Owner: SoundRoots Global Culture URL:www.soundroots.org Join Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:16:53 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: World music and culture blog, featuring CD and show reviews, mp3 postings, monthly Top 10 charts, and more. Live Locally, Groove Globally. Site statistics:Click here
Remembering Andy Palacio 2008-01-20 14:16:00 Andy Palacio
was a remarkable human being. He made a name for himself in modern dance music, only to turn his attention to the fading culture of his Garifuna people. He was a cultural ambassador, a hugely talented writer/musician/singer, and a generous soul. His album Watina with his band The Garifuna Collective was a shoe-in for one of the top global albums of 2007.Three days ago I got the word that Palacio was ill. This morning I awoke to the news that he had passed on. I am so grateful to have had a chance to meet him, when he dropped by the KAOS studios for an interview and some live music for my show Spin The Globe. Below is the audio for that interview, followed by the official press release from his record labels.Andy Palacio's spirit will be deeply missed, and I mourn our loss -- o Read more:Remembering
Global Grab-Bag 2008-01-19 11:04:00 Spin The Globe playlist for 11 Jan 2008Artist - Song - Album hour 1 "Pre-White Man" petroglyphs by *earball*. Dengue Fever - Integratron - Venus on Earth Julia Sarr & Patrice Larose - Waruna - Set Luna Cocoa Tea - Poverty - Biological Warfare Leroy Young the Grandmaster - A few dollars more - Just Like That… Merlino Hermida / Hermida Merlino - El Choclo - Tangos en Duo Jony Iliev & band - Ma Maren Ma - Ma Maren Ma Rodrigo y Gabriela - Stairway to Heaven - Rodrigo y Gabriela Isnebo et Faadah Kawtal - Dan Mata - Divine Lucky Moyo - One World - I Have Got Issues Read more:Global
sneak preview: Catching Dengue Fever, Again 2008-01-17 23:57:00 CD ReviewDengueFever
: Venus On EarthM80 Recordsbuy CD/hear samplesThree years after their deliciously different debut Escape from Dragon House, California-based Khmer-rock outfit Dengue Fever returns with more of their trademark Cambodian-flavored retropop. The concept still sounds like some critic's parody of an absurd world-fusion band, but as I discovered a couple years ago at Bumbershoot, these guys can rock a crowd, even if they're singing in a language shared by less than three percent of the globe's population.On the new album, whether for poetic reasons or simply to make the music more widely accessible, you'll find several tracks in English, including the trans-oceanic love song "Tiger Phone Card" and the designated-driver lament "Sober Driver." Then there's the bilingual emotion Read more:Again
Monday's mp3: Di Bombs 2008-01-14 19:27:00 It's a perfect match. The Afrobeat poetry of Ikwunga paired with the driving sounds of Toronto-based Afrobeat group Mr. Something Something. Conscious lyrics with great grooves, a perfect modern mix for dancefloor or iPod.Only problem is there's not enough goodness. The CD has just five songs plus shorter radio remixes of three of those songs, which is good for us radio hosts, since the original lengths range from 6 to 11 minutes long. One of the songs may be familiar to you if you've picked up Ikwunga's first album, or the Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project or Indestructible African Beats 2005 compilations. But the new version is well worth another listen, and this album well worth picking up despite its brevity. Have a listen:[mp3] Mr. Something Something & Ikwunga: Di Bombs
(radio edit)from Read more:Monday
Monday's mp3: No Green Beer 2008-03-17 16:48:00 Yes, despite my own Irish heritage, I'm refraining from the shamrock-toting post today. Instead, I want to share a tune from one of the single most impressive musicians I've run across in some time.Ashraf Hakim is an Egyptian cellist now based in the Seattle area. He's done the classical thing, playing with the Cairo Opera House, the Arabic Symphony Orchestra, and the Egyptian National Cultural Theater. He was born in Cairo to a French-Turkish mother and Egyptian father, and from his multicultural roots he's followed a path to multicultural music.I first caught up to him a couple years ago when he was playing with the world-fusion band Hejira. Now he's apparently doing more solo gigs regionally, and I recently ran into him at a booking conference where he handed me a copy of his new CD, Su Read more:Monday
, Green
The Ladies of Garifuna 2008-03-20 22:09:00 The momentum of the Garifuna resurgence took a hit with the untimely death of cultural ambassador Andy Palacio in January 2008. Now the movement is continuing without him...and because of him. As important as Palacio was in spreading a knowledge of the rich music and culture of his people, many lesser-known artists are now stepping into the voice. Aurelio Martinez is among them, as are members of Palacio's Garifuna Collective and the women of the Garifuna Women's Project.Along with that tour is this new album, blending traditional Garifuna songs with modern arrangements. Behind the project is producer Ivan Duran, who also heads Stonetree Records, the Belize-based label behind much of the Garifuna musical revival."The project was always about the stories, about the lives of these women, abo
Monday's mp3: Hot Blown Brass 2008-03-24 11:38:00 Easter, of course, is about rebirth. About rolling the stone away and finding new, uplifted life. I won't belabor the metaphor, but on some level it works for where I was at last night. As the day drew to a dreary close after various rain showers and even a spattering of hail, I didn't feel like going out. I wanted to stay home and curl up with a book, warm and comfortable.Yet, there was this group called Brass
Menazeri in town from the Bay Area. I'd been playing their CD, and greatly enjoying their take on Balkan and Romani brass music. So I dragged myself downtown and into the icebox of Art House Designs, where a smattering of people lined the walls around the open floor, and a few people wandered around carrying various windings of shiny metal tubes.I love live music. And just being the Read more:Monday
World Music Top 10 - March 2008 2008-03-22 12:59:00 SoundRoots / Spin The GlobeTop 10 WorldMusic
Albums - February 20081. Dengue Fever: Venus on Earth 2. Gamelan X: Satu 3. Limpopo: Live in Raleigh 4. Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu5. Cheb i Sabbah: Devotion6.Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar: Go Marko Go!7. Da Cruz: Nova Estacao8. Moussu T e Lei Jovents: Invente a la Ciotat9. Think of One: Camping Shaabi10. DJ Dolores: 1 Realtags: worldmusic, top 10, charts, kaos radio, spin the globe, dengue fever
Read more:March
Global Brass + Orkestar Zirkonium interview 2008-03-21 17:58:00 Spin The Globe playlist21 March 2008The visit of Brass
Menazeri this weekend (see calendar) prompted us to celebrate the horn in all of its incarnations around the planet. Plus an interview
with members of Orkestar Zirkonium!Artist - Song - Album hour 1 Bollywood Brass Band - Mehndi Laga Ke rakhna (Keep the Henna on Your Hands) - The Bollywood Brass Band Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars - Out 0f What? - Carnival Conspiracy Gangbe Brass Band - Yemonoho - Whendo / Roots Orkestar Zirkonium - Hot Coals - Orkestar Zirkonium (advance Read more:Global
Whence "Underground"? 2008-03-27 15:36:00 Okay, just one more brass band post... Last week on Spin The Globe, I interviewed members of Seattle's Orkestar Zirkonium ("not truly authentic, but shiny!"), and they raised a small mystery. They perform a song called "Underground" that they believe is a traditional Serbian tune, and apparently is connected to the Emir Kusturica film of the same name. Maybe.The film is a tale of war, deception, music, and more. You've probably seen it. If not, it's worth finding. But one thing the movie does not contain is this song. So where does this tune come from? Does anyone know the story of this song? OZ wants to know. So do I.[mp3] Orkestar Zirkonium: Undergroundfrom Orkestar Zirkonium's Live EPOZ is currently working on a full CD, which they say will be released later this year. Catch up with all
The Music of Peru 2008-03-28 17:17:00 Spin The Globe Playlist28 March 2008Peru Negro plays in Olympia tonight, and we set the stage with an hour of Afro-Peruvian music on Spin The Globe, plus more widely ranging music in hour 2.Artist - Song - Album hour 1 Peru Negro - Golpe e’ Tierra - Zamba Malato Chicha Libre - The Hungry Song - Sonido Amazonico! Leida La Madrid & Roger Almestar - Tondero - Traditional Music
of Peru 8 – Piura Eva Ayllon - Raices Negras - Latinas-Women of Latin America Peru Negro - Que Tiene Miguel - Zamba Malato Tania Libertad w/ Cesaria Evora - Historia de un Amor - Costa Negra Lucila Campos - Tio Goyo - Holding Up Half the Sky-Vo
Gross National Happiness? 2008-04-01 12:19:00 How Happy Are You? The US Government Wants to KnowTue Apr 1, 2008 10:47am EDTBy Erving IocusWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The US government wants you to be happy. Or at least, they want to know just how happy you are.In the latest twist on the rich taking from the poor, the US government has announced plans to borrow a quality of life indicator with its origins in the impoverished Himalayan nation of Bhutan.Announced by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, the new indicator, called GrossNational
Happiness, would seem to fly in the face of accepted economic practice in the US, which has long favored economic growth measured by the Gross Domestic Product as the most important indicator of national well-being.The concept of Gross National Happiness originated in 1972 when Bhutan's King Jigme Sin
Monday's mp3: Zimbabwe's Second Independence? 2008-03-31 11:08:00 Zimbabwe and observers around the world are holding their breath for the outcome of the nation's elections. President Robert Mugabe is at the center of the fray -- a man who helped usher in Zimbabwe's independence and became president in 1987, but whose policies have reflected a growing distance between himself and the reality for Zimbabweans. The nation was once known as "the breadbasket of Africa," with a highly productive agricultural sector. But around the turn of the century, the term "basket case" was more commonly applied to the struggling country.Mr Mugabe's legacy is now forever tainted with the odious whiff of corruption, the rank oppression of human rights, the stunted growth of the economy, the clawing grip of early mortality, and the rasping destitution of people just trying t Read more:Second
, Monday
, Zimbabwe
, Independence
Heavy, Heavy Afrobeat 2008-03-31 01:34:00 Albino! at the Eastside Club in Olympia, WAtags: worldmusic, afrobeat, albino, olympia, eastside club, photos
Read more:Heavy
Afro-Samba Jazz 2008-04-02 19:38:00 If you wanted to, you could call Os Ipanemas the Brazilian version of the Buena Vista Social Club. But I don't want to. What I do want is to try to describe their fresh Afro-Brazilian sound. Fresh even though the band began back in 1962.Led by septuagenarians Wilson Das Neves (percussion, vocals) and Neco (guitar), the band oozes smooth charm without lapsing into cliche. These two endow the group with a wealth of experience, having recorded and toured the likes of Elis Regina, Tom Jobim, Wilson Simonal, Jorge Ben, Chico Buarque and Elza Soares. Wilson also performs with the Rio samba troupe Orquestra Imperial.At the risk of comparing apples and oranges, I find myself contrasting this album with the music of Eddie Palmieri, whose live show I caught last night. Eddie's band was tight and eac Read more:Samba
Mondays mp3: Happy Birthday, Ravi! 2008-04-07 16:39:00 Master sitar player Ravi Shankar is one of those guys who seems like he's always been there... and not just there, but everywhere (as we noted last year).To some extent his daughters have taken over the family's portion of the global spotlight, but Ravi's music is still out there, still gaining new listeners. ARC has just released The Best of Ravi Shankar, a three-raag disc, and a few years earlier came The Rough Guide to Ravi Shankar, notable for a bit more variety as well as appearances by Zakir Hussain and Ali Akbar Khan.This is one of the shorter tracks on that latter CD, but it's no slouch, as the masters Shankar and Hussain play beautifully together.[mp3] Ravi Shankar with Zakir Hussain: Reflectionfrom The Rough Guide to Ravi ShankarToday is Ravi's birthday -- his 84th! Happy
birthda Read more:Mondays
, Birthday
, Happy Birthday
Beatles Gone Global 2008-04-04 18:05:00 Spin The Globe Playlist (on KAOS-fm)4 April 2008The Beatles
broke up almost 40 years ago, but their musical influence remains huge worldwide. Today we spun some of the global covers of Beatles songs, from the far-flung corners of the planet and with diverse cultural styles.Artist - Song - Albumhour 1 Moussu T e lei jovents - Oplati Oplata - Invente a La Ciotat Leningrad Cowboys - Yellow Submarine - Total Balalaika Show Daniel García Quinteto - Guitarra Y Bandonéon, Van A Llorar (While My Guitar Gently Weeps) - Tangoloco-Tangos de Liverpool Rita Lee - Minha Vida (In My Life) - Bossa ‘n Beatles The Super Ea Read more:Global
Alt Latin THIS! 2008-04-09 17:54:00 Had a request for more Latin
Alternative sounds, and I hope this will help quench that thirst. I had not heard of 3 Na Massa (not to be confused with 3 Na Bossa) before this disc zipped across my desk like a hummingbird seeking the first nectar of spring. And I still know very little, so perhaps I should let the band do the talking:3 Na Massa was founded by Rica Amabis, Pupillo and Sucinto Silva aka Dengue in São Paulo. Pupillo and Dengue play drums and bass while Rica is the magic cook, the producer of the trio. This is also where the band name stems from, 3 na massa - 3 in the dough, slang for something that makes your mouth water in expectation of a special treat.The idea of 3 na massa came from women. Women talking about their amorous experiences with men -- moments, events that marke
Monday's mp3: Malagasy Magic 2008-04-14 11:54:00 Paul-Bert Rahasimanana may not be a household name, even among global music fans. But he looms large in my own relationship with "world music." More commonly known as Rossy, the Malagasy artist recorded a delicious album ripe with the unusual -- even exotic -- sounds of Madagascar that was released by Real World Records in 1991.Island of Ghosts is actually a soundtrack, I'm told, to a film of the same name. (I haven't seen it - if anyone can get me the film, you earn big SoundRoots karma points). But while it has something of a soundtrack's atmosphere, the music holds up solidly as a stand-alone musical album as well, though some of the tracks are much shorter than ordinary songs. Even the brief audio glimpses of mysterious instruments like the valiha, aponga, and kabosy are mesmerizing. S Read more:Monday
, Magic
So Fresh It Stings: New World Music Releases 2008-04-12 13:14:00 Spin The Globe playlist11 April 2008Artist - Album - Song hour 1 The Shin - Nat Tsar Khek & Abdul Shah Ill - Many Timer Raduza - Ma Phuc Mandar - In the Salon of Baroque Dames Markus James - Drivin By - Snakeskin Violin Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars feat. Kol Isha - T’hay Yeshua Zoys - The Rough Guide to Klezmer Revival Watcha Clan - Balkan Qoulou - Diaspora Hi-Fi Louis Mhlanga - Rhumba All the Way - African Party Etran Finatawa - Amidinine / My Friend - Desert Crossroads Jamshied Sharifi - One - One Freshlyground - Manikiniki - Ma’Cheri Kola Collective - Roma - Stew it, fuse it, groove it Read more:World
, Music
, New World
And the Winner Is... 2008-04-17 19:32:00 The BBC World Music Awards for 2008 were announced last week, but they're absurdly difficult to find on the BBC website, so for your enjoyment and convenience, I share them here. The2008 BBC3 World Music Awards Winners:click on any link for album info and sound samplesAfrica: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni baAsia/Pacific: Sa DingdingAmericas: Andy Palacio & The Garifuna CollectiveEurope: Son de la FronteraMid East & North Africa: Rachid TahaNewcomer: Mayra AndradeCulture Crossing: Justin Adams & Juldeh CamaraClub Global: Transglobal UndergroundAlbum of the Year: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba:There's one award yet to be handed out, and you can have a say in it. Voting for the Audience Award continues through 8 May, at BBC3. I just voted, but I'm not going to influence your vote
World Music Top 10 - April 2008 2008-04-16 12:17:00 SoundRoots / Spin The Globe Top 10 WorldMusic
Albums - April
20081. Gamelan X: Satu 2. Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar: Go Marko Go!3. DJ Dolores: 1 Real4. Cheb i Sabbah: Devotion5. Dengue Fever: Venus on Earth6. Golem: Fresh Off Boat7. Orlando Julius: Super Afro Soul8. Toumast: Ishumar9. Toumani Diabate: The Mande Variations10. Freshlyground: Ma'CheriYes, a US-based group heads the "world music" top 10 this month. Following the winter lull, a flood of new releases are coming in, many of which were highlighted on last week's Spin The Globe. Certainly one of the strongest is the Indonesia-meets-Afrobeat sound of Gamelan X. More on them shortly, in the meantime click on some of the albums and check out their sample sounds. An
Global Guitars 2008-04-18 19:09:00 Spin The Globe playlist18 April 2008Guitars
were the theme this week, and we sampled a wide variety of styles from the precision of India's Debashish Bhattacharya to the loping blues of Etran Finatawa and the folksy sound of Bob Brozman's pals in Papua New Guinea. Congrats to Rich, who won himself a copy of Dengue Fever's Venus On Earth during the show. Spin The Globe airs (and streams live) 10am-noon Fridays on KAOS-fm.Artist - Song - Albumhour 1 Puerto Plata - Santiago w/ Frank Mendez - Mujer de Cabaret Debashish Bhattacharya - Prabha - Calcutta Slide-Guitar Sunil Ganguly - Ajhoon Na Aye (from Sanjh Aur Savera, 1970) - Bollywood Steel Guitar Souad Massi - Denya Wezman / That’s Life Read more:Global
Monday's mp3: Ain't no party like a James Brown party... 2008-04-21 20:01:00 Someday I'll have to put together a radio show highlighting the influence of JamesBrown
on global music. Today's offering is a step in that direction.Brown's influence is particularly clear in African music -- specifically Afrobeat, where Fela Kuti and others twisted funk to their own ends. Of course, others around the world were not and are not immune to Brown's catchy, danceable grooves.The first track on the new compilation The Rough Guide to Brazilian Street Party captures a bit of that energy. Funk 'N Lata rips through this track, quoting Brown midway into this live Berlin party. Wish I'd been there. And I wonder why the group doesn't have more music available?The rest of the album is no slouch, featuring everyone from AfroReggae (with Manu Chao!) to Think of One to a bunch of high-e Read more:Monday
, James Brown
Tuku's Earth Day Plea 2008-04-22 18:30:00 You can’t save the planet. You can replace all the incandescent bulbs in your house, drive less, bike more, buy green power, take shorter showers, eat locally, go vegetarian, buy fair-trade coffee, super-insulate your home, drive a hybrid, telecommute, brew your own biodiesel, grow veggies, recycle milk jugs, stop flying, fight less & pray more, put solar panels on your roof, maintain a worm bin, stop watching TV, walk more, compost food scraps, exercise more, stop eating fast food, wear organic cotton clothes, take the bus, move closer to work, take eco-vacations, plant trees, shop at the local farmers market, and it still won’t save the planet. Not even close.Which isn’t to say you shouldn’t do some or all of those things. On this Earth
Day, we (and I mean ALL of us) are faci Read more:Earth Day
Global Percussion 2008-04-25 16:33:00 Spin The Globe playlist25 April 2008(as heard on radio KAOS 89.3 fm)Spin The Globe always features great percussion, but this week we focused primarily on drums and the musicians who hit them, worldwide. After all, tomorrow is the percussion-heavy Procession of the Species and all weekend is the World Rhythm Festival in Seattle! Congrats to the listeners who won tickets to see Jose Carrion (see calendar) and the newly re-issued CD Planet Drum by Mickey Hart.Artist - Song - Albumhour 1 Princesinha Da Mare - Capoeira Experience - Rough Guide to Brazilian Street Party Amazones - Sinte, Kassani Soro - Live in Montreal Gamelan X - Gammafro - Satu Villagers - Water Drums - The Big Ban Read more:Global
Monday's mp3: Bollywood for Dummies 2008-04-28 23:44:00 Recent viewings of Bollywood films and a radio interview (on The World) with a certain playback singer have put Indian diva Asha Bhosle firmly in my mind this week.If you have any familiarity with Bollywood musicals, you've heard her voice, whether you realize it or not. Many of those lip-synched song-and-dance numbers that pepper India's films are sung by this amazing prolific woman. Having recorded over 20,000 songs, she's a woman whose music is just hard to miss. (Her sister Lata Mangeshkar is no slouch either!)Yet, my first introduction to her came though the film 1 Giant Leap, which utilized her iconic voice on the song "The Way You Dream" (video). Since then, I've been seeing her name on the credits of soundtracks to movies new and old. Some of those are collected on The Rough Guide Read more:Monday
, Dummies
Cinco de Mayo & World Laughter Day 2008-05-02 20:49:00 Spin The Globe playlist2 May 2008May 4 is World
Laughter Day, and we marked the occasion with global songs to make you laugh, or dance, or sing along. All in the interests of mirth and the joy it brings. Plus some Latin sounds for Cinco de Mayo, and other global grooves. Congratulations to Jenny of Olympia for winning the Salsa Celtica CD we had up for grabs on today's show.Artist - Song - Album hour 1 Pepe & the Bottle Blondes - Rumba de 5 Kilos - Latenight Betty Pili Pili - The Headpeeper - Best of Pili Pili Unn
Rock for Peace 2008-05-01 22:20:00 So, dear SoundRoots reader, by now you have recognized some of my preferences, and near the top are Afrobeat, Balkan brass, and pretty much anything with great global percussion. Not quite at the top is the catch-all known as "Latin alternative" -- an umbrella term almost as indescriptive as "world music," except that at least the former hints at what language to expect.Still, I know from some of your comments (hey...I've been meaning to talk to you about the lack of comments of late. So I will, later. But for now...) that some of you are fans of the emerging rock/pop/reggae/punk/etc sounds emerging from Latin American and expatriate Latinos, such as the Ireland-dwelling Rodrigo y Gabriela.So this one's for you. The new album En Paz from Ecuador-born Cecilia Villar Eljuri will hit the stor Read more:Peace
Monday's mp3: Cinco de Mayo sin Mariachis 2008-05-05 15:29:00 Americans seem to be able to forget connections. Today's a great example. Amid the increasing anti-immigrant fervor ("let's build a wall! plus anti-immigrant radar!"), we're nonetheless delighted for a chance to throw a Cindo de Mayo party. The irony in this context of a US-based celebration of a Mexican military victory may be lost on Corona-soaked brains, I suppose.Today we dig a little deeper into the music of Mexico than the stereotypical Mariachi band (as fun as they are). Xavier Quijas Yxayotl goes back to the pre-European roots of the music of the New World on his 2002 album Singing Earth."When people think of music from Mexico they think of this newly formed Mariachi style as traditional Mexican heritage," says Yxayotl. "They are wrong in thinking so." On this CD, Yxayotl gives a s Read more:Monday
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