Songlines Magazine (November 2015, #112) by Songlines Magazine

WELCOME

Mark Allen Group St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Rd, London, SE24 0PB, UK +44 (0)20 7738 5454 info@songlines.co.uk www.songlines.co.uk SUBSCRIPTIONS

UK: 0800 137 201 Overseas: +44 (0)1722 716997 subscriptions@markallengroup.com ADVERTISING

+44 (0)20 7501 6683 Editor-in-chief Simon Broughton Publisher Paul Geoghegan Editor Jo Frost Deputy Editor Alexandra Petropoulos Art Director Calvin McKenzie Content & Marketing Executive, News Editor Edward Craggs Advertisement Manager James Anderson-Hanney Online Content Editor James McCarthy Reviews Editor Matthew Milton Listings Editor Tatiana Rucinska listings@songlines.co.uk World Cinema Editor Yoram Allon

Autumnal alterations

allaké Sissoko and Vincent Segal’s Chamber Music album from 2009 is a Songlines favourite and I’ve really enjoyed seeing them in concert over the years. So I’m delighted that they’re this issue’s cover stars. They are two musicians who have really developed a way of working symbiotically and are a pleasure to see and hear. Much of their new album, Musique de Nuit, was recorded on Sissoko’s rooftop in Bamako at night. But it’s also an opportunity to look at the work of Vincent Segal – a quiet mover and shaker on the scene, who adds a touch of class to most things he gets involved in, the Kassé Mady Diabaté album Kiriké last year, for example. Too often people like this get overlooked. Our eagle-eyed readers might notice some changes this issue. Not in the content, but in the layout. All the same things are here, but we’ve brought the reviews further forward to make them a more prominent and integral part of the magazine. And we’ve moved some of the regular features, like the Beginner’s Guide, further back, so there’s more substantial reading towards the end of the magazine. This means that the My World interview with Sola Akingbola of Jamiroquai doesn’t follow the Top of the World page, but is now to be found on p78. We’re just shifting the furniture and sometimes that brings refreshing new perspectives. As ever, let us know your thoughts about these changes – and, of course, anything else.

We’re shifting the furniture and sometimes that brings refreshing new perspectives

Simon Broughton, editor-in-chief

Cover image Claude Gassian Contributing Editors Jane Cornwell, Mark Ellingham & Nigel Williamson

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE INCLUDE

Intern Jamie Kyei Manteaw Subscriptions Director Sally Boettcher Publishing Director Sian Harrington Managing Director Jon Benson CEO Ben Allen Chairman Mark Allen Published by MA Business & Leisure Ltd

© MA Business & Leisure Ltd, 2015. All rights reserved. ISSN 1464-8113. MA Business & Leisure Ltd is part of the Mark Allen Group www.markallengroup.com Printing Pensord Press Ltd Record trade distribution WWMD Ltd 0121 788 3112 Newstrade distribution COMAG 01895 433600 The paper used within this publication has been sourced from Chain-of-Custody certified manufacturers, operating within international environmental standards, to ensure sustainable sourcing of the raw materials, sustainable production and to minimise our carbon footprint.

Mordechai Beck Jerusalem-based painter, print-maker, writer and musician who is about to release a CD with his group Aspaklaria. This issue he files a dispatch from the Safed Klezmer Festival, see p89.

Matt Milton Reviews editor Matt is also a freelance writer and editor, publishes music books with Red Planet Press and dabbles in folk banjo and guitar. See what he’s listening to in the Europe reviews section.

Janet Topp Fargion An audiovisual archivist and ethnomusicologist, Janet joined the British Library in 1994 as lead curator of world and traditional music. Read her feature about the origins of the banjo on p30.

Songlines was launched in 1999 and is the definitive magazine for world music – music that has its roots in all parts of the globe, from Mali to Mexico, India to Iraq. Whether this music is defined as traditional, contemporary, folk or fusion, Songlines is the only magazine to truly represent and embrace it. However, Songlines is not just about music, but about how the music fits into the landscape: it’s about politics, history and identity. Delivered in both print and digital formats, Songlines, through its extensive articles and reviews, is your essential and independent guide to a world of music and culture, whether you are starting on your journey of discovery or are already a seasoned fan.

@SonglinesMag

facebook.com/songlines

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CONTENTS

86 Bengal Classical Music Festival

UPFRONT

FEATURES

REVIEWS

REGULARS

06 09 17 20

50 52 56 65 67 68 73 74 76

Top of the World CD What’s New & Obits Letters Introducing... Bachar Mar-Khalifé & Stick in the Wheel Spotlight: China National Peking Opera

Two string masters reunited

W W W . S O N G L I N E S . C O. U K

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British Library

Connecting West Africa’s akonting and the banjo

Ewan MacColl

Projekt Rakija

Ballaké Sissoko & Vincent Segal

Remembering the godfather of British folk

Africa Americas Europe Asia South Pacific Fusion Books World Cinema Live Reviews

Balkan spirited augmented reality

Tom Paley

American roots renaissance man

“Local radio should be campaigning, experimental with top debates and cool tunes”

81 82 85 86 89 91 98 100 101 102

My World: Sola Akingbola Quickfire Beginner’s Guide: Hungarian táncház Postcard from Crete Festival Pass: Bengal Classical Music Festival Dispatch from Safed, Israel Gig Guide Overseas Festivals Subscribe Soapbox Essential Ten: Mexican albums

Chris Moss gets on his Soapbox, p101

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top of the world

01 Mariachi los Camperos de Nati Cano ‘El Súchil’ 02 The Souljazz Orchestra ‘Shock and Awe’ 03 St Germain ‘Real Blues’ 04 Karine Polwart ‘The Terror Time’ 05 Vula Viel ‘Lobi’ 06 María Símoglou Ensemble ‘Apefásisa Poulí Mou’ 07 Lila Downs ‘Son de Difuntos’ 08 Kapela Maliszów ‘A Green Lime Tree’ 09 Ghazalaw ‘Tum Nazar Se/Cyfri’r Sêr’ 10 Mamadou Kelly ‘Sinjene’

Free tracks

THE BEST NEW RELEASES

JAMIROQUAI’S SOLA AKINGBOLA’S PLAYLIST

top

of the world

TOP

OF THE WORLD

ISSUE 112 112 PLUS 5 tracks chosen by Jamiroquai’s Sola Akingbola

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

11 Gasper Lawal ‘Awon-Ojise Oluwa’ 12 Manu Dibango ‘Waka Juju’ 13 Oumou Sangaré ‘Sigi Kuruni’ 14 Lokua Kanza ‘Dipano’ 15 Fela Kuti ‘Zombie’ (edit) Exclusively with the November 2015 issue of Songlines. STWCD88. This compilation & © 2015 MA Business & Leisure Ltd

Featuring Lila Downs, Vula Viel, St Germain, Karine Polwart, Oumou Sangaré, Manu Dibango, Fela Kuti, The Souljazz Orchestra and more... SLTOTWCD-112-onbody.indd 1

09/09/2015 16:25

STWCD88 This compilation & © 2015 MA Business & Leisure Ltd info@songlines.co.uk, www.songlines.co.uk Executive producer Paul Geoghegan. Compiled and sequenced by Jo Frost & Alexandra Petropoulos. Design by Calvin McKenzie. Mastering by Good Imprint. CD pressing by Software Logistics Ltd. The producers of this CD have paid the composers and publishers for the use of their music. Djamila (Clermont Music) & © 2015 Clermont Music. Courtesy of Clermont Music

10 Mamadou Kelly ‘Sinjene’ (5:57)

05 Vula Viel ‘Lobi’ (5:14)

04 Karine Polwart ‘The Terror Time’ (6:23)

09 Ghazalaw ‘Tum Nazar Se/ Cyfri’r Sêr’ (5:08)

15 Fela Kuti ‘Zombie’ (edit, 7:12)

14 Lokua Kanza ‘Dipano’ (3:40)

12 Manu Dibango ‘Waka Juju’ (4:50)

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TOP OF THE WORLD SELECTION

06 María Símoglou Ensemble ‘Apefásisa Poulí Mou’ (3:04)

11 Gasper Lawal ‘Awon-Ojise Oluwa’ (6:24) SOLA AKINGBOLA’S PLAYLIST

10 tracks from this issue’s best new albums + 5 bonus tracks exclusively with the November 2015 issue of Songlines

112

01 Mariachi los Camperos de Nati Cano ‘El Súchil’ (2:39)

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06 María Símoglou Ensemble ‘Apefásisa Poulí Mou’ From Minóre Manés on Buda Musique

The LA-based ensemble display the

María Símoglou Ensemble explore the

full palette of mariachi music, from the

origins of rebetika with a mix of versatile

melancholic to the melodramatic, for an

vocals, interesting instrumentation and

album of eclectic repertoire. See p53

impeccable sonic landscapes. See p58

02 The Souljazz Orchestra ‘Shock and Awe’

07 Lila Downs

‘Son de Difuntos’ From Balas y Chocolate on Sony Music

From Resistance on Strut

Mexican singer Lila Downs performs

For their first all-vocal album, the

with passionate vigour and magical

Canadians return with more of the same

energy in spite of the lyrical themes of

hard-hitting rhythms and Afro-funk

poverty, mortality and the struggles of

they’ve made their name with. See p69

South America. See p52

03 St Germain ‘Real Blues’

08 Kapela Maliszów

Fifteen years since his last album, the

After making their debut at this year’s

French house music pioneer releases

WOMAD Charlton Park, family trio

what may be his best work yet, embracing

Kapela Maliszów produce an album of

traditional African music, jazz and real

highly energetic polkas and rich original

musicianship. See p71

compositions. See p57

04 Karine Polwart ‘The Terror Time’

09 Ghazalaw

A vast collection of talented artists are

From Ghazalaw on Marvels of the Universe/Theatr Mwldan

on show for this astounding tribute to

Duo Ghazalaw’s self-titled debut

the legendary folk singer Ewan MacColl,

seamlessly unites the traditions of North

released in commemoration of his birth

Indian ghazal and Welsh folk music with

100 years ago. See p62

magnificent precision. See p68

05 Vula Viel ‘Lobi’

10 Mamadou Kelly

Led by Bex Burch, who served an

Singer and guitarist Mamadou Kelly

apprenticeship making gyil (wooden

produces an album of stripped-down

xylophones), Vula Viel exhibit a jazzy,

compositions and heart-warming music

contemporary take on the traditional

amidst a time of social disorder in his

music of upper west Ghana. See p51

home country of Mali. See p50

From St Germain on Parlophone

From Joy of Living: A Tribute to Ewan MacColl on Cooking Vinyl

From Good is Good on Vula Viel

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02 The Souljazz Orchestra ‘Shock and Awe’ (3:20)

13 Oumou Sangaré ‘Sigi Kuruni’ (6:12)

08 Kapela Maliszów ‘A Green Lime Tree’ (2:44)

From Tradición, Arté y Pasión on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

01 Mariachi los Camperos de Nati Cano ‘El Súchil’

03 St Germain ‘Real Blues’ (5:18)

‘A Green Lime Tree’ From Inconceivable Mazurkas on Karrot Kommando

‘Tum Nazar Se/ Cyfri’r Sêr’

‘Sinjene’

From Djamila on Clermont Music

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+ Jamiroquai’s Sola Akingbola’s playlist 11

11 Gasper Lawal ‘Awon-Ojise Oluwa’ From Ajomasé on CAP Records

“Gasper helped me out of a bad funk I was going through and invited me to come and do backing vocals in his band. He gave me so many things and kind of schooled me.”

12 Manu Dibango ‘Waka Juju’ From Waka Juju on Soul Makossa

“Manu Dibango was doing a similar thing to Fela Kuti but not so political. Musically he is of a higher calibre... Beautiful Maruska Mason

musicianship.” Sola Akingbola admits that Manu Dibango is his favourite.

13 Oumou Sangaré ‘Sigi Kuruni’ From Oumou on World Circuit

When Akingbola first heard this album, “I understood it immediately. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard. It was the expression of Africa that I love. It’s classic but not in an elitist way.”

“Please don’t give me what I call bubblegum Africa. Give me the artists who are deeply rooted in their tradition but are looking outwards”

Turn to p78 for the full interview with Sola Akingbola

14 Lokua Kanza ‘Dipano’ From Nkolo on World Village

“Lokua is a fantastic songwriter... [He] arrived at a key point for me because I wasn’t confident. He boosted my confidence. I love him to bits because he helped me raise my game.”

15 Fela Kuti ‘Zombie’

From Zombie on Knitting Factory Records “I’m a child of the Fela era. I remember I used to tell my friends ‘you’ve got to listen

All celebrity playlists are now available through the Songlines digital archive The entire archive of Songlines is now available online, going all the way back to issue #1 (see p48). This means you can read every playlist ever featured, including My World interviews with Mick Jagger, Jon Snow, Kate Bush, Robert Plant, Carlos Acosta, Ian Rankin, Katie Derham, Peter Gabriel and many more!

to Fela, man. You’ve got to listen to this song, this is what I’m talking about, this groove is different.’”

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Dedicated music trips for music lovers worldwide, bringing you the excitement of real music directly where it’s made.

CUBA THE MUSIC OF CUBA Dec 30 2015-Jan 14 2016

KAVI BHANSALI/JODHPUR RIFF; PROEXPORT; ROSE SKELTON; ANNE PEINHARDT; ISTOCK; EMMA GEOGHEGAN; HELMUT NEUMANN; JOHN CLEWLEY

This tour starts in the east of Cuba, in the Sierra Maestra mountains, and ends with three rhythm-drenched days in Havana.

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COLOMBIA WHERE THE HEART BEATS September 5-19 2016

MOROCCO ESSAOUIRA GNAWA FESTIVAL May 11-16 2016 A weekend in the Moroccan port town of Essaouira during the vibrant Gnawa and World Music Festival.

NEW TRIP!

This 11-day trip ventures into the heart of Colombia’s musical culture from Bogotá to Cartagena.

SENEGAL NEVER MIND THE MBALAX November 20-30 2015 We discover the local sounds of Senegal’s capital, Dakar, from mbalax to folk via reggae, roots and hip-hop.

Songlines Music Travel tours are operated by Master Travel Ltd, ATOL number 3800. All dates shown are ex-London.

23/09/2015 17:01

‘I had expected good sounds, but what I had not predicted was that we were about to get a privileged insight into a country and its culture, one that only music can provide.’ The Guardian on the Songlines Music Travel Mali trip

ROMANIA AT HOME WITH THE GYPSIES September 3-11 2016

INDIA RAJASTHAN MUSICAL ADVENTURE October 16-28 2015

Includes visits to Clejani, the home of Taraf de Haidouks, and Zece Prăjini, the home of Fanfare Ciocărlia.

We delve into a soul-inspiring part of the world culminating at Jodhpur RIFF, the Rajasthan International Folk Festival.

INDIA ASSAM MUSICAL ADVENTURE April 9-16 2016

NEW TRIP!

Experience the spring festival of Bihu, a carnival of music, dancing, hospitality and abundance.

BORNEO RAINFOREST FESTIVAL July 31-August 8 2016 Sarawak’s rainforest forms a magnificent visual and aural backdrop to the festival.

Visit www.songlinesmusictravel.com Call +44 (0)20 7501 6375 Email tours@mastertravel.co.uk

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23/09/2015 17:01

BALLAKÉ SISSOKO & VINCENT SEGAL

Conversations in the Night The first enchanting meeting of kora and cello on the album Chamber Music has been replicated with renewed intimacy on Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Segal’s latest album. Nigel Williamson speaks to the duo

“I

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collaboration both on stage and in countless hours spent jamming, experimenting and improvising off it. “We wanted to go further with the second record because of our experience playing together and practising in dressing rooms and hotel rooms,” Sissoko says. “The magic of the first album lay in the meeting itself and our coming together. We didn’t know how it was going to go. This record has come out of our shared experience since then, although it’s also very improvisational and natural.” We are talking in the small studio-come-study on the ground floor of Segal’s elegant home in Paris’ Marais district, a short distance from Place des Vosges, the city’s oldest and most graceful square. He lives on a quiet back street but one with a famous musical past; a few doors down is the apartment where Jim Morrison died in his bath tub from a heroin overdose in 1971, a site still much visited by Doors fans. When I mention this morbid history, Segal nods knowingly and then raises the tone by pointing out that composer and conductor Pierre Boulez was also a one-time resident. If Segal’s small studio doesn’t quite have the ambience of Sissoko’s roof terrace in Bamako, it has still played a significant part in their musical partnership. “We have played together a lot here when Ballaké is in France,” Segal explains. “When you are coming from Mali, most flights go via Paris so he is always passing through when he is touring.”

Claude Gassian

t’s like a modern-day field recording,” says Vincent Segal. “We played on the roof of Ballaké’s house in Bamako under the stars. We started at midnight and played until we were dead, around 4am, without thinking and very relaxed, totally in the music. We recorded three nights and we could hear the murmur of the city drifting up. I love records where you can feel something is happening around the music like that. Everybody plays differently in the studio and it’s a bit claustrophobic. We by-passed that.” Ballaké Sissoko agrees. “It’s true. The ambience of playing like that is very special. In the studio you have cues and production and we didn’t have any of that.” They are talking about Musique de Nuit, the second exquisite album (reviewed in #111) of duets by Sissoko, the 48-year-old Malian kora maestro and Segal, the classicallytrained French cellist-turned-world music adventurer. The intimate, intuitive interplay between the two men was first heard on 2009’s Chamber Music, a genre-defying hybrid recorded at Salif Keita’s Studio Moffou in Bamako that drew richly on the twin heritages of West African oral tradition and European conservatoire classicism, spiced by the innate musical curiosity and openness of two musicians who seemed to respond almost telepathically to each other. Since then they have toured the world together, playing 200 concerts as a duo and refining and developing their

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West Africa Exhibition

Tracing the

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum; the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

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West africa Exhibition

Banjo’s Roots As a major exhibition on West Africa opens at London’s British Library, Janet Topp Fargion, one of the curators, looks at some of the research in the perennial quest for the original banjo

The Old Plantation, attributed to South Carolina slaveholder John Rose c1785-90, is the earliest known American painting to depict the precursor to the banjo

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ommon knowledge has it that some of the 20th century’s best-known music styles have their roots in Africa – notably blues, jazz and rock’n’roll. The origins of blues and the development of the banjo in the southern plantations of the US have been well documented, but the specific African roots are less clear. Blues scholars cite the West African savannah belt, from Senegambia across the middle Niger valley in Mali down to northern Nigeria, as the most likely source. While such academic theories are hard to support without any written documentation, it seems the connection hinges on two main musical attributes: the preponderance of plucked lutes, like the ngoni, in this region of West Africa that could have influenced the banjo, and later the guitar, as the core blues instrument; and the background blues riff against which lyrics and stories are sung that are similar to musical templates that form the basis of griot praises and songs. The actual origin of the banjo, too, has exercised many minds – including performers like Béla Fleck (see issue #67) and scholars like Cecelia Conway, whose book African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia is one of the key texts. Until about 15 years ago, most banjo scholarship suggested that the instrument was derived from one or several of the West African lutes played by griot musicians, such as the ngoni (in Bamana, Mali) or xalam (in Wolof, Senegal). But when scholar and financial analyst Daniel Laemouahuma Jatta, a Gambian musician of Jola heritage presented some pioneering research on another instrument, the three-stringed akonting, at the Banjo Collectors’ Gathering in Massachusetts in 2000, a new and surprising dimension was added to the mix. The banjo was first created in the New World as far back as the mid-17th century by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean. The earliest examples are gourd instruments from the Caribbean, such as the Creole bania found in Suriname. The wood-rimmed five-string banjo, which first appeared in the 1840s, is thought to be a development of this. Louisiana was particularly significant as many slaves were taken there in order to cultivate rice, bringing with them their

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Projekt Rakija

Reality Check

Simon Broughton speaks to the Balkan rock band Projekt Rakija about their ambitious augmented reality project, which blurs the lines of real life and creates a whole new musical experience 40 s o n g l i n e s

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Projekt Rakija

akija is a brandy and a band. Both can take you to extraordinary places. The brandy – usually distilled from plums or grapes – because it’s the essential lubricant for music and partying throughout the Balkans. Projekt Rakija, the band, because they too are party animals, but also because they’re venturing into augmented reality, something that no other band has done. Augmented reality? You haven’t been there yet? You can make the trip through the icon (or marker as it’s technically called) that’s printed overleaf – and it’s a larger-than-life 3D adventure. The guy behind Projekt Rakija is Igor Sekulović, whose rakija-sprinkled name originates in Bosnia. He arrived in Holland, aged ten, with his mother and sisters, when war was raging in former Yugoslavia. In 2011 he graduated from Tilburg’s Rockacademie presenting modernised versions of traditional sevdalinka songs as a graduation project. Projekt Rakija continues the same idea writ large. Their debut album in 2013 included modernised Bosnian songs

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plus a Goran Bregović cover. It was called Welcome to the Family (reviewed in #94) and it’s a large family of 13, with Sekulović on rock guitar and vocals and Harm Timmermans on vocals backed by horns and drums. Less conventionally, the band also includes both a cartoonist and a graphic artist. Niels van den Berge, who does the artwork, takes up the story: “When Projekt Rakija was formed, I was living with Igor in this vast mansion, which was up for sale with 20 empty rooms. It was the perfect location to rehearse with a band. Since I lived there too and was always eating and drinking with the guys I became a band member by association. Since I drew all the time it didn’t take long before the idea arose that I could become the band’s comic artist.” Along with the album, van den Berge made an absurdist comic book featuring the characters in the band and how these crazy guys came to form the group. And yes, although they are not playing any music, van den Berge and fellow artist Maurice Baltissen are part of the band. “We tag along to gigs, we attend

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Only £15 for print subscribers (over 55% saving)

The entire digital archive now available Every single issue Fully searchable and indexed On your desktop, tablet & mobile FREE CD + CERYS MATTHEWS + 10 ESSENTIAL PROTEST SINGERS + JOOLS HOLLAND

Banjo Dynasty

REVIEWS

Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn

BEST OF 2014

A round up of the top albums of the year

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB Boon or curse?

THE DUDUK

MUSIC FROM...

Armenia’s signature instrument revealed

www.songlines.co.uk/digital Spain, Korea, Comoros, Slovenia, Cuba & more...

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£5.50 ISSUE 105 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 www.songlines.co.uk www.facebook.com/songlines

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Africa 50 Americas 52 Europe 56 Asia 65 South Pacific 67

Fusion 68 Books 73 World Cinema 74 Live Reviews 76

Reviews

We only review full-length world music albums (not singles or EPs) with UK distribution. Please send a copy marked ‘FOR REVIEW’ to the address on p3

Flamenco singer and dancer Karen Ruimy traces the history of the genre, see p69

‘It follows the growth of Rastafarian music from its chanting, explosive hand-drumming origins to its postMarley fame... the kind of untamed, Afrocentric awakening that jazz legends Sun Ra and John Coltrane embodied’

WIN

We have three copies of the DVD Eden to give away. Read the review on p75 and competition rules on p17

Rastafari: The Dreads Enter Babylon 1955-83 review, p55 W W W . S O N G L I N E S . C O. U K

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Africa reviews Amadou Diagne Ligéey Long Tale (43 mins)

HHHHH

Drums, guitar, kora, whistling... this guy does it all

Amy Etra

top

Mamadou Kelly Djamila

of the world

track 10

Nigel Williamson

Clermont Music (47 mins)

TRACK TO TRY Nonga Dara

HHHHH

There’s always room for one more Malian bluesman Here’s a second album from Mamadou Kelly, a guitarist and singer from the Malian area of Goundam and Niafunke – a place known for exceptional musicians that excel in the popular Malian blues style. Guitar accompanied by the plucked monochord djourkel (sounding similar to the ngoni) and backed by calabash percussion and bass guitar. This seemingly simple, stripped-down musical line-up was recorded in New York State – the simplicity enhanced by some keyboard, electric guitar, and on one track a cello. Kelly and his band, Ban Kai Na, are musical colleagues of Ali

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Most listeners will probably have first encountered the Senegalese singer Amadou Diagne on a 2012 set in World Music Network’s Introducing series, after he won the label’s online Battle of the Bands contest. Born into a griot family, he began playing the drums at the age of four and his skills as a percussionist are much in evidence in the rippling, rhythmic undertow to the ten songs on this album. Diagne sings mainly in Wolof but occasionally in English; his supple voice ranges from a gritty, bluesy rasp to an attractive high falsetto reminiscent of Cheikh LÔ. Like Cheikh, he’s a Baye Fall and ‘Sam Fall’, pays tribute to its spiritual guide, Cheikh Amadou Bamba. The multi-skilled Diagne also adds occasional kora, heard to best effect on the lovely ‘Nonga Dara’. The smart, finely calibrated production is by Mark Smulian, whom Diagne met during a session at Real World in 2013 and who spent many years in Israel building collaborative projects between Jewish and Palestinian musicians. Phil Dawson, a veteran of sessions by a range of African artists from Tony Allen to Orlando Julius, adds some striking lead guitar that weaves sinuously with Diagne’s voice.

Farka Touré and Afel Bocoum, and they perform with the same deep and stirring musical passion. Clearly another one of Mali’s recent crop of incredibly accomplished guitarists, Kelly is also a fine singer, although the real vocal joy comes when his voice combines with that of guest singer Leila Gobi, a prominent chanteuse from Menaka in northern Mali. She sings on three tracks and her high-pitched, wailing counterpoint is totally hypnotic. The profoundly moving music on this CD is all the more poignant for having been recorded at a time of political chaos and terrible social violence back home in Mali. Martin Sinnock

TRACK TO TRY Dambouri

Ganda Boys Mountains of the Moon Big World Records (67 mins)

HHHHH

Well, it has been said that the moon is made of cheese... Ganda Boys are two Ugandans and an American based in the UK. This is the group’s third album and – to get straight to the point – veers between the extremely cheesy (synth strings, choirs and piano ballads) and the simply dull. The music mostly operates within the poppy soul and gospel spectrum, with occasional hints of rock and hip-hop – there’s a couple of good raps here and there, although the liner notes don’t tell us who provides them. A few of the pieces begin promisingly enough, their intros

setting up an intriguing groove on adungu (harp) or rumba-influenced guitar, but interest invariably wanes when the tracks descend into overdone reverb and boring predictability. It also outstays its welcome; the 17 tracks last over an hour. Things get better towards the end, on the last three tracks or so, but by then it’s too little, too late. Jim Hickson

TRACK TO TRY United We Stand

Fatau Keita & The Naawuni Bie Band Selina Goethe Institut (49 mins)

HHHHH

A truly pan-African mix This is a highly enjoyable and very lively album that mixes several contemporary African musical styles. At the core is the highlife and traditional music of the Dagbamba culture of northern Ghana. But the thoroughly modern and slickly produced pan-African sound really defies categorisation. At times it has influences of South African pop, but will then suddenly suggest modern Mande and Wolof music, with instrumental passages that sound distinctly Afro-Cuban. The geographic proximity of Mali and Senegal might explain the inevitable Mande influence and Fatau Keita cites his namesake Salif as his greatest musical mentor – even though they have never met. Fatau Keita’s strong and confident vocal style actually sounds very similar to Alpha Blondy. His group, The Naawuni Bie Band are accomplished in both traditional and modern instruments. They clearly aim for a contemporary African music audience: swirling keyboards, Congolese-style guitars, a tight horn section and rippling percussion provide an energetic backing for Fatau Keita’s fine vocals. Martin Sinnock

TRACK TO TRY Selina

Youssou N’Dour & Le Super Étoile de Dakar Fatteliku: Live in Athens Real World (61 Mins)

HHHHH

Youssou at his late-80s peak In 1987, when it looked as though global sounds, African music in particular, would take a major share

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Africa reviews Leone’s lingua franca), they mix profound lyrics with some lighterhearted ditties and lively dance tracks. Occasionally their material seems a little trivial and lightweight, but I imagine that in the sunshine of a festival they pitch their song choices just right in order to give the public a smile and something to think about. On ‘Ask Me’, for example, Aggrey ponders why people only ask him about the war when they discover that he comes from Sierra Leone. And they must be the only group to successfully tackle Abdullah Ibrahim’s ‘The Mountain/African Marketplace’ and The Clash’s ‘Guns of Brixton’ in the same performance. Martin Sinnock

TRACK TO TRY Jomp en Tonorbor

Alex Bonney

top

of the world

Vula Viel Good is Good

track 5

Vula Viel (39 mins)

HHHHH

Good is indeed good – as this album proves This is an album of powerful instrumental jazz, based on the ancient traditional music of the Dagaare tribe and Guo people of northern Ghana. The musicians are all based in London and are led by Bex Burch who has lived, farmed and studied for three years with the Dagaaba. Burch served an extended apprenticeship making gyil (wooden xylophones) and it is this instrument that leads the Vula Viel ensemble, supported by keyboards, drums, saxophone and vibraphone. The result is a highly rhythmic, almost

of the mainstream music market, the continent’s strongest contender, Youssou N’Dour, went on a world tour supporting rock star Peter Gabriel. This highly atmospheric recording, made in an ancient amphitheatre on the slopes of the Acropolis, captures one night of the tour – and a pivotal moment in Youssou’s career. The mood is hot, raw and fervent, with the Greek crowd audibly engrossed in every note and sabar drum rattle. Youssou’s band, Super Étoile de Dakar, are firing on every possible cylinder, pitching into well-worn favourites like ‘Immigrés’ and ‘Kocc Barma’ with a throwaway panache. By the time they hit the elastic groove of ‘Ndobine’, four numbers in, there’s a sense of telepathic

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orgiastic, barrage of brilliantly performed jazz. The album is grounded in functional local tradition: four of the tracks are based on funeral music while the other three are recreational. It is during Ghanaian funerals that the gyil, made from sacred Iliga wood, finds its principle performance platform. Despite, or perhaps partly because of this, the entire album has a joyous, celebratory and explosive quality. Vula Viel have taken possession of something very special and created an album that sounds new and vital. Martin Sinnock

TRACK TO TRY Lobi

cohesiveness and energy. Youssou’s gilded shriek has a shimmering expansiveness, and if a few notes waver, who cares when the feel is this good? The only quibble is that the horns consist of a single sax, and the brass parts sound feebly thin in places. There’s also a foretaste of Youssou’s misjudged crossover albums on the lugubrious ‘Sama Dom’, which descends into a monotonous, singalong rock-out. The album’s climax is Youssou guesting on Gabriel’s ‘In Your Eyes’, which at one time would have been considered hideously patronising, even imperialist. It still probably is, but it’s an intriguing period piece nonetheless. Mark Hudson

TRACK TO TRY Ndobine

Two Man Ting Say What? 2bootmusic (68 mins)

HHHHH

No prickles on this Bristolian pair Two Man Ting is a Bristol-based duo who have been plugging away at the festival circuit. Jon Lewis and Jah-Man Aggrey play guitar and percussion respectively, but sound more like a small combo due to their clever use of tape loops and no small amount of enthusiastic musicality and inventiveness. At their best they perform a mix of palm wine, highlife and semi-acoustic reggae styles. Singing in English and Krio (Sierra

Ndikho Xaba & The Natives Ndikho Xaba & The Natives Matsuli Music (35 mins)

HHHHH

A long-lost blast of 70s Afrojazz from an ex-pat in Frisco The South African pianist Ndikho Xaba was 30 years old when he sought exile in the US in 1964. He had arrived with Alan Paton’s theatrical production Sponono – much like Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela, who had sought refuge from apartheid five years earlier as cast members of King Kong. In New York, Xaba played on albums by both Masekela and Makeba but by 1970 he was living in San Francisco, where he became deeply involved with the post-civil rights black consciousness movement and recorded this album. Released in 1971 as a limited edition of 500 and unavailable since, it finds Xaba and his saxophonist James ‘Plunky’ Branch in thrall to the visionary jazz of Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra and Pharaoh Sanders. Recorded live in a single take, the music seethes with the Black Powerinfluenced Afrocentricity of its time, albeit without sounding particularly African. The exception is the bonus non-album track, ‘Zulu Lunchbag’, which sways to an irresistible township lilt but was only ever released as a single. As far as I am aware, Xaba made no more recordings; he eventually returned to South Africa in 1998, where he continues to live in Durban. Nigel Williamson

TRACK TO TRY Zulu Lunchbag

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October-NOVEMBER 2015

Gig Guide

Songlines picks... Shaolin Monks (pictured) (London, until October 17) The thrilling Kung Fu masters return to London’s Peacock Theatre. Blazin’ in Beauly: The Blazin’ Fiddles Experience (Scotland, October 11-16) Join the fiddling powerhouse in the Highlands for a week of concerts, ceilidhs and craic! Homegrown Festival (North, October 15-17) The finest in English folk congregate for Bury’s annual folk fest and expo. Nizami Brothers & Imran Khan (North, October 17 & London, October 24) Qawwali and ghazal singing from India comes to Caedmon Hall in Gateshead and London’s Cadogan Hall.

Mark Allan

Celebrate Voice Festival (South, October 29) Radio 2’s 2015 Folk Singer of the Year, Nancy Kerr, performs at Salisbury’s Medieval Hall.

London 29 Sep-17 Oct Shaolin Monks The Peacock 020 7863 8222; 2 Oct Pat Thomas & the Kwashibu Area Band Rich Mix 020 7613 7498; 2-3 Oct Mosaïques Festival Rich Mix richmix.org.uk; 2-11 Oct CASA Latin American Theatre Festival casafestival.org.uk; 3 Oct Crosswires Festival Amersham Arms crosswiresfestival.org; Oysland Jamboree 020 7791 5659; 4 Oct Salim & Sulaiman The O2 0844 856 0202;

The Souljazz Orchestra Jazz Cafe 020 7688 8899; 5 Oct Maz O’Connor Green Note 020 7485 9899; 6 Oct Rajeshwar Acharya & Sanju Sahai Nehru Centre 020 7493 2019; 7 Oct Sajjad Hussain Khan Nehru Centre 020 7493 2019; Natasa Theodoridou Barbican 020 7638 8891; Lucy Ward Band The Courtyard wegottickets.com; 8 Oct Maurice Louca Cafe OTO 020 7923 1231; Adrián Brenes & Pedro Sanz The Forge 020 7383 7808; 9 Oct A Musical Tribute to The Kapoors Nehru Centre 020 7493 2019; Karama Central Bar at RFH FREE 0844 875 0073;

Asian Dub Foundation Electric Brixton 08444 771 000; 10 Oct Africa on the Square Trafalgar Square FREE london.gov.uk/get-involved/events; Amaraterra Jamboree 020 7791 5659; The Ultimate Tango Project The Pheasantry 0845 602 7017; 11 Oct Diwali Festival of Lights Trafalgar Square FREE london.gov.uk/getinvolved/events; Manju Mehta The Bhavan 020 7381 3086; 13 Oct Rustavi Ensemble + A Filetta Barbican 020 7638 8891; 15 Oct Tigran Hamasyan & Yerevan State Chamber Choir Union Chapel 08444

771 000; 15 & 29 Oct, 12 Nov & 26 Nov Uxbridge Folk Club Hillingdon tinyurl.com/uxfolk; 16 Oct Felabration! The British Library bl.uk/events; Paolo Conte Barbican 020 7638 8891; George Boomsma + Kieran Towers Central Bar at RFH FREE 0844 875 0073; 16-17 Oct Joe Bataan & Push! Ronnie Scott’s 020 7439 0747; 17 Oct The Tickells (Mike Tickell & Daughter) Manero’s musicglue.com; 17 & 24 Oct Equator Festival: Women of the World Kings Place equatorfestival.com; 18 Oct Fanfara Tirana meets Transglobal

www.songlines.co.uk/gigs All information correct at time of going to press. Email listings for print and online consideration to listings@songlines.co.uk w w w . s o n g l i n e s . c o. u k

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Gig Guide

SOUTH

Elodie Kowalski

ON TOUR

Eliza Carthy

Visionary British folk musician with her Wayward Band Influenced by her musical parents, Carthy has forged a career that has seen her win numerous awards including an MBE honour for her services to folk music. The internationally acclaimed artist will celebrate 21 years as a professional musician with her 11-piece

Wayward Band on a tour of the UK, culminating with a homecoming appearance at this year’s Musicport Festival in Whitby, North Yorkshire in October. With a vast catalogue of exuberant material, Carthy and her band always create a thrilling live atmosphere.

13 OCT Buxton Opera House 0845 127 2190; 14 OCT OPEN, Norwich 01603 763111; 15 OCT Sage Gateshead 0191 443 4661; 16 OCT Homegrown Festival, Bury 0161 761 2216; 18 OCT Musicport, Whitby 01947 603475.

Underground Bedroom Bar 020 7739 5706; Sima Bina LSO St Luke’s 020 7638 8891; Voice + Sawa Union Chapel 020 7226 1686; 19 OCT Lokito ya Congo Rich Mix 020 7613 7498; Dallahan Green Note 020 7485 9899; 20-26 OCT Return to Camden Town Irish Music Festival returntocamden.org; 20 OCT-8 NOV Nour Festival: Middle Eastern & North African Arts nourfestival.co.uk; 21 OCT-1 NOV London Guitar Festival Kings Place igf.org.uk; 23 OCT Songs of Change: Protest Songs Central Bar at RFH FREE 0844 875 0073; Nikhil Patwardhan &

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Partha Mukherjee Nehru Centre 020 7493 2019; Marta Capponi & Marcelo Andrade The Pheasantry 0845 602 7017; Here to Havana The Portico Gallery 020 8761 7612; De Fuego Hackney Attic 0871 902 5734; 24 OCT Olcay Bayir Bloomsbury Square FREE 07964 272219; U’Zambezi The Tabernacle 020 7221 9700; Nizami Brothers & Imran Khan Cadogan Hall 020 7730 4500; 26 OCT Vula Viel Rich Mix 020 7613 7498; 28 OCT Michalis Kouloumis Trio Jamboree 020 7791 5659; 29 OCT Arnab Chakrabarty & Sanju Sahai Nehru Centre 020 7493 2019; 30 OCT

Rhea Banerjea Nehru Centre 020 7493 2019; 30 OCT-14 NOV The London Folk & Roots Festival dmpuk.com; 31 OCT Shirley Collins Birthday Bash Cecil Sharp House cecilsharphouse.org; 1 NOV Sonu Nigam The SSE Arena, Wembley 0844 815 0815; Marcos Valle Brooklyn Bowl 0844 856 0202; 4 NOV The Rheingans Sisters St Pancras Old Church wegottickets.com; 4-8 NOV London International Arts Festival liaf.co.uk; 5-8 NOV LIFEM: London International Festival of Exploratory Music Kings Place lifem.org.uk

EVERY FRI Friday Folk at The Village Pump Trowbridge villagepump.org.uk; 1-4 OCT Tenterden Folk Festival tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk; 3 OCT Pat Thomas & the Kwashibu Area Band Mount Pleasant Eco Park, Porthtowan 01209 891500; 3-11 OCT AfriKàBa: Festival of African & Caribbean Culture Hastings afrikaba.co.uk; 8 OCT Les Frères Guissé The Spring, Havant 023 9247 2700; 10 OCT Collectress Quaker Meeting House, Oxford 01865 305305; 14-18 OCT Lowender Peran International Celtic Festival Newquay lowenderperan.co.uk; 16 OCT Lokito ya Congo Westbourne Club, Emsworth wegottickets.com; 17 OCT [workshop & concert] Soumik Datta & Shahbaz Hussain Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon 01225 860100; Los Pacaminos The Empire Hall, Graffham 01243 783185; 17-31 OCT Canterbury Festival canterburyfestival.co.uk; 18 OCT Spiro Nailsea Folk Club 01275 790915; 21 OCT The Yoruba Women Choir The Stables, Milton Keynes 01908 280800; 23 OCT The Yoruba Women Choir Turner Sims, Southampton 023 8059 5151; 29 OCT Nancy Kerr and the Sweet Visitor Band Medieval Hall, Salisbury 01722 321744; 5 NOV Aoife O’Donovan The Keep, Guildford 01483 450600; 8 NOV 9Bach The Anvil, Basingstoke 01256 844244; Shivnath Mishra & Deobrat Mishra Brighton Dome 01273 709709; 9 NOV Väsen Ropetackle, Shorehamby-Sea 01273 464440.

WALES & WEST 3 OCT Manu Delago Colston Hall, Bristol 0117 922 3686; 14 OCT Stick in the Wheel Exchange, Bristol exchangebristol.com; 16 OCT Spiro Ruskin Mill, Nailsworth 01453 837537; 16-18 OCT Bristol Cajun & Zydeco Festival Bristol Folk House bristolcajunfestival.com; 19 OCT The Souljazz Orchestra Colston Hall, Bristol 0117 922 3686;

MIDLANDS 2-4 OCT Derby Folk Festival Cathedral Quarter derbyfolkfestival.co.uk; FlipSide Festival of Latin Culture

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www.songlines.co.uk/digital Songlines Digital doesn’t include the Top of the World CD but the Tablet edition includes streamed excerpts from each track (available I S S U E 9 9from › S O#89) N G LOctober I N E S 95 2010

100 Songlines

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essential

Mexican Albums 2015 is the Year of Mexico in the UK and Mexican music is in rude health with two Top of the World reviews this issue. Chris Moss celebrates with a selection of the best albums

01 Lila Downs

La Cantina

(Narada, 2006)

Rancheras, norteño and mariachis are rebooted with hip-hop phrasing on Lila Downs’ fifth studio album, and she plies her rich baritone to seduce us into lullabies and bellow out brash leftist slogans. As hot as a habanero chilli, she makes the recipe in ‘La Cumbia del Mole’ sounds almost as sexy in English as it does in the original. A Top of the World in #36.

02 José Alfredo

Jiménez Lo Esencial (Sony Music, 2009)

Mexicans love to debate who is their most representative singer, but Jiménez must be a favourite. He never learned to read or write music, was never seen playing an instrument and wasn’t the best-looking or most mellifluous of his era’s pop stars. What he possessed was a natural warmth and a gift for emotional intimacy, as demonstrated by the 60 rancheras and corridos on this triple-CD set.

03 José José

40 y 20

(BMG Ariola, 1992) The 26th album by the crooner’s crooner, José José, takes its title from the mega-hit about a man aged 40 falling for a girl half his age. The whole record is the angst-ridden outpouring of a sometime film star, alcoholic, and famed lover of actresses who ended up residing in a taxi – no essential list would be complete without it.

04 Agustín Lara

The Originals: Agustín Lara Sings His Songs (Remastered) (YOYO USA, 2006) DIGITAL ONLY

With a career that spanned 60 years and around 700 songs, Lara grew up in a hospice 102 s o n g l i n e s

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but later lived at his aunt’s house where he was introduced to 19th-century Mexican poetry. A scar-faced rebel and committed bohemian, Lara became famous for his boleros and soundtracks for films of Mexico’s Golden Age. He was covered by artists as diverse as Desi Arnaz, Bing Cosby and Placido Domingo – none of whom could match the soulful spirit of the originals of ‘Imposible’, ‘Maria Bonita’, ‘Santa’ and ‘Noche de Ronda’, contained here.

05 Mariachi Vargas

de Tecalitlán En Concierto

(Universal Music Mexico, 1989)

Formed in 1897, this celebrated mariachi ensemble has been through multiple reincarnations, updating along the way. Playing harps and vihuela as well as trumpets and six violins, the band gives the classic martial and melancholy strains of the mariachi a symphonic twist.

06 Mexican

Institute of Sound Politico (Chusma Records, 2012)

Mexico-city DJ and producer Camilo Lara is the man behind Mexican Institute of Sound and he demonstrates his political leanings on this, his 2012 album. Not afraid to call things as he sees them, Lara covers sensitive subjects – from corruption to drug violence – through a veritable pot of hip-hop, mariachi horns, cumbia and dance music. A Top of the World in #89.

07 Nortec Collective

Tijuana Sessions, Vol 1 (Palm Pictures, 2001)

Nominated for two Latin Grammys, this electronic music sampler presents an alternative sound from the Mexico’s frontera. Tijuana-based artists

Fussible, Bostich, Panóptica, Clorofila and Hiperboreal meld traditional Mexican music with techno beats to create cool, colourful and fun music that has gone down a storm at WOMAD airings and is the soundtrack of choice for Mexican lucha libre wrestling tours.

08 Los Tigres

del Norte Jefe de Jefes

(Fonovisa, 1997)

The Tigres’ masterpiece, this Grammy-nominated double-CD is a landmark for fans of modern norteño. The title-track (‘Boss of Bosses’) sets the tone, with a gangland capo walking tall all the way from the corridors of official power to the back alleys. Los Tigres del Norte never play for mere shock value; prescient, potent and timeless, they sing about the pain and passion of the long-suffering borderlands.

09 Chavela Vargas

At Carnegie Hall

(Tommy Boy, 2004)

Mould-breaking and heartrending like no other Mexican performer, Chavela Vargas’ 2003 concert to a sold-out Carnegie Hall audience reveals all the rough edges, spontaneous sobs and gutsy growls that made her such a force.

10 Villalobos

Brothers Aliens of Extraordinary Ability (Villalobos Brothers, 2012) DIGITAL ONLY

Born in Xalapa, based in the Bronx, this trio of brothers lead with fiddles on a rich assortment of roots music, including mariachi, son jarocho and son huasteco – with bits of jazz, blues, and rock thrown in. A folksy falsetto sound that represents the new cross-border Mexican scene.

+ LET US KNOW Have any other suggestions? Write and let us know letters@songlines.co.uk

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