1 Baloji – La Petite Espece (Bumbafu Version) (Crammed)
The Congo-born, Belgium-based rapper, Baloji, from the album “Kinshasa Succursale” - which was recorded in Kinshasa with local musicians. The album was the response to a challenge from his estranged mother to reflect on his roots and the state of the country of his birth. It was essentially recorded in two parts – a full album in 2008 called “Hotel Impala”, and then the extra layers and ironic barbs recorded and added in 2011 to form “Succursale”. You have to love that retro funk feel and the especially Afrobeat brass arrangements here.
“Kinshasa Succursale” is out on Crammed and distributed in SA by Sheer Music.
2 Amadou Ballake et les 5 Consuls – Baden Djougou (Analog Africa)
2011 saw the release of a couple of collections of vintage 70s Afro-funk, rock and jazz by Analog Africa. “Bambara Mystic Soul” brings together some classic tracks from Burkina Faso recorded between 1974 and 1979. There is nothing particularly distictive about the music from Burkina in that period – it’s a mixture of Ivorian, Congolese, Beninese and Malian music – but there were some fine musicians around back then. Perhaps the most famous was Amadou Ballake who cut his teeth playing in Mali and Guinea. You can hear that very clearly on his song “Baden Djougou”.
3 Imperial Tiger Orchestra – Zoma (Mental Groove)
This totally wonderful Swiss band has a retro-futuristic take on Ethiojazz. They only do reinterpretations of classic tracks. “Zoma” is by Martha Ashagani. Their debut LP, “Mercato”, came out in 2011 and it’s seriously good.
4 Asselefetch Ashin and Getenesh Kebret – Metche New (L’Arome Productions)
In December, we listened to the Paris-based Ethiojazz band Akele Wube with their version of “Metche New”. This is an older version from 1976.
5 Samuel Yirga – The Blues for Wollo (Habasha Mix) (Real World Music Ltd)
2011 was a good year for 25 year old Ethiopian pianist and composer, Samuel Yirga, who plays with Dub Colossus. He played a prominent role on Dub Colossus’s release, and released an EP on Real World and a live album on the “Society of Sound Music” series brought out by a partnership of hi-fi company B&W and Real World called “The Habasha Sessions”. This is a track from “The Habasha Sessions”. Yirga’s backstory is fantastic. He only started playing an instrument, let alone taking formal lessons, at the age of 16 having won a place in the prestigious Yared School of Music in Addis by tapping rhythms out with a coin on the top of a piano. His exploration expands the very important place given to Cuban music in Ethiojazz by its founding father, Malutu Astatke.
6 Evarist and Party – Nambanda (Dust to Digital)
In 2011, an incredible reissue label that I’ve just discovered – Dust-to-Digital – put out a fascinating and disparate 4 CD collection culled from 78s from across the whole of the African continent, called “Opika Pende”. I’ll tell you more about this collection in later months, but here is a taster from Northwestern Tanzania – Evarist and Party with “Nambanda”.
7 African Head Charge – Run Come See (On-U Sound)
The rootsy, mystical vocals of Bonjo I A Binghi Noah of African Head Charge. I’ve been going on about British dub label On-U Sound recently – for me they’re the last bastion of old style rootsy dub and 2011 was their 30th anniversary – so forgive me for belabouring the point. “Run Come See” is from an AHC best of collection called “Shrunken Head”.
8 Lee Perry – God Smiled (Moody Boyz Remix)
On-U Sound’s 30th anniversary did see some kind of revitalization for them - they put out some lovely new releases last year, including a collection of radical jungle-ist and dubstep remixes of Lee Scratch Perry tunes called “On-U Sound presents Nu Sound and Version”.
9 Buraka Som Sistema – Tira o pe (Enchufada)
Buraka Som Sistema is a sound system from Portugal. They produce an electro version of something called “kuduro”. Kuduro was originally forged in Angola in the 80s by sampling Caribbean and Angolan carnival music like zouk, soca and semba and sticking it to a fast 4/4 beat. Buraka Som Sistema’s 2011 album is called “Komba” which in Angola is a two week long wake for the dead.
10 Abelardo Carbano – La Negra Kulengue (Soundway)
Developing in the Colombian coastal cities of Cartegena and Barranquilla in the 70s and taking its inspiration from the psychedelic Afro, Latin and Caribbean music being pumped out of sound systems on the street - champeta is another kind of Afro-Caribbean music. This is from a Soundway collection “Palenque Palenque” which came out about 2 or 3 years ago.
11 Alex Acosta y su Orquesta – Cumbia Del Monte (Soundway)
From Colombia, this time from the 1960s when big band cumbia was all the rage. It’s culled from the collection “Cartagena! Curro Fuentes and the Big Band Cumbia and Descarga Sound of Colombia 1962 to 72”
12 Los Alegres De Valle – Samaria (Soundway)
A fine example of old style cumbia from a 2 CD collection Soundway put out in 2011 “The original sound of cumbia: The history of Colombian cumbia and porro as told by the phonograph 1948 – 79”. There’ll be more from that collection in later shows. Will Holland, who put the collection together, went to great pains to make it definitive, taking 5 years and making numerous fieldtrips into the countryside and small towns looking for old 78s, 45s and LPs.
13 Los Mirlos – Sonido Amazonico (Barbes Records)
Cumbia also took root in Peru, but unlike in Colombia it was more resilient, forming the bedrock for chicha, a fusion of cumbia and psychedelia that arose in slums created by the mass urbanization of people from the Andean highlands and the Amazonian Forest. Here is Los Mirlos with “Sonido Amazonico”.
14 Omar Souleyman – Baghdad Araby (Sublime Frequencies)
Syrian singer Omar Souleyman purveys a style called dakbe but reinforces it with Kurdish, Turkish and Iraqi folk traditions. In his band are keyboardist Razid Sa’id and electric sazist – if that’s a word – Ali Shaker. Unknown outside Syria before 2007, he worked parties and weddings and released hundreds of live recordings on cassette. Sublime Frequencies collected these and released some of the highlights and before long he was touring around Europe and North America. In 2011 Sublime Frequencies put out a collection from those concerts, “Haflat Gharbia: The Western Concerts”.
14 Hakim – Ya Mazago (The Lion of Egypt)
Still in the Arab world but heading to Egypt - sha’abi is a kind of dance music created by the Baladi, a caste of traders and craftspeople including musicians and dancers, who originally came from rural villagers. Hakim is evidently the king of modern sha’abi and “Ya Mazago” is the title of his 2011 release. It means “his mood”. In-your-face, unrelenting, synth driven dance music.
15 Anda Union – Derlcha (Hohhot)
One the great releases of 2011 was by Anda Union, from Hohhot, the capital city of the Inner Mongolia region of northern China. They’re a 10-piece with a more acoustic sound than Beijing-based Mongolian folk-rockers Hanggai, who got some heavy rotation on this show in 2010. As you would have heard, Anda Union are big on the vocal arrangements too.
16 Albert Kuvezin and Yat Kha – The Philosopher (Yat Kha Records)
Albert Kuvezin and Yat Kha are from nearby Tuva and this is from their 2010 album “Poets and Lighthouses”.
17 Banda Olifante – Los Peces (Felmay)
Brass bands or banda became popular in Italian towns and villages in the 1800s, performing for funerals and religious processions and rituals, and also bringing the music of opera houses and symphony halls into the countryside. This music has recently been revived, often by jazz musicians who have added just about every style. "Los Peces" is a Christmas carol popular in Spain and Latin America. The melody has definite Arabic qualities, and Olifante's rendition brings the song closer to klezmer.
18 Boban Markovic Orchestar and Fanfare Ciocarlia – James Bond Theme (Asphalt Tango)
As part of a publicity stunt put together by the label Asphalt Tango, two of the greatest working brass bands of East Europe, Serbia’s Boban Markovic Orchestra, and Romania’s Fanfare Ciocarlia had a face off near, possibly inside, Count Dracula’s castle. The stunt was called “Balkan Brass Battle”, and this is one of the results in which they combine forces for a full frontal assault.
19 June Tabor and Oysterband – Son David (Topic)
From June Tabor’s great 2011 album, “Ragged Kingdom”, that she made together with Oysterband.
20 Shirley Collins – Turpin Hero (Topic)
Two songs recorded in the late 50s by two early folk revivalists – one English and one American.
Shirley Collins was one of the first revivalists of the English 60s scene. “Turpin Hero” is from her first LP, “Sweet England”, which came out in 1959 and was co-produced by none other than Alan Lomax. Despite the legend, the real Dick Turpin apparently robbed just about anyone, no matter how rich or poor they were, and never made the famous horseback ride to York.
21 John Jacob Niles – The Lass from the Low Country
The great collector, composer and singer, John Jacob Niles, who was born in 1892 and died in 1980, with the trad song “The Lass from the Low Country”. Niles claims to have collected it in North Carolina, but some people think Niles liberally rewrote some of it. I definitely think Tim Buckley took more than a few pointers from Niles.
22 Jimmy MacBeath – Hey Barra Gadgie (Drag City)
Alan Lomax was living in London when he produced Collins’ album, in fact he had been living there since the early 50s. And while there he went up to Scotland and produced a huge number of fantastic field recordings. In 2011 Scottish singer songwriter and revivalist, Alastair Roberts, compiled some of these into a collection called “Whaur the Pig Gaed on the Spree” to mark the 60th anniversary of when the recordings were first started. Jimmy MacBeath’s famous recording, “Hey Barra Gadgie”, is sung in Thieves’ or Rogues’ cant, a secret language or cryptolect thought to have come from Romany.
23 The Waterboys – The Lake Isle of Innisfree (Puck/Proper)
The Waterboys’ astonishing interpretation of “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by the legendary Irish poet William Butler Yeats from the Waterboys’ latest, “An appointment with Mr Yeats”.
24 Hiss Golden Messenger – Jesus shot me through the head (Paradise of Bachelors)
Here are three gospel tracks – one new and startling in its imagery and two much older, but no less riveting.
Hiss Golden Messenger, which is the stage name for MC Taylor, had a good 2011, producing two quite different albums, the John Martyn influenced jazz-folk-soul album, “From Country Hai East Cotton”, and “Poor Moon”, which is in a kind of Americana vein. He’s pretty deft at the confessional gospel-blues.
25 Rev Lonnie Farris – Peace in the Valley (Tompkins Square)
Rev Lonnie Farris’ pedal steel driven version of the gospel song, “Peace in the Valley”, written by Georgia-born, Thomas A Dorsey in 1937. It’s from a collection of obscure small label, often self-released 45s, “This may be my last time singing: Raw African American Gospel on 45rpm 1957 – 1982”, brought out by Tompkins Square in 2011.
27 Rev Roger L Worthy and his sister Bonnie Woodstock – Get Back Satan (Tompkins Square)
From a similar earlier gospel collection on Tompkins Square called “Fire in my bones”.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
4 January 2012, World Cafe
1. Aziz Sahmaoui & University of Gnawa – Ana Hayou (General Pattern)
No better way to kick off the new year than with some high octane, high flying fusion from North Africa. Moroccan Aziz Sahmaoui, an expert on oud and guimbri, grew up learning gnawa music before branching out in Joe Zawinul’s band and cofounding the Paris-based Orchestre National de Barbes. In 2011 he put out a magnificent solo release with a crack Senegalese band, the University of Gnawa, that makes obvious gnawa’s origins in the Senegambia region.
2. Tamikrest – Aratan N Tinariwen (Glitterhouse)
Northern Mali is the home of a branch of the Berber people, the Touareg, and lies between Senegambia and North Africa. Tamikrest and Tinariwen are probably the two most well-known Touareg rock bands and both released fine records in 2011. The younger of the two, Tamikrest, put out “Toumastin”.
3. Tinariwen – Ya Massinagh (feat. the Dirty Dozen Brass Band) (ANTI-)
Tinariwen, the elder statesmen of Touareg rock, from their 2011 album “Tassili”, which manages both to hark back to their earlier pioneering sounds forged in a Libyan refugee camp about 20 years ago and to take steps in new directions, through a bunch of collaborations. In “Ya Massinagh” they play together with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band from New Orleans” – I think that the fusion really works, but opinion is divided.
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band are an extremely important force in New Orleans marching band music, revitalizing the form at a low point in the 60s and early 70s by incorporating bebop and r’n’b styles of playing. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band hail from New Orleans’s Sixth District or Treme which lies next to the French Quarter and, despite the reputation of the latter, is the real hotbed of the musical life of New Orleans.
4. Treme Brass Band - Just a closer walk with thee (Geffen Records)
Going back to one of the earliest tunes played by New Orleans brass bands, “Just a closer walk with thee”, which was probably written in the late 19th century. The tune is culled from the soundtrack to the first season of the HBO series “Treme” set in post-Katrina New Orleans. Among quite a few other things, the series looks at the rich musical world of New Orleans; it’s a fabulous series. The Treme Brass Band is an actual long-time working band.
5. Dr John - My Indian Red (Geffen Records)
Dr John’s rough-and-ready arrangement of “My Indian Red”, also from the sound track to “Treme”. “My Indian Red” is often said to be the hymn or prayer for the Mardi Gras Indians, another vast New Orleans sub-culture. The song was first recorded in the mid-50s.
Where does all this richness in New Orleans come from? Well, New Orleans is really a Caribbean city which has been subject to waves of influence from the colonial powers of Spain and France, and from Africa via the slave trade, not to mention from the syncretic cultures formed in the Caribbean itself. In addition, there were the Cajun migrants from Acadia, in Canada. Afropop have a number of programmes about the history of New Orleans music: http://afropop.org/hipdeep/HipDeep.html#programId=595&view=1
6. Huey Piano Smith & His Clowns – Don’t you know yockomo (Ace Records)
No one knows how the Mardi Gras Indians came about, but troupes or tribes probably started forming in the 1880s and their formation has something to do with the politics of performance culture in New Orleans, the ban on slaves wearing masks or dressing up in costumes and the affinity between slaves and American Indians.
The Mardi Gras Indian patios, which certainly sounds Caribbean, has found its way into a bunch of popular New Orleans musical forms – one reason being that the Indians are happy to latch their tambourine-driven calls and responses onto whatever style can fuel their marching and parading … but also because the words sound so cool. In “Don’t you know yockomo” Huey Piano Smith and His Clowns from the late 50s, combine all kinds of things, including some Professor Longhair type piano-playing, nonsense words from well known tunes at the time including “Minnie the moocher” and a Mardi Gras Indian song, with rock ’n roll.
7. Lil’ Band O’ Gold – I don’t wanna know (Room 609 Records)
New Orleans, and Louisiana more generally, has also seen the combining of Cajun and zydeco with rock ’n roll and soul, to form something called Swamp-Pop. “I don’t wanna know” is a tune by the granddaddy of Swamp-pop, Bobby Charles. It’s the second anniversary of his death round about now. This version is performed by the seriously wonderful, Swamp-pop supergroup, “Lil’ Band O’Band”, from Lafayette, and is from their 2010 release, “The Promised Land”.
8. Wild Tchoupitoulas – Hey hey (Indians Comin’) (Mango)
One of the most celebrated Mardi Gras Indian tribes is the Wild Tchoupitoulas, which were formed in the early 1970s by George Landry, or “Big Chief Jolly”, an uncle to the Neville Brothers. The Neville Brothers and the Meters, which included some of the Neville Brothers, combined with the Wild Tchoupitoulas on a 1975 recording that helped give the Mardi Gras Indians an international profile. “Hey hey (Indians Comin’)” is a mambo infused song from that 1975 album, called “Wild Tchoupitoulas”.
9. Aurelio – Bisien nu (My love for you) (Stonetree Records)
Heading into the deep Caribbean, Aurelio Martinez from Belize is one of the main musicians and songwriters within the Garafuna, a centuries old language and culture founded by shipwrecked slaves. “Bisien un” is based on a traditional song in which a young man asks his sweetheart’s father for her hand. The singers, Bella Sidibe and Rudy Gomes, from the well known Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab, guest.
10. Cimarron – Llanero soy (I am a plainsman) (Smithsonian Folkways)
Joropo music is very fast string- and maracas-fuelled music from the Orinoco plains of Colombia and Venezuela. The Colombian band Cimarron, meaning “wild bull”, is one of the best exponents. “Llanero soy (I am a plainsman)” is from their 2011 release out on Smithsonian Folkways.
11. Dino Saluzzi, Anja Lechner, Felix Saluzzi – Son qonati (ECM)
Bandaneon maestro, Dino Saluzzi, normally plays some kind of neuvo tango, but on his 2011 release for ECM “Navidad de los Andes” or “Andean Nativity” he’s taken in a wider palette with long term collaborator, cellist Anja Lechner, and Felix Saluzzi, his clarinet- and sax-playing brother. That was Saluzzi’s wonderful tune, “Son qonati”.
12. Damily – Mahavelo mitaha (Helico)
Madagascar is another place where rural and urban music meet and fuse brilliantly. Tsapiky is a guitar-based style from the south of Madagascar that we’ve listened to before on this show. It was created in the late 60s by newly urbanised musicians in Tulear, who adapted rhythms played at rural dances, mixing them with the African styles in vogue in south-western Madagascar, beamed in via radio from the east coast of Africa. Damily, probably the only musician on the scene with international releases, in 2011 brought out his second LP called “Ela lia”.
13. Jeff Nhore – Afara koa tsy atao (Earthworks)
Jeff Nhore from a great collection of Tsapiky called “Tulear never sleeps” that Earthworks brought out in 2003 and that was largely instigated by the Madagascan guitar superhero, D’Gary. I really like this description of Tsapiky that I came across: “It's as crisp and precise as Congolese guitar, but much more angular and darting. Instead of cycling or sustained melodies, these guys play in fitful, short bursts of start-and-stop action, with speedy, nervous phrasing suggestive of an animal on the run from a predator”.
14. Victoria King’s Jazz – Oscar Obuogo (Pathe Marconi, EMI)
Speaking of guitar-based dance music from the eastern side of Africa, Victoria King’s Jazz from Kenya circa 1977 play benga.
15. Shin Joong Hyun – Pushing through the fog (Light in the Attic)
Shin Joong Hyan is called the grandfather of Korean rock. The tune is from a wonderful retrospective brought out by the label Light in the Attic in 2011, “Beautiful Rivers and Mountains: The Psychedelic Rock Sound of South Korea’s Shin Joong Hyun” and dates from the late 60s when Hyun was conducting full scale experiments in psychedelia. This horrified the President of South Korea at the time, who ended up confining and torturing him.
16. Unknown – Blondie in Khmer Camouflage (Sublime Frequencies)
While we’ll on the topic of former war zones of the Far East, Cambodia also has a rich legacy of pop and rock, and modern record companies there have been remixing old classic tunes from the pre-Khmer Rouge era, sometimes pretty crudely, but often to startling effect. Sublime Frequencies put out a collection of the remixes and some of the old original vintage tunes all culled from the radio, called “Radio Phnom Penh”. Many of the artists collected on the CD are unknown.
17. Shankar Jaikishan – Raga Mishra Pilu (EMI India)
Shankar Jaikishan or S/J were Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi and Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal who worked together as composers in the Hindi film industry from the late 40s to the early 70s. In 1968 they took a little diversion and came up with the first Indo-Jazz record called “Raga Jazz Style”, in which they created songs based on ragas for western and Indian instruments.
18. Kiran Ahluwalia – Raqba (Avokado)
Indian-born Canadian Kiran Ahluwalia is a modern composer working a similar seam to Shankar Jaikishan, except she uses ghazals (which are themselves the result of a mixing of Indian, Persian and Arabic strands) as building blocks and looks more widely for things to add into the mix. Her 2011 LP “Aam Zameen” or “Common Ground” has all manner of guests, including on this track, Amir El Saffar, on trumpet.
19. Lee “Scratch” Perry – Tighten Up (Clocktower)
From a somewhat obscure late 70s collection “Scratch Attack”, a little gem.
20. African Head Charge – Cattle Herders’ Chant (On-U Sound)
To me, one of the best LPs African Head Charge and, indeed their label On-U Sound put out was called “Songs of Praise” which came out in 1990.
21. Madosini – Hobe Lentaka Ezithandayo (New Cape)
Cape Town based composer and musician Madosini from her recent release called “Eparadesi Nkosi Uzube Nam”, out on guitarist Derek Gripper’s newly launched label, New Cape. Over the years Madosini has written new songs on traditional instruments like the uhadi and isitolotolo which are kinds of jews harps and bows, basically keeping this tradition of playing alive.
22. Spiers and Boden – Haul Away (Navigator)
Relatively well known musicians on the English folk scene, melodian and concertina player John Spiers and singer and fiddler Jon Boden (or Spiers and Boden) celebrated their 10th anniversary of playing together this year. They did this in some style by rerecording their favourite songs from their career rather than bringing out the usual best of. “Haul Away” is a sea shanty.
23. Robin Williamson – Matt Groves and Lady Barnard (Quadrant)
In 2008 Robin Williamson, the Scottish singer-guitarist who was one of the core members of the Incredible String Band, put out a pretty stripped down album called “Just like the river and other songs with guitar” which contains an inspired and gut wrenching version of the traditional song “Matt Groves and Lady Barnard”. Thanks to Steve Bloch for drawing my attention to that song.
24. Fribo – Leaving Reindolsaetr – The Passed Test (Fribo Records)
Fribo (meaning “Open House”) are a collaboration between a Norwegian singer, a Scottish fiddler, a Swedish percussionist and an English guitarist. This is something off their 2011 release, “Happ”.
25. Anne Karin Tonset – Hallingen at’n Nystuen (Plastic Strip)
The Norwegian singer, Anne Karin Tonset, was one of the great innovators on the burgeoning 70s Scandinavian folk-jazz scene. The song is from a collection called “Black is the colour of my true love’s hair: Norwegian Folk Jazz 1977-71”. The sleeve notes trace the first attempt at Scandinavian folk-jazz to 1929 when the Kristian Hauger Jazzorkester came up with something called “Norwegian Jazz fantasy part 1 & 2”.
26. Sinikka Langeland – Triumph of being (ECM)
This year Sinikka Langeland put out another CD of her fusion of folk, jazz and poetry on ECM, “The Land That Is Not”. The title of the CD comes from an epic poem, which many see as the birth of modern Swedish poetry, by Edith Sodergran who died in 1923.
Langeland explains that combining folk and jazz is pretty tricky because the feeling of time is so different in each. Old folk music has organic, idiosyncratic, asymmetric rhythms, and jazz in normally always in 2 or 4.
No better way to kick off the new year than with some high octane, high flying fusion from North Africa. Moroccan Aziz Sahmaoui, an expert on oud and guimbri, grew up learning gnawa music before branching out in Joe Zawinul’s band and cofounding the Paris-based Orchestre National de Barbes. In 2011 he put out a magnificent solo release with a crack Senegalese band, the University of Gnawa, that makes obvious gnawa’s origins in the Senegambia region.
2. Tamikrest – Aratan N Tinariwen (Glitterhouse)
Northern Mali is the home of a branch of the Berber people, the Touareg, and lies between Senegambia and North Africa. Tamikrest and Tinariwen are probably the two most well-known Touareg rock bands and both released fine records in 2011. The younger of the two, Tamikrest, put out “Toumastin”.
3. Tinariwen – Ya Massinagh (feat. the Dirty Dozen Brass Band) (ANTI-)
Tinariwen, the elder statesmen of Touareg rock, from their 2011 album “Tassili”, which manages both to hark back to their earlier pioneering sounds forged in a Libyan refugee camp about 20 years ago and to take steps in new directions, through a bunch of collaborations. In “Ya Massinagh” they play together with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band from New Orleans” – I think that the fusion really works, but opinion is divided.
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band are an extremely important force in New Orleans marching band music, revitalizing the form at a low point in the 60s and early 70s by incorporating bebop and r’n’b styles of playing. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band hail from New Orleans’s Sixth District or Treme which lies next to the French Quarter and, despite the reputation of the latter, is the real hotbed of the musical life of New Orleans.
4. Treme Brass Band - Just a closer walk with thee (Geffen Records)
Going back to one of the earliest tunes played by New Orleans brass bands, “Just a closer walk with thee”, which was probably written in the late 19th century. The tune is culled from the soundtrack to the first season of the HBO series “Treme” set in post-Katrina New Orleans. Among quite a few other things, the series looks at the rich musical world of New Orleans; it’s a fabulous series. The Treme Brass Band is an actual long-time working band.
5. Dr John - My Indian Red (Geffen Records)
Dr John’s rough-and-ready arrangement of “My Indian Red”, also from the sound track to “Treme”. “My Indian Red” is often said to be the hymn or prayer for the Mardi Gras Indians, another vast New Orleans sub-culture. The song was first recorded in the mid-50s.
Where does all this richness in New Orleans come from? Well, New Orleans is really a Caribbean city which has been subject to waves of influence from the colonial powers of Spain and France, and from Africa via the slave trade, not to mention from the syncretic cultures formed in the Caribbean itself. In addition, there were the Cajun migrants from Acadia, in Canada. Afropop have a number of programmes about the history of New Orleans music: http://afropop.org/hipdeep/HipDeep.html#programId=595&view=1
6. Huey Piano Smith & His Clowns – Don’t you know yockomo (Ace Records)
No one knows how the Mardi Gras Indians came about, but troupes or tribes probably started forming in the 1880s and their formation has something to do with the politics of performance culture in New Orleans, the ban on slaves wearing masks or dressing up in costumes and the affinity between slaves and American Indians.
The Mardi Gras Indian patios, which certainly sounds Caribbean, has found its way into a bunch of popular New Orleans musical forms – one reason being that the Indians are happy to latch their tambourine-driven calls and responses onto whatever style can fuel their marching and parading … but also because the words sound so cool. In “Don’t you know yockomo” Huey Piano Smith and His Clowns from the late 50s, combine all kinds of things, including some Professor Longhair type piano-playing, nonsense words from well known tunes at the time including “Minnie the moocher” and a Mardi Gras Indian song, with rock ’n roll.
7. Lil’ Band O’ Gold – I don’t wanna know (Room 609 Records)
New Orleans, and Louisiana more generally, has also seen the combining of Cajun and zydeco with rock ’n roll and soul, to form something called Swamp-Pop. “I don’t wanna know” is a tune by the granddaddy of Swamp-pop, Bobby Charles. It’s the second anniversary of his death round about now. This version is performed by the seriously wonderful, Swamp-pop supergroup, “Lil’ Band O’Band”, from Lafayette, and is from their 2010 release, “The Promised Land”.
8. Wild Tchoupitoulas – Hey hey (Indians Comin’) (Mango)
One of the most celebrated Mardi Gras Indian tribes is the Wild Tchoupitoulas, which were formed in the early 1970s by George Landry, or “Big Chief Jolly”, an uncle to the Neville Brothers. The Neville Brothers and the Meters, which included some of the Neville Brothers, combined with the Wild Tchoupitoulas on a 1975 recording that helped give the Mardi Gras Indians an international profile. “Hey hey (Indians Comin’)” is a mambo infused song from that 1975 album, called “Wild Tchoupitoulas”.
9. Aurelio – Bisien nu (My love for you) (Stonetree Records)
Heading into the deep Caribbean, Aurelio Martinez from Belize is one of the main musicians and songwriters within the Garafuna, a centuries old language and culture founded by shipwrecked slaves. “Bisien un” is based on a traditional song in which a young man asks his sweetheart’s father for her hand. The singers, Bella Sidibe and Rudy Gomes, from the well known Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab, guest.
10. Cimarron – Llanero soy (I am a plainsman) (Smithsonian Folkways)
Joropo music is very fast string- and maracas-fuelled music from the Orinoco plains of Colombia and Venezuela. The Colombian band Cimarron, meaning “wild bull”, is one of the best exponents. “Llanero soy (I am a plainsman)” is from their 2011 release out on Smithsonian Folkways.
11. Dino Saluzzi, Anja Lechner, Felix Saluzzi – Son qonati (ECM)
Bandaneon maestro, Dino Saluzzi, normally plays some kind of neuvo tango, but on his 2011 release for ECM “Navidad de los Andes” or “Andean Nativity” he’s taken in a wider palette with long term collaborator, cellist Anja Lechner, and Felix Saluzzi, his clarinet- and sax-playing brother. That was Saluzzi’s wonderful tune, “Son qonati”.
12. Damily – Mahavelo mitaha (Helico)
Madagascar is another place where rural and urban music meet and fuse brilliantly. Tsapiky is a guitar-based style from the south of Madagascar that we’ve listened to before on this show. It was created in the late 60s by newly urbanised musicians in Tulear, who adapted rhythms played at rural dances, mixing them with the African styles in vogue in south-western Madagascar, beamed in via radio from the east coast of Africa. Damily, probably the only musician on the scene with international releases, in 2011 brought out his second LP called “Ela lia”.
13. Jeff Nhore – Afara koa tsy atao (Earthworks)
Jeff Nhore from a great collection of Tsapiky called “Tulear never sleeps” that Earthworks brought out in 2003 and that was largely instigated by the Madagascan guitar superhero, D’Gary. I really like this description of Tsapiky that I came across: “It's as crisp and precise as Congolese guitar, but much more angular and darting. Instead of cycling or sustained melodies, these guys play in fitful, short bursts of start-and-stop action, with speedy, nervous phrasing suggestive of an animal on the run from a predator”.
14. Victoria King’s Jazz – Oscar Obuogo (Pathe Marconi, EMI)
Speaking of guitar-based dance music from the eastern side of Africa, Victoria King’s Jazz from Kenya circa 1977 play benga.
15. Shin Joong Hyun – Pushing through the fog (Light in the Attic)
Shin Joong Hyan is called the grandfather of Korean rock. The tune is from a wonderful retrospective brought out by the label Light in the Attic in 2011, “Beautiful Rivers and Mountains: The Psychedelic Rock Sound of South Korea’s Shin Joong Hyun” and dates from the late 60s when Hyun was conducting full scale experiments in psychedelia. This horrified the President of South Korea at the time, who ended up confining and torturing him.
16. Unknown – Blondie in Khmer Camouflage (Sublime Frequencies)
While we’ll on the topic of former war zones of the Far East, Cambodia also has a rich legacy of pop and rock, and modern record companies there have been remixing old classic tunes from the pre-Khmer Rouge era, sometimes pretty crudely, but often to startling effect. Sublime Frequencies put out a collection of the remixes and some of the old original vintage tunes all culled from the radio, called “Radio Phnom Penh”. Many of the artists collected on the CD are unknown.
17. Shankar Jaikishan – Raga Mishra Pilu (EMI India)
Shankar Jaikishan or S/J were Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi and Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal who worked together as composers in the Hindi film industry from the late 40s to the early 70s. In 1968 they took a little diversion and came up with the first Indo-Jazz record called “Raga Jazz Style”, in which they created songs based on ragas for western and Indian instruments.
18. Kiran Ahluwalia – Raqba (Avokado)
Indian-born Canadian Kiran Ahluwalia is a modern composer working a similar seam to Shankar Jaikishan, except she uses ghazals (which are themselves the result of a mixing of Indian, Persian and Arabic strands) as building blocks and looks more widely for things to add into the mix. Her 2011 LP “Aam Zameen” or “Common Ground” has all manner of guests, including on this track, Amir El Saffar, on trumpet.
19. Lee “Scratch” Perry – Tighten Up (Clocktower)
From a somewhat obscure late 70s collection “Scratch Attack”, a little gem.
20. African Head Charge – Cattle Herders’ Chant (On-U Sound)
To me, one of the best LPs African Head Charge and, indeed their label On-U Sound put out was called “Songs of Praise” which came out in 1990.
21. Madosini – Hobe Lentaka Ezithandayo (New Cape)
Cape Town based composer and musician Madosini from her recent release called “Eparadesi Nkosi Uzube Nam”, out on guitarist Derek Gripper’s newly launched label, New Cape. Over the years Madosini has written new songs on traditional instruments like the uhadi and isitolotolo which are kinds of jews harps and bows, basically keeping this tradition of playing alive.
22. Spiers and Boden – Haul Away (Navigator)
Relatively well known musicians on the English folk scene, melodian and concertina player John Spiers and singer and fiddler Jon Boden (or Spiers and Boden) celebrated their 10th anniversary of playing together this year. They did this in some style by rerecording their favourite songs from their career rather than bringing out the usual best of. “Haul Away” is a sea shanty.
23. Robin Williamson – Matt Groves and Lady Barnard (Quadrant)
In 2008 Robin Williamson, the Scottish singer-guitarist who was one of the core members of the Incredible String Band, put out a pretty stripped down album called “Just like the river and other songs with guitar” which contains an inspired and gut wrenching version of the traditional song “Matt Groves and Lady Barnard”. Thanks to Steve Bloch for drawing my attention to that song.
24. Fribo – Leaving Reindolsaetr – The Passed Test (Fribo Records)
Fribo (meaning “Open House”) are a collaboration between a Norwegian singer, a Scottish fiddler, a Swedish percussionist and an English guitarist. This is something off their 2011 release, “Happ”.
25. Anne Karin Tonset – Hallingen at’n Nystuen (Plastic Strip)
The Norwegian singer, Anne Karin Tonset, was one of the great innovators on the burgeoning 70s Scandinavian folk-jazz scene. The song is from a collection called “Black is the colour of my true love’s hair: Norwegian Folk Jazz 1977-71”. The sleeve notes trace the first attempt at Scandinavian folk-jazz to 1929 when the Kristian Hauger Jazzorkester came up with something called “Norwegian Jazz fantasy part 1 & 2”.
26. Sinikka Langeland – Triumph of being (ECM)
This year Sinikka Langeland put out another CD of her fusion of folk, jazz and poetry on ECM, “The Land That Is Not”. The title of the CD comes from an epic poem, which many see as the birth of modern Swedish poetry, by Edith Sodergran who died in 1923.
Langeland explains that combining folk and jazz is pretty tricky because the feeling of time is so different in each. Old folk music has organic, idiosyncratic, asymmetric rhythms, and jazz in normally always in 2 or 4.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
14 December 2011, World Cafe
1 Mercedes Peon – Anacos (Fol Musica)
From the Spanish northwestern province of Galicia, and sung in Gallego, the original language of the region. Peon plays nearly all the instruments on her newish record, “Sos”, which came out earlier this year – in fact about 20 instruments in all, and does most of the singing, producing and composing too.
2 Chet Nuneta – Roseda vieja sirena (Le Chant du Monde)
Shifting a little eastward to France, Chet Nuneta are four singers and a percussionist, who go for very rootsy peasant-sounding fusions. “Roseda vieja sirena” seems to be some kind of amalgam of French and Spanish – possibly Catalan? It comes from the new CD “Pangea” out on the Le Chant du Monde label.
3 Akale Wube – Mètché New (L’Arome Productions)
Akale Wube are a Paris-based French Ethiojazz band set up in 2008 who take their name from a tune by Getatchew Mekurya, the legendary veteran Ethiopian sax player. “Akale Wube” is Amharic for “Beauty of the Soul”. On their 2011 LP they do lovely versions of classic Ethiojazz tracks, mainly by Mulatu Astatke. “Mètché New” was written by the comparatively obscure singer, Téshomé Sissay.
4 Mahmoud Ahmed – Bemin Sebab Litlash (Mississippi Records)
Mahmoud Ahmed was one of the absolute greats of the early 70s Addis scene, and he’s still going strong. A bunch of his stuff from the so-called Golden Age has been available through the series “Ethiopiques” for some time now. “Bemin Sebab Litlash” is from 1978, just after the Golden Age, when the Derg had already started in Ethiopia, from the LP “Jeguol Naw Betwa” just reissued by Mississippi Records. His long-time backing band, the Ibex Band, is full cry on this tune.
5 Addis Acoustic Project – Etitu Beredegn (World Village)
The Addis Acoustic Project is one of the resident bands at the Jazzamba Lounge, Addis’s premier jazz venue which only opened in June this year in a space that had been derelict for 20 years. Their stuff is often a bit too smooth for comfort, but the mandolin playing by veteran Ayele Mamo is worth the entry price. They say that Mamo is the only mandolin player in Addis.
6 Bako Dagnon – Fadeen To (Styllart)
Malian Bako Dagnon is sometimes called the griot’s griot – although she is not very well known in global circles, she is in fact a mentor to Kandia Kouyate, recognized as one of the top jelimusos, or female griots. After an accident early on in her career, Dagnon has largely been working in the background, learning, promoting and preserving singing traditions at a village level, in the Segou area near to Bamako, where her family hail from. After 50 years she’s only produced two internationally-released albums, her second one coming out this year. It’s called “Sidiba”. Check out the flamenco guitar licks on “Fadeen To”.
7 Fatoumata Diawara – Bakonoba (World Circuit)
28 year old, Paris-based Malian, Fatoumata Diawara, exploded as a solo artist on the international stage just this year – although she’s been working as a backing singer and actor for many years. Her debut CD “Fatou”, out on World Circuit, is quite an understated slightly poppy affair, and is pretty wonderful.
8 JuJu – Halanam (Real World)
A few months ago I had several positive responses from listeners when I played something off Juldeh Camara and Justin Adam’s latest CD “In Trance”. Let’s listen to another one – “Halanam”. By the way, they are now calling themselves JuJu, and their CD is available in SA courtesy of Sheer Music – one of the top releases of the year I’d say.
9 Fikret Kizilok - Gozlerinden Bellidir (World Psychedelia)
From Turkey, the hopelessly obscure, cultish early 70s protest singer Fikret Kizilok. I culled the single “Gozlerinden Bellidir” from an underground reissue made in 2005 of his original singles. If you look hard enough, you’ll be able to find his stuff on the web.
10 Georgette Sayegh – Yay, Yay, Ya Nassini (EMI Greece)
When I was researching the next two tracks I turned up this quote by one Jim Knox: “Lebanese popular music was peaking in 1974 but the civil war that started one year later laid it all to ruin”. The Ghost Capital blog dug up “Yay, Yay, Ya Nassini”, recorded in 1973, from a holiday souvenir LP collection for Lebanon brought out by an airline.
11 Fairouz – Ba’adana (EMI)
Nouhad Wadi Haddad, known as Fairuz, is probably the top living singer of the Arab world. She’s now in her mid 70s but still very much performing. “Ba’adana” was recorded in 1966.
12 Brendon Bussy in collaboration with Renee Holleman – If walls could talk would they sing (played with permission of artist)
A few months ago, Cape Town composer and musician Brendon Bussy collaborated with artist Renee Holleman with “If walls could talk would they sing”. The piece was written for the opening of the new premises of the “WhatIfTheWorld” gallery at the old synagogue in Argyle Road, Woodstock – an area that now has a significant Muslim community. Bussy explains in a fascinating blog entry that on Holleman’s suggestion he used a Jewish scale Ahava Rabbah (meaning ‘Abounding Love’ in Hebrew) as a basis for the tune. It turns out that this scale is the same as the Freygish mode used in Klezmer and the Hijaz Makam used in Arabic music. There’s a lot more at work in this piece – and I would suggest checking out Brendon Bussy’s blog entry http://brendonbussy.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/if-walls-could-talk-would-they-sing/#more-616
13 Rashanim – Avodah (Tzadik)
Power jazz trio Rashanim with “Avodah”. Rashanim is one of the groups appearing on Tzadik’s 2003 release “Voices in the wilderness” - a double-disk collection of John Zorn’s free-jazz tinged klezmer compositions interpreted by a whole range of groups.
14 Wolf Krakowski – Drey, Dreydl (Sion Dreydl) (Tzadik)
Toronto-based Wolf Krakowski’s home language is Yiddish. He was born just after the end of WW2 in a camp for displaced persons in Austria, his Russian parents having survived the Holocaust. His countryesque arrangement of the traditional tune “Drey, Dreydl” is also out on Tzadik – on the CD “Goyrl: Destiny”.
15 Norman Blake – Little Sadi (Mercury)
It’s been 10 years since the release of “O Brother Where Art Thou?” and its soundtrack spurred a big resurgence of rootsy Americana. Mercury have just released a deluxe edition in celebration, which includes tracks recorded by producer T-Bone Burnett and not used in the movie, and stuff used in the movie but not released on the first incarnation of the soundtrack. Let’s listen to two tracks only available on the deluxe edition.
Norman Blake’s version of “Little Sadi” was recorded for the movie, but not used.
16 The Kossoy Sisters with Erik Darling – I’ll fly away (Mercury)
The Kossoy Sisters with 5 string banjo player Erik Darling’s version of “I’ll fly away” recorded in 1956. This was the version actually used in the movie, although a version by Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch came out on the official soundtrack. Both versions are great, if you ask me. The Kossoy Sisters are actual sisters – in fact they’re identical twins.
17 June Tabor & Oysterband – Bonny Bunch of Roses (Topic)
June Tabor’s been pretty active this year – she put out a solo record earlier this year called “Ashore”, and we’ve listened to some tunes from that. A few months ago she also put out something with the Oysterband called “Ragged Kingdom”. The trad song “Bonny Bunch of Roses” is quite sympathetic to Napoleon, which means that it’s probably Irish in origin.
18 Bert Jansch – Nottamun Town (Vanguard)
“Nottamun Town” is another traditional song. It might date from the late medieval period and might be about the English Civil War as Charles I raised his army around Nottingham at the beginning of the war. The very great and unfortunately late Bert Jansch died in October. The tune is from Jansch’s classic album, “Jack Orion,” in which he plays with John Renbourne. This album is considered a precursor to the kind of music Jansch and Renbourne played in the folk-rock group Pentangle.
19 Syd Kitchen – Fine Lines (Liaison Music)
Another big loss to folk circles this year was Syd Kitchen. Before he died he was invited to contribute a track to the tribute album to John Martyn. He recorded Martyn’s song “Fine Lines” with Martyn’s most recent backing band in Scotland. The PVC pipe has never sounded this good!
20 Lee Perry & Dub Syndicate – Music + Science Lovers (On U-Sound)
Lee Perry was actually a friend of John Martyn – they hung together in Jamaica in the mid 70s. “Music + Science Lovers” was recorded with the Dub Syndicate with Adrian Sherwood producing. It’s from the mid 80s album “Time Boom X De Devil Dead” – a great creative collaboration and one of the only really great things he’s put out since the 70s.
21 Bob Marley & The Wailers – Reaction (JAD)
In just about every show over the last while I’ve been spinning high points from Lee Perry’s career. Such a review wouldn’t be complete without listening to his production work for Bob Marley done in 1970 and 71. “Reaction” is from the LP “Soul Rebels”.
22 Aldona – You could carry me away (Jaro Medien)
Aldona is Poland-born Aldona Nowowiejska together with a stellar band that features a bunch of string instruments including the guembri, and the bass clarinet against the normal rhythm section. “You could carry me away” is from her 2011 CD “Sonnet”.
23 Olafur Arnalds – 33:26 (Erased Tapes)
From Paris to Poland and now to the Arctic Circle – Iceland has a rapidly expanding and pretty varied music scene, mainly driven by tech-savvy youngsters who do everything on a small DIY scale but come up with sweeping fusions informed by rock, folk, jazz and Western chamber music – but that’s chamber music with attitude and edge. Olafur Arnald is one of the prime movers in Iceland. Thanks to Douglas Gimberg for introducing me to this stuff.
24 Hauschka – Cube (Fat Cat)
Volker Bertelmann aka Hauschka is a Dusseldorf-based musician and composer whose main instrument is something called the prepared piano. He has played with a bunch of Icelandic musicians. This is from his 2011 release, called “Salon des amateurs”.
25 Hauschka and Hildur Guðnadóttir – Cool Gray 1 (Sonic Pieces)
Hauschka on the prepared piano and with Iceland’s Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir on cello. “Cool Gray” is from their 2011 release “Pan Tone”.
From the Spanish northwestern province of Galicia, and sung in Gallego, the original language of the region. Peon plays nearly all the instruments on her newish record, “Sos”, which came out earlier this year – in fact about 20 instruments in all, and does most of the singing, producing and composing too.
2 Chet Nuneta – Roseda vieja sirena (Le Chant du Monde)
Shifting a little eastward to France, Chet Nuneta are four singers and a percussionist, who go for very rootsy peasant-sounding fusions. “Roseda vieja sirena” seems to be some kind of amalgam of French and Spanish – possibly Catalan? It comes from the new CD “Pangea” out on the Le Chant du Monde label.
3 Akale Wube – Mètché New (L’Arome Productions)
Akale Wube are a Paris-based French Ethiojazz band set up in 2008 who take their name from a tune by Getatchew Mekurya, the legendary veteran Ethiopian sax player. “Akale Wube” is Amharic for “Beauty of the Soul”. On their 2011 LP they do lovely versions of classic Ethiojazz tracks, mainly by Mulatu Astatke. “Mètché New” was written by the comparatively obscure singer, Téshomé Sissay.
4 Mahmoud Ahmed – Bemin Sebab Litlash (Mississippi Records)
Mahmoud Ahmed was one of the absolute greats of the early 70s Addis scene, and he’s still going strong. A bunch of his stuff from the so-called Golden Age has been available through the series “Ethiopiques” for some time now. “Bemin Sebab Litlash” is from 1978, just after the Golden Age, when the Derg had already started in Ethiopia, from the LP “Jeguol Naw Betwa” just reissued by Mississippi Records. His long-time backing band, the Ibex Band, is full cry on this tune.
5 Addis Acoustic Project – Etitu Beredegn (World Village)
The Addis Acoustic Project is one of the resident bands at the Jazzamba Lounge, Addis’s premier jazz venue which only opened in June this year in a space that had been derelict for 20 years. Their stuff is often a bit too smooth for comfort, but the mandolin playing by veteran Ayele Mamo is worth the entry price. They say that Mamo is the only mandolin player in Addis.
6 Bako Dagnon – Fadeen To (Styllart)
Malian Bako Dagnon is sometimes called the griot’s griot – although she is not very well known in global circles, she is in fact a mentor to Kandia Kouyate, recognized as one of the top jelimusos, or female griots. After an accident early on in her career, Dagnon has largely been working in the background, learning, promoting and preserving singing traditions at a village level, in the Segou area near to Bamako, where her family hail from. After 50 years she’s only produced two internationally-released albums, her second one coming out this year. It’s called “Sidiba”. Check out the flamenco guitar licks on “Fadeen To”.
7 Fatoumata Diawara – Bakonoba (World Circuit)
28 year old, Paris-based Malian, Fatoumata Diawara, exploded as a solo artist on the international stage just this year – although she’s been working as a backing singer and actor for many years. Her debut CD “Fatou”, out on World Circuit, is quite an understated slightly poppy affair, and is pretty wonderful.
8 JuJu – Halanam (Real World)
A few months ago I had several positive responses from listeners when I played something off Juldeh Camara and Justin Adam’s latest CD “In Trance”. Let’s listen to another one – “Halanam”. By the way, they are now calling themselves JuJu, and their CD is available in SA courtesy of Sheer Music – one of the top releases of the year I’d say.
9 Fikret Kizilok - Gozlerinden Bellidir (World Psychedelia)
From Turkey, the hopelessly obscure, cultish early 70s protest singer Fikret Kizilok. I culled the single “Gozlerinden Bellidir” from an underground reissue made in 2005 of his original singles. If you look hard enough, you’ll be able to find his stuff on the web.
10 Georgette Sayegh – Yay, Yay, Ya Nassini (EMI Greece)
When I was researching the next two tracks I turned up this quote by one Jim Knox: “Lebanese popular music was peaking in 1974 but the civil war that started one year later laid it all to ruin”. The Ghost Capital blog dug up “Yay, Yay, Ya Nassini”, recorded in 1973, from a holiday souvenir LP collection for Lebanon brought out by an airline.
11 Fairouz – Ba’adana (EMI)
Nouhad Wadi Haddad, known as Fairuz, is probably the top living singer of the Arab world. She’s now in her mid 70s but still very much performing. “Ba’adana” was recorded in 1966.
12 Brendon Bussy in collaboration with Renee Holleman – If walls could talk would they sing (played with permission of artist)
A few months ago, Cape Town composer and musician Brendon Bussy collaborated with artist Renee Holleman with “If walls could talk would they sing”. The piece was written for the opening of the new premises of the “WhatIfTheWorld” gallery at the old synagogue in Argyle Road, Woodstock – an area that now has a significant Muslim community. Bussy explains in a fascinating blog entry that on Holleman’s suggestion he used a Jewish scale Ahava Rabbah (meaning ‘Abounding Love’ in Hebrew) as a basis for the tune. It turns out that this scale is the same as the Freygish mode used in Klezmer and the Hijaz Makam used in Arabic music. There’s a lot more at work in this piece – and I would suggest checking out Brendon Bussy’s blog entry http://brendonbussy.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/if-walls-could-talk-would-they-sing/#more-616
13 Rashanim – Avodah (Tzadik)
Power jazz trio Rashanim with “Avodah”. Rashanim is one of the groups appearing on Tzadik’s 2003 release “Voices in the wilderness” - a double-disk collection of John Zorn’s free-jazz tinged klezmer compositions interpreted by a whole range of groups.
14 Wolf Krakowski – Drey, Dreydl (Sion Dreydl) (Tzadik)
Toronto-based Wolf Krakowski’s home language is Yiddish. He was born just after the end of WW2 in a camp for displaced persons in Austria, his Russian parents having survived the Holocaust. His countryesque arrangement of the traditional tune “Drey, Dreydl” is also out on Tzadik – on the CD “Goyrl: Destiny”.
15 Norman Blake – Little Sadi (Mercury)
It’s been 10 years since the release of “O Brother Where Art Thou?” and its soundtrack spurred a big resurgence of rootsy Americana. Mercury have just released a deluxe edition in celebration, which includes tracks recorded by producer T-Bone Burnett and not used in the movie, and stuff used in the movie but not released on the first incarnation of the soundtrack. Let’s listen to two tracks only available on the deluxe edition.
Norman Blake’s version of “Little Sadi” was recorded for the movie, but not used.
16 The Kossoy Sisters with Erik Darling – I’ll fly away (Mercury)
The Kossoy Sisters with 5 string banjo player Erik Darling’s version of “I’ll fly away” recorded in 1956. This was the version actually used in the movie, although a version by Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch came out on the official soundtrack. Both versions are great, if you ask me. The Kossoy Sisters are actual sisters – in fact they’re identical twins.
17 June Tabor & Oysterband – Bonny Bunch of Roses (Topic)
June Tabor’s been pretty active this year – she put out a solo record earlier this year called “Ashore”, and we’ve listened to some tunes from that. A few months ago she also put out something with the Oysterband called “Ragged Kingdom”. The trad song “Bonny Bunch of Roses” is quite sympathetic to Napoleon, which means that it’s probably Irish in origin.
18 Bert Jansch – Nottamun Town (Vanguard)
“Nottamun Town” is another traditional song. It might date from the late medieval period and might be about the English Civil War as Charles I raised his army around Nottingham at the beginning of the war. The very great and unfortunately late Bert Jansch died in October. The tune is from Jansch’s classic album, “Jack Orion,” in which he plays with John Renbourne. This album is considered a precursor to the kind of music Jansch and Renbourne played in the folk-rock group Pentangle.
19 Syd Kitchen – Fine Lines (Liaison Music)
Another big loss to folk circles this year was Syd Kitchen. Before he died he was invited to contribute a track to the tribute album to John Martyn. He recorded Martyn’s song “Fine Lines” with Martyn’s most recent backing band in Scotland. The PVC pipe has never sounded this good!
20 Lee Perry & Dub Syndicate – Music + Science Lovers (On U-Sound)
Lee Perry was actually a friend of John Martyn – they hung together in Jamaica in the mid 70s. “Music + Science Lovers” was recorded with the Dub Syndicate with Adrian Sherwood producing. It’s from the mid 80s album “Time Boom X De Devil Dead” – a great creative collaboration and one of the only really great things he’s put out since the 70s.
21 Bob Marley & The Wailers – Reaction (JAD)
In just about every show over the last while I’ve been spinning high points from Lee Perry’s career. Such a review wouldn’t be complete without listening to his production work for Bob Marley done in 1970 and 71. “Reaction” is from the LP “Soul Rebels”.
22 Aldona – You could carry me away (Jaro Medien)
Aldona is Poland-born Aldona Nowowiejska together with a stellar band that features a bunch of string instruments including the guembri, and the bass clarinet against the normal rhythm section. “You could carry me away” is from her 2011 CD “Sonnet”.
23 Olafur Arnalds – 33:26 (Erased Tapes)
From Paris to Poland and now to the Arctic Circle – Iceland has a rapidly expanding and pretty varied music scene, mainly driven by tech-savvy youngsters who do everything on a small DIY scale but come up with sweeping fusions informed by rock, folk, jazz and Western chamber music – but that’s chamber music with attitude and edge. Olafur Arnald is one of the prime movers in Iceland. Thanks to Douglas Gimberg for introducing me to this stuff.
24 Hauschka – Cube (Fat Cat)
Volker Bertelmann aka Hauschka is a Dusseldorf-based musician and composer whose main instrument is something called the prepared piano. He has played with a bunch of Icelandic musicians. This is from his 2011 release, called “Salon des amateurs”.
25 Hauschka and Hildur Guðnadóttir – Cool Gray 1 (Sonic Pieces)
Hauschka on the prepared piano and with Iceland’s Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir on cello. “Cool Gray” is from their 2011 release “Pan Tone”.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
2 November 2011, World Cafe
1 Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 – African Soldiers (Because) (Rilwan Fagbemi)
Seun Kuti together with his band Egypt 80, the 12-piece band he inherited from his father, Fela Kuti. He’s upped the beats per minute from the normal Afrobeat fare, and the anger’s ratcheted way up there too. “African Soldier” is a tirade against former soldiers who become dictators and keep themselves in power for decades. It’s from their 2011 album, “From Africa with fury: Rise”, which Brian Eno, a long-time Afrobeat enthusiast, co-produced.
2 Vieux Farka Toure – Aigna (feat. Derek Trucks) (Six Degrees)
Speaking of sons of great musicians, Vieux Farka Toure, son of Ali Farka Toure, put out a wonderful record earlier this year, “The Secret”. We listened to a collaboration with John Scofield a few months ago. “Aigna” features the American blues guitar prodigy and Allman Brothers Band member, Derek Trucks, on some sitar-like slide guitar.
3 Bembeya Jazz National – Alalake (Syliphone)
Sekou “Diamond Fingers” Diabate plays some incredible pedal steel. It comes from an album recorded in the mid 70s dedicated to former member, singer and composer, Aboubacar Demba, who died in a car crash in 1973.
4 Gnonnas Pedro and his Dadjes Band International – Fini les pavés (African Songs Ltd)
Gnonnas Pedro is a great singer from the 70s Benin scene. “Fini les pavés” is from the original vinyl LP put out by the label African Songs Ltd in 1977 called “The Band of Africa, vol 3”.
5 Fatoumata Diwara – Nayan (World Circuit)
Fatoumata Diawara (aka Fatou) from Mali has just put out her first album on World Circuit, called “Fatou”– and it’s sort of in the quiet, independent singer-songwriter spirit of Rokia Traore, who is actually a friend of hers, and who inspired Diawara to accompany herself on guitar. But she also draws on the Wassoulou traditions of her parents and of her mentor, Oumara Sangare.
Diawara’s 28 year history has been one of fierce independence – she started out as a film actor in Mali, having been sent to live with her aunt, also an actor, in Bamoko by her parents after she refused to continue with school. Then she became a stage actor, and literally escaped to Paris, after her parents tried to curtail her career. She was discovered as a singer, started performing in stage shows around the world, and has wound up singing with Cheikh Lô, AfroCubism, Herbie Hancock and Orchestra Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou.
“Nayan” is from an EP called “Kanou” that preceded the album. We’ll hear something from the full album in December.
6 Tinariwen – Imidiwan Win Sahara (Anti-)
Tinariwen, probably the most well-known Tuareg band, have a new album out, “Tassili”, named after Tassili N’Ajjer in southern Algeria, where it was recorded. Tassili is a place where Tamashek guerrillas took refuge en route to Mali. Its rocks and caves are a world heritage site. The album is somewhat more acoustic and less overtly political than recent ones. You have to love the group hum on this tune.
7 Genticorum – Reel Circulaire (Roues et Archets)
Québécois music off Genticorum's latest album “Nagez Rameurs”, which is based around the theme of maritime voyages. Québécois is an amalgam of French, Irish, Scottish and Breton traditions.
At the centre of this tune is song collector and fiddler Pascal Gemme , who first heard traditional Québécois music as a child in Huntingdon, Quebec, where his grandfather was the village fiddler.
8 Bee Dehotels - Aux Natchitoches (Cinq Planetes)
Nova Scotia, one of the Canada’s maritime provinces, is just east of Quebec. It used to be known as Acadia, and is where the forbearers of the Louisianan Cajuns came from. In the mid-70s, the label "Cinq Planètes” put out a wonderful set of recordings made in the homes of the musician and Cajun revivalist Dewey Balfa and painter Eraste Fontenot, both of whose families are very well known on the Cajun scene. The recordings were made for a film project on legendary masters of cajun and creole music called “Les haricots sont pas salés” – “the beans are not salted”. Bee Dehotels apparently specialized in old Cajun French ballads.
9 Vielleux du Bourbonnais – Bourrée A Malochet-Bourrée d’Alfred Pommier (Auvidis)
Bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy music was one of the traditions the original French settlers brought with them when they settled in Acadia in the 1600s. French group Vielleux du Bourbonnais take their music from the manuscripts of late nineteenth-century collectors, who in turn collected and transcribed older tunes passed down orally.
10 Andreas Schaerer & Banz Oester – Finger Maxu (Unit Records)
In July Prohelvetia brought vocalist Andreas Schaerer and bassist Banz Oester to South Africa. If you saw them playing at the Fugard Theatre you were probably either perplexed or blown away – actually you were probably both at the same time. As they would say, they “instantly composed” a fusion of a bewildering array of styles and traditions.
11 Vezhliviy Otkaz – Russian song (Zenith/Soyuz)
Vezhliviy Otkaz are from Moscow. Their name apparently means “Polite Refusal”.
12 Jermain Tamraz – Doogle Shapireh (Assyrian)
Jermain Tamraz is another great 70s middle-eastern singer. I know she’s Assyrian, although I’m not whether she came from Syria or Iraq.
13 Gulcan Opel – Tamammi (Bouzouki Joe)
The Turkish singer Gulcan Opel with the tune “Tamammi” reissued in 2011 by Bouzouki Joe on the collection “Turkish Freakout 2: Psych-Folk 1970-78”. The track was produced by Arif Sag, a singer, bağlama virtuoso, Turkish folk music founder and academic, and former MP in the Turkish parliament.
14 The Golden Ring – The Lost (Persianna)
Another Arif or Aref prominent in modern Middle Eastern music is Aref Arefkia. He’s just as famous in Iran as Googoosh, but unlike her left Iran in 1979 at the time of the revolution. In his early days, in the 60s, he was a member of the Tehran garage band, The Golden Ring. “The Lost” off a recent reissue: “The Golden Ring: Iranian Styled 60s Garage and other exotic sounds”.
15 African Head Charge – Throw it away (On U Sound)
Continuing our celebration of 30 years of the British reggae and dub label, On-U Sound, the tune comes from African Head Charge’s fourth album “Off the beaten track” which came out in 1986.
16 Lee Perry – Rise Again (M.O.D. Technologies)
On-U Sound’s Adrian Sherwood has produced a number of albums by one of dub’s best ever explorers and innovators, Lee Perry. Lee Perry’s most recent effort is a collaboration with bass playing polymath Bill Laswell – called “Rise again.” It’s mostly a little disappointing, but the title track isn’t too bad.
17 Lee Perry and the Upsetters – Kiss Me Mix (Exclusive Dub Plate Mix) (Pressure Sounds)
Lee Scratch Perry at his peak in the mid-70s with the exclusive dub plate mix of “Kiss me neck”. It’s from a truly wonderful collection just out on On-U Sound’s sister label, Pressure Sounds – “The Return of Sound System Scratch: More Lee Perry Dub Plate Mixes and Rarities 1973-1979”. Obtain forthwith if you have any interest in Lee Perry’s music – you will not be sorry.
18 Cyril Diaz & His Orchestra – Voodoo (Soundway)
Another track from a collection of 7” reissues of vintage Columbian music that Soundway brought out earlier this year.
19 Home Service – Battle Pavanne / Peat Bog Soldiers (Fledg’ling)
Eight-piece folk-rock group, Home Service, from the highly politicised mid-80s of Thatcher’s England. The track here is from a recent release called “Live 1986”. “Battle Pavanne” is actually a piece of court music written by Tielman Susato in 1551. “Peat Bog Soldiers” was written by prisoners in a Nazi labour camp in 1933, adopted by the Republicans as an anthem during the Spanish Civil War, and was sung all around Europe during World War Two, and after that as a protest song.
20 Elle Osborne – I’m bound away (Folk Police Recordings)
Elle Osborne, a traditional singer from Lincolnshire, has been around for a few years now. She’s got a new album out on the label Folk Police called “So slowly slowly got she up” with a supporting cast that includes Alasdair Roberts, Cath and Phil Tyler and Alex Neilson, all of whom we’ve listened to before here on this show.
Check out the “Eileen Aroon” mix out on both Holy Warbles and the Ghost Capital blog if you like this sort of stuff – it’s a few entries down from the top. Well worth the download.
21 Sarah Jarosz - Anabelle Lee (Sugar Hill)
20 year old guitarist, banjo player, singer and song-writer from Austin, Texas, Sarah Jarosz, unbelievably off her second album “Follow me down”. That’s her neo-traditional tune “Anabelle Lee”, based on a poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Her band includes a bunch of luminaries on the bluegrass/ newgrass/country scene like Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Viktor Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Shawn Colvin and Darrell Scott.
22 Jolie Holland – June (Anti, Ince)
Jolie Holland is also from Texas, but this time Houston. She works a more bluesy, jazzy vein of Americana – a bit like Billie Holliday (who she cites as a big influence) doing country blues. “June” is from her new album “Pint of Blood”.
23 Flower Travellin’ Band – House of the Rising Sun (Philips)
The mind-blowing, lung-bursting singing of Joe Yamanaka of the Flower Travellin’ Band circa 1970. The earliest recordings of “House of the Rising Sun” were by Clarence Ashley in 1933, although the song or something like it is probably much, much older – Ashley claimed that his grandfather used to sing it. Alan Lomax collected a version in 1937 in Kentucky, which it seemed made the song famous. Yamanaka died on 7th August and here’s a ‘believe it or not’ fact: he was a friend of Bob Marley and took his place as lead singer of The Wailers for five years after Marley died.
24 Kuni Kawachi & the Flower Travellin’ Band – Kirikyogen (Capital)
Also from the 1970s, this is Joe Yamanaka with keyboardist Kuni Kawachi.
25 Can – Spoon (Spoon)
Sticking with anti-establishment, counter-cultural 60s and 70s psychedelic scenes in previously highly authoritarian countries, that was the Krautrock group Can with one of their more well-known tunes, “Spoon”. In fact the tune was a German Top 40 hit, from one of their many classic albums, “Ege Bamyasi”, which is Turkish for Aegean okra.
Can apparently actually started out trying to play exotic fusions, but then discovered the Velvet Underground – they did actually return to the exotic a bit later in their Ethnological Forgery Series.
The singer on “Spoon” is Damo Suzuki, a Japanese traveller who founding members Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit found busking outside a café in Munich. Suzuki ended up playing with them for quite a few years.
26 Harmonia – Deluxe (Immer Wieder) (Brain)
Another absolutely classic Krautrock track. Harmonia was a kind of supergroup that included members from the bands Neu, Cluster and Guru Guru.
Check out the wonderful doccie on Krautrock made by BBC4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B89-69icyc&noredirect=1
The label “Krautrock” is contested on the grounds of accuracy and its belittling overtones. There are also recent interviews with the members of Can and Harmonia reflecting how things were in Germany in the late 60s and the 70s.
Seun Kuti together with his band Egypt 80, the 12-piece band he inherited from his father, Fela Kuti. He’s upped the beats per minute from the normal Afrobeat fare, and the anger’s ratcheted way up there too. “African Soldier” is a tirade against former soldiers who become dictators and keep themselves in power for decades. It’s from their 2011 album, “From Africa with fury: Rise”, which Brian Eno, a long-time Afrobeat enthusiast, co-produced.
2 Vieux Farka Toure – Aigna (feat. Derek Trucks) (Six Degrees)
Speaking of sons of great musicians, Vieux Farka Toure, son of Ali Farka Toure, put out a wonderful record earlier this year, “The Secret”. We listened to a collaboration with John Scofield a few months ago. “Aigna” features the American blues guitar prodigy and Allman Brothers Band member, Derek Trucks, on some sitar-like slide guitar.
3 Bembeya Jazz National – Alalake (Syliphone)
Sekou “Diamond Fingers” Diabate plays some incredible pedal steel. It comes from an album recorded in the mid 70s dedicated to former member, singer and composer, Aboubacar Demba, who died in a car crash in 1973.
4 Gnonnas Pedro and his Dadjes Band International – Fini les pavés (African Songs Ltd)
Gnonnas Pedro is a great singer from the 70s Benin scene. “Fini les pavés” is from the original vinyl LP put out by the label African Songs Ltd in 1977 called “The Band of Africa, vol 3”.
5 Fatoumata Diwara – Nayan (World Circuit)
Fatoumata Diawara (aka Fatou) from Mali has just put out her first album on World Circuit, called “Fatou”– and it’s sort of in the quiet, independent singer-songwriter spirit of Rokia Traore, who is actually a friend of hers, and who inspired Diawara to accompany herself on guitar. But she also draws on the Wassoulou traditions of her parents and of her mentor, Oumara Sangare.
Diawara’s 28 year history has been one of fierce independence – she started out as a film actor in Mali, having been sent to live with her aunt, also an actor, in Bamoko by her parents after she refused to continue with school. Then she became a stage actor, and literally escaped to Paris, after her parents tried to curtail her career. She was discovered as a singer, started performing in stage shows around the world, and has wound up singing with Cheikh Lô, AfroCubism, Herbie Hancock and Orchestra Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou.
“Nayan” is from an EP called “Kanou” that preceded the album. We’ll hear something from the full album in December.
6 Tinariwen – Imidiwan Win Sahara (Anti-)
Tinariwen, probably the most well-known Tuareg band, have a new album out, “Tassili”, named after Tassili N’Ajjer in southern Algeria, where it was recorded. Tassili is a place where Tamashek guerrillas took refuge en route to Mali. Its rocks and caves are a world heritage site. The album is somewhat more acoustic and less overtly political than recent ones. You have to love the group hum on this tune.
7 Genticorum – Reel Circulaire (Roues et Archets)
Québécois music off Genticorum's latest album “Nagez Rameurs”, which is based around the theme of maritime voyages. Québécois is an amalgam of French, Irish, Scottish and Breton traditions.
At the centre of this tune is song collector and fiddler Pascal Gemme , who first heard traditional Québécois music as a child in Huntingdon, Quebec, where his grandfather was the village fiddler.
8 Bee Dehotels - Aux Natchitoches (Cinq Planetes)
Nova Scotia, one of the Canada’s maritime provinces, is just east of Quebec. It used to be known as Acadia, and is where the forbearers of the Louisianan Cajuns came from. In the mid-70s, the label "Cinq Planètes” put out a wonderful set of recordings made in the homes of the musician and Cajun revivalist Dewey Balfa and painter Eraste Fontenot, both of whose families are very well known on the Cajun scene. The recordings were made for a film project on legendary masters of cajun and creole music called “Les haricots sont pas salés” – “the beans are not salted”. Bee Dehotels apparently specialized in old Cajun French ballads.
9 Vielleux du Bourbonnais – Bourrée A Malochet-Bourrée d’Alfred Pommier (Auvidis)
Bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy music was one of the traditions the original French settlers brought with them when they settled in Acadia in the 1600s. French group Vielleux du Bourbonnais take their music from the manuscripts of late nineteenth-century collectors, who in turn collected and transcribed older tunes passed down orally.
10 Andreas Schaerer & Banz Oester – Finger Maxu (Unit Records)
In July Prohelvetia brought vocalist Andreas Schaerer and bassist Banz Oester to South Africa. If you saw them playing at the Fugard Theatre you were probably either perplexed or blown away – actually you were probably both at the same time. As they would say, they “instantly composed” a fusion of a bewildering array of styles and traditions.
11 Vezhliviy Otkaz – Russian song (Zenith/Soyuz)
Vezhliviy Otkaz are from Moscow. Their name apparently means “Polite Refusal”.
12 Jermain Tamraz – Doogle Shapireh (Assyrian)
Jermain Tamraz is another great 70s middle-eastern singer. I know she’s Assyrian, although I’m not whether she came from Syria or Iraq.
13 Gulcan Opel – Tamammi (Bouzouki Joe)
The Turkish singer Gulcan Opel with the tune “Tamammi” reissued in 2011 by Bouzouki Joe on the collection “Turkish Freakout 2: Psych-Folk 1970-78”. The track was produced by Arif Sag, a singer, bağlama virtuoso, Turkish folk music founder and academic, and former MP in the Turkish parliament.
14 The Golden Ring – The Lost (Persianna)
Another Arif or Aref prominent in modern Middle Eastern music is Aref Arefkia. He’s just as famous in Iran as Googoosh, but unlike her left Iran in 1979 at the time of the revolution. In his early days, in the 60s, he was a member of the Tehran garage band, The Golden Ring. “The Lost” off a recent reissue: “The Golden Ring: Iranian Styled 60s Garage and other exotic sounds”.
15 African Head Charge – Throw it away (On U Sound)
Continuing our celebration of 30 years of the British reggae and dub label, On-U Sound, the tune comes from African Head Charge’s fourth album “Off the beaten track” which came out in 1986.
16 Lee Perry – Rise Again (M.O.D. Technologies)
On-U Sound’s Adrian Sherwood has produced a number of albums by one of dub’s best ever explorers and innovators, Lee Perry. Lee Perry’s most recent effort is a collaboration with bass playing polymath Bill Laswell – called “Rise again.” It’s mostly a little disappointing, but the title track isn’t too bad.
17 Lee Perry and the Upsetters – Kiss Me Mix (Exclusive Dub Plate Mix) (Pressure Sounds)
Lee Scratch Perry at his peak in the mid-70s with the exclusive dub plate mix of “Kiss me neck”. It’s from a truly wonderful collection just out on On-U Sound’s sister label, Pressure Sounds – “The Return of Sound System Scratch: More Lee Perry Dub Plate Mixes and Rarities 1973-1979”. Obtain forthwith if you have any interest in Lee Perry’s music – you will not be sorry.
18 Cyril Diaz & His Orchestra – Voodoo (Soundway)
Another track from a collection of 7” reissues of vintage Columbian music that Soundway brought out earlier this year.
19 Home Service – Battle Pavanne / Peat Bog Soldiers (Fledg’ling)
Eight-piece folk-rock group, Home Service, from the highly politicised mid-80s of Thatcher’s England. The track here is from a recent release called “Live 1986”. “Battle Pavanne” is actually a piece of court music written by Tielman Susato in 1551. “Peat Bog Soldiers” was written by prisoners in a Nazi labour camp in 1933, adopted by the Republicans as an anthem during the Spanish Civil War, and was sung all around Europe during World War Two, and after that as a protest song.
20 Elle Osborne – I’m bound away (Folk Police Recordings)
Elle Osborne, a traditional singer from Lincolnshire, has been around for a few years now. She’s got a new album out on the label Folk Police called “So slowly slowly got she up” with a supporting cast that includes Alasdair Roberts, Cath and Phil Tyler and Alex Neilson, all of whom we’ve listened to before here on this show.
Check out the “Eileen Aroon” mix out on both Holy Warbles and the Ghost Capital blog if you like this sort of stuff – it’s a few entries down from the top. Well worth the download.
21 Sarah Jarosz - Anabelle Lee (Sugar Hill)
20 year old guitarist, banjo player, singer and song-writer from Austin, Texas, Sarah Jarosz, unbelievably off her second album “Follow me down”. That’s her neo-traditional tune “Anabelle Lee”, based on a poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Her band includes a bunch of luminaries on the bluegrass/ newgrass/country scene like Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Viktor Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Shawn Colvin and Darrell Scott.
22 Jolie Holland – June (Anti, Ince)
Jolie Holland is also from Texas, but this time Houston. She works a more bluesy, jazzy vein of Americana – a bit like Billie Holliday (who she cites as a big influence) doing country blues. “June” is from her new album “Pint of Blood”.
23 Flower Travellin’ Band – House of the Rising Sun (Philips)
The mind-blowing, lung-bursting singing of Joe Yamanaka of the Flower Travellin’ Band circa 1970. The earliest recordings of “House of the Rising Sun” were by Clarence Ashley in 1933, although the song or something like it is probably much, much older – Ashley claimed that his grandfather used to sing it. Alan Lomax collected a version in 1937 in Kentucky, which it seemed made the song famous. Yamanaka died on 7th August and here’s a ‘believe it or not’ fact: he was a friend of Bob Marley and took his place as lead singer of The Wailers for five years after Marley died.
24 Kuni Kawachi & the Flower Travellin’ Band – Kirikyogen (Capital)
Also from the 1970s, this is Joe Yamanaka with keyboardist Kuni Kawachi.
25 Can – Spoon (Spoon)
Sticking with anti-establishment, counter-cultural 60s and 70s psychedelic scenes in previously highly authoritarian countries, that was the Krautrock group Can with one of their more well-known tunes, “Spoon”. In fact the tune was a German Top 40 hit, from one of their many classic albums, “Ege Bamyasi”, which is Turkish for Aegean okra.
Can apparently actually started out trying to play exotic fusions, but then discovered the Velvet Underground – they did actually return to the exotic a bit later in their Ethnological Forgery Series.
The singer on “Spoon” is Damo Suzuki, a Japanese traveller who founding members Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit found busking outside a café in Munich. Suzuki ended up playing with them for quite a few years.
26 Harmonia – Deluxe (Immer Wieder) (Brain)
Another absolutely classic Krautrock track. Harmonia was a kind of supergroup that included members from the bands Neu, Cluster and Guru Guru.
Check out the wonderful doccie on Krautrock made by BBC4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B89-69icyc&noredirect=1
The label “Krautrock” is contested on the grounds of accuracy and its belittling overtones. There are also recent interviews with the members of Can and Harmonia reflecting how things were in Germany in the late 60s and the 70s.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
7 September 2011, World Cafe
1 Kekele – Yo Odeconer (Sterns Africa)
Congolese singer M’Bilia Bel guests with veteran singers, Bumba Massa and Loko Massengo, on Kekele’s 2006 album, “Kinavana”. Kinavana is a contraction of Kinshasa and Havana, a neat handle for their sound – old style Congolese rumba with more Cuban reinforcements than usual. Kekele’s members are nearly all luminaries from the Congo music scene in the 60s, 70s and 80s – including one of Franco’s chief guitarists, Papa Noel.
2 Orchestra du Bawobab – Ndaga (Disques Buur Records)
Sticking with Cuban-infused vintage West African sounds, “Ndaga” is a totally wonderful recording by Orchestra du Bawobab, from Senegal. It’s from around 1974 when the band included griot singer Laye M’Boup singing in Wolof and Thione Seck, who brought Maninke and Malinke songs into the mix. The tunes come from the LP “Senegaal Sunugaal”.
3 Vieux Farka Toure – Gido (feat. John Scofield) (Six Degrees)
This track is Malian Vieux Farka Toure’s startling teaming with one of the greatest American jazz guitarists of the last 30 years, John Scofield. It’s off Farka Toure’s seriously wonderful new album, “The Secret”, out on Six Degrees.
4 JuJu – Jombajo (Real World)
Another lovely new album just out is Juldeh Camara and Justin Adams’s – called “In trance”. They are now calling themselves JuJu, which I suppose is marginally better than Jules and Just. In the tune “Jombajo” the pair draw mainly on Fulani music, as in a lot of their stuff. Adams is on guitar, Camara on the ritti, a one-stringed fiddle, and the rhythm section from Bristol consists of Billy Fuller and Dave Smith --- whom I’ve never heard of.
5 Trembling Bells – Sir Richard’s Song (Folk Police)
The track comes off a new collection of Peter Bellamy’s settings of Rudyard Kipling’s children’s poems published between 1900 and 1910. Bellamy is one of the great English folk revivalists from the 60s, and the new collection, featuring many of the recent crop of folk revivalists, is called “Oak Ash Thorn”. We’ll be hearing more from the English folk label, Folk Police, in coming months.
6 The Duellists – Miserden/Indigo (Panic Attack)
The Duellists are a trio of Nigel Eaton, Cliff Stapleton & Chris Walshaw. They combine bagpipes with hurdy-gurdies and play newly and largely self-written dance music rooted in the English and French traditions. “Miserden” and “Indigo” are two tunes from their album called, rather one-sidedly, “English hurdy-gurdy music”.
7 Penguin Café – Landau (Penguin Cafe)
Arthur Jeffes is continuing in the footsteps of his father, Simon, the founder of the folk minimalist collective, the Penguin Café Orchestra. He’s calling his all-new collective, Penguin Café. “Landau”, which has Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell on board, is off their new album, “A Matter of Life …”.
8 Khyam Allami – An Alif/An Apex (Nawa Recordings)
Khyam Allami, who started his musical life as a rock percussionist in London, has discovered his Syrian and Iraqi roots. He has a new album of self-composed solo oud music called “Resonance/Dissonance”.
9 Hijaz – Leaving Adana (Zephyrus Productions)
From Middle Eastern classical music, with its structured improvisations and inventiveness, to some kind of Arabic folk jazz … Hijaz are a band of musicians from Tunisia, Greece, Morocco, Armenia and Belgium. The tune comes off their 2011 album “Chemsi”.
10 Uri Caine – Ladino Medley (Knitting Factory Works)
Sephardic/Moroccan singer Aaron Bensoussan with his arrangement of a bunch of traditional songs sung in Ladino. Ladino is a mixture of Hebrew and Spanish, much like Yiddish is a mixture of Hebrew, German and probably other central European languages. American jazz pianist, Uri Caine, who’s been working the seam between jazz and Jewish music for a long time now, is also upfront in the mix. The recording comes off Caine’s 1999 album “Zohar Keter” – Zohar being the founding text of the Kabbalah.
11 Vijay Iyer – Falsehood (ACT)
On his new record, “Thirta”, NY based jazz piano maestro Vijay Iyer definitely invokes the spirit of 70s Indian folk jazz fusionists, Shakti. He plays with guitarist Prassana and tabla player Nitin Mitta. “Falsehood” is Prassana’s composition.
12 Janie Hunter – Jack and Mary and the Three Dogs (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
13 The Moving Star Hall Singers – See God’s Ark A-Moving (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
14 Ruth Bligen – Moonlight in Glory (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
15 Brian Eno & David Byrne – Moonlight in Glory (Nonesuch)
In earlier shows, I’ve gone on at length about the influence and importance of Brian Eno’s and David Byrne’s 1980s record “My life in the bush of ghosts”. A prime example of something I’ve been calling, maybe wrongly, “possible music” – which is a term linked to Eno – I’ve been referring to it as a kind of seamless mix of found and played global sounds, musique concrète techniques and dark and ambient jazz and dub. Whatever!
Eno and Byrne used some pretty incredible field recordings as a central part of their sound. In the piece “Moonlight in Glory” they drew heavily on the 1967 recordings made by archivist, civil rights activist and musical director Guy Carawan of singers from the relatively isolated St John’s Island off the coast of South Carolina. Those recordings were put out on the Smithsonian Folkways Collection, “Been in the storm so long”.
16 African Head Charge – Stoned Age Man (On-U Sound)
One of the groups of musicians directly inspired by “My life in the bush of ghosts” was a bunch on the On-U Sound label, including founder Adrian Sherwood. On-U Sound is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
African Head Charge (basically Adrian Sherwood, Bonjo I a Binghi Noah and a rotating array of On-U Sounders) actually explicitly reference their debt to “My life in the bush of ghosts”. Their first LP was called “My life in a hole in the ground”. “Stoned Age Man” is from their new album “Voodoo of the Godsent”. By the way, On-U Sound have some new branding to tie in with their 30th anniversary. How do you like this as a logo -- “Disturbing the comfortable – comforting the disturbed”.
17 Prince Fari and the Arabs – Mozabites (Pressure Sounds)
Adrian Sherwood started his career as a dub producer in his late teens on an extremely high note. That was one of his earliest production efforts, five years before the advent of On-U Sound. It’s off the album “Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Chapter 1”, a co-production by Fari I and Sherwood.
18 Fool’s Gold – Nadine (Iamsound)
Fool’s Gold are an LA-based band whose numerous members are Israeli, Argentinean, Brazilian and Mexican, and link African and Middle Eastern music in all its guises to Western indie pop. They sing in Hebrew and English. “Nadine” is off their eponymous 2009 album.
19 Shohreh – Del (Secret Stash)
From pre-revolutionary Iran, this is off the collection simply called “Persian Funk” just out on the label Secret Stash. Nearly all of this kind of stuff was originally on a label and its imprints set up by the Ministry of Culture under the Shah.
20 Googoosh – Koh (Caltex)
The legendary Iranian singer Googoosh was active during the same period. “Koh” is from a collection of stuff called “Golden Songs, volume 1”.
21 Corinne West and Kelly Joe Phelps – Whiskey Poet (Tin Angel Records)
Californian singer-songwriter Corinne West and country blues slide and finger style guitarist of astonishing ability, Kelly Joe Phelps, with one of West’s songs, “Whiskey Poet”. It’s off their really nice 2010 album, “Magnetic Skyline”.
22 Gillian Welch – Silver Dagger (Acony Records)
Gillian Welch, after a long break, has a new album out - “The Harrow and the Harvest” – and boy is it great – in the top 10 albums of the year, and probably the decade, without a doubt, if you like this kind of paired-down old timey Americana blues as much as I do.
23 Colin Stetson – Lord I just can’t keep from crying sometime (Constellation)
Colin Stetson’s multi-phonic sax playing is all done live, no overdubs, with the use of multiple mike placings and circulatory breathing. He plays there with Shara Worden on the traditional spiritual "Lord I Just Can't Keep from Crying Sometimes”. The song is from Stetson’s “New History Welfare Vol 2: Judges”.
24 The Unthanks – Close the coalhouse door (Rough Trade)
The Unthanks are from Northumberland and have been developing their sound since 2004. “Close the coalhouse door”, off their new album “Last”, started out as a stage song written by Alex Glasgow for a play of the same name put out in Newcastle in the 70s. The Unthanks’s version apparently draws heavily on the Wilson Family’s version – the Wilson Family being one of those trad English folk vocal family groups, like the Watersons.
25 Matthias Loibner – Chasen Senem (Cinq Planetes)
Matthias Loibner is an Austrian hurdy-gurdy player. With multiple mike placings which capture the different sounds and voices of the instrument, this is pretty close to Colin Stetson’s saxophone music. It’s off a cd titled “Vielle a roué” or “Hurdy-gurdy”.
Congolese singer M’Bilia Bel guests with veteran singers, Bumba Massa and Loko Massengo, on Kekele’s 2006 album, “Kinavana”. Kinavana is a contraction of Kinshasa and Havana, a neat handle for their sound – old style Congolese rumba with more Cuban reinforcements than usual. Kekele’s members are nearly all luminaries from the Congo music scene in the 60s, 70s and 80s – including one of Franco’s chief guitarists, Papa Noel.
2 Orchestra du Bawobab – Ndaga (Disques Buur Records)
Sticking with Cuban-infused vintage West African sounds, “Ndaga” is a totally wonderful recording by Orchestra du Bawobab, from Senegal. It’s from around 1974 when the band included griot singer Laye M’Boup singing in Wolof and Thione Seck, who brought Maninke and Malinke songs into the mix. The tunes come from the LP “Senegaal Sunugaal”.
3 Vieux Farka Toure – Gido (feat. John Scofield) (Six Degrees)
This track is Malian Vieux Farka Toure’s startling teaming with one of the greatest American jazz guitarists of the last 30 years, John Scofield. It’s off Farka Toure’s seriously wonderful new album, “The Secret”, out on Six Degrees.
4 JuJu – Jombajo (Real World)
Another lovely new album just out is Juldeh Camara and Justin Adams’s – called “In trance”. They are now calling themselves JuJu, which I suppose is marginally better than Jules and Just. In the tune “Jombajo” the pair draw mainly on Fulani music, as in a lot of their stuff. Adams is on guitar, Camara on the ritti, a one-stringed fiddle, and the rhythm section from Bristol consists of Billy Fuller and Dave Smith --- whom I’ve never heard of.
5 Trembling Bells – Sir Richard’s Song (Folk Police)
The track comes off a new collection of Peter Bellamy’s settings of Rudyard Kipling’s children’s poems published between 1900 and 1910. Bellamy is one of the great English folk revivalists from the 60s, and the new collection, featuring many of the recent crop of folk revivalists, is called “Oak Ash Thorn”. We’ll be hearing more from the English folk label, Folk Police, in coming months.
6 The Duellists – Miserden/Indigo (Panic Attack)
The Duellists are a trio of Nigel Eaton, Cliff Stapleton & Chris Walshaw. They combine bagpipes with hurdy-gurdies and play newly and largely self-written dance music rooted in the English and French traditions. “Miserden” and “Indigo” are two tunes from their album called, rather one-sidedly, “English hurdy-gurdy music”.
7 Penguin Café – Landau (Penguin Cafe)
Arthur Jeffes is continuing in the footsteps of his father, Simon, the founder of the folk minimalist collective, the Penguin Café Orchestra. He’s calling his all-new collective, Penguin Café. “Landau”, which has Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell on board, is off their new album, “A Matter of Life …”.
8 Khyam Allami – An Alif/An Apex (Nawa Recordings)
Khyam Allami, who started his musical life as a rock percussionist in London, has discovered his Syrian and Iraqi roots. He has a new album of self-composed solo oud music called “Resonance/Dissonance”.
9 Hijaz – Leaving Adana (Zephyrus Productions)
From Middle Eastern classical music, with its structured improvisations and inventiveness, to some kind of Arabic folk jazz … Hijaz are a band of musicians from Tunisia, Greece, Morocco, Armenia and Belgium. The tune comes off their 2011 album “Chemsi”.
10 Uri Caine – Ladino Medley (Knitting Factory Works)
Sephardic/Moroccan singer Aaron Bensoussan with his arrangement of a bunch of traditional songs sung in Ladino. Ladino is a mixture of Hebrew and Spanish, much like Yiddish is a mixture of Hebrew, German and probably other central European languages. American jazz pianist, Uri Caine, who’s been working the seam between jazz and Jewish music for a long time now, is also upfront in the mix. The recording comes off Caine’s 1999 album “Zohar Keter” – Zohar being the founding text of the Kabbalah.
11 Vijay Iyer – Falsehood (ACT)
On his new record, “Thirta”, NY based jazz piano maestro Vijay Iyer definitely invokes the spirit of 70s Indian folk jazz fusionists, Shakti. He plays with guitarist Prassana and tabla player Nitin Mitta. “Falsehood” is Prassana’s composition.
12 Janie Hunter – Jack and Mary and the Three Dogs (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
13 The Moving Star Hall Singers – See God’s Ark A-Moving (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
14 Ruth Bligen – Moonlight in Glory (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
15 Brian Eno & David Byrne – Moonlight in Glory (Nonesuch)
In earlier shows, I’ve gone on at length about the influence and importance of Brian Eno’s and David Byrne’s 1980s record “My life in the bush of ghosts”. A prime example of something I’ve been calling, maybe wrongly, “possible music” – which is a term linked to Eno – I’ve been referring to it as a kind of seamless mix of found and played global sounds, musique concrète techniques and dark and ambient jazz and dub. Whatever!
Eno and Byrne used some pretty incredible field recordings as a central part of their sound. In the piece “Moonlight in Glory” they drew heavily on the 1967 recordings made by archivist, civil rights activist and musical director Guy Carawan of singers from the relatively isolated St John’s Island off the coast of South Carolina. Those recordings were put out on the Smithsonian Folkways Collection, “Been in the storm so long”.
16 African Head Charge – Stoned Age Man (On-U Sound)
One of the groups of musicians directly inspired by “My life in the bush of ghosts” was a bunch on the On-U Sound label, including founder Adrian Sherwood. On-U Sound is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
African Head Charge (basically Adrian Sherwood, Bonjo I a Binghi Noah and a rotating array of On-U Sounders) actually explicitly reference their debt to “My life in the bush of ghosts”. Their first LP was called “My life in a hole in the ground”. “Stoned Age Man” is from their new album “Voodoo of the Godsent”. By the way, On-U Sound have some new branding to tie in with their 30th anniversary. How do you like this as a logo -- “Disturbing the comfortable – comforting the disturbed”.
17 Prince Fari and the Arabs – Mozabites (Pressure Sounds)
Adrian Sherwood started his career as a dub producer in his late teens on an extremely high note. That was one of his earliest production efforts, five years before the advent of On-U Sound. It’s off the album “Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Chapter 1”, a co-production by Fari I and Sherwood.
18 Fool’s Gold – Nadine (Iamsound)
Fool’s Gold are an LA-based band whose numerous members are Israeli, Argentinean, Brazilian and Mexican, and link African and Middle Eastern music in all its guises to Western indie pop. They sing in Hebrew and English. “Nadine” is off their eponymous 2009 album.
19 Shohreh – Del (Secret Stash)
From pre-revolutionary Iran, this is off the collection simply called “Persian Funk” just out on the label Secret Stash. Nearly all of this kind of stuff was originally on a label and its imprints set up by the Ministry of Culture under the Shah.
20 Googoosh – Koh (Caltex)
The legendary Iranian singer Googoosh was active during the same period. “Koh” is from a collection of stuff called “Golden Songs, volume 1”.
21 Corinne West and Kelly Joe Phelps – Whiskey Poet (Tin Angel Records)
Californian singer-songwriter Corinne West and country blues slide and finger style guitarist of astonishing ability, Kelly Joe Phelps, with one of West’s songs, “Whiskey Poet”. It’s off their really nice 2010 album, “Magnetic Skyline”.
22 Gillian Welch – Silver Dagger (Acony Records)
Gillian Welch, after a long break, has a new album out - “The Harrow and the Harvest” – and boy is it great – in the top 10 albums of the year, and probably the decade, without a doubt, if you like this kind of paired-down old timey Americana blues as much as I do.
23 Colin Stetson – Lord I just can’t keep from crying sometime (Constellation)
Colin Stetson’s multi-phonic sax playing is all done live, no overdubs, with the use of multiple mike placings and circulatory breathing. He plays there with Shara Worden on the traditional spiritual "Lord I Just Can't Keep from Crying Sometimes”. The song is from Stetson’s “New History Welfare Vol 2: Judges”.
24 The Unthanks – Close the coalhouse door (Rough Trade)
The Unthanks are from Northumberland and have been developing their sound since 2004. “Close the coalhouse door”, off their new album “Last”, started out as a stage song written by Alex Glasgow for a play of the same name put out in Newcastle in the 70s. The Unthanks’s version apparently draws heavily on the Wilson Family’s version – the Wilson Family being one of those trad English folk vocal family groups, like the Watersons.
25 Matthias Loibner – Chasen Senem (Cinq Planetes)
Matthias Loibner is an Austrian hurdy-gurdy player. With multiple mike placings which capture the different sounds and voices of the instrument, this is pretty close to Colin Stetson’s saxophone music. It’s off a cd titled “Vielle a roué” or “Hurdy-gurdy”.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
3 August 2011, World Cafe
1 Erick Manana – Zanamalala (Une voix…une guitare…)
The guitar and voice of Bordeaux-based Madagascan Erick Manana from his album “Une voix … une guitare”. Like probably all the Madagascan musicians we’ve featured on this show, Manana is interested in preserving the gutsy integrity of the rural music of Madagascar -- but he is also keen on cutting it with all kinds of Western folk music. He uses open tunings like the ba-gasy tuning – something indigenous to Madagascar.
2 Mahaleo – Vaonala (Playa Sound collection Africa)
Erick Manana, who we just heard, has been on the scene for around 30 years and played in many bands including the longstanding, well-known band Mahaleo – sometimes brilliantly blending pop with traditional Madagascan. Formed in the early 70s, the band members have gone on to become doctors, sociologists and government officials. Here is something quite lovely off their 1976 album “Madagascar” called “Vaonala”.
3 NY Malagasy Orchestra – Mila omby (Cinq Planetes)
Cutting-edge Antandroy music – music from the cattle farming territory of the southernmost part of Madagascar. The singing from this area often emulates cattle wheezing and bellowing and the calls of cattle herders. The NY Malagasy Orchestra is pretty large - almost a Madagascan supergroup - under the direction of valiha star-player, Justin Vali. They are evidently a touring show and their tie-in album is called “Masoala” which came out last year on the wonderful French label, Cinq Planetes.
4 Damily – Talilio (Phantom Sound and Vision)
Tsapiky (pronounced “tsapeek”) is another popular brand of music from south Madagascar, in fact the Tulear area – and it’s pretty frantic. There are apparently loads of informal, pick up bands in the Tulear area. Damily, named after its founder, is probably the most well known Tsapiky band. This song comes from their 2008 album, “Ravinahitsy”.
5 Gege Mahafay Monja – Manontolo tromba (Cinq Planetes)
Sticking to the south of Madagascar, the incredible marovany player Gege Mahafay Monja. His mother, a healer, taught him to play. She used to take him to “tromba” – the general name for divinations, treatment sessions and exorcisms. The tune is from another Cinq Planetes release – Monja’s 2005 album called “Marovany”.
6 Babata – Soma motomay (instrumental) (Long Distance)
The west coast of Madagascar is the most remote part of the island, large parts of which are only accessiblle by boat. Josephin Herisson, or Babata as he’s known on stage, is a fisherman, diver and musician who has traveled up and down that coast. He plays the mandaliny, a small 4 string guitar related to the ukulele, which is usually homemade in Madagascar and has strings made from anything going. It’s usually subjected to many idiosyncratic styles of playing.
7 Eliza Carthy – War (Hem Hem)
Besides being a wonderful fiddler and interpreter of traditional English music, Eliza Carthy also writes her own songs, and her new album of original songs, “Neptune”, is probably her best so far of this kind. In “War” she flits across a bunch of styles in her best Yorkshire accent.
8 Bella Hardy – The Herring Girl (Navigator)
Another traditionalist who’s had a good go at writing her own stuff is Bella Hardy (also a fiddle player – but from Derbyshire). Her latest album, “Songs Lost & Stolen”, is also a collection of her own songs, like Carthy’s.
9 Dolina Maclennan – Fil Uo Ro Hu-O (Topic)
Dolina Maclennan is from the island of Lewis off the west coast of Scotland. This song was recorded in the 60s, but was passed down through generations of her family. It’s a waulking song – a song to accompany the communal multi-stage work of shrinking tweed. Each stage is done to a specific rhythm and has different accompanying songs. It’s off a 1965 collection on Topic Records called “Bonny Lass Come O’er the Burn”.
10 Jeannie Robertson – My rovin’ eye
Jeannie Robertson lived much of her life in Aberdeen. This version of the traditional song “My rovin’ eye” was recorded in the 50s by Alan Lomax. She’s widely recognized as one of the greatest Scottish ballad singers and well known for giving performances of the full epic songs.
11 Tud – Heuliad dansou plinn (Plinn ton simpl) (Celtic America Llc)
Sticking to places that made up the old Celtic world, Tud is a super slick, super dextrous modern Breton folk band.
12 Soig Siberil & Nolwen Korbell – Padal (Coop Breizh)
Breton guitarist Soig Siberal and singer Nolwen Korbell with a song off their 2007 album called “Red”.
13 Amador Garcia - El Ramo (Saga)
The Spanish province of Zamora in the Castilla and Leon region in Western Spain near the Portuguese border has a fabulous music tradition, well explored by the Spanish label, Saga, which made field recordings in the 1980s (Zamora Musica Tradicional Vol 1). Here are two of those recordings – the first is “El Ramo” by Amador Garcia on flauta and snare drum.
14 Marina Martin and Abel Martin - Arbolito Florido (Saga)
The second is “Arbolito Florido” with Marina Martin singing and on tambourine, and Abel Martin on castanets.
15 Maleem Mahmoud Ghania & Pharoah Sanders – Moussa Berkiyo-Koubaliy Beriah La’foh (Axiom)
The Moroccan master guimbri player Maleem Mahmoud Ghania, whose father was actually an immigrant from Guinea, and his troop with American tenor sax player Pharoah Sanders.
I don’t know whether it’s my imagination but I’m hearing resonances of gnawa music in that peasant music from west central Spain, or maybe it’s the other way around. This despite the fact that gnawa music was only supposed to have started with the movement of the Fulani slaves from the Mali-Guinea region into Morocco in the 16th century, way after the Moors were expelled from Spain. But gnawa and whatever Moorish music found its way into Spain may have similar roots in that as early as the 700s the cultures of the Ghanaian Empire and the Berbers began to blend in Mauritania. In 1000 Mauritania broke away from the Ghanaian Empire and its people, known as Al-Moravids, began to push north into Morocco and Spain.
16 Radio Morocco – The Medina Sound (Sublime Frequencies)
Staying in Morocco … one of the many things that the visionary label Sublime Frequencies does is country-based radio collages - mixes of recorded radio transmissions made in a particular country. They started doing this in 1983 in Morocco. “The Medina Sound” off their CD “Radio Morocco” comes from a range of stations across Morocco.
17 Dimi Mint Abba – Song 4 (World Circuit)
Dimi Mint Abba, a veteran of the Mauritanian music scene, died tragically in early June this year. “Song 4” is from a World Circuit collection released in 2006 to mark its 20th anniversary, called “World Circuit Presents…”.
18 Bombino – Tigrawahi Tikma (Bring us together) (Cumbancha)
The Touareg are found in Eastern Mali, Western Niger, Algeria and Western Libya and form part of the Berber people. The musician Bombino, named for his early musical ability, comes from the city of Agadez in the centre of Niger. He was forced to leave in 2007 after two of his band members were killed in the violence following a Touareg uprising. The album he released earlier this year on Cumbancha, called “Agadez,” was part of his contribution to the post-rebellion restoration of the city which he returned to in 2010.
19 Dub Colossus – Feqer Aydelem Wey (Real World)
Dub Colossus, bass player and producer Nick Page’s collective of Ethiopian and English musicians with a somewhat dub-infused Ethio-jazz tune, off their latest album “Addis through the looking glass.”
20 King Tubby – Roots Dub (Jigsaw Music)
King Tubby’s warmly echoey dub version of some vintage reggae jazz by the Skatalites released in 1976. The album is “Herb Dub-Collie Dub”.
2I Dunkelbunt – Smile on your face (Brian May Remix) (PID)
I don’t normally go for modern electro-dub, but that tune by Austrian DJ and producer, Dunkelbunt, aka Ulf Lindemann, is suitably rootsy, and the Klezmer and Balkan fusions work very nicely even though they are just a little too smooth.
22 Lee Perry – Scratch The Dub Organiser (Clocktower)
If you need an antidote to Dunkelbunt, Lee Perry is probably perfect. The tune comes off a really great, rather mysterious collection called “Chapter 1: The Upsetters” which is a collection of previously unreleased stuff from 1970 to 76 brought out by Clocktower – originally a New York based reggae label, now based in Canada.
23 Nguyen Le – Mina Zuki (ACT)
Nguyen Le is a French guitarist of Vietnamese ancestry. On “Mina Zuki” he plays with Mieko Miyazaki on koto, Pradhu Edouard on tabla and percussion and the great veteran bansuri player, Hariprasad Chaurasia, doing what I suppose can be called global fusion – and giving it a good name.
24 Huun Huur-Tu – Agitator (Shanachie)
From South Asia and the Far East to Central Asia … Tuvan group Huun Huur Tu put out their second album recorded in New York and Moscow, “The Orphan’s Lament”, in 1994, and from that here is “Agitator”.
25 Hosoo – Zombon Tuuraitai (Own production)
Hosoo is from the Altai Mountains in Western Mongolia.
26 Svang – Tajukankaan Polkka (Comatoscene Polka) (Aito Records)
Does ensemble harmonica sound like a “naff” proposition, a heavy, fat slice of novelty kitsch? Then you haven’t heard the Finnish harmonica quartet, Svang, letting rip on the chromatic, diatonic, chord and bass harmonicas.
27 Chateau neuf spelemannslag – Halling after Thorvald Tronsgard (Grappa)
Chateau Neuf Spelemannslag are a large band from Norway who like to cross Norwegian folk tunes with all kinds of things – jazz, swing, Manhattan Transfer type vocals, funk. A “halling” is a kind of rural Norwegian dance usually done by men and is pretty acrobatic and competitive.
28 Hardellin, Hallberg, Hertzberg, Stabi – Tar du e’ dellboska (Westpark Access)
Hardellin, Hallberg, Hertzberg, Stabi are a Swedish collective of established singers, each of whom also plays with their own bands, including Ditt Ditt Darium, who we’ve heard on this show before. “Tar du e’ dellboska” is off their album “Love Letters and Russian Satellites”.
29 Nils Okland – Biberslatt (Rune Gramofon)
Nils Okland, a Norwegian hardanger fiddle player, is equally at home playing early music, folk and improv music, and often plays all three at the same time. The hardanger fiddle is similar to a normal fiddle except for the 4 or 5 sympathetic strings that run under the regular four strings over the body. The oldest one we know about dates from 1650. On “Biberslatt”, Okland plays with Ole Henrik Moe on a fiddle, or flat fiddle as it’s sometimes called in Norway.
30 Trygve Seim/Andreas Utnem - 312 (ECM)
An arrangement by sax player, Tygve Seim, and pianist, Andreas Utnem, of the traditional Norwegian tune from the town Aseral, from their 2010 ECM release, “Purcor: Songs for Saxophone and Piano”.
The guitar and voice of Bordeaux-based Madagascan Erick Manana from his album “Une voix … une guitare”. Like probably all the Madagascan musicians we’ve featured on this show, Manana is interested in preserving the gutsy integrity of the rural music of Madagascar -- but he is also keen on cutting it with all kinds of Western folk music. He uses open tunings like the ba-gasy tuning – something indigenous to Madagascar.
2 Mahaleo – Vaonala (Playa Sound collection Africa)
Erick Manana, who we just heard, has been on the scene for around 30 years and played in many bands including the longstanding, well-known band Mahaleo – sometimes brilliantly blending pop with traditional Madagascan. Formed in the early 70s, the band members have gone on to become doctors, sociologists and government officials. Here is something quite lovely off their 1976 album “Madagascar” called “Vaonala”.
3 NY Malagasy Orchestra – Mila omby (Cinq Planetes)
Cutting-edge Antandroy music – music from the cattle farming territory of the southernmost part of Madagascar. The singing from this area often emulates cattle wheezing and bellowing and the calls of cattle herders. The NY Malagasy Orchestra is pretty large - almost a Madagascan supergroup - under the direction of valiha star-player, Justin Vali. They are evidently a touring show and their tie-in album is called “Masoala” which came out last year on the wonderful French label, Cinq Planetes.
4 Damily – Talilio (Phantom Sound and Vision)
Tsapiky (pronounced “tsapeek”) is another popular brand of music from south Madagascar, in fact the Tulear area – and it’s pretty frantic. There are apparently loads of informal, pick up bands in the Tulear area. Damily, named after its founder, is probably the most well known Tsapiky band. This song comes from their 2008 album, “Ravinahitsy”.
5 Gege Mahafay Monja – Manontolo tromba (Cinq Planetes)
Sticking to the south of Madagascar, the incredible marovany player Gege Mahafay Monja. His mother, a healer, taught him to play. She used to take him to “tromba” – the general name for divinations, treatment sessions and exorcisms. The tune is from another Cinq Planetes release – Monja’s 2005 album called “Marovany”.
6 Babata – Soma motomay (instrumental) (Long Distance)
The west coast of Madagascar is the most remote part of the island, large parts of which are only accessiblle by boat. Josephin Herisson, or Babata as he’s known on stage, is a fisherman, diver and musician who has traveled up and down that coast. He plays the mandaliny, a small 4 string guitar related to the ukulele, which is usually homemade in Madagascar and has strings made from anything going. It’s usually subjected to many idiosyncratic styles of playing.
7 Eliza Carthy – War (Hem Hem)
Besides being a wonderful fiddler and interpreter of traditional English music, Eliza Carthy also writes her own songs, and her new album of original songs, “Neptune”, is probably her best so far of this kind. In “War” she flits across a bunch of styles in her best Yorkshire accent.
8 Bella Hardy – The Herring Girl (Navigator)
Another traditionalist who’s had a good go at writing her own stuff is Bella Hardy (also a fiddle player – but from Derbyshire). Her latest album, “Songs Lost & Stolen”, is also a collection of her own songs, like Carthy’s.
9 Dolina Maclennan – Fil Uo Ro Hu-O (Topic)
Dolina Maclennan is from the island of Lewis off the west coast of Scotland. This song was recorded in the 60s, but was passed down through generations of her family. It’s a waulking song – a song to accompany the communal multi-stage work of shrinking tweed. Each stage is done to a specific rhythm and has different accompanying songs. It’s off a 1965 collection on Topic Records called “Bonny Lass Come O’er the Burn”.
10 Jeannie Robertson – My rovin’ eye
Jeannie Robertson lived much of her life in Aberdeen. This version of the traditional song “My rovin’ eye” was recorded in the 50s by Alan Lomax. She’s widely recognized as one of the greatest Scottish ballad singers and well known for giving performances of the full epic songs.
11 Tud – Heuliad dansou plinn (Plinn ton simpl) (Celtic America Llc)
Sticking to places that made up the old Celtic world, Tud is a super slick, super dextrous modern Breton folk band.
12 Soig Siberil & Nolwen Korbell – Padal (Coop Breizh)
Breton guitarist Soig Siberal and singer Nolwen Korbell with a song off their 2007 album called “Red”.
13 Amador Garcia - El Ramo (Saga)
The Spanish province of Zamora in the Castilla and Leon region in Western Spain near the Portuguese border has a fabulous music tradition, well explored by the Spanish label, Saga, which made field recordings in the 1980s (Zamora Musica Tradicional Vol 1). Here are two of those recordings – the first is “El Ramo” by Amador Garcia on flauta and snare drum.
14 Marina Martin and Abel Martin - Arbolito Florido (Saga)
The second is “Arbolito Florido” with Marina Martin singing and on tambourine, and Abel Martin on castanets.
15 Maleem Mahmoud Ghania & Pharoah Sanders – Moussa Berkiyo-Koubaliy Beriah La’foh (Axiom)
The Moroccan master guimbri player Maleem Mahmoud Ghania, whose father was actually an immigrant from Guinea, and his troop with American tenor sax player Pharoah Sanders.
I don’t know whether it’s my imagination but I’m hearing resonances of gnawa music in that peasant music from west central Spain, or maybe it’s the other way around. This despite the fact that gnawa music was only supposed to have started with the movement of the Fulani slaves from the Mali-Guinea region into Morocco in the 16th century, way after the Moors were expelled from Spain. But gnawa and whatever Moorish music found its way into Spain may have similar roots in that as early as the 700s the cultures of the Ghanaian Empire and the Berbers began to blend in Mauritania. In 1000 Mauritania broke away from the Ghanaian Empire and its people, known as Al-Moravids, began to push north into Morocco and Spain.
16 Radio Morocco – The Medina Sound (Sublime Frequencies)
Staying in Morocco … one of the many things that the visionary label Sublime Frequencies does is country-based radio collages - mixes of recorded radio transmissions made in a particular country. They started doing this in 1983 in Morocco. “The Medina Sound” off their CD “Radio Morocco” comes from a range of stations across Morocco.
17 Dimi Mint Abba – Song 4 (World Circuit)
Dimi Mint Abba, a veteran of the Mauritanian music scene, died tragically in early June this year. “Song 4” is from a World Circuit collection released in 2006 to mark its 20th anniversary, called “World Circuit Presents…”.
18 Bombino – Tigrawahi Tikma (Bring us together) (Cumbancha)
The Touareg are found in Eastern Mali, Western Niger, Algeria and Western Libya and form part of the Berber people. The musician Bombino, named for his early musical ability, comes from the city of Agadez in the centre of Niger. He was forced to leave in 2007 after two of his band members were killed in the violence following a Touareg uprising. The album he released earlier this year on Cumbancha, called “Agadez,” was part of his contribution to the post-rebellion restoration of the city which he returned to in 2010.
19 Dub Colossus – Feqer Aydelem Wey (Real World)
Dub Colossus, bass player and producer Nick Page’s collective of Ethiopian and English musicians with a somewhat dub-infused Ethio-jazz tune, off their latest album “Addis through the looking glass.”
20 King Tubby – Roots Dub (Jigsaw Music)
King Tubby’s warmly echoey dub version of some vintage reggae jazz by the Skatalites released in 1976. The album is “Herb Dub-Collie Dub”.
2I Dunkelbunt – Smile on your face (Brian May Remix) (PID)
I don’t normally go for modern electro-dub, but that tune by Austrian DJ and producer, Dunkelbunt, aka Ulf Lindemann, is suitably rootsy, and the Klezmer and Balkan fusions work very nicely even though they are just a little too smooth.
22 Lee Perry – Scratch The Dub Organiser (Clocktower)
If you need an antidote to Dunkelbunt, Lee Perry is probably perfect. The tune comes off a really great, rather mysterious collection called “Chapter 1: The Upsetters” which is a collection of previously unreleased stuff from 1970 to 76 brought out by Clocktower – originally a New York based reggae label, now based in Canada.
23 Nguyen Le – Mina Zuki (ACT)
Nguyen Le is a French guitarist of Vietnamese ancestry. On “Mina Zuki” he plays with Mieko Miyazaki on koto, Pradhu Edouard on tabla and percussion and the great veteran bansuri player, Hariprasad Chaurasia, doing what I suppose can be called global fusion – and giving it a good name.
24 Huun Huur-Tu – Agitator (Shanachie)
From South Asia and the Far East to Central Asia … Tuvan group Huun Huur Tu put out their second album recorded in New York and Moscow, “The Orphan’s Lament”, in 1994, and from that here is “Agitator”.
25 Hosoo – Zombon Tuuraitai (Own production)
Hosoo is from the Altai Mountains in Western Mongolia.
26 Svang – Tajukankaan Polkka (Comatoscene Polka) (Aito Records)
Does ensemble harmonica sound like a “naff” proposition, a heavy, fat slice of novelty kitsch? Then you haven’t heard the Finnish harmonica quartet, Svang, letting rip on the chromatic, diatonic, chord and bass harmonicas.
27 Chateau neuf spelemannslag – Halling after Thorvald Tronsgard (Grappa)
Chateau Neuf Spelemannslag are a large band from Norway who like to cross Norwegian folk tunes with all kinds of things – jazz, swing, Manhattan Transfer type vocals, funk. A “halling” is a kind of rural Norwegian dance usually done by men and is pretty acrobatic and competitive.
28 Hardellin, Hallberg, Hertzberg, Stabi – Tar du e’ dellboska (Westpark Access)
Hardellin, Hallberg, Hertzberg, Stabi are a Swedish collective of established singers, each of whom also plays with their own bands, including Ditt Ditt Darium, who we’ve heard on this show before. “Tar du e’ dellboska” is off their album “Love Letters and Russian Satellites”.
29 Nils Okland – Biberslatt (Rune Gramofon)
Nils Okland, a Norwegian hardanger fiddle player, is equally at home playing early music, folk and improv music, and often plays all three at the same time. The hardanger fiddle is similar to a normal fiddle except for the 4 or 5 sympathetic strings that run under the regular four strings over the body. The oldest one we know about dates from 1650. On “Biberslatt”, Okland plays with Ole Henrik Moe on a fiddle, or flat fiddle as it’s sometimes called in Norway.
30 Trygve Seim/Andreas Utnem - 312 (ECM)
An arrangement by sax player, Tygve Seim, and pianist, Andreas Utnem, of the traditional Norwegian tune from the town Aseral, from their 2010 ECM release, “Purcor: Songs for Saxophone and Piano”.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
6 July 2011, World Cafe
1 Zim Ngqawana – Dirge (Sheer Music)
Ngqawana died in May. He was a fearless multi-instrumentalist, mostly on various reeds, and a composer – always crossing boundaries between cultures, and between structure and freedom. “Dirge” comes off his 2003 album, “Vadzimu” on Sheer Music. It’s one you should get if you haven’t already.
2 Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou – Von Vo Nono (Strut)
We’ve listened to Poly-Rythmo on this show many times, mainly drawing on recent reissues of the mid 70s stuff when they were at their peak, brought out by small specialist labels like Analog Africa. Orchestra Poly-rythmo had the wind taken out of their sails by the advent of the Marxist-Leninist dictatorship in Benin in 1972, which lasted until 1990, and began to bite from the late 70s. But they’re now back almost at full intensity on Strut Records with a core of original players (Loko Pierre, Vincent Ahehehinnou, Bentho Gustave, Melome Clement), largely thanks to the success of those reissues. This is their take on fellow Beninese music veteran Gnonnas Pedro’s classic tune “Von Vo Nono”. Pedro died in 2004, so I guess it’s a kind of tribute. Their new release on Strut Records is called “Cotonou Club”.
3 Imperial Tiger Orchestra – Etu Gela (Mental Groove Records)
The Imperial Tiger Orchestra is from Switzerland. They basically only play blistering, genre-crunching Ethio-jazz. You might have seen them in Cape Town round about September last year. The tune “Etu Gela” comes off their 2010 EP, “Addis Abeba”.
4 Teshome Meteku - Mot Adeladlogn (Buda Musique)
That we’re hearing that sort of furious Ethio-jazz fusion is in no small part due to Francis Falceto’s reissue series “Ethiopiques”, which he started in 1997, 10 years after the end of the Derg and six years after the end of communism in Ethiopia. The imprint mainly profiles music from the mid 60s till the military coup in 1974. There are now about 24 CDs in the series.
“Mot Adeladlogn” by keyboardist, Teshome Meteku (or Mitiku), is from Ethiopiques 1. Mitiku’s brother, Theodros, is on sax, and Seifu Yohannes sings. Mitiku emigrated to the US during the Derg, like many Ethiopian musicians. Since the Derg ended, he’s been back a number of times.
5 Dub Colossus – Guragigna (Real World)
The totally wonderful Ethiopian/British collective, Dub Colossus, thankfully have a new album out - “Addis through the looking glass”. “Guragigna”, is from an EP linked to the album called “Rockers meet Addis Uptown”. The pianist in Dub Colossus is a youngster, Samuel Yirga Mitiku, and I couldn’t help wondering if he’s related to Teshome, who we heard before Dub Colussus, but I couldn’t find anything confirming that he was.
Sheer Music bring out Dub Colussus in South Africa, and thanks to them for making the EP available.
6 Sidi Toure and Friends– Bera nay wassa (Thrill Jockey)
Sidi Toure is based in his city of birth, Gao, on the Niger River in Eastern Mali. Like Salif Keita he defied his noble family to become a musician. His latest record, “Sahel Folk”, only his second western release, is a collection of duets recorded in his sister’s house in Gao. On “Bera nay wassa” he plays the kurbu (a three-stringed instrument with a skin resonator which can be struck percussively) and sings, while Douma Cisse plays the guitar. The title means “Honour goes straight to the heart”.
7 Mamadou Diabate – Humanity (World Village)
New York-based Mamadou Diabate is the cousin of Toumani Diabate. “Humanity” is from his brand new album “Courage” which he went back to Bamako to record. All the musicians are Malian, except for his usual NY bass player, Noah Jarret. The wonderful balafon player (technically the instrument is a bala and balafon refers to the musician) is Lansana Fode Diabate.
8 Miriam Makeba - Dakhla Yunik (Stern’s Africa)
Miriam Makeba’s version of the Lebanese traditional song “Dakhla Yunik” which she recorded in the mid-70s during her exile in Guinea for well known Guinean label, Syliphone. The band contained some top flight Guinean players, like Seckou “Diamond Finger” Diabate, from Bembeya Jazz National. You can find that on Stern’s collection called “Miriam Makeba: The Guinea Years”.
9 Alexander Maloof and the Maloof Oriental Orchestra – Fatima (Rounder)
Syrian pianist, composer, orchestra leader, publisher and producer Alexander Maloof and the Maloof Oriental Orchestra with his tune “Fatima”. Maloof was very much part of the New York music establishment, especially in the 20s and 30s, when he played Carnegie Hall for the likes of Albert Einstein. His blend of western form, harmonies and orchestration with Arabic folk songs and classical music was widely embraced. That’s on Rounder’s collection of 78s from 1916 to the early 50s, called “Music of Arab Americans”.
10 Ferrante and Teicher – El Cumbanchero (Westminster)
Over the last few months we’ve been listening to all kinds of “possible musics” and “ethnological forgeries”, but studiously avoiding a closely related cousin – “lounge exotica” or “easy listening” – inventive but often maudlin, with highly plastic, droopy kinds of sounds – queasy listening. But I’ve come across something pretty exciting of late – the spiky, off-kilter sounds of Ferrante and Teicher, Julliard graduates active in the 50s and 60s. As one reviewer puts it, a “Dimension-X version of easy listening” – the influence of Joe Meek, John Cage, and Moondog writ large. “El Cumbanchero” is some kind of a Caribbean-Mexican mix. It’s from their 1956 LP, “Soundproof”.
11 Lucho Bermudez y Su Orquesta – Fiesta de negritos (Soundway)
Lucho Bermúdez y Su Orquesta with a mix of US big band music and Columbian cumbia. Bermúdez’s career spanned from the 1930s through to the 1960s, and the orchestra toured throughout the US and Cuba. They did some lovely stuff with Trinidadian calypso singers that we’ll listen to in the coming months.
12 Pedro Laza y Sus Pelayeros – La Picua (Soundway)
We listened to some Disco Fuentes stuff from Columbia last month, and there’s a lot more to come.
Both of these tunes come from a series of limited edition 7” vinyl only reissues just released by Soundway.
13 Bienvenidos – Systema Solar (Trikont)
I must say I find the Discos Fuentes sound of the modern rooted in the old, rural and peasant extremely compelling. Popular amongst students in Columbia, Systema Solar do the same in a post-hip hop kind of way.
14 Lee Perry – Better Days (Trojan)
A Lee Perry production of the Carlton & His Shoes single “Better Days” from 1973. “Carlton & His Shoes” are Carlton Manning, a founding member of the reggae roots group, the Abyssinians, and his brothers Donald and Lynford, who also joined the Abyssinians.
15 Atilla the Hun & Lord Executor – Jim Congo Meyer (Rounder)
Trinidadian calypso giant Attila the Hun was born Raymond Quevedo. Apart from touring all around the US and the Caribbean, he was active in local politics in the 40s and 50s, and even wrote a history of calypso. “Jim Congo Meyer” comes from the Rounder collection “Shango, Shouter and Obeah: Supernatural Calypso from Trinidad 1934 - 40”.
16 Snooks Eaglin – St James Infirmary (Smithsonian Folkways)
Playing different versions of “St James Infirmary” is turning into some kind of a custom on this show. A few months ago Sean O’Connor spun Allen Toussaint’s recent instrumental version, and we’ve heard versions by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band from New Orleans. Veteran guitarist and singer Snooks Eaglin’s lovely version was, I think, used in a UK Budweiser TV ad, horrible as that might seem. Incidently, Eaglin was in Allen Toussaint’s 1950s band, the Flamingoes.
17 David Johansen and Larry Saltzman – The Last Kind Words (Luaka Bop)
In the early 2000s David Johansen, the singer for the glam rock, proto-punk band, The New York Dolls, reinvented himself pretty convincingly as an old-time blues singer. This is his version of Geeshie Wiley’s fine song, “The Last Kind Words”. It’s from the soundtrack to the 2003 documentary “Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus”.
18 Ola Belle Reed – High on the Mountain (Smithsonian Folkways)
“High on the Mountain” is probably Ola Belle Reed’s most famous song. Ola Belle Reed was a singer-songwriter and banjo player from North Carolina very rooted in Appalachian music and culture. Smithsonian Folkways brought out a wonderful collection of her stuff last year, “Rising Sun Melodies”.
19 Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard –- Working Girl Blues (Rounder)
Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard with a classic Dickens’ song “Working Girl Blues”. As I mentioned last month, Hazel Dickens, an old timey West Virginian singer-songwriter – one of the best, from what I’ve heard – died a few months ago. She met Alice Gerrard, Mike Seeger’s wife, when she moved from Mercer County to the Baltimore-Washington area to seek factory work, and their musical partnership lasted 20 years, although they played some reunions in the 90s.
20 John Wright – Dornoch Links - The Shepherd Crook – Iochiel’s Awa to France (Topic)
John Wright is a pretty obscure English folk musician who’s lived in France for decades now – so long that he was very much part of the French folk revival of the 70s. Here’s a medley of three traditional tunes played on the jew’s harp and recorded for Topic. The track appears on the LP “Unaccompanied: vocal-jew’s harp-fiddle-mouth organ”.
21 unknown – Gamelan Gabor # 2 (Sublime Frequencies)
From the Sublime Frequencies release “Night recordings from Bali”. Apparently Balinese Gamelan music is faster, tighter, and louder than their mighty neighbours to the west, the Javanese. Gamelan music is played by the Hindu minority in Bali.
22 Bo Hein and Bo Mein – Master of the nine cities (Sublime Frequencies)
This is a “nat pwe” from Burma. A “nat” is the spirit of a historical figure who met a tragic or violent death, and if recognized can either assist or devastate a person’s life. And a “pwe” is a ceremony to appease a nat. Pwes happen all the time in Burma - for success in business, happy marriage and good health. It’s from “Music of Nat Pwe: Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar Vol 3”.
23 The Son of P.M. – Asava Leela (Sathit Tra Kon Khu)
From Thailand in the 60s. At the beginning of their career, PM stood for Payong Mukda, the driving force behind the band, and then later Pocket Music. The band was key to the development of “glassic” music or “progressive classical music” aka “Thai Modernised Music” aka “Shadow Music”, after the Shadows. The song is from the LP “Glassic Goes Modern Dance” and that particular dance rhythm is a “guaracha”.
24 Sun City Girls – Black Orchid (Abduction)
I was talking about “ethnological forgeries” earlier, and the Sun City Girls are prime proponents. “Black Orchid” is something from their last ever album, “Funeral Mariachi”, which came out last year, and is built posthumously around the drum tracks of Charles Gocher, who died some time ago. “Black Orchid” is some kind of Indonesian rock thing.
25 Bijan Chemirani with Ross Daly - Makrinitsa (L'empreinte Digitale)
The magnificent teaming of zarb or frame drum maestro, Bijan Chemirani, and Ross Daly on a lyre of his own invention (a cross between a Cretan lyre and an Indian sangari), on Daly’s tune, “Makrinitsa”. Bijan comes from the great dynasty of Iranian percussionists, the Chemirani. His father Djamchid and brother Keyvan also play on the tune. Daly is an Irishman who been living in Crete for over 35 years.
Earlier in the post I referred to Zim Ngqawana’s adventurous openness – he actually played with Djamchid Chemirani in Rylands a few years ago at the Galaxy, I think it was, with, strangely enough, another Irishman transposed from Ireland, Christy Doran.
26 Emily Portman – Two Sisters (Furrow)
From the lyre to the harp, Emily Portman’s version of a traditional song from her 2010 release, “The Glamoury”.
27 Martin Carthy – Bold General Wolfe (Topic)
Martin Carthy has just turned 70; actually he pipped Bob Dylan to the post. Martin Carthy has been at the forefront of the English folk revival since its inception, more or less, and helped introduce loads of important sonic innovations (percussive acoustic guitar playing, mysterious unaccompanied polyphonic singing, droney electric guitar, brass) and literally spawned a key mover in the current folk scene, fiddler, singer and songwriter, Eliza Carthy. Toby Shippey provides the trumpet, Ben Ivitsky, the trombone and Eliza Carthy the melodeon or was it the harmonium? It’s from his 2004 album, “Waiting for Angels”.
28 June Tabor – Jamaica (Topic)
About three months ago I played you one of the two instrumentals from June Tabor’s new album, “Ashore”, an album of songs which contemplate from the safety of the shore the sea and its crossing. “Jamaica” is the second instrumental from the album. It features Andy Cutting on accordion, Mark Emerson on violin, Tim Harries on bass and Huw Warren on piano.
Ngqawana died in May. He was a fearless multi-instrumentalist, mostly on various reeds, and a composer – always crossing boundaries between cultures, and between structure and freedom. “Dirge” comes off his 2003 album, “Vadzimu” on Sheer Music. It’s one you should get if you haven’t already.
2 Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou – Von Vo Nono (Strut)
We’ve listened to Poly-Rythmo on this show many times, mainly drawing on recent reissues of the mid 70s stuff when they were at their peak, brought out by small specialist labels like Analog Africa. Orchestra Poly-rythmo had the wind taken out of their sails by the advent of the Marxist-Leninist dictatorship in Benin in 1972, which lasted until 1990, and began to bite from the late 70s. But they’re now back almost at full intensity on Strut Records with a core of original players (Loko Pierre, Vincent Ahehehinnou, Bentho Gustave, Melome Clement), largely thanks to the success of those reissues. This is their take on fellow Beninese music veteran Gnonnas Pedro’s classic tune “Von Vo Nono”. Pedro died in 2004, so I guess it’s a kind of tribute. Their new release on Strut Records is called “Cotonou Club”.
3 Imperial Tiger Orchestra – Etu Gela (Mental Groove Records)
The Imperial Tiger Orchestra is from Switzerland. They basically only play blistering, genre-crunching Ethio-jazz. You might have seen them in Cape Town round about September last year. The tune “Etu Gela” comes off their 2010 EP, “Addis Abeba”.
4 Teshome Meteku - Mot Adeladlogn (Buda Musique)
That we’re hearing that sort of furious Ethio-jazz fusion is in no small part due to Francis Falceto’s reissue series “Ethiopiques”, which he started in 1997, 10 years after the end of the Derg and six years after the end of communism in Ethiopia. The imprint mainly profiles music from the mid 60s till the military coup in 1974. There are now about 24 CDs in the series.
“Mot Adeladlogn” by keyboardist, Teshome Meteku (or Mitiku), is from Ethiopiques 1. Mitiku’s brother, Theodros, is on sax, and Seifu Yohannes sings. Mitiku emigrated to the US during the Derg, like many Ethiopian musicians. Since the Derg ended, he’s been back a number of times.
5 Dub Colossus – Guragigna (Real World)
The totally wonderful Ethiopian/British collective, Dub Colossus, thankfully have a new album out - “Addis through the looking glass”. “Guragigna”, is from an EP linked to the album called “Rockers meet Addis Uptown”. The pianist in Dub Colossus is a youngster, Samuel Yirga Mitiku, and I couldn’t help wondering if he’s related to Teshome, who we heard before Dub Colussus, but I couldn’t find anything confirming that he was.
Sheer Music bring out Dub Colussus in South Africa, and thanks to them for making the EP available.
6 Sidi Toure and Friends– Bera nay wassa (Thrill Jockey)
Sidi Toure is based in his city of birth, Gao, on the Niger River in Eastern Mali. Like Salif Keita he defied his noble family to become a musician. His latest record, “Sahel Folk”, only his second western release, is a collection of duets recorded in his sister’s house in Gao. On “Bera nay wassa” he plays the kurbu (a three-stringed instrument with a skin resonator which can be struck percussively) and sings, while Douma Cisse plays the guitar. The title means “Honour goes straight to the heart”.
7 Mamadou Diabate – Humanity (World Village)
New York-based Mamadou Diabate is the cousin of Toumani Diabate. “Humanity” is from his brand new album “Courage” which he went back to Bamako to record. All the musicians are Malian, except for his usual NY bass player, Noah Jarret. The wonderful balafon player (technically the instrument is a bala and balafon refers to the musician) is Lansana Fode Diabate.
8 Miriam Makeba - Dakhla Yunik (Stern’s Africa)
Miriam Makeba’s version of the Lebanese traditional song “Dakhla Yunik” which she recorded in the mid-70s during her exile in Guinea for well known Guinean label, Syliphone. The band contained some top flight Guinean players, like Seckou “Diamond Finger” Diabate, from Bembeya Jazz National. You can find that on Stern’s collection called “Miriam Makeba: The Guinea Years”.
9 Alexander Maloof and the Maloof Oriental Orchestra – Fatima (Rounder)
Syrian pianist, composer, orchestra leader, publisher and producer Alexander Maloof and the Maloof Oriental Orchestra with his tune “Fatima”. Maloof was very much part of the New York music establishment, especially in the 20s and 30s, when he played Carnegie Hall for the likes of Albert Einstein. His blend of western form, harmonies and orchestration with Arabic folk songs and classical music was widely embraced. That’s on Rounder’s collection of 78s from 1916 to the early 50s, called “Music of Arab Americans”.
10 Ferrante and Teicher – El Cumbanchero (Westminster)
Over the last few months we’ve been listening to all kinds of “possible musics” and “ethnological forgeries”, but studiously avoiding a closely related cousin – “lounge exotica” or “easy listening” – inventive but often maudlin, with highly plastic, droopy kinds of sounds – queasy listening. But I’ve come across something pretty exciting of late – the spiky, off-kilter sounds of Ferrante and Teicher, Julliard graduates active in the 50s and 60s. As one reviewer puts it, a “Dimension-X version of easy listening” – the influence of Joe Meek, John Cage, and Moondog writ large. “El Cumbanchero” is some kind of a Caribbean-Mexican mix. It’s from their 1956 LP, “Soundproof”.
11 Lucho Bermudez y Su Orquesta – Fiesta de negritos (Soundway)
Lucho Bermúdez y Su Orquesta with a mix of US big band music and Columbian cumbia. Bermúdez’s career spanned from the 1930s through to the 1960s, and the orchestra toured throughout the US and Cuba. They did some lovely stuff with Trinidadian calypso singers that we’ll listen to in the coming months.
12 Pedro Laza y Sus Pelayeros – La Picua (Soundway)
We listened to some Disco Fuentes stuff from Columbia last month, and there’s a lot more to come.
Both of these tunes come from a series of limited edition 7” vinyl only reissues just released by Soundway.
13 Bienvenidos – Systema Solar (Trikont)
I must say I find the Discos Fuentes sound of the modern rooted in the old, rural and peasant extremely compelling. Popular amongst students in Columbia, Systema Solar do the same in a post-hip hop kind of way.
14 Lee Perry – Better Days (Trojan)
A Lee Perry production of the Carlton & His Shoes single “Better Days” from 1973. “Carlton & His Shoes” are Carlton Manning, a founding member of the reggae roots group, the Abyssinians, and his brothers Donald and Lynford, who also joined the Abyssinians.
15 Atilla the Hun & Lord Executor – Jim Congo Meyer (Rounder)
Trinidadian calypso giant Attila the Hun was born Raymond Quevedo. Apart from touring all around the US and the Caribbean, he was active in local politics in the 40s and 50s, and even wrote a history of calypso. “Jim Congo Meyer” comes from the Rounder collection “Shango, Shouter and Obeah: Supernatural Calypso from Trinidad 1934 - 40”.
16 Snooks Eaglin – St James Infirmary (Smithsonian Folkways)
Playing different versions of “St James Infirmary” is turning into some kind of a custom on this show. A few months ago Sean O’Connor spun Allen Toussaint’s recent instrumental version, and we’ve heard versions by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band from New Orleans. Veteran guitarist and singer Snooks Eaglin’s lovely version was, I think, used in a UK Budweiser TV ad, horrible as that might seem. Incidently, Eaglin was in Allen Toussaint’s 1950s band, the Flamingoes.
17 David Johansen and Larry Saltzman – The Last Kind Words (Luaka Bop)
In the early 2000s David Johansen, the singer for the glam rock, proto-punk band, The New York Dolls, reinvented himself pretty convincingly as an old-time blues singer. This is his version of Geeshie Wiley’s fine song, “The Last Kind Words”. It’s from the soundtrack to the 2003 documentary “Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus”.
18 Ola Belle Reed – High on the Mountain (Smithsonian Folkways)
“High on the Mountain” is probably Ola Belle Reed’s most famous song. Ola Belle Reed was a singer-songwriter and banjo player from North Carolina very rooted in Appalachian music and culture. Smithsonian Folkways brought out a wonderful collection of her stuff last year, “Rising Sun Melodies”.
19 Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard –- Working Girl Blues (Rounder)
Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard with a classic Dickens’ song “Working Girl Blues”. As I mentioned last month, Hazel Dickens, an old timey West Virginian singer-songwriter – one of the best, from what I’ve heard – died a few months ago. She met Alice Gerrard, Mike Seeger’s wife, when she moved from Mercer County to the Baltimore-Washington area to seek factory work, and their musical partnership lasted 20 years, although they played some reunions in the 90s.
20 John Wright – Dornoch Links - The Shepherd Crook – Iochiel’s Awa to France (Topic)
John Wright is a pretty obscure English folk musician who’s lived in France for decades now – so long that he was very much part of the French folk revival of the 70s. Here’s a medley of three traditional tunes played on the jew’s harp and recorded for Topic. The track appears on the LP “Unaccompanied: vocal-jew’s harp-fiddle-mouth organ”.
21 unknown – Gamelan Gabor # 2 (Sublime Frequencies)
From the Sublime Frequencies release “Night recordings from Bali”. Apparently Balinese Gamelan music is faster, tighter, and louder than their mighty neighbours to the west, the Javanese. Gamelan music is played by the Hindu minority in Bali.
22 Bo Hein and Bo Mein – Master of the nine cities (Sublime Frequencies)
This is a “nat pwe” from Burma. A “nat” is the spirit of a historical figure who met a tragic or violent death, and if recognized can either assist or devastate a person’s life. And a “pwe” is a ceremony to appease a nat. Pwes happen all the time in Burma - for success in business, happy marriage and good health. It’s from “Music of Nat Pwe: Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar Vol 3”.
23 The Son of P.M. – Asava Leela (Sathit Tra Kon Khu)
From Thailand in the 60s. At the beginning of their career, PM stood for Payong Mukda, the driving force behind the band, and then later Pocket Music. The band was key to the development of “glassic” music or “progressive classical music” aka “Thai Modernised Music” aka “Shadow Music”, after the Shadows. The song is from the LP “Glassic Goes Modern Dance” and that particular dance rhythm is a “guaracha”.
24 Sun City Girls – Black Orchid (Abduction)
I was talking about “ethnological forgeries” earlier, and the Sun City Girls are prime proponents. “Black Orchid” is something from their last ever album, “Funeral Mariachi”, which came out last year, and is built posthumously around the drum tracks of Charles Gocher, who died some time ago. “Black Orchid” is some kind of Indonesian rock thing.
25 Bijan Chemirani with Ross Daly - Makrinitsa (L'empreinte Digitale)
The magnificent teaming of zarb or frame drum maestro, Bijan Chemirani, and Ross Daly on a lyre of his own invention (a cross between a Cretan lyre and an Indian sangari), on Daly’s tune, “Makrinitsa”. Bijan comes from the great dynasty of Iranian percussionists, the Chemirani. His father Djamchid and brother Keyvan also play on the tune. Daly is an Irishman who been living in Crete for over 35 years.
Earlier in the post I referred to Zim Ngqawana’s adventurous openness – he actually played with Djamchid Chemirani in Rylands a few years ago at the Galaxy, I think it was, with, strangely enough, another Irishman transposed from Ireland, Christy Doran.
26 Emily Portman – Two Sisters (Furrow)
From the lyre to the harp, Emily Portman’s version of a traditional song from her 2010 release, “The Glamoury”.
27 Martin Carthy – Bold General Wolfe (Topic)
Martin Carthy has just turned 70; actually he pipped Bob Dylan to the post. Martin Carthy has been at the forefront of the English folk revival since its inception, more or less, and helped introduce loads of important sonic innovations (percussive acoustic guitar playing, mysterious unaccompanied polyphonic singing, droney electric guitar, brass) and literally spawned a key mover in the current folk scene, fiddler, singer and songwriter, Eliza Carthy. Toby Shippey provides the trumpet, Ben Ivitsky, the trombone and Eliza Carthy the melodeon or was it the harmonium? It’s from his 2004 album, “Waiting for Angels”.
28 June Tabor – Jamaica (Topic)
About three months ago I played you one of the two instrumentals from June Tabor’s new album, “Ashore”, an album of songs which contemplate from the safety of the shore the sea and its crossing. “Jamaica” is the second instrumental from the album. It features Andy Cutting on accordion, Mark Emerson on violin, Tim Harries on bass and Huw Warren on piano.
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