What we heard in 2015: Part one
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What we heard in 2015: Part one
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What We Liked in 2015: Part 2 We've never gone in for "Best of the Year" lists at RootsWorld, because it is your editor's firm opinion that there are too damn many good albums out there to codify into a short, bulleted, ordered list. So instead, I asked our writers to contribute a few words about some of their favorite recordings of the last year, many that we never reviewed in RootsWorld and sometimes, overlooked everywhere. - Cliff Furnald Lee Blackstone started us off with a recording from Belgium that came out just as the year was ending, so you can read his full feature review of WÖR as they go Back To The 1780s. The Demon Barbers' Disco At The Tavern is a bold everything-but-the-kitchen sink approach to English folk music, marrying trad. arr. to a feet-to-the-floor mashup of reggae, electronica, turntablism, and morris sides. The confidence of a band firing on all cylinders gives the entire album cohesiveness, and the joy leaping from the speakers makes one yearn to see the live show! (Read the full RootsWorld review.) The Calabrian folk-rock group Re Niliu explores their traditions by adding a healthy dose of kosmiche groove and expressive, exotic instrumentation on In A Cosmic Ear. Beautifully produced, Re Niliu's return to the studio after two decades is a masterclass in deep explorations of local traditions and long-form experimental jamming. (Read the full RootsWorld review) And there's Romanian songs given the dark ambient dub treatment by electronic hip-hop heads Subcarpati. The results are a nod to popular Romanian influences for the group, but which also remix traditional folk music into outer space. Culese din Cartier prezinta Argatu' Vol III is a terrific melding of past and future, and which secures Subcarpati a place as leading proponents of folk revivalism, performance, and producers in contemporary Romania. Downloadable for free at the band's website: www.subcarpati.com
Michael Stone picked a few Latin, Caribbean and South American gems you may have missed. Born in Salvador, Bahia, immersed in the Congo-Angola-Bantu roots of Afro-Brazilian spirituality and expressive culture, laying a distinctive five-string violão-tambor (“drum-guitar”), possessing a spellbinding voice, Tiganá Santana won a UNESCO artistic residency that took him to Senegal, culminating in the Dakar session of Tempo & Magma (Abaju! www.ajabu.com) Singer-songwriter-accordionist-pianist Pascuala Ilabaca and the band Fauna draws upon Chilean nueva canción, Andean traditions and sounds absorbed as a child living in India. The intimate, atmospheric, controlled-chaotic feel of Busco Paraíso(I seek paradise) (Brownie 09) builds on sudden tempo, mood, and genre shifts that speak to the turbulent beauty and episodic brutality of Chilean social history. (www.pascualailabaca.com) Trinidad born, long based in Copenhagen, steelpan master Rudy Smith learned his trade in Port of Spain's post-WWII pan yards and made his first recordings at age 12 with the Merrymakers in 1956. In 1962 he moved to Europe with the Merrymakers, along the way discovering an affinity with the jazz sensibilities of vibraphonist Milt Jackson. Caprice Records in Sweden released his recordings under the title, What Pan Did for Me. Smith is also responsible for making and tuning most of the pans in Denmark - among many other things that Smith has done for pan. Cuban pianist-composer-bandleader Omar Sosa is literally at home here with fellow Camagüey conservatory mates Leandro Saint-Hill (alto and soprano saxes, flute, clarinet, vocals) and Ernesto Simpson (drums, kalimba, vocals), together with Mozambique's Childo Tomas (electric bass, kalimba, vocals) as Quarteto AfroCubano. Ilé (Otá) conveys a deep feeling of longing, a swirling sense of eternal change in an immaculate voicing of Cuban, Spanish, and African Diaspora influencesproduct of a vexed transatlantic history in all its paradoxical outcomes, past into present. (Read Michael's complete review)
And finally, your editor has picked just a few from among our reviews to send you back to, in case they slipped your mind. Late in the year, the third and fourth installments of Finnish The Suistamo Suite came from accordionist and composer Anne-Mari Kivimäki. As a retrospective, I played all four recordings in sequence one recent afternoon, and they are an admirable portrait of a unique time, place and space. You will find reviews of all of these wonderful recordings online: volumes one and two volumes three and four From Finland and just a little south, Mari Kalkun and her ensemble Runorun present a complex vision of early Estonian folk music on her new album, Tii ilo. Their all-acoustic approach to the tradition left plenty of room for both graceful beauty and raw power. Two legends of African music gave us long-awaited new recordings this year, both from the inimitable Stern's Music label. Posthumously released, In Conclusion brought us the voice of Amadou Balaké one more time. Christina Roden writes, "There could not have been a more touching and apt finale to one of African music's most prolific and celebrated careers than the recordings preserved on." Another epic return was the voice of Kandia Kouyate, who came back after a decade to present us with her Renascence. George DeStefano found it "beautifully crafted and passionate." Two Canadian groups also caught my attention. The quartet Ozere offered understated music and songs in Finding Anyplace. And Don Rooke and The Henrys hit what I think was a career high note with Quiet Industry, an album of unusual songs that took their trademarked instrumental sound and expanded it with lyrics both challenging and sublime. I also want to make note of one publisher who deserves special recognition: Dust To Digital. Their recent releases include a wonderful collection from Parchman Farm: Photographs and Field Recordings: 1947-1959; a detailed book and 2 CD set celebrating Ola Belle Reed And Southern Mountain Music On The Mason Dixon Line; and a well researched and absolutely riotous collection of pop music, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll. This is a small label who knows how to do it right, and I consider them a national treasure. And you see, now I am in a panic, wishing I could include every recording you need to remember, including work from artists like Karl Seglem, Boubacar Traoré, Lamia Bèdioui and the Desert Fish, Cypriot folk-politicos Monsieur Doumani, the palestinian politics and electronics of Checkpoint 303, Greek diva Savina Yannatou, The Ilkka Heinonen Trio, and so many others. And of course, if you subscribed to Music of the Month, in 2015, you already know so many of my picks for the year, and have them in your collection. The omissions in these lists are many, and I urge you to ramble through the back pages of RootsWorld and see what you might have missed, or revisit what you loved. It's been a great year of music, and 2016 is already off to a fine start, as you will see in the coming weeks and months. As the 3 Mustaphas 3 used to say, "Forward in all directions!" - Cliff Furnald There's lots more in Part One.
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