World Music- recommendations

And here's another gem from the MA treasure chest. Eduardo Paniagua Group perfectly performing Medieval Spanish Dances with 32 instruments in a palpable acoustic space.

Another is Salterio. "Salterio virtuoso Begoña is most elegantly presented on her world debut recording, performed at La Monasterio de la Santa Espina, Valladolid, Spain. She performs numerous medieval works on 7 different psalteries, all of them beautifully handcrafted by her husband, world renowned lutier, Carlos Paniagua. Also participating are percussionist Pedro Estevan, J. C. de Mulder and Daniel Carranza collectively on vihuela, barroque guitar and thiorba. Medieval music which is exotic yet modern in feel."

If you like that one then you will love this one. Also by the stunningly gorgeous Begoña Olavide.

Best regards,
Ron

Sigmund,

Ouch, it hurts to read those adjectives in the same sentence with Ms Cruz's name

Her voice is sweet but not in a syrupy pop sense. In her only song in English ‘I’m all Smiles’ she sounds a little Rickie Lee Jones. About 50% of the songs are solo Aeolian hangs. Most of the pieces were recorder on the first take.

Best regards,
Ron

I quite like Cheik Lo, he has a similar slow spiritual feeling like Ali Farke Toure.

If you want something fast, cheerful and dancy try Amour Fou by Kanda Bongo Man. Everyone else has pretty much covered my world music collection.

BTW if womad (world of music and dance festival) comes to a town near you, check it out. It has always been good fun and full of surprises.

Enjoy!
Gus

Most weeks I listen to Charlie Gillet on the bbc world service and more often than not I enjoy most if not all of the music played. I expect that browsing through the listen again options offered by the bbc may well open a few ears and wallets to new sounds and artists.

Hi Gus,

WOMAD is an excellent festival to taste some unusual and exciting music, always with some wonderful surprises. It's just been held in Reading, UK 28-30 July. The lineup looks very interesting although there are many artists I have not heard of.

Best regards,
Ron

Some good recommendations so far and here is another that I am quite partial to.

Ayub Ogada - Em Mana Kuoyo



If you have seen the film the Constant Gardener then you will probably know the track Kothbiro from this album that is quite mesmerising and one of the main themes of the film.

Adrian

Good suggestion, Adrian. I just picked that one last month. No doubt you have Geoffrey Oryema's music then? Exile is one of his best IMO.

Something a little diffferent is Omar Faruk Tekbilek on Fata Morgana. Track 7, 'Sufi House' is awsome. I believe the CD is on the Celestial Harmony label.

Best regards,
Ron

Hi Ron,

No I do not have either of those two that you mention but will probably now pick up the Oryema as what I just heard on the web sounded pretty good. Thanks.

Nice pics by the way on the other thread. I must have passed nearby you earlier this year when we did our tour of South Island.

Cheers
Adrian

Hi Adrian,

You will enjoy Geoffrey Oryema. He hails from Uganda and apparently was a distant relative of Idi Amin but was exiled due to his anti-government protest songs (therefore the title of his first recording). Luckily he wasn’t shot!

Thank you for the compliments. You are welcome to drop by next time you are in the area.

Best regards,
Ron
Hi Adrian,

Thanks Ron and same to you if you come over to Sydney.

I am often in Sydney so might just take you up. I was just getting ahead of myself with the next post to suggest another African recording by Mory Kante titled Sabou given your liking for Ayub Ogara.

Best regards,
Ron

Will check that out also. You can contact me on expatinoz at hotmail dot com when you are coming to town.

Cheers
Adrian

Thank you, Adrian. I will drop you a mail now so you have my address.

Best regards,
Ron

Ron,

I'll be in Sgp (late Aug) for womad. Usually I'll heard of just one or two of the acts before, but I have always had a great time.

cheers
Gus

Hi Gus,

WOMAD is a great event to discover new and exotic music. They often produce a CD of the festival, which can be quite fun. Womadelaide is a scream.

Best regards,
Ron

Never been to Womadelaide yet. Each year I intend to go but it never happens. It is usually late Jan or Feb, the middle of summer of in Perth and we are in relax mode. It isn't advertised very much so I usually remember it when a news item reminds me it just finished.

Sgp womad is in the middle of winter so a good excuse to get out of town to sunny singapore. Airfares are similar.

Gus,

Sunny and humid Singapore. I'm in Thailand at present and will just miss it due to commitments in South America - bummer. Check out the zoo if you get a chance.

You are quite right about poor advertising though. This festival deserves more.

Did anyone on the forum get to it in the UK last month?

Best regards,
Ron

You should find a lot of your favourite music here.

Hi Kuma,

Thank you for the link. What a cool site and great to see so many favourite covers on the same page.

Tiny Island (second last on the list)is a beautiful recording as is most of the material on the Opus 8 label. Wonderful stuff from mixed genres especially world and jazz.

Lila Downs, Drolma/Tibbetts, Ana Caram, M.V. Baht - such treasures!

Best regards,
Ron

Another good CD is Sevara Nazarkhan - Yol Boisin. Saw them once supporting Peter Gabriel and it was an excellent show.

Adrian

Another artist I really like a lot is Richard Bona. He is from Cameroon and based out of New York. He is one of the best bassists in the world and has a sweet voice and the cameroon language is great to sing to.

I saw him one week in at the Royal Festival Hall in the Pat Metheny Group and a few weeks later with his own group in a tiny, seedy club in NY that was basically like a corridor. You had to duck underneath his bass in you wanted to use the facilities but it was a marvellous show and the guy is a major talent.

Try Reverence, Munia The Tale, his new album Tiki or the album Toto Bona Lukua (Cameroon, Congo, Caribbean)

http://www.bonatology.com/




Adrian

Has anybody seen the film "Crossing the Bridge"? It is a wonderful documentary about the music of Istanbul, featuring a somewhat eclectic mix of styles - I particularly liked the Turkish rapper! Having been inspired by this thread, I've just got round to ordering it on dvd from Amazon, along with cds by Anouar Brahem and Manu Chao.

World music is such a huge subject and this thread has has provided some useful avenues to explore. Thanks to all for that. And thanks to Kuma for the great link. Here are a few of my suggestions, for anybody who is interested.

As a fairly easy introduction, for newcomers to the genre, how about some popular collaborations such as "The Hour of Two Lights" by Terry Hall and Mustaq, "In the Heart of the Moon" by Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate or "A Meeting by the River" by Ry Cooder and VM Bhatt.

On a more obscure note, I love "My Village, Lost Somewhere Between Beograd and Baghdad" by Tony Hanna and The Jugoslavian Gypsy Brass Band - a ferocious blend of balkan gypsy and levantine arab music. Wonderful stuff. And talking of brass bands, I recently discovered London's Bollywood Brass Band. Their cd "Movie Masala" is a good start and it includes a disc of remixes. We saw then live earlier this year and they were sensational. A 9 piece brass section with 4 drummers produces an amazing sound.

I personally like music on the fringes of world, dance and jazz, though it gets very difficult (and pointless) to try and categorise most of it. If you like an Asian influence, anything by Nitin Sawney is good, and I also like most cds by virtuoso percussionist Trilok Gurtu.

There has been some great music coming out of Greece in recent years. We have been visiting the islands or mainland every year for the past 13 years or so (don't get me going on things Greek or I'll never stop - we love the place), and there is a lot more to their music than the bouzouki stuff you hear in the tavernas. Some of it has a very middle eastern feel. My current favourite cd (of any!) is Mode Plagal II. Amazing jazzy funked up interpretations of traditional Greek dance tunes, including some very weird time signatures. Other names to look out for are Makis Ablianitis, Takis Barberis, Iasis, and Savina Yannatou. As an introduction to this sort of stuff there is an excellent compilation entitled "Making Music Perfect - Musurgia Graeca/Lyra Anthology 2000" (I don't know if it available outside Greece though). The Rough Guide to the Music of Greece is also good, including some older, more traditional, music as well as modern stuff.

Sorry this is so long, but there is such a lot of great inspiring music around that can't really be pigeon-holed, but can loosely be classed as world music. Most people I know can't understand my enthusiasm for it. In fact many of my friends of a similar age never progressed beyond Led Zeppelin 3 in terms of musical taste!

Thanks for the opportinity to have my say and I hope this inspires a few people. By the way, we're off to see Loudon Wainwright III tonight!

Chris

This is a GREAT thread with excellent recommendations, thank you one and all!

Adrian: I just checked Richard Bona and my plastic is burning... Tiki will be released later this month according to Amazon.

Another good African singer songwriter is Toyebi Te if he has not alredy been mentioned.

This Amazon write-up says it all:

quote:

This is probably the most beautiful African music I've ever heard, it's so innocent, pure, and light. His beautiful voice has a huge range and he can do miracles with it - at times doing beautiful acapella vibes, at times doing R&B (Come back to me, in English) even in traditional languages (Nkolo akosunga), there's some hip hop thrown in there (J'ai pas choisi). Ndagukunda Tshane sounds like an ode to his mother, and although I didn't understand what it said it almost brought tears to my eyes. He sings his lyrics with so much sincerity and purity.

Best regards,
Ron

These are my favourite African albums:

Cheik Lo

Kanda Bongo Man

Fela Kuti

Ali Farka Toure

But there is so much stuff out there.

Ron each time I did projects in South America I'd go to a record store with a few hundred bucks and let the staff recommend music. Local collegues and customers will also have their opinion on what to get. It is a bit hit and miss but you'll get some great surprises.

cheers
Gus

Hi Chris,

Welcome to the forum. There is no need to apologise for an interesting post. No doubt you will have 'Talking Timbaktu' with the late Ali Farka Toure and Ry Cooder (and son Joachim). This has to be some of the best guitar playing on the planet.



Unfortunately I was unable to locate most of your Greek musuc recommendations on Amazon.

Best regards,
Ron