Songlines Magazine (June 2016, #118) by Songlines Magazine

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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

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+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 World Cinema Editor Yoram Allon Cover image Elena Pardo Contributing Editors Jane Cornwell, Mark Ellingham & Nigel Williamson Assisted in this issue by Emma Baker

Winners and wellies

inally we announce the winners in this year’s Songlines Music Awards. I’m not going to spoil the surprise by telling you here who’s won, you’ll need to turn to p23 to find out. However I can safely say not only are there more awards than before

(nine in total), but the calibre of this year’s selection serves to illustrate the range of terrific artists featured in these pages. Although the awards are primarily based on albums, all of these winners are excellent live performers and you’ll get a chance to see some of them at our Award Winners’ concert to be held at the Barbican on October 3. Back in 2011 the Best Group winner was Bellowhead, who by the time you read this, will have finished their final ever tour. Their last show in the capital was held in suitably plush surroundings of the London Palladium. It was a hugely entertaining night, replete with much pogo-ing up and down – from the band and the devoted crowd. It really underlined why they’ve won so many awards and have been such festival favourites across the country since they started out 12 years ago. They’ll be a hard act to follow and much missed. Talking of festivals, here at Songlines HQ, we’re preparing for the usual summer festival smorgasbord, kicking off with our very own Encounters Festival at Kings Place in June (p15). Thereafter the madness truly begins as the team dash about the UK armed with wellies and wet wipes, taking in as many acts as possible. Our guide on p43 attempts to highlight some of the most interesting festivals around the UK. So, here’s hoping the British weather behaves itself and see you at a festival somewhere soon.

Bellowhead have finished their final ever tour. They’ll be a hard act to follow and much missed

Jo Frost, editor

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE INCLUDE

Intern Jamie Kyei Manteaw Subscriptions Director Sally Boettcher Editorial Director Martin Cullingford Publishing Director Paul Geoghegan CEO Ben Allen Chairman Mark Allen

© MA Music, Leisure & Travel Ltd 2016 All rights reserved. ISSN 1464-8113. MA Music, Leisure & Travel Ltd is part of the Mark Allen Group. 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.

Michael Ormiston The UK’s most experienced Mongolian khöömii overtone singer, Michael has written and presented programmes on Mongolian and Siberian music for BBC Radio. Read his Mongolian gig review from Paris on p87.

Georgie Pope Georgie is a musician who researches and promotes Indian performing arts (www.soundtravelsltd.com). Read her Postcard from Assam, north-east India, on p91 and her tribute to John Singh on p12.

Tom Newell Tom is a musician, teacher and aspiring ethnomusicologist studying at SOAS. He plays fiddle with contemporary-folk trio Effra. This issue he reviews several albums including Hungarian Noir on p74.

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

09 Malick Sidibé

16 Eva Salina

Oumou Sangaré in the late photographer’s studio

Deborah Feingold

Jonas Karlsson

UPFRONT

FEATURES

REVIEWS

06 09

60 64 68 77 78 83 84 86

15 16 18 19 20 21

Top of the World CD What’s New & Obituaries Songlines Encounters Festival Introducing... Eva Salina & Robert ‘Robi’ Svärd Simon Says... Letters Songlines Music Travel Spotlight: Ffatri Vox

34 36 43

Songlines Music Awards 2016 The winners!

Lila Downs

The Mexican singer speaks candidly about her mestizo life

Roby Lakatos

The flamboyant violinist from Hungary

Sona Jobarteh

The Gambia’s modern kora-playing griot

UK Festival Guide

“Tunis has become the cultural capital of the Arab world. It’s taken over from Baghdad... Babel has foundered, Carthage is flourishing” Mehdi Nassouli speaks to Daniel Brown in Tunis, p95 W W W . S O N G L I N E S . C O. U K

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Africa Americas Europe Middle East Fusion Books World Cinema Live Reviews

REGULARS 88 91 92 95 97 99 109 110

My World: Tom Robinson Postcard from Assam, India Beginner’s Guide: Zakir Hussain Dispatch from Tunis Quickfire Gig Guide Soapbox Essential Ten: Kora Albums

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TOP OF THE WORLD

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01 Imarhan ‘Tahabort’ 02 Sociedade Recreativa feat Flavia Coelho ‘Xote Natural’ 03 Robert ‘Robi’ Svärd ‘Pa’ki Pa’ka’ 04 Afro Celt Sound System ‘The Magnificent Seven (ACSS meets TDF)’ 05 Jarlath Henderson ‘Courting is a Pleasure’ 06 9Bach ‘Heno’ 07 Sierra Hull ‘Black River’ 08 Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyaté ‘Barra’ 09 Gambari Band ‘Gambari’ 10 Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble ‘Green (Vincent’s Tune)’

Free tracks

THE BEST NEW RELEASES

TOM ROBINSON’S PLAYLIST

TOP

OF THE WORLD

TOP

OF THE WORLD

ISSUE 118 118 PLUS 5 tracks chosen by Tom Robinson

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

11 Chris Wood ‘None the Wiser’ 12 O’Hooley & Tidow ‘Summat’s Brewin’’ 13 Carolina Chocolate Drops ‘Your Baby Ain’t Sweet Like Mine’ 14 Richard Thompson ‘Dad’s Gonna Kill Me’ 15 The Dhoad Gypsies ‘Fusion’

Featuring Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyaté, 9Bach, Afro Celt Sound System, Imarhan, Chris Wood, Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble and more...

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STWCD94 This compilation & © 2016 MA Music, Leisure & Travel Ltd info@songlines.co.uk, www.songlines.co.uk Executive producer Paul Geoghegan. Compiled and sequenced by Jo Frost. 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. Hearts Broken, Heads Turned (Bellows Records) & © 2016 Bellows Records. Courtesy of Bellows Records

05 Jarlath Henderson ‘Courting is a Pleasure’ (4:03)

10 Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble ‘Green (Vincent’s Tune)’ (4:26)

04 Afro Celt Sound System ‘The Magnificent Seven (ACSS meets TDF)’ (4:28)

09 Gambari Band ‘Gambari’ (3:37)

15 The Dhoad Gypsies ‘Fusion’ (2:32)

14 Richard Thompson ‘Dad’s Gonna Kill Me’ (5:20)

TOP OF THE WORLD PLAYLIST TRACKS SLTOTWCD-118-sleeve.indd 1

01 Imarhan ‘Tahabort’ (3:34)

TOP OF THE WORLD SELECTION

07 Sierra Hull ‘Black River’ (3:52)

13 Carolina Chocolate Drops ‘Your Baby Ain’t Sweet Like Mine’ (3:04)

12 O’Hooley & Tidow ‘Summat’s Brewin’’ (3:15)

06 9Bach ‘Heno’ (3:54)

11 Chris Wood ‘None the Wiser’ (4:09) TOM ROBINSON’S PLAYLIST

10 tracks from this issue’s best new albums + 5 bonus tracks exclusively with the June 2016 issue of Songlines

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06 9Bach ‘Heno’

From Imarhan on City Slang

From Anian on Real World

The young Touareg band Imarhan release

9Bach deliver a cohesive set of original

an enthralling collection of songs, drawing

and traditional Welsh folk songs on their

influences from a variety of subjects and

third album, a soulful and brooding

musical styles to create a dynamic and

project that explores themes of human

diverse debut album. See p61

nature and the outside world. See p68

02 Sociedade Recreativa feat Flavia Coelho ‘Xote Natural’

07 Sierra Hull

‘Black River’

From Weighted Mind on Rounder Records

From Sociedade Recreativa on Jarring Effects

This album captures the mind of a

With help from producer Maga Bo,

maturing Sierra Hull, looking for direction

Brazilians Sociedade Recreativa create

in a changing world, showing off her

a memorable album, mixing traditional

ability as a talented instrumentalist and a

instruments and sound effects. See p65

sensitive songwriter. See p64

03 Robert ‘Robi’ Svärd ‘Pa’ki Pa’ka’

08 Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyaté

Trained as a classical guitarist while

From Monistic Theory on Cumbancha

growing up in Australia, Swedish

Rapper Driscoll and kora player Kouyaté

guitarist Svärd showcases his unique and

collaborate once again, seamlessly

individual take on flamenco music on

blending their own unique styles to create

this beautiful debut. See p73

their own musical language. See p79

04 Afro Celt Sound System ‘The Magnificent Seven (ACSS Meets TDF)’

09 Gambari Band

From Pa’ki Pa’ka on Asphalt Tango Records

‘Barra’

‘Gambari’ From Kokuma on Membran

This nine-piece are a prime example of

From The Source on ECC Records

the great music currently coming out

A re-energised Afro Celt Sound System

of Mali. Their debut, full of uplifting

return after more than a decade since

harmonies and explosive polyrhythms, is

their last album. See p78

a captivating listen. See p60

05 Jarlath Henderson ‘Courting is a Pleasure’

10 Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble

Piper-turned-singer Jarlath Henderson

From Sing Me Home on Sony Music Masterworks

releases a confident debut as a solo artist.

Cello icon Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road

Displaying impressive arrangements and

Ensemble release their most diverse

musicality, the album exudes a youthful

project yet, covering a range of musical

yet matured sentiment. See p70

worlds from Mali to China. See p80

From Hearts Broken, Heads Turned on Bellows Records

06 S O N G L I N E S

08 Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyaté ‘Barra’ (4:25)

02 Sociedade Recreativa featuring Flavia Coelho ‘Xote Natural’ (4:43)

01 Imarhan ‘Tahabort’

03 Robert ‘Robi’ Svärd ‘Pa’ki Pa’ka’ (3:51)

‘Green (Vincent’s Tune)’

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+ TOM ROBINSON’S PLAYLIST 11

11 Chris Wood ‘None the Wiser’ From None the Wiser on RUF “It’s an astonishing song. Some of the lines about ‘quantitative easing’ and worshipping the gods of Mammon… It gives you a little shudder, like somebody’s run their fingernails down a blackboard.”

12 O’Hooley & Tidow ‘Summat’s Brewin’’ From The Hum on No Masters

“They have a really strong connection with their audience, plus there’s that Yorkshire humour and hilarity so they’re just such good company. Really funny people but great musicianship.”

13 Carolina Chocolate Drops ‘Your Baby Ain’t Sweet Like Mine’ From Genuine Negro Jig on Nonesuch Records

“I think they’re amazing and I love their singer, Rhiannon Giddens. I came to them through Joe Henry who produced it.”

14 Richard Thompson ‘Dad’s Gonna Kill Me’

“I suddenly rediscovered my own life story... and how much music was associated with it and how many stories. I just realised that I’ve got to tell some of these stories” Turn to p88 for the full interview with Tom Robinson

From Sweet Warrior on Proper Records

Thompson wrote this track about soldiers in Baghdad. Robinson says “he does it amazingly solo, live. I love the fact that his lyrics are always beautifully crafted and always edgy.”

15 The Dhoad Gypsies ‘Fusion’ From From Rajasthan on ARC Music

“The noise that these clanky bits of metal made, played in those kind of

NEXT ISSUE: CORINNE BAILEY RAE’S PLAYLIST The British singer-songwriter and guitarist chooses her five favourite world music tracks to be featured on the covermount CD of the July 2016 issue (#119).

rhythms and with these scales that were completely alien to my kind of 12-tone Western ears. Brilliant.”

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WHAT’S NEW Views, news and events from around the world

Musicians in Malick Sidibé’s studio with their balafon and drums

Malick Sidibé/Courtesy of the Contemporary African Art Collection – The Pigozzi Collection Geneva

The eye of Bamako The wonderful Malian photographer Malick Sidibé (1936-2016) has died aged 80. He could only see through one eye, but his photos of Mali’s youth, enjoying Bamako nightclubs in the 1960s and 70s, are a vibrant evocation of the young nation post-independence. He always shot in black and white and his location photos show men and women in fashionable Western clothes dancing in clubs and at parties. His studio portraits feature subjects posing in stylish clothes. He’s been called the ‘father of African photography.’ It was only in the late 80s and 90s, when Malian music was first finding an international audience that his work became widely known abroad. In 2007, Malick was the first photographer and the first African to W W W . S O N G L I N E S . C O. U K

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be awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Biennale. His work now exists in collections all over the world. His studio in Bamako was a great place to visit and to get your portrait taken. I got one taken in 2004 and World Circuit’s Nick Gold commissioned portraits of Ali Farka Touré, Toumani Diabaté and Oumou Sangaré. “I loved that tiny studio just opening onto the street,” says Gold. “It was wonderful, with all his Rolliflex cameras on shelves and his negatives and prints in boxes.” World Circuit used Malick’s pictures for Orchestra Baobab’s Pirates Choice reissue, because “they have the flavour of when records were important to people and they treasured them.”

“Africa has lost another worthy son in the shape of Papa Wemba. It’s a painful beginning to 2016. He was the voice of Africa” Manu Dibango’s reaction to Papa Wemba’s death on BBC News. Read a full obit online, www.bit.ly/slobits

SIMON BROUGHTON

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TICKETS FR

£9.50 W ON SALE NO

Alex Bonney

Vula Viel, who play on June 3. Check them out on the Songlines podcast available via iTunes

Kings Place, London, June 2-4 2016

Now in its sixth year, Songlines Encounters Festival features adventurous and groundbreaking artists we feel passionate about. This year’s programme of concerts features music from South Africa, Mali, Hungary, Ghana, Finland and the UK.

SOLD OUT THURSDAY JUNE 2, HALL 1, 8PM

Värttina

The three singers from Finland’s best-known folk group – Mari Kaasinen, Susan Aho and Karoliina Kantelinen (pictured below) – will perform the UK premiere of their new album Viena (see feature in #116). ‘The three singers are on fire,’ wrote Fiona Talkington in the review of the album. Inspired by the remote territory of Viena Karelia and its runo singers, these are powerful songs about legend, landscape and ancestral lore and will be accompanied on flute, accordion and kantele (zither). “I saw Värttina at the album launch of Viena in Helsinki last year,” says Simon Broughton. “You could see how reconnecting to this ancient territory with its runo songs and Kalevala associations has really re-inspired them. I’m really pleased that they are bringing this music to Encounters.”

EXTRA DATE

FRIDAY JUNE 3, HALL 1, 8PM

FRIDAY JUNE 3, HALL 2, 9:45PM

An evening featuring two acclaimed guitarists, John Williams and Derek Gripper. As well as playing solo, they will also play arrangements of West African kora music. Gripper has been fascinated by the kora for years and has brilliantly found ways of transposing this music from the 21 strings of the kora onto the regular six-string guitar. Read about his journey to meet kora player Toumani Diabaté and play in his festival in Bamako in #118.

‘Beautiful... dance to it, make love to it, consume it... stare at the clouds to it...’ says punk-rocker Iggy Pop about the music of Vula Viel (Good is Good). Led by Bex Burch, the quintet have been impressing audiences with their exciting mix of electronica and Ghanaian Dagaare xylophone music. What better way to round off the evening than enjoying the Ghanaian-inspired grooves of the gyil xylophone? Check out the music that has inspired Bex Burch on p97.

John Williams and Derek Gripper

Vula Viel (above)

Värttinä

Roby Lakatos

SATURDAY JUNE 4, HALL 1, 2PM

John Williams and Derek Gripper

As their Friday evening concert has now sold out, we’ve added a second show to the programme. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to catch this collaboration between two wonderful guitarists. Book now to avoid disappointment. SATURDAY JUNE 4, HALL 1, 8PM

Roby Lakatos Ensemble

For this performance, the hugely charismatic, Stradivarius-playing Hungarian violinist Roby Lakatos will be revisiting some of the Gypsy repertoire of his illustrious ancestor János Bihari. Bihari was the most famous Gypsy violinist of the early 19th century, who inspired the compositions of Brahms and Liszt. This is the music that runs in the Lakatos blood. Read more about Roby Lakatos on p34.

For tickets www.kingsplace.co.uk/sef2016 +44 (0)20 †7520 1490 Songlines Subscriber Offer 25% discount on single tickets

When booking tickets, subscribers can use the discount code printed on this issue’s carrier sheet (the sheet of paper on the front of the magazine). Already recycled it? Email subscriptions@markallengroup.com

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Terms and Conditions: †Limited to 30 tickets and excludes Online Saver tickets. Available online, by phone and in person.

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INTRODUCING...

Eva Salina

Brooklyn-based singer Eva Salina tells Alexandra Petropoulos about how she’s immersed herself in the Balkan songbook, despite being an outsider

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lyrics, and there’s a beautiful tension that’s created there. I find inspiration from that acknowledgement that emotions are layered and complicated, that you can be feeling joy and sorrow, anger and confusion while you’re dancing. It’s such an honest representation of reality.” For her debut album, Lema Lema, Salina decided to offer the first musical tribute to Serbian singer Šaban Bajramović (1936-2008), whose music mined those depths of human expression and complexity. But there was another motivation for tackling his songbook. “It has a lot to do with not being a native from the tradition. There’s a tendency to make direct comparisons, to measure me against so and so. And quite frankly I only ever want to be myself.” By taking on the repertoire of a husky-voiced Serbian man, who Salina knew she sounded nothing like, those lines of comparison would be obscured. “I knew that the adaptation and transformation would be an unavoidable part of the process. So I couldn’t say I had to resemble this person because I knew it would be ridiculous to even try!” With this in mind, she was able to tackle Bajramović’s songbook as herself – a Brooklyn-based young American woman – rather than trying to transform herself into something she’s not. “I’m not going to create some romantic Gypsy myth about myself because it’s damaging to the culture.”

Deborah Feingold

uthenticity is a subject that crops up from time to time within these pages. How ‘authentic’ is an artist? Is he or she qualified to perform music from a certain tradition or is it merely ‘cultural appropriation’? These questions have the potential to squelch creativity and originality in favour of a static ideal, but Eva Salina is one artist that refreshingly faces them head-on. Having grown up in a musical tradition outside her own, she addresses authenticity with a direct but gentle touch – delving into the history and tradition, while always remaining true to herself. She grew up in California to parents of mixed European ancestry, and without her own unified cultural identity, was curious about other cultures from an early age. When she was just eight years old she started singing lessons with a young woman who taught Balkan music. “I heard these sounds and it was like something ignited inside me. I totally immersed myself into those traditions.” This meant that she spent time with the local Balkan community, most of whom had recently emigrated to the US following the conflict back in Eastern Europe, and grew up in a primarily Bulgarian music tradition, but without any direct lineage. “When you’re a kid,” she explains, “you don’t have the mechanism that says this is not part of your lineage.” Salina found that it was mainly the older repertoire that resonated most with her. These songs had a depth and complexity that appealed to her. “You can have a very happy sounding song with intensely sad

WIN

We have three copies of Lema Lema to give away. To enter, answer: Where is Šaban Bajramović from?

While respecting the See p19 for rules and deadline tradition, she interprets each song in her own way, exploring a range of influences and featuring guest musicians from Serbian trumpet player Ekrem Mamutović to Indian percussionist Deep Singh. But her goal is ultimately to introduce new people to Bajramović’s music. “I’d like to get these songs into people’s ears so that they will become curious and want to learn about Šaban, to understand where these songs come from. Because how did any of us become enamoured with any artists? We heard it, it was arresting and our hunger and curiosity were ignited.”

+ ALBUM Salina’s new album, Lema

Lema, is reviewed this issue, see p73

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Robert ‘Robi’ Svärd

There’s a new guitarist making waves in flamenco – and he’s not Spanish, but Swedish. He tells Chris Moss about his conversion

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but Svärd comes from what he calls a “very mixed family”: his mother was born in India to parents of Indian, Armenian, British and Portuguese extraction, and his father was Swedish. While he lived in Australia, his parents were living in China. “I don’t really identify myself as being solely Swedish,” he says. When living in Seville, he worked with singer El Pechuga, and also had occasional gigs with legendary flamenco-blues band Pata Negra, led by brothers Rafael and Raimundo Amador. On Pa’ki Pa’ka, he is joined by Granada-based singer Alfredo Tejada and percussionist Miguel Rodríguez ‘El Cheyenne.’ Svärd says there was never any sense of his being

an outsider to the Andalucian scene. “Alfredo had long before made it very clear to me that he loves my music. He told Cheyenne about me, and after listening to some of my pieces he too said that he’d love to record with me.” He now lives in Gothenburg, where his album launch at the local Konserthuset in April was a sell-out. “It was an amazing evening,” he says. “The next move is touring. At the moment we’re scheduling a week-long tour through Sweden and Spain, but we’ll also travel to Germany, France, possibly the UK and America as well as Australia in the near future.”

+ ALBUM Pa’ki Pa’ka is a Top of the World review in this issue, see p73

Stig Magnus Thorsen

wedish-born Robert ‘Robi’ Svärd started playing Beatles songs with his dad at the age of four. Three years later he began taking classical guitar lessons, dabbled with the electric guitar and then, after moving to Sydney when he was 14 to live with an uncle – a violinist at the Sydney Symphony Orchestra – he studied at the city’s Conservatorium of Music. Now 40, he has just released a debut album, Pa’ki Pa’ka, of fiery, flamboyant flamenco, recorded at Granada’s famous FJR Estudios de Grabación. He says his conversion to flamenco guitar took place in Sydney in 1998. “It was during my last year at the Con. I came home late one night to my residential college and heard somebody playing flamenco guitar amazingly well next door. It was Niño Josele, who had just won the largest flamenco guitar competition in Spain and was in Sydney as part of a ‘Gypsy’ segment at the Sydney Festival that year.” Josele would go on to be an acclaimed leader of the emerging ‘new flamenco’ scene but back then he was a rising star. He and Svärd got on well and hung out for ten days. “I immediately fell in love with the way the instrument is used when playing flamenco,” says Svärd. “By that stage I was getting quite tired of playing music not written for my instrument at the Conservatorium. It felt like for once I was playing something meant for this – and only for this – instrument. I had, of course, previously listened to a lot of flamenco, but never really had the opportunity to learn from anyone. I graduated and then moved to Seville, where I stayed for five years.” It might seem something of a cultural leap from Sweden to Seville,

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2016

THE WINNERS We’re delighted to announce the winners of the eighth Songlines Music Awards which aim to put a much-deserved spotlight on some incredibly talented artists from around the world. This year we’ve shaken up our awards, so as well as our usual Best Artist and Best Group awards – as voted by Songlines readers – we have five new geographical awards based on our reviews sections, as well as the World Pioneer and Newcomer Awards chosen by our editorial team. So turn over and find out who are this year’s winners... WO R D S N I G E L W I L L I A M S O N

THE CONCERT Join us on October 3 at the Barbican in London for this year’s Songlines Music Awards Winners’ Concert, featuring performances by Mariza, Debashish Bhattacharya and others still to be announced. For more details visit www.barbican.org.uk or call 020 7638 8891

THE PODCAST Hear editor-in-chief Simon Broughton introducing and playing music from all of this year’s winners, on the Songlines podcast, available as a free download on iTunes

THE ALBUM Featuring 19 tracks from the nominees in the five geographical categories, the Songlines Music Awards 2016 compilation album is available on CD exclusively from

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27/04/2016 14:49

Mon 3 Oct Songlines Music Awards 2016 Winnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Concert Image: Mariza ÂŠ Carlos Ramos

Featuring performances from:

Contemp Awards 27 full-page ad V2.indd 1 Ads MakeSonglines Up-SL118.indd

Mariza Debashish Bhattacharya + more barbican.org.uk 27/04/2016 27/04/2016 14:51 15:09

LILA DOWNS

Mother Mexico

As the unofficial ambassador for Mexico’s invisible masses, singer Lila Downs talks to Chris Moss about the problems in her country and how her mestizo background shapes and influences her music

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“It was so Indian, so much like crying, and it’s uncomfortable for a lot of people to hear. I see the same now when I sing a ranchera to my son. It makes him uncomfortable.” Downs has the kind of sonorous, soulful voice that can make many people uncomfortable. Routinely compared with the late Mexican ranchera singer Chavela Vargas and Argentinian folk legend Mercedes Sosa, she has a powerful, masculine sound that slips easily from soft, higher notes to a very muscular baritone. She also happens to look like Frida Kahlo, a celebrated iconoclast and gender-skewing feminist. “My creativity is based on the fact that I am a woman,” says Downs. “We express ourselves through our clothes and through our emotions. So, while sometimes I may tune in to a story in the newspaper to get a song, others will come from direct contact with someone. I might cross paths with a person and a song comes from the relationship.” “For example, we were in Paris and I got talking to this woman who cleaned our room and inspired me to write a song. My main concern is always emotional, so I’m always asking: how does this person feel in the face of these changes? How does this little boy feel when he’s in nature? I try to catch the dark side and also the fun side of life.” Downs has been spending a lot of time in her birthplace, Oaxaca, a beautiful city known for its proud, occasionally militant indigenous groups as well as a large bohemian community led by Zapotec artist Francisco Toledo. She says she likes to be there for the good of her and her family’s health – her husband, collaborator and producer, saxophonist Paul Cohen, was diagnosed with a terminal illness in 2012, but is now doing well. The couple have a five-year-old son, Benito. Their retreat to the quiet southern city is also partly due to a need to put distance between them and the violence that is a daily trial for so many Mexicans. “We’re going through one of the most difficult times in our recent history,” she says.

Elena Pardo

ell-travelled readers of Songlines are more used than most to reading about identity crises and creative musical fusions. After all, some of the most mesmerising world sounds spring from cultural collisions and mash-ups. But singer Lila Downs raises the bar somewhat. She’s half Mexican and half American, drawing on the musical traditions of both countries while, in her bold, bilingual lyrics, exploring the tensions that fizz and occasionally flare up along the frontier. Her 2001 breakthrough album was titled, simply, La Línea – in English: Border. But Downs is also of Mixtec extraction and from her flamboyant, multi-hued dresses to her socially conscious campaigns for human rights and the environment, she has become something of an ambassador for the invisible masses of modern Mexico. “Mexicans don’t nurture indigenous traditions so much because they were denied to us for many years,” she tells me from her home in Mexico City. “They denied the essential core that’s in us. I always try to steer people in the Mixtec direction, because it’s one of the things that makes me the singer I am. It is still very important to me.” Downs’ 2000 release Tree of Life – a Top of the World album in #10 – was a warm celebration of all things indigenous, featuring tracks in Spanish, Mixtec, Zapotec and Nahuatl, and taking its inspirational cue from a Mixtec origin myth about a ‘world tree’ that gave birth to all of humanity. Across Latin America, native people are often perceived as marginal and uneducated, outside the great sweep of metropolitan and mainstream forces. But on her mother’s side, Downs’ was a bohemian, open-minded family. “In my youth, my mother and grandmother would sing to me. Only recently my mother has been telling me stories about my grandmother who made pulque [a firewater made from the sap of agave plant]. She would go around, have a few drinks and then sing.

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From the wild shores of Shetland to London’s urban offerings, the UK’s festival scene is flourishing. Whether you’re looking for folk’s finest or sounds from further afield, turn over to find your quintessential festival... WORDS ALEX DE LACEY

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UK Festival Guide the Mercury award-winning pair of James Blake and PJ Harvey, the festival’s forwardthinking aesthetic champions house, grime, UK hip-hop and music from across the globe. This year’s international offerings include the Ghanaian highlife star Ata Kak, Finnish accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen, Mbongwana Star and the iconic Orchestra Baobab. www.fielddayfestivals.com

Various venues, Yorkshire

A fortnight of festivities across the dales

WIN

We have a pair of five-day tickets to Larmer Tree Festival ( July 13-17) to give away. To enter, answer: How many years has the festival been going?

Yorkshire’s biennial jamboree is a sprawling and magnificent occasion. Whether it’s Rokia Traoré lighting up See p19 for competition rules and address details. Competition deadline: June 10 2016 the Howard Assembly Rooms in Leeds, or the European premiere of The Nile Project in Bradford, this festival has it covered. Varying community initiatives and this year is bolster this event’s holistic approach, the most no different. The breadth notable, entitled The Brutalist Playground, is a and variety encourages new discovery, and commission from Turner Prize winning artist while headliners Adele, Coldplay and Muse Simon Terrill whose work will explore post-war will no doubt be a draw for many, they can act design in Sheffield. Other highlights include merely as a peripheral distraction for the more Eliza Carthy and her Wayward Band and a live adventurous festival-goer. Acts announced so rendering of Astor Piazzolla’s tango operita far include the inimitable Baaba Maal – whose María de Buenos Aires by Mr McFall’s Chamber. recent album, The Traveller, has been marked www.festival.yorkshire.com by many as a resounding return to form – Malian singer Rokia Traoré and Africa Express presents the Orchestra of Syrian Musicians. June 17-19 www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk Beverley Folk Fest Beverley Racecourse, Yorkshire www.beverleyfestival.com July 1-3

July 17-19 Solas Festival

The Bield, Blackruthven, Perthshire www.solasfestival.co.uk

June 18-19 Africa Oyé

Sefton Park, Liverpool

Liverpool’s celebration of African culture

In the height of midsummer Sefton Park is taken over by Africa Oyé, the UK’s largest free festival of African and Caribbean music and dance. Over 80,000 visitors descend each year, and 2016’s line-up includes Ghanaian highlife legend Pat Thomas and Kwashibu Area Band, Mbongwana Star, kora player Sona Jobarteh and Dar Es Salaam’s Ifa Band, who mix the Bongo Flava styles of Tanzania with rumba inflections. It’s definitely worth checking out the Oyé Village during your visit. The area is home to dance classes, workshops, and a dazzling array of food and drink across varying market stalls. www.africaoye.com

June 22-26 Glastonbury Festival

Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset

The UK’s biggest contemporary arts festival Thousands of acts perform across over a hundred stages in Worthy Farm each June W W W . S O N G L I N E S . C O. U K

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Will Wilkinson/Larmer Tree Festival

June 16-July 3 Yorkshire Festival

Beyond the Border

St Donat’s Castle, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales www.beyondtheborder.com

July 8-10 Ely Folk Festival

Ely, Cambridgeshire www.elyfolkfestival.co.uk

July 8-10 Priddy Folk Festival Priddy, Somerset www.priddyfolk.org

July 13-16 Hebridean Celtic Festival Stornoway, Outer Hebrides

Gaelic culture in the Outer Hebrides

Situated in the grounds of Stornoway’s Lews Castle, the Hebridean Celtic Festival matches the natural beauty of the area with an equally enticing festival programme. A variety of carefully created commissions will be aired including the opening concert from the Hebridean Women, where North Uist’s Julie Fowlis, Lewis’ Mary Smith and Isobel Ann Martin and Barra’s Cathy Ann MacPhee will join forces to commemorate the festival’s 21st birthday. Other acts include Celtic rock group Runrig, Hunter and the Bear, and the riotous collective the Red Hot Chilli Pipers. www.hebceltfest.com

July 13-17 Larmer Tree Festival

Larmer Tree Gardens, Salisbury

Festivities at the heart of the Cranborne Chase The Larmer Tree Gardens and its assemblage of peacocks has been home to this glorious festival for over 25 years. Resolutely independent and wonderfully welcoming, its programme

Spotlight On...

Cambridge Folk Festival (see p48)

Eddie Barcan, artistic director What’s your festival’s USP? Cambridge has always been considered a musician’s festival and we’re renewing our efforts to make it a great destination for musicians of all kinds; young, old, aspiring and professional. What makes a good programme? Quality, diversity, depth and creativity. Not being afraid of taking a few risks and challenging people’s expectations. What acts are you particularly looking forward to this year? Gogol Bordello will be wild; Baaba Maal is appearing for the first time and it’ll be lovely to have Christy Moore back. Ultimate festival highlight? Bella Hardy created a 100-strong audience choir to join Ladysmith Black Mambazo – not a dry eye in the house! Top festival tip? Explore the site, take part in a workshop and try something new.

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Africa REVIEWS

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OFTHE WORLD

Gambari Band Kokuma

TRACK 9

Membran (56 mins)

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You want ngoni lutes? We got ngoni lutes The Germany-based Membran is the new home of Christian Scholze’s ground-breaking Network label, which did so much to put African music on the map in the 1980s and 90s. Taking their name from a traditional rhythm from the Mopti region, the nine-piece Gambari Band were formed by exiles from Bassekou Kouyaté’s Ngoni ba group – and it’s the sound of the ngoni (lute) that’s at the core here. Oumar Barou Kouyaté takes the solos but he’s supported by two further ngoni players, creating a glorious mesh of fiercely plucked and snapping strings.

Afrika Mamas Afrika Mamas ARC Music (49 mins)

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Gobsmacking mouth-music from astounding Zulu singers One cannot help but be transported to the rolling hills of Zululand when listening to the Afrika Mamas’ latest, self-titled album. In this part of the continent, Zulu men and women have for centuries gathered in song to tell stories and express feelings of love, struggle and everything in between. Following tradition, the seven Zulu female vocalists who make up the Afrika Mamas present us with an upbeat 12-track album that tells of

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battles, loss and gratitude, heartache, jealousy and independence. Afrika Mamas is a choral feast of traditional Zulu a capella music with contemporary blues, jazz and gospel influences. Two of the tracks are sung in English, while the remaining songs are in Zulu. These are the ones that dazzle most. The powerful vocalists cover the musical spectrum from the richest contralto to the sweetest soprano and most of the tracks follow a call-and-response format peppered with wonderful clicks, ‘shhhs’ and rolls of the tongue. Subtle percussion can be heard throughout the album, but the female voice and the well-known kinship shared among the seven singers take centre stage. FRANKI BLACK

TRACK TO TRY Tonny

Recorded at Bamako’s Studio Bogolan over six days in late 2012, the Seattlebased producer Mell Dettmer has captured a set of stellar performances – earthy and graceful, full of uplifting harmonies and explosive polyrhythms. Only the vocals of the two female lead singers, Kankou and Massaran Kouyaté were overdubbed, giving the disc the energy and urgency of a live recording. If you’re ever in Bamako, they’re regulars at the Hotel Maya. Failing that, hopefully there’s an adventurous promoter who might bring them to Europe… NIGEL WILLIAMSON

TRACK TO TRY Kokuma

M’Toro Chamou Punk Islands Le Cri de l’Océan Indien (45 mins)

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Rapper and singer from Mayotte goes folky and political For Indian Ocean music aficionados, M’Toro Chamou of Mayotte is no new kid on the block. Since 1998, we have become familiar with his urban music that mirrors his island’s difficult heritage of slavery, defiance and submission, much in the same vein as fellow standout vocalists Baco and Mikidache. Yet Chamou’s fifth solo album is something of a revelation: the guitarist-singer leaves behind his trademark fusion of rap and

guitar-drenched pop for a hauntingly driven, more folksy style. It mixes his region’s tradition of m’godro rhythms and vibrant backup vocals with Western and Afro-pop guitar-playing that ranges from searing rock to soothing acoustic. M’godro is this small island’s version of Malagasy salegy, and the trademark jangling guitars on these ten tracks never lose their nervous edge while the album sails to relatively unexplored frontiers. Chamou’s powerful voice, meanwhile, continues to sing his vision of island disarray, anger and desolation while admonishing the new generation not to forget where they come from. The title unabashedly harks back to the 1970s punk movement, denouncing a France-imposed system in all its neocolonialist globality. Chamou’s use of

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Africa REVIEWS the plural for islands is a political act in itself, linking the Comoros nation with its former fourth island Mayotte, torn away by the French in 1975 – an act that remains a constant heartache for all the populations concerned. DANIEL BROWN

TRACK TO TRY Kossa

Debo Band Ere Gobez FPE Records (57 mins)

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This eclectic American take on Éthiopiques is a real blast America’s Debo Band revisits and transforms with uncanny authenticity the kind of classic Ethiopian music popularised by the epic Éthiopiques series. Debo Band, however, eschews Ethio-jazz for the kind of high-energy entertainment that sweeps you off your feet. The international band’s second album is a confident step on from their assured debut. The title, Ere Gobez, echoes a cry used to rally troops and is, as saxophonist band-leader Danny Mekonnen explains, ‘about a passionate response to the world in which we live.’ There’s passion a-plenty in numbers like ‘Kehulum Abliche’, originally performed by the Somali band, Dur-Dur, and given new lyrics by the band’s singer, Bruck Tesfaye; or in ‘Blue Awaze’, a fanciful musical meeting of Duke Ellington and Addis Ababa’s Police Orchestra; or in ‘Hiyamikachi Bushi’, an Okinawan song. With sousaphone, saxophones, trumpet, trombone, violins, accordion and electric guitar all stoking a kind of East African Arcade Fire, the album bubbles inexorably towards an appropriately upbeat climax in the shape of two classy originals, penned by violinist Jonah Rapino. Great stuff, but not for the faint-hearted.

in Cairo’s Agouza district. It’s simple enough to describe the ingredients at work on this extraordinary debut record. Cairo native Maurice Louca contributes North African-tinged percussion loops and shimmering synths; Sam Shalabi adds avant-garde free-jazz guitar, and Alan Bishop, the best known of the three as the co-founder of the label Sublime Frequencies and a former member of experimental rock band Sun City Girls, provides pulsing Krautrock-style bass. It’s less easy to convey the collective impact of their improvisational explorations, recorded during a three-

day studio session in 2014, because there are few conventional reference points to which one can usefully allude. An Arabic equivalent of Africa Express’ take on Terry Riley’s In C, with a touch of Cairo-tronics, inspired by Konono No 1, might be as good a description as you can get – only far, far weirder. Hints of Ethio-jazz, Gnawa trance and various other tribal rhythms of indeterminate parentage are swathed in hypnotic bleeps and washes of hallucinogenic noise. Strange, but compellingly so. NIGEL WILLIAMSON

TRACK TO TRY Where’s Turbo?

Awesome Tapes from Africa (44 mins)

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Minimal electro dance music from Ghana When Brian Shimkovitz, owner of the Awesome Tapes from Africa label, asked Ghanaian DJ Katapila if he could re-release his 2009 tape Trotro, the DJ was surprised – it had never been released, but was a hit in the pirated music shops of Kumasi.

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Imarhan Imarhan

TRACK 1

City Slang (50 mins)

MARK SAMPSON

TRACK TO TRY Yalanchi

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The Dwarfs of East Agouza Bes

Another offshoot from the mighty Tinariwen tree, the five-piece known as Imarhan (Tamashek for ‘The Ones I Care About’) represent a new wave of Touareg groups, whose music still evokes the nomadic empty spaces of the Sahara but at the same time throbs with a more urban intensity. Led by Iyad Moussa Ben Abderrahmane, aka Sadam, and a cousin of Tinariwen’s Eyadou Ag Leche who produced the album, the group’s members grew up together in exile in Tamanrasset, southern Algeria, and Mali, and they draw on a range of

Nawa Recordings (76 mins)

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Afro-Oriental mesmerism from inventively oddball trio Formed in 2012, the trio who make up the Dwarfs found themselves living in the same apartment building

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DJ Katapila Trotro

Perhaps the most eclectic Touareg guitar group ever influences and styles far broader than we’ve come to expect from a Touareg guitar record. From the fresh, melodic acoustic opener ‘Tarha Tadagh’ and the delicious, slow burn of ‘Ibas Ichikkou’ to the echoing, spacey jams of ‘Arodj N-Inizdjam’ and the jangling folk intimacy of ‘Idarchan Net’, every track on their self-titled album offers something different in mood, rhythm, tempo or style. No other Touareg band has ever sounded quite so diverse, while remaining rooted in the deep mysteries of tribal tradition. NIGEL WILLIAMSON

TRACK TO TRY Tarha Tadagh

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Americas REVIEWS Danny Barnes Got Myself Together (Ten Years Later) Eight 30 Records (38 mins)

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Barnes-storming stuff An interesting concept is this latest album by singer-songwriter and banjo-picker extraordinaire

Edward D (for Danny) Barnes. A Texas native, Seattle resident and recent recipient of the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass, Barnes has essentially recreated his 2005 album, Get Myself Together, here. Same 12 tracks, same order, same sharp-eyed, sometimes hilariously insightful lyrics, but very different sounding music. He has distilled the original dozen down to their raw elements, relying on just his three-

finger picking on an open-back banjo, his slightly craggy, dulcet-toned voice and a mic. This actually achieves the ‘sounds like he’s playing in your living room’ vibe, which is so often touted but rarely delivered – thanks to Barnes having recorded it in his living room. ‘Cumberland Gap’ starts out with him thumping on the banjo’s head, sounding ever so clear and close you sense the taut skin’s vibration, before breaking into a walking melody so deftly played you can easily miss its complex, crystalline structure. Barnes shows off his rippling finger-plucking chops on ‘Corn Kingdom Come’, an uproarious country-funk tale of backwoods moonshining (‘I’ll be the king of corn liquor and you can be the king of fools’). The album is topped off by a bonus track, ‘I’m Convicted’, an electrified foot-stomper recalling Barnes’ tenure in the early 1990s with the Austin-based Bad Livers. DOUG DELOACH

TRACK TO TRY Cumberland Gap

Cortijo The Ansonia Years 1969-71 Vampisoul Records (44 mins)

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Vintage years for the salsa man

TRACK TO TRY Black River

MARK SAMPSON

Gina Binkley DOUG DELOACH

Arguably the star of Vampisoul’s collection Saoco!, percussionist Rafael Cortijo is now heard here on his own compilation. The album is a selection of tracks from three albums that Cortijo recorded for the Ansonia label during frequent jobbing sojourns in the Big Apple. Recorded in 1970 with fellow percussionist Francisco ‘Kako’ Bastar, the near-legendary Ritmos y Cantos Callejeros album was a nostalgic homage to the drumming fiestas the pair knew as boys from the same neighbourhood of San Juan. With percussion and vocal chorus backed by just piano and bass, it was a kind of stripped-down template for what would soon become known as salsa. Tracks sourced from the other two New York albums, Noche de Temporal and Volumen 2, add brass to the mix without any loss of impact. The rich seam of charming, infectious simplicity that runs through this whole collection makes it a real winner. And as usual, Vampisoul has packaged the product with loving care: the informative and beautifully illustrated booklet alone is worth the price of admission.

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Sierra Hull Weighted Mind

TRACK 7

Rounder Records (43 mins)

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Mandolin prodigy steps out from her mentors’ shadows The last time Sierra Hull released an album, the mandolin prodigy and protégé of Alison Krauss was only a year short of her 20s. Five years on, Weighted Mind represents the carefully wrought expression of a young, maturing woman seeking direction, asking questions and earnestly observing a whirling world. It also imparts an affirmation of the early bright promise of a singer with a beautiful, facile voice and vivid articulation; an instrumentalist of transcendent talent; and a smart, sensitive songwriter. Weighted Mind is a solo effort in nearly every sense of the word. While Béla Fleck lends banjo licks to two of the album’s standout

tracks, ‘Queen of Hearts/Royal Tea’ and ‘Black River’, the remaining ten songs feature either Hull alone (on standard and octave mandolin) or accompanied by bassist Ethan Jodziewicz. On a few selections Abigail Washburn, Rhiannon Giddens and Alison Krauss provide harmony vocals. With the lone exception of Hull’s arrangement of the traditional ‘Queen of Hearts’ all of the songs are originals. Hull’s music is not easily categorised, bearing traces of Western ballads, Appalachian hollers, knee-slapping bluegrass rhythms and quirky indie-rock changes. Weighted Mind is a sophisticated effort, and a worthy next-step statement about the transition from kid-sensation to prime-time pro.

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Nicola Conte & Stefania Dipierro Natural

Far Out Recordings (54 mins)

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Mellow bossa magic from 90s Italian acid jazzers For a brief period in the 1960s, Brazil was at the epicentre of all things musically chic and sophisticated. On Natural the Italian acid jazz innovator Nicola Conte, whose style is firmly anchored in the traditions of Brazilian bossa nova, samba and jazz, reunites with singer Stefania Dipierro; they had previously worked together as part of the seminal 1990s collective Fez. The album features some excellent original compositions as well as reinterpretations of bossa nova and jazz standards. It has an effortless flow, with Dipierro’s laidback, airy vocals reminiscent at times of the great Astrud Gilberto, while Conte provides a sun-kissed canvas bursting with bossa, samba and soulful jazz. The duo’s original material is especially enjoyable; when the album threatens to drift too far into ‘lounge’ territory, their own more propulsive compositions pull things back and sit you upright in your chair. With a few more of these originals, the album could have reached even greater heights. While Conte and Dipierro do not really push any boundaries here, the warmth and precision of their groove makes their album a particularly smooth ride. MERLYN DRIVER

TRACK TO TRY Natural

Stan Getz & João Gilberto Getz/Gilberto ’76

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Resonance Records (55 mins)

The big bossa reunion proved all the magic was still there When João Gilberto and Tom Jobim slowed down samba and gave birth to bossa nova, a languorous song form that was all curvilinear and softly whispered, it was just a matter of time until its signature found its way to jazz. It was Stan Getz who first picked up on that trail with Jazz Samba (1962), who took on that Brazilian seductive style that seems to crawl right under the skin with its lingering cadence. Getz was already an established jazz saxophonist, a regular

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Americas REVIEWS

GONÇALO FROTA

TRACK TO TRY Chega de Saudade

Count Ossie & the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari Tales of Mozambique Soul Jazz (51 mins)

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Nothing Ossie-fied about this sprightly 70s Rasta reissue As curators of the excellent 100% Dynamite series, Soul Jazz introduced many to the lesser-known wonders of Jamaican music. On Tales of Mozambique they go back to the source of reggae and the spiritual throb of Rastafarianism itself – the nyabinghi drumming of Count Ossie (aka Oswald Williams). Matched only by Bob Marley in bringing Jamaican music to a wider audience, Count Ossie cross-fertilised the AfroJamaican rhythms of the pre-Rasta Kumina faith and the griot-esque Buro musicians, heard mainlining into the island’s pulse in 1959 with The Folkes Brothers’ ‘Oh Carolina’. Fast forward to 1975, by which time Ossie had linked up with saxophonist Cedric ‘Im’ Brooks’ group, The Mystics, renaming themselves the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari. Given that their recorded output is slim, this is a hugely important reissue and – in its combination of back-to-Africa black consciousness, poetry, roots percussion and jazz – emblematic of the Soul Jazz ethos. While rootsreggae and rocksteady fans will find

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Juliana Bezerra de Mello

with Oscar Peterson, JJ Johnson and Chet Baker, but Jazz Samba would prove to be a seminal step in making him one of the most important promoters of Brazilian music abroad. Of course his definitive masterpiece on this regard would be the recording of Getz/Gilberto (1964), when he managed to get Gilberto and Jobim into a New York studio. It was purely a matter of letting the tape roll and waiting for this incredible reunion to work its charm. Getz and Gilberto recorded live at Carnegie Hall that same year, got back together in 1975 and a year later they released The Best of Two Worlds with a week’s run at San Francisco’s Keystone Corner. Getz/ Gilberto ’76 gives us access to what happened then, with Getz’s quartet unfolding a red carpet to Gilberto’s intimate brilliance. And that is the key to this beautiful encounter: not getting in the way of Gilberto’s music, adding as few notes to it as humanly possible.

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Sociedade Recreativa Sociedade Recreativa

TRACK 2

Jarring Effects (36 mins)

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Folksy yet modern: the perfect antidote to bland bossa There’s something about the off-kilter charm of the music of north-east Brazil that can sometimes be more appealing than the bombast of the samba or the ohso-tasteful purring of a coffee-table bossa nova. This is one of those instances. These four guys, helped by US producer Maga Bo, really know what they’re doing when it comes to integrating electronic effects and contemporary keyboard sounds with more traditional instrumentation such as the accordion and viola. Take the Tom Zé-ish track ‘Xote Natural’ on this, their eponymously-titled debut album. The accordion is central but the tough,

much to treasure, the ensemble really earn their ‘mystic’ credentials on the Caribbean Sea-deep instrumentals ‘Let Freedom Reign’ and ‘Run One Mile’, immersions both into the kind of seductively hypnotic and intensely percussive spiritual jazz they just don’t make any more. A revelation then, both in the name and execution. BRENDON GRIFFIN

TRACK TO TRY Run One Mile

Alfredo Rodriguez Tocororo Mack Avenue Records (CD & DVD, 47 mins)

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Cuban piano’s new young lion This young Cuban jazz pianist’s third album starts with a radical reinvention of the old Compay Segundo favourite, ‘Chan Chan’: all plucked piano, clarinet and skittish time signatures. It

muscular breakbeat behind it is a subtle mesh of the programmed and the live. This tune also features an appealing little rap from Flavia Coelho adding hip-hop icing to the cake. But such elements of fusion are subtle – for example the undertow of tango on ‘Vale Do Juca’ that brings to mind Gotan Project without ever impinging on the band’s own core identity. Sound effects are added sparingly and intelligently, never scuppering the natural flow of the music, and the songs are strong, their hooks stay in your head. I should imagine this will end up my favourite Brazilian album this year. Lovely stuff. HOWARD MALE

TRACK TO TRY Xote Natural

segues into the brisk ‘Yemayá’, with guest vocals from the French-Cuban twin-sister duo Ibeyi. Bassist Richard Bona’s gorgeous vocals add colour to Rodriguez’s nimble playing on the next track, ‘Raíces (Roots)’, and Ibrahim Maalouf ’s signature trumpet graces both ‘Venga la Esperanza’ and ‘Kaleidoscope’. The musicianship and production – by Quincy Jones, no less – are impeccable, but the music wanders so restlessly, from Afro-Cuban music to Bach and back via flamenco and tango, that there’s the sense that this is an album in search of a theme. Significantly, things conclude with a remix of the deceptively simple ‘Ay Mamá Inés’, as if to underline that it’s the strongest track. It would be easy to lump Alfredo Rodriguez with Omar Sosa and Roberto Fonseca simply because he is a Cuban pianist who plays a form of world jazz. This often beautiful album confirms that he clearly has his own

identity – even if it seems that he has yet to find his musical personality. MARK SAMPSON

TRACK TO TRY Ay Mamá Inés

DJ Vadim Dubcatcher 2: Wicked My Yout Soulbeats Records (57 mins)

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A tribute to booming, bassy sound systems of all kinds The Russian-born, New York-based DJ Vadim returns with another fast-paced reggae volume under the pseudonym Dubcatcher, this time pulling in some serious guest vocalists. Max Romeo and Dreadzone’s Earl Sixteen have voices that are so recognisable to the genre that they slip into the mix like vintage instruments, while Vadim’s knack for finding

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ESSENTIAL

KORA ALBUMS

The kora has become the defining instrument of West Africa. But despite schools like Sona Jobarteh’s (p36) that are enriching the tradition, it’s still very much a family business. Simon Broughton picks his ten top albums

01 Kaouding Cissoko Kora Revolution (Palm Pictures, 1999)

Senegalese kora player Kaouding Cissoko played with Baaba Maal and was co-founder of Afro Celt Sound System. His debut album sticks to African instrumentation, but has a contemporary vibe. There’s great tama (talking drum) playing from Massamba Diop and guest vocals from Baaba Maal. Sadly, Kaouding died of tuberculosis in 2003, aged just 38.

02 Sidiki Diabaté & Djelimady Sissoko Ancient Strings (Buda Musique, 2000)

This was the first ever instrumental kora album, first released in 1970. The two headline players were Sidiki Diabaté (Toumani’s father) and Batourou Sékou Kouyaté, who both played in the Ensemble Instrumental National du Mali, although Djelimady Sissoko (Ballaké’s father) and N’Fa Diabaté also featured. It sounds truly groundbreaking.

03 Toumani Diabaté & Ballaké Sissoko New Ancient Strings (Rykodisc, 1999)

These two players grew up as neighbours in Bamako and this album pays homage to their fathers who recorded the original Ancient Strings (see above). At least two of the eight tunes here are versions of pieces on the old album, although they’re given new titles. One of the most beautiful of all kora albums, much more effortless than Ancient Strings. A Top of the World in #2.

04 Toumani Diabaté The Mandé Variations (World Circuit, 2008)

Although I was tempted to chose Toumani & Sidiki to 110 S O N G L I N E S

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include a third generation of kora virtuosos, Toumani deserves a solo album and this is a masterpiece. He plays both traditional tunes and new compositions on a traditional instrument that belonged to his father and a new model with machine-head tuning keys. A Top of the World in #51.

05 Djeli Moussa Diawara & Bob Brozman Ocean Blues (Mélodie, 2000)

This is one of the most outstanding kora fusion albums. It features Guinean maestro and Rail Band alumni Djeli Moussa Diawara with American slide guitar king Bob Brozman. A meeting of musical worlds that shows what’s possible when the chemistry works. It ends with an extraordinary version of ‘Malaika’. A Top of the World in #7.

06 Dawda Jobarteh Northern Light Gambian Night (Sterns, 2011)

Jobarteh is the Gambian spelling of Diabaté, but despite being son of the illustrious kora player Amadou Bansang Jobarteh, Dawda only took up the instrument once he’d migrated to Denmark. The traditional songs and instrumental tracks here are given clean modern arrangements with guitars, bass, African percussion, sax and Indian flute. A Top of the World in #79.

07 Sona Jobarteh Fasiya (West African Guild Records, 2011)

Sona is a cousin of Toumani and grand-daughter of Amadou Bansang Jobarteh. Fasiya brings a West African pop sensibility in which Sona sings, plays the kora and many of the other instruments as well. An impressive debut. Reviewed in #80. Read more about her on p36.

08 Seckou Keita 22 Strings (ARC Music, 2015)

The kora is found in Mali, Guinea, the Gambia and the Casamance region of south Senegal. That is where Seckou Keita hails from and has both griot Cissokho heritage and royal Keita lineage. Now resident in the UK, he plays kora and sings on this glorious, completely solo album, which includes some traditional, but mostly original compositions and secured one of this year’s Songlines Music Awards (see p23). A Top of the World in #109.

09 Ballaké Sissoko Tomora (Label Bleu, 2005)

Here Ballaké, the other great Malian kora player, plays in a superb trio with Mahamadou Kamissoko on ngoni and Fassély Diabaté on balafon. The kora is a relatively recent addition to Malian music compared to these other two instruments. There is really varied repertoire here, including Toumani and singer Rokia Traoré as guests. A Top of the World in #32.

10 Ballaké Sissoko & Vincent Segal Musique de Nuit (No Format!, 2015)

There have been many ‘kora plus’ records – including Toumani with Taj Mahal, Sekou Kouyaté with Joe Driscoll and Seckou Keita with Catrin Finch. But the kora and cello duo of Ballaké and Vincent really stands out, both because of the contrasting timbres, but also because of the organic nature of the collaboration. This, the more recent of their two albums, is absolutely sublime, and won them one of this year’s Songlines Music Awards (see p24). A Top of the World in #111.

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