A World of Music

WOMAD 2011 - Friday and Sunday thoughts

2011-08-01T03:18:00.001-07:00

The centre of gravity appears to have shifted in the three years since my last WOMAD experience, away from the main stages to the Big Red Tent at the opposite end of the excellently-appointed Charlton Park arena. I know in the past that strange dance-related events happened there long after we grey-hairs were tucked up in bed (sometime after 9:30pm), but just an hour into Friday and the young Womadeers were already out in force, packing the space for a serendipitous wig-out to blazing Congolese stand-in Baloji. The Belgium-based singer’s appearance threatened to peak the festival barely before it had started, and was a microcosmic example of the visa-related shenanigans that have affected WOMAD line-ups over the years, as the EU-based African answered the call made necessary by Sierra Leone’s Bajah and the Dry Eye Crew’s lack of timely paperwork.

This year, thanks in large part to a partnership with the French Music Office, a more Eurocentric approach was plainly in evidence, with quirky experimentalist Chapelier Fou one of a number of left-field continental artists that blessed the nearby Charlie Gillett stage over the weekend. The Frenchman mixed samples and loops around shards of classical violin, an instrument heard in a more warmly traditional setting on the same stage two days earlier as young fiddler Rua MacMillan lived up his 2009 award as Scotland young musician of the year. Another Scottish fiddler, Aberdeenshire’s Sarah Beattie, wove threads of Gaelic beauty through trio Pacific Curls’ Maori tunes and tales rich in atmosphere and verve (disclaimer: sometimes musical impressions can be accentuated by positive culinary – and musical - experiences in the flavoursome Taste the World tent).

Early evening saw the Siam Tent come into its own, as it inevitably does when the hottest part of the day is behind us, with the Ethio-dub mashup of Dub Colossus seeping dark and dirty east African jazz-tinged grunge out of which emerged a crowd-popping version of Up Town Top Ranking.

Back in that Red Tent, a vibrant Friday afternoon (a capella girl quintent The Boxettes a picture of charm and preternaturally flexible diaphragms) turned into an exuberant old school punky reggae party courtesy of the mighty national treasure the Dub Pistols (they may have been on something, who can say?) while on the Open Air Stage the various Cuban and Malian greats that make up Afrocubism fought a poor sound mix and almost insurmountable expectations to deliver a set that made up in charm and individual musicianship for what it lacked in spark and interplay. Charm aplenty from Abigail Washburn too, the claw-hammer gal from America lighting up the Radio 3 (aka The Real Charlie Gillett) Stage with her wry observations coloured by expert but unshowy banjo and mountain-dew voice, her between-song patter remaining just the sweet side of cutesy. The contrast between this cool and folksy (in a good way) sound and the rawer, more WOMtrad sound of the extraordinary Sufi soul vocal aerobics of Faiz Ali Faiz later that night could not be more extreme or indeed more apposite to this land of sensual contrasts.

Plenty of contrast too in the heavy north African (by way of Paris, natch) groove of Aziz Sahmaoui and the University of Gnawa. I’d have liked to have seen just a bit more of the guimbri bass that lends gnawa such a heady and individual style, but the crowd wasn’t complaining at this intricate blend of oud, kora and guitar so neither will I (especially as their workshop was so bright and watchable). This was Sunday afternoon, and my new favourite stage the BRT was showing worrying signs of a...crouch...towards the worst of all festy blights, the cordon sani-chair that springs up around the edge of a tent as the forty-plus (I know I am – shoot me if I ever get like this) begin to suffer from Festival-Leg. This is a bit like trenchfoot only not nearly as painful, potentially fatal or indeed worthy of such defiantly stiff-upper-lipped, head in a book/The Independent intransigence in the face of anybody actually trying to get in to witness the performance. The masterful Penguin Café were the carriers, transporting the disease from their Cambridge Folk festival appearance the previous day, and so in the absence of any possibility of ingress, attention (and tippy-toed apologies) were turned to the Open Air stage Italian all-black-clad folk-rockers Nidi D’Arac, one of the undoubted hits of Friday/Sunday, full of rhythmically propulsive Mediterranean guitar-driven gusto and bursts of shit-kicking intermingling violin.

A veritable hit on a top-notch day, but possibly matched by Amparo Sanchez’s admix of Espana, Americana, Mexicana and that keening, gravelly vocal. The pocket dynamo’s throaty vocalising is as nothing to the extraordinary Ayarkhaan, a trio from the Russian republic of Sakha whose guttural cadences (think the Trio Bulgarka transported to Mongolia) create a mesmerising pocket of space around their static, sumptuously attired figures. They stop time with those voices, but also bend it and the air around them with a remarkable aural toolset that comprises no more than the jaw’s harp (which they call khomus, which appears to be a phonetic Asian term for all manner of instruments). A veritable BBC sound department array of ambient textures and impressions are issued forth. You name it - birds, galloping horses, grasses blowing in the breeze - boy can these ladies deliver.

On the same day, old-time Ghanaian guitarist Ebo Taylor served as an interesting comparison with Brooklyn-based rapper and fellow Ghanaian Blitz the Ambassador. Both are ‘old-skool’ in their way, but whereas the former taps into the new-found zeal for Afrobeat and Highlife guitar figures to deliver a jaunty take on early 70s west African swamp-pop, the rapper references the early days of ‘consciousness’ hip-hop and jigs it all up with some loose Troublefunk go-go style brass which thankfully buries his rather average delivery in a rolling bubbling groove. Two sides of the same coin, both perfectly at home on a broiling Womad afternoon.

What else? Nathale Natiembe, chanced upon in a sparsely-attended dance workshop. Nevertheless her stark, emotive maloya suddenly made sense placed in its dark, contemporary setting; and finally, this year’s guitar discovery Bombino from Niger, a cool, intimate purveyor of singer-songwriterdom that speaks to every soul and is a perfect comedown after a weekend of sensory highs.

DISH OF THE FESTIVAL: Goan Fish Curry for the nth year running.

DONSO - Donso (Comet)

2011-06-07T10:46:00.000-07:00

It is easy to see why this confidently-executed and edgy album has the support of uber-cool personages such as Radio One’s Giles Peterson. Donso is the creation of French producer and DJ Pierre-Antoine Grison (aka Krazy Baldhead) who fashions a multi-layered electronic base for Malian singer Gédéon Papa Diarra, with Thomas Guillaume and Guimba Kouyaté adding threads of organic lustre on ngoni and guitar. Fans of Mamani Keita’s Electro Bamako and Yelema albums will know how the judicious application of crunchy pre-programmed beats can accentuate the repeated vocal motifs of Bambara phrasing, and Diarra’s child-like nasal tenor works in large part because of its remarkable similarity to his compatriot (Diarra lacks some of Keita’s presence, though, and so Mamani is very welcome as a backing vocalist to bolster a number of tracks).

Highlights include Mogoya, whose popping beats and squealing synths could be mistaken for a Missy Elliott/Timbaland production if it were not for the intricate buzz of ngoni working in and around it. On the propulsive Hunters a looped ngoni figure fades in and out of alternately thin and thick layers of snappy electronica. On Diya, the bassy hum of Guillaume’s donso n’goni predominates, pulling the rhythm in all sorts of interesting directions. Djandjigui is more guitar-driven, and thus most reflective of the band’s live sound. It also features Diarra’s best vocal - supple, confident, playful with the intricate use of melody. More of that next time round and Donso really will be close to an Electro Bamako II.

www.myspace.com/donso

JAYME STONE - Room of Wonders (JS)

2011-06-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

Jayme Stone last appeared on the world music radar with his impressive meeting of banjo with the kora on the Africa to Appalachia album. On this intriguing, stylistically wide-ranging follow-up, the Canadian has stretched his influences right across Europe and out to Brazil, taking in reels, polkas, bluegrass, classical and even a re-interpretation of Riccardo Tesi’s southern Italian accordion music.

European folk music is the hub of Room of Wonders, which is inspired by Stone’s reaction to hearing a Bach French Suite and the folk influences inherent therein (ironically, the Bach piece covered here is arguably the one truly weak moment). Fiddler Casey Driessen effectively takes top billing as he saws, plucks and chops his way energetically through the various genres while Stone’s chirpy banjo fills provide a common path back to the duo’s North American roots.

It all comes together best on the constant key-shifts of the exhilarating Bulgarian mountain dance Planinsko Horo, the Norwegian polka Andrea Berget where a strutting Stone tip-toes around delightful conversational interplay between Driessen and guest Jaron Freeman-Fox; and the traditional break-neck bluegrass hoe-down Ways of the World.

No doubt none of this ticks any authenticity boxes, and there is an air of almost wilful eclecticism to the approach. By necessity we only get a taste of the genres explored, and at an almost academic remove. But it’s hard to argue with the sublime, telepathic musicianship on this entertaining set.

www.jaymestone.com

TAMIKREST - Toumastin (Glitterhouse Records)

2011-06-05T01:24:00.000-07:00

They’re keen this new generation of Kel Tamashek rockers, these self-styled spiritual sons of Tinariwen. Little more than a year after their atmospheric debut album Adagh comes this solid follow-up to consolidate the band’s place at the peak of the rockiest end of the desert blues outcrop.

The Tinariwen comparisons inevitably remain – from frizzy-haired Ibrahim-a-like lead singer Ousmane Ag Mossa, through lyrics that focus on the Touareg struggle for autonomy and nomadic freedom, to the vocal ululations and rhythmic undulations that add texture to ringing electric guitar lines. The Tamikrest template is clear, forceful electric guitar winding over a relaxed groove, with Mossa’s earnest vocals backed by the pulsing drone of rhythm and bass guitars (there should be a collective noun for this ubiquitous desert blues rumble – a tremor of Touareg guitars perhaps?).

The solemnity of the lead vocalist is uplifted by the exultant ululations of female backing singers, who also provide alluring responses to the lead singer on the funky love song Tarhamanine Assinegh and the twisting Tidit, a tune that seems to channel mid-70s American blues-rock as well as the best of Tamikrest’s fellow Touareg spiritual travellers Terakaft. Elsewhere, on the stripped back Aidjan Adaky, Mossa’s heartfelt vocal rides on a hypnotic wave of feedback and sustain.

It almost goes without saying – and indeed seems pretty much de rigeur at the moment to point out with each new Touareg release - that overall the album doesn’t break much new ground, although Tamikrest do absorb tinges of country- and blues-rock guitar into their sound. On the one occasion when they do try to cross-over into western rock terrain, on the album’s closer Dihad Tedoun Itran, the result is an incongruous clash between country rock, heavy metal guitar, viola and a 4/4 drumbeat. Most uncharacteristic for a band of subtle rhythmic pull, and a reminder perhaps that this music is indeed like the camels that are so often used as a metaphor to describe it - at its best taking steady steps forward, absorbing the sustenance of other styles when required but likely to stumble and fall if asked to move too quickly onto unfamiliar ground.

www.tamikrest.net

ABDOULAYE TRAORE & MOHAMED DIABY - Debademba (Naive)/DIOM DE KOSSA - In My Father’s Shadow (Talik)

2011-06-05T01:21:00.000-07:00

Debabemba means “big family” in Bambara, and there’s a feeling of extended family get-together about this beefy, sonically wide-ranging album that was hatched in the bustling Parisian suburb of Belleville. Traoré, a guitarist originally from Burkina Faso, has teamed up with Ivorian Diaby, a singer with a remarkable voice that combines the forceful declamations of his griot antecedents with velvety, emotive expression.

Produced and arranged with a sumptuous Parisian-African sensibility, the album is topped and tailed by a folsksy ballad and a salsa workout, between which the listener is taken on a whirlwind tour of electric Bambara, jazz, soul and blues, tinged with Afrobeat in places and all of it infused with strains of Andalusion guitar and Arabic textures (including the snaking, breathy melodies of flautist Naissam Jalal).

If that sounds a bit too rich a mix, at times Debademba does trip over its own ambitious attempt to create such a melting pot of styles, particularly in the two extended jazz inflected workouts that weigh down the midpoint of the album. But either side of those tracks, Debademba exudes impressive reserves of vibrancy and inspiration.

Agnakamina – all tumbling rhythm, twangy guitar and wild flute – crackles with energy; Kiele Djola builds a strummed mandolin opening into an up-tempo blend of north- and west-African grooves; and Loundotemena swings exquisitely around acoustic guitar, with balafon with ngoni melodies trailing and mimicking those of gospel-style female backing.

Guest singers Fatou Diawarra and Awa add more distaff variety in consecutive songs towards the end of the album, the latter’s slightly other-worldly tones breathing character into Camille Hablar’s cello on the off-kilter Africa Blues. All of which tips the balance of this appealing album in favour of successful execution of myriad influences against the overwrought mess it could so easily have been.

www.chapablues.com

Diom de Kossa is an Ivorian singer whose spacious album contains tunes that sound as if they were written for outdoor summer airing. De Kossa floats easy melodies in his strong baritone voice over a stock electric four-piece backing, with backing singers and the deployment of traditional instruments such as the konting lute leavening arrangements where the repeated choruses and ever-so-slightly extraneous lead guitar or drum fills can lead to a serious case of festival-style mind-wander, although there’s usually enough of an edge to snap the listener back to attention. With a couple of jaunty traditional numbers beaten out on the Yadoh drum, Baba Toulenga makes for a decent, unobtrusively feel-good summer soundtrack.

www.talik.no

VARIOUS ARTISTS - 80s World Music Classics (Nascente)

2011-06-05T01:19:00.000-07:00

A definitive-as-dammit collection mapping the gestation of a genre invented out of the necessity to provide some marketing oomph to a burgeoning scene that couldn’t penetrate the elephant hide of mainstream music industry conservatism despite accruing listeners, artists and movers and shakers swimming against the tide of what compiler Nigel Williamson calls “a cacophony of synths and drum machines”.

This is ‘World Music’ before it was labelled as such, early-to-mid eighties tracks that were hitting curious folkies and discerning “what next?” post-punkers from roughly three angles. Whether it be witnessing Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck’s circular acoustic guitar figures in one of the handful of supportive venues, hearing Jali Musa Jawara’s headily vigorous kora and ghostly falsetto played by Peel, Kershaw or Gillett, or reading here or in City Limits the back story to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s chest-thumping Sufi praise music, there were game-shifting ear-openers aplenty for the trad-seekers.

While those artists celebrated and disseminated their roots, others keen to harness the latest studio gadgetry decamped to Paris or Brussels, availing themselves of the drum-tracks and synths that were all but killing western pop music. Fortunately the likes of Antillean zouksters Kassav’ and soukous star Kanda Bongo Man managed to find the polyrhythm setting and thus kept the dance-floor jumping, while Salif Keita’s searing Islamic wail burst through a mist of studio trickery. And the Chebs and Chabas of Algeria wouldn’t be 80s rai-stars if their guttural yearnings weren’t presented on a bubbling bed of digitised beats and buzzing synths. And the addictive sugar-rush of intertwining guitars that courses through Souzy Kasseya’s mighty Le Telephone Sonne sits in a production of unalloyed 80s clarity.

Finally there were those genres swept up in the general rush for difference, most notably the Latin American sounds that were already a swinging fixture on the club scene. Salsa, samba and cumbia are well-represented here via punchy Joe Arroyo, sinuous Gilberto Gil and super-caffeinated Rudolfo Y Su Tipica RA7.

All that plus Youssou’s epochal Immigres, a trio of hopping southern African gems, and the unadulterated harmonies of the Bulgarian State Choir. The latter are the only purely east European representation, so no room for Hungary’s Marta Sebestyen or Nadka Karadjova’s imperious A Lambkin Has Commenced Bleating. There’s no soca either, no King Sunny Adé or Fela and none of the accordions that shook the ‘world’ world. No matter, this essential snapshot has so much wealth on offer it can afford the occasional unavoidable omission.

TONI XUCLA and SOLO KOUYATE - Duna (Temps Records)

2011-06-05T01:16:00.000-07:00

A meeting of Casamance and Catalonia that at its best puts one somewhat in mind of the Songhai meetings between Spanish group Ketama and Toumai Diabaté. Xuclà’s 12-string guitar is perhaps not quite as briskly attacked as those of the flamenco band but it’s certainly sympathetic to Solo’s playing, sometimes mirroring the rhythms, at others dancing in and out of the solos. Some fine bass playing from the Spaniard too, taking the rhythmic strain as Solo embarks on flights of melody fancy. The main reservation is the choice of songs, which seem on the conservative side as, perhaps no more than a summation of the duo’s original jams when they first met in Senegal with a handful of new numbers bolted on. It’s always nice to hear new versions of Miniamba and Jarabi, but these are quite standard interpretations. A bit more of Mari Sadio’s jaunty, playful reworking would have enlivened proceedings. However, the handful of original compositions is generally well-worked making this a highly promising debut by a duo to watch out for.

www.vesc.cat

MAJID BEKKAS - Makenba (Igloomondo)

2011-06-05T01:13:00.000-07:00

Atmospheric meeting of classically trained Moroccan multi-instrumentalist Bekkas and a host of fine musicians from Africa, Europe and the Americas. Bekka’s guimbri bass is at the centre, purposefully pushing a groove around which snake Louis Sclavis’s clarinet (and sax on the slightly over-jazzed title track) and Aly Keita’s trusty balafon, which as always provides unshowy light rhythms ans melodic flavour. A smattering of north African percussion is given added texture by Argentine Minino Garay’s snappy drumbeat and Majid is a fine oud player too, and possesses an attention-holding deep, dark and expressive voice. It’s on the stropped back, poised Louhid, where those two instruments are left to their own devices (with minimal percussive encouragement) that this interesting album hits an emotional, poetic peak.

www.igloorecords.be

TWO MAN TING - Legacy (2boot music)

2011-06-04T01:57:00.000-07:00

Two Man Ting comprise midlander Jon Lewis and Sierra Leonian Jah-Man Aggrey. They are an offshoot of the Le Cod Afrique, the world dance collective who were something of a medium-scale hit on the small festival circuit a few years back, and like that band (only more sparingly) they play a bright, appealing blend of multicultural roots-pop centred on Lewis’s Palm Wine-meets-highlife picked guitar and Aggrey’s sunny, chatty vocals. Djembe and hand percussion fill out a sound that should lighten up many an outdoor musical gathering this summer.

Le We Go Ba – a lightly-cadenced Moussu-T-like romp with nursery refrain - begs for audience participation and a take on Sonny Rollins’s St Thomas allies delicate circular guitar melodies with probing thoughtful lyrics. And speaking of covers, there’s the inevitable nod to the king of Palm –wine music, S E Rogie, and a delightful looped take on Armagideon Time too. Full of such bright, tuneful moments, Legacy is a decent debut that one suspects will probably really take off in an intimate live setting.

www.twomanting.co.uk

NATHALIE NATIEMBE - Karma (Sakifo Records)/CHRISTINE SALEM - Lanbousir (Cobalt)

2011-06-04T01:55:00.000-07:00

It feels like years since we heard from this intriguing singer of Mozambique heritage from La Réunion and (forgive me if I’m misremembering) in past incarnations she seemed to draw heavily on her percussive creole maloya roots. There’s little left of that on Karma, a moody, effects-laden meeting with genre-defying French sound-sculptors Bumcello.

Natiembé has a tough, forceful vocal style pitched somewhere between a rap and a chant (a rant?) which are set against Vincent Ségal’s portentous dubbed up bass and Cyril Atef’s trippy percussive effects on an album that often intrigues, but which almost drowns the singer’s Indian Ocean and African roots its artfully-rendered wall of sound. Readers of this magazine are warned to approach with care.

www.myspace.com/nathalienatiembe

Christine Salem is more in the mould of the Nathalie Natembe of old, a singer also from La Réunion who dampens rhythmic maloya percussion with the evocative rattle of her kayamb shaker. The songs are mostly call and response chants – Salem’s vocals a glorious controlled belt, too forceful to be described as soulful, too assured to be described as raucous – against a sparse rhythmic backdrop.

Energetic and repetitive, there’s a hypnotic feel to the music that contains traces of the Brazilian Bahia style (Ila and Maméléo go further, bordering on the exultant choreographed thrum of samba rhythm) and although Christine has been brought out from behind the Salem Tradition name by which this thrilling collective is usually known – presumably in an attempt to modernise the appeal, the music remains vibrantly rooted in a sound worthy of that original classification. Traditional music with a modern sensibility - Lanbousir works, and works well.

MADOU SIDIKI, AHMED FOFANA, ALEX WILSON - Mali Latino (Alex Wilson Records)

2011-06-04T01:51:00.000-07:00

A slightly new angle on the familiar theme of blending West African music with Afro-Cuban and Latin styles. Hank Jones’s excellent Sarala and Dee Dee Bridgewater’s mostly successful Red Earth are probably the closest touchstones for this joyfully jazzy attack on Mande music, and Toumani Diabate’s Symmetric Orchestra is another touchstone for the marrying of traditional Malian styles with western jazz-derived sounds.

It’s Toumani’s brother Madou Sidiki Diabate who provides the kora fills for Mali Latino, with compatriot Ahmed Fofana on balafon and vocals, with Alex Wilson’s piano and Hammond organ completing a trio that forms the core of an album that veers between studied kora-jazz and rollicking, horn-driven dance numbers. It’s the big-band Bamako-meets-NY moments that are bound to draw most focus, where the trio are joined by various Malian guest vocalists (Doussouba Diabaté, Kandia Kouyaté and more) whilst bass, congas and all manner of brass instruments combine for some rip-roaring Mande-salsa. Opener Donkan is a fine example of this, the kora and balafon riffing between thick blasts of brass, and Bamako 2000 invokes 70s Latin soul, the watery warblings of Wilson’s Hammond organ to the fore (a marmite instrument if ever there was one) and balafon fitting snugly to the arrangement beneath swaying Mande harmonies.

Kansala is perhaps the best of the more reflective tracks, a showcase for Diabaté’s darting melodies, and Remercier Les Travaillers stops the album in its tracks to pay due respect to Kandia Kouyaté’s magnificence (presumably recorded some time before her recent bout of ill-health). Wilson’s piano is suitably respectful here, duetting tenderly with Diabaté kora.

However, experimental albums such as this usually have off-moments, and some of the kitchen-sink salsa moments on tracks like Ankaben can get wearing. And the sparse three-piece Voyage has some great moments but is spoilt by unnecessarily cocktail-bar piano effects from Wilson.

Not perfect by any means then, but on the whole the funky approach and spirit just about see Mali Latino through.

www.malilatino.com

MACIRE SYLLA - Talitha Djembe (Fare)/SAYON BAMBA - Dougna (Cobalt)

2011-06-04T01:48:00.000-07:00

You always know what you’re going to get with Maciré Sylla – funky Afro-European pop (as usual, she uses a mix of European and African artists) that’s vocally strong and with a muscular rhythmic touch. Building her sound around a brass section and coterie of electric guitarists - with trad touches from kora, balafon and flute - the Guinean griotte harnesses traditional melodies in slick arrangements that, through sheer dint of repetition, perhaps veer on the conservative. A couple of intriguing ballads and the seeding of a handful of simpler melodies hint at a move to the musical centre ground, which in many respects should be welcomed in lieu of treading water in the perfectly acceptable but slightly by-numbers area in which she finds herself.

www.maciresylla.com

Fellow Guinean songstress Sayon Bamba is, if anything, an even slicker operator, laying mandolin, ngoni, balafon and acoustic guitar over electronic beats and effects on an elegantly structured exercise in pan-African pop-rock. Sounding as if she’s influenced by a wide range of all those funkily modern West African chanteuses (Kidjo, Gnahore, Rokia etc) Dougna is a far cry from Bamba’s past role as a singer with Les Amazones de Guinee. No blasting funk here, little in the way of electric guitar, and even if Bamba’s admirable restraint mostly works well within the sleek arrangements here, it would be nice to hear her really let go once in a while (the Angelique-a-like Aborongo comes closest) . Nevertheless, a good album and an artist to watch out for in the future.

www.myspace.com/sayonbamba

AURELIO - Laru Beya (Realworld)

2011-06-04T01:43:00.000-07:00

It is four years now since Watina, the deservedly lauded effort to focus our attention on the history and seductive music of the Garifuna people of Central America. The international career of that album’s star, Andy Palacio, was tragically cut short (he died within a year of its release) and so it’s to one of Palacio’s collaborators on Watina that producer Ivan Duran turns to carry the mantle of continuing to develop and expose this rich, absorbing sound.

The template for Laru Beya is similar to that on Watina, with the insinuating scuffle of traditional percussion set against guitars that provoke and prompt an array of finely variegated rhythms, with Aurelio’s relaxed soulful vocals spiced by brass interjections, piano (masterfully mixed, it’s often there only if your ears seek it out) and the sweet harmonic sound of the women of another Duran-produced Garifuna album, the gorgeous Umalali.

In addition, Martinez explores the link between his culture and that of his west Afican ancestry, aided by mentor Youssou Ndour and the mighty Orchestra Baobab. The Senegalese collaborations are suitably light touch – the sharp tap of sabar drum to add a hint of mbalax, subtle shades of brassy Afro-Latinisms to supplement the languid lilt of the Garifuna style, and Youssou adding his soaring vocals like a call across the ocean.

There’s a Sene-rap cameo, too, from Sen Kumpe, which hints at a toughness beneath this celebratory music. Laru Beya translates as ‘By the Beach’, a reflection not only of the defiantly sunny disposition of these musicians, but also a nod to the shipwrecked slave antecedents of the Garifuna people.

It’s testament to the collective ability of these artists and to Palacio’s ability to give space and light to the multi-textured, intricate arrangements (gone are the intrusive electric guitar interruptions that were the one blight on Watina) that such a broad and expressive musical palette painted without tiring the listener. The high standard is maintained; Laru Beya deserves to take its place alongside Andy Palacio’s iconic album.

www.realworldrecords.com/aurelio

ETENESH WASSIE & MATHIEU SOURISSEAU - Belo Belo (Buda Musique)

2011-06-04T01:39:00.000-07:00

Anyone familiar with the Ethiopiques series will know that the east African country has for many years been blessed with singers who possess instantly identifiable vocals replete with raw, guttural feeling. One such singer is Eténèsh Wassie, who crops up in on volume 18 of Buda Musique’s series and who can these days be found working with French jazz group Les Tigres Des Platanes. It’s with the ensemble’s bassist Mathieu Sourisseau that Wassie has teamed up on Belo Belo, an album that packs a real, and voluminous, clout given the relatively sparse nature of the instrumental setting.

The full force of what’s within isn’t immediately apparent from the opener, Burtukan, on which the rumble of acoustic bass (the rub of toothbrush on strings!) converses with Wassie’s teasing refrains - the tell-tale catch in the voice, bass almost suspended in mid-air, then subtly, eloquently following Massie’s melodic line. The second track, Ende Matew Style, starts softly, with Nicolas Lafourest joining on acoustic guitar, paving the way for a gathering storm of a vocal. Wassie sweeps from tenderly tremulous to an urgently chanted call to arms, by way of an otherworldly rasp, and back again, in and out, pulling the emotions this way and that, all underpinned by Pixies-style quiet-loud-quiet performance from Sourisseau (a feature of the album is the bassist’s ability to mould his playing to match the mood set by the singer - one beat behind, and pitched just below, his partner’s vocals).

And so it goes for the rest of this intensely uncompromising and form-stretching album that explores the tension between space and noise, each song sounding like an experiment in how far the pendulum can be swung between poise and punch without becoming completely unhinged. The limit of what we mean by music that has roots in a tradition is severely tested here (Zelessenia seems to invent a whole new genre at one point - thrash metal bass anyone?) although most of the lyrics are from traditional Ethiopian poems, which one must assume would in the past have been performed with a stringed instrument such as the krar lyre, or maybe sung acapella. But the duo retain the lament and the forcefulness of the music of the horn of Africa, and by bending it into a new and unique shape - neither western jazz nor the hypnotic earthy deep soul of their provenance, but containing plenty enough of both elements – the spirit of Ethiopiques lives on. Not an easy listen, but certainly a rewarding one.

www.budamusique.com

MAH DAMBA - A L’ombre du Grand Baobab (Universal)

2011-06-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

Mah Damba – the niece of the mighty Fanta Damba - resides in France, performing chiefly for the Malian community in Paris – but has a very rooted approach to her music, deploying her powerful, treacly voice to an organic ngoni, acoustic guitar, tama and djembe groove sweetened by two female backing singers. Think a Mandé version of Oumou Sangaré’s last album Seya, but with the kitchen sink taken out. The only slight drawback to an album that swings with no little charm throughout is the lack of any real standout tracks. Jolen perhaps sees the ensemble at its fullest, danceable best, with its cute, French-language hook of a chorus on top of a nicely chattering percussive backing. That tune contrasts well with the following track, Jugu Te Maa La, which finds Mah Damba intoning over a sparse ngoni and tama backing. This is the sound of a fine troupe of instrumentalists really enjoying themselves in support of a singer of grace and nuance. No surprise, really, given that it comprises pretty much all of Mah Damba’s immediate family.

www.budamusique.com

MAMADOU DIABATE - Courage (World Village)

2011-06-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

Mamadou Diabaté’s previous album, the sparkling Douga Mansa, appeared from under the radar to earn a thoroughly deserved Grammy award in 2009. That highly accomplished kora-only affair placed emphasis on the re-interpretation of traditional tracks, and arguably overshadows much of the recent output of some of his more celebrated peers. Credit is due to the Malian for refusing to rest on his laurels by merely repeating the formula for the follow-up, instead returning to ensemble work with an accent on original compositions. The result of this Mamadou’s fifth album is therefore a more experimental, worldly recording, reflecting the US base of the artist and his cohorts. The song-writing is approached with the western audience preference for unobtrusively undulating melodies in mind (and why not?) and Mamadou’s interaction with the jazz scene, and his ability to mix sharp extemporisation with a light, silky touch remains engaging throughout, in particular through some thrilling instrumental conversations with balafon player Lansa Fode Diabaté. Kita Djely is the best of those, the balafon bubbly and bright, kora dancing in and out of shifting rhythmic patterns. Amongst other highlights, Abou Sissoko on ngoni chips in with some intriguing running ngoni lines on Humanity, and Mamadou is briefly back in solo, reflective mode on the beautiful Kora Journey. The result is arguably a slight dip in standard overall compared to its predecessor but it’s a worthwhile move for all that as Mamadou Diabaté continues to hone his considerable talent.

SIDI TOURE & FRIENDS - Sahel Folk (Thrill Jockey)

2011-06-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

Sidi Touré seems to have been around for some time, although it appears that 1996’s extremely well-received Hoga might have well have been his only previous international release. Sahel Folk is a far mellower album than its distant predecessor, recorded in Sidi’s sister’s house with a group of acoustic guitar-playing friends. There is a nice, as-live down-home feel to the recordings, each of the four guitarists supplying subtly varying crisp, circular plucked motifs (as the title suggests, Sidi hails from the dry, sparse northern part of Mali). On an album where the clarity of the (post-)production on these mid-tempo jams renders each track full of its own distinct character and mood, the handful that either feature the parched, insistent textures of Jambala Maiga’s kuntigui monochord guitar or Jiba Akolane Touré’s transcendant vocals probably stand out most. Well worth repeat plays.

www.thrilljockey.com

BOUBACAR TRAORE - Mali Denhou (Lusafrica)

2011-06-02T10:51:00.000-07:00

It’s a dozen or so years now since former 60s Malian pop star Boubacar Traoré resumed his music career after a period spent mourning his wife and labouring in Paris. Having reinvented himself as a mature acoustic-guitar-and-vocals man who straddles American blues and the traditional music of his native Khassonké, each subsequent album has ploughed a similar, unvarnished and largely unvarying stream of smoky, lightly-sandpapered (if marginally weaker) vocals and nimble minimalist picking. The slight difference this time out is the substitution of virtuoso guitar runs that we have seen in the past for the flavoursome strains of Vincent Butcher’s harmonica, an empathetic and economical support that would steal the show if only that plaintive voice wasn’t some much like the return of an old friend. With discreet auxiliary support from Mahamadou Kamissoko on ngoni and Fassery Diabaté on balafon, chalk Mali Denhou as another fine set from the troubadour from Kayes.

www.lusafrica.com

VARIOUS ARTISTS - Theme Time Hour Volume Three (Ace)

2011-02-13T01:40:00.001-08:00

The third and final season of Mr Zimmerman’s indispensable theme-based meander through the panoply of twentieth century popular American vernacular music, and its tributaries and byways, featured such subjects as “Fruit”, “Blood” and (appropriately enough) “Goodbye”. But the key words for yet another immensely enjoyable fifty song romp through the highlights of the show are probably “rhythm” and “blues”, reflecting this volume’s centre of musical gravity in the geographical and chronological cradle of the southern United States circa mid-last century, and incorporating the influences, descendents and classy contemporaneous side-products that reached into middle-America and beyond.

Aside from the great man’s asides, it was the adherence to genuine, big-selling music from Dylan’s youth (step forward Fred Astaire, Sarah Vaughan, Annie Ross) that anchored the shows in radio-era America, whilst re-casting the roots influences - folk, blues, country, gospel, doo wop, jazz - in their proper place alongside and vital to the mainstream, past and present.

To wit, the arresting habit of exposing original versions of numbers integral to pop’s rich tapestry - highlights this time Bessie Banks’s deep soul precursor to the Moody Blues’ Go Now, and Clarence Ashley’s depression-era chiller Little Sadie, later transfused into versions by Johnny Cash and Dylan himself. Speaking of murder songs, a word for Los Socios De San Antonio’s corking mid-70s corrido, La Muerte de Fred Gomez Carrasco, earthy accordion gratifyingly to the fore, the ensemble vocals transcendent and touching. And great to see Jesse Winchester get his (over)due props, and so too Brenda Evans, the (at the time) 12-year-old vocalist receiving equal billing on Elizabeth Cotton’s achingly bittersweet Shake Sugaree.

All those punctuated by the aforementioned R ‘n’ B and its cousins, from Elvises P and C through Professor Longhair to the mighty vocal pipes of O.V. Wright, taking in reggae and calypso too (early, hilarious Mighty Sparrow) and topped off by Bob’s hero, the man who closed the series and (but for Roy Rogers’s evocative Happy Trails) this collection, Woody Guthrie bidding so long to a collection of depth, heritage and quality.

Etenesh Wassie and Mathieu Sourisseau

2011-01-09T01:40:00.000-08:00

Etenesh Wassie & Mathieu Sourisseau - Burtukane
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MY FAVOURITE NEW ALBUMS OF 2010

2010-12-24T10:30:00.000-08:00

Afrocubism - Afrocubism
Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté - Ali & Toumani
Ballaké Sissoko & Vincent Ségal - Chamber Music
Cee-Lo Green - The Ladykiler
Cheikh Lo - Jamm
Eliza Carthy & Norma Waterson - The Gift
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
Jacky Molard & Foune Diarra - NDiale
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Mariem Hassan - Shoukla
Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep
Orchestra National De Barbes - Rendez Vous Barbes
Paban Bas Baul - Music of the Honey-Gatherers
Rango - The Bride of Zar
Samy Izy - Madigasakara

AFROCUBISM - AfroCubism (World Circuit WLWCD085)

2010-12-24T10:26:00.000-08:00

What’s fourteen years between friends? The myth of the delayed visas (or vagaries of West African musician patronage, depending on who you ask) has been recounted often enough, as has the tale of how the scuppered African-Cuban get-together turned into the happy ending to a lifetime’s artistic expression for the venerable gentlepeople of the Buena Vista Social Club. Meanwhile thwarted Malians Djelimady Tounkara, Bassekou Kouyaté et al ploughed successful, if less internationally lucrative, furrows of their own whilst the initial plan simmered away in the back of producer Nick Gold’s mind.

Cut to Madrid 2009, and finally the original idea has come to the boil in the form of BVSC constant Eliades Ochoa and his Grupo Patria alongside the aforementioned guitarist and ngoni player, who are joined by compatriots Toumani Diabaté on kora, Lassana Diabaté on balafon and Kasse Mady Diabaté on vocals.

It’s the Cubans that form the basis of the sound, laying down the trademark BVSC shuffle – the brush of tres guitar against deft, polyrhythmic congas, double-bass keeping things ticking along – in and out of which the Malians interlace their finest Cuban-inspired melodies.

There’s an even split between songs of African and Cuban provenance. Amongst the Cuban highlights is the Beny Moré son La Culebra, on which Kouyaté’s ngoni acts a delicate echo of the acoustic guitarists. Lassana Diabaté adds light rhythmic spice and Tounkara interjects with chiming electric guitar right out of the (Cuban-inspired) ‘70s Rail Band songbook.

On Al Vaivén De Mi Carreta the full ensemble is tight to the swaying guarija groove, with Eliades and Kasse Mady alternating verses between short, improvised leads-in from each instrumentalist. Overall lead vocal responsibilities are shared between the two singers, Ochoa’s succinct delivery - that familiar plaintive lived-in tone - complementing Diabaté’s silky elongated phrasing.

Other highlights include Mariama, a traditional Malian song co-adapted and robustly delivered by Eliades and Bassekou; a shivering version of another standard Jarabi, with Kasse’s vocal soaring majestically over Lassana’s balafon swells; and the rollicking Mandé song Benséma on which Eliades proves to be a riffing equal to Bassekou and Toumani.

It’s been some wait, but a pleasure delayed and all that, and word has it that the ensemble recorded another album’s worth of tracks while they were in the Spanish capital. A fourteen month gap will be quite enough next time round then, guys.