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

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

Madalisto 6 to 7 pm ET Fri Sept 15 free @ Kenn. Ctr Mill. Stage (& streamed on K. Ctr FB & Youtube) (Malawi duo)

The Alogte Oho & His Sounds Of Joy album posted up thread is so good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLVVO9cSkDY

That’s the Madalisto guitar duo from
Kennedy Center.

X post- yeah the Alogte Oho gospel highlife is good

More Frafra Gospel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKPi_HQJH1o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0w8x4CI91w
https://lindaayupuka.bandcamp.com/album/god-created-everything

Saw Alogte Oho & His Sounds at the End of the Road festival, insanely good. I'm no expert on the genre or Ghanaian music, but seemed like a really fluid, virtuosic collective, huge grooves, great at working the crowd. Maybe the best thing I saw (along with the not at all similar Nina Nastasia).

Ted Gioia is praising Jantra: Synthesized Sudan: Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Dance Sounds from the Fashaga Underground

Really enjoyed the Kayhan Kalhor / Toumanié Diabaté album (The Sky is the Same Colour Everywhere), very pleasant autumn album of glistening strings, the Iranian (cello-like) Kamancheh especially shines.

Also the BCUC (Millions of Us) from South Africa was good fun, hypnotic jams constructed on percussion and slapping bass with a variety of vocals on top.

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/amp/news/south-africa/2023-10-01-political-activist-and-musician-julian-sebothane-bahula-has-died/

Julian S Bahula RIP. Was Malombo Jazz founder and activist who organized the first Free Nelson Mandela concert

A Malombo Jazz comp on Strut got some love on ilx some years back

Baba Commandant and Mandingo band (Burkina Faso afrobeat on Sublime Frequencies label) are on their second big US tour now . They're not bad (although didn't wow me when I saw them).

Friday October 13--Alan Bishop as Alvarius B (Sun City Girls guitarist plays outsider folk w/ Egyptian influences) solo and does a Q & a before movie doc “Invisible Hands” a documentary film about Bishop & his band, Invisible Hands, one of two of his Egypt based groups) @ 7:30 @ Lost Origins Gallery in Washington DC

Saturday October 14- Dwarves of East Agouza ( Cairo based w/ Alan Bishop from Sun City Girls & Maurice Louca & Sam Shalabi) , Deakin & Geologist ( of Animal Collective), Jenny Moon Tucker @ Rhizome in DC

Mon. Oct 16- Baba Commandant and Mandingo band (Sublime Frequencies label band) @ 6 pm @ the Mt Pleasant Library (Burkina Faso afrobeat) in Washington DC

“Musical Brotherhoods of the Trans-Saharan Highway” 2005 film about street musicians in Marrakesh, Morocco plaza by Hisham Mayet w/ a q & a w/Sublime Frequencies label head & director Mayet and musician Alan Bishop @ 7:30 @ Lost Origins

Fri. October 20-
Dwarfs of East Agouza (Alan Bishop from Sun City Girls) with Deakin + Geologist, @, and Androgynous Bulge @ The Compound, 2239 Kirk Avenue in Baltimore

https://x.com/nyegenyegefest/status/1707757121733853412?s=46&t=u2ZSlsY3trRV36IPP6jNDQ
Nyege Nyege fest in Uganda in November with acts from all over the world

Musical Brotherhoods of the Trans-Saharan Highway” 2005 film about street musicians in Marrakesh, Morocco plaza by Hisham Mayet w/ a q & a w/Sublime Frequencies label head & director Mayet and musician Alan Bishop @ 7:30 @ Lost Origins

The dvd of this is sold out, it's not streaming anywhere that I saw in a search but lucky me did get an online version because I wrote a preview of the Monday doc event. Some great Moroccan street musicians in this playing oud and other instruments and singing and chanting. Names of the musicians though are just bundled together at the end (Sublime Frequencies director Hisham Mayet just wants viewers to be in the moment and not reading subtitles or seeing interviews and such )

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-israeli-forces-arrest-palestinian-singer-dalal-abu-amneh

Palestinian Singer and neurologist Dalal Abu Amneh arrested

Saw Baba Commandant & band again the other night. Liked em more than when I had first seen them in the spring ( guitarist’s solos back then didn’t wow me).

Sublime F show w/ Baba Commandant & Dwarfs of East Agouza in Queens ; and I see on Dada Strain substack that this is also tonight in NY

London-based Nigerian vocalist, keyboardist and bandleader Dele Sosimi first made his name in Fela Kuti’s Egypt 80, then in Femi’s Positive Force. But for the past decade, Sosimi has been a cornerstone of London’s Afrobeat and soul community, making a steady stream of excellent recordings under his own name, while playing with many others. He’s making an all-too-rare New York appearance to celebrate the release of producer Joe Claussell’s mixes of Sosimi’s 2002 solo debut, “Turbulent Times.” This free event at Clausell’s record shop is billed as a talk, but don’t be surprised if funky live sounds emanate at Cosmic Sounds in Bushwick

I missed that Haitian movie N&d Subl#tte announced via email yesterday morning he was showing via zoom last night

From a dust to digital email:

Several years ago, we were blown away by a cellphone video from Zimbabwe. The two-minute clip, originally shared by deeptrender2328 on YouTube, featured blind guitarist Daniel Gonora performing on a street in Harare with his 10-year-old son, Isaac, playing along on his homemade drumkit. In a 2017 interview Daniel stated, “People should not think we are destined to play on the streets forever because coming to the streets is so we can get someone to help us progress to the next level and when that happens, we will be going for shows.”

David Aglow, who runs The Vital Record, saw the same video and was inspired to travel to Zimbabwe in hopes of bringing Daniel's music to a wider listening audience. The result was the studio album "Hard Times Never Kill" by Gonora Sounds, which was released last year. We were excited to be a partner on the release of the digital edition of the album.

Very cool record of largely solo guitar -
https://vumbidekula.bandcamp.com/album/congo-guitar