Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2018 Thread Once Known as World Music

These things are very difficult to compare, I agree. I guess I was just thinking of the early promise of the internet - culture and infomation distributed across the world! - and how this has certainly come true for a small cadre of enthusiasts, but the mainstreaming of the internet has not magically brought it about for the majority. I guess it's pretty naive to think it could have.

Latest Sidi Toure and band album on Thrilljockey has a nice rocking Malian groove feel. They’re touring North America now.

Aww, I missed this Sidi Toure appearance streaming--Apr. 22 - Charleston, WV - NPR Mountain Stage Radio.

The Sidi Toure April 24th 6 to 7pm US EST gig at Kennedy Center will be video-streamed by Kennedy Center on Facebook Live, and video archived on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage website

Got to admit only discovered this through James Yorkston tweeting that he plays on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l37oVFrobGA&feature=youtu.be

Went back and checked out her other work thanks to it.

Try again with the youtube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l37oVFrobGA

https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/album/abu-obaida-hassan-his-tambour-the-shaigiya-sound-of-sudan

http://www.sikhnet.com/gurbani/artist/manika-kaur-kandhari

That video Dan W posted is of this Australia raised singer Manika Kaur who moved to Dubai . A bit too polished maybe but her voice still shines

X-post —ooh, I like Hassan’s rhythms and the call & response aspect to the vocals. Looks like another nice effort from the Ostinato folks who did the Somali Broken Dates comp

http://www.banningeyre.com/blog/2018/4/29/the-big-bira

With the recent changes politically in Zimbabwe, Thomas Mapfumo decided to return after 14 years in exile. He just did a big show and Afropop.org 's Banning Eyre has been there blogging about it.

Eyre also has a book about Mapfumo.

Mapfumo with Tuki (Oliver M) can still draw 20,000 there

Couple of releases at the weekend caught my eye.

Partir by Elina Duni, jazz tinged somber folk from the Balkans and beyond. https://open.spotify.com/album/2Rz462A64on4veQuq9RRL2?si=NXiy54oQQR6wekgJwIDpMg

SOAR by Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita, second collaboration between the harp and kora players. https://open.spotify.com/album/2s5WYOg1fezE42u6X0GqJc?si=9xI9lJXgRwCgqDnIbEIovg

Mdou Moctar, Tuareg guitarist on another North American tour now. You may remember him from that Purple Rain in the desert homage movie. In Philadelphia any day now plus more gigs across the continent.

3 Nigerian afropop stars are on individual tours of North America this month: Davido, Olamide and Burna Boy

Moctar has his great band with him

Fascinating to me Banning Eyre interview about Congolese music from the 1970s to the present with Lubangi Muniania runs Tabilulu Productions and is an international consultant on African art and culture . Here's an interesting little bit about "research music." Parts of this I think ended up in a recent Afropop program “Congolese Music: The Fifth Generation.”

There are some interesting tracks from Abeti on that Zaire 74 release that came out last year, the African sets from the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle music festival.

Abeti was doing alternative. Lokua Kanza came out of Abeti. If you listen to early Abeti Masikini, the focus was not on lyrics. It was on the sound. But later, Abeti went back to doing soukous and rumba to go global, because that alternative genre, people didn’t take it well when it came out of Congo. They called it “research music.” You’ve got to research your sound. That’s where you see Jupiter and Okwess.

They call it research music because they are going deep into tradition, but they’re also digging deep into other rhythms, ethnic styles that have not been exploited.

Right. They do that. But not in a popular way. It’s like jazz in a way. They want to hear creativity, but in music that makes them dance. Now today, there’s a growing group of people who are becoming interested in that sound. But that sound has been there. You had Bobongo Stars, alternative Congolese music. Dominic Kanza came out of Bobongo Stars.

http://afropop.org/articles/the-state-of-congolese-music-2018-an-interview-with-lubangi-muniania

More from that interview:

People are feeling abandoned. So one of the ways to keep them up and happy, interested in the country, is music and sports. And sport is not doing too well. They didn’t make it to the World Cup. We were looking forward to it, so they could have something for 2018. But when you have people like Ferre Gola doing amazing concerts in the country, and outside, it brings pride. So it becomes, O.K., Ferre Gola represents me. That’s me ambassador. That’s my leader. That’s my role model. Fally Ipupa represents me. That kind of stuff.

Meanwhile for the Congolese diaspora:

These are kids who grew up abroad, in the Congolese diaspora, but they still want to identify with Congo. There’s one big one. His name is Maitre Gims. He’s in Paris. He is the biggest artist in France.

... So Franco would release a record, and people everywhere would do something similar. This is what’s going on right now a little bit. But it’s different now because it’s on the world stage: Paris, New York. So they do it like to do it there, but with Kinshasa stuff. And you see that in the dance moves. The dance moves that are taking over come out of ndombolo. They combine hip-hop and ndombolo, and that has driven the world crazy. You see ndombolo in Nigerian dance moves, Côte d’Ivoire, early coupé decalé. You see them dance. The kids in Europe. It’s ndombolo-based, and then you add hip-hop moves. And they become creative. If they do hip-hop moves, watch. You will see ndombolo moves coming up right after that. But the way they’ve combined those dance steps, it’s like something totally new. So really, it’s taking over. In early 2000s, nobody would think it would be what it is today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0CNCbNv534

^ new ebo taylor is tremendous

Lusafrica have reissued Bonga's first two albums, Angola 72 and Angola 74. Recorded in exile in Paris while Angola was still under Portuguese rule. The dude is very much a legend in the Portuguese-speaking music world, and most of the stuff by him I've heard is in Portuguese and a lot more straightforward Pop than these albums. There's a lot of the Angolan semba rhythm, which influenced the Brazilian Samba, and you can really hear it. He sings in original Angolan languages (I wish I knew a less awkward way to express that). I recommend Angola 74 particularly - he's got a lot of Cape Verdean backing musicians on that one, and even does a version of "Sodade" (better known as Cesaria Evora's signature song).

Heard one of those Bonga albums and liked it years ago. Haven't listened since, but I should.

x-post -when you said new Ebo Taylor you meant it. At 81 this Ghanaian's releasing Yen Ara, produced by Justin Admas

ebo claims it's the best record he's ever made as well

Still haven't gotten to Ebo Taylor (or re-listened to Bonga) but i heard the Afropop Worldwide “Congolese Music: The Fifth Generation.”

Listened to some of that Ebo Taylor. Good stuff, Highlife with horns...

Congo has Jupiter & Okwess with the Congolese "research music" and Ghana has Ebo Taylor.

guitarist Mdou Moctar visited Episcopal High School in Alexandria today and there is awesome footage of him playing outdoors with kids dancing around him to the music. Don't have the link handly, but it's been shared on Facebook, Instagram and twitter.

Moctar is doing a free noon-time show right now at the Library of Congress in DC

Seeing more footage of Moctar at Episcopal High. Great stuff.

But I still haven't delved back into Bonga albums of Angolan music yet. Still need to.

These performances are mind-bending

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W4pGMwAGIw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4iKmXTfUv8

wow, yes!

Those Mark Ernestus performances are nice

Senegalese mbalax drummers are pretty impressive

I have seen Youssou and other Senegalese leaders let their percussionist go like that live.

in non-Senegalese news, gonna see Mdou Moctar again tonight

Mdou Moctar from Niger and band were probably the best of the 3 times I have seen them, last night. With a guest local bass player, and the drummer powerfully propelling the beat, Moctar and the other guitarist did their electric axe magic ontop. He moves his fingers so fast and distinctively

x-post
Finally listened again to some of Bonga -Angola 72/74; on a Spotify version. His longing, melancholic voice and those understated but effective rhythms are nice.

I have not heard his most recent 2016 album Recados de Fora

http://www.hudaasfour.com

I saw DC based Palestinian oud player & singer Huda Asfour debut her new album Kouni live last night. Some classic feeling Middle Eastern pop, some rock, some jazzy as she had a guest horn section as well as string section. Ambitious.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yeelLtMFNg8

That’s Huda video someone posted on YouTube

I think Huda Asfour is gonna do some shows in Egypt and Lebanon this summer. She's on Bandcamp if you want to check out her new album. Her more traditional 2012 instrumental album Mars is also on Spotify.

Still so many afropop episodes for me to catch up on.

Seeing votes on that best albums of 2018 so far thread for Hailu Mergia, Tal National, and Ebo Taylor

Amadou & Mariam and then Noura Mint Seymali are gonna be in the Washington DC area on successive nights in June. Fun live acts

UK electronic dance duo Disclosure have a new single "Ultimatum" that samples and credits Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara.

Fatoumata deserves the attention.

Angélique Kidjo is releasing a full-album cover version of Remain In Light next month (She's been doing it live for a year now). Videos of some of the songs on the Talking heads classic or dud thread

went to a party yesterday with an Angolan trio jamming out, great stuff - is Bonga a good point of entry to Angolan rock?

Most of the Bonga stuff I have heard is more mellow like Brazilian samba.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music_in_Angola

Also, Congo singer Sam Mangwana lived in Angola. He did some rocking groove filled efforts

https://www.npr.org/2011/02/02/130076680/funk-before-war-in-angola

thx!

Malian singer Kassé-Mady Diabaté died last week:
https://face2faceafrica.com/article/mali-mourns-music-icon-kasse-mady-diabate-who-died-aged-69

went to a party yesterday with an Angolan trio jamming out, great stuff - is Bonga a good point of entry to Angolan rock?

I've never really heard any Angolan artists described as Rock - keep in mind it was a Portuguese colony until '74 (the Portuguese regime being relatively hostile towards Anglo-American music; even in Portugal most of the pre-74 Rock bands were rich kids who could afford to fly off to London and buy records), and after that (which I guess would be prime Afro-Rock time in Nigeria and other places) the country was launched into a bloody, decades long civil war. I met a lot of Angolan musicians from that generation when I lived in Portugal and they certainly counted Rock bands amongst their influences, but the connection to Brazil was much stronger.

I could see classifying Waldemar Bastos as Rock, though more in a singer/songwriter vein than, like, Acid Rock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szTWcNFWX6s

New Yorkers should go see the great Mauritania singer Noura Mint Seymali and her band led by her husband guitarist who plays cool African psychedelic licks, for free at the Lincoln Center Atrium Thursday June 7. They’re in Washington DC the next night ( not free but not expensive)