Rolling World Music Thread 2013

he's the compiler*

I was about to ask what's up with Rachid Taha these days!

ethio jazz is totes my thing now. listening to a ton of mulatu astatke obvs, any other recommendations? (anyone else interested, i have a spotify playlist here, tho most of it is local files so i don't know how extensive the actual thing is: http://open.spotify.com/user/mordys/playlist/4AZeabX0TUgvvbC7yiLoRx )

also i discovered that Damian Marley samples 'Yegelle Tezeta' for 'As We Enter'

astatke is boss.
Mordy are you down with ethiopiques already? If not, spotify that name and you should find much to enjoy.

Ethio-jazz is a term that only really applies to Mulatu, he is the only person who would call his music that and consciously tries to ref jazz

All other stuff that non ethiops call ethio jazz is just Ethiopian pop music, however funk or jazz inflected

If you are just enjoying 60s/70s Ethiopian pop, then there is tons out there for you. If looking for more instrumental and def jazz feeling, look at Getachew Mekuria, great saxophonist from that time period, Ethiopiques 14 as a very Ethiopian album that makes many makes ppl think of Albert Ayler style jazz and his album with The Ex is glorious

Sammy Yirga is a young monstrously talented musician, his album Guzo on Real World sells him short in showing his abilities, but this is someone to watch

Also, honestly, Mulatu is a brilliant, brilliant arranger, but most of his so-called compositions were in collaboration with others or straight up rips and the musicians involved in composing have been left to the side. He has done well for himself in riding that though

thanks for the recommendations. i knew about the ethiopiques series but there are so many that i was wary about checking them out. i have heard the most recent Getachew album (Y'Anbessaw Tezeta) and I really loved it. I'll have to look up some of his older material.

If looking for more instrumental and def jazz feeling, look at Getachew Mekuria, great saxophonist from that time period, Ethiopiques 14 as a very Ethiopian album that makes many makes ppl think of Albert Ayler style jazz and his album with The Ex is glorious

YES! I saw the tour with The Ex and it was AMAZING. Extremely great stuff, you will like it if you haven't heard it already!

Ethiopiques S/D

comprehensive! thanks!

That Ex gig with Eshete and getachew at LC was so fuckin' epic; i had such a splitting migraine and yet still good memories

i was one of the ppl who put that LC show together and i missed the damn show!

lotta happy people that night

can anyone help me place who sampled "tey gedyeleshem" by Alemayehu Eshete on Ethiopiques 3? sounds so familiar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fRF6Cby824

yes! thank you

http://www.thisisafrica.me/new-releases/detail/19861/oy-kokokyinaka-genre-bending-african-inflected-electronica-inspired-by-traditional-african-stories-and-proverbs

it's really good! i've never heard her debut but i'm going to check it out after i listen to kokokyinaka (the debut is on spotify so i imagine this one will show up soon too)

would ppl itt be interested in some kind of world music poll? something like 'the non-western music canon in the second half of the 20th century' (or a better name if i can figure one out)? i really want to run one, but i keep running into roadblocks about how best to present/categorize it (also i want to make sure ppl will participate)

Just got an email that may interest thread denizens:

Soundway Records present Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings from the 1970s & '80s -- a treasure-trove of rare and unusual recordings from East Africa. Spread out over two CDs and one triple LP set, Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings from the 1970s & ‘80s out 5/14/13

Kenya Special is accompanied by detailed liner notes, original artwork and photographs. It follows on from Soundway's much-acclaimed African "Special" series that to date has focused on the highlife and Afrobeat output from 1970s Nigeria and Ghana. Kenya Special is a collection of 32 recordings (most of which were only ever released on small-run 45rpm 7" singles) that stand out as being different or unique as well as some classic genre standards. From Kikuyu language "liquid soul," Luo benga and Swahili Afrobeat, to genre-bending Congolese and Tanzanian tracks recorded in Nairobi, Kenya Special sees Soundway yet again taking the less-trodden path. Many of the tracks featured here are peppered with innovation and experimentation, highlighting how diverse the music scene in Kenya was at the time. In 1970s Kenya the two threads of rumba and benga loosely dominated the music scene. Benga quickly became Kenya's unique contribution to Afro-pop; spreading like wildfire through the interior countryside with its fast, 4/4 machine-gun beat and intricate electric guitar layers. The Congolese take on Afro-Cuban rumba was introduced by touring bands, many of whom settled in East Africa -- influencing bands from Kenya and Tanzania to come up with their own take on this popular style. Alongside these styles were small ensembles and hotel-sponsored bands, playing a blend of music that often included rock 'n' roll riffs, elements of "Afro" music (influenced by West African musicians like Fela Kuti), and multiple other combinations from South African and Zambian guitar styles to disco, funk and Swahili coastal rhythms like chakacha. Painstakingly compiled, assembled and researched over two years by a team of five people from five countries (Kenya included), Kenya Special is a collection that looks beyond the mainstream and brings new life and recognition to some little-known gems and forgotten classics of Kenya's past.

awesome! i cannot wait to hear that.

some this is africa links worth checking out:

Didjak Munya's Oxygene

http://www.thisisafrica.me/data/thumb/abc_media_image/6000/6977/w430.68de7.jpg

http://www.thisisafrica.me/opinion/detail/19865/music-and-politics-and-why-we-should-not-romanticize-our-leaders-faults

new Oy music video (and the whole album is on Spotify now!): http://www.thisisafrica.me/videos/detail/19867/oy-market-place -- http://open.spotify.com/album/6Jc2M2a00jOksgAjGiP4H1

that was a really confusing, and, i think, confused piece.
I'm glad i saw it but have to try to process what he is saying and what i think he is trying to say. zim is a really ... complicated place

http://f0.bcbits.com/z/66/65/666558280-1.jpg

really good ^

Thomas Mapfumo who had to leave Zimbabwe would obviously agree that Mugabe should not be romanticized.

x-post- I am still making up my mind on that hybrid calypso of Kobo Town. It also kinda bugs me that this guy's cd is being sent to press folks everywhere, while efforts from many of other calypsonians and soca artists get ignored

Wish I was in New Orleans this week for the Senegal/New Orleans sister cities conference. It started with an event that was presented as part of the EMP Pop COnference in New Orleans closing event that I did see: 5 fishermen brothers from Senegal (4 who play types of ngoni's and 1 on acoustic guitar) performed by themselves and then in a jam session with New Orleans afro-Creole banjoists Don Vappie and Carl LeBlanc. It was nice.

https://tulane.edu/giving/news/scholars-study-new-orleans-and-its-sister-city.cfm

http://www.afropop.org/wp/8281/accra-2013-journal-first-2-nights/

Interesting. Connecticut-based world traveler Banning needs to read an ilx thread or 2 (or maybe he has)

[A lot of this music sounds like what American African music fans would call afrobeat, though that term does not seem to have much currency here. Young people talk about afrobeats--but that's a story for another day.]

Cairo Liberation Front (electro/dub/bass/cha3bi from the Arab Spring)

Aleppo, Syria, my home, is famous for its love of music. It is said that every house in the city contains at least one instrument. My anxiety over the city and the news of its destruction is intimately connected to my anxiety over the survival of our musical traditions, what we all stand to lose when shrapnel and rage reduce a cultural nexus to rubble. These days, the bombed-out residential streets are lined with the splintered wood of ouds.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/opinion/a-writers-lament-for-the-female-musicians-of-aleppo-syria.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130427&_r=0

I don't think I'm familiar w/ any Aleppian music - anything I should check out?

I tend to just know the singers in older styles. Sabah Fakhri, Shadi Jamil/Jameel, Nour Mhanna (getting progressively more one-foot-in-pop as the list goes on, but all classically trained). Fakhri is the king of Syrian classical music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7IdPuUQtsI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L9Z-GRm0sY

Nour Mhanna:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_GOWnfTP1U

know anything about these sublime frequencies comps?

I Remember Syria 2-CD SF009
Omar Souleyman: Highway to Hassake (Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria) 2-LP SF031

Omar Souleyman is banging uptempo wedding music, has toured the West playing hipster venues and festivals, I assume there's a thread about him?

Leh Jani

so this omar souleyman guy (RFI, RFD)

there are other compilations of dabke out there also

I saw Omar Souleyman on an unusual doublebill with Dengue Fever. More folks were there for Dengue's Cambodian garage-pop and they began leaving early into Omar's Syrian speedy beats set with Arabic vocals

I know nothing about old-school Jewish Moroccan music but this blog writer can school me:

http://jewishmorocco.blogspot.com/2013/04/sing-out-maghreb-jewish-moroccan.html

omar souleyman has a strangely paternal presence, gently insisting everybody gets into it, leaning over attentively to be fed poetry from a guy w/ a laptop. killed it when i saw him a few years ago

yeah he puts on a good show

I see on Facebook that Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara is in New Orleans. Wish she would add a W. DC gig to her tour as I was seeing the Burundi Drummers the night she was last in DC.

she's with Mtukudzi in Central Park in July for a free gig

!!!

Lots of empty dates on her July calendar. Maybe they can add a gig in my area then.

forks what is the date for Fatou?

http://www.nonesuch.com/on-tour/fatoumata-diawara?page=1

July 21 in Central park

http://www.cityparksfoundation.org/calendar/oliver-mtukudzi-and-the-black-spirits-fatoumata-diawara-krar-collective/
OLIVER MTUKUDZI AND THE BLACK SPIRITS / FATOUMATA DIAWARA / KRAR COLLECTIVE
DJ sets by DJ Sirak
7.21.2013 | 3:00 pm - 7:00 pm

also:

FEMI KUTI & THE POSITIVE FORCE / SINKANE / DJ SETS BY KING BRITT
In association with Okayafrica
6.23.2013 | 3:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Both free and in Central Park. Best entrance is 72 st and 5th ave, then bear left.

i would really love to go to the fatou show. atm the only possible problem is that we're due mid-july so it might just not be feasible.