Songlines Magazine (December 2015, #113) by Songlines Magazine

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CONTENTS

71 Postcard from Romania

Arne Reinhardt; Rachel Gadsden

UPFRONT

FEATURES

REVIEWS

06 09

Mariza

Ana Tijoux

46 48 50 56 57 58 62 63 64 66

11 17 18 21

Top of the World CD Bonus CD – British Library West African Recordings What’s New Letters Introducing... The Gurdjieff Ensemble & Lynched Spotlight: Hazmat Modine

32 36 40

The fado star on finding happiness The Chilean rapper singing out against social injustices

Sweet Liberties

Commemorating Britain’s democracy

Kimmo Pohjonen Finland’s accordion wiz returns

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

REGULARS 68 71 72 74 77 79 81 88 89 90

Karen Matheson

Reconnecting with her Gaelic roots

“Guitars are used in traditional and neo-traditional music almost everywhere. Well, I don’t like it”

My World: Courtney Pine Postcard from Romania Beginner’s Guide: Béla Fleck Festival Pass: Dancing for Peace Festival, Brazil Dispatch from La Réunion Quickfire Gig Guide Subscribe Soapbox Essential Ten: Squeezebox albums

Jim Hickson declares a ban on guitars, p89

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top of the world

01 Bwazan ‘An Ka Foli Ke’ 02 Lura ‘Sabi di Más’ 03 Ilaria Graziano & Francesco Forni ‘Lastrada’ 04 The Hot 8 Brass Band ‘New Orleans, After the City’ 05 Karen Matheson ‘Gura Mise Tha Gu Dubhach’ 06 Mariza ‘Rio de Mágoa’ 07 Kardeş Türküler ‘Hem Okudum Hem Yazdim/Çağrı’ 08 Kimmo Pohjonen ‘Cyclon’ 09 Shantel & Areti Ketime ‘EastWest – Dysi Ki Anatoli’ 10 Yuan Deng ‘Spring Dawn in the Snowy Mountains’

Free tracks

THE BEST NEW RELEASES

COURTNEY PINE’S PLAYLIST

top

of the world

TOP

OF THE WORLD

ISSUE 113 113 PLUS 5 tracks chosen by Courtney Pine

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

11 Farmer Nappy ‘Big People Party’ 12 Besh o Drom ‘Büntető’ 13 Buika ‘Mi Niña Lola’ 14 Rudresh Mahanthappa ‘Snake!’ 15 Manu Dibango ‘Africa Boogie’ Exclusively with the December 2015 issue of Songlines. STWCD89. This compilation & © 2015 MA Business & Leisure Ltd

Featuring Mariza, Shantel, Kimmo Pohjonen, Karen Matheson, The Hot 8 Brass Band, Buika, Manu Dibango, Kardeş Türküler and more... SLTOTWCD-113-onbody.indd 1

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STWCD89 This compilation & © 2015 MA Business & Leisure Ltd info@songlines.co.uk, www.songlines.co.uk Executive producer Paul Geoghegan. Compiled and sequenced by Jo Frost & Alexandra Petropoulos. Design by Calvin McKenzie. Mastering by Good Imprint. CD pressing by Software Logistics Ltd. The producers of this CD have paid the composers and publishers for the use of their music. Urram (Vertical Records) & © 2015 Vertical Records. Courtesy of Vertical Records

05 Karen Matheson ‘Gura Mise Tha Gu Dubhach’ (5:11)

04 The Hot 8 Brass Band ‘New Orleans, After the City’ (5:52)

09 Shantel & Areti Ketime ‘EastWest – Dysi Ki Anatoli’ (4:05)

15 Manu Dibango ‘Africa Boogie’ (4:18)

14 Rudresh Mahanthappa ‘Snake!’ (6:22)

top of the world plaYlist tracks SLTOTWCD-113-sleeve.indd 1

12 Besh O Drom ‘Büntető’ (3:16)

01 Bwazan ‘An Ka Foli Ke’ (3:28)

TOP OF THE WORLD SELECTION

06 Mariza ‘Rio de Mágoa’ (3:19)

11 Farmer Nappy ‘Big People Party’ (4:04) COURTNEY PINE’S PLAYLIST

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

119 mm

120 mm

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BACK

› issue

The fado singer returns from a five-

showcases fantastic music that never

year hiatus with a set that is bold and

gets exported outside the country, and

ambitious. Mundo is brilliantly produced

provides a diverse and enjoyable insight

by Javier Limón and showcases Mariza’s

into Mali’s rich talent. See p47

breathtaking artistry. See p51

02 Lura ‘Sabi di Más’

07 Kardeş Türküler

With a mixture of original material and

From Kerwanê on Membran/Network

melancholic covers, Lura explores her

Now a solid feature of the musical

traditional Cape Verdean roots through

landscape in Turkey, Kardeş Türküler

delightful, upbeat funanas and a precise,

celebrate their 21st anniversary with this

jazzy production. See p46

‘Best Of ’ compilation. See p57

03 Ilaria Graziano & Francesco Forni ‘Lastrada’

‘Cyclon’

From Herança on Lusafrica

‘Hem Okudum Hem Yazdım/Çağrı’

08 Kimmo Pohjonen

From Sensitive Skin on Octopus/Ondine

From From Bedlam to Lenane on Agualoca Records

Finnish accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen

This duo pull off a dazzling collaboration,

releases what may be his most

stylishly genre-hopping everything from

stimulating work to date, pushing sonic

blues and alt-country to Neapolitan

boundaries through throbbing rhythms

canzone and more. See p59

and expansive production. See p53

04 The Hot 8 Brass Band ‘New Orleans, After the City’

09 Shantel & Areti Ketime

The New Orleans-based brass band

From Viva Diaspora on Essay Recordings

celebrate 20 years since their formation

Inspired by Greek music, beat master

with an energetic and vigorous selection

Shantel produces another impressive

of new and old songs. See p48

album to add to his repertoire. See p60

05 Karen Matheson ‘Gura Mise Tha Gu Dubhach’

10 Yuan Deng

A mesmerising collection of Gaelic

The gifted virtuoso Yuan Deng exhibits

tunes that charmingly and unexpectedly

astounding flexibility and technical range

includes African and Indian flavours,

of the guzheng (Chinese zither), resulting

courtesy of the kora and sarod. See p52

in a unique debut album. See p56

From Urram on Vertical Records

06 s o n g l i n e s

02 Lura ‘Sabi di Más’ (4:17)

OUTERPAGE

07 Kardeş Türküler ‘Hem Okudum Hem Yazdım/Çağrı’ (4:44)

From Mundo on Warner Music Portugal

Across 13 tracks, this compilation

‘EastWest – Dysi Ki Anatoli’

121 mm

AUDIO POSTER 12PP

13 Buika ‘Mi Niña Lola’ (4:31)

120 mm

06 Mariza ‘Rio de Mágoa’

From Lost in Mali on Riverboat Records

From Vicennial: 20 Years of The Hot 8 Brass Band on Tru Thoughts

118 mm

08 Kimmo Pohjonen ‘Cyclon’ (4:17)

03 Ilaria Graziano & Francesco Forni ‘Lastrada’ (4:36)

01 Bwazan ‘An Ka Foli Ke’

FRONT

113

‘Spring Dawn in the Snowy Mountains’ From The Mountain and the River on Felmay

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+ Courtney Pine’s playlist 11

11 Farmer Nappy ‘Big People Party’ From Big People Party on Fox Fuse

“Every time I hear the record it makes me smile. There are lots of other Caribbean artists who touch me and could have made the list. But this just makes me feel so good…”

12 Besh O Drom ‘Büntető’ From Kertünk Alatt on NarRator Records

“The sax player and founder Gergő Alfred George Bailey

Barcza is a Berkeley jazz student but he then went back to Hungary and he’s gone off like a lunatic... It’s traditional folk music but they translate it to a rave...”

13 Buika ‘Mi Niña Lola’ From Mi Niña Lola on Warner Spain

“The first thing that struck me was the voice. I’d never heard anything like her in my life. It’s so haunting. ‘Mi Niña Lola’ was the first song I heard and it makes me cry every time.”

14 Rudresh Mahanthappa ‘Snake!’

“I ended up hanging around with Osibisa every weekend, learning what it was to be a musician... if Osibisa didn’t exist I don’t think I would have been a musician at all” Turn to p68 for the full interview with Courtney Pine

From Kinsmen on Pi Recordings

Jazz musician Mahanthappa has “retained his classical South Indian roots and

NEXT ISSUE: Natalie Merchant’s Playlist

found a way of putting it together with his American upbringing in a unique way.”

15 Manu Dibango ‘Africa Boogie’ Pine first heard Manu Dibango at a festival in Portugal. “[It] was a life-

John Huba

From Waka Juju on Soul Makossa

The American singer-songwriter of 10,000 Maniacs fame chooses her favourite tracks to be featured on the covermount CD of the January/ February 2016 issue (#114).

changing moment. That’s when I decided I was going to be a solo artist rather than standing in the back of a reggae band.”

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INTRODUCING...

Andranik Sahakyan

The Gurdjieff Ensemble Simon Broughton speaks to Levon Eskenian who, with the help of his ensemble, is breathing new life into Armenian folk music collected in the early 20th century

he intense breathy sound of a flute over a plucked lute and rippling zither and the plangent tone of a reedy duduk take us into another world. A world now vanished. The lyrical modes of Armenian music always seem full of melancholy and this recording, made 100 years after the Armenian genocide, seems like a requiem for what was lost. The music is by Armenia’s most revered composer, Komitas – also a collector and arranger of folk tunes, a choirmaster and a priest. Komitas (1869-1935) was born in Ottoman Turkey, raised in the seminary at Etchmiadzin in Armenia, studied in Berlin and then settled in Istanbul. During the Armenian massacres of 1915 he was arrested and deported to a prison camp. He suffered a mental breakdown and spent his last years in an asylum in Paris. For Levon Eskenian, who runs the Gurdjieff Ensemble, he’s still an unrecognised link into the country’s musical traditions. Komitas arranged some of the folk tunes he collected into piano pieces; now Eskenian has rearranged these, taking them out of the salon and reinstating their folk origins.

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The ten-piece Gurdjieff Ensemble includes duduk, pogh (Armenian flute), bowed kamancha, plucked oud, tar and kanon, plus drums and percussion. “What amazed me during my work, is the way Komitas transposed all the details onto the piano, thus creating an original structure and unique pianistic idiom,” Eskenian says. He did a similar thing a few years ago with the music of Armenian composer and writer Georges Gurdjieff, the author of Meetings with Remarkable Men. The brilliant Music of Georges I Gurdjieff was a Top of the World in #80. What helped with these Komitas arrangements was the fact that the composer noted the instrumentation of the pieces and suggested the pianist try and imitate them. He writes ‘in the style of duduk and tar,’ or ‘in the style of tar and dap [frame drum].’ The main compositions are Yot Par (Seven Dances), which come from different regions of Armenia, and a composition called Msho Shoror, made up of dances from the monastery of Surb Karapet near Mush (in eastern Turkey), which was the most important religious centre after Etchmiadzin.

These dances were part of the religious ritual and include the sound of a jangling censer and plate with jingles that were used by the priests. There are some extraordinary photos of the monastery taken in 1905 in the CD booklet. But little of it survives today. This is a substantial piece of musical archaeology and resuscitation. Looking at the piano scores they appear as pleasant folk-like miniatures but what Eskenian and his musicians (mainly from the Komitas Conservatoire in Yerevan) have done is really bring them to life. It’s a remarkable achievement. Many of these pieces came from Armenian communities in Turkey that were destroyed in 1915, while other changes took place in Soviet Armenia as the country modernised, so the world and the music that Komitas once knew has vanished. This is a valuable glimpse into what was lost. Interestingly, the original piano pieces arranged by Komitas have also been recorded by pianist Lusine Grigoryan and will be released by ECM next year.

+ ALBUM Their new album, Komitas, will be reviewed in the next issue

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Lynched Billy Rough takes a look at the Irish four-piece who are creating a stir with their experimental and eclectic reinvention of traditional Irish tunes and repertoire

rom their beginnings as an ‘oft misunderstood experimentalpsychedelic-folk-punk-duo, playing with far more heart than talent,’ self-proclaimed Dublin folk miscreants Lynched have been garnering some rather fine praise for their eclectic, atmospheric and fertile reinvention of songs and tunes from the Irish folk tradition. Formed by brothers Daragh (guitar and vocal) and Ian Lynch (uilleann pipes, whistles and vocals) 12 years ago, it was while touring Dublin’s rich folk sessions and clubs that the duo swiftly enlisted the skills of multiinstrumentalist Radie Peat (concertina, bayan, harmonium, whistles and vocals) and virtuoso fiddler (and banjo player) Cormac Mac Diarmada. The alchemy born from such a fortuitous gathering saw them record their debut album, Cold Old Fire, in 2015 (reviewed in #103), a superb and exciting release.

How does one describe Lynched? There is certainly a curious yet enchanting mix of sounds in this heady brew; hints from the Travellers tradition, a dose of traditional American and Irish dance tunes, with a little dash of music-hall flair, all wrapped in the best musicianship of four-part vocal harmonies, pipes, fiddle and guitar. Adding flavours of ambient techno, psychedelic folk, black metal and punk to the mix delivers a potent, evocative and tangy stew, one that is fundamentally hard to pigeon-hole, as Ian notes: ‘I usually just let other people describe the band to be honest. We all have a particular sound in our head that we like, but I don’t know what it’s called. We often straddle a thin line between treating the song with the dignity that it deserves on one side and coming up with something that to us at least, is musically interesting on the other.’

Musically interesting it undoubtedly is. While Lynched’s heart is firmly rooted in tradition, the band are also fully aware of the relevancy and power of these songs and tunes and the fruitful musical lineage to which they now belong. ‘We are all continually influenced by all of the amazing singers and musicians that we are lucky to know around the country, to me that is the biggest inspiration of all. We would also be very into old recordings of singers like John Reilly, Mary Delaney and Tom Lenihan to name but a few. Of course bands like Planxty, The Dubliners and Sweeney’s Men have always been a big influence, along with their UK counterparts, bands like Swan Arcade and the Watersons.’ Outside of the folk world though there are a few other unusual and intriguing influences: ‘anything from Krautrock and electric music to 80s British anarcho-punk and second-wave Scandinavian black metal.’ Cold Old Fire is a true gem, beautifully produced and richly stepped in tradition, its intimate, timeless atmosphere captures a stimulating and engaging new talent. The band are touring the UK during November before heading back to Ireland for a few more gigs with the promise of a new recording in 2016. There is nothing cold about Lynched, in fact they are positively sizzling.

+ DATES See the Gig Guide

Brian Flanagan

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for more details + WIN We have 3 copies of Lynched’s Cold Old Fire to give away. To enter, answer the following: Where are Lynched based? See p17 for rules

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â&#x20AC;ş issue

113

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MARIZA

Marizaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s World With the release of her first album in five years, Mariza makes sure fado is not a limitation. Mundo, she tells GonĂ§alo Frota, is her way of saying these are happy times

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

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ANA TIJOUX

Chile’s Fearless Rapper Ana Tijoux discovered hip-hop while growing up in France but as she tells Gonçalo Frota, it was only after arriving in Chile that she was able to develop a true identity for her life and her music

aving travelled frequently to the US these last few years, Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux began to wonder why her music wasn’t reflecting the same kind of wonderment in rediscovering her musical roots as she noticed with her Afro-American friends. They felt so close to their own jazz, blues and soul. Tijoux began questioning her role as a musician from Chile – and not anywhere else. It didn’t take her long to realise that among her generation – be it heavy metal buffs, hip-hop maniacs or hardcore jazz fans – they all shared a common and almost irrational love for local folk heroes like Víctor Jara. “And then I understood why it brings us together in such a powerful way,” Tijoux says. “It’s music that we listened to in our childhood, it’s part of our historical and biographical legacy.” Born in Paris, France, in 1977, where her parents were exiled during the Pinochet dictatorship, Tijoux was brought up in a very particular family environment, where political discussion was no stranger to the dinner table. She was still a child when she came across the first musical revolution in her life: ‘Construção’, a song by the Brazilian Chico Buarque, describing in a realistic and shocking way the death of a worker on a construction site. He falls agonisingly and dies on the road, while nobody seems to notice him. “That was the beginning of my learning to write a song,” Tijoux acknowledges. “Because it combines a deep and poetic meaning, a very real and social resonance, and a beautifully crafted music cathedral.”

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Soon however, hip-hop would grab Tijoux’s attention in an intense manner. It was its “anger,” she says, that first attracted her. “I believe that in my neighbourhood, and a few others around the world full of migrant parents, hip-hop became our country.” Not quite able to identify as a French girl and never having been to Chile at that time, Tijoux found in hip-hop a solace common to a lot of youngsters who felt country-less. “It was a way of dealing with that distress,” she says. By the time Tijoux finally crossed the Atlantic with her parents to start a new life in a country she had only heard of, hip-hop was already like a second skin. Arriving in Chile was, however, a bit of a shock. She grew up fantasising about a distant land made of promise and an overly-politicised country, and instead she found a profoundly nostalgic and poetic place, albeit shaken by social movements she playfully compares with Chile’s seismic activity. “People survived the dictatorship with a heavy weight on their shoulders – the way they dressed, the music they listened to,” she says. “But as I’m still in love with that nostalgia and that contradiction, I didn’t go back to France.” Tijoux’s music would then grow up to be hugely focused on social commentary, pointing her finger in the direction of wherever she found injustice. Her big breakthrough came precisely when she raised her voice and joined the students’ continuous protest with the crumbling education system in Chile. ‘Shock’, included on the 2011 album La Bala, quickly became a popular anthem for a whole generation fed up w w w . s o n g l i n e s . c o. u k

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28/10/2015 15:10

KIMMO POHJONEN

The

Extraordinary World of Kimmo

The Finnish accordionist is constantly pushing the boundaries, as he does again, on his latest release. Fiona Talkington catches up with the musical maverick and marvels at his ability to reinvent himself

s I chat to Kimmo Pohjonen via Skype, I begin to feel ever so slightly queasy. It’s like being on board a ship; he’s rocking to and fro on a chair and my room feels as though it’s tilting. Of course, Kimmo doesn’t do ‘sitting still.’ He hasn’t stayed still for the last 20 years or so. “I like to spin,” he says part-way through our conversation, and I’m suddenly transported to all those concerts – solo, with KTU, Kronos Quartet and more where, leather skirted, he whirls around dangerously with a 15kg accordion strapped to his body. We’re catching up a couple of days after the launch concert for his new CD Sensitive Skin. I couldn’t make it to Helsinki, so instead Kimmo is in his studio (rock, rock, rock… ) and we’re reminiscing. There’s so much about the new album that lends itself to looking back at his extraordinary career, as musically it’s full of intriguing layers. His studio has, over the last couple of years, become a cavern of sounds and textures, a party to which he’s invited some of his favourite guests. “It’s the luxury of being old,” he laughs (come on Kimmo, you may have got the rocking chair, but 51 isn’t old!), “you know lots of people. The youngsters, they haven’t got this luxury.” There’s Samuli Kosminen (his brilliantly inventive Icelandic collaborator on drums and electronics over many, many years), sound guy Tuomas Norvio, whose electronics contributions are a key contribution, Timo Kämäräinen – 36 S O N G L I N E S

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“the best guitarist working in Finland right now” – and “one of Finland’s best drummers,” Sami Kuoppamäki. JPP’s Arto Järvelä is on board (“he sleeps here when he’s in Helsinki so I just said bring the nyckelharpa”) and, together at last, the brilliant Timo Alakotila ( JPP and beyond) has done the Kronos Quartet arrangements. And there’s this strange hybrid beast of a renaissance instrument, the omniwerk (a curious lute-violin-harpsichord creature), brainchild of Lauri Porra, the Finnish bassist and composer, and great-grandson of Sibelius. “I met him in a bar,” Kimmo tells me, “and thought that would be cool, and said ‘hey, can I record it?’” So Ilpo Laspas, who played it at last year’s BRQ Vantaa Early Music Festival, got to be the first to record it for Sensitive Skin. Clearly though it’s the voices of Kimmo’s daughters, Inka and Saana Pohjonen, that he’s most excited about. I first met them when they were small children allowed to stay up late to see a concert; now they are super cool performers at the heart of his live shows, and who he talks about with huge pride. I wave a copy of one of the first pieces I wrote about Kimmo at the camera on my computer screen (The Independent, November 2000). I remind him that I’d said he had a mission to ‘drain the accordion of every last drop of music.’ “Have you done that?” I ask. There’s a sigh from somewhere behind the rocking chair, like air from the bellows. “What does your accordion think of the last 15 to 20 years?” W W W . S O N G L I N E S . C O. U K

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Kimmo Pohjonen

Egidio Santos

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Africa REVIEWS The Good Ones Rwanda is My Home IRL (35 mins)

★★★★★

Heartwarming harmonies: Rwanda’s healing music

MARTIN SINNOCK

TRACK TO TRY Angerique

Insingizi African Harmonies ARC Music (48 mins)

★★★★★

These songbirds have really found their calling African ground hornbills don’t sing, but they do emit calls that can apparently be heard from a distance of about three kilometres. This group’s name is derived from that said loud bird. The glorious a capella vocal groups of southern Africa tend to be eight- or nine-man teams, featuring the firepower of multi-part harmonies like that of Bulawayo’s Black Umfolosi or South Africa’s

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TOP

JON LUSK

TRACK TO TRY Laduma

SK Kakraba Songs of Paapieye

Lura Herança

★★★★★

Awesome Tapes from Africa (33 mins)

The Ghanaian xylophone’s very own spiderman SK Kakraba is a Ghanaian musician living in Los Angeles, and his instrument is the gyil. This pentatonic xylophone of the Lobi people gets its distinctive sound from the spider-web silks stretched over the sound-gourds. This creates a rasping sound, and sonically, it’s not an amazing leap to think of this as an acoustic equivalent of Konono No 1’s electric likembé (thumb piano). This aesthetic of the buzz is found all over the continent, especially in West Africa, but it’s becoming rarer as musicians and producers strive towards the cleanest sound possible. This is the very first original album by Awesome Tapes from Africa; unlike the label’s other releases, it is not a reissue of an African cassette, but was recorded specially for this release. Songs of Paapieye consists of six instrumentals – half an hour of solo gyil. It’s the perfect amount of time to be able to meditate on the instrument’s timbre and Kakraba’s skill and mastery. Together, the layering of harmonics that the buzz allows and the cycles of slightly varying repetition create a hypnotic resonance that gets into your head and allows you to fall into it completely for the duration of the album. JIM HICKSON

TRACK TO TRY Lubile Prai

N’Krumah Lawson-Daku

This is a very enjoyable yet remarkably melancholic release by a four-piece acoustic group from Rwanda. Part of the charm derives from the fact that three of the original members of the group work as farmers and still work the same small plots of land on which they were born. Equally pleasing is the knowledge that they are of mixed tribal backgrounds – featuring both Hutu and Tutsi. Despite the horrors of the country’s history of genocide and massacres, The Good Ones are able to live and work together while making their uplifting music. They perform with acoustic guitar, percussion and vocals (sung in the Kinyarwanda language). Most of the lead vocals are provided by Adrien Kazigira, whose voice has become higher rather than lower as he has aged. This enables him to sing ‘closer to heaven,’ as he puts it. It all sounds delightfully rustic and perhaps a little naive but, underneath, there is a musical sophistication with complex harmonies. On a couple of tracks, guitarist Stanislas Hitimana plugs into an amplifier. This is not done in any kind of modern upbeat manner – it merely adds gravitas and variation to a couple of particularly soulful songs. Overall, Rwanda is My Home is an impressive album showcasing a very different style of music.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Insingizi, by contrast, have just three singers and they don’t really need any more. Some of the lead solo roles soar so soulfully it makes you wonder which parts are sung by Dumisani Ramadu Moyo, Blessings Nqo Nkomo and Vusa Mkhaya Ndlovu – something the otherwise informative sleeve notes might have clarified. A few of the 15 songs feature English lyrics but the rest are mostly in Ndebele, the clicking, popping language spoken by many in western Zimbabwe. The slow, relaxed intro to ‘Umkhuleko’ really shows their flair for taking their beautiful time. Throughout, Insingizi demonstrate a tight grasp of rhythm and imaginative arrangements that can match any of their internationally esteemed peers.

OF THE WORLD TRACK 2

Lusafrica (63 mins)

Funana fun meets modern melancholy While Mayra Andrade, Lura’s compatriot, has been steering away from traditional Cape Verdean sounds, husky-voiced Lura does the opposite on Herança. Sort of. The album title translates as ‘Heritage’. And with a string of delightful upbeat funanas (such as the opener ‘Sabi di Más’ and the jaunty ‘Ness Tempo di Nha Bidjissa’), Lura indeed moves closer to her roots back on Praia, Cape Verde’s capital city. But she doesn’t abandon Lisbon. Cape Verde is revisited and reinvented with precise, jazzy production, a crew of fine session musicians and a repertoire that includes a mixed bag of melancholic covers and original songs.

Standards like Kaka Barbosa’s ‘Maria di Lida’ and ‘Somada’ are given a contemporary twist and smoothed by well-oiled production. Mario Lucio’s ‘Goré’ is rendered almost East African with jangly guitars and a springy, percussive bass, which will have you up and dancing. New tracks like ‘Di Undi Kim Bem’ are an enchanting mix of modern sound and age-old Cape Verdean melancholy. The title-track features an eerie counterpoint of distant percussion and assorted noises by Brazilian master Naná Vasconcelos to offset Lura’s portentous vocal delivery. And fun while the funanas are, it’s these newer numbers that really make the CD something special. ALEX ROBINSON

TRACK TO TRY Goré

GET THIS ALBUM FREE Readers can get Herança when subscribing or renewing with Direct Debit. See CD flyer for details

N’Faly Kouyaté Change Namun Records (78 mins)

★★★★★

Afro Celts’ kora man on his own This kora- and balafon-playing singer-songwriter from Guinea is best known for his dashing presence within the ranks of Afro Celt Sound System. Change is his fifth solo album,

and finds him now referring to his music as ‘Afrotronix’. This effectively means that the African instruments are matched with rather dated synth sounds. He has a pleasant tenor voice and sings in Malinké, Soussou, Pular, French and English, though the songs in the last two reveal a tendency towards platitudes. He wants change from the world around him, but also from the man in his mirror. Both ‘Vente d’Armes’ and ‘Hope’ have serious messages – the sale of arms and

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

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Africa reviews the scourge of HIV respectively – but both are undermined by lightweight Afropop melodies and some rather trite lyrics. ‘Heroes’ is a slow reggae number on the theme of human rights, while ‘Dominimba’ pitches into breakneck techno. Change is at its best on the mellower numbers like ‘Tunya’ and ‘Parole’, which ride lovely pulsing rhythms and showcase N’Faly’s easy gift for memorable riffs and grooves. Jon Lusk

TRACK TO TRY Tunya

Sekou Kouyaté Sabaru One World Records (42 mins)

HHHHH

The kora plugs itself in and turns up the volume Sekou is the son of Guinean kora player M’Bady Kouyaté, but takes tradition further, using amplification and effects pedals. He melds his core sound with several different musical forms, in a variety of collaborations. Yet even if its methods are wayward, this album keeps close to the old-school vocabulary. From the opening ‘Dela’, Sekou crafts a rippling, lilting depth of atmosphere, interweaving kora, guitar, bass and percussion with tingling picking and sonorous vocals all aligning harmoniously. Sekou can sing high when he wants to, usually in order to create a dreamy, contemplative aura. Almost Afrobeat, ‘Groove Kora’ spins off with a quickened bass heartbeat, while ‘Fouta’ has reggae inflections in its call-andresponse vocals. ‘Emourafama’ is filled with elaborate bass work, continuing into the springy, detailed sound of ‘Nade’. Sekou’s most extreme stretch arrives during ‘Dificil’, in a running battle with a paired guitar, in which he takes a near-psychedelic kora solo. Although it is trimmed with fusion elements, this recording still resonates with an organic Guinean tradition. Martin Longley

TRACK TO TRY Dela

Osibisa Singles As Bs & 12 Inches Repertoire (4 CDs, 300 mins)

HHHHH

Every single single (1971-1994) Osibisa were brave pioneers – a band of Ghanian, Nigerian and Caribbean musicians who

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came together in London at the start of the 70s to create a unique fusion of high-life with soul and rock flavours. Back then there was no concept of world music and African music tended to be ignored or derided: Osibisa succeeded through their sheer talent and joy, taking highlife to European audiences with a dynamic, contemporary African sound. They even had a top 20 hit with ‘Sunshine Day’ in 1976. This epic set covers Osibisa’s entire singles catalogue, with remixes and alternate takes included. Beautiful as much of Osibisa’s music was to start with, the remastered sound here is superb and I’ve come across strong Osibisa tunes here that I was previously unaware of. There is enough here to satisfy even the most obsessive of fans. Indeed, the repetition – six versions of ‘Getting Hot’, four versions of ‘Feels Good’ – does tend to make things drag on the later CDs. Four CDs

might be a touch too much; however, Osibisa remain a wonderful band and superb live performers. Garth Cartwright

TRACK TO TRY Kotoko

The Umoza Music Project Let Them Speak Nub Country Records (41 mins)

HHHHH

Pen-pals who like reggae and absolutely love the Beatles This is an album recorded by 18 musicians, separated by 18,000km. The Umoza Music Project is a joint Malawian and British venture, and many of the musicians haven’t even met in real life. Not that it shows in the music. The first impression of this record is that of a sort of Afro-funk Beatles. The

similarities are striking throughout: at times the guitar sounds as if it’s being played by a Harrison tribute act. In tracks like ‘Upewe!’ the Beatles influence is so strong it’s a bit distracting and it’s no surprise when a sitar plays a prominent role on the last track, ‘Malawi Parts I & II’. This one was the genesis track of the project, and is one of the album’s highlights. When not in Beatles mode, the group provide a couple of reggae tracks. Their quality is fairly good, and they feel like the most honest pieces on the whole album: ‘Reggae Banta’ is probably the best piece of the collection, featuring a great rap in Chichewa. There are moments where they take a cheesy turn, but not offensively so. These moments can be ignored in the scope of the full album, which is fun and enjoyable – if not wholly original. Jim Hickson

TRACK TO TRY Reggae Banta Bwazan who feature on the covermount CD

top

of the world

Various Artists Lost in Mali

track 1

Riverboat Records (68 mins)

HHHHH

Get lost! It works for World Music Network There has long been a suspicion that the world music we get to hear is only part of the story, a commercially marketable selection carefully filtered by self-interested gatekeepers – and that the best and most authentic stuff remains a well-kept secret. My own travels in world music suggest this is an overromanticised view and that the cream usually rises: in reality there are not dozens of singers in Senegal as good as Youssou N’Dour or hundreds of Malian kora players as skilled as Toumani Diabaté. That said, there is certainly a lot of fantastic music that never gets exported and Lost in Mali is a valiant attempt to track it down.

Compiled by two industry professionals working in Bamako, the quality control is consistently high across these 13 diverse tracks. All are by artists never heard before outside Mali, from the rootsy, Fulani desert blues of Ali Baba Cissé on ‘Kaya’ and the rocking band from the Bamako school for the blind on ‘Farinya Manji’ to Barou Dramé’s earthy Wassoulou hunters’ song ‘Diagatoula’ and the righteous Afroreggae of Kas 2 Kastro’s ‘Adjobawla’. Better still, this is apparently the first in a series of releases from farflung musical outposts; World Music Network should be congratulated for such an innovative idea. Nigel Williamson

TRACK TO TRY Kaya by Ali Baba Cissé

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£19.50 OFF Anya Roz

spotlight hazmat modine

Gerald Seligman catches up with the confined to any one New York-based band, genre, and asks just who or what exactly who refuse to be is Hazmat Modine?

hat, pray tell, is a Hazmat Modine? Which prompts me Hazardous materials, to ask Daley to that’s what help define them. grounded; familiar, Hazmat stands for “Hazmat Modine yet open to a roster – those signs is the posted on trucks of guest synchronisation musicians who help you pass on the highway, of death-defying freshen the mix. impassioned came First lights flashing, making reverberations in accordionist Rachelle a titillating global you breathe just Garniez, a brilliant, sauce,” he a little says. Thanks. easier as they fade iconoclastic, impressionistic The percolating brass back into the rear-view songwriter and section is mirror. Modine? filled out by long-term group leader in her Damned if I know. members saxophonist own right. After her came Led by Wade Schuman, Steve Elson, trumpet violinist Mazz Swift, player Pam Fleming this an ongoing replaced in turn by and project from some trombonist Reut fiddling cohort Charlie of New York’s most Regev. Tim Keiper Burnham. beats out versatile musicians, the bottom end on So what are they? ones who have played drums. “American music is with David Byrne, The most dramatic music of the diaspora Paul Simon, Natalie transformation came of mankind that Merchant, Cassandra was with the addition dipped in misfortune Wilson, John Zorn, of a new songwriting and made by trial Vieux Farka Touré... and partner, guitarist, fire and humour the list goes on. “Blues arranger and banjo and hope,” Schuman player, says, and ragtime from Erik Della Pena. then continues, “I the 20s and 30s,” “About three years can never really are some ago Wade explain the of the elements in told me he wanted band... We just don’t the mix, says Schuman. the band to evolve fit into any normal into one “Bulgarian and Romanian box.” that had more vocal Certain musical harmonies,” Della hybrids seem typically music, bluegrass, Pena boogie woogie, early New says. “Also, he was York City. Not for music, The Band, becoming more interested fusing set styles, The but for how Beatles, Little Richard, in the long tradition they make order Otis Redding...” of American songwriting: out of the cultural chaos Schuman credits Irving Berlin, Fats of the city. Yeah, the band as a whole Waller, Doc Pomus, yeah, New York is for Hays & attitude, the accomplishment Porter.” Della Pena but so too is its approaches, of drawing it all joined to help facilitate encounters, together, “Music but shouts out especially this. mixes and is a tainted gene matches, the cross-pollination to Joe Daley, HM’s pool that gets more sousaphone player, of adulterated the world’s most every day,” he explains. for bringing something diverse communities. “Hazmat is where extra. “He has been And a mutt with severe does that leave Hazmat there almost since chromosomal damage Modine? As a day one survives that with me... So much reflection of New in spite of and because of this band and York itself. of.” Indeed. me as a bandleader is here With nearly 20 years now because of Joe.” together, the vitality of the band comes, + Album Hazmat Modine’s in part, from the album, Extraway they are Deluxe-Supreme, www.songl is reviewed this issue, i n e s . c o. u k see p58 021_Spotlight_SL113.indd

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essential

Squeezebox Albums Piano accordions, melodeons, concertinas, bandoneóns – squeezeboxes come in many forms, and have spread all over the globe, adapting to all kinds of traditions. Julian May picks his favourite squeezebox albums

01 Bob Cann

West Country Melodeon

(Topic, 2010)

Bob Cann was born in 1916 on the edge of Dartmoor and started playing the melodeon when he was three. For years he cycled over the moor to play for village dances. He learned tunes from his family, from visiting Gypsies, and records. He was a local country dance player, and a great musician. This album is typical of his repertoire – barn dances and hornpipes, jigs, polkas, modern quicksteps and waltzes – all played with panache and swing.

02 Diomedes Díaz

& Nicolas ‘Colacho’ Mendoza !Cantando¡ (Globe Style, 1990)

The story goes that after a shipwreck a load of accordions washed up on a beach in northeast Colombia and, by adding these to the caja (small drum) and guacharaca (scraper), the musicians of La Guajira invented the lovely, seductive music known as vallenato. It is simpler and sweeter than the better-known cumbia of Colombia and this album by singer Diomedes Díaz and accordion player Nicolas ‘Colacho’ Mendoza, is a great example.

03 John Kirkpatrick

Plain Capers: Morris Dance Tunes from the Cotswolds

(Free Reed, 2007)

Kirkpatrick played on Morris On in 1972, when Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson et al plugged in and rocked up Morris dance standards. Heady stuff. But Kirkpatrick worried it didn’t serve these lovely tunes well, that they were exciting enough in themselves. So he went back and played this fine selection of Cotswold Morris tunes properly, as he would for dancing, with ‘plenty of brisk.’ Reviewed in #50. 90 s o n g l i n e s

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04 Astor Piazzolla

and the New Tango Quintet Tango: Zero Hour (American Clavé, 1986)

Classical motifs and jazz meld irresistibly with tango music in the compositions of Piazzolla – the pioneer of nuevo tango and Argentinian master of the bandoneón. This is the pinnacle of his and his band’s achievement. He was pleased with it, too, saying, “This is absolutely the greatest record I’ve made in my entire life.”

05 Kimmo Pohjonen

Kluster

(Rockadillo Records, 2002) ‘Ohino’ is all jet-plane roars, ‘Loska’ sounds like volcanic mud bubbling and ‘Keko’ ends with a flock of sheep; it is hard to believe these sounds are all conjured from the accordion. The Finnish avant-garde squeezebox maestro is as much a sound artist as a musician, and theatrical, too. This album was reviewed in #15 and you can read more about Pohjonen on p36.

06 Queen Ida

The Queen Ida & the Bon Temps Zydeco Band on Tour (GNP Crescendo, 1982)

Vivacious, melodic, Mexican-inflected playing from the first woman to lead a zydeco band. Queen Ida didn’t find the studio conducive to capturing the joy of her music so most of her recordings were made live. This album won a Grammy for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording in 1982.

07 Sharon Shannon

Sharon Shannon (Solid Records, 1991)

Sharon Shannon’s debut is, apparently, the best-selling album of Irish traditional music ever. But she was innovative from the off: this includes ‘The

Happy One Step’, a Cajun tune approached as a slide, and ‘Tune for a Found Harmonium’, composed by Simon Jeffes for the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Happy music, with a skip in it.

08 Tapia eta Leturia

Jo eta Hautsi

(Elkar, 1987)

Joseba Tapia and Xabier ‘Leturia’ Berasaluze play terrific trikitixa. The word refers to the music, the dance and the instrument – the diatonic accordion – of the Basque Country. In the 19th century, the Catholic Church strongly opposed these ‘hell’s bellows,’ believing trikitixa would lead Basque youth into temptation – as well these exuberant tunes, taken at considerable velocity, full of tricks and grace notes, might.

09 Karen Tweed

Essentially Invisible to the Eye

(May Monday Adventures, 2012)

Karen Tweed is a generous musician who usually plays her mighty piano accordion in the company of other musicians but this solo album of traditional tunes gathered over a career stretching back a quarter of a century, reveals what a fine and versatile squeezebox player she is. Reviewed in #84.

10 Various Artists

Squashbox (Silex 1993)

The concertina arrived in South Africa with miners in the 19th century and was soon taken up by Zulu, Sotho and Xhosa people who found ways of adapting it, rhythmically and melodically, to their traditions. It was played while walking, so journeys became musical experiences. This is a remarkable collection of recordings, akin to maskanda still played on the streets today.

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

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