Fromthe Hearts of the Masters is the meeting between two undisputed masters of their instruments, Foday Musa Suso (innovator and master griot of the kora), and Jack De Johnette, one of the best drummers today, creating a sublime game and an exciting experience for the ears thanks to the inspired improvised dialogue between drums and kora.

As a conductor, songwriter and drummer, Jack De Johnette has collaborated with some of the most recognizable and innovative musicians of our time, including the likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Carlos Santana, Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock and Path Metheny.

Regarded as one of the greatest jazz drummers, De Johnette, originally influenced by such masters as Miles Davis and John Coltrane, has delved into sources beyond jazz. A restless artist, never willing to stay established in a line to be labeled, he has described his work as "multi-directional music" for more than thirty years.

Foday Musa Suso is an internationally recognized musician and griotmandingo (musician / oral historian of the Mandingo people), born in Gambia. Suso grew up in a society where griots function as "walking libraries," singing his stories for the community while providing history, wisdom, and entertainment.

Besides his virtuosity with the kora and singing, Suso is also a percussionist and composer. After years of rigorous study in his homeland, he settled in Chicago in the 1970s. Since then he has performed throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Interested in traditional and innovative languages, Suso has traveled and recorded with a variety of prominent musicians, including Herbie Hancock, Philip Glass, Pharoah Sanders, Ginger Baker, and Medeski, Martin and Wood. Suso is considered a musical pioneer, giving a new dimension to the traditional and spiritual aspect of the kora with the use of new technologies.

The first meeting between De Johnette and Susofué behind the scenes of a Philip Glass concert at London's Festival Hall, where they decided to work together, with Suso arriving in New York in January 2002. As De Johnette points out, "there was an immediate chemistry" . The duo spent four days in the studio, including two days of rehearsals and tests. In these short but intense sessions, Fromthe Hearts of the Masters was created, being the first edition (in 2006) of Jack De Johnette's new record label, Golden Beams. In Suso's own words, "everything we play together is like we've been doing it for thirty years or more ... whatever song Jack performs he gives rhythms that work like magic."

From the Hearts of the Masters contains deep sounds and hypnotic passages of inspired improvisation through the dialogue of the instruments. Once the melodies are established, the artists rise above them, providing a totally different dimension to this unconventional pairing of kora and drums, transcending labels. Two masters who create a sublime game, De Johnette's drums as the perfect complement to Suso's virtuous performance on the kora. 

Tracks list:

01. ocean wave

02. ancient techno

03. rose garden

04. worldwide funk

05. kaira

06. mountain love dance

07. party

08. voice of the kudrus

09. sunjattakeita

Strut presents the brand new album from cosmic jazz travellers The

Pyramids, led by saxophonist Idris Ackamoor, ’An Angel Fell’. “I wanted to use folklore, fantasy and drama as a warning bell,” explains Ackamoor.

“The songs explore global themes that are important to me and to us all: the rise of catastrophic climate change and our lack of concern for our planet, loss of innocence and separation... but positive themes too, the healing power of music, collective action and the simple beauty of nature.”

Produced by Malcolm Catto of The Heliocentrics, the album was recorded during an intense week at Quatermass studios in London and is one of the deepest, richest works yet from a band reaching their highest creative peak since the early ’70s. Some of the many highlights include the poignant title track depicting a fallen angel in purgatory, outrage and grief on the powerful, hard hitting ‘Soliloquy For Michael Brown’ and the lilting, beautiful album closer, ‘Sunset’.

The Pyramids originally came together in 1972 at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio where teachers included renowned pianist, Cecil Taylor.

After forming in Paris and embarking on a “cultural odyssey” across Africa, the group recorded three independent albums, ‘Lalibela’ (1973), ‘King Of Kings’ (1974) and ‘Birth / Speed / Merging’ (1976) and became renowned for their striking live shows, mixing percussive, spiritual and space-age jazz with performance theatre and dance. After migrating to San Francisco, they disbanded in 1977. 35 years later, the band reunited in 2012 following growing demand for their music from vinyl collectors.

German label Disko B released the freeform album ‘Otherwordly’ and in 2016, they released their first album for Strut, the acclaimed ‘We Be All Africans’.

Musicians:

Idris Ackamoor: Tenor Saxophone, Keytar, Lead Vocals

Sandra Poindexter: Violins, Lead Vocals


David Molina: Guitar, Effect pedals, Vocals


Skyler Stover: Double Bass, Vocals


Bradie Speller: Congas, Handsonic, Vocals


Johann Polzer: Drums

Album cover - top right

Artwork by Lewis Heriz.

1. Tinoge 06:59

2. An Angel Fell 08:37

3. Land Of Ra 09:25

4. Papyrus 07:41

5. Soliloquy For Michael Brown 09:21

6. Message To My People 07:48

7. Warrior Dance 11:10

8. Sunset 06:32

ÁFRICA, HAVABA, PARIS. Ricardo lemvo y Makina Loca

RAMPA RUMBA. Salsamania

FATAL MAMBO. Problema

CAMPANERO. Orquesta del Sol

TI DJO’ . Malavoi

SI (OH OH). Beethova Obas

EL CUALQUIER CLAVE. Nueva Manteca

PAQUITA. African fiesta

OYE MI ISRAEL. Jerusalem Salsa Band

NO VOLVERÉ. Bago

MI RUMBA ESTA BUENA. Hot Salsa

Hadouk is a play on words composed of hajhouj, African bass and Doudouk, Armenian oboe Hadouk Trio is a band like no other, founded by three adventurous poets and musicians, they show us charming nomad music, the spiritual and joyful light of Didier Malherbe (ex-Gong) master of the winds, Clarinettes, sax, flutes, ocarinas and the hajhouj, of course with the talent and grace of Steve Shehan the drum master plays both sticks and bare hands, as if he could talk to his team, lots of exotic percussion too. LoyEhrlich plays strings and keyboards, but also hajhouj, kora. the band has been 10 years without ever losing their faith in melodic experimentation of all kinds. Adding ethnic instruments to your sound (khen, Lao mouth organ, gumbass) mixes just the necessary amount of electronic sounds to your ethno-jazz. This album shows a serene and relaxed side of the band that on their previous recordings, it was also the perfect opportunity to invite a fourth man, pioneer in experimentation, Mr. John Hassel (trumpet), whom we heard on all three tracks. closing of this album, adding a bit more to the already exciting eclectic music of The Hadouk Trio. 

Recorded live at Les Cabaret Sauvages on 22 and 23 May 2007.

Loy Ehrlich - Bass [Gumbass, Hajouj], Kora, Keyboards

Steve Shehan - Djembe, Congas, Tom Tom, Goblet Drum [Derbouka], Shaker, Percussion [Calebasse], Waterphone, Drums [Daf, Hang], Electronic Drums [Handsonic], Cymbal, Bells, Musical Bow

Didier Malherbe - Duduk, Flute, Khene, Performer [Toupies], Ocarina 

Gardens of Eden, edited by Putumayo in 2001, is a collection of music whose common theme revolves around places considered "earthly paradises" and the sounds of acoustic guitar, ukulele, African kora, Polynesian rhythms, tabla india and the sitar. An idyllic journey through the rhythms of the lands of Eden. 

Tracks list:

01. Telek - Midal [Papua New Guinea]

02. Eric Manana - Tsara NY Miran'ny Taniko [Madagascar]

03. Ana Rita Simonka - Mais Filhos de Gandhi [Brazil]

04. Baba Djan - Makola [Guinea]

05. Shweta Jhaveri - To a Beloved [India]

06. Barefoot - Arica [Big Sur]

07. Regional Vermelho E Branco - Conori [Brazil]

08. Guadalupe Urbina - País Azul [Costa Rica]

09. Te Vaka - Tautai E [New Zealand]

10. Keola Beamer - Elepaio Slack Key [Hawaii]

11. Yungchen Lhamo - Happiness Is... [Tibet]

Candeal's miracle has its origin in a true story: that of Carlinhos Brown, who was born and raised in a neighborhood of Salvador de Bahia, and who today is an international music star. The artist has invested his time and money in trying to eradicate poverty and violence in Candeal. With the help of music he has made extraordinary advances in these aspects, developing community projects to improve the quality of life in the community, among others, the Pracatum Popular Music School (which provides young people in the neighborhood with a professional outlet) . Carlinhos and the Pracatum Association have made Candeal the most developed and peaceful community in Brazil.

Twenty years of efforts have been necessary to make Candeal a human and habitable place, calm and without weapons. Two decades to rehabilitate the neighborhood, put sewers, paint houses, minimize disease and eliminate infant mortality. For this work, Carlinhos Brown was awarded by UNESCO in 2002.

On his side, the film director Fernando Trueba shot a film inspired by the story of Carlinhos Brown and the Candeal community entitled El milagro de Candeal. Along with Carlinhos Brown, the singer and composer Gilberto Gil, CaetanoVeloso (creator with Gil of the tropicalista movement that revolutionized Brazilian music), Marisa Monte (from Tribalistas) and the great Bebo Valdés, who meets his sister music, participate in the film. from Salvador de Bahía and that is where he believes that the music, culture and religion of his African ancestors has been preserved in a purest way.

Today, Candeal is an active cell of creativity and musical agitation. The relationship of educational centers, musicians, groups and auditoriums that meet today in Candeal is extremely intense.

According to Carlinhos Brown, "Revolution destroys, evolution builds. Candeal is the construction of meaning, of gentleness, of goodness. We do not want paternalism, we want social emergency. Food or learning to plant? Learn and pass the knowledge so that all take advantage of them. Humanity needs to dance together, dance forever. " Fernando Trueba states that Carlinhos has a highly developed sense of responsibility towards his community. He knows that he is an example for many boys and tries to distribute that responsibility so that Candeal is not just him. Children are also essential protagonists of El milagro de Candeal, always present in the music classrooms, in the streets playing percussion, in the talks in which Carlinhos Brown teaches them that percussion is at the origin of life and that even the smallest, the most insignificant is used to make and live music.

Trueba believes that when you see Candeal's childhood, there is something inside you that changes you. The Spanish filmmaker believes that "the people of Candeal are richer than those of many other places. I would like El milagro de Candeal to contribute to publicizing a community that seems exemplary to me. that they have already achieved. Because it teaches us by example that the world can be improved. "

Also the neighborhood of Candeal teaches us that perfect coexistence between ancestral traditions and modernity that occurs in the favela of Bahia. Candeal's miracle is the visual demonstration that through music violence and poverty can be overcome. Candeal is the living and current example of this possibility. But, above all, it is a hymn to hope and to music as a possibility to improve people's lives. To creation, generosity and illusion as an alternative to destruction, selfishness and disenchantment. The miracle of Candeal reveals to us that it is still possible to trust in a more supportive and better world. That there are people fighting for their paradise now. 

Tracks list:

01. SilêncioD´Allah (Bilú do Paraíso)

02. Aldeia (Carlinhos Brown)

03. Blenblenblen (Carlinhos Brown y la Banda del Camarote Andante / Bebo Valdés)

04. Carlito marrón (Carlinhos Brown)

05. Zambiemameto (Carlinhos Brown / Mateus)

06. Candeal de Santo Antônio (Carlinhos Brown)

07. Músico (Carlinhos Brown / Marisa Monte / Bebo Valdés)

08. Faixa de cetim (CaetanoVeloso)

09. Agogô Valdés (Carlinhos Brown y Bebo Valdés)

10. Serenata aoLuar (Carlinhos Brown y la Banda del Camarote Andante)

11. Misericórdia (Mateus)

12. Ashansu (Carlinhos Brown y Banda Timbalada)

13. Pintado e sua gente (Carlinhos Brown)

14. Sal de Yemanjá (Hip Hop Roots)

15. Carnaval medley: Blenblenblen / Carnavália / Faraó / Toda paz / Serpente e serpentina (Carlinhos Brown y la Banda del Camarote Andante)

Ibimeni - Garifuna traditional music from Guatemala

Sub Rosa SR 273 - 2008

Tracks:

01. Wadabuaguei marine snail trumpet call 0'50

02. Aguhuya nidugueñu / my family has gone / hüngünhügü 2'50

03. Vinu niguirayali / i'll quit liquor / parranda with guitar 4'31

04. Chagachaga / pororo 4'55

05. Nunsu garifunaou /spoken word 0'49

06. Adari labugana / Livingston boyfriend / parranda 2'14

07. Ahurahali wadunari / the water has boiled / chumba 3'00

08. Wala diru lumala / the cricket has sung / abeimahanei 4'13

09. Came beyedana / why did you lie to me ? / punta 3'34

10. Tari edna golu / Edna's gold tooth / pororo 4'08

11. Chülüya ñunsu / news have arrived / hüngünhügü 4'09

12. Wasanriaha / union / religious chant 2'26

13. Nati Conde / brother Conde / punta rock 3'10

14. Baroumuga / sleep / lullaby 2'18

15. Lidan misiñeba / when someone doesn't love you / parranda with guitar 3'03

16. Monderubadina hama hara / i won't join them / parranda 4'18

17. Laguñeda / it's getting dark / wanaragua 3'14

18. Dodo Fafa / sleep Fafa / lullaby 1'03

19. San Francisco / processional march 2'34

20. Naluwahañadibu inina / i'm looking for you / abeimahanei 4'01

21. Bonus track / Wanaragua 2'47

·IBIMENI: Garifuna traditional music from Guatemala (Sub Rosa 2009) 

“Ibimeni”, a term associated with childhood and youth, means “honey” or “sweetness” in Garifuna.  “Ibimeni” is also the name of a group of Garifuna musicians and dancers from Livingston, Guatemala, who interpret their traditional sounds in this album. This collection includes lullabies, festive chants, processional marches, and songs of religion and labor.

Livingston is a small region located on the Caribbean coast at the river mouth of Rio Dulce, Guatemala.  It is accessible only by boat or plane. This isolation allows the conservation of many cultural elements, such as music and dance. 

A few vinyl copies of these rare recordings were released in Guatemala, and are nearly impossible to obtain today. Since these songs were recorded back in 1990, the music of the Garifuna people has undergone popularization and is now being performed in concert hall settings. Ibimeni returns the music to the villages and beaches of the Caribbean where it originated and gives you an opportunity to hear it the way it has been sung and played for the last two hundred years.

Like all good field recordings this one has created a record of a sound and preserved it for future generations. 

***

The Garifuna musicians & dancers from Livingston, Guatemala. Ibimeni a term associated with childhood and youth, means honey or sweetness in Garifuna. Ibimeni is also the name of a group of Garifuna musicians and dancers from Livingston, Guatemala, who interpret their traditional sounds in this album. This collection includes lullabies, festive chants, processional marches, and songs of religion and labor. Livingston is a small region located on the Caribbean coast at the river mouth of Rio Dulce, Guatemala. it is accessible only by boat or airplane. this isolation allows the conservation of many cultural elements, such as music and dance.

Ethnogenesis and location of Garinagu

A series of villages inhabited by the Garifuna (plural, Garinagu) are located throughout the coasts of the Gulf of Honduras, (Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and the Laguna de Perlas -Nicaragua-). The Garinagu are the afro-amerindian people with the most transnational presence in Central America. With a particular ethnogenesis, produced by the encounter of Caribs and Arawaks in the Lesser Antilles, they remained throughout the conquest period, due to the race mixing with black slaves. Constituted as "Maroons", as a clear resistance against the English, they were the protagonists of the so called "Caribbean war" during 1795 and 1796 in Saint Vincent Island, from where they were defeated and later deported to Central America in April 1797. After being abandoned in Roatán (Bay islands) soon they negotiated with the Spanish crown to be transferred to Puerto Trujillo, in continental lands, where they started to scatter to the east and west. They established their own lands through the edge of the coast of the Honduras Gulf. Halfway through the twentieth century they began their migration to the United States. Today it is hard to explain and understand the configuration of social and cultural relations of Garinagu without incorporating the relationship that they hold with their ancestors.

Garifuna's music and the dancing expressions

Music and dancing -vehicles of religiosity- are central in the Garifuna culture. This musical expression is based on the group of two, three, and even four drums "garaon" (primera -the high pitched- and segunda -the lowest-) and sonajas "sisiras" that interpret rhythms accompanied by a solo singer and a choir that repeats a verse. The relationship between the primera drum-rolls and the dancer is that the dancer responds to the movements made by the drum as if it was a dialogue.

Jointly to the polyrhythmic universe of Garifuna drums, they cultivate another intense field of musical expressions that plays an important role in society, most of the time of ludic and recreational character.

PRESS / CARIBBEAN: REVIEWS

AN AWAKENED INTEREST IN THE UNIQUE MUSIC OF A SMALL CENTRAL AMERICAN COMMUNITY HAS LED TO THIS FASCINATING RE-RELEASE OF TRADITIONAL GARIFUNA MUSIC FROM THE GULF OF HONDURAS

The late lamented Andy Palacio and producer Ivan Duran are the men to thank for bringing a sensitively rendered modernity to the music of a people who are spread over Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize as a result of their ancestors' deportation over a century ago from St Vincent in the Caribbean, from which they'd arrived via a 17th Century slave ship which crashed off the coast of the island. The Duran-produced releases Watina and Umalali (on the Cumbancha label) were based on the Garifuna songs of Palacio's home country of Belize, and the roots of that music is laid bare here in the traditional songs of neighbouring Guatemala.

The whole range of Garifuna music is here - to the now familiar raw, appealingly off-centre female call-and-response vocals and loping reggae-lite rhythms, are added rocking horn-led "bandas" songs, deeply expressive liturgical mantras (there's a strong thread of Catholicism amongst the Garifuna people) and oodles and oodles of polyrhythmic dance music, the West Africa-meets-Caribbean-mento punta style being the most common.

There isn't as much acoustic guitar on Ibimeni as there is on Watina (although when it arrives, it's usually twanging good fun) but apart from that, you can draw a direct line between this and those acclaimed albums.

It's tuneful, rhythmic, life-affirming stuff and redolent of the unique Afro-Amerindian culture in which it is steeped. If you're sufficiently intrigued by the Cumbancha albums to want to seek out their rawer antecedents, here it is in all its raw, rootsy glory, a recording to make the late great Andy Palacio proud to have opened the door to its release.

Con Murphy

Sunday 30 November 2008

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It’s no secret that regions of Central and South America have intact, ethnic minority groups, people whose ancestors have no connection to Spain and who often find themselves tucked away in sections of the landscapes where travel is rugged or where a body of water drapes a barrier. Because such places as Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Belize share Caribbean coastline, it’s only natural that those populations reflect influence from the African diaspora found in that sea’s island chain. Musically, Costa Rica’s main port, Limon, is known for its own take on Calypso. Panama is a patch quilt of Cumbias, funk and the local, African-influenced tindin. Yet, the 500,000 or so Garifuna minorities stretched from Belize all the way into Nicaragua’s Laguna de Perlas have managed to keep their culture, which arose out of native Caribs mixing with slaves who escaped due to shipwreck or mutiny. They even managed to sustain a mass exodus at the end of the 18th century, when the British drove them out of the Lower Antilles and up into Honduras, where they soon spread out.

The recordings here focus on a traditional music and dance troupe known as Ibimeni, which means "sweetness" in Garifuna, the people who live in Livingston, Guatemala in that country’s small chunk of Caribbean coastline. Recorded in 1990 by ethnomusicologist Alfonso Arrivillaga Cortes, the selections on this disc don’t so much show further proof of West African influence on "Latin" music as they paint an audio portrait of a little known folk music, unbroken, full of fire and incredibly diverse. Perhaps so much of the intensity here is due to the centrality of music to Garifuna culture. Whatever the case, this is without question some of the most infectious music of any kind to be released this year.

By and large, this is vocal and drum music, though horns, guitar and the "marine snail trumpet" also make appearances. The vocals are often choral, with plenty of call and response, not unlike the troupes that populate Southeast Ghana, Togo and Benin, where so much of this music originated. Their voices are slightly nasal and take on a modal spookiness (especially when the guitar appears) that can’t help but place them in Latin America. But there is plenty of room for drones, too. The opening track is a solo, snail trumpet call. "Wala Diru Lamala," or "The Cricket has Sung," is a multi-voiced a capella performance that contains the same monolithic intensity of an old lining hymn from an east Kentucky church. Perhaps the disc’s most gorgeous moment comes in the form of a lullaby. Voices hum in unison, mapping out the melody and tempo before turning to lyrics. It’s as much a call to peace as it is a sedative for the troubled mind.

By Bruce Miller

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Music Review: Various Artists – Ibimeni: Garifuna Traditional Music from Guatemala

Posted by: Richard Marcus November 21, 2008

Music ethnologists have traveled around the world since the days when wax cylinders were the height of recording technology, collecting examples of music from various cultures. In some instances these recordings have become not only research projects, but records of traditions heading for extinction. Buried in the archives of universities and museums are sound files of everything from Native American healing songs to chants and ritual music from Southern Africa. European encroachment into indigenous peoples' lives and lands and colonial policies of cultural genocide and enforced assimilation ensured that those ancient songs would not be passed along to a new generation and these recordings are all that remains of thousands of years of tradition.

Ironically as technology improved to allow better quality recordings, fewer and fewer cultures remained to be recorded. These field recording techniques have been used in recent years to ensure music that grew out of early North American European and slave cultures is being preserved. While in the United States that has included songs that are as contemporary as the 1930s, in other parts of our hemisphere some of these traditions date back to the 17th century and represent a mingling of imported and native cultures.

Sometime in the 1600s two ships carrying African slaves from Nigeria were shipwrecked off the coast of St. Vincent Island in the Caribbean, then occupied by two tribes of indigenous peoples – the Arawars and the Kalipuna – called the Caribs by Spanish explorers. Initially there was conflict between the escaped slaves and the natives but eventually they settled their differences, intermarried and created a third people who are now called Garifuna. As colonial masters changed the Garifuna were rounded up by the British to be moved to Roatán, an island off the coast of Honduras. When that in turn was taken from the British by the Spanish, the people were moved again, this time to Trujillo to serve as labourers and farmers.

Garafuna Band.jpgIn 1802 the Spanish shipped some of the people living in Tujillo to Belize to work as woodcutters where they established communities, and gradually more of their people joined them. When Central America achieved independence from Spain, the Garifuna remaining in Tujillo discovered they were now living in Honduras and loyalty to Spain wasn't something their countrymen approved of. This resulted in the mass migration of the people to the communities already established on the coast of Belize.

In spite of their rather harried early existence the Garifuna developed a culture unique to them which emphasizes music, dance, and storytelling and a religion combining Catholicism with African and native beliefs. While many cultures have evolved traditions of dance, music and storytelling, the Garifuna have combined the three elements and refined them significantly so that the music, song, and dance work together to tell various stories. In 1990 Alfonso Arrivillaga Cortes and Byron Sosa visited Garifuna living in Livingston Guatemala to make field recordings, and the results can be heard on a new Sub Rosa release called Ibimeni. The music on this CD was not performed in order to recreate something vanished into the mists of history and barely remembered, it's the sound of a living culture that has somehow survived many hardships and been able to resist assimilation into "civilization".

The rather extensive liner notes break down the different rhythms used in Garifuna music, what they signify, and how they are performed. A group of up to four drums – referred to as garaon, made up of primera (high-pitched) and segunda (low-pitched) instruments – is accompanied by both a solo vocalist and a choir. While the soloist "tells" the story in song, the choir provides emphasis through repitition. Meanwhile dancers respond to the sounds created by the primera to enact the story. Unlike most dances where the dancers become an extension of the rhythm, here they reacting to what the drum "says" as if they were taking part in a conversation.

There are three types of rhythm basic to the music of the Garifuna people: punta, the most common, is used for secular events and some festive occasions; hunguhugu is used specifically for rituals associated with the cult of the ancestors known as Chugu and is accompanied by chants known as Abeimahani; and finally wanaragua is used specifically for a dance that recreates the peoples' battles with the English and is only performed on holidays like Christmas, New Year's Eve and Day, and the Epiphany. Unlike the other dances this is the only one with specific steps and costumes for the dancers, including shell rattles hung from the dancer's knees.

Garifuna Dance.jpgDrums and percussion instruments predominate in the music, and one of the things that struck me most about the music were the similarities with the drumming I've come to associate with Native North Americans. In one religious song, "Wasanriaha", the combination of voices and drums is eerily reminiscent of the sound of a pow-wow drum: a steady heartbeat rhythm accompanied by voices singing near-falsetto chants. Although this is fairly common among the various nations of midwestern North America and has now been adapted by most nations for their pow-wow gatherings, this marked the first time I've heard that distinct combination used by people outside of North America.

During this record you occasionally hear the sound of something called a "marine small trumpet." There's something quite spine-tingling and mournful to the sound, recalling some combination of a conch shell and the sound of a very distant foghorn in the earliest part of the morning. I did notice that its only used in certain puntas and it seemed to depend on the theme. The disc opens with a song that featuring this instrument and the liner notes say the song is known as a "call", and while I don't know what it was originally meant to call, it sounded to me like it was trying to call the day out of the ocean after a particularly foggy night. However, that's probably more my imagination than reality, because if you look at the majority of the song titles – "The Water Has Boiled", "It's Getting Dark", and "Edna's Gold Tooth" – you realize that their music is primarily concerned with day-to-day life:

Like the rhythms, there are also names for the different types of songs and instrumentals performed. Los arruloos (lullabies) and los alabados (Catholic liturgical music) are the two major song types heard on the album. The three instrumental forms are known as la parranda, las bandas, and el pororo and refer to which instruments are performed. The exception is the pororo, as it also refers to a specific type of music played for festivals associated with the Virgin of Guadalupe. "Edna's Gold Tooth", a pororo, is played by a band with high and low drums, the marine snail trumpet, turtle shells (used as a percussion instrument), cymbals, and other drums and follows a beat similar to what you'd hear during Mardi Gras celebrations.

All this description makes the music incredibly structured, but you'd never know listening to it. While there are distinct patterns that the music follows, there is also a wonderful amount of energy and passion expressed by the singers, so even songs from the same grouping don't necessarily sound alike. I only wish there was some way that the dancers could have been incorporated and the recording presented as a DVD so we could experience the material to its fullest.

Since these songs were recorded back in 1990, the music of the Garifuna people has undergone popularization and is now being performed in concert hall settings. Ibimeni returns the music to the villages and beaches of the Caribbean where it originated and gives you an opportunity to hear it the way it has been sung and played for the last two hundred years. Like all good field recordings this one has created a record of a sound and preserved it for future generations. Culture has to evolve in order to survive, but its origins should never be forgotten. Recordings like this one ensure that no matter what happens history won't be washed away by the tide of change. 

http://richardrbmarcus.com/2008/11/music_review_various_musicians.html

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Vivid documents of the music indigenous to the Garifuna community, recorded live in the field by ethnomusicologist Alfonso Arrivillaga Cortes in 1990. "Ibimeni a term associated with childhood and youth, meaning honey or sweetness in Garifuna. Ibimeni is also the name of a group of Garifuna musicians and dancers from Livingston, Guatemala, who interpret their traditional sounds in this album. this collection includes lullabies, festive chants, processional marches, and songs of religion and labor. Livingston is a small region located on the Caribbean coast at the river mouth of Rio Dulce, Guatemala. it is accessible only by boat or airplane. This isolation allows the conservation of many cultural elements, such as music and dance."

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Wanaragua More info:

Garifuna musicians and dancers from Livingston, Guatemala. Ibimeni, a term associated with childhood and youth, means honey or sweetness in Garifuna. Ibimeni is also the name of a group of Garifuna musicians and dancers from Livingston, Guatemala, who interpret their traditional sounds on this album. This collection includes lullabies, festive chants, processional marches, and songs of religion and labor. Livingston is a small region located on the Caribbean coast at the mouth of Rio Dulce, Guatemala. It is accessible only by boat or airplane. This isolation allows the conservation of many cultural elements, such as music and dance. Ethnogenesis and location of Garinagu: A series of villages inhabited by the Garifuna (plural, Garinagu) are located throughout the coasts of the Gulf of Honduras, (Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and the Laguna de Perlas -- Nicaragua). The Garinagu are the Afro-Amerindian people with the most transnational presence in Central America. With a particular ethnogenesis, produced by the encounter of Caribs and Arawaks in the Lesser Antilles, they remained throughout the conquest period, due to race-mixing with black slaves. Constituted as "Maroons," as a clear resistance against the English, they were the protagonists of the so-called "Caribbean War" during 1795 and 1796 in Saint Vincent Island, from where they were defeated and later deported to Central America in April 1797. After being abandoned in Roatán (Bay Islands), they negotiated with the Spanish crown to be transferred to Puerto Trujillo, in continental lands, where they started to scatter to the east and west. They established their own lands on the edge of the coast of the Honduras Gulf. Halfway through the 20th century, they began their migration to the United States. Music and dancing -- vehicles of religiosity -- are central in the Garifuna culture. This musical expression is based on the group of two, three, and even four drums, garaon (primera -- the high pitched and segunda -- the lowest), and sonajas sisiras that interpret rhythms accompanied by a solo singer and a choir that repeats a verse. The relationship between the primera drum-rolls and the dancer is that the dancer responds to the movements made by the drum as if it were a dialogue. In tandem to the polyrhythmic universe of Garifuna drums, they cultivate another intense field of musical expressions that plays an important role in society, most of the time of ludic and recreational character. 

Ba Cissoko is the leader who gives its name to this formation that, with the kora as the protagonist (that ancient African stringed instrument), seduces the audience with traditional resonances mixed with rhythms from jazz, reggae, electronic, blues and rock.

Originally from Guinea and based in Marseille, the sound of this band created in 1999 has been described as "the meeting between Jimi Hendrix and East Africa". Made up of four members, Kimintan "Ba" Cissoko and Sékou Kouyaté do the vocals and play the kora; Ibrahima "Bah" Kounkouré and Ibrahima KourouKouyaté, percussion and bass respectively, and Abdoulaye Kouyaté accompany them with their virtuosity on guitar.

Descendants of Griot families (those African troubadours who carry the profound wisdom and oral tradition of a continent whose memory remains registered in the throats of its artists and elders), they start from the Mandingo tradition building a proposal based on the hypnotic acrobatics of the kora, the sensuality of fresh and catchy percussions and lyrics in French, English, Malinké or Susu that speak of the importance of recovering their cultural heritage and modernizing it at the same time. Seno, released in 2009, is their third album, where Latin influences, reggae, progressive rock, Afro-pop and blues are masterfully absorbed. 

Tracks list:

01. Séno

02. Badinia

03. Bambo

04. Yadou

05. Conakry

06. Africa Dance

07. Chauffeur Taxi

08. Nina

09. Tamo

10. Gambie

11. Music

12. Soumou

In the spring of 1991, Dr. John and Newman hosted this second Bluesiana session, featuring trombonist Ray Anderson, drummer Will Calhoun, bassists Essiet Okon Essiet and Jay Leonhart (on different tracks), and percussionist Joe Bonadio. The resulting music again justifies the name, the blues are played in a funky Louisiana style with plenty of room for an extended jazz solo. Although much of the material was written by Dr. John and he sings occasionally, this is not a conventional Dr. John vocal album. However, it does contain some great themes. 

Bluesiana Triangle II (1991)

01. Fonkalishus (5:59)

02. Doctor Blooze (3:33)

03. Cowan Woman (6:51)

04. For Art's Sake (8:13)

05. Skoshuss (5:19)

06. Love's Parody (3:30)

07. Santa Rosalia (5:33)

08. San Antone (4:30)

09. Montana Banana (5:30)

10. Tribute to Art (6:52) 

Boat mechanic on Lake Congo, inevitable crooner of the African scene, author of hits that have marked the history of African music, inventor of Congolese rumba, Banaya Papa Wendo was WendoKolosoy's last recording. Released in 2007, it was made in 2004 as a result of the auCarré Festival organizing Wendo a trip to Europe to, in collaboration with Sowarex, record a CD.

In 2008 the sixtieth anniversary of his first great success, "Marie Luise", was celebrated, although he liked to remember that his musical career began at the age of eleven, when, orphaned by a father and mother, he began to sing as "the only activity that could give meaning to life ". By 1999 he had returned to the recording studios with an album, Amba, which gained international distribution in 2002.

With a hard life trajectory behind him (orphan of a hunter and of a traditional music singer, he grew up in shelters for European religious, he made a living repairing boats on the Congo River and was even a boxer from 1941 to 1946), he taught himself to play percussions, guitars, and keyboards. In 1948, together with Henri Bowane, he established the concept of Congolese rumba -influenced by Cuban music, tango or chachachá- with the recording of two essential pieces: "Marie Louise" and "Albertina". That contagious rhythm was, at first, a source of conflict for its author: Kolosoy suffered several months in prison because the authorities understood that those songs were offensive. "Marie Louise", which the Congolese described as a magic song to revive the dead, was considered satanic by the same Catholic Church. The move backfired, because Wendo's arrest helped popularize recordings of him.

His very personal voice became a standard that many in Kinshasa or Leopoldville wanted to imitate. Congo was still living in colonial times and the clubs closed at half past nine at night, but the gendarmes would let "Papa Wendo" run until much later. In those years, Kolosoy befriended Patrice Luumba, who in 1960 would be the first president of the newly born Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kolosoy stopped acting in the 1960s, but in the last decade interest in his work had been reactivated in his country and in world music circles. His story is mixed with the checkered history of his continent, much more complex than the anecdotes about him. In Banaya Papa Wendo we have part of her, possibly the last recording of this voice polished by life, by the years, hoarse and soft, wild and funny when transmitting her story, her wounds and Wendo's desire to live and sing.

Personal: 

Papa WendoKolosoy (voz, composiciones)

Willy MakonzoNzofu (voz)

Jean-Louis KayalaBikunda (bajo)

VulaDiankatuMissy (guitarra)

BikundaMukubueleNzoku (guitarra)

BatilangandiBiolo (trompeta)

MunangéMaproco Joseph (saxo alto)

BingaKabata Tejos (percusión)

Trackslist:

01. Bouboul

02. Mabeley A Mama

03. Madjolé Djolé

04. Mwana Ya Moninga

05. Henriette Masembo

06. Tat Nzambé

07. Mama Monique

08. Mama Alobi

09. Bino Bananie

10. Banaya Papa Wendo

Vanessa da Mata was born on February 10, 1976, in Alto das Garças, Mato Grosso - a small town 400 km from Cuiabá, surrounded by rivers and waterfalls. She is a descendant, on the part of her maternal grandmother, of the Xavantes Indians.

She heard a little bit of everything in her childhood. Luiz Gonzaga, Tom Jobim, Milton Nascimento and Orlando Silva. She also listened to local rhythms such as "carimbó", also listened to samba, country music, and even brega Italian music, sounds that arrive on AM radio waves.

In 1990, aged 14, Vanessa moved to Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, a city of one thousand two hundred kilometers from Alto das Garças. She went there alone, and lived in a boarding school. She was preparing to take the exam at the medical school. But she already knew what she wanted: to sing. At age 15, she started performing at local bars.

In 1997, aged 21, she met Chico César: with him, she wrote "A Força Que Never Seca". The song was recorded by MariaBethânia, who released it as the title of her 1999 album. The recording competed for the Latin Grammy and was also recorded on Chico's CD, "Mama Mundi".

Vanessa's voice and presence also began to draw attention. She performed shows with Milton Nascimento, Bethânia and in the last performances of Baden Powell. She was ready to debut her solo career.

YES, it is her third album, released in 2007. The album was recorded between Jamaica and Brazil. Of the 13 tracks, five feature Sly&Robbie, two icons of Jamaican music. YES is defined by its title as "a positive response to life, a fighting response."

It features the participation of Ben Harper, João Donato, Wilson das Neves, Don Chacal and a team of the new generation of Brazilian music, such as drummer Pupillo (NaçãoZumbi) and guitarists Fernando Catatau (Cidadão Instigado), Pedro Sá and DaviMoraes, among others. The year 2007 also marked the union of Vanessa and international singer Ben Harper, with the release of Boa Sorte / GoodLuck, which was one of the singer's greatest hits.

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MÚSICOS

Vanessa da Mata - Vocal

Ben Harper – Vocal en “Boa Sorte”

Robbie Shakespeare - Baixo

Sly Dunbar – Bateria

Sticky – Percussão

RobbieLyn – Teclados

Kassin – Guitarra

Pupillo – Bateria

Fernando Catatau – Guitarra

Roberto Pollo – Teclados

Pedro Sá – Guitarra acústica

MÚSICAS

01 – Vermelho

02 - FugiuCom A Novela

03 – Baú

04 - Boa Sorte (Good Luck)

05 – Amado

06 – Pirraça

07 - VocêVai Me Destruir

08 – Absurdo

09 - Quem Irá Nos Proteger

10 – Ilegais

11 - QuandoUmHomemTemUmaMangueira No Quintal

12 - Meu Deus

13 - MinhaHerança: Uma Flor