RSS feedArchive for June, 2010
Jon Boden launches new website to promote social singing tradition
Posted on June 19th, 2010 in World Music by Songlines.
Folk singer Jon Boden (BBC Radio 2 Folk Singer of the Year) is to launch a new website where he will upload a new folk song every day for a year.
The Bellowhead founder and one half of folk duo Spiers & Boden sees himself as first and foremost an unaccompanied folk singer. ‘In the 60s and 70s the status of unaccompanied singing was much higher within the folk scene, and most of my favourite albums from the revival are albums where the majority of the material is unaccompanied,’ Boden explains. To rectify this loss of status, he is launching the website on Midsummer’s Day.
‘My current repertoire is something like 240 songs, so to complete the whole year I will have to learn half as many again,’ he says. This ambitious project sees modern technology brought to the aid of ancient culture, allowing people to hear folk songs streamed through the site, on a free downloadable podcast from iTunes, and at the end of each month, buy a digital album of that month’s songs through Navigator Records.
Boden hopes that the resulting 12 digital albums, containing 365 folk songs, will provide a unique resource of English traditional song for a generation to whom social singing in pubs is almost unknown, and where it has become virtually the sole preserve of football stadiums and places of worship.
New opera charting the life of Nelson Mandela opens in Cape Town
Posted on June 16th, 2010 in World Music by Songlines.
Italy had Pavarotti’s ‘Nessun Dorma’ for Italia 90, now South Africa has African Songbook for its own World Cup, an opera based on the life of Nelson Mandela opening in Cape Town on June 17.
African Songbook: A Musical Tribute to the Life of Nelson Mandela is presented by Cape Town Opera and features the sounds of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, the Voice of the Nation Chorus and Fezeka High School Choir.
It will run the gamut from choral music of the Transkrei, to 50s jive and the apartheid sounds of the 80s. Composed in three acts by cellist Allan Stephenson, professor of jazz Mike Campbell and Kwa-Zulu Natal composer Roelof Temmingh, the opera features three Mandelas singing to represent his life as an 18-year-old, a 30-something and an older man.
The opera is written and directed by Michael Williams.
July 2010 issue of Songlines (#69) is on sale in the UK from June 11
Posted on June 10th, 2010 in Songlines Blog by Songlines.
The July 2010 issue of Songlines is on sale in the UK from June 11 and includes our regular Top of the World CD with ten tracks from the finest new releases from around the planet. There’s also a selection of five tracks selected by novelist and screenplay writer William Boyd.
The Top of the World CD includes tracks from Ango-Cuban collective Ska Cubano; Senegalese rappers Daara J Family; Portuguese fadista Ana Moura; Serbian preservers of the Sephardic sound Shira u’tfila; East Timorese musical figurehead Ego Lemos and new pan-European collaborative project UNITE, among others.
The main editorial features include:
• Ladysmith Black Mambazo – From Graceland to worldwide recognition, we chart the group’s incredible success story.
• Thandiswa Mazwai – Taking her rightful place amongst South Africa’s female singing elite.
• Fresh Talent – Four other young SA names to look out for.
• Songlines Guide to South African Music – From kwaito to isicathamiya, our guide to the Rainbow Nation’s wealth of musical styles.
• Making a Compilation – A compiler’s journey – from concept to album release.
• Ego Lemos – The eco-singer who’s putting South-East Asia’s East Timor on the musical map.
• Shira u’tfila – The Serbian group intent on keeping Sephardic music traditions alive.
• Sounding Out Melbourne – all the best places to see and hear music in the Australian city.
• Beginner’s Guide to Tom Zé.
• Postcard from Santiago de Cuba.
• Roskilde Festival, Denmark.
• Backpage from New Zealand.
• My World – novelist and screenplay writer William Boyd.
• Grooves – Ghanaian highlife singer AB Crentsil, flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela and Salsa Celtica’s Toby Shippey share their favourites.
• News, including Dispatches USA from the new Museum of Musical Instruments.
• Reviews of the latest CD, DVD and World Cinema releases.
Novelist and screenplay writer William Boyd playlist and the 10 best new releases in the July issue of Songlines (#69)
Posted on June 10th, 2010 in Songlines Blog by Songlines.
The July 2010 issue of Songlines – on sale June 11 – features a free covermount CD packed full of the best new sounds from around the world, plus 5 tracks selected by novelist and screenplay writer William Boyd.
The covermount CD includes tracks from Ango-Cuban collective Ska Cubano; Senegalese rappers Daara J Family; Portuguese fadista Ana Moura; Serbian preservers of the Sephardic sound Shira u’tfila; East Timorese musical figurehead Ego Lemos and new pan-European collaborative project UNITE, among others.
Pick up your copy here on the website, at selected WHSmith’s and at all good record retailers. Feast your ears on these all-new tracks:
* Ska Cubano ‘La Gaita Sabrosa’ on Casino Sounds
* Daara J Family ‘Temps Boy’ on Wrasse Records
* Ana Moura ‘Leva-me aos Fados’ on World Village
* Shira u’tfila ‘Khasapikos’ on Fréa Records
* Mikea ‘Nagnaia Reliny’ on Contre-Jour
* Nuru Kane ‘Number One Bus’ on Iris Music
* Primás Parade ‘Kalotaszegi Szapora’ on Folk Európa
* Ego Lemos ‘Balibo’ on Skinnyfish Music/Dramatico
* UNITE feat the Perunika Trio ‘Hey You Shepherd’ on Mule Satellite Records
* Hosam Hayek ‘Stranger in my Homeland’ on Doublemoon
Plus William Boyd’s playlist:
* Seu Jorge ‘Carolina’ on Mr Bongo
* Cheikh Lô ‘Boul di Tagale’ on World Circuit
* Jorge Drexler ‘Elotro Engranarle’ on Warner
* Elis Regina ‘Casa No Campo’ on Universal
* Femi Kuti ‘Sorry Sorry’ on Barclay
