That’s how I should have phrased it, thanks. Saw a video clip of his DC show singing nicely over tracks .
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 27 January 2019 18:14 (five years ago) link
new bassekou kouyate out this week. also new a-wa track ("mudbira") which is fantastic, and sofia rei just made the first album for the new masada cycle "beriah" and it's pretty cool as well
― Mordy, Friday, 1 February 2019 22:47 (five years ago) link
75-year-old, Ustad Saami risks his life daily in Pakistan to keep alive his microtonal, pre-Islamic, multilingual (Farsi, Sanskrit, Hindi, the ancient and dead language of Vedic, gibberish, Arabic, and Urdu) music. Handed down by his ancestors for over a thousand years, he is the only practitioner of Surti left in the world and when he passes, this music will die with him as well. Extremists resent his work as they do anything else pre-dating Muhammad.
http://glitterbeat.com/artists/ustad-saami/
This is some beautiful and hypnotic work.
― tangenttangent, Saturday, 9 February 2019 13:16 (five years ago) link
i had heard about the new album but i was too busy meditating over the meaning (and my opinion of) the title that i hadn't gotten around to listen to it until your recommendation - which i'm so glad you made, really cool stuff! hypnotic is right.
― Mordy, Saturday, 9 February 2019 15:14 (five years ago) link
hoo boy the write-up on that is terrible (e.g., "In the land where Osama Bin last hid, Master Ustad Naseeruddin Saami has spent his entire life mastering the nuances of every given note."). But the music is immense (and totally new to me), thanks for posting that
― rob, Saturday, 9 February 2019 15:23 (five years ago) link
love this track: https://dexterstory.bandcamp.com/track/shuruba-song-feat-hamelmal-abateand this one: https://open.spotify.com/track/1VCBrYw70cUQRrvd7ybgP4?si=esGXOvbRR0WE_1bOA5Ud8Q (kel assouf - tamatant)also this album https://nicolacruz.bandcamp.com/album/siku
― Mordy, Sunday, 10 February 2019 03:48 (five years ago) link
https://mauricelouca.bandcamp.com/album/elephantine
Egyptian experimental bandleader/composer/musician Maurice Louca's new album with 12-piece ensemble is quite lovely. posted this elsewhere but realised this is probably the right place to park this one.
― calzino, Monday, 11 February 2019 10:07 (five years ago) link
new mdou moctor single
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA2zshM6A8g
― Mordy, Tuesday, 12 February 2019 15:59 (five years ago) link
Mdou is still busy touring too—US and Europe
I was just in Mexico and didn’t hear anyone playing his music there. But I did hear folkloric Mexican sounds, banda, duranguese, pop, 50s style rock but in Spanish. Also live we saw Puerto Rican salsa romantica singer Victor Manuelle do a late night show in Mexico City. There were some impressive dancing couples in the crowd
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 13 February 2019 18:39 (five years ago) link
https://sahelsounds.com/2019/01/hama-houmeissa/
I'm not as wowed by Hama's laptop fruityloops programming takes on Niger / Tuareg traditional music as some folks like Wayne Marshall are. But I've only heard 2 cuts
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 14 February 2019 05:23 (five years ago) link
i really liked his 2015 album Torodi so i'll be checking this new one out w/ anticipation
― Mordy, Thursday, 14 February 2019 14:28 (five years ago) link
X-post- The one Louca composition I heard sounded kinda jazzy. He addressed his relationship to jazz and other genres here I see: http://downbeat.com/news/detail/maurice-louca-elephantine-northern-spy
― curmudgeon, Friday, 15 February 2019 18:12 (five years ago) link
i didn't love the new hama :/
― Mordy, Friday, 15 February 2019 18:20 (five years ago) link
I still need to catch up on those other things you posted- Dexter Story etc.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 15 February 2019 18:36 (five years ago) link
Love the dexter story and I loved their last album so I’m looking forward to this one
― Mordy, Friday, 15 February 2019 18:38 (five years ago) link
I've been watching some of the Kennedy Center's live video stream of Tcheka, a Cape Verdean singer/songwriter/acoustic guitarist @ Kennedy Ctr. Mill. Stage. Beautiful vocal melodies and nice rhythmic string accompaniment. Sounds a bit Brazilian or Angolan
― curmudgeon, Friday, 15 February 2019 23:56 (five years ago) link
He was at Lincoln Center in NY (also for free) the night before.
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 16 February 2019 00:04 (five years ago) link
Kel Assouf's Black Tenere is out today. A lot of this Touareg desert blues stuff is nice, but too reined-in and pretty. This dude plays desert RAWK, though. His guitar tone will take your face off like a sandstorm, and there’s some guitar-organ jam action so heavy I keep expecting to hear Ian Gillan come in on vocals. Definitely recommended.
― grawlix (unperson), Saturday, 16 February 2019 00:11 (five years ago) link
i haven't gotten to this yet (also came out this week) but it has tracks w/ tony allen and mulatu astatke: https://nubiyantwist.bandcamp.com/album/jungle-run
― Mordy, Saturday, 16 February 2019 13:46 (five years ago) link
ooooh! i just saw that Mulatu Astatke is playing in a local PLANT CONSERVATORY in May but 1) tickets are $47 and 2) I have class that night and I would take my students but 1)
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Saturday, 16 February 2019 22:02 (five years ago) link
maybe you can get a discount if you tell them it's for students??
― Mordy, Saturday, 16 February 2019 23:17 (five years ago) link
I bumped the Astatke thread to ask this, but have any of you seen him live? He's playing in Montreal (though not in a plant conservatory, damn that sounds amazing), but yeah it's pretty pricey and I'm wondering if it's worth it.
― rob, Sunday, 17 February 2019 15:56 (five years ago) link
i have! i think it was 2 years ago at the world music festival in chicago. it will be pricey and/but you will enjoy it.
idk about discounts -- haggling is not my forte. in the past i have taken them to events that are free (world music fest) or already offer discounted tickets for students (spektral quartet)
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Sunday, 17 February 2019 18:00 (five years ago) link
thanks LL! the venue is walking distance from my apt so I'm pretty excited
― rob, Sunday, 17 February 2019 18:42 (five years ago) link
Astatke is playing NYC May 17 & 18, hope he comes down to DC too.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 18 February 2019 05:53 (five years ago) link
Yea Kel Assouf's Black Tenere rocks
― curmudgeon, Monday, 18 February 2019 05:55 (five years ago) link
well, some of it
― curmudgeon, Monday, 18 February 2019 06:05 (five years ago) link
I could do without some of the jam like stuff on it
― curmudgeon, Monday, 18 February 2019 22:40 (five years ago) link
few albums i'm checking out this week:
Cochemea - All My Relations: digging this, electrosax afrojazzEitan Katz - Ashrecha: musician friend keeps bumping this, charedi folk, not sure it's so unique but if you don't know this genre at all it has some nice momentsSaba Alizadeh - Scattered Memories: experimental music w/ persian instruments / electronic / field recording soundsConstantinople, Ablaye Cissoko - Traversées: light kora + sitar music, mandinka + persian fusion
― Mordy, Friday, 22 February 2019 19:52 (five years ago) link
the assouf is okay - tho a little monotonous to me as a whole (i prefer it a track here and there outside the album) and like a lot of other stuff (that i do enjoy!)
Baaba Maal got an Oscar for best original score for Black Panther
― curmudgeon, Monday, 25 February 2019 21:36 (five years ago) link
Yemen Blues playing World Cafe Live tmmrw night trying to decide if i want to go..
― Mordy, Tuesday, 26 February 2019 17:31 (five years ago) link
Banning Eyre Guide to Zimbabwe music from 70s to present. The emphasis is on guitar bands but he acknowledges rap and dancehall near the end. Bhundu Boys, Thomas Mapfumo, Mokoomba are all here.
http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2019/02/zimbabwe-music-history
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 27 February 2019 00:28 (five years ago) link
Liking the new Kronos Quartet with Iranian vocalists Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat album Placeless. Melancholy and powerful delivery of the vocals over the strings
https://kronosquartet.org/news/article/kronos-quartet-mahsa-and-marjan-vahdat-placeless
― curmudgeon, Friday, 1 March 2019 17:32 (five years ago) link
new sahel sounds release: https://amanardekidal.bandcamp.com/album/akaline-kidal
― Mordy, Friday, 1 March 2019 18:28 (five years ago) link
X-post - Iranian singer Mahsa Vahdat was great live backed by Kronos Q. Kronos on their own turned some of their Muslim countries repertoire for the night into standard classical music ( they sounded more interesting when they reached beyond that).
― curmudgeon, Monday, 4 March 2019 15:03 (five years ago) link
African Film Fest in suburbs of DC
WAHENGA (The Ancestors)Saturday, Mar. 9, 12:45 p.m.AFI Silver Theatre 8633 Colesville Rd.Silver Spring, MDhttp://afi.com/silver/
U.S. Premiere
WAHENGA follows John Kitime, a Tanzanian musician now in his 60s, as he sets out on a mission to put together an all-star band from the old days to revive the classic sound of Zilipendwa music. Along the way, he meets the people who played key roles in the music scene of Tanzania during the struggle for independence and the nation's formative years under the first president, Julius K. Nyerere. As Kitime plays with the band, spends time with musicians and digitizes reel-to-reel tapes from the 1960s and '70s, he reveals a fascinating and little-known story about the power of music to bring together a people and a nation. Official Selection, 2018 Zanzibar and Film Africa film festivals. (Note adapted from The Tanzania Heritage Project.)
DIR/SCR/PROD Rebecca Corey, Amil Shivji. Tanzania, 2018, color, 93 min. In Swahili with English subtitles
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 5 March 2019 16:18 (five years ago) link
X-post- that Ahmed Ag Kaedy - Akaline Kidal on Sahel Sounds is solo Tuareg guitar. Nice enough
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 9 March 2019 23:44 (five years ago) link
Was working and missed that Tanzania movie. Also missed the screening of “The Burial of Kojo,” directed by NY-based Ghanaian rapper Blitz the Ambassador. This latter one will be on Netflix starting March 31
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 9 March 2019 23:47 (five years ago) link
Saw an Instagram story video clip of Congolese band Kokoko at S x SW and I was impressed. They use junkyard made instruments, a megaphone, and a laptop and wear matching yellow factory overall suits ( kind of Devo like)Their US dates included 1 NY one a few days back, and now some shows out west. I hope they’ll come to DC next time they tour US
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7QwjURBSIPA
― curmudgeon, Friday, 15 March 2019 23:31 (five years ago) link
Yeah I like their new album
― Mordy, Friday, 15 March 2019 23:59 (five years ago) link
Listening to Kokoko on Spotify now & less excited, although some cuts are nice Afro-funk
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 16 March 2019 00:11 (five years ago) link
Mokoomba from Zimbabwe are a great live band and are coming back to the US in April. Mdou Moctor and band are doing gigs out in the western us now I think. Worth seeing too
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 20 March 2019 12:49 (five years ago) link
Oh, saw Habib Koite, Malian singer/guitarist with percussionist Mama Kone do a mostly relaxed gig with pleasant but rhythmic open-tuned guitar playing. A few songs were more upbeat. Some nice stories in between re the tour-- being in more snow than they had ever seen in St. Paul, a barbecue for them in a San Francisco park (with great tasting meat although Habib's doctor tells him to eat less of that). Masterful ngoni player Bassekou Kouyate and others were suposed to be playing with them plus 2 others, but they couldn't get their visas approved.
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 20 March 2019 12:53 (five years ago) link
New Africa Express EP is out now: https://open.spotify.com/album/6IAEqJEVmwBN7m6OkQQaEr?si=s9D9eQi_RraMtmp52QobcQ
― afriendlypioneer, Friday, 22 March 2019 17:47 (five years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/obituaries/jh-kwabena-nketia-dead.html?fbclid=IwAR2Yd1IT6I-WFidBpyxJAvNqkAlQPnw9E1seAj0YXnUT41g4fMm1VzZtMYg
RIP 97-years old Ghanaian scholar and author re African music J.H. Kwabenia Nketia
His 1974 book, “The Music of Africa,” is widely considered a definitive historical study, and “Ethnomusicology and African Music,” a collection of his writings published in 2005, is used in classrooms throughout Africa and across the world
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 23 March 2019 15:25 (five years ago) link
Mdou Moctar’s new album with his band is an NPR First Listen. Sounds good
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 26 March 2019 13:37 (five years ago) link
i'll check it out but he never sounds as like idk experimental or futuristic or whatever as sahel sounds suggests
― Mordy, Tuesday, 26 March 2019 13:49 (five years ago) link
True, but I think he's one of the best rockin traditionalists. I've seen him and his band a number of times and enjoyed them as much as Tinariwen. There's a hyperbolic Bob Boilen quote on the npr link-- "Mdou Moctar has made the most insane psychedelic guitar album of the 21st century."
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/21/704818917/first-listen-mdou-moctar-ilana-the-creator
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 26 March 2019 14:40 (five years ago) link
ha yeah that's what i'm talking about. "insane psychedelic guitar album" is what i want and then "rockin traditionalist" is what i get it's fine there's room for both but when there's some great stuff happening that is the former it's weird when it gets applied to the latter
― Mordy, Tuesday, 26 March 2019 14:44 (five years ago) link
It's decidedly not my thing either, but I'm glad it exists
― rob, Thursday, 19 December 2019 17:12 (four years ago) link
Kongo dia Ntotila are more my thing. Not great, but enjoyable enough Congo rumba made funkier by folks now living in the UK
― curmudgeon, Friday, 20 December 2019 01:12 (four years ago) link
Listening to the new El Wali album now and not really liking it. Too much chintzy keyboard, and the vocals are too shrill and...quiet storm-ish? It sounds like a watered-down, Putumayo version of Saharan desert blues to me.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Friday, 20 December 2019 01:42 (four years ago) link
You should gives Les Filles a listen. Mordy & I both like them.
The Pat Thomas Ghanaian highlife album is a tad repetitive, but it’s still pretty good old-school dance music. I think he and his band came through DC some years back and I can imagine him packing a dancefloor
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 22 December 2019 20:48 (four years ago) link
I tried Les Filles. They're pretty good, but I think I like Tartit (who also put out an album this year) better. And as female singers in this style go, Mariem Hassan remains the queen for all time, even in death.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Sunday, 22 December 2019 20:55 (four years ago) link
Salif Keita’s voice sounds exquisitely powerful on his latest album Un Autre Blanc . He has supposedly said this will be has last album ever.
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 22 December 2019 22:56 (four years ago) link
Not all of Keita’s songs and backing instrumentation work, but his voice is potent throughout
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 22 December 2019 23:50 (four years ago) link
The Wuta Mayi album is classic Congolese rumba with a touch of 20th & 21st centuries romantica aspects. I approve.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 24 December 2019 21:13 (four years ago) link
Bassekou Kouyate and his current band are more mellow than he & his earlier band were in the past, but they have enough rhythm and groove to make it still work
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 26 December 2019 19:07 (four years ago) link
There’s a Les Filles interview in the new Maggot Brain magazine ( got it for Chanukah last night)
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 29 December 2019 16:58 (four years ago) link
https://www.jonathanbogart.net/blog/100-songs-2019
Bogart likes afropop, Latinx reggaeton, Brazilian pop, Asian pop, and some US & UK r'n'b/rap/pop. He's got Youtube and Spotify list links. Here are his top 10 of his 100 selections
1. Seyi Shay ft. Runtown, “Gimme Love”
2. Bad Bunny ft. Tainy, “Callaíta”
3. Titica ft. Laton Cordeiro, “Giro Na Bicicleta”
4. Lady Zamar, “This Is Love”
5. Tomasa del Real, “Contigo”
― curmudgeon, Monday, 30 December 2019 16:12 (four years ago) link
Started a new 2020 thread:
Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2020 Thread (Often African bands)
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 2 January 2020 15:16 (four years ago) link
Started listening to 2019 Omar Souleyman-Shlon album yesterday and like it— Syrian wedding music goes electro, as you may recall from his earliest releases
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 4 January 2020 20:59 (four years ago) link