Belgium's Ambrozijn celebrate 10 years

Ambrozijn
10
Home Records (www.homerecords.be)

This record came together on the occasion of the Ambrozijn's tenth anniversary and reworks a selection of the Belgian ensemble's 70 or so songs using a string orchestra and a rhythm section and utilising a number of guest vocalists including Sylvie Berger, Vera Coomans, Soetkin Collier, Ludo Vandeau and Gabriel Yacoub. Tom Theuns, nowadays also a member of Aurélia, is the composer of these songs, and band mate Aurélie Dorzée is part of the string orchestra.

This record has been a welcome surprise for me. Usually those huge projects tend to backfire or sound pompous and bloated. Still, 10 differs in the quality of the songs, the detail of the arrangements, the dedication of the singers and the musicianship involved. Not all of the arrangements work equally well, but "Schoon lief," "Le Cyprès" and "Nooit meer niets meer" stand out.

Although this record is not innovative enough to win any record of the year accolades, it is a strong ensemble project that delivers warmth, interesting arrangements and great performances. It would be a must for fans of the band, but it is also a highly enjoyable record for everyone else interested in unique string arrangements of folk music. - Nondas Kitsos

Listen

The ensemble's web site: www.ambrozijn.be

CD available from cdRoots

Jewish Cowboy - Socalled on YouTube

Classic recordings from the shores of Liberia

Songs of the African Coast: Cafe Music of Liberia

A collection of unique popular music recorded in 1948 in Liberia by ethnomusicologist Arthur Alberts. The music is a mix of genres echoing Calypso and early jazz (and includes songs made famous during the folk scare of the 60s like "Chicken is Nice," "Gbanawa," "Woman Sweeter Than Man" and "Hold Me Tight"), played by small ensembles (usually piano, guitar and bass, occasionally some hot horn work, too), and sung in English. Includes detailed notes and interesting photos. The 18 recordings, along with the accompanying commentary, showed the intricate connections between African and American music.

This audio piece is a song covered, by among others, the Kingston Trio, but here it is sweet and hot, and features that aforementioned horn solo. Listen to Gbanawa

Audio samples and CD available from cdRoots

Izaline Calister keeps Curacao on the musical map

There's not a lot of music from the island she calls home that's readily available to the rest of us, so Izaline Calister is seeing to it that the often-lively, sometimes-reflective music of Curaçao in the Dutch Antilles gets a fair hearing. The first two tracks on Kanta Helele swing feverishly like salsa, but by the time the title song rolls around, the acoustic guitar is at the forefront, a melodica is punctuating the melancholy and the lyrics are urging hanging in there through tough times. And yet the swing remains...

Read More

A little 'ice' music in the night

Norwegian percussion Terje Isungset settled into various locations near the Arctic Circle, built all of his instruments out of ice, and has been recording unique and beautiful works, accompanied on some tracks by the wordless vocals of Sidsel Endresen and horn player Per Jørgensen. On two of the most unusual recordings to cross my desk in quite a while, these artists show just how 'cool' music can be. His new label, All Ice of Norway, has now made this powerful music available to the world.

Two Moons is the newest recording of "all ice" music from the Norwegian percussionist, joined by Per Jørgensen on vocal and ice trumpe, with Isungset on ice percussion, icehorn and isofon, performed in Geilo, Norway in two specially built igloos 9 - 14 January 2006. The weather conditions were severe, and the sleet, snow and wind at times made its way into the igloo, and can be heard at times in the recording. Per Jørgensen made four ice trumpets and was given a separate igloo as a recording booth. All the trumpets were played to bits during the sessions. Terje Isungset had ice of fantastic quality delivered from Vatsfjorden in Leveld. It provided exceptionally long sustaining soft tones. Two of the tunes were recorded live at the midnight outdoor concert of Ice Festival 1. It was minus 5 degrees, cloudy and quiet. As the last sounds faded, the sky cleared, and the full moon shone onto the onlookers. Hence the title Two Moons. He was sheltered in a heated lavvo. It's absolutely unique; beautiful, surprising and highly recommended.

For Igloo, the frst recording in the series, Isungset settled into an ice hotel near the Arctic Circle, built all of his instruments out of ice, and recorded this work accompanied on some tracks by the wordless vocals of Sidsel Endresen. It does not get more unique than this!

Both CDs are available from cdRoots

And the golden idol goes to.....

At the really big shoe last night, the little statue of sales went to a lot of artists or recording projects, including a few that might be of interest to you folks:

• Wonder Wheel by The Klezmatics
  
• Polka In Paradise by Jimmy Sturr
  
• Lost Sounds: Blacks And The Birth Of The Recording Industry 1891-1922 (various)
  
• We Shall Overcome — The Seeger Sessions by Bruce Springsteen
  
• Modern Times by Bob Dylan
  
• Legends Of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar - Live From Maui (various)
  
• Love Is My Religion by Ziggy Marley
  
• The Hidden Land by Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
  
• Simpático by the The Brian Lynch/Eddie Palmieri Project
  
• Historias Que Contar by Los Tigres Del Norte
  

There were, of course, lots more... and you can find them at that .com place for the recording industry awards mill whose name is so throughly trademarked I prefer not to mention it.

Cuba Today: Jazz Havana and Beyond

Fans of Cuban jazz may think first of pianist, composer and producer Chucho Valdés, who presides over the Havana Jazz Festival and the steady flow of North American jazz artists to the island. Those who've traveled to woodshed, network and sometimes record in Cuba include Jane Bunnett, George Benson, Terence Blanchard, Steve Coleman, Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart, David Murray, Nicholas Payton and Wynton Marsalis, among others. One legacy of the Soviet era is the integrated national system of music, dance and arts conservatories. The system offers superb training to aspiring performing artists from primary school onward. Musicians study western classical, jazz and Cuban folk idioms interchangeably, which explains in large part the abundant creativity of contemporary Cuban music. The best students eventually land at the Instituto Superior de las Artes (ISA) in Miramar, Havana, the springboard to bigger things. Most musical visitors find their way to ISA, intent upon checking out the scene and connecting with session musicians to invest their work with something unique. In some ways, the music training system has performed too well, producing a surfeit of immensely talented musicians with limited outlet for their artistry...

Read more about Cuban Jazz Today

The Sinhala Jukebox

Sri Lanka juke joint

If you need to burn a few more minutes of your life online this week, might I suggest The Sinhala Jukebox? This web site is devoted to spreading the music of Sri Lanka to the global audience via Real Audio. You can choose individual tracks, or complete streaming programs by artist or style. The navigation is a bit confusing, but it's worth a few minutes to figure it out.

sinhalajukebox.org

Mats Hellberg, leading preserver of Swedish folk music

Mats Hellberg died unexpectedly on September 17th 2006. He was a drummer and record producer who found himself cast as one of the great apostles of traditional music in Sweden.

Since the 1980s, he was the driving force behind Giga Records, founded in 1976 by musicians Per Gudmundson and Magnus Backström. In the following 30 years the label has provided the world with a look at some of the greatest musicians of Sweden, from the old teachers to some of the rising stars, creating over 80 LPs and CDs that have provided the whole world with a glimpse into the wide ranging beauty of Swedish folk music.

Here are just a few of the artists that Giga exposed to the world:
Pelle Bjornlert
Ulf Storling
Pakkos Gustaf
Simon Simonson
Ale Möller
Kjell-Erik Eriksson
Lennart Gybrant
Jonny Soling
Mats Berglund
Anders Norudde
Ole Hjorth
Björn Ståbi
Erik Pekkari
Ellika Frisell
Bengt Lofberg
Kalle Almlof
Susanne Rosenberg
Johan Hedin
Per Gudmundson
Magnus Backstrom

There is currently no word on what the future of Giga records will be.

There's A Song for Everything

Nigerian comedian and actor Nkem Owoh stars in a rootsy spoof on victims of the infamous internet "419" scheme

Watch the video



I done suffer no be small
Upon say I get sense
Poverty no good at all, no
Na im make I join this business

419 no be thief, it's just a game
Everybody dey play em
if anybody fall mugu,
ha! my brother I go chop em

Chorus:
National Airport na me get em
National Stadium na me build em
President na my sister brother
You be the mugu, I be the master

See full lyrics and info at Antsville

Klezmatics (with Woody Guthrie) nominated for Grammy

The Klezmatics have been nominated for a "Best Contemporary World Music Album" Grammy Award this month.

Wonder Wheel features songs of Woody Guthrie (most never before seen) and set to music by members of the Klezmatics.

On Wonder Wheel, The Klezmatics move away from klezmer on many of the cuts, even using an electric guitar to create a variety of contemporary sounds. The songs evoke Guthrie's experience in Brooklyn, an immigrant coming from the other direction, finding himself among European emigres, as well as blacks, Latinos and Asians.

You can read Marty Lipp's somplete review of this 2006 recording on RootsWorld

The Jazz Singer's Return to Faith

Like his earlier recording Lokshen, Enrico Fink has created a record that is a true treasure trove of information about the Jewish experience in Italy. On Il Ritorno alla Fede del Cantante di Jazz (The Jazz Singer's Return to Faith), the premise is to take the Jewish liturgical tradition in Italy (and in particular in Ferrara and Firenze) and distill it through Fink's experiences. The result is a fascinating work that can be highly traditional ("El male rachamim") or highly modern ("Lo Amut"). It inhabits the same spiritual ground as Robbie Robertson's soundtrack for "The Native Americans" (especially on "Eliyahu" with its dialog between the child singer and Fink), another work of passion for a culture endangered, as well as things like Hector Zazou's Songs from the Cold Seas, Tom Waits, U2 circa The Joshua Tree, cantor music and jazz, all of which come in and out of focus throughout this record creating a polymorphic work that is both contemporary and timeless, the effort behind it evident but not crushing.

Read more and listen to a song

RIP Perry Henzell (The Harder They Come)

From the Jamaica Observer
Friday, December 01, 2006

PERRY Henzell, co-author, director and producer of one of Jamaica's first feature films The Harder They Come died on November 30th at his son's house in St. Elizabeth.

Henzell's latest project - No Place Like Home - a film about Jamaica, was set to be premiered at the Flashpoint film festival in Negril today. Yesterday, tributes were paid by politicians and persons who worked with the pioneer filmmaker.

Actor Carl Bradshaw, who had roles in The Harder They Come and No Place Like Home, described Henzell's contribution to the growth of Jamaica's cultural product as phenomenal.

"I remember him as a pioneer. He was the man who influenced Jamaica's film industry. The Harder They Come was more than a great visual as it is responsible for taking reggae music where it is today," Bradshaw said.

Perry Henzell also penned the novels, "Power Game," which was published in 1982, and "Cane," a historical drama, which was published in 2003.

Read the complete story at Jamaica Observer

Omar Sosa Broadcast - 11/25/2006

Omar Sosa and his Trio, featuring bassist Childo Tomas and drummer Steve Argüelles, will be guests on the Radio France-France INTER broadcast, Le Pont des Artistes, with host Isabelle Dhordain. Also on the show will be Cesaria Evora.

The program airs at 8:10 PM (until 10:00 PM) in France on Saturday, November 25, and can be heard at that time via streaming audio on the Internet by going to:
www.franceinter.fr

Sosa will play compositions from his new CD, "Live à FIP".

Internet streaming times worldwide:
8:10 PM Europe
7:10 PM U.K.
2:10 PM East Coast USA
1:10 PM Central USA
11:10 AM West Coast USA
4:10 AM Japan (November 26)
6:10 AM East Coast Australia (November 26)

Live Danish Folk , Roots and World Music - Online in November

4 Days Of Young Live Danish Folk and Roots Music - Directly On The Internet.

One of the biggest events in Denmark with live concerts and –recordings in sound and pictures for streaming, downloading and podcasting, will be held at the ‘Bruunske Pakhus’, Fredericia, Denmark. From the 26th to the 29th of November ‘The Bruunske’ will be humming, sizzling and exploding with an audience and an bevvy of bands and artists from the contemporary Danish folk music scene. All the concerts, the interviews on and behind the stages will be broadcast LIVE in sound and video.

The concerts will then be available for download and pod casting from the Internet at a later date. A total of 12 of the best Danish roots bands and artists present founr days of beautiful and intense acoustic music, great singing, mind ripping folk/rock/jazz, all with a focus in traditional Danish folk music, but with new, fresh and sometimes experimental outlooks.

Artists will include:
Trio Mio
Eivør
Phønix
Sussie Nielsen Band
Zar
Instinkt
Kasír
Tumult
Henrik Jansberg Band
Haugaard & Høirup
Serras
Afenginn

You can get schedule information at www.folkstreaming.dk
Links will be available online at RootsWorld during the shows.

Nordic Roots Festival Report

The Nordic Roots Festival in Minneapolis is one of the great world music events of the year.
One of our long time readers, David Smith, recently attended 8th Annual Festival and sent us his report and photos.
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I have just returned from the Nordic Roots Festival in Minneapolis. This is a small, urban festival held at the Cedar Cultural Center, a small non-profit center based in an old movie theater which features music of all types during the year.

The festival features contemporary folk music from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Samiland, and other places where Nordic roots can be found. They present a nice mix of music from those countries, with attention paid to diversity in presentation...

Read David's complete report on RootsWorld

Two unique 'world music' concerts reviewed

There has long been a healthy spirit of non-conformism in Krakow, so it is no surprise to receive a visit here from musicians who refuse to compromise. Vocalist Saadet Turkoz and reedman Hans Koch certainly fall into this category, and their appearance at Club Re in Krakow, Poland on September 10th, 2006 was surely uncompromising. Turkoz' music is freely improvised, but is based on a personal interpretation of and reflection on the folk melodies her parents and their friends exposed her to when she was a child. The lullaby, the confession, the curse and the dirge all have their place. Building on this core of universal human experience, she is able to convey dramatically contrasting emotions. Philip Palmer reports from Krakow.


Carmen Consoli demurred when she was introduced as "the most successful singer and songwriter Italy has ever produced."
"I am just a little artist trying to express herself," she said. But for the past decade she has reigned as Italy's leading female rock star. A gifted lyricist and tunesmith, she has attracted a passionate and devoted following in her homeland with her woman-centric point of view and emotionally charged concerts. She is particularly popular with women, left-leaning youth and gays, but even older, straighter and more mainstream audiences love the self-described "bambina impertinente." At a recent concert at Joe's Pub in NYC and on her new recording, Eva Contro Eva, she is changing course towards a more roots-oriented music, still powerful and still uniquely her own. George De Stefano checked in on the "piccola cantatessa" while she was in New York.

Read the full reports in RootsWorld

The dark future of "world music?"

This press release was sent to us today.
It is offered with no additional comments: feel free to make your own!
cliff

-------------------------------------------------
Dear Editor:

Imagine hearing Jay-Z, on his upcoming world tour rapping in each country's native dialect! Voxonic, Inc. a New York based technology firm has developed proprietary software, which allows our voices to be seamlessly converted into foreign languages.

Through the use of a 10-minute sample of our voice, Voxonic's technology can replicate a specific voice in any language. Voxonic breaks our voices into "phonemes" that compose our voice, and hires an actor who is fluent in the desired language to record a lyric or speech (the actor does not have to mimic the original speaker in order for a successful conversion). The Voxonic technology aligns the two voice patterns, resulting in a 99 percent level of accuracy in the original speaker's voice.

Voxonic offers tremendous benefits to the entertainment industry. Imagine how much easier it will be for American entertainers to have the opportunity to reach out to their foreign demographic. With the record industries sales at an all-time low, the diminishment of language barriers makes marketing and entertainment opportunities endless. Some of those various opportunities include the following:

* Radio promotional opportunities for entertainers to make voice-drops in any language.
* Music artists being able to create concert introductions in any dialect.
* Record labels having the opportunity to make limited-edition albums and singles in a wide-range of languages.

Voxonic, Inc., which has additional involvement from world respected music industry pioneers such as entertainment executive Andre Harrell, and accomplished music producer Eddie F., is redefining music culture. "This technology will allow record companies to expand their artist's marketability globally," said Arie Deutsch, President of Entertainment for Voxonic Inc. "Think of how powerful it would be for Russian teens to hear Eminem rap in their native language".


---------------------------------
Like I said: no comment from me is needed, I think.
Please offer your own, though!
cliff

Kepa Junkera paints his vision of the world

Globalista Basque accordionist Kepa Junkera explores a series of audio-impressions of cities around the world that he has visited in his latest world music tour de force, "Hiri".

Guests include Patrick Vaillant and Melonious Quartet, Mercedes Peon, Ibon Koteron, Enzo Avitibile, Andy Narell, Bulgarka, Glen Velez, Eliseo Parra, Gilles Chabenat, Xose Manuel Budino, Tactequete and dozens of other musicians from around the world.

Release date is October 1.

Belize celebrates 25 years of (musical) independence

The nation of Belize is celebrating it's 25th anniversary this year with art exhibits, international guests, parties and celebrations around the country.

I thought you might like to look back on some of RootsWorld's reviews and articles about the music of Belize, to virtully join in the celebration.

An overview of Garifuna Music

Pen Cayetano and the Original Turtle Shell Band

Aurelio Martinez

Cult Cargo: Belize City Boil Up

Lebeha Boys Garifuna Youth Band

Leroy Young "The Grandmaster"

From Bakabush: The First Ten Years of Stonetree

There's lots more, too... just use the search box on the web site to find a lot more music.

Happy Birthday, Belize