Return of the World Music Thread: 2012

Also, I think you'd like the Zaki Ibrahim album (certainly more than the Sa Dingding album), and it's on Spotify.

malawi mouse boys album is worth a spin. also on spotify

Awesome, not sure it's strictly world music since I just stumbled on it, but it sure is international:

http://istanbulmusic.blogspot.com/2010/04/best-musicians-from-japan.html

Iranian singer Mahsat Vahdat, who as a female can't sing in public in Iran, was incredible last night dueting with soul/blues singer Mighty Sam McClain before a small crowd in DC. They made Farsi and English alternating verses work well together. She talked about being taught about in the "great Satan" and spoke about people locked up back in Iran (a country that is still her home). Both the music and the between-song conversation was fascinating

Poor Mahsa Vahdat, on an obscure Norwegian label, singing in an obscure to Americans style, and on her short little US tour ignored by NPR, NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post and others. But she did get some attention in the media in India for a gig she did there. Now she's on her way back to Tehran.

I definately liked Mahsa Vahadat the best of the three vocalists singing in Farsi last week in D.C. The Mitra Sumara Kennedy Center free gig is available via video online at the K. Ctr. Millennium Stage website. Her voice is a little too rough for me (for this style).

Vahdat

malawi mouse boys album is worth a spin. also on spotify

― We do live in a fallen, depraved world destined for the fire. (forksclovetofu), Friday, November 9, 2

They've got that Southern African gospelly feel. Nice, but it didn't blow me away on first listen.

Zaki Ibrahim is more than the neo-soul singer I thought she was.

Happy Thanksgiving, Rolling World Music Thread!

I made two Spotify playlists I thought might interest ppl here. The first is as many of the Songlines 50 essential African albums I could find on Spotify (with replacement albums for artists that Spotify didn't have the right album for): http://open.spotify.com/user/mordys/playlist/6sbOSvT7cRHiVKiMhmvQL3

The second is all the tracks I could find from an incomplete discography from Rumba on the River: A History of the Popular Music of Two Congos (which I was looking at bc of the current situation in Goma): http://open.spotify.com/user/mordys/playlist/5aSRWjfIu0dsgx4r0jHz1c

Thank you

Goma situation a mess (as is the Northern Mali situation).

Been going through some of the top Afropop albums. I really like the Staff Benda Bilili, still deciding re Amadou & Mariam and many others

Fri. 11/30 10p: Join us for a festive Afropop Worldwide ritual, as Georges Collinet sits down with Banning Eyre to mull over the best new releases of 2012.

We'll hear from K'Naan, Staff Benda Bilili, Sierra Leone's Refugee Allstars, Mokoomba, Ondatropica, Alex Cuba, The Very Best, Janka Nabay.... As usual, Georges and Banning will run out of time long before they run out of tunes

Not that I always agree with them, just putting this out there

http://www.afropop.org/wp/6228/stocking-stuffers-2012/

http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news/in-news/neba-solo-carries-forth-musical-traditions-mali

http://www.theworld.org/2012/11/neba-solo-malis-balafon-master/

Harvard prof got Mali's Neba Solo to visit there and perform. PRI's The World says the conditions in northern Mali are still a mess. Apparently the French and the African Union are talking about a military effort to drive the radical fundamentalists out of the north, but it hasn't happened yet.

Meanwhile in the Congo, I see there's this ILE thread:

Congo crisis

萨顶顶's The Coming Ones is now available on Grooveshark:

http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/The+Coming+Ones/8064053

For all 0.0 of you who are interested.

Hoping it makes it to Spotify by the time ILM EOY poll nominations begin.

This makes me sad and mad:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-northern-mali-music-silenced-as-islamists-drive-out-artists/2012/11/30/110ea016-300c-11e2-af17-67abba0676e2_story.html

One day, they broke into Arby’s house and destroyed her instruments. Her voice was a threat to Islam, they said, even though one of her most popular songs praised Allah.

“They told my neighbors that if they ever caught me, they would cut my tongue out,” said Arby, sadness etched on her broad face.

immensely fucked up

Another story on Mali in the Washington Post today. The African Union wants to invade and toss the fundamentalists out of northern Mali, but they are going to wait uintil the South calms down(Generals just forced the Prez out; or he left on his own maybe) and the UN agrees to the approach. So maybe in 8 months if ever.

In another war-torn country,Congo, is Staff Benda Bilili whose album should be appearing on more lists than it is.

sad

Former US ambassador to Mali urges patience in a letter to the editor in the Washington Post. He wants a stable Malian government that can send Malian troops with the African Union to defeat the fundamentalists (who I think he says are largely Algerian; and that Algeria does not want them back of course). Don't have a link handy, saw this in newsprint.

Catching up with Raquel Rivera's current life:

http://www.futuromediagroup.org/lusa/2012/10/05/planet-new-mexico/

Will have to listen to that later. Always liked her writing but had lost track of her

I need to start googling for some interesting 2012 eoy lists with African and tropical music and elsewhere

I've had this bookmarked since Benny posted it: "See I like Beyoncé, but she dey with Jigga / I like Nicki, her yansh is bigger..." // D'BANJ - OLIVER TWIST // afrobeats in the charts

for more traditional sounds there's this list (I haven't listened to any of 'em I don't think. Some are from various African countries)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/dec/13/best-world-folk-music-albums-2012

That's a short list and most of its folky. I wonder if Mokoomba from Zimbabwe are any good though.

That Guardian writer has penned some interesting pieces over the past year about Afropop, but that list does not completely reflect that.

He put Staff Benda Bilili in his singles list I see

The afropop.org folks like Mokoomba too

Not listened to much current world music this year, but I was blown away by the janka nabay & the bubu gang album which someone recommended on another thread.

That's a good one, and we talked about it on this thread also. Chris Richards of the Washington Post put it in his top 10, and perhaps some others have as well.

rhapsody world music list

30) Chicha Libre, Canibalismo
29) Antibalas, Antibalas
28) Bonde do Role, Tropicalbacanal
27) Curumin, Arrocha
26) Sinkane, Mars
25) Sistema Bomb, Electro-Jarocho
24) Kayhan Kalhor, I Will Not Stand Alone
23) Ondatropica, Ondatropica
22) Staff Benda Bilili, Bouger Le Monde!
21) Rodrigo y Gabriela, Area 52
20) Bomba Estéreo, Elegancia Tropical
19) Spoek Mathambo, Father Creeper
18) Various Artists, Music of Central Asia Vol. 10: Borderlands: Wu Man and Master Musicians from the Silk Route
17) Krar Collective, Ethiopia Super Krar
16) Debo Band, Debo Band
15) CéU, Caravana Sereia Bloom
14) Chimurenga Renaissance, Pungwe
13) Mati Zundel, Amazonico Gravitante
12) Batida, Batida
11) Amadou & Mariam, Folila
10) Anoushka Shankar, Traveller
9) Novalima, Karimba
8) Nneka, Soul Is Heavy
7) Niyaz, Sumud
6) Egyptian Project, Ya Amar
5) Tim Maia, World Psychedelic Classics 4
4) The Very Best, MTMTMK
3) Fatoumata Diawara, Fatou
2) Samuel Yirga, Guzo
1) Maga Bo, Quilombo do Futuro

Have not listened to their number 1 and 2. I like Diawara's voice and songs although she's a bit too folky at times. The Very best--yes. The Maia is a reissue or hard to find stuff or something from that late Brazilian singer, right? I think I have a cd copy of Egyptian Project but haven't listened to it yet.

I think Debo Band, made up of Ethiopians and others living in Boston, makes these lists and gets more attention than Ethiopian artists living in Ethiopia, because Debo tour gigs and cds are marketed to English language pop and more critics in the US. I have seem 'em and they're good, but not better (or worse) than most Ethiopian artists who are just marketed to Ethiopians.

Reminds me, Aster Aweke is doing her seemingly annual DC holiday appearance on Christmas Day night this year. At techno club Echostage. Wonder if she put something out this year?

Streaming the Egyptian Project on Spotify right now (had not heard of this album before). It's pretty solid, but I'm not sure how it will hold up to repeat listens. The vocals are a little more street/roots Egyptian than I tend to prefer.

Was reading about Egyptian Project at lunch:

http://news.allaboutjazz.com/news.php?id=100480
from a six degrees press release it appears:

French producer Jérôme Ettinger devoted himself to exploring, preserving and spreading the sound of the North African country he fell in love with. Assembling world-class musicians and layering in tasteful electronic rhythms beneath virtuosic playing...

As his passion for Egyptian culture and music grew, Ettinger assembled a team of renowned artists for a touring band: percussionist Ragab Sadek, rababa player/violinist Salama Metwally, oud player Ihad Radwan and singer Sayed Eman, whose epic vocals decorate many of this album’s ten songs. With all musicians between the ages of 50 and 60, Ettinger has played an important role in introducing these incredible artists to the world beyond the Nile.

Using Ableton Live during live shows — they’ve played many times in France and Egypt in the three years since the band’s founding —

The Maia is a reissue or hard to find stuff or something from that late Brazilian singer, right?

Yeah it's a retrospective comp. I think everything by Tim Maia counts as "hard to find" these days? Anyway it is great.

this album is pretty good - brazilian guys playing afrobeat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOtU3NZgFns&feature=share

maga bo is great btw.
fatou's on my top ten album list for sure. it opens up with relistens.

Oh yeah, Maga Ba is Brazilian favela music.

Bo. That Bixiga 70 Brazilian afrobeat is nice

Listening to Samuel Yirga now. He's an Ethiopian who plays jazz piano with an Ethiopian feel. Not that far out. Its pleasant.

The old stuff on this thread is good:

What African rock record should I listen to next?

Was trying via google quickly to find music year-end lists from African-based writers in English (or translatable). Sadly, I haven't been successful so far. Maybe I am just out of touch or not doing the right search; or folks are just indicating their favorites in a different manner tech-wise

http://africasacountry.com/2012/12/26/the-top-10-african-music-videos-of-2012/

New-school dance and rap stuff mostly. I haven't watched 'em all yet

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/critics-best-top-music-2012/Content?oid=8243121

Peter Margasak's top 5 international:

Fatoumata Diawara, Fatou (World Circuit/Nonesuch) Mali

Mairi Morrison & Alasdair Roberts, Urstan (Drag City) Gaelic folk

Antonio Zambujo, Quinto (World Village) Portuguese Fado singer

Sidi Touré, Koïma (Thrill Jockey) Mali

Huong Thanh, L'arbre aux Reves (Buda) Vietnamese