RSS feedArchive for February, 2009
Festival de L Imaginaire brings world sounds to Paris this spring
Posted on February 25th, 2009 in World Music by Songlines.
Let your imagination go as Europe’s largest festival of traditional and ethnographic music takes place in Paris for six weeks from March 3-April 12.
Organised by the Maison des Cultures du Monde, the 13th Festival de L’Imaginaire features masked dancers from Zambia, bards from Azerbaijan, ancestral court music from Uganda, gamelan and dance performances from Javanese master Rahayu Supanggah, Sufi flute and drum players from Algeria who have fascinated Bartok, Brian Eno and David Byrne, and much more.
One of its purposes, says director Arwad Esber, ‘is to fight against the tendency for globalisation and uniformity in the world. And do artists have to be European or Western in their aesthetic to be contemporary? Can’t they be contemporary in their own way?’
Most performances are in the intimate auditorium of the MCM, but others are in the Louvre and the Bastille Opera.
www.mcm.asso.fr
Songlines 10th anniversary concert series kicks off at the Jazz Café in London
Posted on February 20th, 2009 in World Music by Songlines.
Songlines is celebrating its 10th anniversary with an exclusive series of concerts at London’s Jazz Café from March to May this year.
What better way to celebrate ten years of discovering a world of music than to see some of the finest talents from around the world performing live in Songlines’ hometown of London? A new monthly Sunday session at the Jazz Café – L’Afrik, C’est Chic! [March 15, April 26, May 24] – will include guest musicians alongside the Malian blues duo Amadou & Mariam, who are setting off to the US this summer to tour with Coldplay in their latest brush with the mainstream since their breakthrough Manu Chao-produced success Dimanche à Bamako in 2005.
On March 18, Mauritanian guitarist Daby Touré joins Little Axe guitarist Skip McDonald on a bluesy session. On April 15, Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu will grace the stage, followed four days later by young Sephardic singer Mor Karbasi. The Top of the World collaboration between Justin Adams and Gambian ritti (one-stringed fiddle) player Juldeh Camara on May 13 will be followed on May 23 by fellow West African Vieux Farka Touré’s new Malian sound.
The concert series reaches a full-blooded Afro-beat crescendo on May 25 & 26 when Fela Kuti’s son Seun will take the stage with Fela’s Egypt 80.
Book tickets for the Songlines 10th anniversary concert series online at www.jazzcafe.co.uk or call 0870 060 3777
Musical-political giants tour the UK in African Soul Rebels 2009
Posted on February 16th, 2009 in World Music by Songlines.
The fifth African Soul Rebels tour of the UK – taking place March 3-14 – is almost as much a political as a musical roadshow. The pan-African line-up takes in Senegal in the west, Kenya in the east and Zimbabwe in the south. The opening act – Extra Golden [Top of the World #48] – are a band who have found increasing limelight due to the support of US president Barack Obama. Based in Obama’s home city of Chicago, the band plays a mixture of Kenyan benga and US Midwestern rock that is pretty much a musical embodiment of Obama himself.
Extra Golden are joined by two towering giants of African music. Senegalese singer Baaba Maal is one of West Africa’s biggest musical exports, most recently becoming part of the Africa Express sessions, but he is also one of the region’s most articulate social activists as a Youth Emissary for the United Nations Development Programme. Oliver Mtukudzi has been a giant of southern African music since 1977 and his homeland of Zimbabwe has become the focus of world attention in the last few years for all the wrong reasons. Maal and Mtukudzi are both backed by their longstanding bands Daande Lenol and the Black Spirits respectively.
www.musicbeyondmainstream.co.uk
Orlando Cachaíto López (1933-2009)
Posted on February 10th, 2009 in World Music by Songlines.
Orlando ‘Cachaíto’ López, bassist with the Buena Vista Social Club, died on February 9 in a Havana hospital aged 76.
López was born in Havana in 1933 to a family of bass players including his legendary uncle Israel ‘Cachao’ López, from whom he gained his nickname Cachaíto, meaning ‘little Cachao’. He was originally a violinist before taking up the family instrument and joining bands of Cuba’s golden era of music, including the 50s cabaret orchestra Bambú and big band Riverside and 60s vocal group Los Zafiros with top guitarist Manuel Galbán. Lopez then went on to play with such legendary Cuban outfits as Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna and Irakere.
López was ‘discovered’ by American guitarist Ry Cooder in the 90s when he travelled to Cuba to record music with the great of Cuba’s musical past. He was then playing with Juan de Marcos González’s Afro Cuban All Stars. The ensuing Cooder project, named the Buena Vista Social Club, spawned a World Circuit release that became one of the most successful world music albums ever and concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York and in Amsterdam that brought these Cuban stars to the world stage.
Bathing in this latter day fame, many of the Buena Vista musicians went on to record solo albums, including López whose 2001 debut solo release Cachaíto featured Hugh Masekela, Pee Wee Ellis, Angá Diaz and Galbán and won him an award at the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music in 2002.
