Songlines Magazine Sample Edition #91 by Songlines Magazine

SONGLINES DISCOVER A WORLD OF MUSIC

free cd + rainforest festival + gig guide + the be good tanyas

april/may 2013 rokia traore

96 reviews

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Songlines Music Awards 2013 – Nominations

Sam Lee

Bengali travels

discover a world of music

rokia traore Goes indie rock with PJ Harvey’s producer

The Nile Project Sharing a river of music

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Beginner’s Guide to Ana Moura

Good Kora Karma

Ballaké Sissoko

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Ballake Sissoko

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Jocelyn Pook’s Playlist

songlines music awards The nominees... £4.95

Issue 91 April/May 2013 www.songlines.co.uk www.facebook.com/songlines

°I SSUE

91°

Encounters Festival

Cross-collaboration is the abiding theme of this year’s festival.

Songlines Music Awards The results are in and this year’s 16 nominees are...

Rokia Traoré

The Malian superstar on her life, music and new rock’n’roll-influenced album.

Ballaké Sissoko

Quietly confessional, Ballaké Sissoko shares kora stories with Rose Skelton.

Rainforest Festival

How a world music festival transformed arts and culture in Sarawak, Borneo.

The Nile Project

The musical project bridging communities over the waters of the River Nile.

50 48 www.songlines.co.uk www.songlines.co.uk

2013

The Nominations

Songlines Encounters

Alex Wilson and Kishon Khan collaborate at this year’s Songlines Encounters Festival. Songlines 3

www.songlines.co.uk

Songlines 5

62 15 World Cinema

South Pacific

Books

15 Win Rokia Tickets or CD 17 Win Staff Benda Bilili CD 25 Win The Be Good Tanyas CD 39 Win Ballaké Sissoko CD

COMPETITIONS

68 The Americas

Africa

Europe

Fusion

Middle East

72 81

REVIEWS

April/May13 52

Ana Moura 54 F estival Profile: Ethno Port 57 Postcard from New Orleans 59 Subscribe +GET A FREE CD 91 Gig Guide 96 You Should Have Been There... 98 Backpage from Bangladesh, from Sam Lee

52 Beginner’s Guide to SLTOTWCD-91-sleeve.indd 1

REGULARS

26 Letters 29 S onglines Music Travel

CD 91 10 tracks from this issue’s 10 best new albums, plus 5 bonus tracks. Exclusively with the April/May 2013 issue of Songlines 1 Rokia Traoré ‘Beautiful Africa' (3:34)

From the album Beautiful Africa on Nonesuch Records P

2 Los Pirañas ‘Lambada de Oceanía, África y América (eran un mismo continente)’ (4:08) From the album Toma Tu Jabón Kapax on Vampisoul P

3 Emma Sweeney ‘The Singing Kettle’ (3:29) From the album Pangea on Sweeney Records P

4 Queen Biz ‘Wallou’ (3:31)

From the album Teranga! Senegal on Sterns Music P

5 Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino ‘Aremu an me ‘Gapa'’ (3:35)

From the album Pizzica Indiavolata on Ponderosa Music & Art

The Be Good Tanyas

6 Airileke ‘Wanchef’ (2:14)

From the album Weapon of Choice on Wantok Musik P

7 Derek Gripper ‘Kaounding Cissoko’ (4:24)

From the album One Night on Earth: Music from the Strings of Mali on New Cape Records

19 Homegrown: Son Yambu 21 Cerys Matthews 22 S onglines Encounters Festival 25 G lobe-Rocker:

8 Alasdair Roberts & Friends ‘The Laverock in the Blackthorn’ (6:26)

From the album A Wonder Working Stone on Drag City P

9 Eva Quartet & Hector Zazou ‘Razvivay, Dóbro’ (5:43) From the album The Arch on Elen Music P

10 Tim O'Brien & Darrell Scott ‘Climbing Up a Mountain’ (3:57) From the album We’re Usually a Lot Better Than This on Full Light Records P

PLUS 5 tracks chosen by Jocelyn Pook 11 Ashkhabad ‘Bayaty' (6:01)

From the album City of Love on Real World Records

12 Boban Markovic´ ‘Samanta Cocek' (2:45) From the album Dusa Roma on Piranha Musik P

13 Natacha Atlas ‘Hayati Inta Reprise (Hayatak Ana)’ (6:29) From the album Ana Hina on World Village

14 Luiz Gonzaga & Miguel Lima ‘Dança Mariquinha' (2:36) From the album Musique Du Nordeste Volume 2: 1928-1946 on Buda Musique P

15 Esma Redzepova ‘Ciganka Je Malena’ (4:42)

From the album Esma, Queen of the Gypsies on World Connection P

Total disc time 64:02 STWCD67 This compilation P & © 2013 Songlines Publishing Ltd. Email: info@songlines.co.uk, www.songlines.co.uk Executive producer Paul Geoghegan. Compiled and sequenced by Alexandra Petropoulos with assistance from Lilly Pollard. Design by Jenni Doggett. 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.

Including Rokia Traoré, Tim O'Brien & Darrell Scott, Luiz Gonzaga, Airileke, Emma Sweeney, Natacha Atlas, Los Pirañas, Derek Gripper, Boban Markovic & more...

+ 5 PLAYLIST TRACKS FROM JOCELYN POOK

Whelan, Jamie Smith

Ten tracks from the best new releases

19/02/2013 10:07

7 Welcome 9 Top of the World CD 10 M y World: Jocelyn Pook 12 N ews 18 G rooves: Amira Kheir, Tim

UPFRONT

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

albums (not singles or EPs) with UK distribution. Please send a copy marked ‘FOR REVIEW’ to the address above.

Next issue on sale April 26 2013

See p59 to subscribe or www.songlines.co.uk/subs

THE TEAM

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

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

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

Welcome

There is a real connection, I think, between music and rivers

was in Aswan, Egypt, in January listening to musicians from many of the countries along the Nile. There is a real connection, I think, between music and rivers: just think of the Mississippi, the Ganges or the Rhine. Of course, there are hundreds of songs about rivers – from ‘Ol’ Man River’ and ‘The Volga Boatman’ to the lovely song about the Nile I was introduced to in Aswan by our Nubian guide Chambu. Composed by Sitkhi Ahmed Salim, whom Chambu calls “the Nubian William Shakespeare,” the song says that he who drinks from the Nile will always be victorious. Navigability is essential for a thriving river culture. The Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970, stopped Nile navigation beyond Aswan. The Nubians who used to cultivate dates along the Nile valley were relocated into Egypt and Sudan, many of them to desert areas, and the boatmen who used to trade between Aswan and Wadi Halfa lost their trade. That’s one of the reasons why the cultural and musical links upstream have been lost, prompting the timely gathering of Nile Project musicians – see p46. “There’s something about music that is very much like a river,” says John Junkerman, director of River of Song, a series of films about the Mississippi and its music. “It takes in whatever comes its way. There are tributaries and there are dams, rapids and backwaters, and of course there’s the mainstream... well, you get the idea.” The Mississippi is a ‘river of song’ because it is a real link between ten US states, flowing past cities famed for their music such as New Orleans, St Louis, Memphis and Minneapolis. Indeed, Songlines Music Travel will be running a trip next year that will include musical destinations in three Mississippi cities – New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Memphis. See the Songlines website for more details. In our very first issue, back in 1999, we featured a Top of the World album of music recorded along the Ganges. Ganga: The Music of the Ganges, on Virgin Classics, was a brilliant three-disc set which charted a real journey from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. You heard incidental riverine sounds along the way, as the river passed through great cities like Haridwar, Varanasi and Kolkata. It is one of those albums that has remained a consistent favourite over the years. There’s a river connection with a Top of the World album in this issue, by the psychedelic Colombians Los Pirañas – see p69. The title-track, ‘Toma Tu Jabón Kapax’ (Take Your Soap Kapax), celebrates a local Amerindian hero called Kapax, who in 1976 swam the entire length of Colombia’s main river, the Magdalena, to raise awareness about keeping the water clean. The ecology of rivers is, inevitably, becoming a growing theme for those who live near them. Finally, many thanks to all of you who voted in the Songlines Music Awards 2013 – you can find the resulting list of nominees on p30. Our compilation album, featuring all 16 nominated artists, is available from March 18 on CD and download, exclusively through Amazon.

on the SONGLINES stereo Paul Goran Bregović’s Champagne for Gypsies with The Gipsy Kings and Eugene Hütz.

Ed ‘Sol Clap’ by Quantic. Amazing performance at London’s KOKO.

courtesy of MATT Wild Bill Jones by The Quiet American. Easy oldtime Americana.

ALEX Rokia Traoré’s Beautiful Africa – excited to see her at Glastonbury!

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

www.songlines.co.uk

SONGLINES DIGITAL Songlines Digital subscribers now have free access to the iPad and Android Tablet editions. For more details see p59. Songlines 7

www.songlines.co.uk

Songlines 9

Airileke ‘Wanchef’

From One Night on Earth: Music from the Strings of Mali on New Cape Records Toumani Diabaté’s kora compositions are sensitively arranged for solo classical guitar. See p62

Derek Gripper ‘Kaounding Cissoko’

album for free!

From A Wonder Working Stone on Drag City Brilliant ballads brimming with history, mythology and poetry. See p75

From The Arch on Elen Music Bulgarian folk inspires an expertly mixed album of stunning vocals and diverse arrangements from the French producer. See p84

From We’re Usually a Lot Better Than This on Full Light Records Tight harmonies and merry mayhem from these Americana masters. See p68

Alasdair Roberts & Friends ‘The Laverock in the Blackthorn’

Eva Quartet & Hector Zazou ‘Razvivay, Dóbro’

† Fusionland

We’re giving away a choice of Los Pirañas, Derek Gripper or Emma Sweeney’s new albums (to new subscribers only). See the flyer inside your covermount CD for details, visit www.songlines.co.uk/cd91 or call +44 (0)20 7371 2777.

New to Songlines? Subscribe now and get a From Weapon of Choice on Wantok Music A very cool first album, traditional Papua New Guinea rhythms are reincarnated alongside hip-hop beats. See p83

Tim O’Brien & Darrell Scott ‘Climbing Up a Mountain’

Turn over to see what’s on Jocelyn Pooks’s playlist

2 4

1 † 9

5 8 3 From Pizzica Indiavolata on Ponderosa Music & Art Original songs loyal to the Salento tradition make for a hypnotic album. See p73

Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino ‘Aremu An Me ‘Gapa’’ 10 tracks from

this issue’s 10 best new albums, plus 5 bonus

1 Rokia Traoré ‘Beautif

From the album Beautiful P

ul Africa' (3:34)

Africa on Nonesuch Records

Courtesy of Nonesuch Records

2 Los Pirañas ‘Lambad a de Oceanía, África (eran un mismo continen y América te)’ (4:08)

From the album Toma P

SL / Vampisoul

Syllart Productions. Courtesy

CD 91

tracks. Exclusively with

the April/May 2013 issue

of Songlines

Zazou ‘Razvivay, Dóbro’ (5:43)

on Elen Music

of Elen Music

Courtesy of Full Light Records

PLUS 5 tracks chosen

by Jocelyn Pook

11 Ashkhab

ad ‘Bayaty' From the album City of Love (6:01) on Real

of Sterns Music

Indiavolata

12 Boban Markovic´ ‘Samant a Cocek' (2:45)

on Ponderosa Music & Art

From the album Dusa Roma

of Ponderosa Music & Art

9 Eva Quartet & Hector

From the album We’re Usually a Lot Better Than This on Full Light Records

(3:29)

Courtesy of Sweeney Records

4 Queen

Biz ‘Wallou’ From the album Teranga! (3:31) Senegal on Sterns Music P 5 Canzoniere Grecanic

‘Aremu an me ‘Gapa'’ Salentino (3:35)

From the album Pizzica

6 Airileke

From the album The Arch

10 Tim O'Brien & Darrell Scott ‘Climbing Up a Mountain’ (3:57)

Tu Jabón Kapax on Vampisou

3 Emma Sweeney ‘The Singing Kettle’

From

the album Pangea on Sweeney Records

on Piranha Musik

of Piranha Musik

13 Natacha Atlas ‘Hayati

Courtesy of New Cape Records

8 Alasdair Roberts & the Blackthorn’ (6:26) Friends ‘The Laverock in

14 Luiz Gonzaga & Miguel

Lima ‘Dança Mariquin From the album Musique ha' (2:36) Du Nordeste Volume 2: on Buda Musique 1928-1946 P

15 Esma Redzepova

From the album Esma,

City

Inta Reprise

of Wantok Musik

7 Derek Gripper ‘Kaound ing Cissoko’

Queen Biz ‘Wallou’

From Teranga! Senegal on Sterns Music An exciting compilation, championing the Senegalese singer-songwriter scene, that features an impressive mix of artists. See p66

Working Stone on Drag

Emma Sweeney ‘The Singing Kettle’

of Drag City Inc

From Pangea on Sweeney Records A charming and ambitious album from the young fiddler. Bold interpretations of traditional staples are brilliantly reimagined. See p79

From Toma Tu Jabón Kapax on Vampisoul A Colombian bonanza of spaced-out psychedelic beats and rhythms. See p69

Los Pirañas ‘Lambada de Oceania, África y América’

Rokia Traoré ‘Beautiful Africa’

From the album A Wonder

From Beautiful Africa on Nonesuch Records A voice as surprising, impressive and soulful as ever but benefiting from a noticeable maturity. See p65

of Buda Musique

‘Ciganka Je Malena’

Queen of the Gypsies on

(4:42)

World Connection

On your free CD – the editor’s selection of the top ten albums reviewed in this issue BV. Courtesy of World Connection

Total disc time 64:02

STWCD67 This compilation P & © 2013 Songlines Publishing Ltd. Executive producer Paul Email: info@songlines.co.uk, Geoghegan. Compiled and www.songlines.co.uk sequenced by Alexandra Design by Jenni Doggett. Petropoulos with assistance Mastering by Good Imprint. from Lilly Pollard. CD pressing by Software The producers of this CD Logistics Ltd. have paid the composers and publishers for the use of their music.

Including rokia Traoré, luiz Gonzaga, airileke, Tim o'Brien & Darrell scott, los Pirañas, Derek Gripemma sweeney, natacha atlas, per, Boban Markovic & more...

+ 5 PLAYLIST TRACKS FROM JOCELYN POOK

Ten tracks from the best new releases

UPFRONT

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Total disc time

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rrell Scott, O'Brien & Da tacha Atlas, ey, Na kia Traoré, Tim Including Ro, Airileke, Emma Sween rkovic & more... Ma Luiz Gonzaga Derek Gripper, Boban Los Pirañas, SLTOTWCD-91-onbody.indd 1

19/02/2013 10:07

Also on your CD: five tracks chosen by Jocelyn Pook TRACKS + 5 PLAYLISTCELYN FROM JO POOK

Ten trackesst from the abse new rele s

Ashkhabad ‘Bayaty’

From the album City of Love on Real World “They were a lovely bunch of people and extraordinary musicians. It is very beautiful music... and I can’t forget the guy with all the gold teeth [Atabai Tsharykuliev].” 91

19/02/2013

10:07

Boban Markovic ‘Samata Cocek’

From the album Dusa Roma on Piranha Music [only released on cassette] Jocelyn’s husband is a former schoolmate of Boban Markovic and this track reminds the couple of wild times with the Serbian community in Amsterdam. “We always play it at a raucous evening.”

Natacha Atlas ‘Hayati Inta Reprise (Hayatek Ana)’

From the album Ana Hina on World Village “I played in her acoustic band for a while for Ana Hina [Atlas’ more classical-styled Arabic album]. We played this track at the Barbican with Mercan Dede.”

Luiz Gonzaga & Miguel Lima ‘Danca Mariquinha’

From the album Musique Du Nordeste Volume 2: 1928-1946 on Buda Musique One of forro’s top musicians, Gonzaga was an accordionist, born in Pernambuco in 1912, who he played a wide repertoire of waltzes, foxtrots and choros.

Esma Redzepova ‘Ciganka Je Malen’

From the album Esma, Queen of the Gypsies on World Connection “[Esma] has an extraordinary presence and I find her singing very moving. It’s a voice that really draws you in.” This song is sung from the perspective of a Gypsy girl, lamenting her poverty: that she must beg for food, and that she only has one bag for all her worldly goods. 10 Songlines

alking to Jocelyn Pook in her studio – accompanied by the occasional squawk from a bright yellow budgie she rescued – it sounds like her career has been a series of happy accidents. One thing led to another; there was certainly no master plan. But chance encounters took her from music college into experimental theatre, from advert music for Delta Airlines and Orange to her first album. And then, after Stanley Kubrick heard her music while dropping in on a dance rehearsal in which it was being used, Pook was commissioned to contribute to the soundtrack for his sexually charged film Eyes Wide Shut, with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. In 2011 Pook composed the score for Akram Khan’s Desh, one of the British choreographer’s most highly acclaimed dance pieces, which is currently touring. ‘Desh’ means ‘homeland’ in Bengali and the piece explored the choreographer’s roots in Bangladesh. “Akram’s project drew me into Bengali music and sounds,” Pook explains, “but I didn’t want to imitate Bengali music – he can get the real thing. I’m not pastiching Bengali music any more than he’s pastiching Bengali dance. We have a similar approach and I hope my music has a voice of its own.” The ‘Hallelujah’, featuring a pure voice and strings, is a quintessentially gorgeous Pook sound. If there’s one consistent aspect to her accidental career, it’s that she’s been drawn into many different sound-worlds. After studying viola and piano at the Guildhall School of Music in London, she worked with Impact theatre, the Communards, 3 Mustaphas 3 and her own Elektra Strings. The Mustaphas dubbed Pook and her string-playing colleagues the Fatima Sisters, and they appear on the cover of the second Mustaphas album L’Orchestra ‘BAM’ de Grand Mustapha International and Party (1985), although rather in the background. Around this time Ben Mandelson, chief Mustapha, made her a mixtape. “This amazing cassette, which he called

Intergalactic Strings, had different string styles from all over the place,” she enthuses. “I learned so much from that.” In the early 90s, when Real World was holding ‘recording weeks’ after the WOMAD festival, Pook was there with her Elektra Strings. “Real World invited people from all over the world. There’s never been an experience quite like it for me – the things you get exposed to by duetting with people like that. They were magical musical meetings.” One of the groups she remembers most fondly is Ashkabad – one of the few bands from Turkmenistan to tour internationally. The Elektra Strings ended up recording with them on their album City of Love. “They were a lovely bunch of people and extraordinary musicians. It is very beautiful music – actually playing on it gets you inside the music in a different way. ‘Bayati’ was the track I liked best.” Natacha Atlas is another favourite. It was her 1997 album Hakim that Pook first fell in love with. “I’d always play it at dinner parties and we’d always end up dancing to ‘Kidda,’ my favourite track.” Inevitably they ended up working together, with Pook playing in some of the live concerts when Natacha Atlas released her more classicalstyled Arabic album Ana Hina (a Top of the World album in #52). For the playlist she’s picked ‘Hayati Inta Reprise’. The remaining tracks have a connection to Pook’s Serbian husband, Dragan Aleksic, a visual artist, sculptor and wine dealer. He happens to be from Vladičin Han, the town where trumpet legend Boban Marković is based. “My husband grew up with Boban and they went to school together. Since I’ve known Dragan I’ve inevitably been exposed to the music of that area.” When they met, Pook’s future husband was living in Amsterdam and they organised a big party when he left for London in 1999. “I particularly remember ‘Samata Cocek’,” recalls Pook. “All these Serbians in Amsterdam started doing the dance and it’s one of his favourite tracks – we always play it at a raucous evening.” April/May 2013

UPFRONT

alex harvey-brown

“ I’d spend long evenings on my own listening to music. When you’re on your own, you are often more receptive”

Similarly it was Dragan who introduced Pook to Esma Redzepova – the incredible Romani singer from the great Gypsy city of Shuto Orizari on the outskirts of Skopje, Macedonia. “We went to see her in Amsterdam,” says Pook. “She seems to be an amazing woman. She’s adopted dozens of children. She has an extraordinary presence and I find her singing very moving. It’s a voice that really draws you in.” When Pook first met Dragan, he was spending his summers painting people’s portraits on the Algarve. She spent several summers there too and became well acquainted with Portuguese music. “I heard a lot of fado and I love the older singers like Amália Rodrigues and Madalena de Melo. www.songlines.co.uk

I’d spend long evenings on my own and I’d be listening to music for hours. When you’re on your own you are often more receptive. It was a lovely time – very reflective.” Her love of Portuguese song led her to discover forro music, from northeast Brazil. She has picked a track by Luiz Gonzaga, the most famous forro composer. I ask about her current projects and what she’s listening to. “When I’m working, I don’t want to listen to music,” she confides. At the moment she’s working on a piece for the Brodsky Quartet at the City of London Festival in June and music for a new dance piece by Akram Khan, In the Mind of Igor (iTMOi), for the centenary of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in May. She’s one of

three composers taking part, the others being Nitin Sawhney and Ben Frost. Khan has said of the project that he’s interested in how Stravinsky’s patterns in The Rite of Spring are ‘rooted in the concept of a woman dancing herself to death.’ Pook is reluctant to talk about it. “It’s still in the early stages,” she reveals. “Paganness and primitiveness are central to it. But Akram’s got ideas about what he might need.” DATES iTMOi will be shown at Sadlers Wells in London May 28-June 1. Desh returns to Sadlers Wells in June ALBUM Jocelyn Pook’s album Untold Things will be reissued later this year on Real World ONLINE www.jocelynpook.com Songlines 11

The Nile Project brings together musicians from the many countries along the riverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s banks, spreading cultural and environmental awareness

water music w o r d s s i m o n b r o u g h to n

° Th e

N i l e

Proj e ct°

ne of the surprising things about the Nile in Aswan is how clean it is. The water is gloriously clear; you can swim in it and, they say, you can even drink it. You’d never guess that this river has already travelled 5,000km from its two sources in Ethiopia and Burundi before arriving here in Aswan. The reason is the Aswan High Dam: the vast reservoir of Lake Nasser behind it acts as a giant filter. The ancient Egyptians knew full well that the river came from far away, but it was useful for the priests of the Philae temple to pretend they could control it. Control of the river was power. That remains true today. Just across the water from Philae temple a colourful tent has been erected – the sort of thing used for weddings and celebrations in Egypt which, with a sound system and coloured lights, creates an instant party atmosphere. The location is the Fekra Cultural Centre, a sort of retreat outside Aswan where the Nile Project residency is taking place. It’s an ambitious project bringing together musicians from many of the ten countries through which the river passes. The tent is their rehearsal and performance space.

“Although we all share the same river, most of these countries know very little about each other,” says Ethiopian-American singer Meklit Hadero, one of the instigators of the Nile Project. She explains how she was at an Ethiopian concert in Oakland, California and met Egyptian-born ethnomusicologist Mina Girgis. “After the concert we were asking: ‘Why do we have to go to San Francisco? Why do we have to be in diaspora to hear the music of our neighbours? How can we bring the music of our neighbours to our neighbourhood?’” Working at Fekra on a two-week residency are 18 musicians from five countries – Egypt, North and South Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia – introducing each other to their traditions and then creating new music for a public concert in Aswan and Cairo. “The revolution two years ago was a transformative point in the way us young Egyptians saw the cultures that surround us,” explains co-founder Mina Girgis. “Egyptians have been looking north, east and west to the Arab world and the Mediterranean. But we haven’t looked south to our Nile neighbours. Yet it is the most ancient connection we have and without the Nile that comes from south, Egypt would not be the civilisation it has been.” »

www.songlines.co.uk Songlines 47

At an open-mic session in the tent, the musicians run through potential repertoire for the concert. There are vigorous Ethiopian work-outs featuring masenqo fiddle (Endris Hassen), kebero drums (Asrat Ayalew), cool tenor sax (Jorga Mesfin) and the irrepressible Mekuanet Melese, dancing as if electric shocks are rippling through his shoulders. There’s the sublime stillness of Sudanese singer Ahmed Said Abuamna in a duo with Egyptian ney flute player Mohamed Fouda. And there’s a lengthy creation by Egyptian oud (lute) player Hazem Shahin involving all the instrumentalists in a long composition, almost symphonic in scale, which requires everybody to tune to some approximation of the Egyptian bayati scale. It’s as treacherous as the vast, swampy Sudd, where the White Nile loses over 50 percent of its water to evaporation as it meanders sluggishly through South Sudan. The adungu harps from Uganda have to retune to an Egyptian scale that makes the players Lawrence Okello and Michael Bazibu wince when they first try it, as to them it sounds so out of tune. “On the practical level, each scale has its own nature and tonal gravity and that’s what everybody needs to learn,” explains Miles Jay, who has the formidable job of Music Director for the residency and concert. “On the more conceptual level, we’re tone painting with concepts of the Nile as a whole. We are using the colours of one tradition and painting the shapes of another. We’re bringing in musicians with songs of their own and giving them the opportunity to work together with their thoughts of the Nile.” It’s easy to think of some musical cultures as being more sophisticated than others – the refined classical tradition of Egypt, for example, as being more developed than the ‘folk traditions’ of the south. But what was obviously a seminal moment Jay was the Ugandans demonstrating their polyrhythms to the rest of the group who’d never encountered anything like that before. “When people understood the sophistication and complexity of

those polyrhythms, it was an inspirational moment,” he said. Although from California, Jay has worked a lot in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean and oversees the rehearsals in English and Arabic – as well as occasionally playing an amazing double-bass gimbri, which he designed and built himself. He’s an accomplished musician, organiser and diplomat, reconciling the tensions between these very different cultures and personalities. “Many of us don’t speak the same language,” says Meklit Hadero, “but we do have this musical language that we can communicate with. It’s not hard, it’s soft. It’s not linear but circular and so there’s a lot of space for people to be themselves – and it’s all love.” There are aspects of the Nile Project that seem very Californian – it did have its original moment of inception in San Francisco, after all – and this includes its ideas of participatory leadership. Although he admits he has the final say, Miles Jay doesn’t behave that way. “Everything comes from what I am learning from them,” he says. “My decision-making power is influenced by what comes from the group as a whole.” One of the other diaspora musicians involved is Alsarah, born in Khartoum, Sudan but now living in Brooklyn where she performs what she calls ‘East African retro-pop’ with the Nubatones. “In New York, I am performing the Sudanese music that speaks to me – from my perspective as a woman, as a traveller and immigrant. Sudanese culture is a fusion culture, particularly in Khartoum where all the tribes meet. The music is still very traditional, though then you wonder how it can be a fusion and traditional at the same time.” Alsarah has a powerful voice with a compelling touch of desert grit and is relishing taking traditional music, originally performed with voice, handclaps and drums, and transforming it for this unique ensemble. “One of the things that comes out of this collaborative process is getting to see the similarities in our music,” she explains. “We can all hear the differences quite easily – the

Top (left-right): Sudanese-American singer Alsarah performs at the open-mic session; Egyptian singer Dina El Wedidi

Simon Broughton

Bottom (left-right): Sudanese masenkop lyre player Ahmed Said Abuamna; Ethiopian-American singer Meklit Hadero; Egyptian oud player Hazem Shahin (centre) in rehearsal

April/May 2013

° Th e

N i l e

Proj e ct°

“ We came in as separate musicians but we’re now creating an orchestra with a new sound – a Nile sound...” tunings, the shapes of the instruments – as musicians we notice those immediately. But part of the learning process is seeing the similarities and where we can fit in. We came in as separate musicians but we’re now creating a little orchestra with a new sound – a Nile sound.” Clearly linking the music along the Nile is the lyre that can be found in various types from one end of the river to the other. These include the simsimiyya in Egypt, the kissar in Nubia, the tanbura (amongst others) in Sudan and the krar in Ethiopia. Ahmed Said Abuamna, from Port Sudan, is one of the great singers and lyre players of the Beja people. The one he plays is called the masankop, which has five strings tuned pentatonically – one for each finger. This is the sort of thing that can be seen in Egyptian tomb paintings and temple carvings and there’s a surviving ancient example in Cairo’s Egyptian museum. “The Beja people have been in Sudan for 5,000 years,” he says “and the masankop has been played by the Beja for all that time, for both its rhythmic and melodic possibilities.” The instrument may look simple, but it conjures up a rich glow around Abuamna’s voice, and you can understand its power in traditional societies. The other Nile Project lyre player is Mohsen el Ashry from Egypt’s El Tanbura group, who plays the simsimiyya. In its traditional five-string version very similar to Ahmed Said’s masankop, but El Ashry has created his own instrument of 23 strings with which he can play in all the Arabic maqam (scales). Both these players show the Nile Project’s aim to bring together musicians who relish going outside their comfort zone to create a mixture of tradition and innovation. For the concert, El Ashry adapted a traditional Port Said song to celebrate all the people and traditions feeding into the Nile Project. Taking a front-line role in the project and the concert are four powerful female vocalists: Meklit Hadero from Ethiopia; Alsarah from North Sudan; Nyaruach, sister of rapper Emmanuel Jal from South Sudan, now living in

Nairobi; and Dina El Wedidi from Cairo, Egypt, who’s currently working with Gilberto Gil on the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative (see issue #87). When the latter walked to the mic in the packed-out Aswan concert, she was greeted as the local star – a young voice making an impression on the new, post-revolution independent music scene. Her song, specially written for the Nile project, is called ‘El Ganoub’ (The South), and is about the north/south divide in Egypt – something which we can all relate to, although in Egypt it’s the north that’s richer than the poorer Upper Egypt, in the south. She feels her fellow Cairo residents almost ignore the Nile, or just see it as a honeymoon cruise excursion, whereas the people in the south are more connected to it. The Nile Project is about more than music. Mina Girgis organised a meeting of 35 specialists from 13 countries to talk about the current issues around the river – water supply, conservation and conflict. “There is a question over whose Nile it is and who decides on who gets what,” he says. “There are many discourses that are not really helpful over how we divide up the water. If you speak with politicians who’ve been involved it’s exasperating. So we’re trying a new way – music – and surprisingly enough they think we stand a chance. It’s great to hear that from politicians.” This is just the first stage of the Nile Project – there will be other musical residencies along the river, an event in New York’s Lincoln Centre this year, a possible London event next year and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington in 2016. West Africa has most of the limelight in African music. So it’s a refreshing change to see and hear East Africa flexing its powerful musical muscle along the river Nile. RADIO Hear Simon Broughton present two World Routes programmes on The Nile Project on BBC Radio 3, www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/worldroutes Online www.nileproject.org

www.songlines.co.uk Songlines 49

BEGINNER’S GUIDE

ana moura

Over six albums, the young singer has made fado sound contemporary while honouring its tradition. Gonçalo Frota tells this modern fadista’s tale

hen Ana Moura first set foot on the scene she was the lead singer for just another pop/rock band. During their live sets, she sometimes asked the musicians to indulge her and play a little fado for an encore. Later on, when they were recording their album (which remains unreleased), the producer would ask Moura to sing their pop songs with the same breathtaking spirit she put into the occasional fado. But she really couldn’t do it. It was not in her nature. Fado always took her someplace else. She traded day for night and started

52 Songlines

soaking up the teachings of singers such as Jorge Fernando, in ill-lit after-hours haunts where only fadistas and their close entourage are allowed in. This was the time, at the turn of the century, where she started performing at one of Lisbon’s most revered fado restaurants, Senhor Vinho, run by Maria Fé – a launch pad not only for Ana Moura, but also for Mariza, António Zambujo and Aldina Duarte. However, there’s something quite striking that Ana Moura has kept immaculate from those early years: the ability to sing a catchy melody and enter our lives without permission. That makes Moura’s fado more pop than possibly any

other’s. But there’s absolutely no harm in that. This unique quality, married to her beautiful, well-tempered, low, mysterious, sensuous voice, comes close to explaining the source of her spell, one that has proven incredibly effective in captivating the Rolling Stones, Prince and Herbie Hancock. And that’s no small accomplishment. She subsequently recorded both ‘No Expectations’ and a fado-meets-honky-tonk version of ‘Brown Sugar’ for The Rolling Stones Project, a quirky album of Stones covers put together jazz saxophonist Tim Ries. Prince is also a big fan of hers. He flew by private jet to Paris in 2009 expressly to April/May 2013

BEST ALBUMS see her live at La Cigale, where he praised the spiritual warmth of her music. The following year, Prince played electric guitar accompaniment to Moura’s take on ‘Vou Dar de Beber à Dor’ for an encore at a Portuguese summer rock festival, where they also performed a Portuguese version of Prince's ‘Walk in Sand’. This flirtation with pop/rock goes both ways and you can track it right back to her very beginnings. Since Moura’s debut album, Guarda-me o Vida na Mão, she has always searched for a fresh and contemporary approach to the traditional fado repertoire. She was able to make a statement, by inviting young local singersongwriters to write lyrics for her fados. By doing this with each record, she created her own style. She admitted in interviews that she wanted to sing like a 20-something and not an old revered fado legend; she aimed to win over an audience that could be her Friday-night mates, using words that meant something to today’s world, and not just something from a dusted-off old poetry book. In a way, she only wanted her fado to be a little more like her. Moura’s first musical memories are of big family get-togethers where everyone sang or played guitar. She has recalled singing her first fado song, ‘Cavalo Ruço’ at the age of six. Her family favoured both fado and songs from Portuguese revolutionary authors – antifascist anthems that were essential in transporting traditional sounds from their rural nests to popular music. The country’s folk music was a big part of the songs of José Afonso, José Mário Branco and Fausto Bordalo Dias, and the fact Moura convinced the ever so reclusive Dias to hand her an unreleased piece, ‘E Viemos Nascidos do Mar’, for her third album, Para Além da Saudade, was the greatest sign of her musical development. Along with an original penned by Amélia Muge, one of the biggest heirs of the aforementioned generation, it was a high point on the first defining album of her career, which went triple-platinum, selling more than 55,000 copies. Her art began to blossom via interesting repertoire choices, projecting a more honest and heartfelt image of what fado could be. And from then on, it turned into something utterly powerful and mesmerising. Leva-me aos Fados (2009) was full of a new-found confidence. It was a departure album for Moura and Jorge Fernando, one of adding the firm hands of www.songlines.co.uk

She wanted to sing like a 20-something and not an old revered fado legend, using words that meant something to today’s world... guitarist Custódio Castelo to the musical arrangements. It explored Moura’s involvement with the Portuguese folk world a little further, by bringing back Amélia Muge and also by welcoming Gaiteiros de Lisboa – a folk-rock band who are the Portuguese equivalent of, say, Hedningarna – for the final theme. For the first time, Ana Moura risked including a song of her own, ‘Que Dizer de Nós.’ After her successful world tours and collaborations with fans from the most surprising rock and funk origins, Moura’s sixth album, Desfado, is the point of departure her career really needed. Parting ways with her previous producer Jorge Fernando, Moura and her musicians flew to Los Angeles and recorded with Larry Klein, who has produced albums for Joni Mitchell, Tracy Chapman, Melody Gardot and Madeleine Peyroux. He brought in jazz superstar Herbie Hancock, veteran of several classic Miles Davis albums, to lend his trademark jazzfunk electric piano to the album. Desfado puts it all out in the open: her proximity to some of the best songwriters of her generation – Pedro da Silva Martins (Deolinda), António Zambujo, Márcia Santos and Miguel Araújo Jorge – and the outright confidence of her first international record, as demonstrated by the gorgeous cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘A Case of You’ and new tracks ‘Thank You’ and ‘Dream of Fire’. It’s one record guaranteed to please all: her younger Portuguese audience, with the informal, youthful compositions; the world stage with the English songs; and the hardcore fado fans with a couple of traditional recordings. If you put it all together, it is a pretty accurate picture of who Ana Moura is as a singer. podcast Hear music from Ana Moura in this issue’s podcast DATE See the Gig Guide for Ana Moura’s UK tour dates in April ALBUM Desfado will be reviewed in the next issue (June 2013, #92), on sale April 26

Para Além da Saudade (World Village, 2007) No longer a girly fadista trying to make it, but instead a confident and fully-grown woman. She collaborates with Amélia Muge in the stunning ‘O Fado da Procura,’ records a rare song by the influential Fausto Bordalo Dias and welcomes Rolling Stones’ saxophonist Tim Ries. This is where it all begins. Leva-me aos Fados (World Village, 2009) On the last of her Jorge Fernando productions, she takes a step further in bringing folk elements to her fado foundations. The final song ‘Não É Um Fado Normal’ (This is no Ordinary Fado) is the perfect ending for a record where she pulls off beautiful traditional performances but closes the curtain reminding everyone you can’t put limits to her singing. Desfado (Decca, 2012) No longer afraid of what her peers might think of her chosen path, Ana Moura shamelessly flirts with pop music, sings Joni Mitchell’s ‘A Case of You’ and shows one of the possible ways for fado to develop. A turning point in her career.

BEST Avoided Guarda-me a Vida na Mão (World Village, 2003) Not so much a matter of avoiding it as a question of making sure it stays the bottom item in the shopping list for Ana Moura’s records. On her debut album she was still a long way from the fado goddess that was to be revealed, sounding rather innocent and naive. Like Ana Moura? Then try…

A Naifa

Não se Deitam Comigo Corações Obedientes (Antena Portuguesa, 2012) Not exactly a traditional fado act, A Naifa is a creation of former pop-rock musicians Luís Varatojo and João Aguardela, who put the fado-esque voice of Maria Antónia though its paces, with a Portuguese guitar, electric bass and drums, as she sumptuously delivers lyrics by contemporary poets. Songlines 53

FE STIVA L

P R O FILE

FESTIVAL PROFILE

ethno port Poznan´, Poland Ethno Port offers a feast for the ears, eyes, feet and belly. There’s nothing else like it in Poland: Tim Cumming visits the idyllic town of Poznań to find out why it’s so special

’m leaving my hotel the morning after Ethno Port’s closing night, wondering how to get to Poznań’s airport, when I fortuitously meet festival coordinator Bozena Szota. We repair to her offices in an early 20th-century Imperial Castle, built for the German Emperor William II, and used as a base by Hitler during World War II. It’s now a cultural centre, with enormous rooms and echoing hallways straight out of the set for Citizen Kane. Ethno Port’s offices are high up in the building, in rooms that were once the wardrobe to the empress of Poland. A manual typewriter sits on a windowsill behind ancient metal blinds. The dust on its case looks like it settled with the Iron Curtain. You can see a monument to the

54 Songlines

1956 uprising from the window. Bozena Szota has been with the festival since its beginning in 2008, and has helped it grow into Poland’s most significant world music gathering – what Szota describes as “an annual celebration for the fans of the less easily definable, of the ever-more interweaving cultures of the world, as well as for purists seeking sensations closer to the raw tradition.” Previous years have featured Staff Benda Bilili and Hanggai (2010), qawwali singer Faiz Ali Faiz, JuJu and Colombian group LA-33 (2011). Last year’s festival included Titi Robin, Maallem Mokhtar Gania and Celso Piña. This is a town festival; there’s no camping here. Festival-goers wander down from town around midday to catch the

lectures, workshops and films on show before the music begins. When the live programme finishes, there’s a late-night festival club where DJs sets mix with more informal, communal live performances. Eclecticism remains the key. “It is hard to believe,” enthuses Szota, “that during one night the crowds applauds a charismatic rocker from the UK, a traditional pipe player from Greater Poland and Palestinian virtuosos of the Arabic oud.” That may be par for the course at a global gathering like WOMAD, but here in Poznań there’s nothing else like it. The festival site comprises a marquee and open-air main stage with a busy bar between them, in the grounds of the old channel of the Warta River. Nearby is an April/May 2013

photo credits: ethno port and Dariusz Krakowiak

Poland and its neighbours’ porous folk traditions are a festival speciality enormous red-brick power station, long decommissioned and occasionally used by experimental theatre groups. It’s a few blocks down from Stary Rynek, Poznań’s almost absurdly picturesque cobbled town square that dates from the 13th century and which is very much the thriving centre of the city. Here, ranged around the Renaissance architecture of the Town Hall, you’ll find a slew of terraced bars on the ground floors of striking 16th-century merchants’ houses. Around it lies a warren of narrow streets dotted with boutiques, clubs, restaurants, even a good independent record store. As luck would have it, a slow food festival had moved in, too, which meant a banquet of dishes from all over Poland – breads, cakes that take 72 hours to prepare, fruit liqueurs, Pomerian beer and berry wines, Benedictine pick-me-ups and gargantuan sausages, alongside arts and crafts, military horses and an organ grinder. Typical of Ethno Port’s adventurous programming was the showmanship and shamanism of South Korean ensemble Noreum Machi. They perform music of percussive intensity called samul nori in elaborate costumes, their headgear trailing long streamers that swirl around their heads like streaks of light. They also field large drums, gongs and cymbals, each evoking essential forces – sun and moon, earth, fire and water. The latter is a modern staging of an ancient peasant ritual steeped in shamanism and animistic fire, called pungmul nori. It’s strikingly dramatic and exotic, and helps to keep the open-air festival crowd of 1,000 or so people warm against the grey skies and intermittent drizzle of an unusually chilly Saturday night. Poland and its neighbours’ porous folk traditions are a festival speciality. Though they didn’t top the closing night bill – that went to BBB (Balkan Beat Box) and their www.songlines.co.uk

new Occupy-era album of bare-chested political rock-rap – young all-female band Vidlunnia showed great potential. The name is Ukrainian and means ‘echo,’ and their inspiration comes from the traditional songs of Ukraine, Belarus and Poland, and from their own song-seeking travels through those regions. Intimate and largely acoustic, Vidlunnia stripped back the centuries while remaining rooted in their own time, with a shout-singing style and folk instruments mixing with 21st-century synthetic sounds. But even they were topped on the closing night by a marquee set of glorious vocal polyphony from Satovcha, a small mountain village in south-west Bulgaria, courtesy of the women of Na Visoko. Their songs are short – often less than two minutes – but their performance is extraordinary; earthier and punchier than the academy-trained Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. Three women from the group had come to find Bozena Szota as we were walking towards the festival offices the following morning. They had brought with them gifts of an apron, slippers and a shawl woven by the singers themselves in the village colours. Their opportunities for international travel are limited, but the impact of their performance is universal. “Their music drills deep inside me,” one festival-goer told me as the set ended. Szota agrees. “It is a pure tradition, unadorned and offering no easy access,

but they put a spell on listeners. I had the impression that it was the most applauded concert this year.” Each year, the festival features a special commission. For 2013, it will be Poland’s young indie electro-folk trio Dagadana working with high-energy string band Vołosi. For 2012 it was Moroccan Gnawi Maallem Mokhtar Gania with jazz improviser Michael Zerang and clarinettist Wacław Zimpel. Gania was on fire and in command, setting a supersonic pace with heavy, deep gimbri rhythms that the jazzers struggled to match. With 2013’s programme promising mercurial Hungarian violinist Félix Lajkó, Boban and Marko Marković and veteran Italians Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino [who are a Top of the World review this issue], Ethno Port retains its promise of lasting musical encounters and dramatic juxtapositions. It’s a relaxed and intimate celebration of the larger community that music brings together, where you’ll find intriguing, often spellbinding regional acts – the Bulgarian Women of No Visoko come to mind – that you simply won’t find elsewhere. And if you’re lucky, that slow food festival will have swung back into town, to satisfy the taste buds as profoundly as the music satisfies the heart, the feet and the ears. DATES The next Ethno Port festival will take place June 6–9 2013 ONLINE www.ethnoport.pl Songlines 55

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