Menwar: Ay
Ay Lolo (Marabi)
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Ah,
Mauritius, island of my dreams. I may never visit you,
but you linger always on the edge of my joy. I imagine
your colors, your aromas, your fruits, your people. Your
sounds I no longer have to imagine, because Menwar has
arrived in my ears. From far away in the Indian Ocean,
he sings to me of island life. He sings to me of the 2,000
people expelled from the Chagos archipelago so that the
USA might
create
Diego Garcia military base, a heavy topic paired with driving
Afropop rhythms just a little like the sounds of nearby
Madagascar. He sings to me of unemployment and the abolition
of slavery. He pairs mbira with a funky bass line on "Sannizale"
and gets me dancing. And he sings of the true Mauritius
on the title track, with its driving beat and vocal refrain.
He has bottled your sounds and floated them across the
miles to me. And provided the soundtrack to my dreams of
you.
Clotaire
K: Lebanese (self-released)
clotairek.com
Lebanese
oud player and rapper Clotaire K is no stranger to
controversy. He's outspoken about politics, in his
music as well as in interviews ("...hypocrisy
has become so hard to hide that most of the people
living on this planet now see the
lies...Bush
has opened a Pandora's box by attacking Iraq and such
an unthinking deed will unfortunately but certainly lead
to unexpected chain reactions in the future.").
His music, like his words, is hard-hitting and is probably
not for the casual world music fan. But like Rachid Taha,
he channels an angry energy, that of a people misconstrued
in the mainstream media and widely misunderstood. Lebanon,
he says in an globalvillageidiot
interview, is "paradise
on earth." It's a paradise with a no-holds-barred musical
prophet, who just happens to be adept at combining oud,
phat beats, and raps in Arabic and English (including
Natacha Atlas on the meaty opener "Maqam").
Watch
an interview with Clotaire K recorded in Beirut during the Freemuse
conference on freedom of musical expression
in October
2005.
Lenka
Lichtenberg & Brian Katz: Pashtes/Simplicity (Sunflower)
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Canadian
singer Lenka Lichtenberg became acquainted with Sam
"Simcha" Simchovitch after singing at a book
fair in 2003. Now singer and poet come together on
this album,
a song cycle in which Simcha's words are paired with
music and arrangements by Lichtenberg and musical partner
Brian Katz. Irrepressibly Jewish, the music (and words,
if you understand them or read the tri-lingual album
notes) speaks through an eloquent dynamic. It swings
through emotional highs and lows -- often in the same
song (as on the title track). There's a sparse jazz
sensibility to the album, and Brazilian rhythms here
and there,
perhaps
bending
the listener's idea of what constitutes "Jewish music."
Lichtenberg's powerful voice takes us on a tour of
a mystical land of joys and sorrows. The journey ends
with a recognition of the power and durability of music
and voices on "A Song Will Remain":
"A
song will remain, a chant of woe out of fire and
sword; from generation to generation carried like
a holy watchword."
Knut
Reiersrud & Iver Klieve: Nåde Over
Nåde (KKV)
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"It's
so crazy it might just work." I can't help it
-- that cliche phrase pops into my head whenever I
pop this
into the CD player. Who would have thought you could
create coherent music by combining guitar and organ
(and we're talking full pipe organ here, not a diminutive
B-3)? Somehow, guitarist Reiersrud and organist Klieve
have found a winning combination, and their third
collaboration goes from gothic on the title track to
sweet on their version of "It's a Wonderful World."
Recorded in Odense Cathedral, this album blurs the
sounds of sacred and secular in crazy, wonderful way.
Source
with Abdoulaye Diabate: Tonight's African Jazz
Band (Completely Nuts)
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CD / hear
samples
The
Fulani flute is one of those instruments that has both
power and a soft beauty. It's not often heard in the
US, but nobody is working harder to change that than
Quebecois musical ambassador Sylvain Leroux. Also the
driving force behind the wonderful Fula Flute project,
Leroux teams up with Malian singer Abdoulaye "Djoss"
Diabate on this album, also bringing in flutist Bailo
Bah, guitarist Mory Kante, and others. Think Heavy
Flute meets Super
Rail Band. Or don't think, and just enjoy the fresh
tunes, from the sparse "Caravane" to the highly danceable
"Bara." Definitely recommended for any Afropop / Afrojazz
fan.
Ayelet
Rose Gottlieb: Mayim Rabin (Tzadik)
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You
can hear show tunes, pop harmonies, even experimental
jazz in the music on this album. So you might be forgiven
for not realizing the words are from the sacred Biblical
text "Song of Songs." That work of erotic poetry,
much like Sufi poetry, lends itself well to musical
interpretation. Gottlieb's approach is not only musically
diverse, it's also decidedly global, with Japanese
drummer Take Toriyama (also a member of Slavic Soul
Party), cellist Rufus Cappadocia (Italian roots),
vocalist Galeet Dardashti (Iranian roots), and others.
Though perhaps not rhythmic enough to engage your average
Afropop-type world music fan, Mayim Rabin's innovative
approach to scripture is thoroughly compelling.
©2006
Scott Allan Stevens, Earball Media |
