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

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

http://afropop.org/articles/stocking-stuffers-2017-feature

Davido, Mokoomba, Trio Da Kali and more

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/various-artists-habibi-funk-an-eclectic-selection-of-music-from-the-arab-world/

Andy Beta for Pitchfork on A new compilation from Habibi Funk highlights the old and interweaving sounds of Algerian coladera, Lebanese AOR, Egyptian disco, Moroccan funk and more.

I haven't heard it yet

Zimbabwe's Jah Prayzah

Everyone, from the elderly to kindergartners, can be heard in the streets singing songs from Kutonga Kwaro, the album Prayzah released Oct. 13 — almost exactly one month prior to Mugabe's ouster.

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/12/08/569424251/perceived-as-prophetic-of-a-bloodless-coup-zimbabwean-artists-profile-rises

Quirky rough-edged Brit folkie Richard Dawson seems more popular with critics in year-end polls than any other non-American genre representatives. Neither old-school or new-school African sounds or Latino ones or Caribbean ones, or even Afro-Brit grime ones have gotten anywhere near the support that Dawson has (which of course still pales in comparison to US based indie and rap)

Dawson seems more popular than metal or jazz acts from anywhere too

I am referring to the year end lists thread:

Richard Dawson is 1st on Quietus list, 2nd on Wire's and now another top ten position on Cracked's, damn, who would have thunk.

― damosuzuki, Tuesday, December 5, 2017 1:45 PM (six

For those compiling your year-end lists, this playlist includes all the available tracks on this thread, organized roughly chronologically in order of mention:

ILM's 2017 Rolling Global Sounds Thread Spotify Playlist

I tried some of that Dawson album and it was unlistenable. I think it might make me physically ill to listen to the whole thing. I don't know why. curmudgeon, speaking of American indie, you should try that Melkbelly album. Granted, I don't have enough of a grasp of your taste in rock to know what you will think.

I keep meaning to check it out. I will.

The Said The Gramaphone blog top 100 songs includes an Oumou Sangaré one, and a South African one that I have just forgotten. It’s a Ulysses fave he mentioned on the year-end list.

Both cuts I like better than Richard Dawson ‘s avant Brit Folk.

that would be South African Sun-El Musician and Samthing Soweto's "Akanamali"
I'm pushing it hard for year-end consideration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKxFS8L6AlQ
http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=24322

wow that is really lovely

That is a nice track. I'd have to listen some more before knowing if it's a favorite or not.

I don't care for Rahim AlHaj's approach to fusing Arab and western classical music. I only listened to part of the new one, then bailed out.

I liked it on my 1 and a half listens (and I know little about Arab and western classical music)

NPR year-end list includes Rûwâhîne - by Ifriqiyya Electrique, mentioned above. I wasn't dazzled by the post-punk aspects. Maybe I will give it another shot

Didn't listen to that last night, but did listen again to Ata Kak from Ghana on Awesome Tapes from Africa (although I think that re-release is from a prior year)