For the 5th consecutive year Union Square Music releases the excellent official album that accompanies the BBC Radio 3 Awards For World Music – the most prestigious event in the 'world music' calendar and a perfect guide to what's happening in the world of 'world music' today.
CD1:
1. Camille - Ta Douleur (Europe)
Camille Dalmais is in the avant-garde of French Chanson and grew up on a diet of soul, R&B and folk music. She was one of the vocalists with French cult sensations Nouvelle Vague before leaving to record her astounding second solo album Le Fil. “My music is about opening frontiers,” and her startlingly inventive and hugely engaging live shows have received rave reviews and a large devoted following. She really is one of a kind and won the French equivalent of the Mercury Award – the Prix Constantin.
2. Bongo Maffin – Kura Uone (Grow Up And You Will See) (Africa)
Bongo Maffin is one of the biggest bands to come out of South Africa's post apartheid music scene. The award winning group's particular brand of Kwaito - a potent homegrown mix of house, hip hop and South African rhythms and melodies - is spiced up with ragga, r ‘n’ b and strong Township grooves. Socially aware lyrics are conveyed through a number of different South African languages by Appleseed’s inciteful rapping and the soulful vocals of lead singer Thandiswa, who was herself nominated for these awards in 2006.
3. Think Of One - Fiera De Mangaio (Culture Crossing)
Listening to Think Of One is like having a festival in your front room. This collective of outward-looking musicians, musical explorers from Antwerp, mix Belgium roots music with a staggering array of genres ranging from Moroccan, Inuit, Congolese and now with the latest album ‘Trafico’ they are exploring the music of north-eastern Brazil. They have teamed up with musicians from Recife, lead by the charismatic singer, Dona Cila.
4. Balkan Beat Box - Cha Cha (Club Global) Tamir Muskat and Ori Kaplan used to be in Gogol Bordello, also nominated for this years awards. They are 2 Israeli-born musicians who relocated to N.Y. and met while playing in Brooklyn's mainly east European underground music scene. Producing Balkan inspired 'electronic urban folk', they mix ethnic musicians and samples, clarinets and brass with the latest studio technology to create a vibrant blend that Kaplan calls Mediterranean dancehall.
5. Toumani Diabaté’s Symmetric Orchestra – Single (Africa / Album Of The Year)
Toumani Diabaté comes from of a long line of famous griots and Boulevard De L'Independence, the second in the Hotel Mande trilogy of releases on World Circuit, is the result of 10 years of experimenting with traditional and modern musical formats. Recorded over 14 all-night sessions, this is Toumani's innovative kora playing strategically placed in a seething, full on dance-band setting.
6. K'naan – Soobax (Newcomer)
A Somalian refugee now based in Canada, K’naan grew up in war torn Mogadishu learning to fire a gun by the age of 8 and living off his wits in the neighbourhood known as the “River of Blood”. With a start like that no wonder he asks the gangsta rappers of the world – ‘So what is hard core - really?’ K'naan can be an eloquent and powerful rapper with an uplifting and positive world view "It's better to light a candle than curse the dark" He has an enormous stage presence and his band of ngoma drummer and guitarist produce a powerful and rivetting live show with their earthy brand of Somali infused global hip hop.
7. Natacha Atlas – Hayati Inta (Mid.East & N.Africa)
Born in Belgium of Egyptian, Palestinian and Moroccan descent, Natasha has lived in Greece and is resident in the UK. She is an accomplished belly dancer and blessed with a voice which she's been utilizing to great effect on her own and other peoples’ projects since the late 1980s. She has sung with Jah Wobble, Nitin Sawney and Indigo Girls and was a core member of global fusion pioneers Transglobal Underground. It is Natacha’s voice on the Stargate and Die Another Day sound tracks and her ability to bring diverse cultures together was instrumental in her being appointed as a UN Goodwill Ambassador.
8. Mahmoud Ahmed – Bèlomi Bènna (Africa) This soul-man from Addis has been at the forefront of Ethiopian music for more than 30 years. Mahmoud was one of the first artists from the country to be released in the West, and is a legend in Ethiopia, in such demand to perform to his countrymen around the world that he’s hardly had the time to cultivate a western audience. More recently he’s been rediscovered through the excellent Ethiopiques series of compilations and he was the surprise hit at the 2005 Womad festival, enthusing the crowds with his arresting stage personality, his haunting fluid voice undulating over pulsating rhythms and swinging horn arrangements. This track is from 1975, one of his ‘golden years’.
9. Mercan Dede – Napas (Club Global)
Mercan has been shortlisted four years running – more than any other artist. Rather like his country - Turkey - Mercan Dede is a gateway, a dervish, between East and West. He has two separate artistic personas: as Mercan he is a highly rated spiritual sufi instrumentalist who works with sufi musicians around the world, master of the bendir (frame drum) and ney (reed flute); his alter ego is Arkin Allen the hardcore techno DJ. Sufis believe that music is a means of uplifting and enlightening the soul, and Mercan finds a reflection of this in the rave and club cultures of the West.
10. Lila Downs – La Cumbia Del Mole (Americas / Album Of The Year)
Lila is of Mixtec and American parentage drawing on both musical traditions and was singing popular Mexican folk music including canciones rancheras, by the age of 8. Her musical career really started as a result of her work translating the personal testimonies of loss and death recounted by the desperate people trying to cross the Mexico / US border. Lila was moved to tell their stories through her vivid song writing. She has appeared in the film Frida, featured on Burn It Blue, sung a duet with Caetano Veloso and is the winner of a Latin Grammy.
11. Ska Cubano – Bobine (De Lata remix) (Culture Crossing)
Ska and mambo, reggae and son in a sunny fun-filled mash-up. Ska Cubano's second release, Ay Caramba, is rough and ready, raucous party music that combines the music from two islands known for their outstanding contribution to the worlds musical landscape - Jamaica and Cuba. Frontmen Natty Bo from London and sonero Beny Billy from Havana are two zoot-suited flash boys who deliver the songs with panache and compliment each others larger than life stage performance.
12. Gogol Bordello – Not A Crime (Americas) Perhaps the best known of New York’s Gypsy Balkan underground music scene that includes Balkan Beat Box, also nominated for these awards. Gogol Bordello are a multi-cultural band of immigrants from Eastern Europe lead by the charismatic refugee from the Ukraine, Eugene Hutz, who performed in the film ‘Everything Is Illuminated’. Gogol Bordello’s Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike is a collision of gypsy, klezmer and Russian wedding music, whizzed up with reggae, latin and caberet, in a punk fuelled mêlée. They deliver a frantic, demented high-octane live show that has promoters queuing up to book them.
13. Les Boukakes – A’Alawi (Mid.East & N.Africa)
Les Boukakes are a snapshot of multicultural France; their membership comprises French, Algerian, Tunisian, Corsican and Italian. They come out of the banlieus - the restless, edgy suburb estates and of the same punk inspired world-view that produced Rachid Taha and Manu Chao. Their name, Boukakes, is a combination of two racist slurs and chosen in defiance of the French far right. This is where North African grooves like rai and gnawa meet rock 'n' roll in a contemporary urban French setting.
14. Fat Freddy's Drop – This Room (Asia/Pacific)
A refreshing Polynesian take on dub reggae, jazz and funk, Fat Freddy's Drop are a multi-cultural mix of Samoan, Maori and Pakeha and are the biggest home-grown band to come out of New Zealand. ‘Based On A True Story’, their first studio album, independently recorded and released, has been eagerly embraced by the huge, loyal fan base they have built from years of playing live and touring the world. It went straight to number 1 in the charts on the day of release.
15. Cheb i Sabbah - Esh 'Dani, Alash Mshit (Constantine Remix) (Club Global)
Sabbah is an Algerian-born Berber of Jewish Ancestry. He started DJing in Paris in the 60's and by the 80's was an integral part of the San Fransisco dance movement. Instead of sampling old recordings he works with real musicians to create his fusion of Arabic and Indian club sounds, and is a deft mixer/producer of inspirational dance music. An appreciation of Sufism lies at the heart of his music-making.
16. Aida Nadeem - Khadri (Culture Crossing) Born in Baghdad, Aida is a classically trained bassoon player who performed with the Iraq symphony orchestra. To be political and outspoken during Saddam’s reign was a recipe for increasing danger and she fled the country in 1991 to settle in Denmark. There she studied at the Royal Danish Academy Of Music and during this time her love of experimental music drew her to the burgeoning underground music scene. Here she found-like minded musicians to collaborate with in the creation of her 'ethnic synthetic' music that incorporates a vast musical spectrum, including trip hop, trance arabesque and Iraqi poems.
17. Ben Harper – Better Way (War Mix) (Americas)
A talented singer-songwriter and master of the ‘Weissenborn’ slide guitar, Ben grew up on the West coast of America with blues, reggae, folk and rock, and his music now entwines all those genres into his own unique style that defies categorisation. His latest release ‘Both Sides Of The Gun’ is full of insightful lyrics that let us in on his socially aware world view and was inspired by his work with the Blind Boys Of Alabama gospel band, with whom he recorded ‘Let There Be A Light’, a double Grammy award-winning album.
CD2:
1. Fonseca - Lagartija Azul (Americas)
Juan Fernando Fonseca was hooked on music early in his life. By the age of 12 he had already written and recorded and he went on to study music at Bogota University and then Berkley College. Fonseca uses the popular music of Colombia - cumbia and the accordian driven vallenato - as his musical foundation, which he blends with African drumming, salsa and latin pop to create an infectious sound that’s hit big in Colombia, topping the charts for months. Corazon, is his first album to be internationally released and was nominated for 3 Latin Grammys.
2. Nuru Kane – Cigil (Newcomer)
Hailing from Dakar, Senegal, Nuru Kane is a fine singer, songwriter and guitarist who also plays a mean guimbri, the north African version of the Malian ngoni or spike lute. It’s like a canoe-shaped acoustic bass and is the instrument of the Gnawas, the brotherhood of Moroccans and descendants of West African slaves taken north across the Sahara. Their spiritual trance music is renowned for its healing qualities and inspired Nuru to form his group Bayefall Gnawa to explore and bring together the rhythms and melodies of Senegal and Morocco. “Today I give you the music of Bayefall Gnawa, a blend of the rhythms and colours of traditional musics and Oriental and European sounds. This album is the result of all the meetings and reading that have inspired me. It is an open letter.”
3. Ojos de Brujo - Sultanas De Merkaillo (Europe)
This Barcelona based collective are at the forefront of a rich new wave of Spanish music. Popular winners of R3 AWM Europe category in 2003, this is their third nomination. Ojos de Brujo - Eyes of The Wizard - are a band of musical alchemists inspired by gypsy culture. Their unique magic is a potent blend of Catalan rhythms and melodies underpinned by flamenco and palmas, hip-hop, tabla and rumba.
4. Lo'jo - Un Grand Voyage (Europe)
Lo'jo are one of the pioneers of the global fusion movement in France and have a big-eared approach to their music. They are the musical wing of a community of poets, musicians, painters and street performers based in Angers and their music is rooted in chanson, street theatre and circus, and embraces the music of Europe, North and West Africa along with funk and dub. At the centre of this unique collective is the eccentric, gravel-voiced lyricist, Denis Pean, and the harmonies of the multi-instrumentalist Nid El Mourid sisters. Along with Touareg band Tinariwen, Lo’jo were a driving force in the creation of the Festival In The Desert in Mali.
5. Debashish Bhattacharya – Aanandam (Asia/Pacific)
Born into a musical dynasty, Debashish is of the gharana, or ‘school’, of Indian musical tradition that originated in Gwailor. He spent 10 years studying with the pioneer of Indian slide guitar, Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra and has created 3 new types of slide guitar; the 22 string Chaturangi, the 14 string Ghandarvi and the 4 string Anandi, a type of slide ukulele. His ambition to serve as the bridge between raga's past and future is illustrated on his innovative new release ‘Calcutta Slide Guitar’.
6. Ali Farka Touré – Penda Yoro (Africa / Album Of The Year)
‘Savane’ is the posthumous release from Ali Farka Toure, an outstanding album that he believed was his best work. Ali believed that Mali was the home of the blues and when he first heard the U.S. blues man John Lee Hooker, he was convinced that 'this music has been taken from here'. He won two Grammys, the first in 1994 for ‘Talking Timbuktu’, his recording with Ry Cooder and the second for his scintillating release with Kora maestro Toumani Diabaté. The charismatic farmer and mayor of his beloved home of Niafunke, Mali, was one of the first superstars of World Music.
7. Yasmin Levy – Locura (Madness) (Mid. East & N. Africa)
Ladino is the virtually extinct Judeo-Spanish language of the Sephardim who lived in Spain until expelled by the Spanish Inquisition in 1492. Yasmin’s mother Kochava is an internationally renowned singer from Jerusalem and her father, Yitzhak Levy, is a leading ethnomusicologist and collector of Ladino songs; typically songs of longing, remembrance and hope. A classically trained pianist, Yasmin is blessed with a voice that moves even the most cynical of listeners as she sings age-old Ladino songs over the traditional instrumentation of the Sephardic Jews - oud, violin, cello and darbuka.
8. Maurice el Médioni meets Roberto Rodriguez – Oh! Ma Belle (Culture Crossing)
The pairing of a 77 year-old Jewish-Algerian pianist and a much younger Cuban American percussionist seems an unlikely combination, but Maurice El Médioni and Roberto Rodriguez have parallel life stories. Self taught, Maurice was born in the port city of Oran and was exposed to the jazz, boogie-woogie and Latin music brought in by the American soldiers during World War II. Roberto Rodriguez was born in Cuba but left as a child for Miami, where he discovered Jewish music, playing percussion in his father’s band that performed at bar mitzvahs. The album ‘Descarga Oriental’ is a delightful reflection of their combined musical stories.
9. Mariza – Primavera (Live) (Europe)
The Mozambican-born singer and style icon is a past winner of these awards; such is her popularity, unique talent and stunning appearance she has been nominated 3 times and brought Fado, the ‘Portuguese Blues’, centre-stage. Mariza is reshaping Fado by adding new instrumentation and rhythms to traditional arrangements that rekindle Fado’s links with Brazil. Her album ‘Concerto em Lisboa’ is evidence of an artist at the height of her career and has been hailed as one of the finest live albums ever produced. Recorded in front of an audience of 20,000, it has a vibrant sensual intimacy.
10. Sara Tavares – Balancê (Newcomer)
The roots of ‘Balancê’ are in Cape Verde, the home of her parents and the island that produced Cesaria Evora, 70's group Tavares, and Lura who was nominated for 2006 awards. Sara was born in Lisbon and is spearheading a talented generation of Afro-Portuguese who are finding their voice and identity in the diaspora. “Balancê is about taking life with a swing…balancing my history, my heritage, my daily life and my future, balancing emotion in my heart – the tears and the joy.” Balancê has earned her a gold record in Portugal.
11. Bellowhead – Jordan (Album Of The Year) The Spiers and Boden led eleven-piece group is one of the most exciting English traditional bands around. Jon Boden is a fine fiddle player and the lead singer, blessed with a voice that is acknowledged as one of the best of his generation. John Spiers, steeped in folk music from early childhood, is an exhilarating squeeze-box player with a constantly evolving style. Their music is big, brash and beautiful, a little funky and at times a touch sinister. In just three years they have burst on to the festival scene and, in 2007, won two awards at the BBC Folk Awards which they added to a previous award won in 2005.
12. Dadawa - In The Setting Of The Sun (Asia / Pacific)
Winning a TV talent show launched Dadawa on her musical career but she is perhaps best-known on the world music scene due to her collaboration with Irish folk legends the Chieftans. Born in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, Dadawa has been dogged with controversy over her use of Tibetan folk music as the basis of her experimental recordings. Her latest recording ‘Seven Days’ focuses on Chinese folk melodies set to beautiful orchestral arrangements by her mentor, collaborator and producer He Xunyou.
13 Ghada Shbeir - Kom Bina Hana Al Humaya (Mid. East & N. Africa)
Al Muwashahat is poetic song first heard in Southern Spain back in the 10th century when the country was under Arab rule but today is dying out in its pure form. Ghada, a gifted singer and ethno-musicologist, is determined to bring it back to public attention. She is the author of 2 books on this Arabo - Andalusian singing tradition and is a leading authority on ancient Assyrian and Maronite chants. Ghada won first prize in the Third World Festival Of Arabic Music in 1997, and now appears frequently at festivals and conventions all over the world.
14. Etran Finatawa – Surbajo (Newcomer) Etran Finatawa from Niger are in fact two bands who first came together at the ‘Festival in the Desert’ in Mali. Etran N’Guefan (‘the Stars of the Dunes’) played with the groundbreaking Wodaabe performance group, Finatawa, in 2004 and the result was so successful they decided to join forces permanently. Together they mix the rich heritage of North African and sub–Saharan traditions in an irresistible blend of traditional instruments, electric guitars and mesmerising polyphonic drum and clapping arrangements.
15. Gotan Project – Celos (Club Global) (Philippe Cohen Solal / Eduardo Makaroff / Christoph H. Mueller) Science & Mélodie (P) 2006 XL Recordings under exclusive license from Ya Basta ! / Science & Mélodie Taken from the album ‘Lunatico’ Licensed courtesy of XL Recordings Limited www.xlrecordings.com Gotan's 2003 award-winning million-seller, ‘La Revanche del Tango’ is generally acknowledged as a modern classic. The combination of the collective's groundbreaking live shows and their winning formula of melding tango with Jamaican dub, unleashed tango into club-land and our living rooms. They’ve revitalised tango and sparked a worldwide ‘electro tango’ movement. Philippe Cohen Solal, Eduardo Makaroff and Christoph H. Muller, joined by top Argentinian musicians that include Gustavo Beytelmann and bandoneon player Nini Flores, take the latest release ‘Lunatico’ deeper, delving into the roots to create an earthier tango.
16. Anoushka Shankar – Naked (Asia/Pacific) From one of the most highly successful musical families in the world, Anoushka is half-sister to Nora Jones and daughter of Ravi Shankar who took charge of her classical sitar training when she was 9 years old. Thus steeped in the classical music traditions of India, Anoushka is also an accomplished singer and piano player. She embraces new musical genres and ‘Rise’ is a self-written and produced album that reflects her desire to explore and create her own musical ideas.
| MP3 VBR kbps | Front Cover | 205 MB |
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BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music 2003
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