Afro-Latin from Austin - Brownout

Brownout
Homenaje
Freestyle (www.freestylerecords.co.uk)

Austin, Texas, long a pace-setter, has more recently broadened its horizons to boast a growing contingent of Latino bands. Tapping its South Texas roots, Brownout serves up a sizzling, mostly instrumental repertoire heavy on guitar, sax, brass, and congas, recalling but never imitating precursors like Joe Bataan, Santana, Tower of Power, Dr. Loco's Rockin' Jalapeño Band, Los Lobos, Los Mocosos, and Grupo Fantasma (where some players do double duty). No wonder the Austin Chronicle named Brownout the city's "Best Live Act," nodding to a dance frenesí of boogaloo, soul funk, salsa, Afro-Latin, Afro-beat, and acid jazz sounds. To wit, "Con el Brownout no se juega" ("don't mess with Brownout") could be a latter-day reincarnation of Cal Tjader and Mongo Santamaria, while "Chafa Khan Artistry" constitutes a head-on collision between Willie Bobo, King Tubby, James Brown, and a sonic barrage of unidentified flying objects. Take cover! - Michael Stone

CD available from Amazon.com

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Tango, or something like it....

The 1930s brought recording technology to Argentina, which sparked local exposure to jazz via the big-band recordings of Ellington, Basie, Goodman, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw and others. In rough chronological order, guitarist Oscar Alemán (who backed Josephine Baker and played with Django Reinhardt), bandoneon master Dino Saluzzi, Juan Carlos Cáceres (piano, trombone, voice), saxophonist Gato Barbieri, and composer Lalo Schrifrin are important seminal figures in Argentine jazz. It was only in the 1960s, however, after visits by Dizzy Gillespie among others, that local figures like Schifrin, Caceres, Barbieri, and Astor Piazzolla began to garner international notice. Military dictatorship suppressed jazz's development, although Piazzolla recorded with the likes of Gerry Mulligan and Gary Burton in the 1970s and 1980s. Today a younger generation has enjoyed the benefits of conservatory training and broad exposure to international jazz. Argentina boasts numerous jazz festivals and radio stations, and a lively club scene that values originality over slavish emulation of the neo-bebop canon.... RootsWorld world music reporter Micheal Stone explores a parcel of recent recording of the new century's tango, or something like it

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Galician chanteuse offers beach-warmed songs with elegant arrangements

Uxia
Eterno Navegar
World Village/ Nordesia (worldvillagemusic.com)


It's -6° F in Cleveland as I write this. Eterno Navegar gave me a little over an hour's holiday from the bone-biting cold here on America's North Coast. It's a breezy collection (just try writing a review of an Uxia CD without using the word breezy; it can't be done) of beach-warmed songs with elegantly light-handed arrangements. A little samba, a little fado, a little tango, a little cabaret, all wrapped in gauzy layers of piano, guitar, accordion, muted trumpet, with a little bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy thrown in for color.

The Galician chanteuse has been knocking around for over 20 years, and she knows her way around a song. She keeps things playful and full of delightful surprises. Each track here is a little gem. "Unha noite na eira do trigo" is a loopy waltz with a hint of cabaret and tasteful touches of theremin. "Alalá de Muxia" has the tender restraint of a lullaby, with vocals that go barely above a whisper and gentle piano, cello, and soprano sax. "A lira" is a traditional song from the Azores with a simple, almost child-like melody. It starts out quietly with just a little piano, and then builds to a big sing-along with a full chorus, bagpipe, and a Tom Waits sound-alike on harmony vocals.

The packaging is as beautiful as the music, with some gorgeous and inspired seashore photography by Quim Farinha. Rarely are the aural and the visual so charmingly paired. You'll want to dig your toes into this one like warm sand. - Peggy Latkovich

CD available from cdRoots

Read more about Uxia's past recordings in RootsWorld

Quebec's band of tricksters: Genticorum

Genticorum is a band of trickster conjurers, performing rhythmic sleight-of-hand on the dance music of their native Quebec. They have the wry, slightly skewed attitude of a cabaret emcee, dropping the occasional naughty joke into their songs just to watch the audience titter in guilty delight. Even the band's name is nonsensical, evoking what? A quorum of gentle folk? A gentleman's forum? Who knows?

The trio has three albums under its belt, the second of which, Malins Plaisirs, garnered a Best Ensemble award at the 2005 Canadian Folk Music Awards. The band is currently globe-hopping in support of its latest release, La Bibournoise. RootsWorld reporter Peggy latkovich caught up with flute/fiddle/bass player Alexandre de Grosbois-Garand by phone between tours.... Read the full interview and see a liver video performance

Buy their new CD

Listen to La grondeuse opossum

RootsWorld, cdRoots

Tuaregs are roots-rocking the world: Tinarwen on tour

Tuareg roots-rock band Tinariwen tour the U.K. and U.S. in March and April 2009

MARCH - UK
18 De La Warr Pavilion Bexhill
19 De Montfort Hall Leicester
20 Manchester Academy Manchester
21 Edinburgh Picture House Edinburgh
22 Liverpool Philharmonic Hall Liverpool
23 Leeds Irish Centre Leeds
25 Komedia Bath
26 Koko London
27 Reading Town Hall Reading
28 The Rainbow Warehouse Birmingham

APRIL 0 USA
16 Palace of Fine Arts Theatre San Francisco
17 Rio Theatre Santa Cruz
18 Coachella: Empire Polo Field Indio
19 Santa Fe Brewing Company Santa Fe
21 KTAOS Solar Center Taos
22 Old Town School Chicago
24 Le Poisson Rouge New York
25 Heineken TransAtlantic Festival Miami

Read the latest RootsWorld review

Tinarwen: Live in London (DVD)

Other fine rock-and-blues-influenced Saharan guitar bands have followed in their wake (including Etran Finatawa, Toumast and Terakaft), but Tinariwen beat the rest to wider recognition and remain either the best of the bunch or the first among equals depending on how you look at it. Great though their albums are, Tinariwen also deliver in concert. I caught them live at the Houston International Festival in 2006, and they managed to do a lot with a little. Standing in an all but stock-still row on the stage and barely speaking between songs, they attracted a large and attentive crowd in remarkably short order with nothing but pure hypnotic guitar and bass riffs, sparse percussion and vocals that split the difference between Timbuktu and the Mississippi Delta.

The group's new Live in London DVD similarly finds them making magic with the simplest of ingredients, though here the lineup is expanded to include female backup vocals (which they didn't have on their '06 U.S. jaunt), a guest turn by Justin Adams (the versatile U.K. guitarist and producer who helped bring Tinariwen to the attention of the world) and of course production values including cameras zooming in on the little nuances that make the music all the more persuasive. By and large, though, the presentation of the concert portion of the DVD is as simple as the music, so the featured songs from Tinariwen's three albums get by unassumingly and brilliantly on the strength of indomitable Touareg spirit, non-indulgent guitar mastery and spellbinding, repetitive rhythms.

This would be enough to make this release a must-have, but consider the bonus material as well. There's a lengthy interview with band founder Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, conducted by a desert campfire at night, in which he speaks in riveting detail about the hardships of post-colonial Mali and how he embraced music to overcome them. A shorter interview with Adams and a mini-documentary provide further elucidation as to the band's origins, outlook and creativity. It all makes for a combination of music and imagery that provides nothing glossy or clever in the way of visuals, yet scores an absolute knockout in presenting what Tinariwen does best and the story behind it. - Tom Orr

DVD available from cdRoots

More reviews available on RootsWorld

Requiem for 1847: remembering the famine

From the RootsWorld archives, some words to remember for St Patrick's Day.

1997 marked the 150th anniversary of the worst year of the Great Irish Potato Famine. 1847 was the nadir of a natural calamity that could have easily been reversed. Instead, it was crafted via human agency into a holocaust. Descendants of the victims world-wide still refer to it as "Black '47" Farm By the middle of the 19th century, the potato was the Irish peasantry's major source of sustenance. It adapted well to growing conditions in Ireland and produced large yields from small plots. Eaten with buttermilk for protein, it was a nutritious complex carbohydrate rich in vitamins and minerals. However, an entire race's hand-to-mouth dependence on a single foodstuff was a precarious thing and presaged disaster... In Christina Roden's article from 1997, she talks about the Irish famine of the 1840's with The Chieftains' Paddy Moloney, Black 47's Larry Kirwan, and composer Patrick Cassidy.

Read the article

Randy Newman sings of the afterlife and history

Randy Newman
Harps and Angels
Nonesuch

Harps and Angels reprises a droll, garrulous, heartfelt Crescent City gospel-blues sensibility that longtime Newman fans will happily recognize. The good old boy-struck down by a heart attack, hearing the angel band before copping a pearly gate reprieve-might be the singer himself, or anyone who's confronted the inexorable finality of life as we know it. Newman combines a smart (ass) show-tune sensibility ("A Piece of the Pie," "Laugh and Be Happy") with wry sentimentality ("Losing You," "Feels Like Home"), provocative social commentary ("A Few Words in Defense of Our Country"-in ironic country western mode, with a righteously aggravated Supreme Court critique), the certain fate of rich old men ("Only a Girl"), political incorrectness ("Korean Parents"), senior moments ("Potholes," as in "God bless the potholes down memory lane"), and a prickly finger on the absurd, entropic pulse of the human condition (listener's choice). Harps and angels, hallelujah. - Michael Stone


Available from Amazon.com

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Amparanoia's last licks

Amparanoia
Seguire caMinando
Via Lactea

Spain's Amparanoia have reportedly called it quits, with singer Amparo Sanchez's solo career already mapped out and set to commence soon. The band's blend of flamenco roots and global sounds never had the same go-for-the-throat intensity as Ojos de Brujo or the eclectic finesse of Radio Tarifa, but it's still damn good and will be missed. And as long as they're bowing out, it's proper that they're doing it right with this smashing CD/DVD box set featuring a 2006 performance in Barcelona and a disc of rarities and remixes spanning the decade that came before. Sanchez and company absolutely soar on the live stuff, tightly locking down tunes that move from flamenco and rumba to funk, rock, reggae and jazz with a combination of anthemic passion and celebratory energy. The crowd is with them at every turn, and even those (like me) whose understanding of Spanish ranges from rudimentary to non-existent will get pulled in, caught up and completely bowled over. All the visual fire of the same concert that CD #1 covers is on the DVD, plus a smartly done documentary that chronologically tells the Amparanoia story from Sanchez's perspective. Further evidence as to how solid this band was can be found on the studio disc, particularly the remixes, which hint at how Amparanoia might well have incorporated a little more of the cutting edge without tossing aside their largely organic approach. Whatever Sanchez has on the way, let's hope it sticks to the same high standards as this fond and fitting farewell to the group she no longer fronts. - Tom Orr

The artists' web site (www.amparanoia.com) has dozens of live and studio clips, including this live perforamnce of "La vida te da"


Their music is available from Amazon.com

RootsWorld: Twittering into the new century

Twittering into the new century

One of our younger contributors is constantly trying to drag me into the current century of technology, with much resistance on my part. But she might have something with Twitter, and odd little bit of social networking that allows people to "twitter" on about what they are doing. In my daily rounds of searching for audio and video I often find myself e-mailing links and quotes to friends. So I figure: why not send them to you, the RootsWorld reader, as well.

If you don't 'twitter' it is pretty easy to set up, and if you do, you can 'follow' mine if you like: Twitter @rootsworld

Is it useless nonsense or another interesting communications device? We shall see. Remember, in 1993 when I put my first review online, the internet was seen as a silly trifle in a vast electronic desert. - Cliff

Saving children in Mali, one at a time

A Malian proverb says that a woman in labor has one foot on earth, and one foot in the grave. The proverb is all too true: a woman in Mali has a 1 in 15 lifetime chance of dying from childbearing complications... For most Malian women, auxiliary midwives, or matrones, are first and only health care provider they will ever see. Mali Midwives facilitates continuing education opportunities for rural matrones in Mali.

Former RW reporter Craig Tower has a new mission in Mali. Read about his work in Mali today

Coro Bajolese: spiritual voices in Turin, Italy

Coro Bajolese
O Maria béla Maria
FolkClub Ethnosuoni (www.folkclubethnosuoni.com)

While the tired old concept that music is a "universal language" is open to debate, the fact that the timeless human drive toward choral singing is a near global phenomenon cannot be argued. From gospel choirs in the United States to Bulgarian women's choruses to Slovenian singing societies to South African isicathimiya groups, people are drawn to the blending of disparate voices into an architectural whole.

Coro Bajolese has been joining their voices in song since 1966, when they formed in Bajo Dora, a small hamlet in the province of Turin. O Maria béla Maria was made in 2007, the centenary of the death of Costantino Nigra, the group's founding director. The group's current 26 members, all but one of whom are male, are lead by Amerigo Vigliermo. Their music has the robust reverence of a church choir. Formally, most of the songs consist of call-and-response passages, with a soloist or small group singing a short phrase which is then answered by the whole. The soloists vary not only in range, but in timbre and grasp of tonality. Some voices are more accurate and polished than others, but this is what gives the music its democratic appeal. If you're looking for slick perfection, look elsewhere. This music is earthy and earnest, proof that the whole is much more than the sum of its parts. The blend of all of these incongruent voices is rich and warm, with the nubby texture of raw linen. - Peggy Latkovich

Listen to "La casun ed Mariantun"

CD available from cdRoots

Greek artist Savina Yannatou sings 'Songs of an Other'

Since 1993, singer Savina Yannatou and Kostas Vomvolos (qanun, accordion, musical direction) have stood at creative core of Primavera en Salonico (nay, oud, guitar, violin, viola, double bass, percussion). While rooted artistically in Thessalonica, for Yannatou and Primavera, their Greek and Sephardic roots are only a jumping-off point in a project that covers the Mediterranean waterfront and ranges far beyond... Recorded in Athens, Songs of an Other comprises a dozen varied settings for Yannatou to conjure her delicate yet commanding vocal instrument, confirming the power and primacy of the human voice throughout her work...
Read the full review and watch a video

Chango Spasiuk - Pynandí (Los Descalzos)

Chango Spasiuk - Pynandí (Los Descalzos)

Argentinean accordion virtuoso and composer’s 2009 release is Pynandí -- Los Descalzos (Barefoot, from an indigenous Guaraní word, referring to the rural poor) Like American blues, Portuguese fado and Argentina’s own tango, the sunny, lilting chamamé was at one time considered too lower-class to be of interest to educated listeners. This recordin is a love letter to the land of Spasiuk’s birth, capturing the red earth, blinding heat, rough good humor and warm fellowship of laborers heading out for an evening’s fun. But while cheerful on the surface, it also harbors edgy moments of dissonance. Suite Nordeste opens with an accordion astride a staggering percussion motif. Guitars, fiddle and other instruments fight to create luchness and roughness, always seeking a contradiction of some kind. Spasiuk engenders the best of the tradition, then tosses it into his own unique mix.

Buy it here

"This is it, OK. Have a good time." Goodbye, Lars Hollmer

It is with some sadness that I pass on the news of the passing of Lars Hollmer, a long time friend of RootsWorld, and a regular contributor to our past Free Reed Festivals. Listen to Lars' contribution to one of our festivals, including a little talk about his piece "Sudaf".
So, Lars, "this is it, OK. Have a good time. Goodbye." - CF

Fellow musician Guy Klucevsek sends this tribute to his friend and fellow accordionist/musician.


My dear friend and Accordion Tribe colleague, Lars Hollmer, passed away on Dec. 25, 2008, at the age of 60.

I first heard Lars's music in the early 90s, through singer-songwriter and DJ extraordinaire, David Garland. I instantly recognized a kindred spirit and he was the first person I invited to be a part of what eventually became the Accordion Tribe. We began the group in 1996 and continue to this day, although there will be a gaping void on stage and in our hearts from now on.

Lars was an auto-didact and multi-instrumentalist (accordion, keyboards, voice, melodica, etc.) who was completely fearless in his approach to music. He could be unabashedly sentimental (Boeves Psalm, Soon Song), write incredibly dense and complex counterpoint with the best of them (Pas de Valse, Utflykt med Damcyckle), and be mischievous and joyfully wacked-out (Circus I, II). And that's only the Accordion Tribe repertoire! He managed to record about 30 albums in all, mostly in his legendary home studio, the Chickenhouse, both solo (11), and with his many groups, including The Looping Home Orchestra and Samla Mammas Manna.

What is the common element in all these? To quote Lars from the documentary film, "Accordion Tribe: Music Travels" (Stefan Schwietert, Maximage Films, 2002), "It all begins here," (he says, pointing to his heart); "it may go through here eventually," (he points to his head), "but it all begins with the heart." - Guy Klucevsek

The Return of the Policewomen of Guinea

Les Amazones de Guinée
Wamato
Sterns

Ahmed Sékou Touré, the leader of Guinea’s liberation struggle against French colonial rule and president of the independent African nation from 1958 until his death in 1984, remains a controversial and polarizing figure. Revered as a freedom fighter by revolutionaries in Africa and elsewhere, he later was reviled as a dictator who trampled on human rights and mismanaged Guinea’s economy.

Touré’s one-party regime undeniably deserves the criticism. But it’s hard to argue with the results of his cultural policy, which he called authenticité. Guinea’s president made culture central to his government’s nation-building program. Artists, and especially musicians, were encouraged to create works that were modern in style but rooted in African tradition. Authenticité spawned such great bands as Bembeya Jazz, Keletigui and his Tambourinis, the Horoya Band and Les Balladins. But I can’t imagine Touré being prouder of any Guinean musicians than the women of Les Amazones de Guinée.

The band was originally called the Women’s Orchestra of the Guinean Militia, and the members indeed all were soldiers. (Some still are, with titles like “Commandant” and “Capitaine.”) They made their first and still unreleased recording in 1961, as an acoustic band. Au coeur de Paris, recorded 21 years later in the old colonial power’s capital, was their first album as Les Amazones. Sekou Touré was still alive at the time, and the propagandistic side of authenticité is evident in tracks like “PDG (Parti Démocratique de Guinée),” a praise song for the president’s political party.

But Les Amazones’ debut also displayed their feminism, in songs that urged African women to reject patriarchal tradition and claim their place in post-colonial society.
Les Amazones, notes Pierre René Worms of Radio France Internationale, “set the standard for female groups in post-independent Africa; a symbol of African woman’s emancipation, they remain a rarely imitated example.”

Now, 26 years later, we have Les Amazones’ second album, Wamato, and it is a beauty, easily the equal of the recent acclaimed release by another veteran but far better known African band, Orchestra Baobab’s Made in Dakar. Recorded in Bamako, Mali, in the same studios used by Ali Farka Toure and Oumou Sangaré, among other notables, Wamato grabs the listener from the jubilant cry of “ah-hah!” that opens the album.
The production, by Afropop veteran Ibrahima Sylla, is clean and unobtrusive, putting the focus on the guitar-driven ensemble and the amazing vocalists who front it. There are 11 core Amazones, some of whom replaced original members who died or retired. They are augmented by a dozen guest vocalists and instrumentalists, all women. But the music, thanks to Sylla and chef d’orchestre Commandant Salématou Diallo, on bass, never sounds cluttered or cacophonous.

The title track has the three main vocalists, Fatoumata N’Gady Keita, Daloba Keita, and M’Mah Sylla, trading verses while the guitarists, Yaya Kouyaté on lead, N’Sira Tounkara on rhythm, spin intertwined lines around them. And voices and guitars are the stars here, notwithstanding the tight horn section and surging percussion. Each of the vocalists has a distinctive timbre, roughly corresponding to Western categories of vocal range -- one low and earthy (contralto), another mid-range (mezzo), another high and strident (soprano). Each singer has a strong individual vocal profile and a powerful presence.

As if having three terrific lead singers wasn’t enough, the Amazones supplement them with stellar guests -- Fatou Nylon Barry, a full-throated, exuberant wonder on “Ndaren,” and Les Zawagui de Macenta, a trio of Valerie Keba, Helen Pivie and Blandine Komessa. The two tracks featuring the marvelous trio, “Deni Wana” and “Zawi,” are both exceptional, but they really kill on the latter, a joyous welcome-back to the Amazones. “Alhamdoulilah,” a rhythmic tour de force, is a showcase for the sharply contrasting but complementary voices of M’Mah Sylla, cutting yet supple, and Fatou Nylon Barry, deeper and more rough-edged.

Much of Wamato’s considerable pleasure comes from the interplay of the voices and the guitars, the pealing, dancing guitars of Yaya Kouyaté and N’Sira Tounkar. “Be Ni Son” features some of their most captivating work. “Meilleurs Voeux,” a wish for a Happy New Year, begins as a syrupy ballad sung in French by M’Mah Sylla. But, like Guinea shaking off its colonial masters, the band shifts into a quicker tempo, changes the rhythm, and surges ahead, with Yaya Kouyaté’s guitar and the horns calling and responding to each other.

It’s amazing that a band that has released only two records in nearly 50 years would sound so vibrant and confident, as if they’d never left the scene. One can only hope that Wamato, their superb return, means we’ll be hearing more from Los Amazones de Guineé, and that we won’t have to wait another 26 years for the follow-up. - George De Stefano

CD available from cdRoots

Sephardic roots, Mediterranean sounds

Amán Amán (L'Ham de Foc)
Música i cants sefardis d'orient i occident
Galileo

Al Andaluz Project (L'Ham de Foc and Estampie)
Deus et diabolus
Galileo (www.galileo-mc.com)

From Valencia, L'Ham de Foc approaches the Sephardic repertoire by turning east, exploring how the traditional repertoire changed as it moved from the Iberian Peninsula in the post-1492 diaspora, taking on new life in the exile communities of Sofia, Thessalonica, Istanbul, and Izmir. There is no shortage of contemporary Sephardic recordings, but the present work turns away from a certain slavish celebration of an imagined medieval multicultural sound toward a living if lesser-known Levantine tradition, complemented by instrumentation of the region (ud, tanbur, cümbüs, kopuz, santur, kemençe, various flutes, and percussion). Hence, alongside "Sien drahmas al día," the opening dance from Smyrna (a 9/8 karsilama rhythm divided in 2/2/2/3), or the hybrid "La galena y el mar" (one of many Sephardic wedding songs, a Salonika processional sung as the bride is led to her ritual bath, here with original lyrics over a Bulgarian melody), the early 20th-century Turkish curcuna (a 10/8 rhythm divided 3/2/2/3), or the Sofia lullaby "Durme," come more familiar Sephardic songs such as "El Rey Nimrod" and "Los guisados de la berenjena" (seven ways to prepare eggplant), albeit with a decidedly eastern modal makam feel. This is the spirit of "Aman, Aman," a phrase-common to many eastern Mediterranean languages-that expresses surprise, longing, or lovesickness. Notes are in Ladino, Spanish, German, and English, with lyrics in Ladino.

The Al Andaluz Project unites L'Ham de Foc with Estampie, the Munich group led by Michael Popp, better known for its dedication to medieval music. Beginning with informal collaboration based on mutual interest in older repertoires, the ensembles first shared the stage at the July 2006 Landshut Hofmusiktage festival, a performance recorded and broadcast live by Bavarian state radio. As heard on Deus et Diabolus, they followed with a November 2006 studio session at the Dominican monastery of La Cartuja de Cazalla, near Sevilla. In the spirit of Moorish Iberia, three superb female singers interpret medieval Sephardic, Arabic, and Christian traditions: Sigrid Hausen (who also plays flute), L'Ham de Foc's Mara Aranda, and Iman al Kandoussi, singing variously in Ladino, Spanish, and Arabic. Estampie's Popp (ud, saz, violin, production), Ernst Schwindl (hurdy gurdy, nyckelharpa), and Sascha Gotowtshikow (percussion) join L'Ham's Efrén López (ud, saz, rabab, hurdy gurdy, production), Aziz Samsaoui (quanun), and Diego López (percussion). Contrast the lively drone and glorious vocal harmonies of the Christian song "A virgen mui groriosa" (one of three songs dedicated to Santa María) with the driving call-and-response of Arabic-Andalusian songs like "Nassam alaina lhawa" for a sense of this recording's enchanting range. Notes are in Spanish, German, and English. - Michael Stone

Artists' web site: www.lhamdefoc.com

CDs available at cdRoots.com

Huong Thanh & Nguyen Le: the new Vietnam

Huong Thanh & Nguyen Le
Fragile Beauty
ACT Music (www.actmusic.com)

I am not familiar with a lot of Vietnamese music, so it is nice to ease into it with this set of fusion-minded songs by vocalist Huong Thanh and guitarist Nguyen Le. There's a fair number of traditional pieces interpreted here, though the arrangements incorporate African and Latin rhythms, jazz structures, Japanese splendor and more, along with an unforced grace that never piles on too much diversity for the sake of making 'world music.' Huong Thanh's voice reflects what the title suggests: grace without excess, whether the song is rich with instrumental interplay or unadorned. Guitars, bass, piano, brass, reeds, synthesizer and a range of percussion blend unassumingly with bamboo balafon and flutes, monocorde and koto, bringing out the best of several respective worlds while giving Huong Thanh's measured, solitary singing a support that varies nicely in tone and intricacy. There are hints of electronica here and there, moody interludes between easygoing grooves and above all a sense of blissful throughout. I've no idea what Vietnamese music purists would make of a disc like this, but it sounds great to me. - Tom Orr

CD at cdRoots

Faroe Islands roots and modern jazz from Yggdrasil

Kristian Blak & Yggdrasil
Risastova
Tutl (www.tutl.com)

Danish pianist-composer-producer Kristian Blak has been integral to propagating and promoting music made in the Faroes Islands since founding Yggdrasil in 1980. The Norse "World Tree" of destiny, Yggdrasil is a powerful mythological ash whose three roots reach into the underworld, devoured by serpents even as the tree reaches for heaven, while at its pinnacle sits a watchful eagle. Yggdrasil brings a contemporary jazz-classical-rock sensibility to an original repertoire inspired by traditional island dances, ballads, children's rhymes, chants, hymns, and poetry. Guitarist-singer-composer Kári Sverrisson, a startling vocalist, shares writing duties with Blak, a nimble pianist, on Risastova ("Giant's House," the name of an imposing Faroe Islands rock formation). Rounding out the octet are saxophones, violin, cello, electric guitar, bass, drums, and percussion. The music is as craggy, windswept, overcast, brooding, remote, and unforgiving as the Faroes of its origin. The closing piece, "Vágatunnilin," a moody Blak suite in five parts, was initially performed at 100 meters below sea level, to commemorate the opening of the first underwater tunnel in the Faroes, plumbing the roots of Yggdrasil itself. - Michael Stone

CD available from cdRoots

Tarantolati di Tricarico: a primal, visceral musical experience

I Tarantolati di Tricarico
U'Squatasce
CNI (www.cnimusic.it)

This dynamic band has been a driving force in Southern Italian culture, interpreting and performing their music with an incredible dynamism. There is no shortage of groups resuscitating the ancient music of tarantism in the South of Italy these days, but I Tarantolati di Tricarico have been involved in this endeavor since the 1960's (the band's biography indicates that they were officially 'born' in 1975. This was the time of the first wave of the Southern Italian folk revival, a time when the music of the pizzica was, in the words of the historian Luigi Chiriatii, a "broken memory": painful to listen to, as many people emigrated from Southern Italy to escape the poverty and hardship of the land. Performing the ritual music and old folk songs was a political act, a way of giving voice to expressions experienced and felt but oppressed in the modern age.

I Tarantolati di Tricarico's latest CD is a writhing, unusual beast; the cover art depicts a be-ribboned person in the throes of ecstasy, a tarantula dead center on the belly, surrounded by a psychedelic swirl of color. Those 'bitten' by the spider were thought to be drawn to particular sounds, and to respond to various colored ribbons; the remedy was to dance the poison out. What grabs the listener immediately upon listening to the first tracks is the vigor with which the songs are performed, a rigorous rhythmic attack full of tambourines and the thudding percussion of cupa-cupa tubs. But the real surprise occurs starting on the fourth track, "Hatta Mammone," where the acoustic sound of the band suddenly incorporates elements of electronic techno and vocals reach a trance-inducing intensity heightened by all kinds of hand percussion. For a band that has existed for several decades, it becomes abundantly clear that experimentation is the order of the day. The entire CD never lets up for a moment; tunes such as "Bella Figljóla" pulsate passionately, urgently contemporizing the music. Witness the stunning "Uno: Monte La Lune," which features more chanting, a heavy, insistent beat, and a piano line that nods briefly towards salsa as the bass bounces across the soundscape.

The great researcher of tarantism in Southern Italy, Ernesto De Martino, argued in his famed ethnographic work "The Land of Remorse" that the tarantism ritual had ancient Greek roots; the connection between tarantism and the rituals of Dionysus has been explored and contested in academic circles for some time. However, the music of I Tarantolati di Tricarico certainly goes in for the frenzy of Dionysus. U'Squatasce is a primal, visceral experience, a wondrous addition to the ever-evolving dance of the spider. - Lee Blackstone

Listen:


CD available from cdRoots


The ensemble's web site: www.tarantolatiditricarico.org

Bevinda offers a fresh look at Portugal's fado

Bévinda
Outubro
Felmay-Dunya (www.felmay.it)

Fado interpreters can range from the more traditional to the experimental. In the latter realm is Portuguese-born, French-raised Bévinda (Bévinda Ferreire). Outubro, her tenth release, presents the singer in a live set from the January 2006 Suoni Migranti Festival (hosted by the Comune di Riccione, Assessorato alla Cultura, which collaborated in this CD's production). Bévinda's tight, fluid combo includes Philippe de Sousa (Portuguese guitar), Mathias Duplessy (classical guitar, vocals), Côme Aguiar (bass), Philippe Foch (tabla, percussion), and Nicolas Gorge (drum kit).

For a live set (with due thanks to the sound technician), the subtleties are many here, testament to the singer's considerable gift, her vocal intensity, and the easy rapport she has with her splendid ensemble. De Sousa, who co-wrote several numbers with Bévinda, is superb on the Portuguese guitar (with its teardrop shape and six double-course steel strings over a moveable bone bridge, actually closer to a cittern), both in fado's traditional accompaniment mode and, more unusually for the genre, as a soloist (hear his lightly ringing "Pedras da madrugada," a contemplative solo instrumental break). Duplessy swings on guitar, and he too is a master of vocal nuance (e.g., "Jarkot" and "Dorme amorzinho," the latter with his keening, muezzin-like vocals on a striking Bévinda-Kamilya Jubran composition). The rhythm section lays down the groove, and altogether, this ensemble recording gives everyone plenty of room to work their individual spells.

At the fore, of course, is Bévinda herself, who blends a sultry French café sensibility with a feeling for the Orient, shot through with the fatalistic saudade so characteristic of fado. Her balmy contralto ranges from a restrained interpretation of "O grito" (an Amalia Rodrigues-Carlos Gonçalves composition, the only cover here, and a singular reading of a classic) to the pulsing "Mulher Passaro," all with an arresting gravity. A live video of the latter song (a different version than on this CD) is worth seeing on the artist's website, complete with a close-fitting blues harmonica solo by an unidentified harpist, one more example of the disregard this singer has for musical boundaries. Working against the tabla, Duplessy interjects some neo-classical Indian vocals with his rhythmic scatting, while Bévinda chants, moans, hisses, and snarls with primordial glee and a palpable aura of being born for the stage. The clip also gives a hint of the controlled mania the singer weaves through the relaxed overall musical temper so easily conjured and sustained by the ensemble. - Michael Stone

CD available from cdRoots