Songlines Magazine Sample Edition #84 by Songlines Magazine

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the world’s best FESTIVALS 2012

features

Songlines Music Awards 2012

We are delighted to announce the winners of the fourth annual awards, celebrating the best global musicians.

R.U.T.A.

The Polish punk band whose sound is firmly rooted in revolutionary music.

Winners revealed

Spiro

Finely-constructed modernist folk from the Bristolian band.

El Sistema

We journey to Venezuela to explore the success of the pioneering music programme that is transforming lives.

The World's Best Festivals 2012

The Songlines round-up of the top places to be in the UK and worldwide.

www.songlines.co.uk www.songlines.co.uk

34 Songlines 3

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Simon Russell Beale

7 Welcome 9 Top of the World CD 10 M y World: Simon Russell Beale 13 BONUS CD Back2Black Festival Sampler

14 News 18 BT River of Music 19 Obituaries/Homegrown:

Yiddish Twist Orchestra 21 World Music Chart 21 Cerys Matthews 22 G rooves: Simon Emmerson, Sarah Jarosz, Diabel Cissokho 25 Globe Rocker: Angélique Kidjo 26 Letters 27 Songlines Music Travel 31 S onglines Encounters Festival

10 You Should Have Been There...

Amadou and Mariam

Backpage from... Myanmar

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REGULARS

60 B eginner’s Guide to Amadou and Mariam 63 Sounding Out Paris 67 P ostcard from Korea 69 S ubscribe +GET A FREE CD 99 Gig Guide & TV/Radio Listings 104 You Should Have Been There 106 Backpage from... Myanmar

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june 2012 COMPETITIONS 15 Win Monk ringtones 17 Win Real World Gold CDs 32 W in Music Awards CD 41 W in Spiro album 58 W in Latitude tickets 97 Win World Cinema DVD

REVIEWS

Europe

WIN Latitude Tickets

96 World

Cinema

The Americas

92 91 Asia

Middle East

Africa

Fusion

Australasia & Pacific

96 49 www.songlines.co.uk

Gael García Bernal stars in Even the Rain Songlines 5

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Welcome

Songlines Publishing Ltd PO Box 54209, London, w14 0wu, uk www.songlines.co.uk General Enquiries +44 (0)20 7371 2777 info@songlines.co.uk Subscriptions +44 (0)20 7371 2777 subs@songlines.co.uk Advertising +44 (0)20 7371 2834 james@songlines.co.uk Fax +44 (0)20 7371 2220 Reviews We only review full-length world music

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THE TEAM

Editor-in-chief Simon Broughton Publisher Paul Geoghegan Editor Jo Frost Assistant Editor Sophie Marie Atkinson Art Director Jenni Doggett Advertisement Manager James Anderson-Hanney Subscriptions Manager and Social Media Co-ordinator Alexandra Petropoulos Podcast Producer Nasim Masoud Reviews Editor Matthew Milton News Editor Nathaniel Handy Listings Tatiana Rucinska listings@songlines.co.uk World Cinema Editor Ed Stocker ed@edstocker.com Production Consultant Dermot Jones Financial Controller Iwona Perucka Commercial Consultant Chris Walsh Editorial Director Lyn Hughes Contributing Editors Jane Cornwell, Mark Ellingham, Sue Steward & Nigel Williamson Assisted in this issue by Nathaniel Handy (editorial); Sarah-Jane Muskett (design) Interns Edward Craggs Cover photo Patricia Bailer

COMPETITIONS Send entries, marked clearly with the competition name, your name, address, email and telephone number to the address above or email to comps@songlines.co.uk. Winners will be chosen at random. Only one entry per household. No cash alternatives. Please note, if you would prefer not to be sent details of other Songlines products and services, or products from other carefully selected companies, please state clearly on your entry.

“Mali is a country that almost never features in the news. Until last month...”

f we devote more column inches in Songlines to one country than any other, my guess is that it’s Mali – simply because of its musical riches. But it’s a country that almost never features in the news. Until last month, that is, when a coup deposed president Amadou Toumani Touré, just weeks before the end of his term. And then the Touareg rebellion burst out anew and troops of the MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad) seized Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu. Now Mali has an interim president and a promise to restore civilian rule – but the Touareg rebels, with a strong Islamist faction, still hold the north. I was in Marseilles for Babel Med at the end of March where Khaira Arby (pictured below), from Timbuktu, was supposed to be doing an eagerly-awaited showcase. Sadly, Mali’s borders were sealed and she couldn’t make it. On the day of the coup, Jay Rutledge, of Out Here Records, had just started recording a new album with Bassekou Kouyaté in Bamako. Coincidentally, Khaira Arby was recording a song with him as Bassekou was keen to have a Touareg singer from Timbuktu and make connections between the north of the country and his Bamana music from Ségou. With the coup came a curfew which meant they couldn’t record at night and had to pack nine people into a car because there wasn’t any fuel! “There was a special atmosphere for sure”, says Songlines contributor Rose Skelton who was also there. “It was quite crazy recording with guns going off outside but somehow it all went smoothly anyway.” Working together with Bassekou and Vieux Farka Touré on an album with bluesy Californian singer JeConte, Arby also recorded ‘Le Monde pour la Paix’ (The World for Peace). It sounds good – and includes musicians of Touareg, Songhai and Bamana backgrounds. The band at the centre of the Touareg uprising is, of course, Tinariwen – currently on a European tour. Their charismatic lead singer Ibrahim Ag Alhabib decided to stay amongst his people – his father was murdered in the first Touareg uprising of 1963. Given their history as rebels turned musicians, it would seem natural for them to support an independent Azawad, although probably not an Islamist agenda, but strangely there is nothing at all about the recent events on their website. Their bassist Eyadou Ag Leche did give an interview to Al Jazeera in which he said they were with the MNLA and an independent Azawad, but not just for the Touareg, but the Songhai and Peul as well. Timbuktu is a crossroads of cultures. Above all, the wish has got to be for tolerance and peace.

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Printing Polestar Colchester Ltd, Severalls Industrial Estate, Colchester, Essex CO4 4HT. Record trade distribution Worldwide Magazine Distributors. Tel: 0121 788 3112 UK newsstand & overseas newstrade distribution COMAG Specialist Division. Tel: 01895 433800 All rights are reserved. Reproduction in any manner, in whole or in part, is strictly forbidden without the prior written consent of the publishers. No responsibility for incorrect information can be accepted. The views expressed in the articles are those of the author, and not necessarily of the publisher. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of statements in Songlines, we cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions or for matters arising from clerical or printer’s errors, or for advertisers not completing their contracts. Songlines is also available in audio format from the Talking Newspaper Association, tel: 01435 866102, www.tnauk.org.uk Songlines USPS 4638 is published Jan/Feb, March, April/May, June, July, Aug/Sept, Oct, Nov/Dec by Songlines Publishing Limited. The US annual subscription price is $44 airfreight and mailing in the USA is by agent Air Business Ltd, c/o Worldnet Shipping Inc, 156-15, 146th Ave, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA. Published by Songlines Publishing Ltd, PO Box 54209, London, W14 0WU. ISSN 1464-8113 © 2009 Songlines Publishing Ltd Songlines logo trade mark, registered under No. 2427714. Directors: Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham, Paul Geoghegan, Lyn Hughes and Chris Pollard

Songlines B&W stereo www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk/sos Super high-quality downloads curated by Real World Studios

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SONGLINES MUSIC AWARDS 2012 Watch our short film, presented by Simon Broughton, featuring live footage from each of this year's Songlines Music Awards winners on the Songlines YouTube channel – www.songlines.co.uk/youtube

on the SONGLINES stereo ed Quantic & Alice Russell – an exceptional Summer album

Jo Tunisian singer Emel Mathlouthi's stirring debut, Kelmti Horra

courtesy of jenni The War on Trevor by Sarah Gillespie is really wonderful

PAUL Madredeus' Essencia. A homerun for the new line-up

SONGLINES DIGITAL SONGLINES DIGITAL Look out for this symbol throughout the issue to see which free tracks are available for subscribers. For a free trial see www.songlines.co.uk/digital Songlines 7

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On your free CD – the editor’s selection of the top ten albums reviewed in this issue

Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars ‘Gbara Case’

From Radio Salone on Cumbancha With summer around the corner, the All Stars provide the perfect seasonal accompaniment. See p75

Roberto Fonseca ‘Quien Soy Yo’

From YO on Jazz Village The Cuban jazz pianist makes a bold new album of Afro-Cuban music with his ever-exemplary display of musicianship. See p79

The Chieftains ‘The Frost is All Over’

From Voice of Ages on Concord Ireland’s veteran folk legends toast 50 years together in collaboration with a younger crop of admirers. See p94

Diabel Cissokho ‘Karambaya’

From Kanabory Siyama on World Village A beautiful blend of Mandinka melodies and West African grooves from this scion of a Senegalese kora clan. See p73

Soumik Datta & Bernhard Schimpelsberger ‘Orion’ From Circle of Sound on Baithak Records Two rising stars take a breathtaking trip through India and Europe. See p95

6 5 3†

4 1 10

Cathy Jordan ‘The Bold Fenian Men’

From the album All The Way Home on Blix Street Records Established singer with acclaimed Irish band Dervish strikes out on her own. See p85

From The Band Courtbouillon on Valcour Records Pioneers of the Cajun revival come together. See p78

Lisbon-based DJ Mpula that is perfectly suited to the wildest of Angolan street parties. See p72

The Band Courtbouillon Batida ‘Alegria’ From Batida on feat. Wayne Toups, Soundway Records Steve Riley & Wilson Savoy ‘The Bosco Blues’ An explosive debut by

Turn over to see Simon Russell Beale’s playlist »

Dulsori ‘The Beat’

From Binari: Well Wishing Music on ARC Music South Korea’s most electrifying live drumming act bring traditional melodic instruments into the mix. See p91

New to Songlines? Subscribe now and get a

Narasirato ‘Mane Paina’

From Warato’o on Smash The release of the Solomon Island’s panpipers’ debut album marks another chapter in their incredible journey. See p93

album for free!

We’re giving away a choice of The Chieftains, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars or Roberto Fonseca (to new subscribers only). See the flyer inside your covermount CD for details, visit www.songlines.co.uk/cd84 or call +44 (0)20 7371 2777. www.songlines.co.uk

Songlines 9

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UPFRONT

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Mzetamze ‘Suliko’

From Soinari – Folk Music from Georgia Today on Wergo Georgian music is usually the province of men, but Mzetamze is a women’s group singing Stalin’s favourite song which Beale describes as “irritatingly sweet.”

FREE

04/04/2012 15:53

Kapela Eugeniusz Wilczek Band ‘Nuty Sabalowe, Pre Zielone Jare Zytko, Sabalowe’

from Podhale – Sources of Polish Music on Polskie Radio “Although it’s dance music it’s so different from anything in the Western European tradition.”

Anatoli Kuular ‘Borbangnadyr with Stream Water’

from Tuva – Among the Spirits on Smithsonian Folkways Kuular is a former member of Huun Huur Tu, here singing the style of throat singing evoking the sound of flowing water.

Tenores di Bitti ‘Anghelos Cantade’

simon russell beale

A car journey with the Songlines editor-in-chief led the acclaimed British actor all the way to polyphonic Bulgarians and rasping Polish highland fiddlers w o rds S i m o n b r o u g h to n

he lust for power, by definition, can never be fulfilled,” says Simon Russell Beale with a twinkle in his eye, as if he knows all about it. In a way he does. He’s currently playing Joseph Stalin at the National Theatre, in London. “You always need more control, so it all ends in paranoia. It’s very Shakespearean – like Macbeth or Richard III.” Beale appears as Stalin in Collaborators, the brilliant new play by John Hodge. But he’s probably best known for his Shakespeare. Sam Mendes directed him in Richard III at the RSC and I first saw him with Zoë Wanamaker in Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre and nearly died laughing. He will appear as Falstaff in new BBC films of Henry IV and in Timon of Athens at the National later this year. Beale is probably Britain’s most celebrated stage actor. He’s been a regular member of the National Theatre company since 1995. But alongside his theatre work, he’s played George Smiley in the radio adaptations of the John Le Carré novels, starred in Terence Davies’ recent film The Deep Blue Sea, and appeared as the Home Secretary in BBC1’s spy drama Spooks. He’s also become BBC TV’s music presenter of choice fronting two series of Sacred Music exploring Western traditions and, most recently, the Symphony series on BBC4.

This is where the Songlines playlist comes in. I was directing three of the films in the Sacred Music and Symphony series. “Inevitably, I was spending a lot of time immersed in the classical music for the programmes,” laughs Beale, “and then there was this extraordinary car journey when you started playing all this Polish highland music. It was both startling and rewarding, but that’s where it all began.” Beale admits that he grew up listening to nothing else but classical music as a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral. “I probably sang every day of my life from the age of eight till 21,” he admits. “You might not believe this, but the way I discovered popular music was through the King’s Singers [British a capella, two-time Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble], that’s how I first got to hear Bob Dylan, David Bowie and Simon & Garfunkel.” So when it comes to world music, Beale says he’s “a complete ignoramus,” but with an enquiring mind. I start by introducing him to ‘Suliko’, rumoured to be Stalin’s favourite song. Essential listening, I felt, for someone having to get inside the skin of this notorious man, making him human and very funny. ‘Suliko’ is a sad romantic song to words by the poet Akaki Tsereteli in which the man looking for the grave of his beloved is answered by a nightingale. “The stereotypical view of Beale playing Stalin at the National

from S’amore ‘e Mama on Real World “With those high voices and fantastic harmonies, it really is like angels singing.”

Philip Koutev National Folk Ensemble ‘Kaji, Kaji, Angjo’

10 Songlines

Johan Person

from Bulgarian A Capella on JVC/ Victor Entertainment “All those voices coming together it’s an extraordinary sound.” June 2012

UPFRONT

Chris Vile

‘‘I probably sang every day of my life from the age of eight till 21”

Stalin is that he was an ignorant Georgian,” says Beale, “but I think he had a sense of what was good and bad art.” Collaborators is about the artistic relationship between playwright Mikhail Bulgakov and Stalin. “It’s the dilemma every dictator has,” explains Beale. “You realise you have a small handful of great artists who are not necessarily going to tow the line, but you want to keep alive, although it’s perhaps a high risk strategy. Stalin knew that socialist realism wasn’t that good. People assume he was uneducated, but unlike Lenin he appreciated great art. He went to see The White Guard 15 times! This play is about Stalin calculating how he can use Mikhail Bulgakov.” The Sacred Music film Beale and I made together involved the music of Arvo Pärt in Estonia and Henryk Górecki in Poland. Sadly, Górecki was too ill to take part in the film, but we went to the Tatra Mountains around Zakopane where he built a house. The region is famed for its local podhale www.songlines.co.uk

(highland) music – which Górecki loved – and many bars and restaurants have local bands playing – usually a couple of violins and a cello sawing out the bass. In a great CD shop in Zakopane, we found the podhale disc in the Sources of Polish Folk Music collection, the best recordings of traditional folk music, produced by Polish Radio. “I just love the rawness and scratchiness of that music, and although it’s dance music, it’s so different from anything in the West European tradition,” says Beale, immediately identifying the irregular five-bar phrases and how podhale music often uses the Lydian mode with a sharpened fourth note of the scale. One of the other Sacred Music films included ‘Shûnya’, a Buddhist-inspired piece by John Tavener, which included a Tibetan bowl. The Central Asian theme led me to introduce Beale to the sounds of Tuva in Siberia. “What I love about this recording,” Beale says of Anatoli Kuular, “is that it is so idiosyncratic. You just get a picture of this

Above: Beale spent a childhood immersed in classical music as a chorister at St Paul’s

man in a landscape, by a stream and musically interacting with nature.” With his knowledge of choral music, Beale has also developed a love for Georgian traditional music, as well as Bulgarian and Sardinian. “I love the harmonies of those Georgian choirs,” he says. “The music is incredibly macho.” He was particularly keen to include Sardinia’s Tenores di Bitti, “because it’s somehow a more surprising sound than the Georgian – with those high voices and fantastic harmonies.” And similarly it’s the voice quality and large choral arrangement that strikes him with the choirs of Bulgarian women. “That wonderful open-throat sound that’s so different from the ‘head voice’ of Western choirs,” says Beale. Theatre See Simon Russell Beale at the Olivier in Collaborators from April 30 and Timon of Athens from 10 July podcast Hear an extra track from the playlist on the podcast Songlines 11

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back2black festival YOUR BONUS FREE CD

Hosted by & Featuring Gilberto Gil

Fri 29 June – Sun 1 July Old Billingsgate Market, London EC3 An unprecedented celebration of the African roots in music and culture, the acclaimed Back2Black festival travels from Rio de Janeiro to London this summer – with a heady mix of funk, reggae, dub, hip-hop, samba, and blues. Featuring three stages of live music and an eclectic line-up of more than 20 Brazilian, UK and international artists, including host Gilberto Gil, the London festival will be held at Old Billingsgate Market in East London, transformed for the occasion by Brazilian visual artist and director Bia Lessa. The festival will also include talks, debates, exhibitions, drumming displays and workshops involving young musicians from East London and the Pracatum School from Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.

Gilberto Gil ‘La Renaissance Africaine’ From the album Banda Larga Cordel

on Warner Music With a career that spans over 40 years, Back2Black host Gil is a one man musical movement to promote Brazilian music and culture to the world.

Femi Kuti ‘Can’t Buy Me’ From the album Africa for Africa on Wrasse Records Femi Kuti is the undisputed inheritor of Afrobeat, creating a sound that incorporates all the best elements of his father’s music to create a powerful style that is all his own.

Flávio Renegado ‘Sai For A’ From the album Minha Tribo é o Mundo on Casulo Cultura

Hailing from Brazil, Renegado has taken the world by storm with his skills as a rapper, resulting in an engaging, contemporary and heavily urban sound.

Toumani Diabaté, Arnaldo Antunes & Edgard Scandurra ‘A Curva da Cintura’From the album A Curva da Cintura on Mais Um Discos (to be released June 2012) Two of Brazil’s most important pop/rock innovators, Arnaldo Antunes (Titãs), and Edgard Scandurra (Ira!) have collaborated with Mali’s Toumani Diabaté, to create the landmark album A Curva da Cintura.

Criolo ‘Não Existe Amor Em SP’ From the album Nó na Orelha on Sterns (to be released June 2012) Politically and culturally motivated, Criolo is a rapper, composer and urban poet whose voice resounds with the youth of Brazil, exploring stories of poverty, police violence and social discrimination. “…possibly the most important figure on the Brazilian pop scene.” Caetano Veloso

Fatoumata Diawara ‘Bakonoba’ From the album Fatou

on World Circuit Signed to World Circuit, Malian Diawara’s dynamic and energetic shows demonstrate perfectly why she is one of Africa’s hippest contemporary musical exports.

Emicida (feat. Fabiana Cozza) ‘Cacariacô’ From the album Doozicabraba e a Revolução Silenciosa on

Laboratório Fantasma Produções One of a number of artists raising the bar for Brazilian hip-hop, Emicida is an MC with a mindboggling talent for freestyling.

JuJu (Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara) ‘Nightwalk’ (radio edit) From the album In Trance on Real World Records JuJu’s transcendental music draws on rock’n’roll, dub, avant-garde jazz and African dread in equal measure to create a genre-defying psychedelia.

Hugh Masekela ‘Makoti (Bride)’ From the album Jabulani on Gallo

A man who needs little introduction, Hugh Masekela is a giant of South African music. A performer with over 60 years writing and performing behind him, Masekela shows little sign of slowing down.

Marcelo D2 ‘A Procura Da Batida Perfeita’ From the album Looking for the Perfect Beat on Mr Bongo Born in Rio De Janeiro, Marcelo D2’s talent for rap has led him to work with some of the largest in pop and rap, including will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas and Beastie Boys producer Mario Caldato.

Roots Manuva ‘First Growth’ From the album 4Everevolution on Big Dada

Hailing from South London, Roots Manuva has an inimitable British edge combined with his Jamaican roots and has solidified his position as the British godfather of hip-hop.

Amadou & Mariam ‘Chérie’ From the album Folila on

Because Music Malian music superstars Amadou & Mariam have spent a lifetime together creating a magical fusion of pop, blues and Malian music that resounds with audiences across the world.

www.barbican.org.uk/back2black The artists featured on this compilation CD were confirmed to perform at the Back2Black Festival at the time of going to press and are subject to change. Produced by the Barbican, Zoocom Events and Serious – Part of London 2012 Festival www.songlines.co.uk Songlines 13

UPFRONT

take me to the river

Is the post-world music age dawning? With the unveiling of BT River of Music – a two-day music event taking place across six London landmark stages in July – the organisers believe that world music will never be the same again Nigel Williamson

After London won the 2012 Olympics and talk turned to the accompanying ‘Cultural Olympiad,’ one might have feared the worst. The sight of Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page performing ‘Whole Lotta Love’ from the top of a London red double-decker bus at the closing ceremony in Beijing four years ago suggested we could be in for a Simon Cowell-curated festival of dumbed-down awfulness. No doubt plenty of celebrity shenanigans can be expected, but London is set to experience an unprecedented celebration of world music the weekend before the Games opens when the capital will host the BT River of Music, a mind-boggling global summit of sound, featuring artists representing all 205 Olympic nations, from the mightiest superpower to the tiniest island 18 Songlines

Vesa Sammalisto

News

speck in the Pacific Ocean. The two-day free event, held over July 21-22, will be staged at six sites along the River Thames, each hosting music from a specific continent. The six sites are the Tower of London (Americas stage), London Pleasure Gardens (Africa stage), Trafalgar Square and Somerset House (Europe stages), Battersea Park (Asia stage) and Greenwich Royal Naval College (Oceania stage). BT River of Music is part of the wider London Festival 2012, a 12-week Olympic-related arts programme, and is being put together by the UK’s leading world music promoter, Serious. “We’re looking at the music of the whole world, but without imposing the crust of the last 25 years of the idea of ‘world music’ and how it was viewed,” David Jones, founder and director of Serious, explains. “There are people coming to this and creating work within it who don’t regard themselves as anything to do with that identity at all.” Jones and Serious have spent two decades promoting concert tours by the biggest stars in world music, from Hugh Masekela to the late Cesaria Evora. Does he feel we are entering a new and exciting period which might be dubbed ‘post-world music’? “There was a sense that this music deserved patronage and there was a duty to support it,” he reasons. “But that sense of

evangelical zeal now needs replacing with a recognition that everyone has access to information and artists from around the world no longer have to come to the UK, the US or France and work in a studio. Something like BT River of Music helps those connections multiply in a viral fashion because people come together and see what’s possible.” Asking artists to step out of their comfort zone and create new collaborative works lies at the heart of the event. Angélique Kidjo, for example, will work with a children’s choir from Manchester [read more on p25]. The Bosnian singer Amira presents a project with musicians from across the conflict zones of the Balkans, who will perform in Trafalgar Square with refugee children now at school in London. The Scissor Sisters have sworn Jones to secrecy but have put together what he describes as “a fantastic collaboration with other artists from the Americas.” Jones estimates that 150,000 people will attend the two-day event, but many millions will access it in other ways. “It’s going to be a unique event that will only ever be assembled in this way once,” he says. “But there will be a legacy. Once it goes online it’s going to have a far wider impact.” DATE BT River of Music will be held across London on July 21-22 – read more about it in the next issue June 2012

UPFRONT

Songlines Music Travel Here’s how you can explore the music and the magazine further BLOG The Songlines blog is going strong with new content uploaded almost every day. With gig reviews, news, photo galleries and commentary written by the Songlines team, it’s a great way to keep informed, especially between issues. www.songlines.co.uk/blog

Taking you where the music happens

TOUR PROFILE GuCˇ a Brass Band Festival, serbia If this issue’s festivals feature has whetted your appetite for Guča’s unique cultural event, why not book yourself on a trip to the largest gathering of trumpet players on the planet? book NOW

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D I G I TA L

Songlines Digital is the online version of the magazine going back to #48. It’s searchable, looks just like the printed edition and comes with 40 free tracks throughout the year – look out for the symbol in the issue to see which tracks are available for subscribers. See p69 for more details or visit www.songlines.co.uk/digital PODCAST

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PODCAST

In this issue’s podcast hear excerpts from the Songlines Music Awards 2012 winners; editor-in-chief Simon Broughton on the new Polish folk sensations R.U.T.A.; Nigel Williamson on the rise of Amadou & Mariam; a bonus track from Simon Russell Beale’s playlist; news of this summer’s Back2Black festival and music from the late Benjamín Escoriza. Download it free from iTunes or follow the link from our website.

YOUTUBE This issue’s YouTube playlist includes an exclusive video of the Songlines Music Awards 2012 winners presented by editor-in-chief Simon Broughton, music from Russia’s Eurovision babushki, Venezuela’s El Sistema youth programme and more. www.songlines.co.uk/youtube MAGAZINE

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Balkan madness and brass bands as you’ve never known them. The annual brass festival in Guča has been going since 1961 and is one of the wildest festivals in Europe. Each year 300,000 people descend on the village of Guča, home to just 3,000 inhabitants. The festival has many dedicated fans, including the late, legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who thought Guča was an ear-opener. For four days, there’s feasting on spit-roasted lamb and pork, alcohol aplenty and some 40 brass bands playing the local dances – the kolo and the cocek. Brass bands are big in the Balkans, with both Serbian and Gypsy musicians. At Guča you hear the best – Boban Marković, Serbia’s most celebrated trumpeter, is a regular visitor and has frequently won the Golden Trumpet prize. Aside from the concerts and competitions, much of the fun is to be had in the streets – eating, drinking and dancing around the tables till the small hours. We will arrange accommodation within the village and enjoy two full days at the festival, with time to explore Belgrade at the end. It’s an unrivalled opportunity to experience the biggest, brassiest and Balkanist festival in Europe. tour 6 days: August 8-13 2012 video Watch a film of Marko Markovi´c in action at Guča 2010 at www.songlines.co.uk/youtube

Visit www.songlinesmusictravel.com Call +44 (0)20 8505 2582 Email songlines@thegroupscompany.com The Songlines Music Travel Tours are operated by the Tailor Made Groups Company. The air holiday packages advertised are ATOL protected by the Civil Aviation Authority. Our ATOL number is 9349. Please see our booking conditions for more information. ATOL protection does not apply to all holiday and travel services advertised. All non flight inclusive packages for UK customers are also protected by a TOPP policy.

www.songlines.co.uk Songlines 27

UPFRONT

Encounters Discover a world of music

Songlines Encounters Festival returns for its second year at Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Kings Place in June. It includes top international names and rising stars that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re keen to champion Kosmos ENsemble (UK)

Le Vent du Nord (Canada)

String trio [pictured below centre right] mix tango, Arabic elements and Balkan dance music, with guest accordionist MiloĹĄ MilivojeviÄ&#x2021;.

QuĂŠbec band [pictured below left], bring a new twist to FrenchCanadian folk. Rave reviews from Celtic Connections in January.

Fugata Quintet (UK)

Sam Lee & Friends (UK)

These passionate exponents [pictured below] recreate Astor Piazzollaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visceral and dramatic nuevo tango of Buenos Aires.

Rising star of the UK folk scene â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and sometime lead vocal with Yiddish Twist Orchestra â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with special international guests.

LepistĂś & Lehti (Finland)

Friday June 8

Saturday June 9

This stunning Finnish accordion and double bass duo [pictured above] â&#x20AC;&#x201C; whose latest album Radio Moskova was a Top of the World in #81 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; create unique sounds.

Spiro (UK)

yiddish twist orchestra (UK)

Wednesday June 6

R.U.T.A. (Poland) Punk meets folk in Polandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most talked-about new band [pictured below right]. Songs of peasant uprising with medieval fiddles and rockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;roll attitude. Read more about them on page 34. Thursday June 7

The distinctive sound of English folk meets Philip Glass-style systems music. Read more about them and their live show on p38.

Madagascar All Stars (Madagascar) The music in Madagascar is just as remarkable as its wildlife. This is a stunning supergroup including bandleaders Dama of Mahaleo and Marius Fenoamby, accordionist RĂŠgis Gizavo and valiha (Malagasy zither) player Justin Vali.

Lauren Kinsellaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Thought-Fox with guest Soufian Saihi (Ireland/Morocco)

Reviving the lost sounds of 1950s London through a klezmer/West Indian/rockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;roll soundclash.

Up-and-coming Irish jazz ensemble in a special collaboration with London-based Moroccan oud player Soufian Saihi.

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss FREE foyer performances throughout the festival programmed in partnership with the Jewish Music Institute.

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020 7520 1490

f SUBSCRIBER OFFERs 10% off Festival pass* 25% discount on single ticketsâ&#x20AC;

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When booking tickets, subscribers can use the discount code printed on this issueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s carrier sheet (the sheet of paper on the front of the magazine). Already recycled it? Call Alex at Songlines on 020 7371 2777 or subs@songlines.co.uk Terms and Conditions: *Limited to 30 passes, deadline for booking June 6. Only available over the phone. â&#x20AC; Limited to 50 tickets and excluding Online Savers. Available online, by phone and in person.

With support from:

www.songlines.co.uk Songlines 31

best artist Anoushka Shankar For Traveller on DG

The Winners

We are delighted to announce the winners of the fourth annual Songlines Music Awards, celebrating the world’s finest musicians

Competition We have five copies of the Songlines Music Awards 2012 CD to give away. To enter, simply answer the following question: who won our Newcomer Award last year? See p7 for Songlines competition rules and address. Closing date June 22, 2012

ONLINE See www.youtube.com/ songlinesmagazine for our film on the winners, with live performances

32 Songlines

ALBUM A 16-track compilation of all this year’s nominations is out now on CD and download

app Read profiles and listen to excerpts of all the nominees on our free app, available through iTunes

PODCAST Hear music from all the winning artists’ albums on this issue’s podcast, free from iTunes

“For me, the sitar’s greatest strength is its versatility,” said Anoushka Shankar in the very first issue of Songlines in 1999. She’s gone on to amply demonstrate that in subsequent years. Daughter of the legendary Ravi Shankar, Anoushka started learning the sitar aged nine. In her teens she was regularly playing onstage with her father and had released three albums by the age of 20. But alongside her classical sitar work, she has also recorded contemporary fusion projects, including last year’s Traveller, which won her this year’s award. There have been numerous Indian music meets flamenco records, but this, her first recording for Deutsche Grammophon, is without question one of the best. The musical link is through the Roma Gypsies who originated in India but were crucial in the development of Andalusian flamenco in the 19th century. She joined up with producer and guitarist Javier Limón, and some of the tracks take a flamenco form and add Indian ideas, and others start with an Indian raga and add flamenco rhythm (see feature in #80). Traveller features flamenco singers Sandra Carrasco and Buika, Indian singer Shubha Mudgal, flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela and pianist Pedro Ricardo Miño. The results are spectacular and she is touring Europe in July. June 2012

best group tinariwen For Tassili on V2

cross-cultural collaboration Yo-Yo MA, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile

newcomer Fatoumata Diawara

World-renowned classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma is no stranger to musical collaborations – he started the Silk Road Project in 1998, has performed tangos by Astor Piazzolla and got a taste for improvisation while working with Bobby McFerrin. His latest album is a truly cross-genre affair, featuring three musicians at the very top of their scenes: mandolin player and singer Chris Thile, double bassist Edgar Meyer, and violin and banjo player Stuart Duncan. For lovers of string music, this album is a bit like listening to a masterclass, yet with the added excitement of an impromptu jam session. It’s the improvisatory nature of the project that gives it its title: a ‘goat rodeo’ is a slang term used by pilots to describe a hairy situation whilst in the air which requires a good deal of luck and skill in order to avert disaster. As Meyer says: “we get a lot of pleasure in arrangements that have just enough twists and turns, that you really can’t let your guard down.” Due to the schedules of these highly in-demand musicians, live shows look unlikely for the foreseeable future. The next best thing will be a DVD of their one and only public concert, joined by guest vocalist, Aoife O’Donovan (who features on two of the tracks). Filmed at the Boston’s House of Blues in January, the concert was streamed live to cinemas around the US.

Fatoumata Diawara appears to have worked her musical charms on pretty much everyone in the last 12 months, garnering outstanding reviews from The Times, The Telegraph and The Guardian to Mojo, Q and online music bible Pitchfork. The Sunday Times even named her debut, Fatou, their No 1 world music album of 2011 and the album remains in the world music charts six months after its release. Last autumn she performed as part of Damon Albarn’s new super-group project Rocket Juice and the Moon before supporting AfroCubism at the Royal Albert Hall and Staff Benda Bilili on their UK dates. She then toured extensively herself, selling out venues including the Jazz Café in London and the Alhambra in Paris as well as shows at Sydney Festival in Australia. In March she appeared at The Guardian Open Weekend where she performed a solo set and at the Barbican as Roberto Fonseca’s special guest. A cursory glance over her summer tour schedule shows that things aren’t about to slow down for our favourite Malian songbird either: she seems to be playing at almost every UK festival this summer including Brighton Festival, Back2Black, Latitude, Larmer Tree and Electric Picnic. A deserving – and hard-working – winner if ever there was one!

For Fatou on World Circuit

For The Goat Rodeo Sessions on Sony Classical

The Touareg group Tinariwen have been bringing their electrified desert blues to international audiences for more than a decade, as Andy Morgan explained in #79. They have won fans amongst people not normally interested in African music, played over 800 concerts around the world and inspired a flock of other Saharan bands. And suddenly their sinewy music of resistance seems even more resonant as the Touareg uprising has reared up again and declared an independent territory – Azawad – in the north of Mali. Released last year, their fifth album takes its name, Tassili, from the spectacular region in southern Algeria where they recorded it, as the situation in Mali was too precarious. They’ve largely laid down the electric guitars and picked up acoustic instruments for a mellower sound, but keeping the growly vocals and sandy grit of the long campfire recording sessions. Amongst the guests are vocalist Tunde Adebimpe and guitarist Kyp Malone from the New York band TV on the Radio, who went out to Tassili to join the sessions. The Songlines Music Award isn’t the first prize that Tassili has won –it won a Grammy in February. While politically there are going to be troubles ahead for the Touareg, musically Tinariwen have much to celebrate. www.songlines.co.uk

Songlines 33

BE G INNE R ’ S

G U I D E

BEGINNER’S GUIDE

amadou & mariam On the eve of a brand new album release from West Africa’s golden couple, Nigel Williamson takes a look at their rise to global fame and fortune

s it possible for any article about Amadou & Mariam not to include the words ‘blind married couple’ in the opening sentence? There, I’ve just gone and done it again. It is an odd kind of badging when we’re talking about musical communication that, after all, engages our ears rather than our eyes. As Mariam puts it, ‘‘People know we are blind, but it is our work that counts,’’ so perhaps we should simply describe them as virtuoso guitarist and soulful singers, two musicians with musical roots deep in West African tradition but with a restless desire to innovate and experiment. Their new album, Folila, is their most innovative to date, with contributions from such hip

60 Songlines

American names as Santigold, TV on the Radio, Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears and, controversially, from French ex-Noir Désir’s frontman Bertrand Cantat [see News story in #83], as well as from Mali’s Toumani Diabaté and Bassekou Kouyaté. And yet its ambition is entirely consistent within the context of their musical growth and history. Amadou Bagayoko was born in Bamako in 1954 with cataracts on his eyes and his sight deteriorated throughout his childhood. As a young man he enrolled at the Institut des Jeunes Aveugles (Institute for Young Blind) in Bamako. It was there in 1977 that he met Mariam Doumbia, who had lost her sight at the age of five after an untreated bout of measles.

Amadou was already a guitar prodigy, steeped in the records of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd as well as traditional West African music. Mariam, four years his junior, was a singer, inspired as much by French chanson as by the great female West African singers, or djelis. They both performed with the Institute’s band, the Eclipse Orchestra, assembled and mentored by Idrissa Soumaoro, keyboard player with Les Ambassadeurs du Motel, whose line-up included Salif Keita as lead singer and in which a youthful Amadou also played. Amadou & Mariam married in 1980 and began

June 2012

produced by Manu Chao, launched them into the mainstream. The album won a Victoires de la Musique (the French equivalent of a Grammy award), two BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music and as festival favourites helped to catapulted them from WOMAD to Glastonbury. Welcome to Mali followed in 2008. This time there was no Manu Chao. But the couple had developed a taste for embracing new partners and collaborators at every opportunity. ‘‘Sharing music and ideas with other musicians and finding new ways to express yourself is the most exciting thing you can do as a musician,” Amadou enthused. Welcome to Mali found them

“I don’t think there’s ever been a band from Africa with whom people have engaged in quite such a way” were in Paris playing a six-month residency in an African restaurant. While in France they met Marc-Antoine Moreau, who at the time was employed by Polygram and had heard one of their tapes on a visit to Mali. Moreau secured them a record deal and produced their first album to be released outside Africa, 1998’s Sou Ni Tilé. He has guided their career as manager, producer and friend since. Sou Ni Tilé included the single ‘Je Pense à Toi’, one of many love songs Amadou has written for Mariam over more than 30 years of marriage. It became a hit on French radio, assisting the album to sell 100,000 copies. Further albums Tje ni Mousso (1999) and Wati (2002) followed, establishing them as world music favourites. But 2005’s Dimanche à Bamako,

collaborating with Damon Albarn, K’naan and Keziah Jones. They toured with Coldplay and U2 and jammed with David Gilmour and Robert Plant, both musical heroes of Amadou’s from his youth. They even performed at a Nobel Peace Prize concert in honour of Barack Obama. By now Amadou has taken to playing a gold guitar, built by James Trussart, instrument-maker to the stars whose clients include Eric Clapton. The expensive Philippe Starck dark glasses both wear are another symbol of their celebrity status. Yet nobody can accuse Amadou & Mariam of getting carried away by bling. Last year, they staged a series of concerts in which audiences were required to sit in complete darkness. Under the title Eclipse and billed as a ‘sensory experiment,’ the show interspersed the couple’s music with sounds from the streets of Bamako with a backdrop of incense and other scents. The audience were literally sensing the music as Amadou & Mariam were experiencing it. Their latest album Folila (reviewed this issue) is the most ambitious realisation yet of their mission to create music with those from different backgrounds and cultures, expanding their horizons while remaining true to their own roots. As Damon Albarn put it, “I don’t think there’s ever been a band from Africa with whom people have engaged in quite such a way.” album Folila is reviewed on p70 dates See the gig guide on p99 for tour dates PODCAST Hear a track from the album on this issue’s podcast and on the bonus Back2Black festival CD

www.songlines.co.uk

BEST ALBUMS

Sou Ni Tilé (Sterns, 1998) Their first release outside West Africa and the album that put them on the wider musical map when it was released in France. Still sounding fresh and invigorating 14 years on.

Malick Sidibe / Benoit Peverelli

performing together soon after, forming what was to become one of the great husband-and-wife duos. Initially their two voices were accompanied only by Amadou’s guitar. But as the sound expanded, so did the couple’s ambitions. At the time there were few studios or producers in Mali and in 1990, eager to record their songs, the couple left for Abidjan in Ivory Coast. They spent five years there, using it as a base to tour West Africa and to record a series of cassette albums, subsequently remastered and reissued as the box set 1990-1995 L’Intégrale des Années Maliennes. After a brief return to Mali, by 1996, they

Dimanche à Bamako (Because, 2005) Manu Chao’s touch as producer was light enough not to bury their core sound but strong enough to give their music fresh nuance and sparkle. A Top of the World review in #30. Welcome to Mali (Because, 2008) The couple at their mature best – great songs performed with total elan, and with Damon Albarn and K’naan as the icing on the cake. Reviewed in #57.

BEST COMPILATION

The Magic Couple: The Best of Amadou & Mariam 1997-2002 (Wrasse, 2009) Fifteen tracks drawn from their first three French-recorded albums, prior to their pivotal encounter with Manu Chao. Reviewed in #63.

BEST AVOIDED

1990-1995 L’Intégrale des Années Maliennes (Because, 2006) The pre-fame material is lovely stuff – but only an avid completist really needs the five CD box set. Happily, there is also a 16-track single disc Best Of version [reviewed in #32].

IF YOU LIKE AMADOU & MARIAM, THEN TRY…

SMOD

SMOD (Because, 2011) Melodic hip-hop flavours from the Malian trio led by A&M’s son Sam Bagayoko, with Manu Chao reprising the production magic he sprinkled on Dimanche à Bamako. Reviewed in #76.

Songlines 61

S UB S C R I B E

*UK only. Full retail price for a year (8 issues) is £39.60; One-year subscription £29.75 UK, £36.00 EU, £44.00 ROW. ‡£9.75 for print subscribers. †Subject to availability. Not to be used in conjunction with any other offer. ˆThis issue’s tracks are available from April 25, 2012 to June 5, 2012

Subscribe & SAVE £9.75 with a print subscription

Save 25%* when you subscribe plus receive a free CD

e Kasse Mady Diabaté Manden Djeli Kan The great Malian singer steps centre stage. A Top of the World in #60

r Iness Mezel

t Los De Abajo Actitud Calle Progressive ideologies set to festive, beat-driven salsa and rock. Reviewed in #73

u Femi Kuti Africa for Africa Thrilling sax and raw Nigerian Afro-beat on one of Femi’s best albums. A Top of the World in #73

iGoran Bregovi´c

o Souad Massi O Houria A variety of languages and emotions from the Algerian singersongwriter. Reviewed in #73

Beyond The Trance Mezel’s edgier take on the North African Berber-infused sound. A Top of the World in #75

Welcome to Bregovi´c A compilation of the best from the 2010 Songlines Music Award winner. Reviewed in #62

As a print subscriber you also get:

Only £19.75/year ‡ plus 5 free downloadable tracks per issue Songlines Digital looks just like the printed edition, is fully indexed and searchable. A Songlines Digital subscription comes with five downloadable tracks per issue (which are not on our Top of the World CDs). A year’s access is only £19.75 but print subscribers get £10 off. This issue’s tracks are shown here:

3 Céu ‘Retrovisor’ from Caravana Sereria Bloom on Six Degrees. See review on p78

1 The Albion Band

2 Sory Kandia Kouyaté ‘Souaressi’ from La Voix de la Revolution on Sterns. See review on p75

4 Victor Uwaifo ‘Ekassa 28’ from The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Africa on World Music Network. See review on p77

5 Shiyani Ngcobo ‘Sevalina’ from The Rough Guide to African Roots Revival on World Music Network. See review on p77

‘Set Their Mouths to Twisting’ from The Vice of the People on Fighting Room. See review on p82

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■O ur eight Top of the World compilation CDs throughout the year – one with each issue – packed with the best new music from around the world, plus a guest playlist ■ Free delivery to your door before it hits the shops* – never miss an issue ■B onus second free covermount CDs, exclusive offers and competitions ■ £10 off a Songlines Digital subscription – see right

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#83 April/May 2012

#82 March 2012

#81 Jan/Feb 2012

CDs

Seth Lakeman, Youssou N’Dour, Narasirato, Juan de Marcos, Madagascar All Stars... Top of the World #83 CD feat Huey Morgan’s playlist + Sounds of South Asia CD

CDs

Music & Social Change; Rodrigo & Gabriela; Martyn Bennett; Carolina Chocolate Drops... Top of the World #82 CD feat Mike Harding’s playlist + Brazil New Series CD

CDs

The New Latin Wave; Best of 2011; Yo-Yo Ma; Baloji; Mercedes Sosa... Top of the World #81 CD feat Jonathan Dimbleby’s playlist + Music From Norway CD

TW TO

#80 Nov/Dec 2011

Anoushka Shankar; Rachid Taha; World Class Brass; Kiran Ahluwalia... Top of the World #80 CD feat Mickey Hart’s playlist + Global Sounds Australia

#79 October 2011

Tinariwen & Touareg guitars; Juju; Jackie Oates; Fatoumata Diawara; Sezen Aksu; South Sudan... Top of the World #79 CD feat Ravi Shankar’s playlist

Songlines 69