Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2017 Thread Once Known as World Music

So looks like Noura Mint Seymali tour now starts tonight in Philly

Tiny church venue almost no one here. Everyone I was supposed to bring flaked on me so I'm solo tnite

Did you enjoy the show?

oh yes! i meant to update the thread but got busy with work today. first of all - noura and mr. mint seymali are the heart of the band and just fantastic. his guitar playing is funky, playful, they have amazing chemistry on stage, and her voice is just a total force of nature. the audience was about 50-60 ppl but she performed as if to an audience of 500 or an audience (which is really what they deserve). the venue was a church (one of those super lefty churches that has a kol tzedak group meeting in the basement) and it was a good place for them despite limiting (and a limited) audience. they did a bunch of songs from the new album as well as some other stuff - even tho i agree w/ ppl who say that the new album has really developed the sound maybe bc they've gone back and reworked some of the older stuff it all works together. the audience was good - responsive, despite not being an obviously enthusiastic group. noura kept calling for ppl to stand up and by the end of the set ppl were dancing. lots of older ppl at the show. her english is super limited but she's v effusive thanking the crowd (the drummer is from philadelphia and he did most of the crowd work). after the show i bumped into mr and mrs mint seymali downstairs and they are incredibly warm ppl i thanked them for the show and they thanked me and idk i just felt v moved by how genuine they are. a really tremendous show and i highly recommend ppl try to catch them if they're able.

of 500 or 1000*

Great. I have enjoyed all their appearances near me, and I agree with your take on them.

So a booking agent told me that no one in the Washington DC area would pay Mbongwana Star what their manager wants for this tour, so no gig here. They had played Washington DC last summer, and we get lots of traveling African acts most of the time(plus some of those acts record NPR Tiny Desk shows here and appear on Voice of America's Music Time in Africa program that is also based in DC) . So it looks like they are just coming over for a week and doing 4 gigs-- NY, Cambridge, Chicago and Minneapolis

Its a tough time now to tour in US too. Getting visas approved, promoters and halls with money issues, trying to get media attention...

https://www.apollotheater.org/event/africa-now-2017/

That looks like a nice gig.

So I saw Ballake Sissoko, Malian kora player, with Vincent Segal, French cello player, last night. They've been doing duet shows on and off for years and have 2 albums together. Mostly pretty, beautiful sounds led by the harp-like kora. Sometimes Segal used his fingers instead of the bow on the cello and it got noisier or jazzier. Pleasant and contemplative for the most part.

Saw Cote D'Ivoire's Dobet Gnahore and band Saturday night. Fun if uneven gig and not as good as a gig of hers I saw a few years back. She sounded best when stretching out her vocals powerfully over West African grooves (& sometimes adding percussion herself), and on some ballads; but occasionally her band instead played clunky pop-rock instrumentation with arena-like formulaic drum set action and generic guitar solos (from her husband a France born guitarist who has studied West African guitar methods in Africa).

She is a great dancer though, and is charismatic and did her best to communicate with the crowd in between songs in English, French and more. For an encore, a number of women joined her onstage to dance, soon followed by a mix of women and men.

GUYS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px37UsrDpA8

Israeli metal!

So I saw Noura Mint Seymali and band tonight for free near DC. 4th time I think I have seen them. I can see how her voice is an acquired taste for some (despite its range and power) but am not sure how anyone can resist her husband/guitarist cool sounds from his specially tuned axe. What a great band.

one thing i wondered is the kind of stress that her singing puts on her voice. she was coughing throughout the show (away from the mic during non-vocal parts - like it didn't interrupt her singing) and i was wondering if she had a cold (which would've made her vocal performance all the more impressive tbh) or whether that kind of singing takes a toll on your chords.

Not much coughing last night. Her voice sounded rough on the first song, she drank some water and then no problems the rest of the night. But yes she really works that voice.

A nice size crowd last night but still plenty of empty seats. After years of seeing African shows in the DC area, I know that promoters should contact local D.C. based African embassies and do street team drop-offs of flyers at international markets, in addition to trying to get crossover online coverage etc, but alas, they don't always do all of that or have the time, money and people. Although there are less folks from Mauritania here then from other locales...

I just listened to last year's album by the Sahra Halgan Trio. I really like it: a take on desert guitar blues by a group from Somaliland. Pleasant voice, memorable hooks, nice guitar licks.

I still need to check that out plus this one :

https://awapoulo.bandcamp.com/album/poulo-warali

Sahra Halgan Trio is currently the only artist from Somaliland in the field of world music

http://worldmusiccentral.org/2016/02/01/somaliland-act-sahra-halgan-trio-to-presents-new-album-faransiskiyo-somaliland-at-studio-de-lermitage/

The only one! Oy veh. To everyone else there, world music is Drake or Ed Sheeran I think

http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/italian_band_soviet_soviet_deported_from_us

Locked up and later deported because they said they were going to do gigs just as promo and not get paid, but venues had a ticket price. Oh no.

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/03/13/519987685/why-was-that-band-deported

More details

Awa Poulo mentioned upthread did not wow me. I liked some of the female vocals, but this traditional sounding outfit's rhythms did not always work for me.

http://local.washingtoncitypaper.com/event/fire-station-1/bolia-matundu-cl

Congo's Bolia BM Matunda on first US tour. He's kinda more afropop club music for the other thread, but he has some old-school Congolese flavoring. A colleague previewed his US/DC debut that is on Saturday (likely starting way past midnight no matter what link says)

Hamid El Kasri and band (a maalem, a master musician in the gnawa Afro-Islamic spiritual tradition from Morocco) for free from 6 to 7 at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage on Saturday in W. DC (and streamed live from the K. Ctr website and on FB, plus video archived.

Kasri and company were in NY Thursday/last night and are at the New School there tonight Friday, and in Brooklyn on Sunday.

http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/entertainment_life/keith_spera/article_70ded35e-099b-11e7-a687-4b0bf4a6a516.html

That link is about a Moroccan group that was denied entry to the US.

Hamid El Kasri and band (a maalem, a master musician in the gnawa Afro-Islamic spiritual tradition from Morocco) for free from 6 to 7 at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage on Saturday in W. DC (and streamed live from the K. Ctr website and on FB, plus video archived.

sounding great right now

They brought out some other musicians near the end to join them...good stuff

Saw the 2016 Lutz Gregor directed movie "Mali Blues" at the DC African Film Festival. It is now showing at various North American movie fests over the next few months (and I do not believe is streaming online anywhere yet). The movie ambitiously tries to cover 4 different Malian musicians, plus addressing the political climate there with the dangers in the north when extremists banned music, as well as serving a visual travelogue of the various economic conditions in different parts of the country. The main focus is on charismatic singer/guitarist Fatoumata Diawara who has just moved back to Mali. We see her collaborate with Tuareg band leader Ahmed Ag Kaedi, and we also see him perform solo and express his desire to move back north from Bamako even though he was threatened by extremists who destroyed whatever equipment of his that he had not hidden well enough. The movie also shows wonderful Ngoni player and traditional Griot Bassekou Kouyaté, and street rapper Master Soumy. After the fact I read a review suggesting that the movie in trying to do it all, did not do anything very well. I think that's a little too harsh, and while the film did leave out some issues that should have been fleshed out, I enjoyed its attempt to do so much.

Awesome Zimbabwe band Mokoomba have a new album out and are coming back to North America this summer.

Got to look for that Mokoomba album. Great live band (charismatic, strong singing and dancing) and pretty strong in the studio too

New Vieux Farka Toure album and North American tour happening in April

playing bk on the 6th
http://www.bricartsmedia.org/events-performances/vieux-farka-tour%C3%A9-innov-gnawa

Never heard of this guy, who is, in addition to the below, an NYU professor. Looked up his name because I saw he is going to be speaking at the Library of Congress on May 4th

Martin Scherzinger, composer

Martin Scherzinger is a South African-born composer and media theorist, who works on and engages with the music of Africa. African Math is a recording of piano trio music that "africanizes" these western instruments (flipping the typical appropriation of indigenous instruments on its head). Piano, violin, and cello are used as conduits for material originally intended for mbira, or kalahari, or Ugandan xylophone.

Martin Scherzinger explores some elements of African dance music through the lens of Zimbabwean matepe and mbira music, bringing cultural and mathematical insights to bear in an engagement with this vital music.

Speaking of Zimbabwe, listened to some Mokoomba and they are great.

You folks who like 70s reissues should check out Mokoomba. They're not retro but their live band feel is analogous to the great stuff from those times

Their first release had more energy. The latest one has more acoustic but still rockin instrumentation and some old-school South African like harmonies.

http://www.npr.org/2017/03/23/521001534/first-listen-orchestra-baobab-tribute-to-ndiouga-dieng

Almost a decade after the group's last album and nearly 50 years since its founding, Senegal's Orchestra Baobab is swaggering back onto international dance floors with its silk, sultry songs, layering Afro-Cuban sounds with local traditions and pop styles from across Senegal and elsewhere in West Africa.

I think Nguea La Route is from Cameroon. This is a wacky video. She's doing some US shows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-i_6etL50Q

Not seeing a lot about her online

new albums I haven't heard yet:

Les Amazones d'Afrique is a contemporary world music supergroup formed in Mali in 2015 featuring Kandia Kouyaté, Angélique Kidjo, Mamani Keita, Rokia Koné, Mariam Doumbia (of Amadou & Mariam), Nneka, Mariam Koné, Massan Coulibaly, Madina N'Diaye, Madiaré Dramé, Mouneissa Tandina and Pamela Badjogo.

Mamadou Kelly

Tamakrest

Listened to new Tinariwen one this morning. At least one cut has a guest singing in English

new tamikrest is really good

It is nice. With less members in the group than Tinariwen, and a bit of a different vocal style, it has a slightly different feel than the latter. Been listening to both. Was also reading Tinariwen's translated into English lyrics on their label's website. They have both poetic and straightforward lyrics about the sad condition of Northern Mali, as well as a few love songs.

Saw Mali's Salif Keita and band tonight. A good show. Although he did occasionally coast and let his strong-voiced female backing singers take the leads, most of the time he showed why he is called the "The Golden voice of Africa." Slight resemblance in technique and note-hitting to Senegal's Youssou N'dour. Band had a keyboardist whose job was to also play the bass parts; the group also had a great percussionist; guitarist; & trap drummer

https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/the-western-sahara-isnt-big-enough-expert-witness-with-robert-christgau

The Dean gives an A- to Mariem Hassan: La Voz Indómita (Nubenegra) and the new Orchestra Baobab, a B+ to another Hassan, and honorable mentions to Tamikrest and Tinariwen

I need to listen to the new Janka Nabay album more. I liked the synthesized bubu dance rhythms on it, on first listen.

Have not dug into those Hassan efforts mentioned above. The Baobab is good

ILM's 2017 Rolling Outernational Thread Spotify Playlist

Liking Janka's album...His squeaky folky melodies over modern beats

This is from last year but I don't see any mention of it on ILM, and it's not something I noticed last year. Sounds promising so far:

http://www.popmatters.com/post/zmei3-rough-romanian-soul-album-stream-premiere/

Pretty impressive. Near zero critical attention. The title probably didn't help. Shades of Putumayo CD covers.