorded this song in 1928.
27 Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson – Bonaparte’s Lament (Topic)
Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy, mother and daughter English folk royalty, with a traditional tune popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Check out the demon triangle playing.
Elisabeth Higgin Null’s notes on Peggy Seeger’s recording of the same song say: “The song contrasts the loneliness of Boney’s exile with his former grandeur, advising those with wealth to beware of ambition as fate is unpredictable”. Null goes on to point out that there were lots of songs sympathetic to Boney around about the mid 19th century. Boney was a symbol of hope for Irish nationalists who seemed to prefer French dictatorship to their home-grown variety.
28 The Handsome Family – Fallen Peaches (Carrot Top Music)
Brett Sparks singing a chilling song set in the American Civil War written by his wife, Rennie. The song is about death on battle fields and the ghosts of the Confederate dead. It comes from a CD accompanying the August edition of Mojo.
Four great American string players fusing old timey Americana with Chinese music. Round about 2005 Abigail Washburn, banjo player and singer from old timey, bluegrass band, Uncle Earl, who, amazingly sings on the tune in Madarin without skipping a beat, got together with some virtuoso string players, Bela Fleck also on banjo, Ben Sollee on cello and Casey Drissen on fiddle, to form the Sparrow Quartet to tour China. Washburn had been in China on and off since finishing high school in ’96 during her years as an Asian Studies student and picked up Mandarin there pretty quickly. The track came from their 2008 album, when they went back to China with the band to perform during the Beijing Olympics.
2 Le Thu – Sao Bien (Sublime Frequencies)
“Saigon Rock”, out on the somewhat cultish label “Sublime Frequencies”, is proving to be one of the best crate digging exercises of the year. The tunes were all recorded in makeshift studios (and even US army facilities) while the Vietnam War raged. During this period, only a handful of Saigon record companies were involved and only 45s were produced. Much of the stuff was done by leading Vietnam crooners who used 60s pulp ballads as a template, but drew on traditional forms too.
3 Pumpuang Duangjan - Sao Dok Kum Tai (Lady From a Flower) (Sublime Frequency)
The fusion of 60s pop rock with traditional forms was certainly not confined to Vietnam. From another Sublime Frequencies CD “Thai Pop Spectacular”, that was Pumpuang Duangjan with “Lady from a flower”.
4 Rokia Traore – Tchamantche (Nonesuch)
Rokia Traore brings a kind of quiet, folkish meditative sensitivity to traditional Bamana griot music from Bamako and surrounds. “Tchamantche” means “Balance”, and is the title track from her 2008 release. She plays guitar and belaphone.
5 Orchestra Baobab – Adduna Jural Naawo (Buur Desques)
In the title track of Orchestra Baobab’s 1975 album, “Adduna Jural Naawo”, singer Ndiouga Dieng remembers the nights after his father’s death, in which he sees the true meaning of time as being disappointment and cruelty. Barthelemy Attisso supplies the truly wonderful guitar.
Orchestra Baobab reprised the song as “Dee Moo Woor” on their 2002 album, “Specialist in all styles”.
6 Hedzoleh Soundz & Hugh Masekela – Languta (Blue Thumb Chisa)
In 1973 Hugh Masekela moved to Ghana after having been based in NYC since the mid 60s. He hooked up with Hedzoleh Soundz, who we’ve heard on this show before, to record an LP in Lagos, “Masekela introducing Hedzoleh Soundz”.
7 Tony Allen and Jimi Tenor – Selfish Gene (Strut)
Tony Allen has just turned 70. In concerts in NYC and London to celebrate this, he chose several collaborators. One of them was Finnish tenor player, Jimi Tenor, who he actually worked with last year in a studio outing for Strut Records. On the Strut record they brought some Nigerian, Finnish and American musicians with them to Paris, Berlin and Finland. Tenor added some retro keyboard sounds. “Selfish Gene” was written by Allen and sung by Tenor.
8 Dub Colossus – Ophir Dub (Real World)
Dub Colossus was at first a studio creation laid down in a makeshift set-up in Addis and smoothed out in the Real World Studios in Wiltshire under the driving force of Dubalah – the bass playing producer from Transglobal Underground. But last year Dub Colossus actually got together as an entity to tour Europe. Over the course of the last 2 years I’ve played nearly every track from their fantastic record, “Town called Addis”. This is another one. In future shows we’ll hear from their 2009 EP.
9 Unknown (Sublime Frequencies)
Another unknown title by an unknown band from Iraq during the rule of Saddam – brought to you by Sublime Frequencies on perhaps their best collection, “Choubi Choubi – Folk and pop sounds from Iraq”.
10 Group Doueh – Min binat omum (Sublime Frequencies)
From the 2009 Sublime Frequencies release “Treeg Salaam”, culled from home-made recordings of the singer, guitarist and writer for Group Doueh, Salmou Doueh Baamar. Baamar also plays the tinibit, some kind of string instrument not pictured or described in detail anywhere on the web.
11 Ella Jenkins – Wade in the water
Ella Jenkins is probably best known for her children’s songs. Here she is with a traditional gospel track “Wade in the water”, probably recorded in the 1960s with the Goodwill Spiritual Choir. One theory about the song is that it gives coded instructions to slaves about how to escape. I got the Jenkins version off the rather fantastic CD that came with the September edition of UNCUT. The song was apparently first published in 1901.
12 War – Slipping into darkness (Rhino)
From 1971, off WAR’s second LP “All Day Music”. According to them the song’s about standing on the brink of self-destruction and wondering which way to go.
13 Carl Bradney – Slipping into darkness (Blood and Fire)
The little-known Carl Bradney from a collection of reggaefied soul and funk tunes “Darker than blue: Soul from Jamdown 1973–1980” on the Blood and Fire label.
14 The Heptones – Serious Time (Island)
One of the greatest reggae vocal groups, the Heptones, with something from their Lee Perry produced 1977 album, “Party Time”.
15 The Heptones & the Observer – Way of life (Heartbeat)
Dub maestro and producer, the Observer (or Winston Niney), also worked with the Heptones. This is from his reworking of Heptones’ songs largely removing the vocals called “Heptones – Observer’s Style”.
16 The Toreadors – Gwinyitshe (Mavuthela Music Company)
Speaking of inspired collections, this year Strut put out a 3 volume collection of SA music, “Next Stop … Soweto”, covering mbaqanga, township funk, pop and r’n’b and jazz. This Toreadors song comes from volume 2, which covers pop and organ rock music from the late 60s to the late 70s.
17 The Mgababa Queens – Akulalwa Soweto (African Music Publishers)
“Akulalwa Soweto” means “‘We-don’t-sleep’ party in Soweto” and it’s also from volume 2 of the same Strut collection.
18 Malombo Jazz Makers – Vukani (Continental)
Phillip Tabane split from Malombo to form Malombo Jazz Men in 1967. The remaining Abbey Cindi, Lucky Ranku and Julian Bahula called themselves the Malombo Jazz Makers. This is from the Jazz Makers’ second album, “Volume 2”, released in 1971.
Check out the Electric Jive blog for some nice stuff on Tabane, including a link to a PhD thesis on the man.
19 African Brothers International – Ahyewa and Asaadua (Ambassador)
African Brothers International was one of the greatest Ghanaian highlife bands. “Ahyewa and Asaadua” comes from the LP “Afrohili” and is a kind of reworking of traditional Akan music using a modern rock instrumental line-up. The Akan people controlled the West African gold trade from the 17th century, but were colonized by the British and the French in the early 1900s. Their music is called Ashewa.
20 Mahmoud Ahmed – Bekifir Atkelidg (Mahmoud Records)
In 1974 Mahmoud Ahmed put out a number of singles on his own Addis-based label, Mahmoud Records. Thanks to the Oro blog, here is “Bekifir Atkelidg”. As far as I know, this stuff has yet to be reissued.
21 Tarika Samy – Fanaon’ny ankizy (Shananchie)
That was Samy’s Group, or Tarika Samy, off Volume 1 of the David Lindley and Kaiser collection of Madagascan music “A world out of time”. When Samoela (or Samy for short) Andriamalalaharijaona left them they became just “Tarika”.
22 James Blackshaw – White Goddess (Tompkins Square)
Twelve-string guitarist James Blackshaw started out as the British answer to the “New American Primitive” scene. The American scene includes musicians like Jack Rose (deceased earlier this year), whom I’ve played before, who were inspired by John Fahey and Robbie Basho. But Blackshaw quickly expanded his palette to include piano and voice and widened his musical scope to include early music and minimalism.
23 The Poozies – Planxty Colonel (Greentrax)
The Poozies were started by harp players Patsy Seddon and Mary MacMaster in the 1990s. They added a guitarist, fiddler and accordionist to the line-up to form the Poozies. MacMaster in fact plays the Camac electro harp – a harp that the Breton harpist Alan Stivell helped develop in the early 70s. The French company, Camac, was one of first to market the electro harp.
24 Richard Thompson – Here comes Geordie (Proper)
Richard Thompson in fine sardonic form, off his latest album, “Dream Attic”. No prizes for working out to whom he’s referring?
25 Karan Casey & John Doyle – False Lover John (Compass)
From their magnificent 2010 collection “Exiles Return”, recorded in Nashville.
26 Chris Smither – Miner’s Blues (Signature Sounds)
Chris Smither has been producing gruff, finger-style folkish blues and ragtime for many years. This is his version of a Frank Hutchison tune, and comes off his 2009 album “Time Stands Still”. Frank Hutchison played something the aficionados call “white country blues”. Hutchison died in 1945 and first recorded this song in 1928.
27 Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson – Bonaparte’s Lament (Topic)
Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy, mother and daughter English folk royalty, with a traditional tune popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Check out the demon triangle playing.
Elisabeth Higgin Null’s notes on Peggy Seeger’s recording of the same song say: “The song contrasts the loneliness of Boney’s exile with his former grandeur, advising those with wealth to beware of ambition as fate is unpredictable”. Null goes on to point out that there were lots of songs sympathetic to Boney around about the mid 19th century. Boney was a symbol of hope for Irish nationalists who seemed to prefer French dictatorship to their home-grown variety.
28 The Handsome Family – Fallen Peaches (Carrot Top Music)
Brett Sparks singing a chilling song set in the American Civil War written by his wife, Rennie. The song is about death on battle fields and the ghosts of the Confederate dead. It comes from a CD accompanying the August edition of Mojo.
Monday, September 13, 2010
6 October 2010, World Cafe
1 Mahotella Queens - Vuka Uzibuke (Gumba Gumba/African Music Publishers, Beatrice Ngcobo)
Mahotella Queens with Makhona Tsohle Band circa 1975, this time without Mahlathini. The Mahotella Queens were one of the pioneers of the vocal style of mbaqanga called mqashiyo - which was cultivated by one of the heroes of South African music, Robert Mopape. Mopape was a producer, songwriter, arranger and talent scout who really started to get up to some interesting stuff in the mid 60s. The Mahotella Queens have played with a number of "groaners" over their careers. There's no information about who the groaner is here.
2 Hallelujah Chicken Run Band - Ngoma Yarira (Analog Africa) (Dube /Mapfumo)
The Hallelujah Chicken Run Band was one of the first bands to play a Zimbabwean pop style rooted in traditional Shona music which became known as Chimurenga - which means "liberation war" - and which was often used to conceal messages of liberation within "deep proverbs". "Ngoma Yarira" from 1972 is the Chicken Run Band's first single.
By as early as 1972, the Chimurenga sound was more-or-less fully formed with Thomas Mapfumo's high yodelling vocals, the buffed guitar rhythmic figures interlocking with mbira and the shuffling triple-time drum groove emulating Shona shaker percussion.
3 Patrick Mkwambe and the Four Brothers - Mombe Yeumai (Earthworks - Atlantic/Wea)
Jit Jive grew out of Chimurenga. Post liberation, the mbiras were thrown out in favour of a total guitar sound, and things were speeded up. The Four Brothers were one of the best jit bands. They consciously chose their name to keep rivalry between members at bay.
A track each from three great African albums released during 2009.
4 Staff Benda Bilili - Moto Moindo (Crammed Discs) (Cubain Kabeya Tshimpanglia - published: Les Editions de la Bascule/Strictly Confidential
From Kinshasa here is Staff Benda Bilili with a tune "Moto Moindo" heavily infused with a Cuban feel - perhaps some kind of a "son". The lead instrument here is a one-string electric tin can - played with astonishing ability by a teenage member of the band - an ex-street kid.
5 Bassekou Kouyate - Saro (Outhere) - published by World Circuit
"Saro" features Vieux Farka Toure, Ali Farka Toure's son, and is dedicated to Kouyate's younger brother, Saro, who was killed in a motorbike accident a few days after the song was recorded. Ironically, the song is a prayer that nothing may happen to those you love.
6 Tony Allen - Alutere (Nonesuch)
Tony Allen, the great veteran Afrobeat drummer, put out a great album last year called "Secret Agent" which draws seamlessly from a bunch of Nigerian traditions including praise singing. From that album, here is "Alutere", a Yoruba word which means "the message the drums transmit". What is that message? Allen says: "It's a message of 'get into the groove', you know".
7 Mulatu Astatke - The way to nice (Strut)
Mulatu Astatke off his very fine 2010 release "Mulatu Steps Ahead" with "The Way to Nice" - a very lush production with heavy shades of the James Bond Theme - although it stops short of the "dum di di dum dum" surf guitar bit.
There's an interesting story behind that little bit. John Barry is often credited with writing the music and he certain arranged it, but it seems that at least the signature bit was written by Monty Norman, who based it on a song from his musical version of the VS Naipaul novel "A House for Mr Biswas".
8 Im Ling and the Silvertones - Oh no! (Sublime Frequencies)
"Oh no!" comes from the Seattle-based Sublime Frequencies' collection "Singapore A-Go-Go Vol 1", of 1960s beat, pop and off-beat cha-cha, all with a heavy Singaporean twist, and sung in dialects of Mandarin and Hokkien.
Two tracks from Thailand, each from different collections of Thai pop music on the Sublime Frequencies' label.
9 Phet Potarum - Koh Phuket (Phuket Island) (Sublime Frequencies)
10 The Son of PM - Cho Cho Chan (Sublime Frequencies)
The PM here is Payong Mukda, a very well known promoter of Thai folk music, who died earlier this year at the age of 83. The style of music is called "shadow music" and its name comes from the British surf rock pop instrumental band, the Shadows. Basically, traditional Thai melodies girded by a standard Ventures or Shadows rock rhythm section - although there's also some Hank Marvin surf guitar in there too.
11 Ian King - Ah Robin, Gentle Robin (Fledg'ling) William Cornyish - 1468 to 1523 arr A wing and a prayer ltd MCPS
Ian King is from England and a part-time stonewaller, part-time singer. The tune is from the 13th century and written by William Cornyish. Adrian Sherwood produced King's album, "Panic Grass & Fever Few".
12 The Heptones - Guiding Star (L Sibbles, E Morgan, B Llewellyn) (Trenchtown)
Over the last few months we've being listening to a number of the classic vocal roots reggae groups - the Abyssians, the Congos, the Gatherers. Here is another, the Heptones, with a more updated version of a song they wrote in the late 60s - "Guiding Star".
13 The New Age Steppers - Guiding Star (On U Sound)
A number of people have covered "Guiding Star" over the years, including Horace Andy and Freddie McGregor. The New Age Steppers' version comes from their 1981 album "Action Battlefield".
The New Age Steppers were a rather short-lived collective of Jamaican and British reggae players brought together by Adrian Sherwood at the beginning of the 80s, together with singer Ari Up, who had previously been with punk band, the Slits. A number of punk musicians in the 1970s were enamoured with reggae, most famously Johnny Rotten, and there have been nice reggae-punk clashes over the years - excuse the terrible pun. The Slits' album, "Cut", produced by Dennis Bovell, is a classic example.
14 Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus - Truth and Right (RIOR)
We've also been profiling dub producers - Tommy Cowan is a lesser known producer, but produced a fabulous dub version of nyabhingi drummer Ras Michael and the Song of Negus's "Rastafari".
There seems to be some debate about when this first came out - it's been re-issued a number of times. The most likely story was that the dub was done at the same time as the album - 1972 - and released as singles etc in dribs and drabs, up until 1979. There are some great players in the band - including Tommy McCook, Robbie Shakespeare, Earl Chinna Smith and Peter Tosh.
15 Unknown artist - unknown title (Sublime Frequencies)
The singer there is unknown and the song unknown - but in typical style, this didn't stop Sublime Frequencies from releasing it. It comes off quite possibly their best release "Choubi Choubi Folk and Pop Sounds from Iraq", and much of the music comes from the time of Sadam Hussain's reign. Baghdad was actually the hot spot of Arabic music under Hussain - the Ba'ath party encouraged music albeit within the confines of cultural institutions. Baghdad music from the era continues to played across the Arabic world.
16 Omar Souleyman - Atabat (Sublime Frequencies)
Omar Souleyman is a massively popular singer from Syria, whom Sublime Frequencies has brought to the Western world in a number of releases. "Atabat" comes from "Highway to Hassake" - an overview of Souleyman's career. "Atabat" means "threshold" in Arabic.
17 Etran Finatawa - Naanaaye (trad arranged Bammo Agonla (Riverboat Records)
Sticking with desert regions, Etran Finatawa is a mixed Touareg-Wodaabe group from Niger, with a traditional Wodaabe healing song - "Naanaaye".
18 Rossy and Rokoto Frah - O isa (Sanatchie)
From Madagascar, Rossy is a multi-instrumentalist superstar who plays a variety of styles. Here he is being very folksy on the marovany together with sodina flute player, Rokoto Frah.
19 Dizzy Mandjekou - Mady motema (Papa Disco)
Over the last few months, we've also been exploring grittier 2nd generation soukous which started in the late 70s following on from the ultra smooth and sumptuous sounds of Franco's generation. Dizzy Mandjekou was the guitar wizard from Tabu-Ley Rochereau's band. The tune is from around 1980, and from the LP "Saila".
Some more from the history of groaners in South African pop music - all based around a bunch of tracks culled from a stunning collection that Electric Jive Blog posted a few months ago called "Classic South African Jive, volume 2" put together by Nick Lotay.
20 Mahlathini and Izintombi Zomgqashiyo - Okwamadoda Kuya Bhikwa (Motella, Simon Nkabinde)
21 Big Voice Jack - Vala Izwe (Smanje Manje/Gold Music)
"Big Voice Jack" (Aaron Jack Lerole), the sax player, with the tune "Vala Izwe" from the mid 60s. Aaron Lerole is, in fact, quite a significant figure in South African music. He took up playing sax in the mid-60s after he had basically destroyed his vocal chords groaning for Alexandra Black Mambazo. But his groaning had not been to no avail - he passed on his style to Zeph Nkabinde in the group, the older brother of Simon Nkabinde, or Mahlathini. Lerole teamed up with Robert Bopape in the late 60s who had set up Mavuthela Productions, part of Gallo, which mqashiyo release.
In the late 50s, Lerole had played a very important role in putting kwela on the international map. His reworking of a 1927 tune by British Theatre giant Herbert Farjeon "I've danced with a man, who's danced with a girl, who's danced with the Prince of Wales", became the theme song for a British series set in SA, "The Killing Stones". He called the tune "Tom Hark" (apparently a corruption of "tomahawk"). The tune ended up at number 2 in the UK charts, being covered by a bunch of people and being adopted by the Barmy Army.
22 Gaiteiros de Lesboa - Se eu soubesse que voando (Farol Musica)
Some fusion peasant vocal polyphony from Portugal. It comes from Gaiteiros de Lesboa's live recording "Dancahamas" recorded in Belem, October 2000.
23 Savina Yannatou - O onda (Sounds True) - G P Lanfranchi
Savina Yannatou is Greek and that tune was based on a traditional Corsican polyphony. "O wave, your silence is deeper than the grave, white as a knife blow".
24 Richard Thompson - So ben mi ca bon tempo (Cooking Vinyl)
Richard Thompson with a kind of madrigal from the 14th century Italian composer Orazio Vecchi - "I know who is carefree". Vecchi was a priest and musical director in a number of cathedrals. The track comes from Thompson's "1000 years of Popular Music".
Musicians from a number of generations of the folk revival have done versions of the ballad "Spencer the Rover". Going back in time and starting with Irish singer Cara Dillon, here is a medley of three.
25 Cara Dillon/John Martyn/The Copper Family - Spencer the Rover ( xxx /Island/Topic) --- xxx /Warlock Music Ltd
26 Utah Phillips - Hallelujah, I'm a bum (Righteous Babe Records)
Another group who had been "much reduced" and "started to roam" as a result, were the train hoppers of the Depression, although according to Utah Phillips this was not a cause for "confusion", but rather celebration. Labour activist and singer Utah Phillip's fabulous version of an Industrial Workers of the World (or Wobblies) anthem, "Hallelujah, I'm a bum".
24 Frazey Ford - Firecracker (Nettwork Records) (Ford) - Nettwork Song Publishing)
Frazey Ford, off duty from the Be Good Tanyas, with one of her own songs - "Firecracker", off her 2010 album, "Obadiah".
25 Eliza Carthy - Child amongst the weeds (Topic) -- published by Celtic Music
Lal Waterson was one of the most idiosyncratic songwriters in the English folk tradition. In 2002, a few years after Lal's death, a bunch of folk luminaries, many of them her relations, put together a tribute to the album "Bright Phoebus", which she and her brother Mike composed and performed in 1972. Eliza Carthy was Lal's niece.
26 Ditt Ditt Darium - Min Gud och Fader kare (My beloved God and Father) trad after Ander Hoas, Gammelsvenskby, Ukraine
Ditt Ditt Darium was a joint project of young Swedish and Northumbrian musicians circa 2002/2003. The song is a Ukrainian hymn-like folk song.
Mahotella Queens with Makhona Tsohle Band circa 1975, this time without Mahlathini. The Mahotella Queens were one of the pioneers of the vocal style of mbaqanga called mqashiyo - which was cultivated by one of the heroes of South African music, Robert Mopape. Mopape was a producer, songwriter, arranger and talent scout who really started to get up to some interesting stuff in the mid 60s. The Mahotella Queens have played with a number of "groaners" over their careers. There's no information about who the groaner is here.
2 Hallelujah Chicken Run Band - Ngoma Yarira (Analog Africa) (Dube /Mapfumo)
The Hallelujah Chicken Run Band was one of the first bands to play a Zimbabwean pop style rooted in traditional Shona music which became known as Chimurenga - which means "liberation war" - and which was often used to conceal messages of liberation within "deep proverbs". "Ngoma Yarira" from 1972 is the Chicken Run Band's first single.
By as early as 1972, the Chimurenga sound was more-or-less fully formed with Thomas Mapfumo's high yodelling vocals, the buffed guitar rhythmic figures interlocking with mbira and the shuffling triple-time drum groove emulating Shona shaker percussion.
3 Patrick Mkwambe and the Four Brothers - Mombe Yeumai (Earthworks - Atlantic/Wea)
Jit Jive grew out of Chimurenga. Post liberation, the mbiras were thrown out in favour of a total guitar sound, and things were speeded up. The Four Brothers were one of the best jit bands. They consciously chose their name to keep rivalry between members at bay.
A track each from three great African albums released during 2009.
4 Staff Benda Bilili - Moto Moindo (Crammed Discs) (Cubain Kabeya Tshimpanglia - published: Les Editions de la Bascule/Strictly Confidential
From Kinshasa here is Staff Benda Bilili with a tune "Moto Moindo" heavily infused with a Cuban feel - perhaps some kind of a "son". The lead instrument here is a one-string electric tin can - played with astonishing ability by a teenage member of the band - an ex-street kid.
5 Bassekou Kouyate - Saro (Outhere) - published by World Circuit
"Saro" features Vieux Farka Toure, Ali Farka Toure's son, and is dedicated to Kouyate's younger brother, Saro, who was killed in a motorbike accident a few days after the song was recorded. Ironically, the song is a prayer that nothing may happen to those you love.
6 Tony Allen - Alutere (Nonesuch)
Tony Allen, the great veteran Afrobeat drummer, put out a great album last year called "Secret Agent" which draws seamlessly from a bunch of Nigerian traditions including praise singing. From that album, here is "Alutere", a Yoruba word which means "the message the drums transmit". What is that message? Allen says: "It's a message of 'get into the groove', you know".
7 Mulatu Astatke - The way to nice (Strut)
Mulatu Astatke off his very fine 2010 release "Mulatu Steps Ahead" with "The Way to Nice" - a very lush production with heavy shades of the James Bond Theme - although it stops short of the "dum di di dum dum" surf guitar bit.
There's an interesting story behind that little bit. John Barry is often credited with writing the music and he certain arranged it, but it seems that at least the signature bit was written by Monty Norman, who based it on a song from his musical version of the VS Naipaul novel "A House for Mr Biswas".
8 Im Ling and the Silvertones - Oh no! (Sublime Frequencies)
"Oh no!" comes from the Seattle-based Sublime Frequencies' collection "Singapore A-Go-Go Vol 1", of 1960s beat, pop and off-beat cha-cha, all with a heavy Singaporean twist, and sung in dialects of Mandarin and Hokkien.
Two tracks from Thailand, each from different collections of Thai pop music on the Sublime Frequencies' label.
9 Phet Potarum - Koh Phuket (Phuket Island) (Sublime Frequencies)
10 The Son of PM - Cho Cho Chan (Sublime Frequencies)
The PM here is Payong Mukda, a very well known promoter of Thai folk music, who died earlier this year at the age of 83. The style of music is called "shadow music" and its name comes from the British surf rock pop instrumental band, the Shadows. Basically, traditional Thai melodies girded by a standard Ventures or Shadows rock rhythm section - although there's also some Hank Marvin surf guitar in there too.
11 Ian King - Ah Robin, Gentle Robin (Fledg'ling) William Cornyish - 1468 to 1523 arr A wing and a prayer ltd MCPS
Ian King is from England and a part-time stonewaller, part-time singer. The tune is from the 13th century and written by William Cornyish. Adrian Sherwood produced King's album, "Panic Grass & Fever Few".
12 The Heptones - Guiding Star (L Sibbles, E Morgan, B Llewellyn) (Trenchtown)
Over the last few months we've being listening to a number of the classic vocal roots reggae groups - the Abyssians, the Congos, the Gatherers. Here is another, the Heptones, with a more updated version of a song they wrote in the late 60s - "Guiding Star".
13 The New Age Steppers - Guiding Star (On U Sound)
A number of people have covered "Guiding Star" over the years, including Horace Andy and Freddie McGregor. The New Age Steppers' version comes from their 1981 album "Action Battlefield".
The New Age Steppers were a rather short-lived collective of Jamaican and British reggae players brought together by Adrian Sherwood at the beginning of the 80s, together with singer Ari Up, who had previously been with punk band, the Slits. A number of punk musicians in the 1970s were enamoured with reggae, most famously Johnny Rotten, and there have been nice reggae-punk clashes over the years - excuse the terrible pun. The Slits' album, "Cut", produced by Dennis Bovell, is a classic example.
14 Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus - Truth and Right (RIOR)
We've also been profiling dub producers - Tommy Cowan is a lesser known producer, but produced a fabulous dub version of nyabhingi drummer Ras Michael and the Song of Negus's "Rastafari".
There seems to be some debate about when this first came out - it's been re-issued a number of times. The most likely story was that the dub was done at the same time as the album - 1972 - and released as singles etc in dribs and drabs, up until 1979. There are some great players in the band - including Tommy McCook, Robbie Shakespeare, Earl Chinna Smith and Peter Tosh.
15 Unknown artist - unknown title (Sublime Frequencies)
The singer there is unknown and the song unknown - but in typical style, this didn't stop Sublime Frequencies from releasing it. It comes off quite possibly their best release "Choubi Choubi Folk and Pop Sounds from Iraq", and much of the music comes from the time of Sadam Hussain's reign. Baghdad was actually the hot spot of Arabic music under Hussain - the Ba'ath party encouraged music albeit within the confines of cultural institutions. Baghdad music from the era continues to played across the Arabic world.
16 Omar Souleyman - Atabat (Sublime Frequencies)
Omar Souleyman is a massively popular singer from Syria, whom Sublime Frequencies has brought to the Western world in a number of releases. "Atabat" comes from "Highway to Hassake" - an overview of Souleyman's career. "Atabat" means "threshold" in Arabic.
17 Etran Finatawa - Naanaaye (trad arranged Bammo Agonla (Riverboat Records)
Sticking with desert regions, Etran Finatawa is a mixed Touareg-Wodaabe group from Niger, with a traditional Wodaabe healing song - "Naanaaye".
18 Rossy and Rokoto Frah - O isa (Sanatchie)
From Madagascar, Rossy is a multi-instrumentalist superstar who plays a variety of styles. Here he is being very folksy on the marovany together with sodina flute player, Rokoto Frah.
19 Dizzy Mandjekou - Mady motema (Papa Disco)
Over the last few months, we've also been exploring grittier 2nd generation soukous which started in the late 70s following on from the ultra smooth and sumptuous sounds of Franco's generation. Dizzy Mandjekou was the guitar wizard from Tabu-Ley Rochereau's band. The tune is from around 1980, and from the LP "Saila".
Some more from the history of groaners in South African pop music - all based around a bunch of tracks culled from a stunning collection that Electric Jive Blog posted a few months ago called "Classic South African Jive, volume 2" put together by Nick Lotay.
20 Mahlathini and Izintombi Zomgqashiyo - Okwamadoda Kuya Bhikwa (Motella, Simon Nkabinde)
21 Big Voice Jack - Vala Izwe (Smanje Manje/Gold Music)
"Big Voice Jack" (Aaron Jack Lerole), the sax player, with the tune "Vala Izwe" from the mid 60s. Aaron Lerole is, in fact, quite a significant figure in South African music. He took up playing sax in the mid-60s after he had basically destroyed his vocal chords groaning for Alexandra Black Mambazo. But his groaning had not been to no avail - he passed on his style to Zeph Nkabinde in the group, the older brother of Simon Nkabinde, or Mahlathini. Lerole teamed up with Robert Bopape in the late 60s who had set up Mavuthela Productions, part of Gallo, which mqashiyo release.
In the late 50s, Lerole had played a very important role in putting kwela on the international map. His reworking of a 1927 tune by British Theatre giant Herbert Farjeon "I've danced with a man, who's danced with a girl, who's danced with the Prince of Wales", became the theme song for a British series set in SA, "The Killing Stones". He called the tune "Tom Hark" (apparently a corruption of "tomahawk"). The tune ended up at number 2 in the UK charts, being covered by a bunch of people and being adopted by the Barmy Army.
22 Gaiteiros de Lesboa - Se eu soubesse que voando (Farol Musica)
Some fusion peasant vocal polyphony from Portugal. It comes from Gaiteiros de Lesboa's live recording "Dancahamas" recorded in Belem, October 2000.
23 Savina Yannatou - O onda (Sounds True) - G P Lanfranchi
Savina Yannatou is Greek and that tune was based on a traditional Corsican polyphony. "O wave, your silence is deeper than the grave, white as a knife blow".
24 Richard Thompson - So ben mi ca bon tempo (Cooking Vinyl)
Richard Thompson with a kind of madrigal from the 14th century Italian composer Orazio Vecchi - "I know who is carefree". Vecchi was a priest and musical director in a number of cathedrals. The track comes from Thompson's "1000 years of Popular Music".
Musicians from a number of generations of the folk revival have done versions of the ballad "Spencer the Rover". Going back in time and starting with Irish singer Cara Dillon, here is a medley of three.
25 Cara Dillon/John Martyn/The Copper Family - Spencer the Rover ( xxx /Island/Topic) --- xxx /Warlock Music Ltd
26 Utah Phillips - Hallelujah, I'm a bum (Righteous Babe Records)
Another group who had been "much reduced" and "started to roam" as a result, were the train hoppers of the Depression, although according to Utah Phillips this was not a cause for "confusion", but rather celebration. Labour activist and singer Utah Phillip's fabulous version of an Industrial Workers of the World (or Wobblies) anthem, "Hallelujah, I'm a bum".
24 Frazey Ford - Firecracker (Nettwork Records) (Ford) - Nettwork Song Publishing)
Frazey Ford, off duty from the Be Good Tanyas, with one of her own songs - "Firecracker", off her 2010 album, "Obadiah".
25 Eliza Carthy - Child amongst the weeds (Topic) -- published by Celtic Music
Lal Waterson was one of the most idiosyncratic songwriters in the English folk tradition. In 2002, a few years after Lal's death, a bunch of folk luminaries, many of them her relations, put together a tribute to the album "Bright Phoebus", which she and her brother Mike composed and performed in 1972. Eliza Carthy was Lal's niece.
26 Ditt Ditt Darium - Min Gud och Fader kare (My beloved God and Father) trad after Ander Hoas, Gammelsvenskby, Ukraine
Ditt Ditt Darium was a joint project of young Swedish and Northumbrian musicians circa 2002/2003. The song is a Ukrainian hymn-like folk song.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
1 September 2010, World Cafe
1 Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara – Mariama Trance (Real World)
Juldeh Camara, Justin Adams and Martyn Barker’s stripped down and extended version of their song, “Mariama” (first put out on their “Tell no lies” CD). I absolutely love the immediate, raw but still crystal clear production. It comes of an EP just out on Real World called “The Trance Sessions” – so far, one of this year’s most compelling releases, I think. 3 tracks – all long, all killers.
2 Hasil Atkins – I could never be blue (Dee Jay)
Many people have pointed to the early rock and roll sound in Camara’s and Adam’s music – Bo Diddley gets mentioned a lot. Bo Diddley was a pioneer rock’n’roller, and perhaps more than others, his approach came from the blues. One of the greatest rock n rollers, in my book, Hasil Atkins, must have heard him. Atkins was from West Virginia, quite a way from Mississippi – accounting for the old timely country overlay. Atkins plays all the instruments … simultaneously.
3 Sweet Talks – Sasa Abonsam (Soundway)
Soundway re-issued the Sweet Talks’ “The Kusum Beat” originally from 1976, earlier this year. It’s mainly built on traditional rhythms from Upper Ghana. The Sweet Talks struck it big in the late 70s and in fact wound up in Los Angeles to record their biggest hit – Hollywood Highlife Party in 79. We’ll hear from that some time in the future.
4 African Brothers’ Band International – Owuo nim me (Ambassador)
The African Brothers International Band was another great highlife band from that period. They’re from Eastern Ghana – the tune coming up, “Owuo nim me” seems to be from about 1973. It’s billed as traditional, rather than Highlife.
5 Michel Boyibanda – Sassa 1 (EMI/Pathe)
Michel Boyibanda is another off-shoots from TPOK Jazz – one in long line of incredible singers in Franco’s band. In 1978, Boyibanda put out of LP of original compositions “Le retro de Boyibanda Michel”. His band probably contained many TPOK members. It’s a palpable demonstration of why TPOK Jazz was so utterly brilliant – Franco managed to attract the greatest musicians of the day from the wider Congo area.
6 Lola Martin – Edamise oh (Soundway)
The French Caribbean is one of the lesser places of origin of the Congolese rumba. Here the Congolese rumba was arguably as much of influence as the other way around. In fact the Congolese band Le Ry-co Jazz spent a number of years in Martinique in late 60s picking up and transferring sounds. From around that time, Lola Martin was based in de France in Martinique. “Edamise oh” is a traditional song that she gives a biguene treatment. The roots of Antillean biguene lie in the meeting of “hot” jazz from New Orleans and Paris, high society dance music of the capital cities of the Antilleans and African rhythms transferred through the slave trade.
7 Thai Thanh – Bung Sang (Sublime Frequencies)
From Vietnam in the early 70s that was Thai Thanh with the tune “Bung Sang”. It comes off the very recently released Sublime Frequencies collection “Saigon Rock and Soul: Vietnamese Classic Tracks 1968 – 1974”. Sublime Frequencies says of it, “a gripping soul ballad reflective of life during wartime”.
The Sublime Frequencies label have a great catalogue of all sort of things – including street and home recording and re-issues of small run lost local labels, sound collages of recordings made on the streets Syria, collages of radio stations in India, and field recordings. They call themselves “explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights (they also do DVDs) and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers … not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media or corporate foundations”. Check out their website.
8 Omar Souleyman – Mandel Metel Il Sukkar Ala Il Shai (I don’t like the sugar in the tea) (Sublime Frequencies)
Omar Souleyman is from Northern Syria. The song comes from an album covering 15 years of live recordings called “Jazeera Nights”. He plays Syrian Dabke (regional dance and party music), Iraqi Choubi and a bunch of Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish styles.
9 Troupe Majidi – Khoudrini (lemchaheb) (Sublime Frequencies)
Troupe Majidi recorded live in 2005 at the Jemaa El Fna, a massive, somewhat borderless square and market place area in the old quarter of Marrakech. Sublime Frequencies say: “Electrified banjos and mandolins red-lined to the max through amps powered by moped batteries”.
11 Ashimunur Kurmanjiang – The Mountain’s Pine Trees (Sublime Frequencies)
From another recent Sublime Frequencies release “Ethnic Minority Music of Northwest Xinjiang”
10 Mahaleo – Dihy (Mahaleo) (Shananchie)
Mahaleo are sometimes called the Beatles of Madagascar – although luckily the Madagascan element far outweighs the Beatles element. Rakoto Frah supplies the opening caprice on the sodina flute, Dama Mahaleo, the composition and vocals – and US string players Henry Kaiser and David Lindley are subtly in the mix somewhere. It comes off volume 1 of Kaiser and Lindley’s collection of Madgascan music, “A world out of time”. According to Tom Moon in his great book “1 000 recordings to hear before you die” the lyrics are about a very old woman dancing with a young woman symbolizing the circle of life.
11 Graham Coxon – Perfect Love (Transgressive Records)
Graham Coxon, the guitarist from the Britrock band, Blur, released an album of stuff inspired by Bert Jansch and Davy Graham in 2009 called “The Spinning Top”. Thanks to Sheer Music for supplying it.
12 The Be Good Tanyas – Scattered Leaves (Nettwork)
The Be-Good Tanya can inadequately be described a Canadian old timey folk group.
13 Tony Joe White – Rainy night in Georgia (Warner/ESP)
Like most of the music I play in this show, reggae has a good deal of its roots in American Soul and Blues, and even jazz. And reggae, even after it was fully formed, has always an affinity for soul.
Watty Burnett and Lee Perry did had a go at remaking the country-soul chestnut “Rainy night in Georgia” in the mid 70s.
Tony Joe White wrote the song in 1962.
14 Brook Benton – Rainy night in Georgia (Atlantic)
Brook Benton roasted the chestnut with a version that became a massive come back hit for him in 1970.
15 Watty Burnett – Rainy night in Portland (Island)
Lee Perry and Watty Burnett continue the roasting process with the super chilled and extended version they call “Rainy night in Portland”.
16 The Congos – Ark of the Covenant (VP Records)
Perry brought Burnett into The Congos during the recording of the LP Heart of the Congos, which many believe to be one of greatest reggae albums. Up till that point the Congos were Cedric Myton and Roy Johnson – after The Congos parted ways with Lee Perry, from what I make out Watty Burnett left the group.
17 Getatchew Mekuria, the Ex and Guests - Sethed Seketelat (Terp)
Getatchew is a veteran Ethiojazz sax player, the Ex a Dutch band and the Guest are a brass players from around the Netherlands.
18 King Tubby – Dubbing my way
Comes off a collection called “The Fatman Tapes volumes 1 and 2”
19 Tiken Jah Fakoly – L’Afrique doit du fric (Barclay)
Tiken Jah Fakoly, originally from the Ivory Coast, with his own band. The song “Africa owes money” basically posits a neo colonialist explanation for Africa’s current woes.
20 Moses Mchunu – Kuhle Ukuzenzele (Gallo)
Moses Mchunu’s maskandi infused mbaqanga. “Kuhle Ukuzenzele” has a kind of boeremusiek feel, and its certainly about life in the country. Recorded in the mid-70s for Motella (Gallo) – it has West Nkosi stamp-of-quality production. More info is available on the Electric Jive blog. Incidentally the African Music Store in Long Street, Cape Town, has some Moses Mchunu in stock and lots of other great stuff from the golden age of mbaqanqa.
21 Issa Juma and the Super Wanyika Stars – Maria (Sterns)
We’ve listened to a bit of Benga from Kenya on this show in the past. Wanyika is another modern guitar-based style from East Africa. It’s a kind of Swahili rumba, directly inspired by the all the congolese rumba bands that passed through or took up residence in Kenya, especially Nairobi, in the 70s.
Issa Juma was one of the most inventive players and composers on the scene. This year Sterns released a collection of Juma’s stuff from the 80s called “World defeats the grandfathers – Swinging Swahili Rumba 1982 – 86”. Some lyrics from Maria: “This world is big, don’t just follow people/It defeated our grandfathers, where will you be able (to have different outcome)”?
22 Trembling Bells – Ravenna (Honest Jon’s Records)
Trembling Bell off the one of the best folk releases of the year “Abandoned Love” – lovely retro folk rock from Glasgow.
23 Karan Casey and John Doyle – The Bay of Biscay (Compass Rccords)
Karen Casey and John Doyle, the Irish bits from the Irish-American group “Solas” with something from their 2010 release “Exiles Return”. Old time and bluegrass stalwart Dirk Powell produced the album in Nashville, and provided some the extra instrumental and vocal backing.
24 Joanna Newsom – On a good day (Drag City)
A short, sharp shot of Joanna Newsom. Recently in his weekly Business Day column, Richard Haslop pointed out how this 108 second tune off Newsom’s new triple LP “Have one on me” is a sort of “wondrous charming” microcosm of Newsom’s music – packed with ideas and “ideal for converting the impatient”.
Juldeh Camara, Justin Adams and Martyn Barker’s stripped down and extended version of their song, “Mariama” (first put out on their “Tell no lies” CD). I absolutely love the immediate, raw but still crystal clear production. It comes of an EP just out on Real World called “The Trance Sessions” – so far, one of this year’s most compelling releases, I think. 3 tracks – all long, all killers.
2 Hasil Atkins – I could never be blue (Dee Jay)
Many people have pointed to the early rock and roll sound in Camara’s and Adam’s music – Bo Diddley gets mentioned a lot. Bo Diddley was a pioneer rock’n’roller, and perhaps more than others, his approach came from the blues. One of the greatest rock n rollers, in my book, Hasil Atkins, must have heard him. Atkins was from West Virginia, quite a way from Mississippi – accounting for the old timely country overlay. Atkins plays all the instruments … simultaneously.
3 Sweet Talks – Sasa Abonsam (Soundway)
Soundway re-issued the Sweet Talks’ “The Kusum Beat” originally from 1976, earlier this year. It’s mainly built on traditional rhythms from Upper Ghana. The Sweet Talks struck it big in the late 70s and in fact wound up in Los Angeles to record their biggest hit – Hollywood Highlife Party in 79. We’ll hear from that some time in the future.
4 African Brothers’ Band International – Owuo nim me (Ambassador)
The African Brothers International Band was another great highlife band from that period. They’re from Eastern Ghana – the tune coming up, “Owuo nim me” seems to be from about 1973. It’s billed as traditional, rather than Highlife.
5 Michel Boyibanda – Sassa 1 (EMI/Pathe)
Michel Boyibanda is another off-shoots from TPOK Jazz – one in long line of incredible singers in Franco’s band. In 1978, Boyibanda put out of LP of original compositions “Le retro de Boyibanda Michel”. His band probably contained many TPOK members. It’s a palpable demonstration of why TPOK Jazz was so utterly brilliant – Franco managed to attract the greatest musicians of the day from the wider Congo area.
6 Lola Martin – Edamise oh (Soundway)
The French Caribbean is one of the lesser places of origin of the Congolese rumba. Here the Congolese rumba was arguably as much of influence as the other way around. In fact the Congolese band Le Ry-co Jazz spent a number of years in Martinique in late 60s picking up and transferring sounds. From around that time, Lola Martin was based in de France in Martinique. “Edamise oh” is a traditional song that she gives a biguene treatment. The roots of Antillean biguene lie in the meeting of “hot” jazz from New Orleans and Paris, high society dance music of the capital cities of the Antilleans and African rhythms transferred through the slave trade.
7 Thai Thanh – Bung Sang (Sublime Frequencies)
From Vietnam in the early 70s that was Thai Thanh with the tune “Bung Sang”. It comes off the very recently released Sublime Frequencies collection “Saigon Rock and Soul: Vietnamese Classic Tracks 1968 – 1974”. Sublime Frequencies says of it, “a gripping soul ballad reflective of life during wartime”.
The Sublime Frequencies label have a great catalogue of all sort of things – including street and home recording and re-issues of small run lost local labels, sound collages of recordings made on the streets Syria, collages of radio stations in India, and field recordings. They call themselves “explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights (they also do DVDs) and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers … not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media or corporate foundations”. Check out their website.
8 Omar Souleyman – Mandel Metel Il Sukkar Ala Il Shai (I don’t like the sugar in the tea) (Sublime Frequencies)
Omar Souleyman is from Northern Syria. The song comes from an album covering 15 years of live recordings called “Jazeera Nights”. He plays Syrian Dabke (regional dance and party music), Iraqi Choubi and a bunch of Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish styles.
9 Troupe Majidi – Khoudrini (lemchaheb) (Sublime Frequencies)
Troupe Majidi recorded live in 2005 at the Jemaa El Fna, a massive, somewhat borderless square and market place area in the old quarter of Marrakech. Sublime Frequencies say: “Electrified banjos and mandolins red-lined to the max through amps powered by moped batteries”.
11 Ashimunur Kurmanjiang – The Mountain’s Pine Trees (Sublime Frequencies)
From another recent Sublime Frequencies release “Ethnic Minority Music of Northwest Xinjiang”
10 Mahaleo – Dihy (Mahaleo) (Shananchie)
Mahaleo are sometimes called the Beatles of Madagascar – although luckily the Madagascan element far outweighs the Beatles element. Rakoto Frah supplies the opening caprice on the sodina flute, Dama Mahaleo, the composition and vocals – and US string players Henry Kaiser and David Lindley are subtly in the mix somewhere. It comes off volume 1 of Kaiser and Lindley’s collection of Madgascan music, “A world out of time”. According to Tom Moon in his great book “1 000 recordings to hear before you die” the lyrics are about a very old woman dancing with a young woman symbolizing the circle of life.
11 Graham Coxon – Perfect Love (Transgressive Records)
Graham Coxon, the guitarist from the Britrock band, Blur, released an album of stuff inspired by Bert Jansch and Davy Graham in 2009 called “The Spinning Top”. Thanks to Sheer Music for supplying it.
12 The Be Good Tanyas – Scattered Leaves (Nettwork)
The Be-Good Tanya can inadequately be described a Canadian old timey folk group.
13 Tony Joe White – Rainy night in Georgia (Warner/ESP)
Like most of the music I play in this show, reggae has a good deal of its roots in American Soul and Blues, and even jazz. And reggae, even after it was fully formed, has always an affinity for soul.
Watty Burnett and Lee Perry did had a go at remaking the country-soul chestnut “Rainy night in Georgia” in the mid 70s.
Tony Joe White wrote the song in 1962.
14 Brook Benton – Rainy night in Georgia (Atlantic)
Brook Benton roasted the chestnut with a version that became a massive come back hit for him in 1970.
15 Watty Burnett – Rainy night in Portland (Island)
Lee Perry and Watty Burnett continue the roasting process with the super chilled and extended version they call “Rainy night in Portland”.
16 The Congos – Ark of the Covenant (VP Records)
Perry brought Burnett into The Congos during the recording of the LP Heart of the Congos, which many believe to be one of greatest reggae albums. Up till that point the Congos were Cedric Myton and Roy Johnson – after The Congos parted ways with Lee Perry, from what I make out Watty Burnett left the group.
17 Getatchew Mekuria, the Ex and Guests - Sethed Seketelat (Terp)
Getatchew is a veteran Ethiojazz sax player, the Ex a Dutch band and the Guest are a brass players from around the Netherlands.
18 King Tubby – Dubbing my way
Comes off a collection called “The Fatman Tapes volumes 1 and 2”
19 Tiken Jah Fakoly – L’Afrique doit du fric (Barclay)
Tiken Jah Fakoly, originally from the Ivory Coast, with his own band. The song “Africa owes money” basically posits a neo colonialist explanation for Africa’s current woes.
20 Moses Mchunu – Kuhle Ukuzenzele (Gallo)
Moses Mchunu’s maskandi infused mbaqanga. “Kuhle Ukuzenzele” has a kind of boeremusiek feel, and its certainly about life in the country. Recorded in the mid-70s for Motella (Gallo) – it has West Nkosi stamp-of-quality production. More info is available on the Electric Jive blog. Incidentally the African Music Store in Long Street, Cape Town, has some Moses Mchunu in stock and lots of other great stuff from the golden age of mbaqanqa.
21 Issa Juma and the Super Wanyika Stars – Maria (Sterns)
We’ve listened to a bit of Benga from Kenya on this show in the past. Wanyika is another modern guitar-based style from East Africa. It’s a kind of Swahili rumba, directly inspired by the all the congolese rumba bands that passed through or took up residence in Kenya, especially Nairobi, in the 70s.
Issa Juma was one of the most inventive players and composers on the scene. This year Sterns released a collection of Juma’s stuff from the 80s called “World defeats the grandfathers – Swinging Swahili Rumba 1982 – 86”. Some lyrics from Maria: “This world is big, don’t just follow people/It defeated our grandfathers, where will you be able (to have different outcome)”?
22 Trembling Bells – Ravenna (Honest Jon’s Records)
Trembling Bell off the one of the best folk releases of the year “Abandoned Love” – lovely retro folk rock from Glasgow.
23 Karan Casey and John Doyle – The Bay of Biscay (Compass Rccords)
Karen Casey and John Doyle, the Irish bits from the Irish-American group “Solas” with something from their 2010 release “Exiles Return”. Old time and bluegrass stalwart Dirk Powell produced the album in Nashville, and provided some the extra instrumental and vocal backing.
24 Joanna Newsom – On a good day (Drag City)
A short, sharp shot of Joanna Newsom. Recently in his weekly Business Day column, Richard Haslop pointed out how this 108 second tune off Newsom’s new triple LP “Have one on me” is a sort of “wondrous charming” microcosm of Newsom’s music – packed with ideas and “ideal for converting the impatient”.
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