Songlines Magazine (April/May 2014, #99) by Songlines Magazine

You could be a winner! find a o t h g u o n e y If you are luck

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Next issue is on sale from April 25 ISSUE 98

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CONTENTS

46 Maurice El Médioni

MUPERPHOTO

UPFRONT

FEATURES

REGULARS

REVIEWS

06 Top of the World CD 08 My World interview

30 Songlines Music

52 Beginner’s Guide:

32 38 40 44 46

58 62 66 75 77 78 82 83 84 86

13 21 23 24 27 29

Richard Alston Bonus CD Førde Festival What’s New & Obits Letters Soapbox Introducing... Ibibio Sound Machine & Tcha Limberger Spotlight on La Linea Quickfire: Marinah, Mor Karbasi & Dan Walsh

WIN

Awards 2014: The Nominations Julie Fowlis Malawi Mouse Boys Habib Koité She’Koyokh Maurice El Médioni

54 89 95 96 98

Archie Roach Festival Pass: Fes Festival of Sacred Music Gig Guide Subscribe The Essential Ten: Movie Soundtracks Cerys Matthews

Africa Americas Europe Asia Middle East Fusion Books DVDs World Cinema Live Reviews

The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs paperback 15 Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyaté’s Faya album 15 Pair of tickets to see Grupo Niche 27 Sarah Savoy’s The Savoy Kitchen book 82 Transport from Paradise DVD 85

COMPETITIONS Send entries, marked clearly with the competition name, your name, address, email and telephone number to the address on p3 or email: comps@songlines.co.uk. Winners will be chosen at random. Only one entry per household. No cash alternatives. If you would prefer not to be sent details of other Songlines products and services, or products from other carefully selected companies, please state clearly on your entry. Closing date May 5 2014 (unless otherwise stated)

ISSUE 99

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top of the world

01 La Chiva Gantiva ‘Para Arriba’ 02 Mamani Keita ‘Dounia’ 03 Elephant Revival ‘Remembering a Beginning’ 04 Scorpio Universel ‘Ti Lu Lu Pe’ 05 Julie Fowlis ‘Do Chalum (To Calum)’ 06 Malawi Mouse Boys ‘Ndakhumudwa’ 07 Salsa Celtica ‘Descarga Gaélica’ 08 O’Hooley & Tidow ‘Like Horses’ 09 Rajab Suleiman & Kithara ‘Kipenzi Changu Cha Moyo’ 10 Sarah-Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola ‘Itzikel’

Free tracks

THE BEST NEW RELEASES

+ RICHARD ALSTON’S PLAYLIST

top

TOP

OF THE WORLD

of the world

ISSUE9999 PLUS 5 tracks chosen by Richard Alston

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

11 Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman ‘Polkas: Maguire’s Favourite/Tralee Gaol/Maggie in the Wood’ 12 Shukar Collective ‘Verbal Fight’ 13 Lucilla Galeazzi, Marco Beasley, L’Arpeggiata & Christina Pluhar ‘Luna Lunedda’ 14 Amália Rodrigues ‘Fado Corrido’ 15 Shantel vs Mahala Rai Banda ‘Iest Sexy’

Featuring Julie Fowlis, Malawi Mouse Boys, Amália Rodrigues, Salsa Celtica, Mamani Keita, La Chiva Gantiva, Elephant Revival and more...

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STWCD75 This compilation & © 2014 Songlines Publishing Ltd. Email: info@songlines.co.uk, www.songlines.co.uk Executive producer Paul Geoghegan. Compiled and sequenced by Jo Frost and Alexandra Petropoulos. Design by Paul Carpenter. 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. Electric Gypsyland (Crammed Discs) & © 2003 Crammed Discs. Courtesy of Crammed Discs

10 Sarah-Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola ‘Itzikel’ (6:06)

14 Amália Rodrigues ‘Fado Corrido’ (2:06)

top of the world plaYlist tracks 13 Lucilla Galeazzi, Marco Beasley, L’Arpeggiata & Christina Pluhar ‘Luna Lunedda’ (3:33)

12 Shukar Collective ‘Verbal Fight’ (4:05)

TOP OF THE WORLD SELECTION

06 Malawi Mouse Boys ‘Ndakhumudwa’ (3:18)

11 Michael Gorman & Margaret Barry ‘Polkas: Maguire’s Favourite/Tralee Gaol/ Maggie in the Wood’ (3:26) RICHARD ALSTON’S PLAYLIST

From Dirt is Good on IRL Records

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01 La Chiva Gantiva ‘Para Arriba’ (4:04)

07 Salsa Celtica ‘Descarga Gaélica’ (2:59)

10 tracks from this issue’s best new albums + 5 bonus tracks exclusively with the April/May 2014 issue of Songlines

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06 s o n g l i n e s

02 Mamani Keita ‘Dounia’ (4:18)

08 O’Hooley & Tidow ‘Like Horses’ (4:38)

06 Malawi Mouse Boys ‘Ndakhumudwa’

La Chiva Gantiva continue to explore

This Malawian eight piece, renowned for

uncharted musical territory with their

selling field-mouse kebabs when they’re

unique blend of punk, funk and Afrobeat.

not making music, continue to captivate

Latin rhythms and punchy horn riffs

with their uplifting and bare-boned brand

permeate their second record. See p62

of Afro-reggae gospel. See p59

02 Mamani Keita ‘Dounia’

07 Salsa Celtica ‘Descarga Gaélica’

Mamani Keita’s third album departs from

The fifth studio album from Scotland’s

the guitar rock dynamics of her previous

only band with members from Cuba,

recordings and engages with a sparser,

Argentina and Ireland sees them add

more rootsy style, which is both infectious

Gaelic vocals to their unique marriage of

and dance floor friendly. See p58

Celtic and Latin music. See p80

03 Elephant Revival ‘Remembering a Beginning’

08 O’Hooley & Tidow ‘Like Horses’

From Kanou on World Village

From The Tall Islands on Discos Leon Records

From The Hum on No Masters

From These Changing Skies on Itz Evolving Records/Thirty Tigers

With an impressive collection of songs,

The Colorado-based quintet boldly

the latest album from English folk duo

transform the traditional American

Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow

folk formula with a playful fusion of

celebrates ‘the sound of people working’

bluegrass and Celtic music. See p63

and the hum of humanity. See p69

04 Scorpio Universel ‘Ti Lu Lu Pe’

09 Rajab Suleiman & Kithara ‘Kipenzi Changu Cha Moyo’

From Haiti Direct: Big Band, Mini Jazz & Twoubadou Sounds, 1960-1978 on Strut

03 Elephant Revival ‘Remembering a Beginning’ (3:55)

09 Rajab Suleiman & Kithara ‘Kipenzi Changu Cha Moyo’ (5:28)

From Vivo on Crammed Discs

04 Scorpio Universel ‘Ti Lu Lu Pe’ (7:58)

01 La Chiva Gantiva ‘Para Arriba’

Discover the rich and diverse musical

From Zanzibara 8: Chungu on Buda Musique

culture of Haiti with this wonderful

Suleiman’s qanun (zither) playing shines

double album compiled by Hugo

through in this fine testament to the

Mendez of Sofrito. See p64

Zanzibari taarab music tradition. See p61

05 Julie Fowlis ‘Do Chalum (To Calum)’

10 Sarah-Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola ‘Itzikel’

From Gach Sgeul – Every Story on Machair Records

Gaelic music’s most celebrated global

From Sarah Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola on Dell Daisy Records

ambassador, Julie Fowlis, returns

The Scottish-Finnish duo deliver a

after a brief hiatus with a varied and

sensitive array of jigs, strathspeys and

unadulterated collection of traditional

laments rooted in Summers’ Scottish

Scottish Gaelic folk songs. See p66

Highlands background. See p72

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+ Richard Alston’s playlist 11

11 Margaret Barry & Michael Gorman ‘Polkas: Maguire’s Favourite...’ From Her Mantle So Green on Topic Records

Alston used to listen to the traditional Irish singer and banjo player as a student. “It makes me want to get up and dance.”

12 Shukar Collective ‘Verbal Fight’ From Urban Gypsy on Riverboat Records

“I would love to make a Gypsy Mixture [dance] Mark II – a darker one. It’s just like street dance really.” Alston discovered this music as the bonus CD with the Rough Guide to Gypsy Revival album.

13 Lucilla Galeazzi, Marco Beasley, L’Arpeggiata & Christina Pluhar ‘Lunar Lunedda’

From La Tarantella: Antidotum Tarantulae on Alpha Productions Tarantella music from southern Italy. “This is an antidote for the tarantula.”

14 Amália Rodrigues ‘Fado Corrido’

From Portugal’s Great Amália Rodrigues Live at the Olympia Theatre in Paris on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

“There’s extraordinary emotion in fado,” Alston says, choosing a track that showcases the amazing quality of Amália Rodrigues’ voice.

Hugo Glendinning

15 Shantel vs Mahala Rai Banda ‘Iest Sexy’ From Electric Gypsyland on Crammed Discs

Alston’s second Romanian choice and one which he featured within his Gypsy Mixture dance. “It’s very straightforward and incredibly warm.”

“ I’ve learned over the years to not make intellectual decisions but to rely on a gut response. That’s why something like world music is to me such a sympathetic genre. It’s about real people...” Turn over for the full interview with Richard Alston

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BEST ARTIST Çiğdem Aslan For Mortissa on Asphalt Tango Records

Istanbul-born Aslan, the lead singer of the party-loving klezmer band She’Koyokh, strikes out on her own for her solo debut, Mortissa. Meaning ‘strong, independent woman,’ the album revisits classic 1930s Greek rebetika and its Anatolian cousin, smyrneika. With her dark, silky voice, Aslan expertly treads the fine line between tradition and innovation, resurrecting the love songs from smoky emigrant cafés.

Mulatu Astatke For Sketches of Ethiopia on Jazz Village

2014 The Nominations

Now in their sixth year, the Songlines Music Awards celebrate the wealth of musical talent from around the world. Here are this year’s nominees, as voted by you. The winners will be announced in our 100th issue, on sale April 25 wo r d s A l e x a n d r a P e t r o p o u l o s

Çiğdem Aslan Handan Erek; Mulatu Astatke Alexis Maryon; Bassekou Kouyaté Simon Phipps 030-Awards-SL99_v1.indd 30

The Awards album Featuring tracks from all 16 nominees, the Songlines Music Awards 2014 compilation album is available on CD from March 17 exclusively from

+ PODCAST Hear a preview of each track from the Songlines Music Awards 2014 album on this issue’s podcast and Tablet edition

+ ALBUM Our Songlines Music Awards 2014 compilation album is available exclusively from Amazon, http://bit.ly/SMA14CD

With a nod to Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain, Mulatu Astatke’s latest album highlights and celebrates the cultural diversity of Ethiopia, his home country. Looking more to Africa, composer and vibes player Astatke creates a triumphant mix of jazz and African music while still allowing for the effortless creative freedom that has seen him dubbed as the father and ultimate master of Ethio-jazz.

Manu Chao For Sibérie M’était Contéee on Because

Rocker Manu Chao never had much time for the language of his homeland, and for years he refused to sing in French. And yet, here he is with 23 tracks of full-on French song. The album, originally released in 2004 but unavailable outside France until now, nods to the world of chanson and musette while keeping the iconic playfulness that has made Manu Chao a world music superstar.

Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni ba For Jama Ko on Out Here

Malian ngoni star Bassekou Kouyaté returns with a new line-up. Here he is joined by his two sons Madou and Moustafa and a few special guests, including co-producer Howard Bilerman of Arcade Fire fame. Recorded in Bamako just as Mali descended into chaos and turmoil in 2012, Jama Ko became Bassekou’s political manifesto to his distressed country.

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BEST group Clannad For Nádúr on ARC Music

It has been a while since we have heard from Irish group Clannad, fronted by singer Moya Brennan. Their last album came out in 1998 but their big return with Nádúr came just in time to celebrate the 40th anniversary since their debut release. The album, whose title means ‘nature’ in Irish Gaelic, is very much rooted in their home county of Donegal and sees the original family quintet together once again.

Los Desterrados For Dos Amantes on Enkalador Records

Los Desterrados delve into the Ladino music of the Spanish Jews, breathing new life into this largely-forgotten repertoire. They dip into a wealth of influences, including North African, Balkan, Gypsy and flamenco. Assisted by percussionist Guy Schalom on several tracks, the London-based group provide a vibrant glimpse into the influences hidden within Sephardic repertoire.

R.U.T.A. For Na Vschod on Karrot Kommando

newcomer

Dizraeli & the Small Gods

Family Atlantica

For Moving in the Dark on ECC Records

For Family Atlantica on Soundway Records

Bristol-based Dizraeli and his merry band connect the dots between the seemingly distant worlds of hip-hop and folk, highlighting both genres’ democratic nature – “a music of the people with a strong oral tradition, music that isn’t afraid to tell everyday people’s stories,” says Dizraeli. Moving in the Dark is full of honesty and wit, weaving clever tales that are at times dark and others playful.

Fanfara Tirana meets Transglobal Underground For Kabatronics on World Village

For this project, Albanian brass band Fanfara Tirana team up with the masters of global fusion, Transglobal Underground. London-based TGU mix in beats, samples and a slew of instruments to underpin the punchy horns, while Fanfara Tirana are given plenty of time to shine in all their brassy glory. The match-up makes for an entertaining album and a killer live show.

Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita

Fronted by Venezuelan Luzmira Zerpa, Londoner Jack Yglesias and Nigerian/ Ghanaian Kwame Crentsil, Family Atlantica ambitiously delve into the wealth of the music on either side of the Atlantic with their Latin/African fusion. Very much a product of multicultural London, they unite with music of the African diaspora with unparalleled joy, enthusiasm and charisma.

Monsieur Doumani For Grippy Grappa on Monsieur Doumani

This trio of Cypriot musicians – Antonis Antoniou on the bouzouki-like tzouras, Angelos Ionas on guitar and Demetris Yiasemides on wind instruments – have been updating the local repertoire since they formed in 2011. Their debut features confident reworkings of local songs, providing a fresh and inventive take on tradition. Peppered among the traditional songs are a few excellent originals.

Will Pound For A Cut Above on Lulubug Records

Both Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita are no strangers to fusion, each having worked on various projects in the past. However, it is with this collaboration that they’ve made musical magic. So perfectly blended, it is often impossible to distinguish where harp ends and kora begins. There is a wonderful harmony to this meeting of Celtic and Mande traditions.

Harmonica virtuoso Will Pound shows off his stuff on his solo debut. Taking the instrument on an epic journey through varied repertoire, Pound’s playing ranges from delicate to frenzied. For A Cut Above, he taps into the bluegrass repertoire, morris dance tunes and even a bit of gospel. But this isn’t just an exercise in range, it’s his consistent musicality that makes this album something truly special.

Tamikrest

Monoswezi

We Banjo 3

For Chatma on Glitterbeat

For The Village on Riverboat Records

The young Touareg rockers’ third album, whose name means ‘sisters’ in Tamashek, is dedicated to Touareg women, and as such features the outstanding vocals of Wonou Walet Sidati, the group’s only female member. Produced by Chris Eckman, Chatma sees Tamikrest stand out from the Touareg crowd with more variety to their sound, including psych-rock, indie, dub and funk mixed among the iconic desert rock.

Monoswezi is made up of Zimbabwean vocalist and mbira player Hope Masike, a trio of Scandinavian jazz musicians and Mozambican vocalist Calu Tsemane. While mostly based on traditional Zimbabwean song, there a jazz sensibility that lifts it above and beyond mere tradition. Fuelled by Masike’s incredible voice and delicate mbira, Monoswezi offer a fresh new take on both Zimbabwean music and Scandinavian jazz.ezi

For Roots of the Banjo Tree on We Banjo 3

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For Clychau Dibon on Astar Artes

Just as the album’s title implies, We Banjo 3 – Enda Scahill with brother Fergal, plus brothers Martin and David Howley – explore the journey of this often under-appreciated instrument, from bluegrass to traditional Irish music. Joined by several guests including five-string banjo whizz Leon Hunt, they offer an homage to the great players of the past with some top-notch playing.

R.U.T.A. Bartek Muracki; Dizraeli & the Small Gods Philipp Ebeling; Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita Andy Morgan; Monoswezi Lars Halvorsen

Since their debut in 2011, Polish punks R.U.T.A. have made their name with their wild folk-inspired music played with raw power and anarchic vocals. Their second release, Na Vschod (To the East), sees them looking in that direction for inspiration and collaborators. There are songs from Belarus, Ukraine and Russia here, and with things recently kicking off in Kiev, the R.U.T.A. revolution seems to be spreading quickly.

CROSS-CULTURAL COLLABORATION

06/03/2014 15:42

Gaelic Stories P h oto s

D o n a l d

M a c l e o d

Gaelic music’s brightest star, Julie Fowlis, has released a new album, coinciding with a transformative time for Scotland. As she tells Jo Frost, it’s not just about looking to the past, but keeping an eye on the future

couple of songs into her set at the

the Ryder Cup in Chicago in front of an estimated

sold-out Old Fruitmarket concert at

television audience of 500 million; was named in

this year’s Celtic Connections, Julie

The Herald’s list of ‘Scotland’s Top 50 Influential

Fowlis recounts on stage how she

Women of 2012’ and she’s just finished touring with

had made her way to the venue in a taxi, and the

the Transatlantic Sessions, alongside a bunch of

usual friendly Glaswegian taxi banter ensued.

fellow top-notch American, Irish and Scottish roots

“Where are you going?” the taxi driver asks.

musicians. Not forgetting her brief foray into the

“The Fruitmarket,” replies Fowlis.

world of Hollywood when she was asked to sing two

“Oh, nice gig on tonight?”

songs (albeit in English) on the Disney/Pixar, Oscar-

“Well… I hope so!”

winning animation film Brave. Although initially

“Who’s playing?”

wary of how Disney would portray Scotland and the

“Me.”

Scots, she says the experience was “really inspiring.

“Oooh! Who are you?”

As soon as I met them and saw their commitment

“My name’s Julie Fowlis.”

to the project, how they wanted to portray it and the

“Oh, and what do you do?”

humour, I totally loved it and engaged with them.”

“I sing in Gaelic.”

All this and yet Fowlis is only 35, looks much

“Oh,” is his clearly disappointed response, “personally I prefer Steve Earle.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, Gaelic music isn’t your average taxi driver’s music of choice, but within a relatively short space of time, Fowlis’ name has

younger and not at all like a die-hard Gaelicspeaking evangelist. However she is fervently passionate about the Gaelic cause and looks set to be its saviour in many ways. Back in the 1950s the American folklorist and

become synonymous with Gaelic song. A little

song collector Alan Lomax described the Gaelic

under ten years ago Fowlis launched her solo

song tradition as ‘the finest flower of Western

career, with her debut Mar a Tha Mo Chridhe.

Europe.’ More recently, Scottish journalist Sue

Since then she’s released several albums and won

Wilson wrote in Songlines how ‘Gaelic music is

a multitude of awards (see box on p34); now she’s

currently enjoying a remarkable groundswell of

become such an established name within the trad

youthful enthusiasm and talent’ (December 2007,

scene, she co-presents the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards

#48). However, although the appreciation of Gaelic

with Mark Radcliffe. In 2012 she performed at

is now widespread, not just among speakers

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julie fowlis

Julie Fowlis performing at Glasgowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Old Fruitmarket on January 22 2014

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06/03/2014 15:43

The

Modern Griot The Malian singer and guitarist has, like all of the country’s musicians, been dramatically affected by the crisis in his homeland. Daniel Brown talks to Habib Koité about his new album and Mali’s new era

ali has not been kind to its musicians in recent years. Like the country’s intellectual community in general, performers remain dependent on the vagaries of Mali’s socio-political reconstruction, building on the stillsmouldering embers of the 2012 crisis that split the country asunder. To the north, the climate of fear and suspicion between the different ethno-linguistic communities prevails, fuelled by tensions between the returning Malian army and the international peacekeeping forces led by France. To the south, a society painfully healing the wounds of months of chaos that followed the coup by Amadou Sanogo has neither the time nor finances to relaunch Mali’s once-vibrant music scene. “As a result,” points out Fred Miguel, a seasoned promoter for Malian groups in the international arena, “members of emblematic groups from the north like Tartit are unwilling or unable to return home or work in the south. The musicians in Tinariwen suffer daily humiliations at checkpoints set up along all the main roads. Peaceful demonstrations in Kidal are being attacked; independent candidates are accusing authorities of fraud in local elections. Work is scarce; Bamako is a pale shadow of itself. How can musicians work in such an atmosphere?” “By keeping a low profile,” is one answer given to me over a crackling telephone line from the Malian capital by one of the country’s great musical ambassadors, Habib Koité. The guitarist Rolling Stone once called ‘Mali’s biggest pop star’ weathered the crisis thanks to a cautious balance between tours with American singer Eric Bibb; international projects such as Five Great Guitars and Acoustic Africa; and refuge in the house he built a decade ago on the outskirts of Bamako. “As you know, almost all music was banned in the north by the armed groups that controlled half the country. But here in the south, it was also terrible: the authorities decreed a state of emergency for over a year. I must admit, I was in shock, and for months I felt empty, lost. We weren’t allowed to organise concerts, all the clubs shut down, recordings for TV or radio became a thing of the past.”

A few days later our exchange had moved on to a quiet Parisian café on Avenue Ledru-Rollin. It was near one of France’s most innovative stations, Radio Nova, where veteran presenter Bintou Simporé was to host the guitarist for an acoustic session for her landmark music show Néo Géo. The father-of-three was on a pitstop between Bamako, Belgium and the US where he was to embark on a 25-concert tour to promote his seventh and latest solo album Soô. We had an hour to cover the territory left unfinished in our telephone exchange, but even that was not enough. Habib refuses to leave any stone unturned in musing over where a 20-year international career has left him, particularly after the trauma of the previous years. “It was very difficult in Bamako. With musicians banned from the workplace, no money was coming in. Nowadays, it’s not much easier for us; there are so few outlets and so many of us plying our trade there. That’s why the musicians in my new group were happy to come to my place to record this album, even if all I could provide at first was the cost of transport.” Despite these daily challenges, Soô – ‘At Home’ in Bamana – is all about the benefits of staying put. ‘You can leave... and earn a fortune,’ Habib sings in the title-track, ‘[but] your dignity is tainted in this foreign land... We are all better off at home,’ he concludes in a voice that has matured and deepened slightly over the years. “Yes, we’re destabilised just now,” he admits, “but I want the Malian diaspora to know their land, their villages, their parents need them at a time the country is in danger. And they should be proud about how the Malians dragged themselves out of the hole, through dialogue, negotiations and a lot of prayers.” But there is no sign of despair in the 11-song album that is resolutely turned to the future. “This project coincides with a new era for Mali,” Habib insists calmly. “A new leaf for the country, but also for me, on several levels. Not that it was bad before, but I wanted a different sound and fresh musicians. So, after 25 years with the same artists in my Bamada group, I brought in a younger crew, new percussions, I introduced the banjo and used a

“I want the Malian diaspora to know their land needs them”

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Algeria’s Boogie-Woogie Maestro

Max Reinhardt marvels at the multifarious life of the much-loved, nimble-fingered octogenarian Maurice El Médioni

Live photos: MUPERPHOTO

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06/03/2014 15:49

Maurice El Médioni

he cliché is that great music outlives the musicians who create it. Octogenarian greats such as John Lee Hooker or Cuba’s Buena Vista Social Club outlive the initial popularity of their musical genre and then decades later it is their careers that make the music live on and catch fire to new generations, audiences and markets across the globe, as musical currents and tides, like the 1960s UK blues boom or world music phenomenon, work their unpredictable magic. The Algerian Jewish master of PianOriental, Maurice El Médioni, will turn 86 this year, and his innovative piano style, indomitable spirit and the turbulent panorama of his long career in Algerian chaabi and rai music has followed a similar trajectory. The music should have stopped or at least petered out several times for personal, political and historic reasons. But instead he has become a revered and iconic figure in world music, though in fact even 20 years ago he was largely a forgotten and unknown figure. The Berlin-based label, Piranha, first brought him to the attention of wider audiences with the 1996 release Café Oran. It was an ingenious way of taking an unknown musical treasure and opening a new door for him and his music. The spotlight on his extraordinary piano – the boogie-woogie stylings of his left hand underpinning the Arab-Andalus melodies in his right hand – and new collaborators, the Klezmatics’ David Krakauer and Frank London, opened up a whole new chapter. But how did El Médioni, an exiled Algerian Jewish pianist living in retirement in Marseille, come to make that record in Berlin, decades after the heyday of his music? Cue long flashback to Oran, Algeria in the 30s – then known as the ‘Little Paris of North Africa.’ The music scene was flourishing in the more louche and liberal atmosphere of the Jewish quarter, the Derba, where alcohol was permitted in the cafés and Algerian Jews and Muslims mixed freely, enjoying the delights of a port city. The Café Saoud was the salubrious epicentre, established and owned by El Médioni’s father, Jacob, who died when Maurice was six, and his uncle, Messaoud El Médioni, better known as Saoud l’Oranais. He was a renowned singer, orchestra leader and doyen of haouzi, a local popular form of classical Arab-Andalus music. Messaoud had already trained and toured with a nine-year-old child prodigy and oud player from Algiers,

This image: Maurice El Médioni in concert in Tel Aviv, February 11 2014 Right: El Médioni with Lili Labassi, 1958

issue 99

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06/03/2014 15:48

Festival Beginnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pass guide

Archie Roach The Australian Aboriginal singer has had a remarkable life and career, as Jane Cornwell reveals

52 s o n g l i n e s

â&#x20AC;ş issue

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06/03/2014 15:54

SAR AWAK

hen Archie Roach walked on stage at the Playhouse Theatre in Melbourne during the 2012 Australasian Worldwide Music Expo (AWME), the applause bounced off the walls. The stocky 57-year-old is one of Australia’s most beloved voices and songwriters, but this was something else. Having endured a stroke, lung cancer and the loss of his partner and muse Ruby Hunter in the preceding three years, that Roach was there at all – let alone dressed in a dinner suit, with a 13-piece band and ten-voice indigenous choir behind him – was simply remarkable. This was the launch of Into the Bloodstream, a gospel-flecked album chock full of songs of hope, joy and redemption and Roach’s first release of new music in five years. Here were songs such as ‘Big Black Train’, with its cautionary bound-for-hell lyrics; the beautiful ‘Mulyawongk’, a tribute to the life, land and spirit of Hunter; and ‘Old Mission Road’, a lament on a lost childhood and an imagining of what might have been. ‘Won’t you walk with me darling just a couple of miles,’ he sang in his familiar cracked baritone, sitting on a high stool with a heel hooked on a rung, his tie undone Sinatra-style. ‘Won’t you tell me the stories of when I was a child…’ Fast forward a year and Roach is telling me about his story and how it is depicted on the vibrant ochre cover of his new album. Two images flow into each other: on the left is a close-up of a blood cell. On the right, an extract of a painting by Robert Lowe Senior of the Aboriginal mission at Framlingham in south-west Victoria, where Roach’s mother was born and where he lived with his sisters and brothers until he was three. “Then we were taken away,” he says matter-of-factly. Roach is a member of the Stolen Generation: the Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their families by Australian government agencies and placed in orphanages and then with white foster families. His landmark song, 1990’s ‘Took the Children Away’, tells the sad truth of indigenous Australia and subsequently received two ARIA Awards and an international Human Rights Achievement Award. The young Roach was eventually fostered by the Coxes, a family of Scottish immigrants in Melbourne: “Dad Cox had LPs by the Ink Spots, Nat King Cole and Mahalia Jackson, whose version of ‘Amazing Grace’ blew me away. My sister Mary Cox played pedal organ in church; one day this lady got up with a guitar

and played a Hank Williams tune. That was it; I wanted to play guitar after that.” He was 14 when he got a letter from his blood sister, Myrtle, explaining who he was, who his siblings were and that his mother had just passed away. Head spinning, Roach grabbed his guitar and left to search for the truth. He fell apart along the way, living on the streets as an alcoholic. It was at a Salvation Army hostel in Adelaide that he met Hunter. Roach was 17; they would be together until she died in February 2010. Later in their marriage, once they’d had a family themselves, the doors of their house were open to troubled indigenous teenagers, as they themselves had been. Together they made music and formed a band; Roach was working at a homeless shelter when he was asked to support the well-known singer-songwriter Paul Kelly in concert. “I only did two songs. The first was ‘Beautiful Child’. The other was ‘Took the Children Away’. I sang that and there was dead silence.” A shrug. “I thought, ‘Fair enough, no one knows me,’ and got up to walk out. Then the clapping started, here and there at first, and then it was like rain coming down.” His career took off with the Kelly-produced Charcoal Lane; peppered among a series of acclaimed albums and innumerable live shows have been soundtracks for films such as Rolf de Heer’s The Tracker, opening slots for the likes of Bob Dylan, Billy Bragg and Patti Smith and projects including the Black Arm Band (a supergroup of indigenous Australian artists) and Ruby’s Foundation, an organisation that supports Aboriginal arts and culture. Understandably, the triple whammy-tragedy of 2010-11 made him think about retiring. But with the support of his family, long-time manager Jill Shelton and the producer and guitarist Craig Pilkington, Roach went into the studio and recorded Into the Bloodstream with an oxygen bottle on standby: “Slowly, the songs came into me, and as I sang them I started to get better mentally, emotionally and spiritually. “I felt like I’d sung enough about troubles, sorrow and pain, and I needed to turn a corner,” he says in his quiet, dignified way. “I wanted to write about coming through pain in a positive way. We can all rant and rave and I’ll still do that,” he adds with a grin, “but I wanted to say ‘hang on a minute. It’s good to be alive.’”

“I felt like I’d sung enough about troubles and pain, and I needed to turn a corner”

BEST ALBUMS Into the Bloodstream (Liberation Music, 2012) Having suffered the loss of his wife Ruby Hunter, and survived both lung cancer and a stroke, Roach rose from the ashes like a proverbial phoenix with what is arguably his finest album to date. Reviewed in #89.

Charcoal Lane (Hightone, 1990) Roach’s gentle, moving debut features minimal acoustic arrangements, deft accompaniment by Paul Kelly and the late Steve Connelly, and such powerful ballads as ‘Native Born’ and ‘Took the Children Away’.

Jamu Dreaming (Aurora, 1992) Roach’s sophomore effort casts the net wider with songs about everything from marital happiness (‘Love in the Morning’) and fatherhood (‘Mr T’) to domestic violence (‘Walking Into Doors’).

Journey (Liberation Music, 2007) A companion piece to the acclaimed documentary Liyarn Ngarn, a tale of racism and a plea for reconciliation between black and white Australia that featured Roach’s powerful lyrics and voice. Reviewed in #51.

BEST COMPILATION Creation (Warner Music Australia, 2013) This four-CD set features remastered versions of Roach’s first albums, and includes songs such as ‘Down City Streets’ and ‘A Child Was Born Here’, on which the great man’s reputation was built. Here, too, are 14 previously unreleased bonus tracks.

IF YOU LIKE ARCHIE ROACH, THEN TRY….

Shane Howard

Goanna Dreaming (Goanna Arts, 2010)

One of Australia’s most beloved singer-songwriters and one-time frontman of the iconic Goanna, Howard has spent most of his working life collaborating with Aboriginal musicians including Roach. This, Howard’s 11th album, combines poetic and folk traditions as it underlines his commitment to indigenous Australia.

+ VIDEO Watch a video by Archie Roach on the Songlines YouTube channel

ISSUE 99

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06/03/2014 15:55

the essential

Movie Soundtracks As our cover star Julie Fowlis sings on Brave, the 2012 Disney/Pixar film set in the Scottish Highlands, we thought we’d pick ten more of our favourite soundtracks W o r d s S i m o n B r o u g h t o n , J o F r o s t, A l e x a n d r a P e t r o p o u lo s

01 Chico & Rita (Sony Music, 2011)

Many soundtracks don’t stand up away from their films, but 2010’s Chico & Rita – an Oscar-nominated animated feature about a pianist and singer in 1940s and 50s Havana & New York – evokes that golden age of big band Latin jazz. Composed and arranged by Bebo Valdés, and featuring his daughter Idania singing Rita, the film also includes Estrella Morente singing ‘Lily’. SB

02 City of God (Warner, 2003)

The 2002 Brazilian film Cidade de Deus is most famous for bringing the actor and singer Seu Jorge to international attention, though he barely features on the soundtrack. Set in Rio’s favelas in the 60s and 70s, the soundtrack features samba (including veteran singer Cartola), funk-samba (including Raul Seixas), plus harder-edged music by Antonio Pinto and Ed Córtes. SB

03 Cuban Fury (Decca, 2014)

English funny man of Shaun of the Dead fame, Nick Frost, returns with his latest movie about an out-of-shape salsa dancer. As expected, the film’s soundtrack is chock full of Latin fire and tracks from the greats including Tito Puente, Oscar D’Leon and Los Van Van. Need inspiration to shuffle those feet and get out on the dance floor? Look no further. AP

04 Frida

(Decca, 2003)

The soundtrack for 2002’s surreal biopic about the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo won an Oscar. It features original music by Elliot Goldenthal and lots of traditional Mexican music, but the stand-out musical 96 s o n g l i n e s

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moments in the film come from Lila Downs and the extraordinary Chavela Vargas, aged 83, singing ‘La Llorona’. She’s alleged to have had an affair with Kahlo in her youth. SB

05 Inside Llewyn Davis (Nonesuch, 2013)

Inspired by Greenwich Village’s New York folk scene of the 60s, the latest Coen Brothers movie is a slow yet atmospheric tale of Llewyn Davis and his checkered singing career. The highpoint of the film is certainly the soundtrack, produced by T-Bone Burnett and Marcus Mumford, and features singing from the likes of actors Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake, plus The Punch Brothers. JF

06 Monsoon Wedding (Warner, 2001)

A glorious film depicting a typical, colourful, musicladen Punjabi Hindu wedding. Directed by Mira Nair, with music composed by Canadian Mychael Danna (of The Life of Pi fame). Highlights include the qawwali star Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan singing ‘Allah Hoo’, playback singer Mohammed Rafi, Delhi duo Midival Punditz, and Bollywood star Sukhwinder Singh. A musical based on the film is due to open on Broadway this year. JF

07 The Motorcycle Diaries (Deutsche Grammophon, 2004)

Argentinian musician and composer Gustavo Santaolalla wrote this soundtrack to Walter Salles’ biopic on Che Guevara, starring Gael García Bernal. From the man also behind the music for Babel and Brokeback Mountain, this is a wonderful album of the Latin American sounds you’d expect with the beautiful ambient atmosphere for which Santaolalla has made his name. AP

08 O Brother Where Art Thou? (Universal, 2000)

The Coen brothers’ oddball take on Homer’s Odyssey introduced a whole new generation to old fashioned Americana – from blues and work songs to gospel and bluegrass. With a soundtrack just as good as the film, O Brother… features some of Americana’s biggest names, including the man with a voice as pretty as George Clooney’s face, Dan Tyminski; Alison Krauss and Tim O’Brien. AP

09 Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ (Real World, 1989)

A firm favourite here at Songlines HQ. Produced by Peter Gabriel as the soundtrack to Scorsese’s 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ, it was released as a proper, full-length album and went on to win a Grammy. Gabriel has said it was ‘one of the most important records’ he has worked on. Unsurprising, given the impressive list of artists which includes Hossam Ramzy, Youssou N’Dour, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Baaba Maal and Kudsi Erguner on the mournful Turkish ney. JF

10 Slumdog Millionaire (Interscope, 2008)

Though he may be one of the most prolific film composers in the world, it was his soundtrack to Danny Boyle’s colourful Indian epic that made AR Rahman a household name in the West. Having swept the awards in 2008 – including two Grammys, two Oscars, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA – the soundtrack stands up well on its own as a mix of the sounds of modern India, and includes the international hit, ‘Jai Ho’. AP

+ LET US KNOW What’s your favourite?

Write and let us know, letters@songlines.co.uk

06/03/2014 16:29

cERYs matthews BBC 6Music DJ and Songlines columnist Cerys Matthews goes crazy for Prince

UK & world Festivals Our selection of the world’s best festivals

trange how things happen – my last column reflected on that ‘beyond ourselves’ feeling that music can bring about, and this week, right out of the blue, came one of those nights. A night when all the variables lined up and a musician, so fluid in his craft, played a set so effortlessly that music just seemed to pour out of him and through us that we were held captive for three glorious hours. And who was this king bee that kept us buzzing? None other than His Purple Highness, Prince. The day had started normally enough; I was on my way to the BBC for work at 9am as per usual on a Sunday when news came that the 3RDEYEGIRL, Prince’s group, wanted to come in and make an announcement on the show. So a little after 11am three musicians walked in, all LA-groomed and jangling in black and metal, and revealed live on air that Prince would play a show in London, that very night, and I too was going to the ball. When we arrived at the venue at 7pm the atmosphere was incredible, even the queue seemed on fire. These hit-and-run kind of shows are a stroke of brilliance; expectancy does, after all spoil a party. It was a bargain too. Tickets were slashed from £70 to £10. Mozart welcomed us over the PA as we filtered in. There was a request for no filming or photography and, with George Clinton nodding to a great funky rhythm on the opposite balcony, Prince arrives and the magic began. One, two, three, four: an almighty dive into the heart of the loudest, fattest riffs of a traditional rock set-up and euphoria! At once we felt a dollop of Bob Dylan, then Black Sabbath, and then Jimi Hendrix. There he was, sometimes directing the lights, other times directing the monitors, then directing us, so that the Shepherds Bush Empire became a vast instrument conducted by this afro’d Wizard of Oz. Ears squealing when – oh, relief – the intensity dropped. The stage lights darkened, and from that heavy metal explosion came a sonic dawn. We drew a collective breath as familiar melodies came licking out of the shadows. Classic songs simply sung by this god on piano – “How many hits do I got?” – ‘When Doves Cry’, ‘The Most Beautiful Girl in the World’, ‘Sign O’ the Times’, ‘Sometimes it Snows in April’, ‘Purple Rain’, ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’. We listened with jaws open. The phrasing, the musical motifs… man, he made it all seem so damn easy. And those melodies kept coming, in short excerpts, like petals plucked from flowers pitched crazily out into the air between us with just the occasional head bob from Prince, silhouetted right side of the blacked-out stage. The feel good ripples spilled into the following few days too, when more great news was delivered. RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) listening figures revealed that 6Music have almost two million listeners, and the cherry on the cake? My Sunday show has grown yet again, up 25% from this time last year to almost half a million listeners a week – evidence enough that people can, and do, enjoy great

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NEXT ISSUE On Sale April 25 Songlines #100 We look back at the last 15 years of Songlines Toumani & Sidiki Diabaté Mali’s kora lineage Songlines Music Awards The winners!

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music from all over the world in all styles and languages. Today I’ve programmed a Cuban love song, by Xavier Cugat; Brazilian hip-hop artist Karol Konka, who has sampled what sounds like archive field recordings and laid under it some astonishing sub bass; some musette from accordionist and Djanjo Reinhardt contemporary, Vetese Guerino; a new and wonderful David Crosby single and James Brown. I thank you massively if you’ve become one of this growing tribe. So all in all, it was a good week. One to treasure and bottle up, so that when the world can’t deliver such positive vibes then at least I can think back to that love-fuelled night of rhythm and melody when the small figure on stage made us smile and validated the notion that music does indeed have super powers in extreme – “Man, it’s so hot in here, one of us gonna git pregnant!”

+ RADIO Cerys’ BBC 6Music show is on Sundays 10am-1pm + ONLINE www.cerysmatthews.co.uk

...Shepherds Bush Empire became a vast instrument conducted by this afro’d Wizard of Oz

06/03/2014 16:30

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issue 99

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13 Lucilla Galeazzi, Marco Beasley, L’Arpeggiata & Christina Pluhar ‘Luna Lunedda’ (3:33) La Tarantella: Antidotum Tarantulae (Alpha Productions) 2001 Alpha Productions & © 2004 Alpha Productions. Courtesy of Alpha Productions

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