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

Saw Les Filles live Saturday at a free Celebrate Africa fest. They were good not great but that may be because I like more rocking Tuareg stuff and they’re more folky with slower tempos but still with cool buzzing guitars and nice percussion. The night before I saw a great Boukman E show that had a carnival like spirit; and then a block away I caught end of Mdou Moctar set with his wonderful guitar shredding.

Saw Angelique Kidjo for free tonight at the Kennedy Center. First some duets with classical/opera singer Rene Fleming including "Summertime," and Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," then a short set by herself with a DC band where she did Bob Marley's Redemption Song, Miriam Makeba's Pata Pata, and a few others. None of her Talking Heads or Celia Cruz covers, but her voice and her dancing always make her worth seeing .

On Facebook seeing this Saturday pricey event getting attention-- *Sami Dan and Nhatty Man w/ the Ras Band @ Karma (Ethiopian)

Wed. September 25
Toko Telo is a Madagascar supergroup w/ D’Gary, national diva Monika Njava; and Joël Rabesolo, Malagasy guitarist for free from 6 to 7 pm @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage

Will be video streaming on Kennedy Center Facebook and YouTube pages and archived

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/congolese-band-kokoko-prep-debut-album-touring-dates-song-streams/

Congolese band with one French band member on tour. I haven’t listened yet or seen the videos. Press release says they’re a more electronic version of Konono No. 1

DC & Ny and more gigs next week

Kokoko use homemade instruments as well as electronic ones apparently

i like the kokoko album

omfg i saw kokoko! over the weekend and strongly recommend catching them if they are in your town. what a fun show. the homemade instruments were MWAH and they were full of energy and personality and had the crowd in their hand. excellent live band!!!!

they were amazing. i loved every member of that band, even the belgian electronics guy in the pink hat.

oh i guess he's french? idk. he's white.

Yes, listening to Kokoko’s often uptempo , percussion-filled songs now

Now listening to Afro-folk of the Good Ones from Rwanda. And here’s video of Madagascar supergroup

https://www.kennedy-center.org/video/index/M70866

Toko Telo is the Madagascar supergroup

They're kind of afro-folk too. I like the singer's voice

i like the kokoko album

― Mordy, Thursday, September 26, 2019 5:42 PM (five days ago)

Less enthused about French synth player in Kokoko than I am about rest of the band

eh, he was ok -- in the live setup he kept the whole thing moving along, wore a pink hat in case anyone was confused about him being white
what's your beef w him?

His synth is too techno/edm while the homemade instruments are funky

That’s what I like about them! The collision of the two things. One of my students went to see them too and he went because he likes EDM and walked away w respect for their homemade instruments.

LL otm

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article236164663.html

Musicians leading Haitian protests

Rapper Izolan, who led the movement under the theme "Lage Pye Ou" (step on it) with the hashtag Rebat Kat La (reshuffle the deck of cards), was joined by fellow musicians, posting plans on social media and asking participants to wear white shirts, a sign of peace.

https://www.voanews.com/americas/thousands-join-haitian-musicians-peaceful-protest-demanding-president-step-down

lineup for next year's globalfest announced and includes vocal choir San Salvador from France who sound pretty great on first spin
https://soundcloud.com/lostintraditions/sets/san-salvador-live

The rai group looks interesting ( although I haven’t listened to them yet)

Saw and enjoyed Zambia Afro-psychedelic band Witch . Only surviving original member from their early 70s prime is singer Jagari Chanda.

Might make more sense to talk about Witch on a garage rock or psychedelic thread. But they do have some Zambia trad influences. I haven’t seen the movie doc about them. I don’t think they ever found live film footage of the band from the 70s. Just photos. Doc I think follows around Jagari Chanda in recent years and interviews people about the past and present

What is everyone listening to these days?

the new blick bassy a bunch

Listening to Blick Bassy now. Nice Sunday morning music so far (relaxing but not easy listening)

the album is about Ruben Um Nyobé, an anti-colonialist Cameroonian leader who was killed in 1958 and basically any discussion of him and his movement was repressed brutally by the government for the next few decades. it's a politically significant act that blick bassy made this album as well as being quite beautiful imo. the afropop worldwide sorta "primer" episode on it is worth listening to as a compendium for the context i liked the album the first few times i heard it but after listening to the ep i kept going back to it.

blick is good times

i mean, obviously that topic isn't so much but as a performer and artist, blick is a badass

The new album by Iranian percussionist Mohammad Reza Mortazavi has some deep, almost Aphex-y vibes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu282N-6WXM

saw pejman hadadi on drums live recently and his hands were unmappably fast and the beats painfully intricate, didn't really seem possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-HBA0JqNjg

Just saw the Manginyar Seduction in DC. 36 Northern India musicians and vocalists set up in a Hollywood Squares like set w/ 9 across and 4 rows high.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gWOuYAJ1-zI

xp - wow, that guy's got major dancing hands! thanks for posting

Heh, curmudgeon, we are the same person: seeing manganiyar thursday.

Manganiyar were great. I think you will definitely enjoy

i have been making the "Hollywood Squares" comparison when discussing them too; also "advent calendar"

Am liking that Nigerian afrobeats/ afropop Lady Donli album that’s been mentioned on that other thread.

It has now been mentioned on three threads no less, it’s that good. It has a retro vibe, but still sounds real fresh and punchy.

Let me post that Fader feature again:
https://www.thefader.com/2019/10/31/lady-donli-enjoy-your-life-interview

Mauritania singer Noura Mint Seymali and her band have been to the US a bunch of times, but this time her husband guitarist Jeich Ould Chighaly and the bassist were denied entry. At Kennedy Center Seymali and her drummer were joined by her US-based brother and another guy. Not as much Afro-psych guitar but the keyboardist adds good sounds and Seymali’s vocal range still sounds impressive
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Nllls4f7Png

Chighaly is a great guitarist who also gave some lessons to The 75 Dollar Bill guitarist. So lame that he got barred this time

getting them into the country has always been a deal as i understand it; unsurprising but yes, very shitty.

new staff benda bilili out today!

it's been 8 years since the last one

I wonder who’s in the group now. I thought they had broken up. Wiki notes:

In February 2013 The Guardian reported that singer and songwriter Coco Ngambali had quit, along with fellow vocalist Théo Nzonza, and a tour of top European venues scheduled for March and April had been cancelled amid accusations of mismanagement.[15] The band played some dates in Europe in the autumn of 2013 and summer of 2014. Ngambali and Nzonza now play in Mbongwana Star.[16]

Just saw Afropop Worldwide and VOA host Georges Collinet talk about his career dj’ing music. He also showed video clips from various African countries. Then Congolese singer Samba Mapangala sang with the DC based Highlife Allstars

i love georges collinet so much he has one of the alltime great radio voices