"Africa and the Diaspora represent an unequaled musical source. I have tried to express the continent's melodic contour, and its great rhythmic strength. Rhythm connects every people with the supreme spirit." - Omar Sosa talks with Michael Stone about the music of Africa, jazz and his new recording, Afreecanos
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Rim Banna was one of the featured vocalists on the stunning Lullabies from the Axis of Evil. Her latest recording, Seasons of Violet: Lovesongs from Palestine, is a thoroughly modern-sounding collection of songs, even when the texts explored are taken from Palestinian folk verse or incorporate a Hindu chant (as on the track, "A Prayer"). Traditional instrumentation is not the order of the day here; rather, Rim Banna's lovely voice is enfolded amidst an ensemble that veers closer to contemporary jazz sensibilities. Read More | Listen

The Balkans are one of the world's great crossroads, a place where Turkish, Gypsy, and Arabic musics have all had a hand in shaping the musical landscape. Bulgara are a young, exciting combo that have taken a progressive tack in creating music that reflects the rich Balkan experience. At first, I was a bit put-off by Bear's Wedding: the music is treated with such slick production standards that I felt myself longing for more Balkan wildness to be felt. But the recording grew on me, as it became apparent that what Bulgara seek to do is to tease out the disparate influences and let them shine in the mix.
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Following up on their sweet 2005 release Pigeon Folk Pieces, Denmark's Trio Mio continues its trend of fiddling about, literally and figuratively, with folk-soaked original music. There's much to love here, and a bit to skip over. The superb musicianship and thoughtful but not overly tricky arrangements are a carry-over from their previous work. Kristine Heebøll's violin is at the core of it all, and her bow dances and sails over the intricate melody lines. Jens Ulvsand on bouzouki and guitar has the ability to spin complex rhythms on a dime and rip off clean melodic licks without breaking a sweat. Nikolaj Busk's work on keys is powerful and sensitive...
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In a cruel irony that she herself might have savored, fado music rose to international prominence as its iconic figure Amalia Rodrigues died. In the years after she dominated the style for six decades, several young women began to be touted as the "next Amalia." One of the first was Dulce Pontes, who gained international recognition after she placed well in a Eurovision song contest and her "Cançao do Mar" (on Lagrimas) was featured in the soundtrack of a popular Brazilian TV show and the Richard Gere movie "Primal Fear." On her latest release, Dulce Pontes continues her explorations in a parallel fado universe of her own creation. The album includes two CDs and a DVD. The first CD is a more stripped-down outing, closer to the traditional taverna intimacy of fado. The second CD sees her using a broader sonic palette, including a children's choir, recorded in various rooms of an ancient stone church.
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Malian desert blues, Nigerian Afro-Beat, South African mbqanga and kwaito, Senegal's mbalax, Congolese rumba and soukous - these and a few other African styles have established niches in the global music marketplace. Two recently issued compilations bring welcome exposure to the somewhat lesser known sounds of Guinea and Ghana. The two-CD set Authenticité: The Syliphone Years, Guinea's Orchestres Nationaux and Federaux, 1965-1980, presents 28 selections by the government-supported national and federal bands that emerged after Guinea achieved independence from France in 1958... The twelve tracks that comprise Bokoor Beats document a sea change in Ghanaian popular music, the early 1970s movement away from large dance orchestras to smaller bands that specialized in Hendrix- and Santana-inspired rock, funk a la James Brown, and the Afro-beat of Fela Kuti. Bokoor - which means "coolness" -- was the name of a band and a recording studio. The band was formed in 1971 by Ghanaian guitarist Robert Beckley and John Collins, an expatriate Englishman; the studio, located outside the capital city of Accra, was founded by Collins in 1982. George De Stefano looks back on some classics of the "Golden Age."
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Newest reviews

• Oysterband, UK
• 17 Hippies
  Polkaholix, Germany
• Oisín McAuley, Ireland
• Henri Angel, France/Italy
• Trio DCA, France
• Park Bench Social Club, UK
• Phonix, Denmark
• Choro Ensemble, US
• Trio Mio, Denmark
• Watcha Clan, Denmark
• Old Blind Dogs, Ireland
• VA - Roots Of Chica
  Chica Libre
• Heidi Talbot, US
• saba, Somalia
• Fred Katz, US
• The Afromotive, US
• Yggdrasil, Faroes
• Kitka, US
• Oreka TX, Spain
• Claude Gomis, Senegal
• Orchestra Baobab, Senegal
• Carried by the Current, Peru
• Bevinda, Portugal/France
• Andy Palacio
  The Garifuna Women's Project, Belize/Garifuna
• Marc Egea, Spain
• Diego Amador, Spain
• Oliver Mtukudzi, Zimbabwe
• Abyssinians , Jamaica
• Piccola Bottega Baltazar, Italy
• ...plus many, many more.

A list of great woman blues guitarists is a short but glorious one: Memphis Minnie, Rosetta Tharpe, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Etta Baker, Ruthie Foster, Rory Block, Bonnie Raitt, and now, perhaps, Joan Armatrading. That's right, with the release of her self-produced, Grammy-nominated album and her current performance tour, the great British pop-rock-reggae singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading unquestionably enters that exclusive and distinguished sorority of female fretboard blues masters. Her newest recording, Into the Blues is such a fresh, original work ­ one on which Armatrading wrote all the songs, delivers all the vocals and plays all the instruments except the drums, herself ­ that it would draw much-deserved critical praise even if it had been released by an obscure new artist. Read more.

If she didn't exist, Mexican popular music would have to invent Chavela Vargas (born Isabel Vargas Lizano in 1919). Her signature interpretations of bolero and canción ranchera represent the incarnation of what writer Samuel Ramos christened México Profundo-deep Mexico, a spirit recognized by friends and admirers including Pablo Neruda, Gabriel García Márquez, and Carlos Monsiváis. Citing influences as diverse as Maria Callas, Edith Piaf, Carlos Gardel, Chabuca Grande, and Violeta Parra, Vargas ranks with the Mexican legends-Lola Beltrán, Lucha Reyes, José Alfredo Jiménez, Augustín Lara, Álvaro Carrillo, and Vicente Fernández among them. Throughout her life, she has stood the received conception of machismo on its head, embracing its ideals even as she defies them with a fighting spirit terrifyingly manifest in this remarkable cultural document, a CD-DVD package rounded out with an affectionate tribute by Monsiváis. Nearing 90, a hard-partying contemporary of Frida Kahlo and the Mexican muralists (she says she went to sing for Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and returned home only a year later), Vargas asserts, "I drank all of Mexico's tequila. This is why they do not have any more good tequila there." Read more.

With "Amuñegü" ("In Times to Come"), the closing track on the Garifuna Collective's Wátina, Andy Palacio beseeches, "Parents, please listen to me. Teach the children our language and our songs, our beliefs and our dances." Palacio said, in early 2007, "The song came from some soul searching, looking into the future and asking fundamental questions about the preservation and survival of Garifuna culture. It asks, 'Who will speak with me in Garifuna in times to come? Who will perform the dances? Who will lead us in the sacred dügü?' The time has come for these things to be taught and preserved.' It is a very simple statement that ends with children's voices singing, 'Lest we lose it altogether,' and a haunting cello figure. It still gives me chills when I hear it." Michael Stone remembers the music, words and legacy of the Belizean cultural icon in interviews with Andy and his friends. Read more.

With an enormous organ as a backdrop, it's a surprisingly formal setting for four chirpy young women from the north of England, who walk on stage carrying clogs and modest smiles. However, the polished wooden floors and excellent acoustics prove to be perfect for Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, a quartet set for a cult following in the UK following the excellent reviews of their latest album, The Bairns. The concert hall allows the delicious harmonies to soar, for the percussion in the form of high heels and the aforementioned clogs to resonate fully, for the audience to hang on every jazz-inspired chord on the grand piano under Belinda O'Hooley's fingers.
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"What I really believe about Cajun music is that it is the most American music there is. We play music that people feel like they've heard before, like it brings up memories they didn't know they had.... We got moved around a lot. Because of that we Cajuns have a Gypsy consciousness. The family stays together no matter what. And we also kept our music despite all our being shoved about and uprooted...." - RootsWorld's Bill Nevins talks with Michael Doucet
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The autoharp is an odd little thing. It's even considered odd by folk music enthusiasts. It's a string instrument with chord bars and dampers; that is to say, it looks like the homely child of a concertina and a zither. While it has been established that the instrument was designed in Germany, not in the states as earlier promoted by the Oscar Schmidt Company, a German immigrant named Charles F. Zimmermann brought it to America, where this novel invention really took off. Easy to play and extremely portable, the autoharp was often offered at the doorstep on an installment plan, another great 20th Century innovation. Musicologist and musician Mike Seeger talks about how he initially approached musicians like Kilby Snow and recorded he and other masters of the autoharp. Read more

When faced with an organist whose toupee had a life of its own and a "cantor who can't," Josh Dolgin created a new Jewish music for himself, and a new name, Socalled. He is probably best known for singing with and creating beats and samples for David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness. But the idiosyncratic and uncompromising fusion of hip-hop with Jewish and world music that he produces under his own name is beginning to attract a great deal of attention. In 2004, his Solomon and Socalled Hiphopkhasene even won a music critics' award in Germany for Best World Music Album. His group, the Socalled Orchestra, played in the Tempel Synagogue in the heart of the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz in Krakow, and Philip Palmer heard him in concert and in workshops.
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