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

Yes! Have seen some clips on Instagram of Moctar and band out west.

Oh, saw Senegalese group Bideew Bou Bess for free at Kennedy Center Millennium Stage last night. 3 vocalists, including one who played some guitar, plus 2 more folks- a drummer and a percussionist. A but uneven but impressive at times. They sing N'Dour style mbalax but also rap and add some r'n'b bits. Rapping was impressive in an oldschool golden era meets backpacker way-- verbose and polished inflection-wise(I don't speak Wolof) . They were in NYC the night before. Not sure where they play next.

The gig should be available soon on the K. Ctr M. Stage site's video archive.

Returned to K. Center last night and saw Cambodian Space Project do their psych/garage rock/Khmer pop thing. I liked it. They're doing a free NYC gig Friday night at the Cutting Room

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2017/09/20/africa-seven-feature/

Sonodisc African reissues

2nd Songhoy Blues album is a tad uneven but not bad

Songhoy Blues are touring the US right now. IN DC Thursday the 28th

TRANSGLOBAL WORLD MUSIC CHART TOP 15
August’s favourite albums compiled from a worldwide panel of broadcasters and writers.

1.TRIO DA KALI & KRONOS QUARTET Ladilikan (World Circuit)
2.TOKO TELO Toy Raha Toy (Anio)
3.BOKANTÉ Strange Circles (Groundup)
4.OUMOU SANGARE Mogoya (No Format!)
5.MAGÍN DIAZ El Orisha De La Rosa (Noname)
6.SABÎL Zabad (Harmonia Mundi)
7.TRIO TEKKE & DAVE DE ROSE Zivo (Trio Tekke)
8.RAHIM ALHAJ Letters From Iraq (Smithsonian Folkways)
9.FRIGG Frost On Fiddles (Frigg)
10.DIMITRIS MYSTAKIDIS Amerika (Fishbowl)
11.LILA DOWNS Salón, Lágrimas y Deseo (Sony)
12.MEÏKHÂNEH La Silenceuse (Buda)
13.SONGHOY BLUES Résistance (Transgressive)
14.DANYÈL WARO Monmon (Cobalt/Buda)
15.RANK LONDON Glass House Orchestra (Piranha)

The Oumou Sangare record is nice. What a great voice. Wish she would tour the US. Last time I think she came to my neck of the woods was at the Smithsonian Folklife Fest in like 2004 or 2005 (and I missed the show as I was busy coaching my son's baseball team or something...).

Songhoy Blues did a a 1 1/2 hour set in DC last night. Fun and lively, though their songwriting is a bit uneven and sometimes the guitarist goes from that cool North African sound to less interesting to me blues-rock power chords.

Also saw more Mdou Moctar footage on Youtube of him live on this US tour. Looking forward to seeing him for free Sunday night at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. That 6 to 7 pm est gig will be streamed live on FB & at the K Ctr M. St. website too I think.

Then seeing Sun Ra Arkestra open for Solange there (paid ticket) at 8 that night in another Kennedy Center theatre.

Moctar was great last night; they had a lot of technical issues though. Line to the free show around the block!

Moctar's show in DC was fairly mellow for the first 40 minutes, then the tempo picked up and he got flashier on guitar and the last 20 minutes were great. First 40 weren't bad, just not as dazzling. Maybe because of the way the free show was marketed, or because of the movie Moctar was in, but I saw folks there who I don't often see at North African music gigs-- rockers Ian S (of Makeup & Chain & the Gang), all of Priests, drummer and bass player from Fugazi (now in Messthetics together, they'll be doing a gig opening for Moctar in DC on the 12th)

Kennedy Center video of that show-- http://www.kennedy-center.org/video/index/M64066

Alas I missed the late-night Nigerian Independence celebration gig in DC Sunday night with 4 afrobeats/afropop acts. There were also dj events for Nigeria independence day on Friday and Saturday

I interviewed Mdou Moctar when he was in Brussels a few weeks ago, and was able to aired it last Friday: https://www.mixcloud.com/Sterrenplaten/sterrenplaten-29-september-2017-mdou-moctar-the-dwarfs-of-east-agouza/

On how Christopher from Sahel Sounds traced him, on the bond with his parents and his religion, on nature and the desert. In French though.

The show also contains a sprawling improv set excerpt (15 min) by The Dwarfs Of East Agouza and a short talk with Maurice Louca, Sam Shalabi and Alan Bishop on a Brussels' rooftop.

Merci.

Group Doueh (Western Sahara band) coming next to DC on the 6th

Missed Group Doueh last night but saw an impressive video clip with Doueh playing guitar behind his head. Wfmu is I think associated with their gig with 75 Dollar Bill tonight

bit of a long shot but does anyone have any recommended reading or anything on the history of the guitar in west africa or africa more generally? particularly interested in anything pre-C20th

issue of The World of Music from 1994 on the topic looks interesting:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40141633

some talk about the slide guitar + west africa here:
http://www.afropop.org/8638/africa-and-the-blues-an-interview-with-gerhard-kubik/

I keep falling in love w/ these field recordings on Afropop Worldwide for artists that I cannot otherwise find any recordings of online. First it was Timmy Wonder and the Creative Crew on the Fuji-Juju episode and now it's Ambassador Joker on the new Fela Kuti ep.

Still behind on catching up on Afropop episodes. Speaking of Fela, watched a bit of Anthony Bourdain's show on CNN --the episode with him in Lagos. He goes to the Shrine, and talks with Seun, Femi and Yeni Kuti.

http://www.foodandwine.com/news/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown-lagos-preview

Wife and I drove down to the Richmond, VA Folk Fest on Saturday(its a Friday through Sunday event). Saw soul and blues acts; black frat and sorority step dancers; plus Peru's Los Wemblers (chicha/psych cumbia ) and Betsayda Machado Y La Parranda El Clavo (The Voice of Venezuela and her afro-percussive band). Good stuff.

Also saw Mdou Moctar again in DC. A more rocking set than the one I saw earlier at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage.

x-post to bit of a long shot but does anyone have any recommended reading or anything on the history of the guitar in west africa or africa more generally? particularly interested in anything pre-C20th

― ogmor, Sunday, October 8, 2017

I vaguely recall that Ned Sublette's book "Cuba and its Music" traces that island's music back to its roots including Africa.

not much on guitar but lots on pre-20th century african music
https://www.amazon.com/Music-Africa-J-Kwabeha-Nketia/dp/0393092496

this boxset also relevant:
https://www.discogs.com/Various-The-African-Guitar-Box/release/3716875

thanks for all these recommendations, I'll start to dip in. you sometimes hear that a certain bit of early modern guitar music or flamenco or w/e is african, or based on an african tune, or a rhythm or whatever, and that sort of thing is v curious to me

http://www.forcedexposure.com/Artists/BLO.html

Just learning about 70s psych rock band from Nigeria Blo who later apparently got more danceable as Disco arrived

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/konono-no-1-bandleader-augustin-mawangu-mingiedi-dead-at-56-w509710

Oh no. Saw this on ILE obit thread

The band will continue with a 3rd generation

digging this https://nyegenyegetapes.bandcamp.com/album/afromutations

whole label is cool

― Mordy, Monday, 23 October 2017 01:02

oops posted it to the wrong thread

I saw Innov Gnawa, a Moroccan group that is based in the NYC area(and has a number of Sufi members and one Moroccan Jew) do a special program of the type of songs that would be supposed be played for Moroccan Jewish audiences long ago. This show too place at a historic Baltimore synagogue. Call and response chanting vocals (in Berber, Arabic & Hebrew???), lots of castanet percussion, a lead vocalist also playing the sintir (a lute like instrument) on most songs and a big drum on the encore.

‪ http://remezcla.com/releases/music/kafundo-records-afro-brazilian-roots-compilation-album/‬

Looks interesting

Nothing here to surprise but this is a really fun comp:
https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/album/sweet-as-broken-dates-lost-somali-tapes-from-the-horn-of-africa

Still way behind in catching up on Afropop.org podcasts and other stuff mentioned on this thread like that Somali Sweet as Broken Dates tapes thing on Bandcamp. It has gotten some European radio play I see:

WORLD MUSIC EUROPEAN AIRPLAY TOP 15
September’s most played world music albums, compiled from returns from radio DJs all over Europe World Music Charts Europe
© giftmusic 2017
1.TRIO DA KALI & KRONOS QUARTET Ladilikan (World Circuit)
2.VARIOUS ARTISTS Sweet As Broken Dates (Ostinato)
3.JUPITER & OKWESS INTERNATIONAL Kin Sonic (Glitterbeat)
4.FRIGG Frost On Fiddles (Frigg)
5.VARIOUS ARTISTS Abatwa: Why Did We Stop Growing Tall (Glitterbeat)
6.MARIA DEL MAR BONET Ultramar (Picap)
7.GWYNETH GLYN Tro (Bendigedig)
8.MODAL4 Modal4 (Fishbowl)
9.OMIRI Baile Electronico (Bigorna)
10.TOKO TELO Toy Raha Toy (Anio)
11.RAHIM ALHAJ Letters From Iraq (Smithsonian Folkways)
12.MEKLIT When The People Move… (Six Degrees)
13.FRANK LONDON Glass House Orchestra (Piranha)
14.DJ TUDO & SUA GENTE DE TUDO LUGAR Gaia Musica Vol 2 (Mundo Melhor)
15.DONA ONETE Banzeiro (Mais Um Discos)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/arts/music/maher-zain-tour.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-1&action=click&contentCollection=Music®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article

Maher Zain, Islamic pop star
particularly from Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. His song “For the Rest of My Life” is an Islamic wedding fixture. (In Birmingham, one concertgoer said she’d heard it at a non-Muslim wedding, despite its opening line, “I praise Allah for sending me you, my love”). He even has friends in high places: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey “loves me as an artist,” Mr. Zain said. They have met many times.

that Somali Sweet as Broken Dates thing at times sounds like Cambodian music

That Oumou Sangare album from earlier this year still sounds great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PddVGz6oXNg
Ruba Shamshoum is a Dublin based Palestinian singer, her Shamat album is absolute top stuff.

Will check it out. I was up in a NYC over the weekend and a street vendor was blasting North African/Moroccan rai like music, but I foolishly didn't stop to ask him specifically what it was.

Rahim Alhaj “Letters from Iraq” sounds good in a traditional oud way

The Alhaj album is pretty melancholy

31. Songhoy Blues - Résistance

Rolling Stone's #31 album of the year. I liked some of it, but the more I listened the more I found it uneven

That Ruba Shamshoum album has some French cabaret sounding aspects plus traces of current pop

Bodega Pop has reactivated: http://bodegapop.blogspot.com

Yes, that's good news. That blog finds cool cassettes in bodegas in Astoria, Queens and parts of Brooklyn, NY.

http://tedgioia.com/bestalbumsof2017.html

Was underwhelmed by Ifriqiyya Electrique album Ruwahine (Sufi music from Tunisia gone post-punk) on this jazz and more list, but am curious about the Teddy Afro album and others

The post-punk parts of Ifriqiyya are what disappoint me. Kind of rote.

But Quietus loves it, and put it at 20 on their 2017 year in review list

20: Rûwâhîne - Ifriqiyya Electrique

Wire magazine 2017 list:

Mahmoud Gania - Colours of the Night

Posthumous release from Moroccan sinter/lute player who has been on a Pharoah Sanders album and a James Holden one

https://thevinylfactory.com/news/maalem-mahmoud-gania-colours-of-the-night-vinyl-release/

Saw a Davido song on the Fader top 100 song list.

http://www.songlines.co.uk/world-music-news/2017/11/songlines-best-albums-of-2017/

Includes Oumou Sangaré, Orchesta Baobab, & the Trio da Kali w/ Kronos Quartet album

F Roots list-

Eliza Carthy & The Wayward Band- Big Machine
Rhiannon Giddens-Freedom Highway
Lisa Knapp-Til April Is Dead
Lankum-Between The Earth And Sky
Leveret-Inventions
Offa Rex-Queen of Hearts
Orchestra Baobab-Tribute To Ndiouga Dieng
Oumou Sangare-Mogoya
Saz’iso-At Least Wave Your Handkerchief At Me
Trio Da Kali & Kronos Quartet-Ladilikan