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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHse1OFLco4

Baba Commandant & Mandingo band live for an hour at Kennedy Center

<3

I loved certain Baba C songs last night in Baltimore live, and via the YouTube Friday at Kennedy Center. I liked the ones that were fairly straightforward Fela inspired dance music. I was less into ones where guitarist went for Santana like solos

New Tinariwen album out is mentioned on their own thread

more of the same and it's excellent

there probably is a thread for bands that make the same album over and over (but do it well)

Saw Kaleta and Super Yamba band do a free show yesterday. Leon “Kaleta” Ligan-Majek has performed in Nigerian bands led by both juju giant King Sunny Adé and Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. His band is Brooklyn based . Some nice old school grooves at times but Kaleta’s voice didn’t wow me

News from Billboard:

YOASOBI’s “Idol” soars to No. 1, from No. 6, on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. survey (dated June 10). The song, originally sung in Japanese, hit the top 10 six weeks earlier and now becomes the duo’s first leader on the list following the May 26 release of its English-language version.

“Idol” is also the first song originally performed in Japanese to top the Global Excl. U.S. chart.

Meanwhile, Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma’s “Ella Baila Sola” rebounds to No. 1, from No. 2, on the Billboard Global 200 chart. It reigns for a fourth total week, having become the chart’s first leader for the regional Mexican genre.

France-based Cameroonian singer/guitarist Blick Bassy is back with a new album and is going to be touring Europe and North America in July and August. He got some attention here back in 2019 I think for his 1958 album

Bandcamp bio -

singer and composer Blick Bassy is back with a fifth album, again sung in the Baasa language of Cameroon. Madíbá brings together twelve songs in the form of fables, dedicated to the theme of water, in which his high and angelic voice dominates, carried by delicate guitar, synthesizer melodies, and sober brass arrangements. The cuts are diaphanous and nevertheless, modernist songs, which testify to a contemporary and poetic Africanity at the crossroads of soul, folk, and electro.
credits
released May 26, 2023

https://blickbassy.bandcamp.com/album/m-dib

trying to decide if I should buy tickets for the Montreal date or not. I liked 1958 a lot but found the new one a little shapeless, though I don't think I got too far into it

Despite the shapelessness, I like his voice and guitar sound and may go see the Washington DC date anyway. I don't hear that type of old-school rooted but modern afropop live very often

yeah it does feel like a rare opportunity here too, I should probably go on principle

Was impressed with Instagram story video clips I saw of NY based band Habbina Habbina who were playing some sort of Middle Eastern surf music

Fatoumata Diawara is touring Europe all summer and then doing a few US dates in September in support of her Damon Albarn produced album. Plus I am getting pr emails about remixes of individual songs . I still need to listen to it more

Tamikrest, North African desert band is doing a July 19 Kennedy Center gig that will also be streamed. Jupiter and Okwess doing the same on July 27

recommendations after catching some good stuff at Roskilde Festival

Siti Muharam, taarab tunes from Zanzibar, on a small Europe tour atm, album is from 2020 though
https://sitimuharam.bandcamp.com/album/siti-of-unguja-romance-revolution-on-zanzibar

dal:um, Korean duo playing traditional (somewhat harplike but more wood-y) string instruments gayageum and geomungo in a contemporary style, 2023 single called "dot"
https://dalum.bandcamp.com/track/dot

also had a chance to see Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek mentioned upthread and they are playing very well, great singer too, and Tinariwen too, always a joy

tabou combo are playing a free show at long island's eisenhower park tonight.

Wow, Tabou Combo still at it . They were great when I saw them live many years ago. I like their old-school Haitian konpa sound better than the more polished and more American r’n’b influenced current Haitian music I have heard ( says old guy me!)

they were good! it was listed in the brochure just as "creole-american night," without any band name, so i'm glad i looked into it further. 55 years in the biz, so they said.

Cool you saw them and they still sound good; sad how it was marketed

A Tamikrest 6 to 7 pm US eastern time gig will be streaming live tonight Wednesday July 19 from 6 to 7 pm on the Kennedy Center Youtube and Facebook pages. It will also be archived on the Youttube page. The band has North and West African musicians plus French ones.

https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/millennium-stage/2023/07-july/tamikrest/

They sound pretty good there, except for some Western style solos

Jupiter and Okwess live at Kennedy Center on YouTube and Facebook now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uO0FlR5wdY

Jupiter & Okwess 1 hour Kennedy Center gig archived

I'm listening to the King Ayisoba album that came out in Feb and it's awesome: https://ayisoba.bandcamp.com/album/work-hard

this mix of Senegalese street soul music from the 80s and 90s is truly excellent

https://www.nts.live/shows/total-stasis/episodes/total-stasis-11th-july-2023

oooh ty

This past week’s military takeover in the West African nation of Niger toppled the final domino in a band across the girth of Africa, from Guinea in the west to Sudan in the east, now controlled by juntas that came to power in a coup — all but one in the past two years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/29/world/africa/africa-coups-niger.html

Not good for musicians or anyone

Keyboardist Jantra, unknown in Khartoum, doesn't even know his album is out. Without a telephone, he continues his search for inspiration in Sudan, combining traditional music and celestial melodies. The latest craziness from the Ostinato label. https://t.co/SzQ7nCuacn

— Pan African Music (@panafricanmusic) August 1, 2023

the wording of that tweet made me think this was going to be a bad story about a non-African label ripping people off, but it's not! https://pan-african-music.com/en/synthesized-sudan-jantra/

also this album is amazing based on the first full track

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-mdou-moctar-while-they-cannot-return-home

Was just coming here to post that Mdou Moctar go fund me re their inability to get back to Niger due to the coup

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2023/08/07/bobi-wine-the-peoples-president-movie-review/

A review of movie doc “Bobi Wine: the People’s President “ which is about a reggae singer who ran for president in Uganda in 2021

I haven’t seen it yet

Listening to Rophnan now. A young Ethiopian guy who sold out 2,500 capacity Echostage in DC last night. They usually have Anglo techno there. Rophnan melds some old school Ethiopian sounds with electro and hiphop.

Senegalese singer Baaba Maal has a new album out called Being

and Afro-funky Zimbabwe band Mokoomba out a new album out a month ago
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/01/mokoomba-tusona-tracings-in-the-sand-review-stirring-pan-african-sounds-flowing-from-the-zambezi

Also a good reissue on Bandcamp. A guitarist from Cameroon’s Les Tet Brûlées, who were together in late 80s pays tribute to the band’s late leader Zanzibar

https://gibraltardrakus.bandcamp.com/album/hommage-a-zanzibar

I am kinda liking all of the last 4 efforts I posted about -- by Rophnan, Baaba Maal, Mokoomba, Gibraltar Drakus

Listened again to Mokoomba last night. Strong rhythms , and powerful lead vocals and harmonies. Some might hear it as retro but hopefully afrobeats and amapiano listeners might still like it

Liked a song I just heard on WfMU from Roger Bekono who is from Cameroon and has a reissue out via Awesome Tapes from Africa

hey curmudgeon have u heard new blick bassy? not as jaw-dropping as 1958 maybe in part for not being as thematically focused? but quite beautiful and imo still one of the major vocal talents recording today.

No, will have to give a listen

Like Blick Bassy's voice on new one which feels like it is melding a bit of an indie rock & pop electronic feel to his tuneful Cameroonian one. Just saw an article about him that says he's been listening to James Blake and Bon Iver lately and I can hear that a little

Big Senegalese African Ball event in NYC tonight and I think Brooklyn Carnival this weekend. But I am in DC

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

Ethiocolor music and dance troupe from
Addis, Ethiopia at Kennedy Center last night
Sometimes traditional and folkloric sometimes pop

https://unicornriot.ninja/2023/makeba-a-viral-tiktok-trend-pays-homage-to-mama-africa/

Long long article/ post about M Makeba and a tiktok trend

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66568081

Salif Keita supports military coup in Mali

https://www.theafricareport.com/321727/in-mali-timbuktu-grapples-with-resurgent-jihadist-threat/

Jihadists blocking Timbuktu. No matter who is currently in charge in Mali, life is hard .

Lots of tough times now in Libya, Niger, and parts of Morocco also

https://africasacountry.com/2023/07/false-progress

Article suggests that just as there is a Latin Grammys and awards for Latin music at other Grammys, the same is needed for African music ( as opposed to what was recently done )

Article is from July 2023 but I just came across it