WorldBeatUK (23rd Show) - Broadcast Notes (3/8/11)
Tagged with: WorldBeatUK Glyn Phillips Hossam Ramzy Samba Toure Toland Tchakounte Julaba Kunda Juldeh Camara Griselda Sanderson Hansi Hamilton Loomis Stratton Doyle Mary Anne Kennedy Maria de Fatima Julya Lo'ko Joanne Vance Dub Colossus Magic Tombolinos Ebo Taylor
WBUK23 (3/8/11) - SHOWNOTES
1 “Intro-Mat” by (1:47) Matchatcha from the album “Nyekesse “ (Melodie)
Welcome to WorldBeatUK on Rhubarb Radio. My name’s Glyn Phillips and over the next two hours we’re going around the world in Weighty Grooves!
We’ve got: Afrobeat from Ghana, Cumbia and Gaita from Colombia, Latin Funk from Miami and Latin Rock from Ecuador.
You’ll also hear some Dub from Ethiopia, some cumbia and gaita from Colombia and some Gaelic folk-song from the Isle of Skye.
Lined up for you I’ve also got Texan Blues, Malian Blues, Mississippi Blues, Fulani Blues and Cameroonian Blues.
Devon-based Scottish-Gambian fiddlers Julaba Kunda give us advice on cattle-herding and also pen a song the Scottish Tourist Board would be proud of.
and from Amsterdam there’s Balkanic Klezmer, Portuguese Fado and Indonesian Fado . . .
I’m going to start the show off with a track from an album called “Rock The Tabla” (on the ARC Music label) that turned up on my desk last week by the world-famous Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy.
If you’ve ever heard any Egyptian music there’s a huge chance that Hossam Ramzy is on it somewhere. If any producer or musician or composer wants any North African or Middle Eastern percussion putting on a tune or film soundtrack, then Hossam Ramzy is usually the first stop.
On this album though, Hossam has assembled some great percussionists and other musicians from his amongst his extensive back catalogue of worldclass artists he’s recorded for.
I got very excited when I saw names like Billy Cobham, A .R. Rahman, Manu Katché and Joji Hirota, who I thought would all be performing in some kind of supergroup.
Not quite. Hossam has recorded separate tracks with each of the main collaborators, which makes for an unbalanced album overall.
Incidentally, the name ‘tabla’ in the context of the album title refers not to the famous paired tabla drums of the Indian sub-continent but to the Egyptian tabla - which is a single-skinned goblet shaped drum elsewhere referred to as darbuka, doumbek etc).
This is just the first of many albums he plans to do like this, so without further ado I’m going to kick the show off with the opening track from this album. This is “Arabantana”.
2 “Arabantana” by (5:07) Hossam Ramzy from the album “Rock The Tabla” (ARC Music)
I’ve got quite a bluesy feel to the first part of the show this evening as I explore the musical connections between Africa, America and Europe. First of all this is a track from the 2011 album “Crocodile Blues” by the Malian guitarist Samba Touré.
Now although - to the best of my knowledge - Samba Touré is not related to the late Malian guitar master Ali Farka Toure, he does have quite a connection with Ali and his legacy. His mother used to sing with Ali many, many years ago and Samba was smitten by his groundbreaking transposition of traditional music onto guitar and taught himself to play in that new style also.
Samba was finally offered the chance to tour Europe and the USA with Ali at the end of the 90s and upon his return he formed his own band, Fondo, with whom he recorded two records for Malian distribution.
In 2010 Samba was invited by none other than Toumani Diabate to play Ali’s parts on the posthumous “Ali Farka Touré Variations Tour”. He’s been picked up by the World Music Network label and they are releasing his new album “Crocodile Blues”. This is off that and is entitled “Alabina”.
3 “Alabina” by (4:15) Samba Touré from the album “Crocodile Blues”
Roland Tchakounté, originally from Cameroon, but now resident in Paris, takes his influence from the classic American blues musicians such as John Lee Hooker and reinterprets the blues in his own way including singing in his native language Bamileke.
Tchakounte delivered a masterclass in blues guitar and stagecraft a few days ago at the Womad festival photos of which should hopefully be up on the world music website: www.worldmusic.co.uk.
This is the title track from Roland Tchakounté’s album “Blues Menessen”.
4 “Blues Menessen” by (4:50) Roland Tchakounté from the album “Blues Menessen” (Tupelo Productions)
Yeah some down-home Parisian-Cameroonian blues from Roland Tchakounté there.
Now, this next track offers us a very interesting perspective into looking at the links between Africa and Europe, links which would eventually form the blues many thousands of miles and a hundred years or more ago across the over side of the pond in America.
Regular listeners to my show will have heard me play music before by the Gambian ritti and kologo player and singer/composer Juldeh Camara - who usually is to be found next to Robert Plant’s buddy Justin Adams in the band JuJu.
However, a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to see Juldeh in a different context altogether - playing alongside a fellow fiddler at the acoustic based HOME Festival in Dartington, Devon.
This, though, was no African or American fiddler, but a Scottish fiddler from a traditional Scottish fiddling family, the lovely Griselda Sanderson. Although they come from fiddling cultures separated by three thousand miles, when they met at Dartington for the first time a few years ago, they felt an instant connection to each other’s music and traditions and so started trading ideas.
Juldeh plays the riti (also known as a nyaneru) - a fiddle made from half a gourd with but one string and no fretboard at all - the notes being made by wrapping his fingers and thumb along the stretched string.
Griselda besides playing the traditional European fiddle is also one of the few people in the UK to play the strange key-operated Swedish nyckelharpa fiddle.
The duo they formed is called Julaba Kunda which is in the Fulani language and translates as “Trading Company”. This track is from their brand-new, hot off the press album “Traders” and is a track entitled “Gainako” with Griselda on nyckelharpa, viola, violin and percussion and Juldeh on vocals and kologo (a two string plucked instrument a bit like a guitar or banjo). The song is all about cattleherding - an activity once of crucial importance in Scotland and still a lifeline in West Africa.
5 “Gainako” by (6:08) Julaba Kunda from the album “Traders” (Waulk Music)
[---CONTINUOUS---]
6 “Homework (Hansi's Fancy Hunk Edit)” by (5:57) John Lee Hooker [Hansi Remix]
You just heard Hansi remix of John Lee Hooker’s “Homework” a salutary tale of not attending to your lady’s ‘needs’(!), and before that the beautiful sound of the Caledo-Gambian duo Julaba Kunda.
OK, We’ve got one more tune in this section that deals with the African-American-European triangle of the Blues.
This is a band that I saw at the Adam & Eve, round the corner from the Rhubarb Radio studio in Digbeth, Birmingham, England, a few months ago playing an unadvertised and completely impromptu gig on their night off from touring! You can’t keep a good musician down!
Hamilton Loomis is a Texan blues guitarist, writer and bandleader (and protege of the late Bo Diddley) who with his sax player Stratton Doyle can produce a sound equivalent to an entire orchestra. When I saw him he was backed by Brum’s own Jamie Little on drums and ace-bassist Roger Innis. One of the best live gigs I’ve been to in years.
On this album called, appositely enough, “Live In England” (on Ham-Bone Records) Jamie is back behind the kit and bass duties are by Kent Beatty. However, no matter how good Loomis is on guitar (and trust me, he is amazing), this track is all about Strat Doyle’s stratospheric tenor sax playing - the man should have a government health warning slapped on him because he is single-handedly capable of blowing a hole through the ozone layer! This live track is called “Pull Strings”.
7 “Pull String” by (4:46) Hamilton Loomis from the album “Live in England” (Ham-Bone Records)
That was Texan Hamilton Loomis from "Live in England" and now from over the pond to over the border - in this case not Mexico but Scotland - well, kind of, via Devon and the Gambia really.
We return to Julaba Kunda the duo formed by Gambia’s Juldeh Camara and Scotland’s Griselda Sanderson.
This is another track from their new album, “Traders”.
Juldeh plays the kologo and also the ritti or one string-fiddle as well as singing, whilst Griselda plays fiddle, viola and Hammond organ. The song’s called “Scotland”.
As Griselda says: “The land, its people and their music are inextricably linked. To me, a reel is a rocky path, a jig a rushing burn and a strathspey a great glen.”
As Juldeh’s lyrics say: “Beautiful Girl, pretty and sweet, you are so lovely. Please come to me! Your beauty is God’s creation, just like the mountains of Scotland.”
8 “Scotland” by (6:10) Julaba Kunda from the album “Traders” (Waulk Music)
[staying in Scotland - over the sea to Skye; Mary Ann Kennedy - the book, CD; R3 stage Womad, etc]
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9 “Ceud Soraidh, Ceud Slainte” by (4:22) The Campbells from the album “Tha Mi'n Duil” (Watercolour Music)
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[beauty of the human voice - here’s another - fado]
10 “Aforma De Querer E Ser Amada” by (3:01) Maria De Fátima from the album “Maria de Fátima Live” (Right Notes 2010 - RN1001)
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[if you thought that was beautiful take a listen to this - Indonesian - dutch based songstress - need more info on this]
11 “Tembang Pahlawan” by (5:28) Julya Lo'ko & Erwin Van Ligten from the album “Krongcong Baru” (Little Wing 004)
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[a little slice of Paradise - name of the next song - mention Joanne and the scholarship]
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12 “Paraíso” by (4:00) Joanne Vance from the album “Silencios Incómodos”
[CHANGE THE CD HERE!!]
[from Paradise to the crazy streets of Addis Ababa - mention Dub Colossus at Womad - how good it was - my interview with Nick Page (Dubulah) and Mykael Riley and PJ Higgins etc]
(1) 13 “Guragigna” by (5:15) Dub Colossus from the album “Addis Through The Looking Glass” (Real World Records)
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[from the Ethiopian highlands to the desert lands in this case those around Stoke Newington in London - Tombolinos and Womad and Home and Desert Rain - bit of sub-Balkanic madness]
(2) 14 “Desert Rain” by (3:06) The Magic Tombolinos from the album “Full Attack With Sudden Defenses” (International Records)
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[More Balkanic fun here - this time from AKB]
(3) 15 “Marusja” by (4:54) Amsterdam Klezmer Band from the album “Katla” (Essay Recordings)
[Womad and Ebo]
(4) 16 “Love And Death” by (8:20) Ebo Taylor & Uhuru-Yenzu from the album “Life Stories - Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980” (Strut)
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[---CONTINUOUS---]
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(5) 17 “Campanario 64” by (6:32) The Spam Allstars from the album “Introducing Spam Allstars” (World Music Network)
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[about the Spams - keeping in a latin mood but old school for last two - Colombia! on Soundway]
(6) 18 “Las Calenas Son Como Los Flores” by (3:56) The Latin Brothers from the album “Colombia!” (Soundway CD008)
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[and to finish some more flowers - my all-time favourite gaita: the Gaita of the Flowers!]
(7) 19 “Gaita De Las Flores” by (2:52) Lucho Bermúdez from the album “Colombia!” (Soundway CD008)
WorldBeatUK (9th Show) - Broadcast Notes (27/4/11)
Tagged with: Worldbeatuk Glyn Phillips Rhubarb Sergent Garcia Show of Hands Susana Seivane Anxo Lorenzo Ojos de Brujo Gnawledge Camarao de Rama Gypsy Groovz Owiny Sigoma Tamikrest Dub Colossus Shawn Lee Quique Neira C-Sharp Ebo Taylor Imam Baildi Bongomatik Strut
WBUK9 (27/4/11) Show Notes
1 Intro-Mat (1:47) Matchatcha Nyekesse (Melodie)
Hope you’ve all had a good Easter and enjoyed the good weather; now that it’s turned a bit colder, hopefully you’ll all be thinking “Nah, bit parky this evening, think I’ll stay in and be warmed up by the groovy choonz and tropical vibes on WorldbeatUK!” So without further ado and maybe even a little bit of adon’t, we’ll kick off with El Salsamuffinero Mayor, Bruno ‘Sergent’ Garcia, and a track from his new album (“Una y Otra Vez”) out on Cumbancha. This one is called “El Baile del Diablo” - The Dance of the Devil.
2 El Baile Del Diablo (4:00) Sergent Garcia Una Y Otra Vez (Cumbancha)
Now that last tune was all about the devil’s dance that the politicians and the world’s leaders indulge in as they continue to muck our lives around - as El Sargento says: “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back”. Well this next group also wrote a song criticising those same politicians, leaders and power-hungry people - the track was called “Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed” off the album of the same name by English Folk giants Steve Knightley and Phil Beer of Show of Hands and I played that one a few weeks back.
So now another one off that same album, but this time spelling out their views (which I happen to share) about Creationism. This is called “Evolution”. With the rallying call of ‘Nail your colours to the mast’, the message is “The finger points in one direction, that’s natural selection”
3 Evolution (3:26) Show Of Hands Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed
(Hands On Music, 2009, HMCD29)
Well to show a bit of balance here’s a tune that’s related to a religious theme. It’s called “Camiño Longo” which means the ‘long route’ and is from an album (on the Do Fol Musica/Boa label from Spain) called “Cantigas de Camiño”. The album, which comes with an exquisite little hardback book, is dedicated to music based around the famous Pilgrims Route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain’s Northwestern region of Galicia. This is the beautiful singer and bagpiper Susana Seivane.
4 Camiño Longo (4:01) Susana Seivane Cantigas Do Camiño (do Fol Musica/Boa)
There’s been so much good stuff coming out of the Spanish region of Galicia that I’m including it as one of the three points of what I consider to be Spain’s Golden Triangle of Creativity (which also includes Catalunya in the North-East and Andalucia in the deep South of the peninsula).
Here’s yet another example from Galicia - the brilliant bagpiper Anxo Lorenzo and a track from his debut album “Tirán” (which also include guests appearances from Ireland’s Eoghan Neff on violin and England’s most famous exponent of the Northumbrian pipes, Kathryn Tickell). The album’s released on the Spanish Zouma Records label. This track is also called Tirán.
5 Tirán (ends at 4.10ish) (4:30) Anxo Lorenzo Tirán (Zouma)
Ok, over to the second point of my Golden Triangle: Catalunya, home to Barcelonan super-group Ojos de Brujo. They hit the scene with a bang just 10 years ago and have consistently delighted the world music fans and confounded their detractors with their very personal, idiosyncratic and uncompromising approach to music, business and life.
Word has it that they’re finally splitting up to concentrate on personal projects and so have just released what is, I suppose, their final album (which is released by Warner Brothers Spain). Some critics have accused them of laziness because it contains only two new tracks, the other 11 having all been released before on their other albums.
But the title kind of gives it away: “Corriente Vital: 10 Años” (which roughly translates as ‘the Essential Current - 10 years); it’s obviously a retrospective - but with a band of the quality of Ojos de Brujo, there’s an amazing back catalogue to choose from - so there’s definitely no fillers here!
What they’ve done is to hand all the tracks over to different producers and allow them to remix them as they want. So, yes, it is a new album - it’s like meeting up with an old friend for a last dance; they just happened to have had their hair redone and put on a new outfit - but they still move just as well as before! This track is “Todos Mortales” - originally from their 2009 “Aocaná” album - but here remixed and featuring Roldan from Orishas.
6 Todos Mortales (3:23) Ojos De Brujo Corriente Vital 10 Años (Warner Music Spain)
Staying in Spain still, we’re heading South to the final point of my Golden Triangle of Spanish Creativity, to the huge province of Andalusia on the South Coast, the jumping off point for the Moorish influx that so influenced Iberian culture.
And high up in the Sierra Nevada, the home of the amazing Moorish palace and gardens of the Alhambra you’ll find one of the most stylish, yet also most funkiest and bohemian of Spanish cities, Granada.
This is home to a brilliant band - or maybe I should call it a project - called Gnawledge. Put together by American musicologist Canyon Cody and rapper Gnotes, they fuse Andalucian flamenco with North African Gnawa music and jazzy hip-hop sensibilities and more, so much more, utilising a cast of top flight Granadan musicians including Juan Habichuela “El Nieto” on guitar, Otoman Almerabet on Laúd, Eneko Alberdi on guitar, DJ Doblegota on Scratch and loads more amazing musicians. I absolutely LOVE these guys! This is from their “Granada Doaba” album (on the Gnawledge label) and a track called “Perro Cruzado”.
7 Perro Cruzado (3:57) Gnawledge Granada Doaba (Gnawledge)
Ok, we’re going to leave Spain now, but just to show how difficult that is, this next track is a wonderful piece of maracatú-flamenco from Brazil! The band is called Banda Camarão de Rama and is based around the Miguez family: father, Gilvan, daughter, Aline and son, Daniel from Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais. The track is entitled “A Bala”.
8 A Bala (2:57) Banda Camarão de Rama
Complete change of pace and place now as we head back over the Atlantic to Europe and back to that Balkan Gypsy Music Festival in Guca, Serbia I mentioned a couple of weeks back. This is part of a 35 minute long jam between 75 balkan brass musicians and 10 nyabinghi drummers; the track is called “Hot Water Festival” (this is part 4) and it’s from the album Gypsy Groovz Orchestra Goes Tutti Mundi: “Night Train for Lovers and Thieves” on the German Network Medien label.
9 Festival Tople Vode Part 4 (3:10) Gypsy Groovz Orchestra Night Train for Lovers and Thieves (Network)
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10 Margaret Okudo (dub) (4:18) Owiny Sigoma Band Owiny Sigoma Band (Brownswood)
That last track was called “Margaret Okudo” by the Owiny Sigoma Band, and is from their forthcoming album. There’s an interesting story attached to it:
Two years ago on the eve of the inauguration of President Obama, five musician friends from London who’d know each other since school days pitched up in Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa as part of a loose, informal collaboration organised by the voluntary organisation Art of Protest to promote local Kenyan musicians and partner them with British ones to see what came out of it all.
The London lads met with the phenomenal teacher and player of the East African nyatiti - an 8 string lyre - Joseph Nyamungu, a man steeped in traditional Luo music; he in turn introduced them to drummer Charles Owoko - also steeped in Luo rhythms and the 7 piece got together to find common ground in a disused factory in downtown Nairobi - the only studio big enough to take them all - since most studios in the capital cater only for rap and RnB productions, ie a computer and one mic!
They named the band after Joseph’s grandfather, Owiny Sigoma. Next year they reconvened in Nairobi, this time as a 10-piece band and recorded the album at the Kenya National Theatre - a collection of gloriously loose afro-grooves which sway between Luo and London.
Most of the songs are written by Joseph and based on Luo folk songs. However they must have done something right, because they were picked up by Brownswood Records and championed by none other than Gilles Peterson, who’s really into the drum and bass heavy sound, and Damon Albarn of Gorillaz fame, who also pops up on a couple of the tracks on the album. The album’s also called “Owiny Sigoma Band” and is due to be released next week on the 2nd May on the Brownswood Records label.
Ok, sticking with Africa, but this time shifting over to Mali, here’s a band I’ve also played before. Part of the new generation of Tuareg Desert Rockers, this is the young band Tamikrest, from Saharan Mali, and a track from their new album released only two days ago by Glitterhouse Records. The album’s called “Toumastin” and this track is entitled “Tidit”.
11 Tidit (4:15) Tamikrest Toumastin (Glitterhouse Records)
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12 Wey Fikir (4:20) Dub Colossus Addis Through The Looking Glass (Real World)
Wasn’t that dreamy and beautiful! You’ve just heard the brilliant Dub Colossus, an Anglo-Ethiopian collaboration between Nick Page, aka Dubulah of Transglobal Underground and Syriana, and masses of fantastic Ethiopian musicians from the Addis Ababa scene (which includes jazz and rock and hip-hop and soul as well as traditional music).
The wonderfully delicate vocals on there were handled by Ethiopian pop star Tsedenia Gebremarkos. So much great music on that album - it really repays listening to again and again to extract all the hidden flavours! I’m absolutely loving it! That track was called “Wey Fikir” from the album “Addis Through The Looking Glass” by Dub Colossus and it too was released only two days ago on the 25th of April and is on the Real World Records label.
Well, I can only really follow that with a track by Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra - who incidentally will be appearing at Birmingham’s Mostly Jazz Festival on Friday 1st July this year - and what else but a dark, jazzy piece called “Ethio” from the album “World of Funk” on the Ubiquity label.
13 Ethio (3:42) Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra World Of Funk (Ubiquity)
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14 Afrodesia (2:41) The Afro Soul-Tet Afrodesia (Ubiquity)
That last track - drenched in tropical rain storms - was an old track called “Afrodesia” from the heyday of jazzy afro-psychedelia and was by the Afro Soul-Tet from their album also called “Afrodesia”. Originally a very limited pressing of between 500-1000 on the Banyon label from Los Angeles sometime between 1968-71, it’s now been reissued by Ubiquity Records.
Something different now. This is a track I’d originally planned to play last week, but my interview and live session with Brazilian percussion genius Renato Martins overran somewhat and I had to drop it. Well, now I can reinstate this lovely piece of Chilean reggae - this is from the king of South American reggae, Quique Neira - off his album “Jah Rock” (on the German label GLM) - and a track entitled: “Dar y Recibir” (To Give and To Receive):
15 Dar y Recibir (4:35) Quique Neira Jah Rock (GLM)
And from a classic reggae style to very much up-to-date Jamaican reggae-pop with a latin-cum-RnB feel; this is C-Sharp - a band I’ve played a lot this year - and probably the most clubby commercial piece I’ve heard of their’s, with at least one verse in Spanish too! They’ve got a new album coming out this year called “The Invitation”. This is called “Dancin’ Like Crazy”.
16 Dancin Like Crazy (3:14) C-Sharp
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17 Calypso Cha Cha (2:52) Count Lasha & His Calypsonians Soundman Shots: The Caribou & Downbeat 78's Story (Snapper Records)
Ha ha! Bet you didn’t see that one coming did you? From contemporary Reggae pop to the sound of 1950s Jamaican mento (masquerading as Calypso) mixed with Cha Cha Cha taken from some rare 78’s! Very early fusion then!
And yet people forget that there has always been quite a bit of influence between the neighbouring islands of Jamaica and Cuba. Very many Jamaicans went to work on the sugar plantations in the East of Cuba and learnt Spanish and soaked up the rich cultural soup of Santiago de Cuba and took this back to JA; similarly I met many old Cubans who had learned English either from Jamaicans or in Jamaica themselves.
That was Count Lasha and his Calypsonians from a great compilation double album on the Snapper Records label called “Sound Man Shots: the Caribou and Downbeat 78’s Story” and a track entitled, funnily enough, “Calypso Cha Cha”.
Ok, sticking with the whole half-a-century ago feel, this is from one of my favourite labels, Soundway Records, (who recently released the excellent Colombian compilation of 1960s tunes called “Cartagena!”); this time it’s still in the Caribbean but looking at the French speaking Caribbean and an album released in 2009 called “Tumbélé! Biguine, Afro & Latin Sounds from the French Caribbean, 1963-1974”, which concentrates on the French-speaking and - to this day - still French-administered islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe. A fantastic retrospective of yet another hidden part of the Caribe.
However, the track I’ve chosen is actually by a band from Haiti who happened to spend a few years living and working in Martinique and who recorded several LPs there, mostly heavy ‘compas’ for the Hit Parade label. The band is called Les Loups Noirs de’Haïti (the Black Wolves of Haiti), the track was recorded in 1972 and is a manic biguine written by Gardner Lalanne and featuring some bizarre, almost psychedelic, approximations of a jet plane taking off, with crazy sax, distorted guitar and a rhythm section that is almost tripping over itself with excitement. Absolutely love it! This is called, appropriately enough, “Jet Biguine”.
18 Jet Biguine (3:26) Les Loups Noirs D'Haiti Tumbele (Soundways)
Wonderful madness! OK, in the last of my oldies (for the moment at least) this is a funktastic, groovalicious slice of Ghanian Afrobeat from someone who I’ve featured before on this show, Mr Ebo Taylor from the excellent album “Life Stories - Highlife and Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980” - a double album of Ebo’s work with different bands and all very, very enjoyable. It’s on the Strut Records label and was released a few weeks ago. The track I’ve selected has guitar maestro Ebo Taylor alongside Uhuru-Yenzu and a track called “What Is Life?”
19 What Is Life? (4:38) Ebo Taylor & Uhuru-Yenzu Life Stories -
Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980 (Strut)
Did I say last of the oldies? Well, Yes and No. Those Greek brothers Lysandros and Orestis Falireas, better known as Imam Baildi (who incidentally take their name from a middle eastern aubergine dish which translates as “The Priest Faints”) - well, these inveterate mashers and mixers of rebetiko have worked their magic on yet another old Greek tune this time it’s the singer Meri Lida and a track called “Thlipsi”.
20 Thlipsi (Remix) (3:20) Meri Lida/Imam Baildi The Imam Baildi Cookbook (EMI Greece)
Ok, we’re slipping up to the last 20 minutes or so of the show, so let’s press on. This band I discovered only recently - and I’m so glad I did. They’re from the Netherlands, they’re called “Bongomatik” and they play the most delightful mix of latin, funk and pop.
This is off their eponymous debut album (and if you’re wondering why I’m using all those big words again - ‘eponymous’ is just another word for ‘self-titled’ - Aw, come on guys, there are thousands of words in the dictionary, it’s a crime not to try and use them all!).
It’s a great album, a whole lot of fun, highly recommended, not long released. It’s published by No Can Do Music on the Distribution label and this track is called “Donde” (if you like Cuba’s Omara Portuondo you’ll recognise it… eventually!).
21 Donde (5:11) Bongomatik Bongomatik (No Can Do / Distribution)
Continuing with the Cuba connection, this is a band that England’s Tumi Music label are pushing a lot. They’re called To’ Mezclao (which means “All Mixed Up”) and that reflects their musical standpoint - since the album covers salsa, latin pop, son-fusion, latin house, reggaeton, merengue, cumbia and bachata.
Naturally, the album is called “Hibrid” (or Hybrid), it’s on the Tumi Music label. They’ll be touring the UK this summer between mid-June and mid-July and promise to be a very exciting band live. The track I’ve chosen is a piece of latin pop called “Mango Bajito”
22 Mango Bajito (3:11) To'Mezclao Híbrid (Tumi Music)
Sticking with latin this is one of my all-time favourite salsa tracks. Of all the salsa dura - or hard salsa - tracks, this is one of the most ‘dura’. It’s by Mr Hard Hands himself, Ray Barretto. It’s from the double album compilation “Fania Records 1964-1980: the Original Sound of Latin New York” released this year by Strut Records. And the track is the MONSTER tune that is: “Indestructible”
23 Indestructible (4:14) Ray Barretto Fania Records 1964-1980:
The Original Latin Sound of New York (Strut)
Thanks to one and all etc…
I’m going to hand over to Olbi Iyah and his show “Version Galore” with reggae of all sorts and styles and periods. And to ease you into that, this is probably my favourite track of the night. This is LUSHNESS personified! Mr Sonny Bradshaw and the Sonny Bradshaw Seven from the Trojan Sixties Box Set 1, this is “Love is Blue”. Good night, see you next week for more worldly grooves!
24 Love Is Blue (3:19) Sonny Bradshaw Seven Trojan Sixties Box Set 1
WorldBeatUK (6th Show) - Broadcast Notes (6/4/11)
Tagged with: WorldBeatUK Rhubarb Glyn Phillips Refugee All Stars Lek Sen Ebo Taylor Rusty Shackle Juan Sebastian Larobina Terrakota Juan Carmona Guadi Galego Mercedes Peon Edu Krieger Renata Jambeiro Carmen Souza Poly-Rythmo Fanga Barrio Tres Goldmaster Deladap
WorldBeatUK (6th Show) - Broadcast Notes (6/4/11)
1 Intro-Mat / Jingle - Matchatcha - Nyekesse (Melodie)
On the show tonight: we’ve got a bit of an african and afrocentric groove going on with some great 1970s afrobeat and contemporary vodoun afrobeat both from Benin, some retro-sounding afrofunk from Paris, as well as music from the diaspora: Brazil, Cabo Verde, and afro-latin gems from Cuba and New York; however we’re going to kick off with what is probably one of the most influential of all african descended music outside of the Blues/Rock/Jazz line and that’s reggae. Except this time we’re not heading over to the Caribbean but staying on this side of the pond.
From Sierra Leone this is the Refugee All Stars from last year’s “Rise and Shine” album on Cumbancha and “Jah Come Down”:
2 Jah Come Down - 5:21 - Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars - “Rise & Shine” (Cumbancha)
Hot on the heels another African reggae offering this time from Senegalese Lek Sen, now based in Paris and a track featuring Kiddus I and also Amadou Bagayoko of Mali’s Amadou and Mariam fame. This is from his 2010 album “Burn” (no, nothing to do with Deep Purple all you rockheads) on the French specialist Reggae label Makasound. This is called “Sa Nitee”.
3 Sa Nitee - 4:05 - Lek Sen Feat. Kiddus I & Amadou Bagayoko -“Burn” (Makasound)
Now a couple of weeks or so ago I was very excited to play a track from a great album called “Life Stories - Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980”, highlighting the career of Beninese guitar genius Ebo Taylor. This is another great album from the Strut Records label who have a wealth of hidden gems from Africa that they are gradually getting down, dusting off, buffing up and dazzling us with. This particular track was apparently sampled by Usher - no idea on which song, but if you know, drop me a line via the chatbox on the front of the Rhubarb Radio homepage. No prizes, but I’ll give you a shout out if you recognise it.
4 Heaven - 6:04 - Ebo Taylor - “Life Stories - Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980” (Strut Records)
Love that. Ok change of tack now away from Africa and down to Wales! Hooray! Now my good friend, ace fiddler, Twmpath queen and namesake Sian Phillips (no relation - although of course, how can anybody named Phillips with ancestry in South West Wales say that they are not related?!). Anyway, the lovely Sian (organiser of Oxfordshire’s BloxFest - more of which another day) sent me a track by a young Welsh band to listen to and here they are, with their own special brand of Folk’n’Roll, this is Rusty Shackle (www.rustyshackle.com) and a little belter called “Bandit Down”:
5 Bandit Down - 3:20 - Rusty Shackle - (www.rustyshackle.com)
- - - - - CONTINUOUS PLAY - - - - - -
6 Les Mangeux de Morues - 6:06 - Juan Sebastian Larobina
Yeah, love that last track. Yet another example of the mestizisation of world music, an Argentine born, Mexican raised, Canadian resident, Juan Sebastian Larobina, with special guest Quebecois accordionist Yves Lambert on a rollicking number called “Les Mangeux de Morues”.
And keep in the same mix it up vein musically speaking, this next track is a little bobby-dazzler!! I played the title track from their album last week, “World Massala” (on the Ojo Records label); but one track just wasn’t enough. So I’ve returned to it and selected this fantastic pot-boiler. This is Portuguese world music band Terrakota and “Kay Kay” (pronounced Kie Kie - rhymes with ‘eye’)
7 Kay Kay - 5:39 - Terrakota - “World Massala” (Ojo Records)
Last week I raved about the Belgian flamenco guitarist, Myrddin de Cauter, who as I speak is currently in London. Well, here’s another treat - much more in the style of Andalusian flamenco this is French born, gypsy descended, 3 x Grammy nominated guitarist Juan Carmona (distant cousin of the Habichuela Carmona’s of Ketama fame) and a beautiful track from last year’s “El Sentido del Aire” album on the French “Le Chante du Monde” label, featuring the vocal acrobatics of the great Duquende and one of Spain’s great jazz and flamenco pianists, Chano Dominguez. This is a ‘tangos’ entitled “Limosna”. Someone once said to me: ‘No se puede vivir de limosna’ (you can’t live on charity), but I almost feel I can live on this.
8 Lismona - 4:35 - Juan Carmona - “El Sentido Del Aire” (Le Chant du Monde) - tangos
- - - - - CONTINUOUS PLAY - - - - - -
9 Dum Paterfamilias - 5:10 - Guadi Galego & Vaamonde, Lamas & Romero - “Cantigas do Caminho” (FOL)
There is a little known region of Spain in the Northwestern corner that is greener, richer and more mysterious than the rest of the Iberian peninsula. This is the region of Galicia, the Celtic Corner of Iberia,where they speak a language closer to Portugese than Castilian Spanish.
One of Christian Europe’s most sacred centres of pilgrimage has stood there for centuries - the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and people have flocked there from all over Europe using the famous Camino (or Path) to this remote region. The last track was by Galician bagpiper and singer Guadi Galego with her trio Vaamonde, Lamas and Romero and a track called “Dum Paterfamilias” from an excellent album dedicated to songs of the pilgrims’ route; “Cantigas do Camino” on the FOL label.
On the same label is the one-woman band and veritable force of nature that is Mercedes Peon who I saw in Copenhagen last year. She’s at the avant-garde of Galician experimentation in folk and this is from her recent album “Sos” and a track called “Deroran”
10 Derorán - 3:21 - Mercedes Peón - “Sos” (FOL)
- - - - - CONTINUOUS PLAY - - - - - -
11 Intro-Mat / Jingle - Matchatcha Aimer La Danse Nyekesse
[Didn’t finish my notes this week in time - so freestyled the rest. Ahem! You’ll need to see a transcript of the show to know what I said . . .]
12 “Correnteza” 4:34 Edu Krieger “Correnteza”
13 “Oxóssi” 3:27 Renata Jambeiro “Jambeiro”
14 “Afri Ká” 5:41 Carmen Souza “Protegid”
15 “Holonon” 3:21 Orchestre Poly Rythmo “Cotonou” Club (Strut Records)
16 “Bassi Te” 5:55 Fanga “Sira Ba” (Underdog Records)
17 “Suave Me Gusta” 4:32 Barrio Tres “3am en La Habana” (Nueva Onda)
18 “Calle Luna Calle Sol” 3:46 Willie Colón - “Fania Records 1964-1980: The Original Latin Sound of New York”
19 “She’s The One” 4:12 Robin Del Castillo “Pa’ Mi Tierra “
20 “Train To Zion” 4:13 G T Moore & the Goldmaster All Stars “Alpha”
21 “Sign Your Name” 3:33 Goldmaster Allstars “Crossroads”
Now a head’s up for a couple of events happening this week at the Hare and Hounds, on Kings Heath High Street, Birmingham. First up is tomorrow night when Rhubarb’s coolest of cool cats, Shelley “I’m NOT the Boss!” Atkinson presents another Honeycomb Club, upstairs at the Hare and Hounds, featuring the heavy sounds of Birmingham’s very own ALTERNATIVE DUBSTEP ORCHESTRA alongside: RELATIVE DUB, Destroyers’ violinist LEIGHTON HARGREAVES MENDI SINGH on tabla.
As well as this expect DJ FEVA and MAXWELL 45 (alongside resident DJs: 3 x World Champ DJ SWITCH, THE DOCTOR and MALICIOUS DJ and visuals from BLENDSTATE'S LIAM d'AUTHREAU, as well as the usual great atmosphere. As Shelley points out the audience is as important as the music ...AND if that wasn’t enough …it’s the birthday of Rhubarb’s own globetrotting DJ ARIES - so expect some junglist homage! You can catch Shelley’s wonderful Sunday City Music Box right here on Rhubarb Radio every Sunday afternoon between 2 and 4pm.
Now if you like all things, Gypsy, Roma and Balkanic then here’s a shout out for the return of the great Balkanic Eruption, the first one of 2011 - on Friday 8th April (9pm-2am) at the Hare and Hounds, High Street, Kings Heath, probably the most happening venue in the West Midlands.
It’ll be featuring live music from Aistaguca (a 7-piece super high energy Balkan Gypsy Wedding Band) and also the Romany Diamonds (a Polish Roma Trio playing heart-thumping Gypsy Tunes) alongside DJ’s Chromatouch, and Uncle Zitty and probably Vjs etc.
It’s all in celebration of the International Day of the Roma and there’ll be a special screening of the short film “Be Roma or Die Tryin’”. Tickets are only £5 in advance, more on the door available via the ticketsellers.co.uk. Balkanic Eruption is put on by Rhubarb Radio’s very own hot mama ElliNoire and you can also catch her weekly show right here on Rhubarb Radio every Thursday at 1pm-2pm.
22 “Milaab” 5:22 DelaDap! (featuring RFB) “Gypsies United” (sampler)
23 “Back in Babylone” 4:13 M'siou Rigolitch (AC/DC vs Papa Tank)
WorldBeatUK (4th Show)- Broadcast Notes (21/3/11)
Tagged with: WorldBeatUK Glyn Phillips Rhubarb Radio Dr John Dirty Dozen Waso Koen de Cauter Romani Lavotta Salmarina Big Chief Rosellys Palma Coco Soundways Ebo Taylor Gabbidon C Sharp Slamboree Strut Maria Kalaniemi Mariza Barry Phillips Aito
Playlist for Monday 21st March 2011
1 JINGLE 1 0:34 (Glyn Phillips voice-over “Intro-Mat” by Matchatcha)
Coming up on the show this evening: 1950s Gospel, 1960s Cumbia, 1970s Ghanaian Afrobeat, 1980s Gipsy Swing, 1990s Sevillanas, Noughties Fado and Teenies Reggae! But first this: In May 1970 Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Steve Winwood and a host of others (including various Stones and Beatles) came together to record an amazing album of blues - and the catalyst for all this? One Mr Chester Arthur Bennett. Better known to you and me as … Howlin’ Wolf!
2 Built For Comfort 2:11 Howlin' Wolf The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions (Chess/MCA) Blues
That was a track called “Built for Comfort” off the 1970 album “The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions” an experiment that teamed up the legendary Chicago Blues man with some of the then cream of the British crop. OK, so why am I kicking off a world music show with the Blues? Well, it IS world music - in fact along with Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Cajun, Zydeco and Country music it is America’s very own world music.
But more particularly, because yesterday marked the 2nd anniversary of the death of my father - one of two huge musical influences on my life (the other being Alexis Korner) both of whom planted the seeds of my interest in the wider musics of the world. So as a little homage to my father I’d like to share with you some of the tracks, musicians and styles that I grew up with during the 60s and 70s and into the 80s.
My old man played jazz and blues trombone, teaching himself from the age of 17 and throwing himself into the rebel music of his day (that day being 1951) - New Orleans Jazz! “Rebel Music”?! I can hear you say. Why, yes. to people brought up in the war years on American crooners and the British “Hee Hee! Pop the Kettle on Mother!” approach to musical entertainment, New Orleans jazz was wild, unpredictable, rebellious, You needed to learn it by ear, not by notes and best of all - yer parents hated it! Things really don’t change do they?
I have precious little recorded material to show for his almost 6 decades of performing. This next piece was given to me by a man who came to his funeral who had played with him back in the 60s in a (very non-rebellious) early form of ‘tribute band’, given over to recreating note-for-note 1920s style jazz - very much not my old man, but hey it was a gig; however, please listen to this and revel in his ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ 12 second trombone solo which single-handedly blasts away the tuba player and the rest of the band’s cobwebs and shows - albeit briefly - that to him music needed to be ‘felt’ not just played. This is Birmingham’s own Ken Ingram’s Classic Jazz Kings and a track called “Deep Henderson”
3 Deep Henderson (Take 2) 4:06 Ken Ingram's Classic Jazz Kings KICJK Vol 6 Jazz
Only one more jazz one now because I can feel my brother already gnashing his teeth and reaching for the tranquilizers. There are so many musicians I could pick that I remember him spinning records to in the front room, but this guy is probably the one that most subconsciously influenced my old man’s playing style - full-on broadsides of ‘bone and big sweeping notes that used the whole length of the slide. This is on vinyl - an old Vogue label ep - and it’s “St Louis Blues” by the great Kid Ory.
4 St Louis Blues - Kid Ory Vogue epg1006 Jazz
[VINYL]
If you’ve just tuned in - don’t worry, you’re still listening to WorldBeatUK with me Glyn Phillips - I’m just taking the opportunity to use this first hour to commemorate the 2nd anniversary of my father’s death with a little homage to what ‘world music’ we could lay our hands on in those far off days before the 80s. We’ve had Blues, we’ve had Jazz; now for the 3rd of the great triumvirate of 20th Century Black American music: Gospel! And in our house two ladies stood head and shoulders above the rest: the excitable dynamo Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the mighty rock of faith that was Mahalia Jackson. We’re going on a journey bound for glory with Sister Rosetta on “This Train” and that’s followed by an absolute masterclass in control and deep belief in Mahalia Jackson’s “In The Upper Room”. Firstly though . . . All Aboard!!
5 This Train 2:50 Sister Rosetta Tharpe The Original Soul Sister Gospel & Religious
[CONTINUOUS]
6 In The Upper Room 5:58 Mahalia Jackson Gold Collection Gospel & Religious
Leaving America behind now, but not the ladies, we move into more recognisable world music territory. In 1965 my parents went to Portugal, guests of the son of some very well-heeled Portuguese people. They were taken to a fado house in Lisbon and returned home with a couple of wonderful ep’s. It was my first taste of foreign language music - and I really took to it. Who else but the Grand Diva of Fado, the woman in black, the legend in her own lifetime: Amalia Rodrigues and from that very same ep (“Amalia the Beautiful”) this a track known in English as ‘The Song of the Sea’ - Solidão (Canção do Mar)
7 Solidão (Canção do Mar) Amalia Rodrigues Amalia the Beautiful (Columbia) Fado
[VINYL]
Ok, Briefly back over the Atlantic to the States. New Orleans Jazz might have very unjustly got a bad name from the ranks of the ‘Cool Jazz’ brigade (you know, they should really study their musical history, Jazz did not start with Bird, Trane and Miles!) - however this next track sets out to demonstrate the fuller picture of the Crescent City - on the one hand the Funky, Funky, PHONKY brass bands and on the other the amazing pianists. This track combines two examples of the best - it’s The Dirty Dozen Brass Band fronted by the Night Tripper himself, The Gris Gris Man, the living embodiment of New Orleans Juju, Dr John Creaux - or just Mac to his friends. “It’s All Over Now”!
8 It’s All Over Now 4:57 The Dirty Dozen Brass Band (Dr John) Jazz Moods - Hot (Columbia/Legacy) Jazz
During the 60s and 70s besides listening to oceans of rock (proper rock mind!) my ears were always open to hear anything that spoke of foreign climes - there wasn’t a lot but I remember Dad playing Ravi Shankar, Manitas de Plata, The Drummers of Burundi etc all of which swam around in my head next to The Beatles, Santana, Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Hawkwind, Slade - yes, Slade, why you got a problem with that?
However, one chance meeting had a profound effect on my musical development as a teenager. During the later 70s my father and I pitched up at a small jazz festival in Kent and met four amazing Belgian musicians (yes, I’m back talking about Belgium again). It was a gipsy jazz quartet called Waso and they were to become our friends and unwitting musical mentors for years to come. The band consisted of Michel Verstraeten on Double Bass, the Manouche gipsies Vivi Limberger on rhythm guitar, and his cousin Fapy Lafertin on lead guitar and Koen de Cauter on reeds and vocals. Actually they were all multi-instrumentalists but more of that later. First off I’m going to play a track from their 1983 album “Gipsy Swing Vol 5” which is typical of the style that made them firm favourites of discerning British jazz audiences during the 80s. This is their gipsy jazz version of the old Russian theme “ - Ochi Chorniye” - “Black Eyes”.
9 Les Yeux Noirs 2.58 Waso Gipsy Swing Vol 5 (Munich Records 1983) Gypsy Jazz
[VINYL]
This was incredibly exciting music - and tracks like this were capable of being played at breakneck speed; just the sight of Fapy Lafertin’s fingers effortlessly flowing over the frets was enough to make most British Django devotees hang up their guitars in shame. However, it wasn’t just all gipsy swing standards; the band’s frontman Koen de Cauter had a very personal style of singing and comic facial expressions that often masked his true skills; so I was exposed also to musette, chanson and, as here, an idiosyncratic rendering of the waltz - “Flambée Montalbanaise”
10 Flambée Montalbanaise 3:38 Koen de Cauter & friends Django! (DeWerf 2004) Gypsy Jazz
That last track was taken off an album recorded in 2004 called “Django!” and featured not just Koen and Fapy from the original Waso, but also two of Koen’s sons Waso de Cauter on rhythm guitar and Dajo de Cauter on double bass. So far, so good. But is this world music? Yes, yes, yes! You just need to leave your preconceptions at the door. As the night went on, Waso would treat their British audiences to a taste, just a taste of the hidden world of Central and East European music. You have to remember it was virtually impossible to hear anything like this in Britain 30 years ago, let alone buy it anywhere.
The next track although recorded in 1996 by another offshoot of the original Waso band called Romani, is again typical of the treats they had in store for the lucky few able to cram into the tiny clubs where they played to absolutely breathless audiences. The band here features Vivi’s son Tcha Limberger (now internationally famous in his own right) on vocals and violin, Vivi himself on rhythm and backing vocals, Koen on lead guitar and his son Dajo again on double bass. It is a sublime piece the original of which I remember playing to death on an old scratchy worn out cassette. This is “Letscho Kurko”
11 Letscho Kurko 5:43 Romani Romani (Map Records) Gypsy Jazz
[CONTINUOUS]
12 Serenade 2:24 Lavotta Le Chemin des Tsiganes Gypsy Jazz
To finish off the North European gipsy section that was the wonderful Lavotta from an album called “Le Chemin des Tsiganes” and a track entitled “Seranade” - You can get all the details for these tracks right after the show by logging onto my world music website, called appropriately enough www.worldmusic.co.uk and then clicking on the Radio category - there you’ll find playlists for all my shows.
Just to remind you, you’re listening to WorldBeatUK here on Rhubarb Radio, with me Glyn Phillips and for this first section of the show I’m paying homage to my late father and to the music he either introduced me to or discovered with me back in the 60s, 70s and early 80s. I would like to have played you some 60s music by the Southern French gipsy, Manitas de Plata - but I can’t put me hands on his album - so this is again from my father’s collection; it’s from Andalucia in Southern Spain and it’s a sevillana by the choral group Salmarina called “Fue en Sevilla” (It Happened in Seville).
13 Fue en Sevilla 3.39 Salmarina Sevillanas de Carlos Saura (Polydor) Sevillana
Ok this is the last one in homage to my father. You might remember that earlier on in the programme I played a piece by the most famous fadista of all time, Amalia Rodriguez; the next song is by the most famous fadista of her generation, who might yet prove to eclipse Amalia in time. Who else but: Mariza. Just as with Eva Cassidy, I can remember distinctly the first time I ever heard her; I was driving along College Road in Handsworth when this astounding voice came out of the radio and I had to pull over to the kerb and listen, since all the hairs on my arms were standing up and I began to feel faint. Now THAT’s the power of music! My father discovered her around the same time in the early noughties and loved her voice equally.
One of my last memories of true closeness to him took place after he’d been told he didn’t have long to live; He was struggling to breathe through his oxygen mask, so we just sat next to each other and he got me to put on a documentary about Mariza and her life. We sat there experiencing the joy of music, the longing for more time and the sadness of impending loss. True ‘saudade’. The next week he stopped listening to any music at all, because he couldn’t bear the pain of knowing he’d never play trombone, never sing, never dance, never truly live again. This is “Meu Fado Meu”.
14 Meu Fado Meu 3.26 Mariza Transparente (EMI/World Connection 2005) Fado
Did I say that was the last song for my father? Well, technically this is. Good friends of me and my dad’s and North London ambassadors for mixing up styles from Soweto to the Crescent City, this is Big Chief and . . . . “Song For My Father”
15 Song For My Father 6.48 Big Chief Live at the Bull (Teepee Records 2005) Jazz
[CONTINUOUS]
16 JINGLE 2 1:01 (Glyn Phillips voice-over “Intro-Mat” by Matchatcha)
[CONTINUOUS]
17 Emoções 3:04 Jose Da Camara Emoções (Sony 2010) Portuguese
(Jose Da Camara Canta Roberto Carlos)
Welcome back to WorldBeatUK with me Glyn Phillips right here on Rhubarb Radio. You were just listening to the sounds of Portuguese singer Jose da Camara singing a song called “Emoções” (‘Emotions’ in English) from the album of the same name, subtitled Jose da Camara Canta Roberto Carlos (J d C sings the songs of Roberto Carlos). That’s on the Sony label 2010.
A quick reminder that this is the last show on a Monday! If you tune in next Monday between 6-8pm you’ll probably get the wonderful Marc Reck, but not me. WorldBeatUK is moving from next week to WEDNESDAY evenings at the slightly later time of 7-9pm UK time (overseas listeners please check the time differences because the UK’s clocks go forward an hour this weekend coming!). So that should be much better for those who struggle to get back home in time for 6pm to join me. There’ll be no excuses now!
Now here’s a band that are playing here in Birmingham next week at the Kitchen Garden Cafe in wonderful uptown Kings Heath on Monday 4th April at 8.30pm. I was going to get them to come on the show and play live for us, but of course as you’ve just heard, I won’t be here on Monday - because I’ll be here next Wednesday! The band’s called Polly and the Billets Doux an eclectic mix of folk/soul/pop and I don’t know what really - but it’s nice! Sort of halfway between Bonnie Raitt and Norah Jones. This is from their album “Fiction, Half-Truths and Downright Lies” and it’s called “Lead Me On”.
18 Lead Me On 4:31 Polly And The Billets Doux Fiction, Half-Truths and Downright Lies Pop/Soul/Folk
[CONTINUOUS]
19 Caught Me At A Bad Time 2:38 The Rosellys One Way St (2008) Americana
You’ve just been listening to a pair of Birmingham’s finest young musicians who play what’s often referred to nowadays as ‘Americana’ - as I’ve been trying to point out all through the programme, world music is a lot broader than you might think. That was The Rosellys and “Caught Me At a Bad Time” from their album “One Way Street”. Check out their website www.therosellys.com. They often play at the Tower of Song in Cotteridge, South Birmingham and are well worth checking out indeed!
Ok, here’s a tune that at first seem to have overtones of American folk and hillbilly, but is in fact performed by the Finnish-Swedish accordionist, Maria Kalaniemi - originally written by Hilma Ingberg, probably in the early 20th Century. I’d love to know whether it’s the Appalachian influence on Scandinavia or the Scandinavian influence on Appalachia in this tune - who knows - but I do know I like the track. This is from her 2010 album on the Aito Records label entitled “Vilda Rosor” which means ‘wild rose’ and it’s a track called “I Fjol” - which I have no idea what it means. Just enjoy!
20 I Fjol 5:22 Maria Kalaniemi Vilda Rosor (Aito Records 2010) Swedo-Finnish Folk
[CONTINUOUS]
21 Interlude (Callin Gramma) 0:38 Ortegon - Interlude
[CONTINUOUS]
22 Muchacha 3:13 Ortegon - (Palma Coco) Salsa
That was another track by someone I featured last week, the Colombian producer and musician Sr Ortegon and a track called “Muchacha” (preceded by a weird phone conversation to someone’s granny . . .). Ok let’s stay in Colombia and return to that great album I played last week: “Cartagena: Curro Fuentes & the Big Band Cumbia & Descarga Sound of Colombia (1962-72)” on the Soundways label. This is a cumbia with a tango intro by the great Lucho Bermudez. “Fiesta de Negritos”. A Bailar!!!!
23 Fiesta De Negritos 2:34 Lucho Bermudez Y Su Orquesta Cartagena! (Soundways) Tango-Cumbia
Sticking with re-releases from the golden years, this next track is from a recent re-release of Ghanaian Highlife and Afrobeat Classics from 1973-1980 on the Strut label, called “Life Stories” and all of the tracks are by or associated with Ebo Taylor. I’m hoping to play a lot more from this label - there’s a new album coming up called “Nigeria 70” - so as soon as I get that, I’ll play some stuff off it for you (big shout out to Stephanos!). In the meantime this is a heavenly slice of music called, funnily enough, “Heaven”. . .
24 Heaven 6.04 Ebo Taylor Life Stories (Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1973-80) (Strut 2011) Afrobeat
Now closer to home - much closer. We here in the UK like our reggae; here in Birmingham we really like our reggae - and we’ve got the musical pedigree to prove it. From my neck of the woods, Handsworth, one band has stood out on the international stage. Who else but Steel Pulse - and founder member Basil Gabbidon is still playing around Brum with his band, Gabbidon, and I was lucky enough to be playing at the same venue (the Tower of Song in Cotteridge) as him and Carol Brewster, the soul and gospel singer, a couple of weeks ago. This is from his recent album called “Reggae Rockz” - it’s “Kool Runnings”.
25 Kool Runnings 3:30 Gabbidon Reggae Rockz (Runcum Music RMCD25) Reggae
Sticking with reggae, this is a great Jamaican band name of C-Sharp, who wrap some sweet tunes around some very insightful lyrics. Really liking their work. They’ve had hits in Jamaica with “No More” (that dealt with the often taboo subject of severe depression) and more recently “Nurse” (in 2009). This is from their new - as yet unreleased - album, “The Invitation”, and it’s a fitting cry to the madness of the world all around us today. This is called “What’s the Matter with the World”.
26 What's The Matter With The World 3:58 C-Sharp The Invitation (C-Sharp Music) Reggae
[Remind people that WorldBeatUK is moving to Wednesdays from next week onwards and will start and end an hour later (7-9pm) - which should make it easier for everyone to tune in.]
27 Balk To The Future 3.40 Slamboree - - Balkan Dance
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