This month, we're headed around the world in 18 tracks. A mix of contemporary and older stuff. Some long-time favorites and some recent discoveries.
To Cambodia, Columbia, Cuba, Brazil, Bulgaria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Italy, Mali, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Senegal, and South Africa.
Alternate title: International Track Ones, since I felt like each of these songs could have been the opener. Really struggled with song order on this one, there were a lot of competing ideas for how to fit it all together.
I'd love to hear from you guys if you ever want more music from any one of these places. In general, I'm open to requests for future mixes!
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Udit Narayan and Sapna Avasthi / Dulhe Raja
INDIA -- In 2006, our last stop on a 14-month backpacking trip through Asia was India. In Mumbai, we found an incredible record store and I picked up a 3-disc collection of Indian wedding music. This track is one of my very favorites.
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Udit Narayan Jha known as Udit Narayan, is a Nepalese playback singer whose songs have been featured mainly in Nepali and Hindi movies. He has also sung many songs in other languages including Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Oriya, Assamese and Bengali movies. He is primarily known for his work in Bollywood films . He has won three National Film Awards and five Filmfare Awards. In 2001, he was awarded the Prabal Gorkha Dakshin Read more on Last.fm more...
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Clap! Clap! / Kuj Yato
ITALY -- Italian DJ Cristiano Crisci aka Digi G’Alessio is the man behind Clap! Clap! This is from his latest album released last year, Tayi Bebba.
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Clap! Clap! is the alias of Italian producer and long time jazz musician Cristiano Crisci who previously worked under the moniker Digi G'Alessio. Bringing together disparate inspirations and styles onto the dancefloor of his mind, Crisci has spent over a decade establishing himself as one of Italy's most daring electronic music producers. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Roberto Roena / Que Se Sepa
PUERTO RICO -- Blast this. Clean your house.
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Roberto Roena (born January 16, 1940 in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico) was a latin and jazz percussionist as well as being a dancer and baseball player. He was a founding member of Puerto Rican salsa orchestra El Gran Combo as well as latin band Roberto Roena y Su Apollo Sound. Roena was also a member of the Fania All-stars with whom he recorded his signature song 'coro miyare' In 1970 Roena joined Cameroonian Saxophonist Manu Dibango, a massive step for salsa fusion music. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Yol Aularong / Yuvajon Kouge Jet (Broken Heart Man)
CAMBODIA -- There's lots of great Cambodian psychedelic rock out there -- you into it?
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Yol Aularong (Khmer: យស អូឡារាំង; also romanized as Yos Olarang) was a Cambodian garage rock musician, and a leading figure in that country's rock scene of the 1960s and 70s. He is presumed to have been killed during the Cambodian Genocide that took place under the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. Aularong was from a family of notable Cambodian musicians: singers Sieng Vanthy and Sieng Di were his aunts, and classical violinist/composer Has Salon was his uncle. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Aby Ngana Diop / Dieuleul-Dieuleul
SENEGAL -- Badass mama.
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Aby Ngana Diop was born in the Dakar region and was the capital's most famous tassukat (A tassukat is a specialist in tassu … which is a form of sung Wolof rhythmic verse that is often used to impart traditional values to children). She performed in Europe a few times and appeared on stage with Doudou N'Diaye Rose. Most of her performances though were at baptisms and weddings in and around Dakar. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Lido Pimienta / La Minga (Sonora Remix)
COLUMBIA via CANADA -- Lido is a Columbian artist now living in Toronto. This came out in 2010.
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Lido Pimienta is a young performing artist from Colombia living in London and Toronto, Ontario, Canada where she is studying Fine Arts in order to become an Art critic and curator. At only 23 years old, this mother of one has proven to be one of the most relevant acts in Latin Alternative music, gaining the attention of established musicians like Micachu and the Shapes, Julieta Venegas and Javiera Mena who invited Lido to participate in her upcoming 2010 album. Read more on Last.fm more...
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The Conga Kings / Descarga De Los Reyes
CUBA -- This will require some patience. But turn it up in your headphones and just be with the sweetness that is the conga drum and the tidy intricacies of their coordination together (Giovanni Hidalgo, Candido and Patato Valdes). My first real job out of college was for this audiophile label who made this record, all recorded with one single microphone as a live recording. In my next life, I will be a Cuban conga player and pianist and claves and...
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Tom Zé / Vai (Menina, Amanha de Manha)
BRAZIL -- Some classic Tropicalia.
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Born Antônio José Santana Martins, October 11, 1936 in Irará, Bahia, Brazil, Zé is a representative of Brazil's alternative sound, not only because of his use of objects as instruments, but also for his attitudes and for his eccentric, vivid style. Influential in the Tropicalia movement, Zé contributed -- along with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes, and Nara Leão -- to the watershed tropicalia album/manifesto Tropicália: ou Panis et Circenses. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Mulatu Astatke / Lanchi Biye (With Tilahun Gessesse)
ETHIOPIA -- The "father of Ethio-jazz."
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Mulatu Astatke [ሙላቱ አስታጥቄ] (born on December 19, 1943; surname sometimes spelled Astatqé on French-language releases: Mulatu Astatqé) is an Ethiopian musician and arranger best known as the father of Ethio-jazz. Born in the western Ethiopian city of Jimma, Mulatu was musically trained in London, New York City, and Boston where he combined his jazz and Latin music interests with traditional Ethiopian music. Astatke led his band Read more on Last.fm more...
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Beto Villares & Céu / Nação Postal
BRAZIL -- Beto is a contemporary Brazilian artist. I have a hard time with some of the contemporary Brazilian music out there but this works for me.
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http://www.urbanjungle.com.br/blog1.php/betovillares. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Ballaké Sissoko & Vincent Segal / Ma-Ma FC
MALI / FRANCE -- I love this entire album. Beautiful listening. Ballake Sissoko is a Malian kora player and Vincent Segal is a French cellist.
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Ballaké Sissoko (b. 1968), is a noted kora player, from Mali. He has worked with many notable artists, including: Toumani Diabaté and Taj Mahal. Ballaké's father, Djelimady Sissoko, was a great kora master. http://www.myspace.com/ballakesissoko/ Read more on Last.fm more...
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Miriam Makeba & C. Mitchell Trio / Mbube
SOUTH AFRICA -- Miriam has the warmest, sweetest sound. And this song will ring familiar as the "Wimoweh song" but this original version is so much richer.
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Zenzile Miriam Makeba (1932-2008), also known as Mama Africa, was beyond dispute one of South Africa's true legends. Born March 4, 1932 in Johannesburg, Miriam Makeba was barely 21 years old when she, as a member of the Manhattan Brothers, reached for the stars in her home country. It didn't take long before Miriam Makeba's career was brought to another level. In 1966 she received a Grammy Award for the album An Evening with Harry Belafonte & Miriam Makeba, making her the first African artist to win a Grammy. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Hamza El Din / Childhood
EGYPT -- A 1965 release. A pretty perfect album.
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Hamza El Din {حمزة علاء الدين} (b. Toshka, Egypt, July 10, 1929 - d. Berkeley, California, May 22, 2006) was a Nubian oud player, tar player, and singer. Born on 10th July 1929 in the Egyptian village of Toshka, near Wadi Halfa, he originally trained to be an electrical engineer. El Din changed direction and began to study music at the Cairo University, continuing his studies at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. His performances attracted the attention of the Grateful Dead Read more on Last.fm more...
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Marisa Monte / Diariamente
BRAZIL -- Marisa is a very popular and successful singer. The lyrics to this are interesting. Here's a random snippet, the entire song follows this format: For all the things: dictionary For they to get ready: patience For the pillowcase to sleep: madrigal 3 To play on the seesaw: two To make a cap: hair curlers To drink a Coke: drops 4 For the soup to heat: degrees For the light on the slash: two hundred and twenty volts For the watchmen on patrol: cofee To clean the blackboard: eraser For the kiss of the lady: taste For a very hoarse voice: mint Taken from http://lyricstranslate.com/en/diariamente-daily.html#ixzz3PhRYrrzo
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Marisa Monte is an abbreviation of Marisa de Azevedo Monte (b. 1 Jul 1967, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), a popular singer and one the biggest stars of contemporary MPB. She débuted with the album "Marisa Monte" (1988, World Pacific) and her latest is the single "Ainda Bem" (Sep 2011, EMI Brazil). While classically trained in opera singing, she grew up surrounded by the sounds of the Portela samba school, and combines diverse influences into her music. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Yacub Addy's Odadaa! / Oge
GHANA -- In college in upstate NY where someone like me could call herself an African drummer among other things, I studied with Yacub for all four years. He taught me drumming and dance and became a good friend. Truly wonderful times and he's very talented. He passed away last month, it's brought back a lot of good memories.
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Tsegué-Maryam Guébrou / The Homeless Wanderer
ETHIOPIA -- Another wonderful and complete album but this is by far the best track. She is an Ethiopian nun with an incredible story -- taken as a prisoner of war by Italians at a young age to then later study piano under a Polish pianist in Cairo. At 19 she fled to the monastery and devoted her life to music. She now lives in Jerusalem after leaving Egypt amidst religious-political conflicts.
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Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou (born Yewubdar Gebru , Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, December 12, 1923) is an Ethiopian pianist and composer. Her father Kentiba Gebru and her mother Kassaye Yelemtu both had a place in high society. Yewubdar was sent to Switzerland at the age of six along with her sister Senedu Gebru. Both attended a girls’ boarding school where Yewubdar studied the violin and then the piano. She gave her first violin recital at the age of ten. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Armando Manzanero / Cuando Estoy Contigo
MEXICO -- I've loved this song for many years and still fall under its spell each time I hear it.
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Armando Manzanero (born in Mérida, México on December 7, 1935) is a Latin American musician and composer, widely considered the premiere Mexican romantic composer of the postwar era. At the age of eight he was introduced into the world of music in the Escuela de Bellas Artes (School of High Arts) of his native city, later furthering his musical studies in Mexico City. In 1950, at the age of fifteen, he composed his first melody titled Nunca en el Mundo (Never in the World) Read more on Last.fm more...
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Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir / Polegnala e Todora (Love Song)
BULGARIA -- I'm completely enchanted by these recordings from the 80s. The choir uses traditional folk melodies with modern arrangements.
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