Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2023 Thread (Often African bands)

KHADIJA EL WARZAZIA’S BNAT EL HOUARIYAT
& ESRAA WARDA From Algeria is one of tonight’s online acts

https://robertchristgau.substack.com/p/deans-list-2022

Christgau has some albums here that go with this thread

19 of the picks are pre - 2022 ones that got his attention for first time in 2022

Meridian Brothers were fucking great. NY Arabic Orchestra were shockingly good; utterly killer vocalists.

LPR on Bleecker Street in downtown NYC have some good global shows forthcoming:
2023-03-05 Os Mutantes - $40 - https://lpr.com/lpr_events/osmutantes23/
2023-03-25 Amadou and Mariam - $45 - https://lpr.com/lpr_events/amadoumariam/
2023-05-03 Ak Dan Gwang Chil - $35 - https://lpr.com/lpr_events/adg723/

https://moussatchingou.bandcamp.com/album/tamiditine-ep

“Sahel Sounds proudly presents the debut EP by Nigerien guitarist Moussa Tchingou from Agadez. His sound varies from the classic Agadez guitar virtuoso twang to more heady, heavy fuzzy vibes and also highly melodic pieces that sound incredibly fresh, bringing hypnotic polyrhythms, cybernetic Autotune, and smashing drum programming.”

Etran de L’air desert rock US tour starts in late March

@GroundControl__

— sahel sounds (@sahelsounds) February 6, 2023

liking that Moussa Tchingou you posted, thank you

Every time I tell myself I don’t need to hear more Agadez, Niger guitar, I hear something subtly different that interests me. That’s the case with the Moussa Tchingou release on Bandcamp

I’m a broken record touting the movie doc Elders Corner about old school Nigerian musicians. But you should see it ( and no it is not perfect)

African Film Festival Screening | Elder's Corner
Wednesday, February 22 | 6:30 PM | Schomburg Center
Elder's Corner is a musical voyage of rediscovery. Filmmaker Siji Awoyinka pays tribute to the countless Nigerian musicians whose vibrant music—Juju, Afrobeat, and everything in between—formed the cultural and political backdrop of the country's march toward independence through the 1950s and '60s. In English and Yorubá with English

That’s a NY screening

In association with the upcoming posthumous Ali Farka Toure release, this video of Toure with Oumou Sangare has been released

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru0JGaroX-s

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/02/09/nyregion/live-music-nyc.html

The New York City Mixtape

An interactive with video piece by David Gonzalez showing music from many nationalities living in NY

Kennedy Center in W Dc is streaming National Arabic Orchestra Friday 8 pm eastern time; and Saturday night Emad Batayeh ( who sings in Arabic) at 6 eastern us time from Kennedy Center Millennium Stage

https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/millennium-stage/2023/02-february/taking-back-our-narrative-national-arab-orchestra/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDOIvj2ACkk

they were awesome live as noted above, highly recommended if you can see them in person

Enjoying the preview tracks for the forthcoming Yalla Miku album, which are a marriage of North African and western indie rock sounds:

https://yallamiku.bandcamp.com/album/yalla-miku

Will check that . Musicians are associated with Bongo Joe records in Geneva Switzerland I see .

https://www.projectspace-efanyc.org/mafer

Venezuela joropo llanero plains folk music in NYC

https://syrianmusic.org/events/earthquake-relief/?fbclid=PAAaYviml5QtMb_xXUpehWcp5MxgjREWTRnNiqyCLhKGKbnyUXsxKKQJHm1nQ

Syria & Turkey earthquake relief event in NY

enjoying Dost 2 by Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek this morning

https://deryayildirimandgrupsimsek.bandcamp.com/

2022 release

Listening to Kaleta and Super Yamba Band who are NYC based and they've got a retro 70s african sound down. They're opening a sold out DC gig tonight @ 930 Club for the Dip (daptone retro soul)). If you just take it as it is, and don't expect original touches it's fun stuff.

I went to a house party this past weekend and saw DC band Chopteeth do Orchestra Baobab, Fela, and covers of more obscure 70s African sounds, plus some of their own songs in those veins. It was fun also (12 piece band with horn section, organ, and more), albeit not that original .

Etran de L’air bring their desert rocking sound March 30 to Washington DC at Songbyrd

x-post -- I like Derya's vocals on tracks that Coors posted Tuesday

Corrs

“Bal” off that album is a jam and a half

Malian ngoni player Bassekou Kouyate and his family band will be back in the US of A on tour in April . April 7 free 1 hour gig at Kennedy Center Millennium Stage will also be streamed on their Youtube and Facebook

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-africa-64393766?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=6411c4bfff51f554d28c14c4%26Congolese%20guitar%20supremo%20Lokassa%20ya%20Mbongo%20dies%262023-03-15T14%3A23%3A10.359Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:8d72c2f8-b507-40a4-a1db-a650c9cb659a&pinned_post_asset_id=6411c4bfff51f554d28c14c4&pinned_post_type=share

Congolese rhythm guitarist Lokassa ya Mbongo has died, his long-time friend and fellow guitarist Ngouma Lokito has said.

Lokassa, who was 77, died on Tuesday night at a hospital in Nashua in New Hampishire, US, where he had been living since 1996.

Late last month, fellow guitarist Dally Kimoko told the BBC that Lokassa's health was fragile as he was battling diabetes and complications from a mild stroke he suffered in 2020.

Born Denis Kasiya Lokassa in 1946, the rhythm guitarist, arranger and composer was one of the founders of Soukous Stars alongside fellow guitarists Ngouma Lokito (bass) and Dally Kimoko (lead), and vocalists Yondo Sister, Ballou Canta, Neil Zitany and Shimita.

The band, formed in Paris in 1989, battled for attention during the Soukous explosion of the 1990s with Aurlus Mabele’s Loketo.

A Schengen visa is a short-stay visa that allows a person to travel to any member of the Schengen Area (lots of European countries) , per stay up to 90 days for tourism or business purposes. Just saw this January article about African musicians struggles to get visas for Europe and elsewhere if they're flying through Europe on their way.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/21/african-music-stars-struggle-to-get-visas-to-europe?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Emma Nzioka, a Kenyan performer and DJ known as Coco Em, was looking forward to the Terra Sagrada festival in Cape Verde for nearly a year. Some of her favourite African artists, such as Boddhi Satva, would be playing.

But Nzioka did not make it to the festival last month, or out of the country, for that matter. At the check-in counter in Kenya, she was told she could not board her flight unless she bought a return ticket with the same airline (she had one with another airline) to “prove” she would return home. Although Nzioka was going to Cape Verde, she was transiting through Amsterdam....

Earlier this year, Nigerian Afropop star Yemi Alade’s requests for a Schengen visa reportedly went unanswered. The artist, who has several world tours under her belt, was also denied a Canadian visa for the International Africa Nights festival. The co-founder of the festival, Suzanne Rousseau, told CTV news in Canada she understood that the refusal was due to “financial reasons” and fears that the artist would “not want to leave Canada”.

Travel to, and transit through, Europe is difficult for Africans. The top three countries with the highest Schengen visa rejection rates are from the continent: Guinea-Bissau had 53% of its applications rejected, Senegal 52% and Nigeria 51%. Most African countries are in the bottom half of the global passports ranking, and with few exceptions, people from African countries need to obtain visas for more than 100 countries.

Old-school African acts who were able to get visas and tour US again (and play in Washington DC area tonight) :

Amadou & Mariam @ 930 Club (Afropop)

Ladysmith Black Mambazo @ Barns of Wolf Trap (South African)

Have seen em several times plus had family responsibilities tonight so didn't go

New Altin Gün album sounds good. Not a huge fan of the vocals but the music is great.

A review of that Amsterdam-based Anatolian Turkish psych-rock band Altin Gun

https://www.popmatters.com/altin-gun-ask-album-review

I have been listening to Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba from Mali today. Old albums. He was working on a new album before he and his band just came to the US for a tour

Saw Etran de L’Air in DC a night or two before they played Big Ears fest. Solid Saharan desert rockin with a great encore that featured a faster tempo and one musician doing some lively dancing and swaying with his guitar.

Winey praised them over on the Big Ears fest thread

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/reconsidering-the-ordinary-on-andrew-simons-media-of-the-masses/?fbclid=IwAR1t-JHVvbThjsl50LIchrfgxvYk1WyzmdGK_wOQiHCLxHHyFGyB88V9Ua8&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Marc Masters review of a book about Egyptian cassette culture

Watched some of the Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba set at Kennedy Center that's on their Youtube. Good, but more laidback than one I recall seeing in DC many years back. Maybe new one picks up energy in second half. Saw some folks praising their Big Ears set

Haven't checked this out yet ---

https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/the-best-albums-of-winter-2023

Ends Meet is the latest LP from Cairo producer 3Phaz, and shows him delving deeper into his signature style—fusing popular working-class Egyptian musical styles (shaabi and its descendant, mahraganat) which were often dismissed as “low culture” with forward-thinking electronic production. This isn’t exactly new territory—plenty of artists seek to fuse these vibrant street styles with other genres—but what makes 3Phaz’s work so exciting is his endless creativity, his ability to find new possibilities in every track. (Also, this is heady, brainy music, but one doesn’t need a degree to enjoy it—truly music of the people, for the people.) “Shabber” brings shaabi together with gabber, often the butt of jokes in the rave world but still beloved by its now-niche audience, resulting in a heart-pounding dancefloor workout. On “Shoulder Dance,” complex polyrhythms are given their space to shine. This is a celebration of both Cairo’s inventive contemporary electronic scene and the enduring power of the music of the Egyptian streets,

New 33 1/3 book by Lior Phillips on the history of South African popular music, coming out May 4

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/south-african-popular-music-9781501383427/

From the storied ache of mbube harmonies of the '40s to the electronic boom of kwaito and the amapiano and house explosion of the '00s, this book explores vignettes taken from across South Africa's popular music history. There are moments in time where music can be a mighty weapon in the fight for freedom. Disguised in a danceable hook or shouted for the world to hear, artists have used songs to deliver important truths and bring listeners together in the face of a segregated reality. In the grip of the brutal apartheid era, South Africa crafted its own idiosyncratic popular musical vernacular that operated both as sociopolitical tool and realm of escape. In a country with 11 official languages, music had the power to unite South Africans in protest. Artists bloomed a new idyll from the branches of countless storied musical traditions, and in turn found themselves banned or exiled-the profound epiphany that music can exist both within the pleasure of itself and for serving a far greater purpose.

table of contents on link

that looks exciting

sad lol at an entire country's music being cast as a "genre" but marketing is what it is

Yes, good point and the idea of covering a country's history of music in one 33 & 1/3

This just past Saturday night saw this:

Afropop Worldwide: The African Rivers Project with music about the Niger by Niger River Ensemble and the Congo,by Kinshasa Allstars, hosted by Georges Collinet & Banning Eyre of Afropop Worldwide @ 8 @ Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

Congo Allstars had some members of Soukous Stars. They had that great old-school Congolese rumba guitar thing going. Plus 2 impressive dancers. Niger River Ensemble had a calabash drummer, ngoni, kora and guitarists. Plus a Gambian flute player on some songs. Good rhythmic traditional music. Screen behind both acts shows photos of the rivers and riverside scenes.

xp oof yeah, the previous entries in the "Genre" series are Dance-Punk, Death Metal, and Trip-Hop. OTOH I would much rather read this book than those others

Today Monday-

Popular Music Books in Process Series
Monday, April 17, 5pm EST
Christopher Silver and Andrew Simon
From Records to Cassettes: Acoustic Culture Across the Middle East

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81252540098?pwd=a0RLWU9KSmtGL1g3ZGtsR2lCZVRZdz09
Meeting ID: 812 5254 0098 Passcode: 299921

Moving from records to cassettes, this conversation will explore acoustic culture across the Middle East and North Africa and the power of popular culture to reshape our understanding of the past.

In Recording History, Christopher Silver provides the first history of the music scene and recording industry across twentieth century Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. In doing so, he offers insights into Jewish-Muslim relations through the rhythms that animated them. By asking what North Africa once sounded like, Silver will introduce the Popular Music Books in Process community to a world of many voices, whose music defined their era and still resonates into our present.

Taking a mixtape approach to Media of the Masses, Andrew Simon will share some aspects of his new book on the history of Egypt’s cassette culture, introducing the dawn of a new musical genre and the alleged “death” of public taste, the advent of piracy as a popular practice and attempts to police it, and subversive compositions that undermined the "official stories" told by states and traveled near and far on noncommercial cassettes

I think they archive these Monday book talks so you can see / hear them later

I will read that South Africa book, but I fear that it will not tell me the things about maskandi that I really want to know.

I know very little about South African maskandi music other than that it is/was Zulu acoustic music played on guitar and concertina , so won't be able to gauge how thorough the book is .

Music is made from the street before it hits the books. In between 2016 & 2017 I spent some time in KwaZulu Natal with Maskanda with informants and practitioners. Full video available on my YouTube channel #maskanda #guitar #guitarist #southafricanguitar #maskandaguitarist pic.twitter.com/4JlY9xRPM0

— Billy Monama (@BillyMonama) February 16, 2023

Oh that’s maskanda which may be different from maskandi

Zulu music

Congolese electro with scrap metal & jury-rigged percussion band Kokoko! is in Brooklyn this weekend and doing a Montreal gig but nowhere else on east coast. They do have some middle of US gigs and west coast ones

I saw the Montreal show last night, it was super fun! Just a duo, but still powerful and loud. Shout out to La Lechera who posted once about how good they were live, which lingered with me enough to inspire me to go out on a rainy Monday night

https://pan-african-music.com/en/egypt-cassette-culture/

1970s Egyptian music on cassettes

Uncut albums of the year 2023- 31. Baaba Maal – Being

Yay

First heard by global audiences on Sahel Sounds’ Music from Saharan WhatsApp series, Malian guitar hero Bounaly (the stage name of Ali "Bounaly" Traore) makes his full-length debut with “Dimanche à Bamako” (“Sunday in Bamako”). Recorded live on location, the music on "Dimanche à Bamako" is a mix of regional favorites, traditional standards, and originals. Long songs with looping rhythms, pounding kick drums, and electric shredding guitars, punctuated by shout-outs to the guests of honor. A raw and frenetic take on Northern Mali desert sound, playing for the diaspora at a Bamako wedding. …

Bounaly is on Bandcamp. Cool Malian guitar sound. Sahel Sounds has a vinyl version

El Khat trio’s Yemen music sounds great live tonight in little Bossa club in DC . They are on a short tour. Were in NY last night. Chanted Arabic vocals, drummer uses kitchen pots and a drum kit, lead vocalist uses a stringed instrument. Not sure what the instrument is called that other guy is using

Final night of their us tour. This gig didn’t get much media attention, but small enthusiastic crowd for El Khat

I need to catch up on El Khat recorded efforts. I think they have a few or 3 albums out. They toured here as a trio , but I see photos with 4 guys and mentions of middle eastern horn instruments (they didn't have any of those last night)

RIP Sara Tavares, Cape Verde/ Portuguese singer/ guitarist dead from a brain tumor at 45

FUCK

Her eurovision entry was a big song of my childhood and she was an important element of representation for the Afro-Portuguese community at a time when all sorts of racist bullshit still flew on tv (tbh I can't say that it doesn't still).

Terrible news. I have seen similar reactions on Instagram and twitter (many from those in the Afro-Portuguese community), and must confess that for American suburbanite me my exposure was just hearing about her playing Globalfest in NY in 2007 and similar "world music" marketing. I wasn't even aware of the Eurovision entry. She's gone way too soon.

53. Tinariwen – Amatssou

From Uncut magazine best 2023 albums

wtfffffff

https://www.instagram.com/p/C0HuZH0P1mL/

i'm gutted. one of the best shows i've seen in years.

Yes . terrible news. Mamadou Sanou (Baba Commandant) passed away in his home town of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso yesterday. All we know at the moment is, a fatal bout of malaria was the reason.

Saw he and his band in DC and in Baltimore this year. Damn malaria....

Christopher Silver is the founder and curator of the website Gharamophone.com, a digital archive of North African records from the first half of the twentieth century. His first book Recording History: Jews, Muslims, and Music Across Twentieth Century North Africa was published in June 2022

Not familiar with his website or book but gonna look into them

Banning Eyre loves the 2023 Mokoomba album and I do too

https://afropop.org/articles/mokoomba-tusona-tracings-in-the-sand

Okwy Osadebe and Highlife Soundmakers International: Igbo Amaka (Palenque)
Nigerian, the son of Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe (1936-2007), an Igbo highlife star in Lagos from his first album in 1958. During the 1970s, highlife was eclipsed by juju and afrobeat, but I always found the early stuff especially charming, as is this slight update. **- Tom Hull review

just reading a reference to : Gouyad music and I see that:

Kompa gouyad is a popular Haitian music genre that blends African rhythms with Caribbean influences. It features a fast tempo and upbeat melodies, accompanied by percussion instruments like drums and tambourines.

Here's a konpa gouyad 2023 mix . I see mixes of konpa gouyad going back to 2021.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN_h2STVOGU

Part of Ted Gioia list not paywalled

It includes Blick Bassy
Mádibá
Soulful Electropop Sung in the Baasa Language of Cameroon

Various Artists
Ears of the People: Ekonting Songs from Senegal and Gambia
Traditional African Music Performed on the Ekonting, a Three-Stringed Gourd Lute

This from Ted Gioia ‘s honorable mention list

Listened to Baaba Maal 2023 album Being again . It's a best of. Mokoomba 2023 one is good too, plus afropop/afrobeats and more Asake

Bounaly: Dimanche à Bamako (Sahel Sounds)
Guitarist Ali Traore, from Niafounke in north Mali, recorded live at a wedding bash in Mali's capitol city, a haven for many refugees from the jihad in the north. With vocals, drums, and calabash, the recording a little crude but powerful

I need to listen to this Tom Hull favorite again

is he playing Amadou & Mariam tunes? or is Dimanche à Bamako a kind of standard/expression?

He’s not playing their songs . It has apparently become a common expression. He’s a north Malian who moved down to Bamako as the jihadists up north have made it nearly impossible for musicians.

Plus Bounaly recorded this live on a Sunday, and that expression means “Sunday in Bamako” I think

It does yeah.

https://afropop.org/articles/afropop-top-videos-2023-the-final-seven

Congolese, Senegalese and more afropop band and solo videos

https://theatticmag.com/news/2456/staff-picks-_-november-and-december-2023.html

Some cool stuff here

60 Minutes did a 20-minute piece on Gnawa music last night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti1Nqaju4lY

Cool. Thanks , always wondered how to pronounce “gnawa “

Yeah, that was my big takeaway — "Oh shit, I've been pronouncing this word wrong for 30 years!" I always just pronounced it "nah-wah" with a silent G. Fortunately, that was mostly in my head as I almost never had to say it out loud. Except for the time I interviewed Bill Laswell about recording in Morocco, of course. And he didn't correct me...

I guess the Master Musicians of Joujouka who were Not in that 60
minutes segment are Sufi musicians but their music is not considered Gnawa

I still have to watch those 7 videos linked above in the afropop. Org list. That website usually posts a “Stockings stuffer” end of year list by now, but I am not seeing one.

I also need to dig into that attic one

Saw Tinariwen show up on someone’s 2023 list . Had forgotten about that one

Just saw elsewhere 2 best of 2023 references to Piconema: East African Hits on the Colombian Coast . I haven’t heard it yet and haven’t seen references to it elsewhere here on ILM

I heard it. It was an OK compilation of mostly early 80s guitar jams — if you like rumba (the African style) and that sort of thing, you'll probably enjoy this. I'm more of a highlife and juju person so it didn't do much for me.

It's 2024, time for a new thread

Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2024 Thread (Often African guitar led bands)