Mohammad Rahim Khushnawaz - Afghanistan: Le rubab de Hérat (1974)

This wonderful collection of field recordings (grabbed in an improvised studio set up in a hotel room in Herat, Afghanistan) made in 1974 by professor John Baily (for a profile of this researcher, click here), published in cd format in 1992 by AIMP (Archives internationales de musique populaire, Geneva), magnificently captures Afghan “Rubab” (the Afghan lute) virtuoso Mohammad Rahim Khushnawaz both in solo and group contexts.

«This release is the best Rubab playing you can hear that is available to the world audience – a true classic inside and outside Afghanistan. Khushnawaz had developed the speediest, most eloquent voice in Rubab playing. I feel his technique is unsurpassed, even by younger players such as Homayun Sakhi. The tone of his Rubab is some very magical thing. This is the best place to start if you want to know the beauty of solo Rubab. There is really nothing like this instrument, and the playing of Khushnawaz will have you intoxicated, even after 1,000 listens and beyond...» (Amazon, reader review)

Learn more about Afghan music:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Afghanistan
http://www.mikalina.com/Texts/music-afghanistan.htm

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Untitled

Christina Pluhar & L'Arpeggiata - La Tarantella: Antidotum Tarantulae (2002)

La Tarantella - Antidotum Tarantulae, pubblicato dall'etichetta francese Alpha, è uno di quei prodotti che tracciano una linea di confine tra il repertorio classico e la musica tradizionale. Cantano Lucilla Galeazzi, Marco Beasley e Alfio Antico. Cristina Pluhar dirige l'ensemble L'Arpeggiata in una sarabanda di strumenti barocchi e popolari come il salterio, la cornamusa, percussioni come il tamburo a cornice. Il nome tarantella deriva da "tarantola": il tarantato è colui che è stato morso dal ragno; questa danza si è conservata in Italia e in Spagna e trova il suo correlativo nordeuropeo nel ballo di San Vito. Gli strumenti ritenuti più adatti a dissimulare il male del tarantato sono le chitarre e il violino ma anche tamburello, zampogna, cornamusa e flauto. Secondo studiosi come J. Sarratè e A. Kircher, (XVII- XVIII secolo) la musica di questi strumenti provoca le stesse reazioni riscontrabili sui soggetti colpiti dal veleno. Lavoro di grandissima raffinatezza quello dell'ensemble L'Arpeggiata, incentrato più sull'eleganza dell'armonia che sull'energia del ritmo; magistrali le voci della Galeazzi, di Beasley e di Alfio Antico. Una perla di musica popolare incastonata in un gioiello classico. (Antonello Mura, Il Secolo XIX)

A fascinating, original crossover of folk and classical, with the musicians of the early music ensemble L’Arpeggiata (conductor: Cristina Pluhar) joining the illustrious singers Galeazzi and Beasley, performed on modern and ancient instruments including chitarra battente, lutes, harp, psaltry. It's a mix of traditional songs and composed works form the 17th century, which gives it a unique and uncompromising quality. With Alfio Antico, Eero Palviainen, Marcello Vitale and many other fine musicians. Includes detailed notes in French (reported here), German (here) and English. (CDRoots)

Ce magnifique album nous invite à un parcours didactique, mais constamment sensuel et ludique, dans l'univers de la Tarentelle, danse thérapeutique autrefois extrêmement répandue dans tout le sud de l'Italie, et considérée comme le seul remède à la piqûre de la tarentule. Il était alors communément admis que chaque araignée provoquait un trouble distinct, mélancolie, frénésie, hilarité, folie... d'où une grande variété de danses et de chants, chacun étant censé guérir l'une de ces affections. L'ensemble de pièces regroupé ici illustre cette diversité à merveille. Appuyé sur un groupe d'interprètes tous remarquables venant d'horizons et de traditions musicales assez diverses, cette nouvelle production du label Alpha est un régal musical, à découvrir absolument. (FNAC)

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Postcards from Paris - Sans Paroles

Dhafer Youssef - Digital Prophecy (2003)

«Tunisia-born singer and oudist Dhafer Youssef should be recording for ECM. His albums have a similar spiritual, centered quality to the work appearing on that label, and his work on this album with some of Norway's top jazz players points completely in that direction. He lives very much on the cutting edge, taking things even further than he did on 2001's Electric Sufi. Where that album used electronica as the periphery of the music, here he brings it to the heart of the sound, integrating it seamlessly into his compositions, as on "Aya," where a seemingly found sound becomes the heartbeat of the track. His collaborators, including trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær, offer him plenty of space, and that's what the music needs — it's as wide open as the Tunisian desert. He's a good player of the oud, but his real weapon — apart from his sense of composition — is his voice, with a range that's truly stunning, and never put to better use than on "Dawn Prayer," where his high notes, seemingly impossible, stand as a revelation, with an aching melody that just stays in the brain. At the same time as Youssef pushes at the edges in his work, there's a sense of the music still being very centered in North Africa. On the basis of this, Youssef is extending his cutting edge even further.» (AMG)

«Interprete inizialmente di sonorità molto vicine alla tradizione più pura del mondo musicale nordafricano, con il disco Electric Sufi Youssef cominciò ad andare cautamente incontro a suoni più moderni, verificandone la compatibilità con le sue pulsioni più naturali. In questo bel disco molti elementi concorrono a mettere in contatto, ma nello stesso tempo tengono a debita distanza, i suoni più moderni dell’elettronica e dei campionamenti del nord Europa e le sue radici tunisine. Dal titolo del disco che oppone due termini lontani anni luce all’immagine di Youssef in copertina, icona delle tradizioni del suo paese, all’affermazione finale nel bel libretto di accompagnamento: “il mio ultimo respiro sarà in arabo”. Con lui, bravissimo e a tratti impressionante (la sua voce non sembra tale in Dawn Prayer, e l’oud del primo brano è scarno e immaginifico), musicisti già conosciuti e affermati per operazioni musicali innovative, a cominciare da Bugge Wesseltoft, per continuare con Eivind Aarset e Rune Arnesen, fino agli altri che completano un mosaico quasi perfetto.Un mosaico che ci racconta come i generi musicali possano incontrarsi senza sforzi, grazie alle sensibilità straordinarie degli attori in scena, e come la musica araba sia forse la più adatta a scoprire gli incastri preziosi con l’elettronica; e come il termine world music possa vivere una rappresentazione reale e affascinante in lavori come questo, tutto da godere.» (EGEA)

German review here

More on Dhafer Youssef at L’Arbre de les 1000 Musiques

Line-up:

Dhafer Youssef oud, vocal
Eivind Aarset guitars, electronics
Ronu Majumdar bansuri
Dieter Ilg acoustic bass
Rune Arnesen drums, programming
Bugge Wesseltoft piano, keyboards
Jan Bang beat programming
Nils Petter Molvaer trumpet

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Iļģi - Kaza kāpa debesīs (2003)

Another fine contribution (as always) from Valery.

«The most famous world music band from Latvia Iļģi celebrated their 25th anniversary on April 21, 2006. The group started at the Cultural Centre of Iļģuciems in Riga where Ilga Reizniece, a professional violinist, founded an ensemble of Latvian folk music. She had just graduated from the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and was an active member of two prominent folk music ensembles of the time, Bizīteri and Skandinieki.
At the beginning Iļģi was an ensemble of authentic Latvian folk music. They visited remote parts of Latvia in search for unrecorded folk songs, studied the traditional performance, as well as sewing their own traditional costumes and building their own instruments. They also performed wherever they could find willing listeners and pass on the knowledge they had acquired as befitted an ensemble of folk music. The studies of the authentic music led to interest in the ancient history, archaeology, ethnography, mythology and traditions. Unfortunately these fields of interest held a lot of information considered dangerous by the Soviet regime ruling in Latvia at that time. In the eighties, the folk-lore studies in Latvia held a bespoken element of dissidence…» (full bio here)

Kaza kāpa debesīs (A Goat Climbed Into The Sky) is «stylistically, the most richly diverse Iļģi album, yet it retains as its roots the traditional melodies and themes of Latvian folk music and the dainas. The album includes selections from a 7-song cycle composed for the Fire segment of a 15,000-dancer production at the 2003 Latvian Dance Festival. The album features the voices of Ilga Reizniece, Māris Muktupāvels, Gatis Gaujenieks and Rūta Muktupāvela, Ilga’s mesmerizing violin, Maris on kokle, dūdas (bagpipes), accordion and recorder, Gatis on bass and ġīga, Egons Kronbergs on guitars and Vilnis Strods on drums and percussion. In the first year of its release it reached 17th place in the World Music Charts Europe, and was praised as one of the top twenty world music albums of the year.»

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Postcards from Paris - Untitled

Pure Groove: Pacific Origin

Today

«Electronica, ragga, house, rhythm and blues, dance, all contemporary musical movements influence the musicians of the Pacific Islands…» This groovy European compilation assembles twelve tracks by bands and djs from Oceania merging modern Western and Caribbean influences with the traditional music of their homelands, mostly with good results. Featuring artists from Hawaii (Tony C, O-Shen), Fiji Islands (Black Rose), French Polynesia (Fenua, Electro Mana, Enzo), Australia (D.I.G.), New Caledonia (Poin Mou Dja, Edou, Tim, Triban Klan) and Solomon Islands (Toxie).

«Il existe de très nombreuses analogies entre les peuples des Caraïbes et des Iles Pacifiques. Si le reggae a suscité de nombreuses vocations dans le monde, c'est peut-être ici que cette musique a été la plus proche de l'esprit jamaïcain, qu'elle a atteint le plus d'authenticité en véhiculant autant de détresses et d'espoirs. Les groupes sélectionnés pour cet album donnent à penser que le reggae aurait pu naître dans les nombreux archipels de la zone pacifique dont sont originaires tous les groupes.» (LeLoupDuFaubourg)

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South Pacific: Island Music (Nonesuch Explorer Series, 1981)

Yesterday

Another fine release in the never too celebrated Nonesuch catalogue (see also the Faramarz Payvar post), reprinted in 2003.

«If you're looking for sweet singing, steel guitars, and the tourist trappings of the South Pacific, you'll need to look elsewhere. These 28 tracks are off the beaten track, but anyone keeping to the straight and narrow might find the results far more satisfying. Of particular interest are the songs and chants, like "Imenetuki," with some eerie, shifting harmonies from the Cook Islands, and the easy beauty of the Tongan "Faikava Love Song." The pan pipes of the Solomon Islands sound like no other, and "Pan Pipe Ensemble" has an almost modern European flavor to it, while the slightly dissonant harmonies of the female singers recall Bulgarian choirs. Over in the Gilbert Islands, the song "Te Kawawa" has an elastic quality, the single male voice sliding in microtones around the notes. A drum accompanies Samoan women as they sing a lullaby on "Tagi," the slow rhythm like a pulse beat. In other words, there's plenty going on here; it's an indigenous travelogue through the Pacific Islands. Beautifully recorded with stunning clarity, the reissue of this 1981 album is a delight.» (AMG)

Tracks:

1-4: Cook Islands
5-9: Tonga
10-13: Fiji
14-19: Solomon Islands
20-22: Gilbert Islands (Kiribati)
23-26: Western Samoa)
27: Tahiti (French Polynesia)

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Postcards from Italy (28) - Trapani and the Egadi Islands, Sicily

Various Artists - Notturno Etrusco (1997)

Notturno Etrusco - I migliori gruppi di musica etnica del Festival di Tarquinia assembles some of the best Italian ethnic musicians from the 90s. Recorded in Tarquinia, Latium during the first three editions of the musical Festival "Notturno Etrusco", this cd is a good showcase for talented bands such Dissòi Lògoi (whose first album has been already posted here in Babe(b)logue) and Ensemble Galilei, and also for equally gifted soloists such Nicola Alesini, Marco Schiavoni, Paolo Modugno and Mauro Palmas.
The end result is a fascinating and wildly evocative "Mediterranean" mix, inspired to the Etrurian music (mostly imagined, as we know little about it), and drawing from different sources (from jazz to electronics) to (re)create the dreamy atmospheres of a long forgotten past, which nonetheless left a perduring inheritance in the Italian peninsula and the Mediterranean basin.

"Sappiamo che gli Etruschi avevano per la musica e per la danza la massima considerazione. Conosciamo gli strumenti musicali che erano presenti (e anche quelli stranamente assenti, come i tamburi), il loro aspetto, la quantità di corde o di fori, le dimensioni, i materiali. Abbiamo indicazioni sulle tecniche d'uso e possiamo persino tentare qualche supposizione sulle tonalità e sulle scali musicali utilizzate.
Molte di queste informazioni provengono dalle raffigurazioni dipinte sulle tombe della necropoli di Tarquinia, dove il gran numero di figure danzanti ci dà quasi la possibilità di ricostruire coreografie di oltre duemila anni fa.
In realtà, non possiamo più ascoltare la musica degli Etruschi, né veder ballare anche solo uno di loro, eppure... ispirandoci a quei dipinti che offrono doni musicali armonici e propiziatori, sincronizzandoci con altri ritmi che pulsano ancora attraverso i millenni, abbiamo cercato di ricreare negli stessi luoghi di allora quelle sensazioni e quelle esperienze che sono state proprie di un'altra civiltà, in un altro tempo. Forse la risposta è, senza impossibili pretese filologiche, una... Musica per gli Etruschi" (Dalle note di copertina di Emiliano Li Castro, Direttore Artistico del Festival di Tarquinia)

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Radio Tarifa - Cruzando el Rio (2000)

On request, another fine offering from Spain’s finest world music ensemble, Radio Tarifa. Enjoy!

«This, the third disc from Spain's leading roots ensemble, features a mixture of old and new. It continues to offer up the group's time-machine stew of delectable bits and pieces of Spanish musical history. It still uses an extraordinary collection of instruments, modern and medieval, Spanish and Moslem. What's new is the album's foray into Japanese music, "Gujo Bushi," and the occasional use of electric guitar. Though it's harder to pin down, the group seems to have dug deeper into music of the modern Spanish countryside. This new — or newly deepened — exploration of folk music results in two of the album's most intriguing tunes: First is "Ramo Verde," a Castillian folk song with great atmosphere, featuring a woman vocalist for the first time in the group's history. Second is the title track, which is a primitive tango and which most lamentably ends just when it's getting going. The brevity of the songs is a serious concern on "Cruzando el Rio": The 11 tracks total just 36 minutes, allowing too little time for development and no time for the epic grandeur of "Nu Alrest" off of the group's first album, Rumba Argelina. Still, this group never fails to be interesting.» (AMG)

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Postcards from Paris - Paris La Nuit

CCCP-Fedeli Alla Linea - Socialismo e Barbarie (1987)

A brilliant ethno-punk (!) album by one of the most celebrated (and deservedly so) Italian bands from the 80s, that, to paraphrase the title of an album by Italian “cantautore” Francesco Guccini, can be placed midway «fra la via Emilia e l’Est» («between the Emilia highway and the East»), or between Communism and Islam, or Irony and Dogma, or Social Analysis and Paranoia, or… Well, CCCP are not easy to define, but their music is always stimulating, corrosive, intelligent, and funny. And they rock, for sure!

«La fama raccolta con l'inaspettato successo di Affinità/divergenze – inaspettato perché non si trattava certo di un album facile da assimilare – spinge la band ad allargare i propri orizzonti e a firmare per una major. Se questo produce cambiamenti inerenti alle modalità di gestione della produzione musicale (e allontana i fan "puri e duri" della prima ora), permette altresì a Ferretti e soci di alzare il livello dello scontro ideologico. Chi si aspettava toni ammorbiditi dalle regole di mercato rimane deluso. Il suono effettivamente risulta ammorbidito […] ma la lucidità dei testi non viene meno e supporta bene il nuovo stile. Rimanendo sempre attaccati ad un'attitudine punk cocciuta, i CCCP cercano comunque di spaziare, prendendo a spunto e assimilando tutto ciò che li circonda. Ai divertenti ritmi punk di "Per me lo so" e "Tu menti" si accostano l'orientaleggiante "Radio Kabul", che riprende i tempi e le movenze delle danze sufi, attuandole grazie ai toni bassi della sezione ritmica, lo splendido incedere "alla Aznavour" di "Inch'allah – ça va", […] e l'organistica "Libera me Domine", dalle chiare influenze religiose.

Inizia in realtà da qui quel processo di trasformazione che nel 1990 porterà allo scioglimento dei CCCP a favore del nuovo progetto CSI. "I Soviet più l'elettricità non fanno il comunismo" urla sovrastato dalle distorsioni Ferretti nell'intro di "Manifesto", dopo che l'album si è aperto con una bella versione per batteria e tastiere dell'inno sovietico. Per quanto possano dirne i detrattori, che vedono dietro la scelta della Virgin uno svendersi al commercio, i CCCP (che per la prima volta si avvalgono di un'altra chitarra, quella di Carlo Chiapparini, oltre che di Ignazio Orlando al basso, alla batteria e alle tastiere) sono veramente "Fedeli alla Linea". […] (Raffaele Meale, Kalporz)»

Note: If you are interested in Russian anthems, then I warmly recommend you to visit the Russian Anthems Museum, whose main page «contains all Russian and Soviet national anthems, then a collection of music and songs connected to them in some way, followed by a few musical pieces and songs that were partially used as anthems but never achieved the official status. Separate pages present Internationale in many languages, anthems of Union republics, and use of “God Save the Tsar” in Tchaikovsky’s music».

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Indian Ocean - Kandisa (2000)

I owe many thanks to Madhu from India for this wonderful discovery, that I really can’t stop to listen to.

«Indian Ocean, according to the band», writes Madhu, «is the sound of contemporary India getting to know itself. Presenting a unique fusion of traditional Indian folk, modern funk and groove, rock and jazz, blending western structures with Indian instrumentation and melodies, Kandisa, their second studio album, captured a sound entirely unique and yet entirely familiar. Kandisa not only uses Indian lyrics, but the title song itself is in the ancient Aramaic tongue.

Indian Ocean use a variety instruments, both Indian (tabla, tarang, dhol, gabgubi ) and Western (bass guitar, accoustic guitar, drums, electric violin) blending them seamlessly to result in one harmonious sound that truly captures the energy and spirit of a shrinking world.»

For additional info, you can check also the band’s official site, or its accurate Wikipedia bio, which sports another appropriate definition of its sound as «Indo-rock fusion with jazz-spiced rhythms that integrates shlokas, sufism, environmentalism, mythology and revolution».

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Postcards from Italy (27) - Saluzzo (Cn), Piedmont

Re-upload

On request, I re-uploaded this excellent Calexico tour-only EP, Road Map. For additional infos, check the Road Map post.

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The Bossa Nova Exciting Jazz Samba Rhythms Vol. 1 (2000)

Well, I think that the title says it all. Apart from a few (almost unavoidable) fillers, a brilliant collection of (mostly instrumental) rare killer bossa grooves from the golden 60's. Check it out (bossa) soul brothers!

Note: Due to some problems in uploading with Sharebee, today I opted for Megaupload.

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Ciao, campioni!

The Superga air disaster happened on Wednesday, May 4, 1949, when a plane carrying almost the entire Grande Torino squad (18 players), plus management, journalists and crew, crashed into the Superga hills near Turin, killing everyone on board. In all, 31 people died.

The team was returning from José Ferreira's farewell match in Lisbon at the time of the crash. The crash was the biggest tragedy in Italian sports history since it claimed the lives of a legendary team that had won the Serie A title for the previous four years in a row (plus the last title before the outbreak of war). After the crash Torino F.C. did not win the title again until the 1975/76 season. Of the entire squad, only one player survived, Sauro Tomà who did not make the trip because he was injured. Ladislao Kubala was due to fly out to play in the match, but at the last minute didn't do it because of his son's ill health. (Source: Wikipedia)

Victims

Players

Valerio Bacigalupo
Aldo Ballarin
Dino Ballarin
Milo Bongiorni
Eusebio Castigliano
Rubens Fadini
Guglielmo Gabetto
Ruggero Grava
Giuseppe Grezar
Ezio Loik
Virgilio Maroso
Danilo Martelli
Valentino Mazzola
Romeo Menti
Piero Operto
Franco Ossola
Mario Rigamonti
Giulio Schubert

Club Officials

Arnaldo Agnisetta, manager
Ippolito Civalleri, manager
Egri Erbstein, trainer
Leslie Lievesley, coach
Ottavio Corina, masseur

Journalists

Renato Casalbore, (founder of Tuttosport)
Luigi Cavallero, (La Stampa)
Renato Tosatti, (Gazzetta del Popolo)

Crew

Pierluigi Meroni, captain
Antonio Pangrazi
Celestino D'Inca
Cesare Biancardi

Others

Andrea Bonaiuti, organiser

Osibisa - Ayiko Bia (1991)

During my recent holydays in Paris, I've found this somewhat obscure Osibisa live cd, not included in their official discography. Searching for some infos about it in the Internet, I discovered that it was released in Europe in 1991. Judging from the sound quality of the recordings (good but not great), they probably document a live show from the '70s. Since this was Osibisa's "golden" period, this album is really worth a listen, including very good renditions of such classic tracks as "Welcome Home", "Music from Gong Gong" and their biggest UK hit, "Sunshine Day".

«Osibisa was formed in London, England in 1969 by a multi-racial group of musicians; all with the same interests in music. The nucleus of the band was from Ghana, others, like the unbelievable guitarist Wendell Richardson, came from Antigua; the bass player who was simply known as Spartacus (I'm Spartacus!) was from Grenada; the keyboard player from Trinidad; and the saxophonist was from Nigeria. However, what they all had in common was great musical rhythm, enthusiasm, and ability. Their music was borrowed from Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, African based drum music, Rock, Pop, and Latin Groove, to create quite an original sound. In Ghanaian 'Osibisa' means 'criss-cross rhythms that explode with happiness'. Now, how one word can say all that I do not know, but that is exactly how the music sounds, and they are the very words that introduce the first song on Osibisa's first album, aptly titled "Dawn".
Like a breath of fresh air, Osibisa's music first came to prominence with the release of their first single "Music for Gong Gong'', which was released at the tail end of 1970. It is a piece of music that will get even the most conservative of souls out boogieing on the dance floor. So it was great expectations when their first album was released in the early days of 1971 and the boys did not disappoint, arriving as it did when Prog-Rock was in its heyday. Each of these percussive driven songs blew away all the pretensions of those serious minded twiddlers in the likes of Yes, King Crimson, etc. Osibisa's unbridled enthusiasm was so infectious, you could not help but be dragged along by the sheer exuberance of it all. Although Osibisa's main strength was in their live concerts, they could also drum up a storm (quite literally) in the studio. Nobody at the time could have realized how influential their music was going to be in years ahead. Osibisa today is still known as the Godfather of 'World Music', and the effect of their big hit single "Sunshine Day" (1975) was to change the disco scene for ever.» (Kim Fletcher, Amazon)

Official site: http://www.osibisa.co.uk/osibisa.html

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Princess Nicotine - Folk and Pop Sounds of Myanmar (Burma) Vol. 1 (2004)

Princess Nicotine: Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar (Sublime Frequencies 006) chronicles the Burmese portion of ethnomusicologist Alan Bishop's travels through Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The influence of Western pop music on these songs is undeniable, but the artists integrate it in such a bizarre fashion that the end results are like discovering a new species of animal. Similar in their arrangements and high vocal timbre to the recordings that grew out of India's "Bollywood" scene, the 12 selections marry everything from fuzzy guitar rock, soulful piano, and Baroque pop string sections to the tabla-infused folk music of Southeast Asia with effortless dexterity and immeasurable charm, resulting in a collection of songs that world music aficionados and lovers of all things strange and quirky will covet as their own. (AMG)

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May 1 / Labour Day

The celebration of Labour Day has its origins in the eight hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest. On 21 April 1856 Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne, Australia, stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight hour day. Their direct action protest was a success, and they are noted as the first organized workers in the world to achieve an eight hour day with no loss of pay, which subsequently inspired the celebration of Labour Day and May Day... (more at Wikipedia)

Labour Day Parade in Toronto in early 1900s (Wikipedia)

Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, Il Quarto Stato (1901)

Buon primo maggio!
Happy Labour Day!