Various Bambara Mystic Soul

It's official; the so-called developed world is drowning in DJ-curated repackagings of 35 to 40 year old Latin and funk-influenced West-African grooves. Many of these collections suggest scenes that may have never really existed, or their editors cherry pick particularly rare stylistic examples of sounds the bands themselves only dabbled in. In this way, they often decide what matters based on what a Westerner may truly be able to get with, due to a familiarity many us really ought to get past. Yet compilations and original LP reissues by the likes of Analog Africa, Soundway, Strut and a growing host of others are also shining a spotlight on what was no doubt a fertile period in the region's musical development, a post-colonial, pre-corruption-fueled fallout that, for a brief moment, allowed the arts to flower. It's only natural that the interest would spill over Burkina Faso. And positioned as it is due east of southern Mali as well, its 70s-era pop sounds no doubt bear the stamp of that Sahelian musical powerhouse. Bruce Miller digs into the sounds of Bambara Mystic Soul

Jensen & Bugge Hav Og Land

Everyone experiences times when life gets heavy, and for many of us music is a remarkable tonic. Over the past few months, when my soul has needed restoration I've been turning to the new CD from Jensen & Bugge. This collection, Hav Og Land, consists primarily of traditional Danish dance tunes, and I can't help but smile when I put on this record... Jensen and Bugge have been playing together for ten years. They make a great duo, and that pairing is well demonstrated here... They also play with a full band consisting of the always impressive guitarist Morten Alfred Høirup, clarinetist Bjarke Kolerus, and Thomas Hedegaard on bass. The band is stellar, and the arrangements sparkle. Greg Harness taps his feet and shares the music in his review.

Sevara Nazarkhan Tortadur

Uzbekistan's Sevara Nazarkhan is best known for electronica music that's as much techno as ethno. One Tortadur, she has taken the sort of back-to-roots approach that's increasingly common and seldom if ever a bad thing. To do so, she rounded up a half dozen of her country's most esteemed traditional musicians, players advanced in age and experience who understand every nuance of the maqams (classical modes) that musically define Central Asia. Tom Orr explores her new roots sound.

Holmertz, Røine, Skullerud & Vatn Martyred Saints & Sister Bells: Stave Church Songs Anita Skorgan På gyllen grunn

In 1989 Norwegian folk singer Agnes Buen Garnås and jazz musician Jan Garbarek joined forces to rattle the world of Medieval music with their adventurous yet sublime LP Rosenfole. There have been many worthy imitators and a few exceptional continuations of the experiment over the years, but this year we are graced with two examples of how new technology and a new globally-aware generation of musicians and singers continue to explore and expand these ideas, using the ancient roots of Norway. A diverse group of Norwegian artists - Elisabeth Holmertz (vocals), Anders Røine (langeleik, Jew's harp, Hardanger fiddle), Harald Skullerud (percussion, ceramic bells, music box) and Elisabeth Vatn (harmonium, folding organ, Swedish bagpipes, medieval pipes, Meråker clarinet, digital Srutibox for iPhone) - have joined together to make an impressive and important contribution to new Norwegian folk and art music with Martyred Saints & Sister Bells: Stave Church Songs. Norwegian Eurovision star Anita Skorgan has made a recording, so it is quite a surprise to find her return to be a work of traditional folk tunes produced with great care and understanding by Erik Hillestad, who also wrote new texts, and recorded Skorgan and her ensemble in a mausoleum in Oslo. Listen to tracks from the CDs and read more about these two unique projects.

Al Andaluz Project Al-Maraya

One of the most endearing aspects of human experience is the notion of a 'Golden Age.' Each successive generation seems to enter a period of lament as they grow older, pining for a time when life seemed easier and less complicated: perhaps conditions appeared to be more equitable, and the world generally appeared to be a calmer place... A period of history that has often been regarded as a 'Golden Age' would be that of Moorish Spain: the Al-Andaluz era of the Spanish Middle Ages, an age that spans the early 700's up until the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492. On their latest recording, Al-Maraya, European ensemble Al Andaluz Project explore this convergence of cultures in new music. Lee Blackstone talks with the group's musical director, Michael Popp. Read more and listen to the music.

Three Metre Day Audio Feature

Three Metre Day (Hugh Marsh, Don Rooke and Michelle Willis) interviews Three Metre Day. The Toronto-based trio discuss improvisation, their instruments, their interconnections, and then... they take their instruments, interconnect and improvise. This is part of a new on-going series of hour long programs called The Global Radio Workshop, produced by Cliff Furnald in cooperation with WPKN Radio in Bridgeport, CT USA.

Music for Palestine

Rim Banna, Nai Barghouti, Wissam Murad and Jawaher Shofani were joined by a global cast of musicians in their homes in Sheikh Jarrah to create A Time to Cry: A Lament Over Jerusalem. Israeli-born, London-based saxophonist-composer, activist and writer Gilad Atzmon presents his ideas in two distinct forums with a new CD, The Tide Has Changed, and his challenging political writings in his book, "The Wandering Who?" Michael Stone looks at some major new work dealing with Palestinian culture and politics within Israel.

Addis Acoustic Project Tewesta

Given the volume of great vintage music from Ethiopia that's been discovered (or, more accurately, rediscovered) and made available in the last decade and a half, it was only a matter of time before a band like Addis Acoustic Project came along. Founded by guitarist/accordionist/arranger Girum Mezmer, the group re-creates in mostly instrumental style Ethiopian hits of the 1950s and 60s, a time when instruments like the mandolin and accordion were prominent and the funkier, horn-heavy sounds hadn't yet arrived. Tom Orr checks out the new-again old sounds of Tewesta

Nation Beat Growing Stone

While the thumbnail description of Nation Beat might be a melding of American and Brazilian country music, the band's latest album, Growing Stone, once again shows the band to be more multi-faceted than that... with songs that are rhythmically propulsive with a strong core of percussion carrying along the silky melodies. Join Marty Lipp on a cross-continental journey and listen in.

Sacha Silva Pentecost and in concert

The listener may divine just how the conception of Pentecost articulates with the eponymous commemorations enshrined in Jewish and Christian tradition -- 50 days after the exodus or after the resurrection. But the flamenco-Balkan-classical Indian-western chamber jazz mash-up of the ensemble Sacha Silva is a lyrical, knowing, wide-ranging nod to the postmodern, postcolonial condition. The blend itself is today less remarkable than how well and expertly acoustic guitarist Sacha Silva, classically trained Indian singer Munya B., Royal Academy of Music alum and composer-cellist Drew Morgan, cellist Elliott Green, flautist Eliza Marshall and percussionist Rohin Khemani realize their fortuitous artistic partnership, forged in London from the four corners of the earth. This is music that unfolds unhurriedly, reflectively, more an act of engaged collective audience and mutual regard than an expression of deliberate artistic audition. Read Michael Stone's review and hear a complete concert performance

Mor Karbasi Daughter of the Spring

Interest in Ladino music, music that originated among the Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain following the reconquista of 1492, is on the rise. Rightly so, since at its best it can be enchanting. Of Moroccan and Persian heritage and currently based in London, Mor Karbasi sings with the same reach and emotion as the finest flamenco and fado vocalists, and her music has similarities to both of those Iberian-rooted styles. On the cover of Daughter of the Spring, she looks like an embodiment of that title, adorned in flowers. The music, similarly, has the feel of poetry-inspiring beauty. Tom Orr shares the music of La Hija de la Primavera

Sergent Garcia Una a Otra Vez

Sergent Garcia still blends salsa with reggae and ska in the "salsamuffin" style he pioneered in his post-punk days after taking on the name of Zorro's hapless nemesis and turning it into a positive thing. But now he's discovered how well Colombian rhythms (including those of the country's Africanized coastal regions) fit into his sonic vision. So after laying some basic tracks in Paris, he headed to Bogotá to work with players and singers attuned to both their Colombian roots and what can be done with them in the present day. Tom Orr listens to some "dance music for people with brains."

SongJa Chee, JeongHyun Chu, YoungHo Shu Sanzo from Korea

I first laid my eyes on a Korean Gayageum, the wooden, surfboard-shaped zither, hanging on some friends' wall in Virginia; it appears they'd found it in a trashcan in Seoul, and because they didn't know how to play it, and also because it needed some repair, it became an ornament, a piece of art, a statement of their musical appreciation. It also made me wonder what one actually sounded like when plucked by the hands of someone steeped in the instrument's nearly thousand-year-old history. Bruce Miller listens in as three artists explore the sanzo of Korea.

Knut Hamre Ferd

England's MOJO magazine has a wonderful feature every month, where different musicians and stars are asked: "What is your favorite Saturday night record?...And your Sunday morning record?" The old dichotomy of the Saturday evening sinner, versus the Sunday morning repentant, is beautifully illustrated through the choices. Two CDs from Norway illustrate these two poles of the human spirit. Sver draws on the rural music of the Røros mountain region in central Norway, and this young band attacks the tradition with sheer exuberance in their release, Fruen... Legendary hardanger fiddle player Knut Hamre offers us Ferd ('Journey'), music with a burning intensity, a voyage through traditional and new tunes. Lee Blackstone shares a musical weekend in Norway.

Jienat Mira

Ah, the joy of joiking. The Sami artist Wimme Saari earned renown for his combination of shamanistic chants and evocative electronics: the human voice bumping up against chilly technology, creating a frisson out of the organic/inorganic juxtaposition. One could say that the art of joiking has an abstractness to it: the Sami people use joiks to sing the essence of a person, a place, an animal. Joiking is a deep, ancient form of communication, and as such the essence is deeply grounded: a magical form of concretely embodying the spirit of things. On Mira, listeners are treated to the Sami language, one form of which is only utilized by roughly six hundred people living on the Russian Kola peninsula. Jienat heads down a different road than travelled by artists like Wimme or Mari Boine. The musician who is the force behind Jienat, Andreas Fliflet, has gone to great lengths to ensure that the recording of the musicians is as close to a live, immersive experience as possible... Lee Blackstone listens, in glorious techni-sound, to the northern noise.

Geoff Berner Interview

"It's good to come at the gatekeepers with a label you've made up yourself, because otherwise they will find one for you..." says Geoff Berner, describing his music in rather bold genre-specifics to avoid our interviewer pegging him with some mind-bending juxtapositions of klezmer, Eastern European and punk. Greg Harness gets the proper genres and more from the Vancouver accordionist.

Juan de Marcos González an interview

Despite the Cold War and a U.S. embargo, it seems rock 'n' roll was still able to infiltrate into Castro's Cuba. Juan de Marcos González - organizer of the Afro Cuban All-Stars, the Buena Vista Social Club and Sierra Maestra - recounted in a recent interview that though raised in a home thoroughly steeped in Cuban music, he and his teenaged friends would huddle around the radio to listen to American rock 'n' roll. "We wanted to be like tropical Jimmy Hendrixes," he recalled. "Despite my passion for rock and R & B, I also listened to a lot of Cuban classics." Marty Lipp chats with the AfroCuban all-star

Maria Kalaniemi Vilda Rosor

Maria Kalaniemi offers a collection of Finnish-Swedish songs. The Finnish accordionist and singer grew up in a home where both Swedish and Finnish were spoken and in the liner notes of her new CD she says, "both of these cultures exist side by side in my musical world." Read, listen, and tenter that world for a few minutes with Greg Harness reviews Vilda Rosor.

Aurelio Laru Beya

The vexed cultural encounter between Spanish, English, indigenous and African-descent peoples in Caribbean Central America is perhaps most dramatically embodied in the history of the African-Amerindian Garifuna of coastal Honduras, Guatemala and Belize. In partnership with producer Ivan Duran, Andy Palacio, the Belizean Garifuna artist had just begun to reach world audiences when his unexpected passing in January 2008 dealt a severe blow to Garifuna music. Honduran Garifuna singer-songwriter Aurelio Martinez, Palacio's immensely talented understudy and frequent collaborator, inherited the mantle, and just a month later, began recording Laru Beya. Three years in the making, Laru Beya shows considerable musical evolution. Read Michael Stone's review and listen to the music.

Steve Riley l'entrevue Mamou

"It's not just dance music -- it's a much bigger story," says Steve Riley, explaining that his new recording with The Mamou Playboys, Grand Isle, is infused with the new reality of Gulf Coast life in the wake of the 2005 hurricanes and the devastating 2010 BP oil spill. "There are still sheens of oil in our marshes and bayous," Riley adds, "We're going to feel the effects of that oil spill for a long time."   Bill Nevins talks with Steve Riley about music and The Gulf.

Karuna Hyvää Matkaa

Hyvää Matkaa, the title of the first album from the Finnish band Karuna translates to "have a nice trip." Actually, the English translation provided is "bon voyage" which speaks to the polyglot nature of the English language. Regardless of the translation, listeners are indeed taken on an enjoyable trip through new compositions anchored in traditional folk dance music. Playing both nyckelharpa and fiddle, Esko Järvelä may be the most familiar member of this band through his involvement with Baltic Crossing, Frigg, and Tsuumi Sound System. He is joined by Teija Niku on accordion and Juha Kujanpää who not only plays piano and harmonium but also composed 11 of the 12 tracks. Greg Harness takes the trip and invites you to join him.

an interview with Väsen "This is not the band for big crowds; this is the band for people with good taste," says nyckelharpa player Olov Johansson about Väsen, the band he started 22 years ago with violist Mikael Marin and guitarist Roger Tallroth. "I want the audience to have an open mind. If people will listen to three of our tunes, we'll catch them." Greg Harness talks with the Swedish roots-innovators of Väsen.   Mehmet Bitmez Istanbul Ruyasi As a part-time resident of Turkey and hopefully by now well-informed about Turkish musical traditions, I am often welcoming visitors to Istanbul and they ioften ask for advice in buying music. I try to just send them to Lale Plak, where the qualified personnel will take this hot potato off my hands (and I do not mean kumpir). But sometimes I am involved personally; the subject is complex and dear to my heart, so selecting just a few titles is painful. One thing that I suggest is to focus on Istanbul's music, leaving Laz songs or Mardin's reyhani for a later visit. There's no shortage to CDs dedicated to Istanbul, by excellent soloists like kanunist Goksel Baktagir. But a new recording by udist Mehmet Bitmez and the ensemble Istanbul Sazkar Toplulugu comes as close to a good sightseeing tour of the music of the city as possible. Francesco Martinelli reviews this this Dream of Istanbul   Ebo Taylor Love and Death It should seem odder than it does for Ebo Taylor to have reached his 74th year before releasing an album internationally. Yet, no doubt the majority of the international community who are even aware of him owe that consciousness to Mile Cleret and his Soundway compilations Ghana Soundz Vols 1 &2, as well as Analogue Africa's Afro-Beat Airwaves. For these are compilations of 35 year-old music from West Africa's recording heyday, released over the last decade and curated by European DJs who manage to find time and cash to scour West Africa for records, dust off recordings by Taylor and others, such as Ghana's Marijata, find master reels, offer up licensing, painstaking pour over recordings to find just the right track, and aim those tracks straight at westerners. It's this audience that hears a sonic kinship with North American funk, as well as Nigeria's Afro-beat superstar Fela Kuti, in much of this music. It's also unarguably the critical reception these comps have had, sparked by Taylor's classic tracks, such as "Heaven," that have helped the producer, arranger, singer, writer and guitarist, who has been a music force in Ghana since his time in the 1960s highlife scene, decide to recapture that sound on Love and Death. And does it ever work... Bruce Miller reviews the return of the Afrobeat master.   Jan Gerard Palm 19th Century of Curaçao As a composer, Curaçao native Jan Gerard Palm (1831-1905) ranks with Hubert de Blanck (1856-1932), the "Cuban Dutchman"; Ignacio Cervantes (1847-1905), Manuel Saumell (1818-1870) and José White Lafitte (1836-1918), all from Cuba; Puerto Rico's Juan Morel Campos (1857-1896); Joseph Boulogne, le Chevalier de Saint-George (1739-1799), the "Black Mozart" of Guadeloupe; and Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) of New Orleans. Recognized as leaders in establishing nationally unique salon-classical music traditions, these composers all were influenced by African-Caribbean musical forms, were cognizant of the work of their contemporaries, and in some cases were personally acquainted. The Palm Music Foundation works to recuperate Palm's music by way of research, live concert performances, recordings, and publications of music as well as biographical work. Michael Stone reviews two new recordings that commemorate Palm's music.   Ray Cooper Tales of Love, War & Death By Hanging Ray Cooper, aka 'Chopper,' is well-known as the bassist – utilizing both electric bass, and cello – for the Oysterband. Tales of Love, War & Death By Hanging is Cooper's first foray as a solo artist, and it is a remarkably rich, rewarding folk album. When John Jones, the lead singer of the Oysterband, released his solo album Rising Road (2009), one would have expected Jones' voice to be the centerpiece. Cooper's album is perhaps more surprising, not least due to the unveiling of his voice: a rich, sonorous instrument not unlike his expressive use of the cello. The overall, Tales... has an austere rusticity to it, which makes for an arresting listening experience. Ray Cooper recorded the album with Patrik Andersson (on violins and hardanger fiddle) in a cabin in Sweden, so it is a fair assessment to say that Tales… reflects a merging of U.K. folk and Nordic sensibilities. Lee Blackstone lives to hear the Tales...   The Real Hurdy-Gurdy Man: Matthias Loibner is doing work on the instrument that is worth deep, repeated listening. He is a musician dancing on the borders between early music, exploratory music, and roots music. Erik Keilholtz investigates the diverse and wonderful musical world of a vielle à roué master.   Bombino Agadez By the time Niger's Goumar "Bombino" Almoctar was all of 12 years old, he was already deeply enmeshed in the hardships of the Tuareg, the nomadic tribes who descended from the Berbers of North Africa and call the Sahara desert home. As his marginalized people rebelled against the governments of Mali and Niger, he was forced into exile in Algeria. It was there that he first picked up the guitar. Upon returning to Niger he found his chosen instrument banned by authorities who considered it a tool that fueled revolt. But Bombino's spirit was empowered by both traditional music and Western rock and roll, and there was no turning back. His deciding to stick with his axe made him a popular symbol of Tuareg tenacity at home as well as a sought-after musician. Tom Orr reviews his debut CD.   Natacha Atlas Mounqaliba When I was a graduate student I read a 19th Century treatise by Brooks Adams (Henry's brother, John Quincy's grandson) entitled "The Law of Civilization and Decay" wherein he claimed that all great commercial civilizations must decline and fall, that the quest for wealth always replaced the spiritual values that spurred the initial growth of the society. He believed the United States was a civilization on the rise, but would soon start into the decay portion of the cycle as greed grew more prominent. He also believed the cycle was immutable natural law like the law of gravity. Mounqaliba, subtitled "In a State of Reversal," shares some of those same sentiments. In an interview on her website, Natacha Atlas stated, "What I attempt to convey is a sense of reversal. Reversal of the state of society, reversal in our political and belief systems, reversal of spirituality in favour of materialism." Greg Harness reviews.   The sound of a fiddle is not an abstract concept for Bob Childs. For 35 years, he has worked with top violinists and fiddlers, creating instruments that will act as their voices, but which still have his mark. Then, in 1993, he was invited to participate in a concert in Washington, D.C.; the organizer eventually mentioned to him that everyone in the group played his instruments and they were calling themselves Childsplay. Marty Lipp talks with fiddle maker Bob Childs about his instruments and the group they spawned, Childsplay.   Next Stop… Soweto Apartheid in South Africa had plenty of dark moments. In 1963, the South African white minority government enacted the Separate Amenities Act which completely segregated all entertainment venues. Prior to that, whites and others could go into the black townships to hear and support local musicians, but that completely ended in '63. In 1974, the Afrikaans Medium Decree made black schools teach in Afrikaans, widely seen by blacks as the language of oppression. This eventually lead to the Soweto Uprising of 1976, a major protest by black students against the decree. These collections from Strut are placed primarily between these time boundaries, covering black South African music in the 1960s and '70s. Greg Harness digs into the 60s and 70s sounds of Jazz, R&B, Funk and Psych sounds from the townships of South Africa   Review archive Antonio Castrignanó, Italy Jordi Savall, Spain Peña, Peru Anne-Marie Giørtz, Norway Huun Huur Tu, Tuva Zenobia, Denmark Segun Bucknor, Nigeria Bellowhead, UK Markku Ounaskari, Finland Tendachënt, Italy Zein Al-Jundi, Syria/US Carlou D, Senegal Magnifico, Slovenia Mulatu Astatke, Ethiopia France: Une anthologie des musiques traditionnelles ...plus many, many more.   Interview archive Makana Ellis Deolinda Frode Haltli and Trygve Seim Tab Benoit Caroline Herring, Claire Holley and Kate Campbell Annbjørg Lien