Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2018 Thread Once Known as World Music

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/.premium-how-racism-changed-ethiopian-israeli-singer-1.5423209

Interesting interview with Yalo from 2016

There's a Nyege Nyege Tapes night happening round the corner from me in April. I knew I moved to a city for a reason :-)

Crash Fest in Boston, Mass Feb 24th includes VIEUX FARKA TOURÉ - Malian guitarist dubbed “The Hendrix of the Sahara”
MOKOOMBA - Afro-fusion from Zimbabwe
ZESHAN B – Chicago soul singer with Indo-Pakistani roots
FLOR DE TOLOACHE - Explosive all-female mariachi band
TAL NATIONAL - High energy rock ‘n’ roll from Niger
INNOV GNAWA - Trance music from Morocco
NEWPOLI - A modern take on music from the Mediterranean
SÓ SOL - Música Brasileira with an Americana twist
KOTOKO BRASS

If I was up there I would definitely see Vieux Farka Toure, Mokoomba, and Tal National again. Innov Gnawa are pretty good live too. Don't know the others really

oh is tal national gonna tour at all while they're here? i would def go see them again.

i would totally go see them again too

They are touring now through March (without a percussionist who I think played on previous tours). In Brooklyn Friday night the 23rd, Boston on 24th, Portland Maine on 25th, New Haven on the 27th, and later in March in Pittsburgh on the 16th, Baltimore on the 17th, West Virginia on the 18th.

Not seeing any DC or Philadelphia or Chicago gigs although they have nothing listed for March 19th & 20th, before they head south to Big Ears fest and elsewhere. I am trying to get their agent to add a DC date on one of those days, but not having luck.

Mokoomba's US tour is short too

Christopher Kirkley of Sahel Sounds (who was involved in that North African Purple rain movie adaptation)is presenting another film "Zerzura" on saturday night Feb. 24th at 7 pm at the Freer Gallery in DC. This movie he says " is a feature length magical realist folktale about a young nomad who sets off to find his brother in a lost Saharan city. It’s a collaborative film we wrote and shot on location in Agadez, Niger over the course of a month. Filmed entirely in Tamashek, it also features original improvisational guitar score from protagonist Ahmoudou Madassane (Mdou Moctar, Les Filles de Illighadad)."

Hailu Mergia's going to put out an album of new material and there's an interview with him in the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/arts/music/hailu-mergia-lala-belu.html

Nice. I saw something on Bandcamp the other day. I thought that since Mergia is doing so many European tours he had given up his other job, but not completely I see:

He still drives the cab for extra cash. In idle moments, he hauls out the keyboard and sits alone in the back seat, his eyes closed, improvising.

this is cool https://sahelsounds.bandcamp.com/album/field-recordings-from-the-sahel

That looks cool.

Now in sad news, I see on the Stern’s music store & label blog that singer Medoune Diallo has died. He was in the great groups Orchestra Baobab and Africando.

http://sternsmusic.blogspot.com/2018/02/medoune-diallo-11021949-10022017-rip.html?m=1

The new Mergia album is mostly impressive. He’s on accordion on some tracks and various types of keyboards on others.

received the Pantsula comp in the post today. it's great huh?

Too much to keep up on. Have not heard that comp of 88 to 90 South African electronic dance (yet)

loving the new tal national btw

The Tal National album rocks. Feel like I should also post about it on some ilm rock thread

also new femi kuti & imarhan

Vieux Farka Toure is gonna be back in DC Tuesday night and he's a charismatic performer live, but I'm spoiled-- have seen him 3 times locally so might skip this one.

NY Times’ Jon Pareles tweeting about how much he loved recent gigs by Tal National and Mokoomba. He says both groups “transcend tribalism “ by bringing together multiple cultures/ minorities.

Onetime ilxor K*ith H*rris penned a favorable review of the new Tal National album in a Minnesota publication/site

some side eye at "transcend tribalism" like wtf is that supposed to mean but the new tal national is really good

Yeah, good point.

Meanwhile in Egypt, pop singer Sherine Abdel-Wahab has been sentenced to 6 months in jail for saying the Nile River is too dirty to drink from

http://m.dw.com/en/egyptian-singer-jailed-for-insulting-the-nile/a-42759474?xtref=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252F

I missed the Tal National and Mokoomba gigs. Vieux too, though I've seen him more than once. Hoping/half-anticipating that they were showcase gigs for larger presenters who will bring them back this summer.

Tal National playing in my town this Sunday. Looking forward to it. nice that they made it to the wilds of western mass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGLy6Vb0jwQ

they were so amazing. go see them if you have never seen them! so great to see them in my fave tiny bar in town. capacity only 100 and it was packed full.

https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/d3wdq7/robert-christgau-youssou-ndour-tal-national-review

Christgau likes Tal National too

could have listened to that drummer all night. between this and the xylouris white show i am really getting my drum on this year. best drum shows ever.

critic Richard Gehr has been reviewing international stuff for quite awhile. Perhaps I'm reading "once again on the rise" wrong, but North African/Sahel guitar has been around for a number of years now. Checking out BKO

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/review-tal-national-and-africas-high-octane-modern-rock-w517585

Sidi Touré, Toubalbero | ★★★ 1/2
BKO, Mali Foli Coura | ★★★ 1/2
Tal National, Tantabara | ★★★★
Imarhan, Temet | ★★★

With American rock bands looking to forward-thinking EDM and elsewhere for genre rejuvenation, African electric guitars and traditional instruments alike are once again yawping, screaming and blurting with new intensity after something of a genre hiatus. Over there, the romantic scenario of picking up chops down at the crossroads has been replaced by the vigorous international and inter-ethnic cultural trading going on in Mali, Niger and Algeria. Amid African music's myriad variations, rock is once again on the rise.

I posted the below on the Afropop thread but its relevant here too:

No respect...For the second year in a row, the Nabisco (N.A.) edited NY Times Magazine special issue 25 Songs that Tell Us Where Music is Going has no artists based in Africa (mostly all US & UK this year except for 1 K-Pop, a hiphop remix with Puerto Rican rappers, and a Scottish pop group with 2 members of Liberian heritage )

The issue does have nicely penned pieces on Chicago footwork DJ Taye and one on a remix with Farruko, Nicki Minaj, and Bad Bunny; SZA ,and Bruno Mars's Finesse remix. But I was expecting more from a former ilxor who writes well and is very smart and who got a bunch of talented writers from elsewhere to contribute. An editor doesn't have to like Scandinavian whatever(pop or metal) or Nigerian Afropop to recognize that it should be included in something with the heading "25 Songs that Tell Us Where Music is Going," but he didn't do that this year or last year (the first time he edited this). Instead, as when he was the music critic at New York Magazine he generally followed his interests-US and UK pop, rap, and r'n'b.

Just splashed out on the new album by Hailu Merga, 'Lala Belu'. Only 6 tracks at full price, which I feel is pretty steep but it's quality and I adore the title track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyuWRXoFCjY

Also picked up the Ernesto Chahoud compilation of Ethiopian cuts. Roll on 5 o'clock!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gmGL5SqhaY&t=150s

New Fatoumata Diawara from Mali video/song "Nterini" directed by Ethopian director Aida Muluneh. Lots of bright primary colors

Oops, video link not working. I like Fatoumata Diawara's voice. Sometimes she tries to hard to crossover to Western audiences, but this one mostly works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gmGL5SqhaY

Also liking Djeneba & Fousco and band from Mali on this song. Beautiful, lilting female & male vocals , mellow backing instrumentation. Have not heard their new album yet.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bbTk72kmihQ

Listened to some of the Djeneba & Fousco album. Not bad. Heard a little reggae flavor. Need to listen to it more

Had heard the story that Tuaregs in exile in Libya had heard Dire Straits , and now there’s video evidence

http://sahelsounds.com/2018/03/dire-straits-in-the-sahara/

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/zimbabwes-powerful-music-of-struggle

Thomas Mapfumo is going back to Zimbabwe for the first time in 10 years, now that Mugabe is out of power. Mapfumo is still nervous about the role the military is playing. They helped remove Mugabe.

Mapfumo was living in Oregon . I only remember him touring the US east coast once or twice over the years he was in the US. A good show the one time I saw him

Thx for recommending Field Recordings from the Sahel and "Nterini"! Both fantastic in different ways.

touched upon by dog latin upthread but the chahoud ethiopian compilation is great

https://bbemusic.bandcamp.com/album/ernesto-chahoud-presents-taitu-soul-fuelled-stompers-from-1960s-1970s-ethiopia

it's so good. i like the way each side of the vinyl seems to explore different avenues, from jazz to rock n roll to more traditional-sounding stuff.

My personal highlight is track 10 Tilahun Gessesse - Aykedashim Libe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_guVpXBAnQA

That's how you do call and response.

saw Tal National over the weekend and (as expected) they were so entertaining
can anyone tell me the name of the song where the guitar player lingers on that one note really dramatically and then does like some exaggerated dramatic strums? (like a classic rock swinging arm strum) it was also the song where he went out into the audience. i wish i could describe it more accurately but that is the best i can do right now. it was probably their heaviest song?

Can't name the Tal National song.

Listening to latest Sidi Toure album Toubalbero. This Malian guitarist rocks on this, not as much as some but more than he used to. Nice enough vocals

Seeing on twitter that Sierra Leone Bubu musician Janka Nabay who had lived in DC and elsewhere in the US for a bit has died. Based on his Instagram account it appears he was back in Sierra Leone. No details available yet on his passing

Whoa

Just 54. Suddenly got sick there, and passed away.

Sad. He was in NY often enough I didn't know he lived in DC.

He used a Brooklyn based band but for awhile was down here ( both working in a food truck and doing gigs for either Sierra Leone immigrants or crossover audiences )

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/03/obituaries/janka-nabay-54-dies-carried-an-african-dance-music-worldwide.html

Jon Pareles notes in his Janka obit that after Janka’s 2017 European festivals tour, visa issues prevented him from going to the US, so he returned to his Sierra Leone homeland. There he recently had stomach issues and died.

Fatoumata Diawara North American tour happening. She was great live a few years back.

I missed latest local appearances by Venezuela's Betsayda Machado y La Parrando el Clavo, but the Instagram videos of their Afro-Venezuelan percussion and folk harmony vocals looked just as exciting as when I did see them for a bit at a festival

Malian guitarist Sidi Toure and band touring North America this month

Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2019 Thread Once Known as World Music