What World Music Are You Listening To?

[bart]

Originally Posted by joel_hifi

Thanks for your suggestions! Listening now to Salif Keita - Moffou

This will be my last one for today.
Uplifting!

[bart]

Originally Posted by joel_hifi

Buika - Niña De Fuego

3rd album of the talented Spanish singer, released in 2008

A blend of Flamenco, Andalusian Folk and Jazz influence

Concha Buika - Vocals
Javier Limón - Guitar
Ivan Lewis - Piano

Just finished this.
What a terrific voice!
Very good suggestion.

[bart]

Tinariwen - Emmaar
Qobuz 24/96




Following a suggestion of Tony.

Challenging circumstances are nothing new to the Kel Tamashek (Tuareg) band Tinariwen. After all, most of their members had been Libyan military-trained rebel fighters engaged in active revolt against the Malian government before the Tamanrasset Accords in 1991. Beginning in 2012, real danger is ever present in northern Mali -- due to the incursion of Islamist militias -- for the Tuareg people and to musicians in particular. So much so, many, including Tinariwen, have fled the country. One of their members, Abdallah Ag Lamida, was even kidnapped, though he has since been released. Tinariwen was forced to exchange one desert -- the Sahara -- for another in Joshua Tree National Park in the United States in order to record Emmaar (without Ag Lamida, who was freed after recording began). Once more produced by Patrick Votan, the sound here retains its "desert blues" heart but is also more expansive -- there's no need for alarm, really. The traditional interlocking guitar interplay involves more drones as lead lines snake underneath them, and there is more reverb in this mix. All of the material was written by leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib or his bandmembers. Exile, anger, and displacement populate the songs on Emmaar. Multi-instrumentalist Fats Kaplin adds his spiraling fiddle to "Imdiwanin Ahi Tifhamamone" and pedal steel to the militant opener "Toumast Tincha" (that also features guitar from Josh Klinghoffer and a spoken intro by Saul Williams), and the atmospheric dirge "Sendad Eghlalan." Percussionist Amar Chaoui helps out on the stinging "Chaghaybou" and five other tracks, adding a sense of more dynamic urgency to balance the more drone-centric approach. "Emajer," with guest guitarist Matt Sweeney, is a different tack for Tinariwen. Its vibe is more American Southwest (which isn't so strange since this is a nomadic band after all). But Ag Alhabib's lyric and melody are pure African folk song, reflecting loss and longing, as the rolling percussion, voices, and guitars wind around one in multiple melodies underscoring the emotion. The interwoven acoustic guitars on closer "Aghregh Medin (Hassan's Song)" offer a staggered minor-key blues. They highlight the disillusionment in the lyric "... I no longer believe in unity/I will only believe in it again if/Those opinions serve a common ideal/That of the people from which they emanate." The different textures and timbres at work on Emmaar reveal Tinariwen's evolution; one derived from the need to grow musically, as well as respond to adversity with creativity.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo

[bart]

Originally Posted by Parabellum

Not sure if this fits but in the asian genre, a few soundtracks come to mind...

The Grandmaster - Shigeru Umebayashi
The House of Flying Daggers - Shigeru Umebayashi
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Tan Dun
Hero - Tan Dun

Excellent movies also!
I own 3 of them.

[bart]

Ali Farka Touré with Ry Cooder - Talking Timbuktu
via Qobuz




I own the CD, but right now streaming this album.
A classic!

[bart]

Buena Vista Social Club
via Qobuz




One of my favourites.
I got to see them live in Brussels in '99, just before they all started to die.
Ry Cooder - again him! - was instrumental (pun intended) in realising this project.

[Antonmb]

Ry Cooder, V.M. Bhatt - A Meeting by the River
Water Lily Acoustics (1993)

Here’s another wonderful Ry Cooder collaboration that fits in this category.

[bart]

Originally Posted by PierreB

Don’t know if it’s ok but I love this cd.

Stephen Micus : the Garden of Mirrors (ECM 1632)

Pierre, just streamed this.
Merci.
I liked it.

[bart]

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB
Presents
Omara
PORTUONDO
Qobuz 24/96




This album, one I cherish a lot, evokes beautiful memories.
Omara and Ibrahim Ferrer sang beautiful duets on that night, and made us feel, during winter in '99, like on a tropical island.

[bart]

North India - Sangeet Trio iin concert
via Qobuz




I've been to India countless times.
I can listen to this kind of music for hours...

This is an unusual ensemble for Indian classical music. First of all, instead of a soloist accompanied by the tabla drums and the sitar-like tampura, there is a trio plus accompanists. The trio consists of three unusual instruments: bansuri flutes (played by Renu Mojumdar), a modified guitar (played by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt), and the Middle Eastern santur hammer dulcimer (played by Tarun Bhattacharya). The guitar is especially interesting. It has a short neck, four melody strings, three drone strings, and 12 sympathetic strings. It is played with a metal slide in a quasi "slack key" style. The slide is frequently used to bend notes in the Indian fashion, but when Bhatt resorts to more of a finger-picking style, it sounds American. The trio plays "Raja Jog" at this live concert in Paris. It is an exceedingly long raag (66 minutes), and the alap -- the opening 18-and-a-half-minute slow movement -- might be a little tedious for Western ears. The two faster sections are more engrossing. The musicians chose a raag whose intervals recall the American blues, and there is a repeated five-note figure that could almost be a jazz riff. The overall effect is more like jazz than blues. These allusions are achieved without any straining for effect, if they are indeed conscious at all. Good fun.

© Kurt Keefner /TiVo