Rolling Global Sublime Whirled Music 2009 (With an emphasis on African likely)

Last year's thread:

Rolling Sublime Whirled Music 2008 (a catch-all thread when you can't find another one that works)

This is intended to be a thread for whatever global (mostly non-English language) sounds you hear this year. We will mostly leave the reggaeton,salsa and other Latin sounds to its own thread, and similarly for reggae and dancehall. Others may also be starting threads for specific reissues or continuing existing reissue threads. And Brazilian threads will be the place for those ....so that leaves this one for other stuff--

Any New Yorkers (or folks visiting New York) going to this:

Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 7pm (doors open 6pm)

12 Artists from Around the World on 3 Stages!!!

CALYPSO ROSE - The legendary Queen of Calypso
CHICHA LIBRE - Psychedelic surf cumbia from Brooklyn
FEMI KUTI & The Positive Force - Afrobeat rebel torchbearer
HOT 8 BRASS BAND - New Orleans street party
KAILASH KHER'S KAILASA - Bollywood's Sufi pop idol
LA TROBA KUNG-FÚ - Barcelona's rumba catalana mestizos
L & O - Swinging French chanson
MARCIO LOCAL - Brazil's samba soul innovator
OCCIDENTAL BROTHERS Dance Band International - Chicago's Kings of Highlife
SHANBEHZADEH ENSEMBLE - Trance music and dance of Southern Iran
TANYA TAGAQ - Canada's Inuit vocal experimentalist
WATCHA CLAN - Electric Mediterranean diaspora dance party

At WEBSTER HALL
125 E. 11th Street (bet. Bowery & 4th Ave.), NYC

OCCIDENTAL BROTHERS Dance Band International - Chicago's Kings of Highlife

These folks include 2 guys from Ghana and a white guy from Michigan who spent time in Ghana. They do a kitschy but nice highlife version of New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle." Theya re going to be in DC for free Wednesday January 7th from 6 to 7 at the Kennedy Center

http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/index.cfm/fuseaction/current.press_release/project_id/408.cfm

i got another orig music LP!

http://www.engine-studios.com/vpp/Africa/Images/FBebey_Akwaaba.jpg

The late Francis Bebey of Cameroon was a cultural giant. A novelist, musicologist and performer on as many as 100 instruments-Afropop.org

and on youtube:

http://www.africambiance.org/phpbbv3/viewforum.php?f=2

As I noted on last year's thread, there's lots of Congolese folks living abroad here

Occidental Brothers Dance Band International at the Kennedy Center for free should be fun Wednesday (even if I have my doubts about these revival bands--at least this group includes some Ghanaian highlife vets and the New Order cover comes across as clever not gimmicky to me).

Thursday night is Brazilian music night in the District with two worthwhile gigs. Rio de Janeiro's Marcio Local is a 30-something musician who, with his band, merges bouncy old-school samba with r’n’b and rock. Local and his group will be appearing for free from 6 p.m. to 7p.m. at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=201508704

Garotas Suecas, from Sao Paulo, Brazil also have some samba in their sound but they merge it with a big dose of
garage rock. They will be appearing with local dj Neville Chamberlain(who has been to Brazil a few times) at 9 p.m. at Comet Ping Pong, 5037 Connecticut Ave NW, $ (not free) Doors 9pm.

Forgot about this thread-

Banda music - Mexico

K. Ctr. webcast of Rio's Marcio Local live for an hour at Kennedy Ctr tonight from 6 to 7 US east coast time

Ylowwek Scavel-Cronek has a really good African vinyl rip blog.

From there, I found Sakis et le Groupe Dynamic System - Cyclone (1993), which indeed is the fastest-tempo Paris Soukous album. Nice if Kanda Bongo Man / Diblo are inducing drowsiness.

Of other interest, the latest star of Cameroonian bikutsi is (evidently) Lady Ponce, with an album out in 2008, and she and her fans are net-savvy enough to post lots of videos here and there (expect the usual African line dancing). Seems to be a cut above most bikutsi.

Forgot about this thread-

Banda music - Mexico

― curmudgeon, Thursday, January 8, 2009 4:37 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark

ah, finally the place for my duranguense questions.

No, no, use this one! It's new and it's hottt!
OK, I'LL start it: Rolling Banda/Duranguense/Narcocorrido/Flashy Matching Suits Regional Mexican Thread 2009

omg a surfeit of banda threads.

Advice requested: Should I buy a physical copy of this Francophonic double disc or should I just download it from emusic? In other words, are the packaging and liner notes worth it? THANKS!

Over on the 78rpm thread, i posted 8 sides from a collection I'm working with. Arabic, I believe mostly Egyptian?

78 Collectors: Why are they so weird?

Advice requested: Should I buy a physical copy of this Francophonic double disc or should I just download it from emusic? In other words, are the packaging and liner notes worth it? THANKS!

― tylerw, Thursday, January 8, 2009 10:01 PM (

I'm guessing the packaging and liners are worth it. I've got one or 2 Franco best-ofs and am trying to decide whether to get this. It's been so highly touted everywhere and I've been happy with other Stern's reissues.

those are cool ian. makes me wonder what the 78 market is like in north africa. everything in the u.s. has been so picked over for decades, but maybe there's still troves of discs in flea markets in marrakech. (probably not, i suppose obsessive collectors haven't confined themselves to the north american continent.)

on the franco, i got it off emusic and it's predictably great. i don't mind not having all the trappings, but i've been training myself for the last few years not to want that stuff (so as to minimize the amount of physical media i have to make room for in the apartment.)

(the only other franco i have is the originalite comp, which is all early stuff and only has a little overlap with francophonic.)

i don't know much about MARKETS, especially foreign ones, but Dick Spottswood has compiled a v. thorough discography of Ethnic music produced in America (1st & 2nd generation immigrants most likely?) You figure there is or will be someday various international discographies as well.

And judging by what shows up on ebay, and what does & doesn't sell, there are probably vast stores of material unavailable to the U.S. collectors without "connections." Every once in a while someone will post large lots of 78s from a specific region and a handful will sell for $20 and who knows what happens to the rest? They go back to Greek guy's shelves to be sold at a later date?

this thread reminds me for no particular reason that i started an abortive cantopop thread a while back. anybody know anything? some of this stuff is great.

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=68700#unread

That's the Newish Japanese Bossa Nova & Sophistipop [non-Shibuya-Kei]thread

Any New Yorkers See this show:

Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 7pm

12 Artists on 3 Stages!!!

CALYPSO ROSE - The legendary Queen of Calypso
CHICHA LIBRE - Psychedelic surf cumbia from Brooklyn
FEMI KUTI & The Positive Force - Afrobeat rebel torchbearer
HOT 8 BRASS BAND - New Orleans street party
KAILASH KHER'S KAILASA - Bollywood's Sufi pop idol
LA TROBA KUNG-FÚ - Barcelona's rumba catalana mestizos
L & O - Swinging French chanson
MARCIO LOCAL - Brazil's samba soul innovator
OCCIDENTAL BROTHERS Dance Band International - Chicago's Kings of Highlife
SHANBEHZADEH ENSEMBLE - Trance music and dance of Southern Iran
TANYA TAGAQ - Canada's Inuit vocal experimentalist
WATCHA CLAN - Electric Mediterranean diaspora dance party

At WEBSTER HALL
125 E. 11th Street (bet. Bowery & 4th Ave.), NYC

I think some of the groups also did additional gigs elsewhere

New issue of the Beat magazine out...with reviews of festivals from the summer and the usual columns

Hey New Yorkers:

INAUGURATION NIGHT
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Come Celebrate this Historic Event
and the African Heritage of
President Barack Obama

with
SOUNDS OF TARAAB
Music from Zanzibar & East Africa

M. SALIEU SUSO
Kora Griot from West Africa

DJ NEVA
Music for the Masses!

Party starts 8 PM
(Email us the names of the people in your party to be put on the Reserved list,
and your cover will be discounted )

LEOPARD LOUNGE
85 2nd Ave @ 5th St
East Village, NYC 10003
212.253.2222 * www.leopardloungenyc.com

yesssssssss

This is a one-time pressing of 1,500 copies. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl

Yes, but oh no we are vinyl snobs...

Great looking cover.

xpost to cumudgeon -- they may be snobby in some ways, but they HAVE pressed their vinyl stuff on CD, and digitized their library!

um also i just received that francis bebey LP in the mail, and it is INSANE. so so so amazing. two sanzas (mbiras), distorted vocals, and talking drums on seven long-form groovy vibe-outs.

Don't sleep on Yousef Shamoun (sorry I find that expression irresistibly absurd sounding). He's probably the best Arabic singer in the US, which may not be saying a lot, but he's quite good.

(See youtube. I have one CD but it's all messed up and there are increasing numbers of drop-outs every time I play it.)

xpost to curmudgeon -- they may be snobby in some ways, but they HAVE pressed their vinyl stuff on CD, and digitized their library! -69

Excellent.

Meanwhile on some blogs the notion of what is authentic 'African' music is being batted about, although it's mainly being portrayed as aging 'whirled music' fans versus hip blogging kuduro and other programmed African beat types. Although interestingly someone (Scandanavian blogger Birdseed maybe?) is blogging about how some folks will listen to kuduro or kwaito because they are distinctively unique styles but they won't listen to Ugandan rap because it is considered too 'copycat.'

http://downwithtunes.blogspot.com/2009/01/in-defense-of-copycat.html

I should proofread before posting. Why did I use the word 'although' twice.

I ultimately find these arguments tiresome because I just want to hear more African music of any kind, and read about it too, whether it is 'copycat' African rap, a Sublime Frequencies product, a Rokia Traore artsy Malian whatever release or a reissue of Nigerian music. These what is authentic and what is hip and what is politically correct or music geek correct or ethnomusicologist or dj correct arguments while useful to some degree, ultimately seem like so much inside-baseball when there are bigger battles to fight (like getting any of this music heard and written about in the English language North American and UK and European 'world.'

http://wayneandwax.com/?p=1313

Meanwhile the VOA guy and the Awesome Tapes from Africa just keep digging out great mostly old stuff. Yea, I'm not one for living in the past but there's no point in ignoring it either.

http://www.voanews.com/english/africa/blog/index.cfm?mode=cat&catid=C2DFCEF2-9000-E2D4-0F376E6633818C59

http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com/

And while the 'what is the right African music to listen to' arguments get played out on blogs, folks keep dying in Eastern Congo and Darfur, and oppressed in Zimbabwe and elsewhere. Not that any of us talking on the internets can do much about that though.

curm dude THANKS for awesometapesfromafrica

<3<3<3<3

No problem.

Aww man, that Group Bombino lp that Pete(69) raved/linked about above is $22 from Forced Exposure who seem to be the exclusive distributor for Sublime Frequencies. I don't get charging that much, but I don't get paying for bottle service in fancy clubs or $10 bucks for a glass of wine or whatever for some types of clothing either. Yea, yea I know the S/F folks aren't gazillionaires and maybe 180 gram vinyl costs more and it has a fancy booklet inside apparently, but still. I'm gonna wait for these folks to make it a cd or digital as they've done for other S/F products- http://www.estradasphere.com/eshop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3_12&sort=20a&page=3

http://chiefboima.com/2009/01/13/a-taste-for-the-modern/#comment-106

huh. it seems a little boring that people are still talking about cultural legitimacy. i mostly respect boima's p.o.v., but the argument itself just seems so limiting.

South African kwaito dj coming to the UK and Miami

28/02/2009
Scala, King's Cross

Flying in from Johannesburg to celebrate his international recognition, Kronologik artist and South Africa's legendary DJ/Producer BLACKCOFFEE touches down in the UK for an exclusive 3 hour set. BLACKCOFFEE has a string of worldwide releases through Kronologik and is getting ready for the Miami Winter Conference 2009. He brings his deep house flavours to London.

http://www.africambiance.org/phpbbv3/viewforum.php?f=2

I posted this on last year's thread as well. It's an African music forum where most of the folks participating are of Congolese origin but live now in Europe, Canada, or the US

January 2009 top selling 20 releases from Sterns (album title first with artist name in next line)

1.FRANCOPHONIC VOL. 1 1953-1980
FRANCO & TPOK JAZZ (38 releases), D.R.CONGO 1 1 2 STCD3041-42
2. WELCOME TO MALI
AMADOU & MARIAM (9 releases), MALI 2 4 2 BEC5772410
3. CONGO 70: RUMBA ROCK
VARIOUS/AFRICAN PEARLS (7 releases), D.R.CONGO 3 2 5 6139342
4. THE MANDE VARIATIONS
TOUMANI DIABATE (6 releases), MALI 4 8 9 WCD079
5. MALI 70: ELECTRIC MALI
VARIOUS/AFRICAN PEARLS (7 releases), MALI 5 New 1 6141132
6. BELLE EPOQUE VOLUME 2: MANSA
RAIL BAND (4 releases), MALI 6 5 7 STCD3039-40
7. BEL CANTO: BEST OF GENIDIA 1982-87
MBILIA BEL (14 releases), D.R.CONGO 7 6 14 STCD3037-38
8. TCHAMANTCHE
ROKIA TRAORE (5 releases), MALI 8 7 4 7559799345
9.MALI KOURA
ISSA BAGAYOGO (4 releases), MALI 9 New 1 6570361151-2
10. IPI NTOMBI: O.C.R. (IPI TOMBI)
BERTHA EGNOS/GAIL LAKIER (1 release), SOUTH AFRICA 10 20 8 CDRED682
11. GUINEE 70: THE DISCOTHEQUE YEARS
VARIOUS/AFRICAN PEARLS (7 releases), GUINEA 11 New 1 6140252
12. SALLE D'ATTENTE (CD + DVD)
SIMARO LE POETE LUTUMBA (1 release), D.R.CONGO 12 New 1 3700409803024
13. 20 YEARS HISTORY/BEST OF SYLLART
VARIOUS (IBRAHIM SYLLA) (1 release), AFRICA 13 Re-entry 3 CDS8911
14. CA VA SE SAVOIR
AMADOU SODIA (1 release), GUINEA 14 10 4 STCD1107
15. THE SYLIPHONE YEARS
BALLA & SES BALLADINS (2 releases), GUINEA 15 15 7 STCD3035-36
16. SUPER MAN
AWILO LONGOMBA (10 releases), D.R.CONGO 16 New 1 3700409802409
17. LA BONNE HUMEUR
MADILU SYSTEM (6 releases), D.R.CONGO 17 Re-entry 17 STCD1104
18. BON VOYAGE!! 1963-1977
RY-CO JAZZ (2 releases), CONGO/ANTILLES 18 3 2 RETRO22CD
19. RAISI JAKAYA M KIKWETE (NEW RECORD)
MAESTRO KING KIKI (2 releases), TANZANIA 19 9 4 PLANET006
20. MADE IN DAKAR
ORCHESTRA BAOBAB (8 releases), SENEGAL 20 25 11 WCD078

Some are not available on US labels yet

Rokia Traore's gonna be touring the US in February. I like her diplomat's daughter take on Malian music although others may find it too art-school.

I think this Group Bombino album is my favorite of the three. May have to listen to Group Inerane to make sure. Either way it's great.

I was afraid someone would say that about that vinyl limited release.

I just "borrowed" it via mp3. I'll buy the CD when it comes out.

Global Rhythms mag top 10

Various Artists
Calypsoul 70
Strut



Rokia Traoré
Tchamantché
Nonesuch



Kasai Allstars
In The 7th Moon...Crammed
Discs/Congotronics



Natacha Atlas & The Mazeeka Ensemble
Ana Hina
World Village



Terakaft
Akh Issudar
World Village



Anna Ternheim
Halfway To Five Points
Decca



Suarasama
Fajar Di Atwas Awan
Drag City



Xavier Rudd
Dark Shades Of Blue
Anti-



Ólafur Arnalds
Eulogy For Evolution
Erased Tapes



Boom Pam
Puerto Rican Nights
Essay Recordings

Rokia Traore video--drama, minimalistic guitar rhythm, atmosphere

http://www.rokiatraore.net/_sites/ROKIA_TRAORE/html/rokia_disco.htm

Should I go see Either Orchestra/Mahmoud Ahmed? Note: It's on Valentine's Day -- would my wife be into that. PLEASE ADVISE.

I would go, but I can't make promises about your wife. I missed an Either Orchestra concert that I got comped for , (possibly for ILM related reasons) thanks to the usual sinus trouble. I think they would be good live, especially with Mahmoud Ahmed.

i saw them with mulatu astatke three years ago, and they were great! mulatu was totally the star, obv, but e/orch were better than just great support.

my very first date with my now wife, by complete happenstance, was at an either/orchestra show almost 7 years ago!

The next release from Crammed/Congotronics--

Staff Benda Bilili are a group of paraplegic street musicians / polio victims who live in and around the grounds of Kinshasa Zoo, DR Congo. They make music of astonishing power and beauty. Four senior singer/guitarists sitting on spectacularly customized tricycles, occasionally dancing on the floor of the stage, arms raised in joyful supplication, are the core of the band. The group is backed by a younger, all-acoustic, rhythm section pounding out tight beats layered with weird, infectious guitar-like solos performed by a 17 year-old prodigy on a one-string electric lute he designed and built himself out of a tin can. The debut album by Staff Benda Bilili is produced by Vincent Kenis (responsible for introducing and producing Konono N°1, Kasaï Allstars and the Congotronics series) and it is out on the esteemed Crammed Discs record label at the beginning of April

hey 69, just saw your post re E/O and Mulatu playing together but am really curious as to why you'd say that mulatu was obv the star.

and oh yes, to the other question, DEF take your wife to see Mahmoud, he is incredible and has a good vibe with E/O

cool, i think i will try to get tix. this is probably not the kind of thing that will roll through colorado anytime soon ...

this is in colorado? denver or boulder? (figger it gonna be one of the two)

Denver -- DU's Newman Center ...

Finally got the recent Rokia Traore (out in the US now, was available elsewhere for awhile). A little of it has great distinctive Malian guitar work, other cuts are real atmospheric and dramatic, her voice goes up and down scales and stuff nicely at times, and alas there are some cuts that are just too nice and afro-folky. She's gonna be in NYC next Wednesday and Saturday and DC next Thursday. Maybe your town too.

I've also been listening to that last Juana Molina cd. She's also touring the US now. It's quirky and sometimes mellow but I like it also.

I wonder why UK-based fRoots magazine and website reading whirled music fans don't read ilx and whirled threads especially on ilx. Seems like there are lots of UK folks into such sounds but it's always quiet here. We're a scary lot or they've never heard of this...or a combination of both.

hey 69, just saw your post re E/O and Mulatu playing together but am really curious as to why you'd say that mulatu was obv the star.

and oh yes, to the other question, DEF take your wife to see Mahmoud, he is incredible and has a good vibe with E/O

― H in Addis, Thursday, January 29, 2009 10:47 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark

he was introduced that way! also, he appears much less frequently (at least in DC, and id think, in the US), and he's a more established ethio-jazz musician, insofar as he is THE FATHER OF ETHIO-JAZZ

oh oh and his suit was nicer than any of the EO dudes' suits

i mean since you are in addis, i imagine youll have some totally salient counter-argument

Arabesque Festival coming to the Kennedy Center starting February 23. I gotta ask RS about it on this thread or others. Lotsa names big and small.

I'm still listening to Rokia Traore's latest. I love the stripped-down, minimalist feel of the cd. Traore mixes her breathy vocals over her own Ali Farka Toure-inspired electric guitar strumming. Then on a few cuts her voice rises up and seemingly gets angry (I can't speak Bambara or French and don't have the lyric sheet). Yea, yea I know she's not like those Yaala Yaala cds of Malian music but she's just as exciting,albeit in a different way. ILXer Mike T-diva has praised her on other threads.

Staff Benda Bilili are a group of paraplegic street musicians / polio victims who live in and around the grounds of Kinshasa Zoo, DR Congo.

ok, this sounds like a vice parody of congotronics.

but the video's pretty cool.

ha, here's an actual vice article about them.

excellent

Busy w/ parenting I missed Rokia Traore out at the Barns of Wolf Trap last night. Saw the W. Post online review--it said she played for 2 hours and mostly rocked, backed by guitar, bass, and ngoni. I think she has another NYC show on this 2 week US tour.

a digitized tape blog inspired by awesome tapes covering East Africa and Congo

http://dalstonoxfamshop.blogspot.com/

Ha. I saw Pepe Kalle and his dwarf dancer at the long-gone Kilimanjaro in DC back in the '80s I think

http://www.ntwiga.net/blog/

Here's another one

David, from Richmond, Virginia, who posts on the africa ambiance forum I linked to upthread, posts his two hour Congolese radio shows online here--http://wrir.org/x/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=41

RY-CO JAZZ
Bon Voyage!!
(RetroAfric)
Where Congo met the Antilles, 1963-1977.

This is supposed to be really good

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/cdreviews/4535753/Oumou-Sangare---Seya-pop-CD-opf-the-week.html

Hopefully this will be released in the US on February 23, the day it isavailable in the UK

WORLD MUSIC EUROPEAN AIRPLAY 20
Jauary’s most played world music albums, compiled from returns from radio DJs all over Europe World Music Charts Europe

DUB COLOSSUS In A Town Called Addis (Real World)
AMADOU & MARIAM Welcome To Mali (Because)
KAL Radio Romanista (Asphalt Tango)
FRANCO & LE TPOK JAZZ Francophonic (Stern’s)
CHIWONISO Rebel Woman (Cumbancha)
LILA DOWNS Shake Away (EMI)
CESARIA EVORA Radio Mindelo (Lusafrica)
MAD MANOUSH The Gipsy R-Evolution (Turicaphon)
ORCHESTRE POLY-RYTHMO DE COTONOU The Vodoun Effect (Analog Africa)
AMSTERDAM KLEZMER BAND Zaraza (Essay)
NOVALIMA Coba Coba (Cumbancha)
RAMESH B. WEERATUNGA This Is (Bluebird Cafe Berlin)
GANGBE BRASS BAND Assiko (Contre Jour)
DOTSCHY REINHARDT Suni (Galileo)
DISSIDENTEN & JIL JILALA Tanger Sessions (Exil)
VARIOUS ARTISTS Arriba La Cumbia (Crammed)
TITI ROBIN Kali Sultana (Naive)
KOCANI ORKESTAR The Ravished Bride (Crammed)
KASBAH ROCKERS w. BILL LASWELL Kasbah Rockers (Barbarity)
NITIN SAWHNEY London Undersound (Cooking Vinyl)
© 2009 www.worldmusicnight.com

http://www.africanhiphopradio.com/

more musical history stuff here

http://radiodiffusion.wordpress.com/

Mali's Oumou Sangare's gonna tour the UK and Europe. She still has a great voice that should be appreciated by fans of the Yaala Yaala label and 'world' music listeners alike

from her myspace site--

Apr 1 2009 8:00P
Alhambra - Oumou Sangare Paris,
Apr 3 2009 8:00P
Cully Jazz Festival - Oumou Sangare Cully,
Apr 23 2009 8:00P
St George’s - Oumou Sangare Bristol,
Apr 24 2009 8:00P
Barbican - Oumou Sangare London,
Apr 26 2009 8:00P
South Hill Park Arts Centre - Oumou Sangare Bracknell,
May 30 2009 8:00P
Africa Festival - Oumou Sangare Wurzburg,

more old-school African here-http://globalgroovers.blogspot.com/

A number of the reviews of Rokia Traore's live shows on her recent US tour focussed on the audience (especially a poorly written one from a Harvard paper). You know, the usual---the audience are all uptight white people and these uptight white folks are just sitting. The reviewers ignore the fact that Traore's hybrid sound and Paris residence during much of her music career means she has never had a pure Malian audience that will attract Malians and other Africans living abroad (who might or might not want to dance to Traore's hybrid sound). Plus some promoters don't know how to market to such an immigrant audience. Since indie rock blogs have not noticed her (the way say throwback soul singer Sharon Jones has gotten their attention) she's not reaching a younger, possibly more inclined to dance audience. And not all of her music is that get up dance anyway. Although despite all those caveats, some of those folks may be too stiff (but at least they're seeing her).

Arabic music (not elsewhere classified)">I just did some Arabesque posting here Arabic music (not elsewhere classified)

The Global Rhythms magazine website (that I thought Unperson used to be involved with) has not updated their top 10 in awhile.

With the Arabesque Festival running in DC through March 15th, I've been posting over on the Arabic music thread. So I read some blog where the blogger's friend told him to ignore the "Putumayo-like" Fest and just go to Queens, or other areas with large Arabic-speaking populations. What a kneejerk, knucklehead reaction. While yea, its smart to go to such areas to soak up culture (and its obviously gonna have cheaper and better food), if you went to Queens or Beirut for that matter and told someone you had the opportunity to see the Master Musicians of Jajouka or Marcel Khalife or Farida or any of the other musicians (not to mention the dancers and artists) and you did not go because of the Putmayo effect, I think they'd tell you that you were an idiot.

Arabic music (not elsewhere classified)

Or they'd say "what's Putumayo?"

So I e-mailed the Global Rhythms mag website folks to ask why they haven't updated their top new releases list since October 2008 and no one responded to my e-mail.

I'm still in an Arabesque mode (see a few posts up), although I did listen to some of that great Ghanaian hiplife rap comp from last year that Unperson reviewed in the Voice and praised on ILX too I think. I guess everyone else is in reissue land...

Are you using "Arabesque" as a genre name? Because it's horrible as a genre name. (Turkish "arabesk" is a different matter since it somehow makes more sense in that cultural context.) "Arabesque" is just some bullshit name given to Arabic fusion projects directed at the world music market, as far as I can tell. It doesn't do any work that "Arabic music" or "Arab music" can do.

(Or is "Arabesque" the name of the festival, in which case these comments are all off target.)

Just as the name of the Festival (and the KC Center I recall has a little paragraph somewhere explaining why they are using that name)

I think the Kennedy Center head said something about calligraphy as part of the explanation for the title. With art, theater, literature and fashion part of the event, they were not thinking about a narrow little whirled music term.

Is anyone else watching this series?

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/general/2009/02/20092213401464360.html

Just as the name of the Festival

Okay, sorry. I was probably just looking for something to go off about yesterday. (Yesterday was a baaaad day.)

x-post. Thanks Alex

Christgau links to petition re problems with international artists getting paperwork to play in the UK

http://www.najp.org/articles/2009/02/just-when-it-feels-like.html

curmudgeon, I see you were already talking about the new Rokia Trarore album, but I just heard her cover of "The Man I Love" recently and really liked it, especially when it takes off away from the English. You can listen to the whole track here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100200274

I don't listen to too much stuff like this, but I'd be interested in hearing it.

And yes, the spare accompaniment is great here.

Apparently that track was added to the US release of her cd, but was not on the versions earlier available in the rest of the world.

This most recent "Under the Radar" episode of Afropop Worldwide featured some very interesting stuff:

http://www.afropop.org/multi/feature/ID/870/Artists%20Featured%20in%20Under%20the%20Radar%202009

Unfortunately, I missed part of the music they played from Colombia, but caught enough to know I was interested. (I'm not even sure of the genre, but I know there's something similar on a Yuri Buenaventura CD. Also, I think I once heard something like this at a club in Philadelphia and asked a musicologist I was with what it was, but he didn't know either. (His specialty is Cuban music.)

I know "interesting" is lazy copy out, but really, almost all of this is interesting, like there's one track with electric lute that has a very psychedelic sort of sound, and there was another track that kept switching up rhythms somewhat mysteriously to throw in ragga or R&B type moves.

Check out "Moziki":

http://www.myspace.com/staffbendabilili

That song might be even better than what I remember seeing on a youtube video someone posted upthread. I really should listen to Afropop Worldwide. And get the Amadou & Mariam cd now that it has finally gotten a US release.

So my kid didn't want to go into the Vietnamese cd store and we were hungry, so we just went to eat. Not that I'd know what to get there. I still haven't gotten the Amadou & Mariam yet...And the rest of you?

Not into their sound.

^ me neither. too slick/modern or something.

That's what I get for asking.

I'll buy it at some point. I think they are great.

Me too.

Moroccan sample from Bizarre Foods tv show here:

Dj Quik & Kurupt-"Hey Playa (Moroccan Blues)"

Oudist Rahim AlHaj has a new album with sarodist Amjad Ali Khan. There's one track here:

http://www.myspace.com/rahimalhaj

So far I'm not hearing much "with" on this track. Opens with oud solo and then goes extremely Indian. I guess I hear some oud in the later part, but it's not so easy to discern.

Oh yeah, also while I'm thinking of it, this is as close as I'm probably going to get to writing a review of Grupo Fantasma's Sonidos Gold, which I think deserves a mention here in addition to the salsa thread:

Grupo Fantasma’s Sonidos Gold was nominated in the Grammys “Latin rock/alternative,” category, but it has far more to do with Afro-Latin dance music, or dance music in general, than typical nominations under that heading. The band may mix and match rhythms (and even that is done in moderation), but they don’t shortchange any of the rhythms they work with. Rhythms often switch up as an organic response to increased mysical tension. Cumbia is the dominant rhythm here, but often in combination with something else (often mixing with, or switching over to, salsa). There’s also a dash of afrobeat and more than a little funk. There is a retro/psychedelic sound to much of it, with surf guitar and dub-like production, but there is also some really hard horn playing, and the percussion is topnotch. While some reviews draw comparisons to the Fania All Stars (probably partly because Larry Harlow appears on the album), it sounds closer to 70s Eddie Palmieri to me. I’m surprised more has not been made of the two blatant Santana borrowings in “Gimme Some.” I hear a fair amount of music on KUNM here in Albuquerque that juggles some of the same elements, but while Grupo Fantasma has a sort of Southwestern sound, their solid Afro-Latin rhythmic base differentiates them from much of the competition. They are as much NYC, or Colombia, as Texas. The album ends to soon every time I play it.

http://www.myspace.com/fantasmatics

Decent (old) NPR story on khaleeji music:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12178346

Under-exploited rhythms here. Producers take note.

Extra Golden, 2 Kenyans and 2 DC indie-rockers, tonight at Comet Ping Pong in DC at 9ish. If I'm not too tired I may go.

Extra Golden had 3 white Americans(guitars & backing vocals) and 2 Kenyans(on vocals and drums/percussion) and were great. The show was just marketed to indie-rockers, so that's who attended (Guy P. from Fugazi, Jerry Busher, Amanda K. from the Apes). DC has a Kenyan embassy and a fairly high percentage of Africans who live around here, but alas, no specialized marketing was done. While it's a hybrid Benga/rock sound, I think Kenyans might have appreciated the show as well.

Parental responsibilities keep me away from Thursday night events, so no Habib Koite (Malian guitarist who blends multiple styles from his country, and whom Bonny Raitt loves) with Dobet Gnahore(Ivory Coast femme with a great voice who sings over West-African/ American-European folky hybrid strumming) tonight at Lisner and no

FREE on THURSDAYS ::ZOUK, HIP HOP, COUPE Decale & REGGAE @ JUSTE LOUNGE in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington DC

So Christgau gave Amadou & Mariam an A, and a high grade to Staff Benda Bilili. I didn't get promos, may need to buy them at this point.

x-post from above, just watched a youtube of some khaleeji music. Good stuff

Nice Matos review in the Baltimore City Paper of Extra Golden. That being said, it would be great to someday get to the point where folks would not have to get defensive and say, "this is not Putumayo easy-listening baby boomer Starbucks stuff really, it's good trust me." Oh the damage Putumayo has caused. Can't even get people to read this thread.

Extra Golden is great. Or at least has 4 or 5 songs I think are great.
I've really tried to love Armadou & Miriam, but it's all pretty meh to me. I guess the whole Malian thing is boring to my ears. Could file all of it in that "things you should like but don't" thread.

This is probably going to be one of the better salsa albums of the year. Choco Orta is a sonera from Puerto Rico, now living in NYC. I just read that she is backed up on this by Gilberto Santa Rosa (who also produced it) and Adalberto Santiago, so she will have a solid coro behind her. She's not super well-known, but in my opinion she's an underutilized salsa vocalist (and there aren't that many first-rate female salsa singers, really, despite the fame of Celia Cruz):

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/23560.10?nuhmdETa;;392

Habib Koite's show got a mixed and kinda negative review from the Washington Post(he said he liked him better in the past and that this gig was just a bunch of extended solos without songs). He liked Dobet Gnahore and complemented her dancing. I do not think she has a new cd out btw.

just got a new orig music LP!

UNDER THE COCONUT TREE
music from grand cayman and tortola

How's that African music book you got?

good! not sure what i posted when, but i got john storm roberts's BLACK MUSIC OF TWO WORLDS book last week, and it referred a lot to francis bebey's AFRICAN MUSIC: A PEOPLE'S ART book, which i found in berkeley on saturday!

the JSR book seems more ethnographic, whereas the bebey spends a lot of time describing (in text and illustration) the instruments, which i find to be extremely interesting. i havent gotten very far in either, but i think ill read the JSR, using the bebey for reference.

both have thrilling and extensive recommended-listening lists :)

I am jealous.

I think Global Rhythm magazine that 'Unperson' edited for awhile is now definately defunct as a print publication. The website as I noted above has not been updated much either.

The Beat Magazine has cut back on the amount of issues they publish. They have not released a 2009 issue yet. I read stuff in columns published there that I cannot easily find on the internet (if I can find them at all).

I saw what I thought was a 2009 issue of the Beat. Doesn't help that they do volume/number, without any dates involved. I thought it was a Summerfest 2009 issue. Maybe it was 2008 and I didn't notice.

And I also thought I saw a recent Global Rhythm issue, but I'm less sure about that.

Yea, I think that was summer festivals 2008.

Here's some charts from Brit magazine fRoots

March best sellers at Stern's African Record Shop,
74/75 Warren Street, London W1P 5PA (Shop entrance 293 Euston Rd)

OUMOU SANGARE Seya (World Circuit)
FRANCO & LE TPOK JAZZ Francophonic Vol. 1 1953-1980 (Stern’s)
VARIOUS ARTISTS African Pearls: Senegal 70 (Syllart)
BA CISSOKO Seno (Stern’s)
VARIOUS ARTISTS African Pearls: Congo 70 (Syllart)
MAESTRO KING KIKI Raisi Jakaya M. Kikwete (13s Planet)
ROKIA TRAORE Tchamantché (Nonesuch)
VARIOUS ARTISTS African Pearls: Guinée 70 (Syllart)
AWILO LONGOMBA Super Man (Jimmy’s International)
MBILIA BEL Bel Canto: Best Of Genidia Years (Stern’s)
KOFFI OLOMIDE Koffi (Diego Music)
BURAKA SOM SISTEMA Black Diamond (Fabric)
KING KESTER EMENEYA Le Jour Le Plus Long (Kiki)
TOUMANI DIABATE The Mande Variations (World Circuit)
ALI FARKA TOURE & TOUMANI DIABATE In The Heart Of The Moon (World Circuit)

March’s most played world music albums, compiled from returns from radio DJs all over Europe World Music Charts Europe

NOVALIMA Coba Coba (Cumbancha)
OUMOU SANGARE Seya (World Circuit)
STAFF BENDA BILILI Très Très Fort (Crammed)
BA CISSOKO Seno (Stern’s)
NO BLUES Lumen (CRS)
KAL Radio Romanista (Asphalt Tango)
CHICHA LIBRE Sonido Amazonico! (Crammed)
DEOLINDA Cancao Ao Lado (World Connection)
DABY TOURE & SKIP MCDONALD Call My Name (Real World)
ALMASÄLA Ahora (Ventilador)
MIMMO EPIFANI Zucchini Flowers (Finisterre)
DUB COLOSSUS In A Town Called Addis (Real World)
LURA Eclipse (Lusafrica)
ORIENT EXPRESSIONS Record Of Broken Hearts (Doublemoon)
IMAM BAILDI Imam Baildi (Pasio Turca)
VARIOUS ARTISTS Rough Guide Afrobeat Revival (WMN)
AMADOU & MARIAM Welcome To Mali (Because)
MALICK PATHE SOW Maayo Men (Muziek Publique)
MARISA SANNIA Rosa De Papel (Felmay)
17 HIPPIES El Dorado (Hipster)
© 2009 www.worldmusicnight.com

fRoots (aka Folk Roots) current faves:

DEVON SPROULE
¡Don’t Hurry For Heaven!
(Tin Angel)
Class from our nearly-resident Virginian.

KASSE MADY DIABATE
Manden Djeli Kan
(Universal/Wrasse)
The Malian legend on top form.

MOHAMED ILYAS
Taarab
(Chiku-Taku)
Zanzibar’s taarab giant debuts new label.

ALASDAIR ROBERTS
Spoils
(Drag City)
“Godfather of the disenfranchised folkies.”

THE RAIL BAND
3: Dioba
(Stern’s)
Completing the legend’s historic trilogy.

VARIOUS ARTISTS
African Pearls: Guinée 70
(Syllart)
More gems from the golden Syliphone era.

MAWKIN: CAUSLEY
The Awkward Recruit
(Navigator)
Last issue’s cover stars get their kit on.

HELENE BLUM
En Gang Og Altid
(Pile House)
Fine solo debut for half of Karen & Helene.

DAMIEN BARBER & MIKE WILSON
Under The Influence
(DBS)
Two fine singers salute their sources.

TRIBECASTAN
Strange Cousin
(Evergreene Music)
Adventures in cross-cultural Manhattan.

just got the staff benda bilili, off emusic. at first impression, seems pretty great.

Just saw Curmudgeon's post about my Extra Golden piece--I appreciate the compliment. But I think you got my emphasis slightly wrong; the Putumayo stuff was about who the audience for this stuff is and how it got that way, not a defense a la "no, this stuff is OK." I really couldn't care less if this stuff is "OK."

the group doueh song on THIS LP CRASHES HARD DRIVES comp is totally good!

is anybody else fucking with mayra andrade? haven't seen a mention of her anywhere. seems like her only current rival on looks + vocal talent equation is beyonce.

BBC Radio 3 loves her. I haven't checked her out because Cape Verdian style sounds have never really wowed me that much. But since she was born in Cuba maybe I should giver her more of a chance.

I have the new Omar Souleyman sitting on my hard drive. The tracks I've heard off it sound amazing.

Ritual Mouth-Organs of the Murung: Bangladesh

wow

Aww man, I think the new Group Doueh on Sublime Frequencies is only available as a $22 1,500 limited release vinyl. Why can't they sell downloads and cds as well. I think they're touring Europe now with Omar Souleyman. More info on the S/F thread

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:Fjb_9ueS108J:elbo.ws/video/U2Sa5Zd9WTg/+sublime+frequencies+e-music+amazon&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

they always follow up the LP issue with a CD a few months later...

im also glad to tape em for you!

You're the man. I also need to buy some new sounds.

Amadou & Mariam, Vieux Farka Toure, and King Sunny Ade all coming to DC (in separate gigs)

same address?

Yep.

Samba Mapangala, a sweet-voiced Congolese singer who moved to Kenya and then DC and now lives (not sure) is doing a US tour with his band. He will be in DC for free from 6 to 7 Saturday night (streamed and archived on the Kennedy Center's website as well). Christgau loved an album of his in 2001. I like him. Alas, he is not as well-known as some afropop acts and is not raw enough for Sublime Frequencies junkies.

In February, Samba headlined the Sauti za Busara Festival in Zanzibar, Tanzania to great acclaim, and made two well received live appearances in Nairobi at the Club Afrique and the Benga Blast concert at Nyayo Stadium.

A promotional tour to Los Angeles brought him to KPFK's "Afrodicia" on Sat. May 16, 2 pm Pacific time, 90.7 FM, streaming and archived at KPFK.org, and KXLU's "Groove Time" 88.9 FM, 6 pm Pacific time, streaming at KXLU.com, for interviews.

June 20: Kennedy Center, Washington DC, UN World Refugee Day 6 p.m.
July 9: Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, PA
July 10: Midsummer Night Swing, Lincoln Center, New York City
July 11: Nyati Lounge, 543 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., Jersey City, NJ
August: European tour, details to be announced
October 9-10: Richmond Folk Festival, Richmond VA

Oh, that's a name that I remember from the 1980s. Should be good.

Re. Mayra Andrade upthread: a fine album, which I was playing loads in early 2008. Her televised set at last year's BBC World Music Awards was something of a let-down, though. On record she sounds polished and immaculate, but on stage she sounded weaker and rougher.

Haven't bought any African music in a long time. Last purchase was the new Oumou Sangare, but I can't seem to click with it at all.

Oumou was on my "to buy" list. Hmmmm.

Vieux Farka Toure tonight, Monday, in DC at the Rock and Roll Hotel. This son of the late Ali Farka Toure is started to establish his own identity on Fondo, his second cd. Some nice sounding guitarwork that even sublime frequencies type folks could love.

Oh, ened up watching some of Samba Masangala on video rather than live. Great Congolese guitars.

Samba's sweet voice is still tre impressive also.

havent forgotten about tapes, curmudge!

found my sixth ORIGINAL MUSIC LP the other day online: street music of panama! will report back...

No problem.

Re-reading a few of my posts above--I really should proofread.

So Jon Pareles in the NY Times liked the VF Toure/Blk Jcks double-bill the other night in NYC. Locals are opening for and guesting with VFK in DC tonight.

That should say VFT above. Wow is all I can say about Vieux Farka Toure (VFT). DC show last night was his best of the 3 times I've seen him. He doesn't hold a pick between his thumb and index finger, he has a pick-like thing on the tip of his index finger that he uses to make certain sounds, and then the other fingers are free to move around on the strings and make other sounds. Great percussion plus various special guest musicians and dancers and folks spraying him with cash.

Hey indie and jazz folks, VFT's trap drummer has played with John Zorn and with the Dirty Projectors.

So I e-mailed the editor of the Cali-based magazine The Beat and she assured me it is still alive. Their 1st issue of the year was supposed to be out earlier in June but it's a few weeks late. I think she still wants to put out around 3 issues a year. I still read some things in there that I haven't found on the internet.

Dealing with flat tires and other things in life mean I haven't seen any of the Latin/Central American acts at the Smithsonian Folklife Fest or the soca and dancehall performers that were in town in association with the DC Caribbean Carnival

This Zaire 74 festival movie sounds awesome

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/movies/05pare.html?_r=1&ref=music

Oh yea, that does look awesome.

Speaking of Zaire, now the Congo again, Fally Ipupa and his 16 piece band and dancers will be bringing their Congolese rumba dance music to Zanzibar on the Waterfront in Washington DC Friday. Ipupa used to be a singer in Koffi Olimide's band

Hey indie and jazz folks, VFT's trap drummer has played with John Zorn and with the Dirty Projectors.

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, June 23, 2009 10:13 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I saw him in tennessee and he was basically a longhair metalhead dude beating the shit out of his drums and wearing a sun ra t-shirt. it was glorious.

and by "in tennessee" I mean "at bonnaroo"!

In DC in the small RnR Hotel club with Vieux Farka he was looking like a babyfaced jamband dude in love with African music in his semi-traditional African clothing and percussion things attached to his shoes that he shook.

But I wanna go to Paris and see African music there, or in Mali or in Senegal based on some recent blog reading. I've been catching up on some blogs I haven't looked at in awhile like benn loxu du tacu

Everyone talks about the “glory days” of African music in Paris in the 1980s, but really those people are usually just referring to music from certain West and Central African countries, notably Congo. If anything the African population and number of music groups – ok, not necessarily good ones but sheer numbers – in Paris has increased, not decreased, and the overall population has certainly become more diverse than it once was. It seems like Paris doesn’t have as many big African music stars as it once did, but the reasons why are complicated… and it’s not necessarily any better in other countries including the US or the UK. Just different. http://bennloxo.com/archives/2009/06/23/so-london/#comments

Back in May he went back to Senegal (for his honeymoon) and did a great informative posting about titi & mbalax music and more

http://bennloxo.com/archives/2009/05/28/i-love-titi/

And I see on Jace/DJ Rupture's blog that Thursday July 9 Chief Boima will be spinning "new dance music from Africa (Expect Ivorian Coupe Decale, Senegalese Mbalax, Nigerian Club, Sierra Leonean heat, and more" @ APT in NYC w/ Geko Jones + a bunch of others. free! I need to check out his appearance on Rupture's WFMU radio show from Monday July 6

http://www.negrophonic.com/2009/chief-frequencies/

And Sublime Frequencies label fans of noisy North African sounds should check out the track by the king of the Moroccan Outar... Mohammed Rouicha at http://www.voanews.com/english/africa/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=55876822-9DDB-EF5F-EF706717D861E783

Finally checked out Fally Ipupa on youtube and I see he's more of a balladeer now than a speedy flowing Congolese soukous and rumba singer at this point. Not exactly my thing.

New Yorkers should check out this great free show Friday (there is a charge if you want to come early and take African dance lessons though)

This Friday night DJ NEVA opens for an amazing double shot of African music that spans West, Central and East Africa!

OCCIDENTAL BROTHERS DANCE BAND INTERNATIONAL (7:30)
SAMBA MAPANGALA & ORCHESTRA VIRUNGA (9:00)

When: Friday, July 10, 2009 at 6:00pm
DJ at 6:00, Dance Lesson at 6:30, Live Music at 7:30

Where: Damrosch Park
62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam

Program: Soukous, Rumba, Benga, Highlife
Lesson: Thelma Mwan' Dido teaching Soukous/Rumba
DJ: DJ Neva (Music for the Masses)

Any New Yorkers see the Soul Power movie last night, the one mentioned a few posts up about the concert in Zaire in 1974 with James Brown, Bill Withers, BB King and African acts including Frano and his TPOK Orchestra?

I hope the movie opens here, and they work out getting a dvd.

Soul Power coming to DC August 7th and showing elsewhere in the US as well. I think Franco and Tabu Ley Rocherau are in it plus Celia Cruz.

The Beat magazine has finally put out their first issue of 2009. Congolese music expert Martin Sinnock sadly says "Like the country itself Congolese music is in a tragically sad and sorry condition." He has me wanting to hear the Ry-Co Jazz retrospective "Bon Voyage!! Rythme-Congolaise From Africa aux Antilles (1963-1977). Another writer Barry Eisenberg has me wanting Malian singer Kasse Mady Diabate's "Manden Djeli Kan" (Universal-France).

The King Sunny Ade thread gets more posts than this one :(

Don't forget kulintang!

Likely to be the best salsa album of the year, and definitely not typical current commercial salsa:

Bannakumbi

Un Nuevo Día

Steals good bits from Cuban timba (yes, there are some good bits to that genre), folds in rapping like an extension of Andy Montanez's Salsaton, only probably better.

so so so good

Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan detained for questioning at US airport
By Associated Press
4:01 PM PDT, August 15, 2009

NEW DELHI (AP) — Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was detained for two hours for questioning at a U.S. airport before being released by immigration authorities, a news agency report said Saturday.

Khan, one of the Indian film industry's biggest stars, said he was detained because his name came up on a computer alert list at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Press Trust of India news agency said.

"I told them I am a movie star," Khan was quoted as saying.

The reported detention made top news on TV stations in India.

Khan said he was able to message a lawmaker in India who asked the Indian embassy in Washington to seek his release. Khan was let go after embassy officials intervened, the agency said.

U.S. officials disputed the claim Kahn had been detained.

U.S. bureau of Customs and Border Protection spokesman Elmer Camacho said Khan was questioned as part of the agency's routine process to screen foreign travelers. He said the process took 66 minutes and Kahn was not detained.

In New Delhi, U.S. Ambassador to India, Timothy J. Roemer, said the U.S. Embassy was trying to "ascertain the facts of the case — to understand what took place."

"Shah Rukh Khan, the actor and global icon, is a very welcome guest in the United States. Many Americans love his films," Roemer said Saturday through an embassy spokesman.

Khan, 44, has acted in more than 70 films, and has consistently topped popularity rankings in India for the past several years. He is in the United States to promote his new film, "My Name Is Khan," a film about racial profiling.

Listening to the new Tinariwen. Have not made up my mind on it. Same hypnotic feel and desert nomad guitar as on prior releases.

Shame on me for missing several recent appearances by Ethiopian acts. I was also reading an article from 2006 that briefly discussed the DC Ethiopian music scene, and thought, man I should try to find the time to write an update.

Just missed Mahmou Ahmed at the Ethiopian day event at Nationals stadium before a baseball game. I really do go see live music sometimes.

http://theelephantschild.blogspot.com/2009/07/ghettotech-ghetto-stuff-showing-up.html

interesting blog

Peculiar blog with some coverage of Arab pop, but lots of metal (including Turkish metal), and comments on non-musical matters as well:

http://mixmode.blogspot.com/

Anybody happen to know if the New Samarkand label has folded? I don't see their website any more and am having trouble finding anyone distributing their Ensemble Sheikh Abdul Aziz recording.

Nope

Gonna go see The Very Best tonight at DC 9. They are a UK based group with a Malawi singer and 2 Brit dudes programming (maybe some live instrumentation also). They just got their visas (their earlier CMJ conference shows in NYC were cancelled).

2 Brit dudes, uh, I mean a Swedish guy and a French guy. Nice interview/overview with them here:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2009/11/02/dont-overwork-dont-overthink-the-very-best-dc9/

They all live in London, ok.

The live show was a bit uneven. They just had vocalist Esau Mwamwaya, one dj(not sure if it was the Swedish guy or the French guy) and 2 dancers. Esau's ocassional African derived melodies and the dancers were the highlights of the short 40 minute set. The prerecorded programmed beats(no matter their derivation) were mostly less exciting than the ocassional samples of more traditional African sounds.

just got back a cpl days ago from WOMEX, the world music expo. Had not been in a few years and think its almost doubled in size from when i was there last. As usual exhausting and exhilarating. highlights of bands seen while there

Staff Benda Bilili killed their show when accepting their artist award and were even better when I saw them in a small club called global that night. They got a standing ovation after their show and as a friend said to me that is probably the most informed standing ovation they'll ever get, but when a show gets even the most jaded audience stamping and cheering you know it was something special and that's even without the whole inspiring story of moving from homeless people living in the Kinshasa zoo, most of them having suffered varying levels of disability from polio to creating beautiful and joyous music.

Bomba Estereo not an official showcase but one of the highlights for me, knew nothing abt them and loved the show, um punk psychedelic electronic cumbia is the best I can describe it, lead singer looks abt 19 and has head shaved ina very Annabella Lwin look kind of a flat yet slightly shrill voie that cuts across the rest of the music, blew me away

loved Spokfrevo Orquestra, a 18 piece big band from Recife, incredibly incredibly tight, speeded up bebop that reminded me in some ways of Carl Stalling stuff

gotta plug Addis Acoustic Project as my festival helped develop them last year, Ethiopian jazz combo, drums, percussion, upright bass, acoustic guitar, mandolin, clarinet and accordion, albm shld be out on Harmonia Mundi in 2010

DJ set from Maga Bo from Brazil was great, even had an Ethiopian track of his own in his set, Analog Africa Soundsystem crushed the closing night DJ set

Chocquibtown tho not stellar was fun Colombian hip-hop trio, led to a discussion at the showcase with a friend which he promptly tweeted s to whether they were the Colombian Fugees or the Colombian Black Eyed Peas (i lean towards the Black Eyed Peas)

Spanish band Oreka TX were veery interesting, missed kayhan Kalhor with Brooklyn Rider which everyone there said was phenomenal and tho I was not won over by Kenyan band Kenge Kenge most others were positive on them

still braindead so that is all I can think of at the moment cannot recommend Staff Benda Bilii and Bomba Estereo enuf

oh Staff Benda Bilili link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaTZ5gAzkCY

Some year I wanna get to that event

Anyone familiar with Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo?

There was a piece on them today on NPR, some dudes in their 60s from Benin who have toured Africa for years and are just now embarking on their first European tour. All the music snippets they played sounded amazing.

I think I have something by them on my hard drive at home, but no, not familiar.

Embarrassing how little I know about Kenyan music after a year here. Anyway heard this dude Mr. Nice recently, dug it. He's Tanzanian, actually ... check him out.

Apparently he is a "Takeu style crooner. His Takeu style comes from the initials of TAnzania, KEnya and Uganda."

I have read many raves about the group Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo.

Bomba Estereo not an official showcase but one of the highlights for me, knew nothing abt them and loved the show, um punk psychedelic electronic cumbia is the best I can describe it, lead singer looks abt 19 and has head shaved ina very Annabella Lwin look kind of a flat yet slightly shrill voie that cuts across the rest of the music, blew me away

I liked the Bomba Estereo album quite a bit when I listened to it a few months back.

Probably not the intention of this thread, but Buraka Som Sistema is doing the next Fabriclive mix!

curmudgeon, I just discovered that The Beat is given full-text coverage in the ProQuest Index Ethnic NewsWatch, which some public libraries have access to, along with university libraries. Anyway, I thought that would interest you. (That index picks up a lot of interesting little publications.)

(Just for you:

http://dcpl.dc.gov/dcpl/cwp/view.asp?a=1264&q=563370 )

Cool. Thanks, and Lukas, Buraka Son Sistema is getting lots of attention along with others in the global-tech, ghetto-tech whatever you want to call style of international danceclub sounds, so that's interesting.

Although, uh Curmudgeon me does not find the kuduro club beats I've heard that impressive.

Here's some old Buraka Som Sistema

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TWXXyaCQJM

So Sasha Frere-Jones was busy praising Buraka Som Sistema's brand of international club beats in the New Yorker (while in a separate article moaning about different club beats used by rappers). Hmmm. I'm still not won over by kuduro.

Sunday NY Times has Ben Ratliff saying that Orchestre Poly-Rythmo "seems right now like the most important group that the western world never caught up with". He also likes the latest from Saharan trancers Group Doueh on Sublime Frequencies

H in Addis, thanks, you make a good case for womef.

There's a lot to like about the Buraka Som Sistema album, but I'm not going to pretend that it does much to fulfil my personal needs. The first half of the Very Best album is a total knockout - don't think I've ever heard sung Chichewa before - although for me it tails off towards the end (MIA's contribution in particular doesn't bring much to the party). Really wish I'd caught Staff Benda Bilili on their recent UK tour, but they didn't come anywhere near my part of the world. Certainly my favourite African album of the year.

Just finally got Staff Benda Billili. Will weigh in shortly. I haven't listened in awhile to my earlier 2009 faves--Rokia Traore and Amadou & Mariam.

S Benda B is good but for some reason I am not as wowed as others are here by them. Just seems like standard retro Congo rumba.

I sadly have not yet heard these 2009 releases:

Mohammed Ilyas with the Nyota Zameremeta Orchestra of Zanzibar: Taarab (Chita)

Oumou Sangaré: Seya (World Circuit/Nonesuch)

Or this:
The Very Best: Warm Heart of Africa (Green Owl)

Actually I have heard some of it

or Khaled: Liberté (Universal/Wrasse) but I am going to try to hear these on lala or elsewhere

Mohammed Ilyas with the Nyota Zameremeta Orchestra of Zanzibar: Taarab (Chita)

Do you generally like that taarab stuff? I was initially excited when I heard about it, but I haven't really cared for what I've heard of it. It ends up sounding to me like Arab music done "wrong," which of course is probably unfair; but more reasonably, it does tend to stick to certain Egyptian big orchestra conventions that I don't like that much to begin with, like it's taking some of the features I least like about that music, and meanwhile I am losing some other aspects of it that I like. Sorry I can't be more specific since it's been a while since I've listened to any.

I was a bit underwhelmed by the Oumou Sangaré, but it was praised to the heavens when it first came out...

The most recent Tinariwen underwhelmed me, although I only listened to it twice. So maybe I need to listen again (it has gotten raves and I have liked previous releases and their live show).

x-post-I think I have only heard one taarab effort and I liked it.

Finally listened to the recent Oumou Sangare. I love her voice so I am impressed so far. Need to listen a bit more and see how it is different from her prior efforts.

The Khaled release is a good solid rai effort.

I wanna go to Dakar, Senegal. Here's an article from the NY Times travel section about the nightlife there (the writer interviews Youssou N'Dour and others; there's also a video link)

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/travel/06senegalmusic.html?th&emc=th

Tonight in DC a film about Irish musicians engaging with North Malian culture, "Dambe: the Mali Project" will be showing at the Goethe Institute as part of the Capital Irish Film Festival. In 2006, Irish musicians Liam o’Maonlaí (from the Hothouse Flowers) and Paddy Keenan went to Mali and to the The Festival in the Desert. Malian musicians Afel Bocoum, Toumani Diabaté, and the now deceased Ali Farka Toure are in the movie.

Dambe: the Mali Project Wednesday December 16 at 7:30 pm at the Goethe Institute, 812 7th street NW

hey curmudgeon, i met ira the other night at the KUSF xmas party! he gave me a cdr of a VOID show that he and his bro recorded back in the day. whatta guy.

Iraq and Albuquerque's own Rahim Al Haj wins recognition (including, best of all, some grant money):

http://alibi.com/index.php?story=30082&scn=music

Also, he and Ottmar Liebert have just finished a CD, as mentioned:

http://www.ottmarliebert.com/rose/

The most recent Tinariwen underwhelmed me

it didn't underwhelm me, exactly, but it didn't grab me the way the last one did. the production and tunes on "water is life" are a little rougher and feistier, it seems to me.

Just heard about the 'Alan Lomax In Haiti' box set via Aquarius Records mail out and I am very much wanting...

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8hQRMWHhikg/SxhwzrdZ3wI/AAAAAAAAADE/UmdhBzgyLcw/s1600-h/haiti-contents-800.jpg

http://thehaitibox.blogspot.com/

Anyone been following this at all? I only just heard of it, but it sounds potentially awesome.

Hmm, the image didn't seem to work, so click here: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8hQRMWHhikg/SxhwzrdZ3wI/AAAAAAAAADE/UmdhBzgyLcw/s1600-h/haiti-contents-800.jpg

I'm hoping Cargo might get this for the UK, it seems like it could be their kind of thing.

That Haiti box just seems so overwhelming. So much material. So I have not splurged for it. It also reminded me that I have lost touch with current Haitian music. Between 3 and 10 years ago I saw Tabou Combo, Boukman Experyans, and some other Haitian groups whose names I have now forgotten (including a great DC band) at DC area gigs where my gf and I were the only white folks. Then when my editors started rejecting my pitches to write up the appearances, the promoters stopped hipping me to the shows. The only online Haitian American website I know does not seem to list any gigs lately. I think T-Vice still comes to town but their Haitian synth pop does not interest me as much as the '70s through 2000 konpa sound with guitars, bass and percussion.

I wish someone from Miami, where's there's a huge Haitian population,would post here.

Does anyone know anything about Ethiopian reggae(I think) performer Teddy Afro who's gonna be at the DC Armory(3,000 seat gym) January 2nd. I just saw a flyer for the show at my fave suburban DC Ethiopian restaurant, Meazza.

Wow, Subpop is co-releasing the new Bassekou Kouyate cd.

http://ambiancecongo.blogspot.com/

http://globalgroovers.blogspot.com/

old-school African vinyl download blog

Rokia Traore made one NY Times critic ballot and Oumou Sangare another.
Group Doueh's Treeg Salaam on Sublime Frequencies made the Wire magazine list.

On first listen, this new Céu album sounds pretty good.

Just came across this best "world Music" of the "noughties" list. The notion of selecting just 10 cds to represent so much time and such a potentially wide selection of music genres and countries is ridiculous, but here it is anyway:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6925503.ece

I have nearly all of them-- Tinariwen, Salif Keita, Staff Benda Bilili, Rahid Taha, Amadou & Mariam-- to name a few, but there's no rap, no traditional Asian or Eastern European or Caribbean or South American.

Hmm, I own eight of these - don't know that particular Rachid Taha or Buena Vista. I'd strongly disagree with the inclusion of Lhasa (pretty but a bit dull) and Youssou's Nothing's In Vain (Egypt should have been there instead). Totally agree with: Staff Benda Bilili, Orchestra Baobab, Salif Keita's Mouffou and Dimanche A Bamako. Would have picked the 2nd or 3rd Tinariwen in preference to the Tisdas Sessions. Used to love Mariza's Fado Curvo, but it suffered from over-playing. Would have added: Ali Farka Toure's Savane, Miguel 'Anga' Diaz's Echu Minga, Gundecha Brothers' Darshan, KTU's 8 Armed Monkey, Thione Seck's Orientation, Rokia Traore's Bowmboi, Bebo & Cigala's Lagrimas Negras, Boubacar Traore's Kongo Magni. (Which makes more than 10, but hey.) Runners-up: Cesaria Evora's Voz D'Amor, Duoud's Wild Serenade, Toumani Diabate's Boulevard De L'Independence.

Whatever happened to Thione Seck? I need to do some googling. I saw him live in DC before a 99% Senegalese crowd years ago and that Orientation cd like Youssou's Egypt one is a great hybrid effort.

Wow, I only own one of these particular titles, tho I have discs by six of the acts. Surprised at the Tinariwen disc they chose, but OTOH, Tinariewn appeared on my radar screen around the time of their Water is Life disc. Going to check out all the titles mentioned by TimesOnline and Mike-t.

Is it surprising that this list of names is fairly familiar? On another thread, someone noted that a lot of top-flight modern African music is barely heard in the US and Europe (lack of distribution deals).

Yea, the well-distributed in the UK and US stuff tends to show up the most.

So apparently Thione Seck performed in Newtown Birmingham UK in August 2009 and I read a blog post about a 2008 Senegalese appearance here, http://lerterland.blogspot.com/2008/02/music-in-dakar.html and it looks like a cd called 15th Anniversary Live was released since Orientation. I came across blog posts in French and English mentioning his son Wally Balango Seck who sings as well.

Miguel 'Anga' Diaz's Echu Minga

Nice to see someone other than me still mentioning this.

Gundecha Brothers' Darshan

Dhrupad is too extreme for me, but the Sense World label this album appears on seems really interesting to me overall, and perhaps deserving of more attention in the U.S. I don't know much at all about Indian classical music, but I think it's smart the way Sense World has a fairly identifiable, eye-catching, house graphic design style. Also, they appear to have their own spin: an emphasis on newer performers (often from existing Indian classical music lineages) and a lot of Hindustani/Karnatak collaborations (at least more than I think are typical).

As far as the list goes, it doesn't excite me, but I don't really consider myself a "world music" fan per se, especially in the sense of liking most of the top artists that get labeled that way. I'm just not that world.

Mariza has a very pleasant voice, but I'm pretty sure fado just bores me in general.

This list looks likes it's really tied closely to acts that are the most marketed as "world music." I think a more interesting world music (or international music) list would ignore that. Much of the best music in most countries isn't necessarily marketed, or marketed very effectively, outside that particular country.

On first listen, this new Céu album sounds pretty good.

On second and third listens, it sounds okay. She sounds nice. It's not bad, but not terribly exciting. There must have been dozens of more interesting albums released in Brazil this year, but since they are not picked up by Six Degrees, we aren't going to find out about them so easily. I find almost everything that label puts out to be okay, but lackluster.

They put out these bossa-inspired efforts with some token programmed beats that are not annoying or painful but they're not unique or exciting or surprising either.

So I think the magazine the Beat has finally gone under. The website does not say so, but I e-mailed one of their writers and he told me. Since Global Rhythms went under earlier in the year, and Latin Beat is online only now, I do not think there's an American print magazine covering non-rock/non-jazz/non-country music.

Perhaps I am wrong on the magazine front---there might be hippie reggae magazines or klezmer ones that I do not know about.

Rudi, how come not too many Japanese artists get American releases? Or it seems that way to me in terms of media attention.

I guess it's a bad sad about those magazines, but then again, I haven't been keeping up with them myself. I don't even buy Songlines these days, though I would if it were a little less tacky in its presentation, I think.

how come not too many Japanese artists get American releases?

You're asking me? I don't know. Maybe because the Japanese market is pretty large in its own right? Anyway, most music from other countries doesn't see a lot of releases here, it seems to me. Japan probably does better than some.

Incidnetally, most of the Japanese music I'm interested in consists of people working within western popular music genres, so I don't tend to class it in my head as "world music."

I borrowed Inspiration Information by Mulatu Astatke/The Heliocentrics from the library, and on one or two listens, I like it. I am not familiar with his work, so I don't know how this compares to whatever else he's been doing over the years, though I understand (going by the liner notes) that it's a throwback to the sound he was working with earlier in his career.

I never seem to like Ethiopian music quite as much as I would expect to or as I feel I somehow ought to (given the other musics I love). Admittedly, I've still hardly scratched the surface. I'm that this year I might get around to picking up a few more of those Ethiopiques volumes, especially the Mahmoud Ahmed ones. (Ethiopian music is going to have a lot of competition though as I find myself wanting to hear "everything" at the moment, more than has been true for a while. Not really close to everything, you understand, but maybe a wider range of genre than I've genuinely wanted to listen to for a long time. Plus the amazing archival Sun Ra releases from the last few years, or last couple years, are high on my to-buy list.)

But I definitely find this current Mulatu Astatke album to be very approachable, even "easy listening."

I generally don't say "What's wrong with me that I don't like this" but with Ethiopian music I tend to say that, because I recognize that it's doing a lot of stuff that normally pushes my buttons. (This might be worth trying to go into more detail about later.) Maybe a lot of it is too funky for me? I'm not really into funk very much. Still I don't hate funk by any means, and the mere presence of some funk elements shouldn't be a deal breaker.

Again, I do like this album and fwiw I will probably vote for it in our little poll.

ha I can't get into Ethiopian music, either, but I think it's because it's NOT funky enough for me. Except for that Inspiration Information album, which is as funky as can be in parts.

Eh maybe it's not that it's not funky enough, but that the funk is usually obscured by jarring dissonance. Def prefer smooooother funk eg Sunny Ade or Congolese stuff.

IIRC, a lot of the Ethiopiques series is more jazzy than funky, e.g., Vol. 4.

but that the funk is usually obscured by jarring dissonance.

This is getting funnier, because I think I tend to like some dissonant flavoring. (I'm not sure I actual hear much real dissonance though. It's more a matter of a different "scale.")

(Plus the amazing archival Sun Ra releases from the last few years, or last couple years, are high on my to-buy list.

In fact, I just spent $80 on something from that batch of releases I was afraid I would regret not buying otherwise. You will be hearing more because I'm damn well going to get my $80 worth if only in excuse to chatter online.)

http://byebyebeat.blogspot.com/2009/12/beat-goes-off.html

The Beat Magazine farewell blog. The Beat was around for 28 years

Ethiopians today are not listening to Ethiopiques(well,some might be) they are listening to Teddy Afro. He was just on tour in the UK and now comes to the US with a gig in Washington at the DC Armory Saturday Jan. 2nd. Alas, I'm not crazy about his schmaltzy pop-reggae meets quiet storm r'n'b ballad approach and I don't understand Amharic so his socio-political lyrics and more do not mean much to me. Maybe I need to hear more.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2009/12/31/teddy-afro-ethiopias-bob-marley-at-the-armory-saturday/

Wow, a handful of Ethiopians have posted worshipful comments on my Teddy Afro City Paper blog post. They just love the guy.

I need to start the 2010 thread.

Rolling Global Sublime Whirled "World" Music Thread 2010(with an emphasis on African likely)