Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2019 Thread Once Known as World Music

few albums i'm checking out this week:

Cochemea - All My Relations: digging this, electrosax afrojazz
Eitan 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 moments
Saba Alizadeh - Scattered Memories: experimental music w/ persian instruments / electronic / field recording sounds
Constantinople, Ablaye Cissoko - Traversées: light kora + sitar music, mandinka + persian fusion

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

Yemen Blues playing World Cafe Live tmmrw night trying to decide if i want to go..

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

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

new sahel sounds release: https://amanardekidal.bandcamp.com/album/akaline-kidal

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).

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, MD
http://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

X-post- that Ahmed Ag Kaedy - Akaline Kidal on Sahel Sounds is solo Tuareg guitar. Nice enough

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

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

Yeah I like their new album

Listening to Kokoko on Spotify now & less excited, although some cuts are nice Afro-funk

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

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.

New Africa Express EP is out now: https://open.spotify.com/album/6IAEqJEVmwBN7m6OkQQaEr?si=s9D9eQi_RraMtmp52QobcQ

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

Mdou Moctar’s new album with his band is an NPR First Listen. Sounds good

i'll check it out but he never sounds as like idk experimental or futuristic or whatever as sahel sounds suggests

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

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

He is a left-handed guitarist and listens to American music as well, and there was that Prince inspired movie he was in, but yeah he's not quite as out there as the hype. But he's far from staid and retro and folky-traditionalist.

Meanwhile over in Mali, sad news--

The slaughter on Saturday of more than 130 Fulani herdsmen in central Mali, allegedly by members of the Dogon ethnic group, is the latest and most deadly incident in an increasingly violent conflict.

In 2018, 202 civilians were killed in communal violence in 42 incidents in Mali's Mopti region, according to New York-based group Human Rights Watch.

While there have been conflicts between the more settled Dogon people and the Fulani herders in central Mali for a long time, they have become increasingly violent since a militant Islamist uprising in the north of the country in 2012.

The government appeared to blame the Dogon self-defence group, Dan Na Ambassagou, for Saturday's attack and has outlawed it, even though the group has denied any involvement.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47694445

CNN-

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that groups affiliated with al Qaeda and ISIS have moved deeper into central Mali, exploiting existing ethnic divisions and sowing chaos....Corinne Dufka, HRW's West Africa Associate Director, told CNN that the violence in Mali was underscored by "ongoing tension over land and water between herders and cultivators but also by the growing presence of armed Islamist groups who ... have committed very serious atrocities and targeted members of the Dogon group."
Dufka said that Dan Na Ambassagou "has been attacked by armed Islamists and then they engage in lethal reprisals, including the one that occurred yesterday."
Saturday's attack is the latest escalation of a cycle of violence that has spiraled out of control.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/25/africa/mali-attack-analysis-intl/index.html

terrible. i don't know when the last time they held the festival in the desert. for years i dreamt of going and now it looks like i'll never get the chance :/

that Boilen quote re: Moctar caught my eye, too. i mean, the album is one of my favorites of the new year so far, but maybe pump the brakes just a tad, Bob.

Not sure where to post this-- liking new Helado Negro album This Is How You Smile. He's a Brooklyn based, Spanish & English singing electro-folkie w/ a touch of bossa . He grew up in South Florida and his parents are from Ecuador. Been seeing his name since 2014 but never really investigated

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/18/helado-negros-new-songs-bask-in-a-sense-of-discovery

i'm really into the helado album i was just telling someone yesterday that the more i hear it the more i like it. here's a list of first quarter stuff i like that is relevant to this thread:

Helado Negro - This Is How You Smile
Saba Alizadeh - Scattered Memories
The Comet is Coming - Truth in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
KOKOKO! - Liboso
Bassekou Kouyate - Miri
Nicola Cruz - Siku
Ustad Saami - God is Not a Terrorist
Kel Assouf - Black Tenere
Cochemea - All My Relations
Kings Aigbologa Bucknor & His Afrodisk Beat Organization - Katakata (reissue)
John Blek - Thistle & Thorn
Theon Cross -Fyah
Tanya Tagaq - Toothsayer

and then here are some more that i like but need to spend more time with:

Houssam Gania - Mosawi Swiri
Neshama Carlebach - Believe (Shlomo's daughter)
Ahmed Mukhtar - Visions of Iraq
Nigeria 70: No Wahala: Highlife, Afro-Funk & Juju 1973-1987
Mdou Moctar - Ilana
Africa Express - Molo
Dexter Story - Bahir
Anoushka Shankar - Reflections
Ahmed Ag Kaedy - Akaline Kidal
VA - This is Frafra Power
Constantinople, Ablyae Cissoko - Traversees
Nubiyan Twist - Jungle Run
Khidja, Balabas - Khidja Si Balabas
Franklin Kiermyer - Solomon's Daughter

Nice list. Dexter Story combines Ethiopian and other Horn of Africa sounds on his album. It was ok on first listen

I guess Japanese band Perfume probably fit better on a J-pop thread, but i was just checking them out. Saw a bunch of mentions online of their NYC appearance. I sensed that was a first time US gig. Some folks traveled from all over to attend.

Not their first US gig; I saw them at the same venue in 2014 and wrote about it for Stereogum. (I met them!)

Oh. Nice.

Just watched Gato Preto live via the video stream from the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage In DC. African club dance music with programmed beats plus a djembe percussionist. They combined Mozambique, Ghana, and Senagalese elements. The vocalist was pretty energetic. The Kennedy Center archives the videos for viewing later as well on the Millennium Stage website

Listened to Haitian band Vayb. They have those syrupy feeling keyboards of current Haitian acts, plus some bachata like romantic melodrama as well as some current r’n’b and Latin pop elements. Old guy me prefers the old school more polyrhythmic funky sound of Tabou Combo.

The Vayb song “kite’m Vayb” is funkier than most of their catalogue.

I need to listen to the Bassekou Kouyate new one

Listened to Bassekou Kouyate once while busy in the kitchen...Some good tracks, others just ok, but he's quite an ngoni player

I'm thoroughly enjoying that Mdou Moctar album today.

Sounds good. In a different vein, I just saw Zimbabwe ‘s Mokoomba again live. A free lunchtime gig at the Library of Congress. They have great group choreography and mix it up musically— some songs with rocking afropop guitar and bass, a capella Southern Africa style on another. Plus great calabash and congas percussion.

that sounds great! i'd love to catch a lunchtime afropop show :D

Saw Mdou Moctar last night and he was fantastic, just a totally joyous show.

X-post- Mokoomba at lunchtime for free, and then wife and I splurged at night for Caetano Veloso with his 3 sons doing lilting, pretty Brazilian melodies

Really enjoying the comeback album by África Negra, a band that revolutionized S.Tomé music by integrating electric guitars into their sound. Take a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhNcYUHem-0

Love the song on that Africa Negra video—Afro-Portuguese soukous from an island off the Central African Coast.

I am guessing there are a fair amount of African musicians who were in their prime in 1970s through 90s who are probably working dayjobs and not reunited, so good for these folks being able to do so

Yeah, the label they're recording for - Mar & Sol - has a fair bit of hipster cachet in Portugal, very happy to see digger culture get behind something like this - alleviates the culture vulture guilt a bit.

My mum was friends with a guy from Angola, played a lot in our area doing mostly covers of current hits and showbiz tunes. He moved back a while ago and last we heard he was complaining that all people listened to there now was Kizomba.

On their website, Ifriqiyya Electrique introduce their new album with an Adorno quote, in German. I'm pumped.

First impression: it's on par with their debut but the closer, 'Mabbrooka', sounds like they relistened to 'Inertia Creeps' and found it… wanting. Incredible.

I like their semi-traditional chanting more than their industrial electro rhythms, but that’s just me.

Saw 88-year old Omara Portuando from Cuba last night. She sounded strong on some ballads, but wasn't onstage for very long. Her band led by pianist Roberto Fonseco played Latin jazz fusiony tracks while she was resting. It's billed as her farewell tour.

Had read hype for Ethiopian singer Chelina, but her reggae didn't wow me on first listen. Still artists on Mordy's March 31 post I need to listen to (or listen to again)