April 27, 2011

Mahmoud Fadl - Love Letter from Tut-Ank-Amen






















Inspired by the poem "Love Letter to King Tut-Ank-Amen" by the great Cuban poetess Dulce María Loynaz, the "grande dame of Cuban letters," received international recognition 1992 for her nearly century-long contributions to Spanish letters when she was awarded the Cervantes Prize, widely recognized at the highest prize in Spanish Literature. As a poet, Loynaz is frequently mentioned in the same breath as the other great Latin American women poets of the twentieth century, Gabriela Mistral, Juana de Ibarbourou, Alfonsina Storni and Delmira Agustini; to these, some would add the name of another American poet, Emily Dickinson. As a novelist, Loynaz can rightly be seen as a precursor of the practitioners of magical realism who came to dominate Latin American fiction in the decades after the publication of her first and only novel, Jardín (Garden).




















Love Letter to

King Tut Ank Amen

Young King Tut-Ank-Amen:

Yesterday afternoon in the museum, I saw the little ivory column which you painted blue and pink and yellow.

For that fragile object, useless and meaningless in our mean existence, for that simple little column painted by your fine hands - leaves of autumn - I would have given the most beautiful ten years of my life, also useless and meaningless ... Ten years of love and faith ... Next to the little column I also saw, young King Tut-Ank-Amen, I also saw yesterday afternoon - one of those brilliant afternoons of your Egypt -

I also saw your heart, kept safe in a golden box.

For that little heart crumbled to dust,

for that little heart

kept in a box of enamelled gold,

I would have given my own heart, young and warm; still pure.

Because yesterday afternoon, King filled with death, my heart beat for you, full of live, and my life embraced your death and it seemed to me, melted it

It melted the hard death clinging to your bones, with the heat of my breath, with the blood of my dream, and after that uproar of love and death I am still intoxicated with love and with death ...

Yesterday afternoon - afternoon of Egypt sprinkled with white ibises - I loved your impossible eyes beyond the crystal ...

And in another distant Egyptian afternoon like this afternoon - its light shattered with birds - your eyes were immense, split along your trembling brows ...

Long ago in another afternoon like this afternoon of mine, your eyes spread themselves above the earth, opened themselves above the earth like the two mysterious lotuses of your country.

Reddened eyes: creations of twilight, the color of rivers swollen with September.

Lords of a kingdom were your eyes, lords of flourishing cities, of gigantic stones then already a thousand years old, of fields sown to the horizon, of armies victorious far beyond the deserts of Nubia, whose agile archers, whose intrepid charioteers have been frozen forever in profile in hieroglyphs and on monoliths.

Everything fit into your eyestender and powerful King, everything was destined for you before you had time to see it .- Arid certainly you didn't have time.

Now your eyes are closed and a gray dust covers the eyelids; only this gray dust, the ashes of exhausted dreams.

Now between your eyes and my eyes

forever lies an adamantine crystal •••

For these your eyes which I could never pry open with my kisses, I would give to whoever wants them my own eyes, avid for landscapes, thieves of your heaven, masters of the world's sun.

I would give my living eyes

to feel for a moment your gaze across three thousand nine hundred years ...

To feel your gaze on me now - however it might come - disinterred, curdled out of the pallid halo of Isis.

Young King Tut-Ank-Amen, dead at nineteen years of age: let me tell you these crazy things which perhaps no one else has ever told you, permit me td tell them to you in the solitude of my hotel room, in the chill of walls shared with strangers, walls colder than the walls of the tomb which you didn't wish to share with anyone.

I tell you this, adolescent King, frozen forever in profile in your immovable youth, in your crystallized grace ... Frozen in that expression which forbade the sacrifice of innocent doves, in the temple of the terrible Ammon-Ra.

This is how I will continue to see when I am far away, you standing straight before the jealous priests in a flurry of white wings ...

I will take nothing from you beyond this dream, because you are everything which is fore­closed to me, prohibited, infinitely impossible. From century to century your gods kept watch over you, hanging onto the very last hair.

I think that your hair must have been

straight as the night rain ...

And I think that because of your hair, because of your doves and your nineteen years so close to death, I would have been then what I will never be now: a little bit of love.

But you didn't wait for me and you fled along the edge of the crescent moon; you didn't wait for me and you fled toward death like a child going to the park, laden with toys with which you are not yet tired of playing

... Followed by your ivory carriage, your trembling gazelles ...

If sensible people wouldn't have been scandalized, I would have taken you from your golden sarcophagus, enclosed in three wooden sarcophagi inside of a great sarcophargus of granite, I should have taken you from the depths, so perverse, which render you more dead to my bold heart which you make beat strongly ... which only for you has ever beaten, Oh sweetest King! In this bright afternoon of Egypt - arm of the Nile's light.

If sensible people wouldn't have been enraged, I would have taken you from your five sarcophagi, I would have unwrapped the bindings which so oppress your feeble body, and I would have wrapped you softly in my silken shawl.

I would have rested you upon my breast like a sick child ... And as if to a sick child,

I would have begun to sing to you

the most beautiful of my tropical songs,

the sweetest, the briefest of my poems.

Duice Maria Loynaz

(1929), translated by Judith Kerman


-------------------------------


1. Khai (Brother)(4:11)
2. Ala Balad el Mahboub (Bring Me Home to My Lover) (3:33)
3. Rohi (Breath of Soul) (5:46)
4. Ishlonak (How Do You Do) (9:08)
5. El Samba (3:53)
6. Sabaht Wagdan (I Woke up Full of Yearning) (4:03)
7. Ana Wehabibi (My Lover and I (5:05)
8. Ana Bamasi Al Haba Doll (I Say to You Good Evening) (6:51)
9. Llsabr Hodoud (Patience Has Its Limits) (3:35)
10. El Helwa (The Beauty) (5:51)


-------------------------------


This collection of intensely romantic songs was inspired by an odd bit of history. In 1929, a Cuban poetess named Dulce María Loynaz wrote a florid love letter to the dead Egyptian king Tut-Ank-Amen. (Dulce's letter appears in translation in the CD notes.) His imagination fired by the idea of this, master Nubian percussionist Mahmoud Fadl, who also directs the Cairo roots pop band Salamat, decided to create a letter in response, in the form of ten instrumental lovers' classics from Cairo.

From the opener, "Khai" by celebrated 20th century composer Mohamed Abd el-Wahaab, softly brooding strings and restless percussion set the stage for the warm, sensuous trumpet lines of Samy El Bably, "Grandmaster of the Trumpet Oriental." A survivor from the Cairo Golden Age, and now musical director of the Fajoum Cultural Centre, El Bably plays lots of al jeel sessions these days. But his work on this album is nothing short of a revelation, some of the most sensitive and beautiful trumpet playing I have heard anywhere.

On the traditional song "Ishlonak," El Bably's trumpet melds with accordion over a trance rhythm. On the lively "El Samba" (another el-Wahaab composition), the trumpet edges in on the strings with a subtle cross rhythm, and then joins them before setting out on an achingly beautiful solo. "Sahaht Wagan," another traditional song in 7/8 time, is also a standout. But the entire record is pure joy, powerfully romantic without a trace of drippy sentimentality. Whether this music has the power to arouse the dead spirits of the Cuban poetess or the Egyptian king, I don't know. But it can certainly carry the rest of us through many nights of love. from

Love
magic word
is thegoodone


-------------------------------


Born in 1955, Mahmoud Fadl began his musical career not playing, but as a limbo dancer in Egypt at wedding celebrations -- both Egyptian and Nubian -- the culture that was his, but which had been lost as families were evacuated for the building of dams. His Nubian ancestry was important, coming from the Battikol people. A naturally talented percussionist, he developed his ability in orchestras in Assuan and Cairo, where he grew up, gradually becoming a sought-after player, performing with acts like Ali Hassan Kuban and Ahmed Adawia. However, it wasn't until he moved to Europe that Fadl really became established as a solo act and a master drummer, leading ensembles, and exploring his ancient Nubian roots with the Drummers of the Nile. Like Kuban, much of his career has been dedicated to exploring the old Nubian rhythms, even pairing them, at times, with more modern drum'n'bass beats. However, he's also gone beyond that to put together Umm Kalthoum 7000, a tribute to the great Arab diva. But it's indisputable that his heart is firmly in Nubia, a place he returns to musically on most albums. Now based in Berlin, he remains active in many scenes, not the least of which is United Nubians, his tribal-house project. Apart from his own work, Fadl has guested with the Klezmatics and several others. ~ Chris Nickson, Rovi

April 25, 2011

Lambarena - Bach Goes to Africa




















An hommage to Albert Schweitzer


































"Ethics is nothing other than Reverence for Life.
Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting and enhancing life, and to destroy, to harm or to hinder life is evil."
Albert Schweitzer


Albert Schweitzer (January 14, 1875-September 4, 1965) was born into an Alsatian family which for generations had been devoted to religion, music, and education. His father and maternal grandfather were ministers; both of his grandfathers were talented organists; many of his relatives were persons of scholarly attainments.

Schweitzer entered into his intensive theological studies in 1893 at the University of Strasbourg where he obtained a doctorate in philosophy in 1899, with a dissertation on the religious philosophy of Kant, and received his licentiate in theology in 1900. He began preaching at St. Nicholas Church in Strasbourg in 1899; he served in various high ranking administrative posts from 1901 to 1912 in the Theological College of St.Thomas, the college he had attended at the University of Strasbourg. In 1906 he published The Quest of the Historical Jesus, a book on which much of his fame as a theological scholar rests.

Meanwhile he continued with a distinguished musical career initiated at an early age with piano and organ lessons. Only nine when he first performed in his father's church, he was, from his young manhood to his middle eighties, recognized as a concert organist, internationally known. From his professional engagements he earned funds for his education, particularly his later medical schooling, and for his African hospital. Musicologist as well as performer, Schweitzer wrote a biography of Bach in 1905 in French, published a book on organ building and playing in 1906, and rewrote the Bach book in German in 1908.

Having decided to go to Africa as a medical missionary rather than as a pastor, Schweitzer in 1905 began the study of medicine at the University of Strasbourg. In 1913, having obtained his M.D. degree, he founded his hospital at Lambaréné in French Equatorial Africa, but in 1917 he and his wife were sent to a French internment camp as prisoners of war. Released in 1918, Schweitzer spent the next six years in Europe, preaching in his old church, giving lectures and concerts, taking medical courses, writing On the Edge of the Primeval Forest, The Decay and Restoration of Civilization, Civilization and Ethics, and Christianity and the Religions of the World.

Schweitzer returned to Lambaréné in 1924 and except for relatively short periods of time, spent the remainder of his life there. With the funds earned from his own royalties and personal appearance fees and with those donated from all parts of the world, he expanded the hospital to seventy buildings which by the early 1960's could take care of over 500 patients in residence at any one time.

At Lambaréné, Schweitzer was doctor and surgeon in the hospital, pastor of a congregation, administrator of a village, superintendent of buildings and grounds, writer of scholarly books, commentator on contemporary history, musician, host to countless visitors. The honors he received were numerous, including the Goethe Prize of Frankfurt and honorary doctorates from many universities emphasizing one or another of his achievements. The Nobel Peace Prize for 1952, having been withheld in that year, was given to him on December 10, 1953. With the $33,000 prize money, he started the leprosarium at Lambaréné.

Albert Schweitzer died on September 4, 1965, and was buried at Lambaréné.

-------------------------------

Lambarena - Bach Goes to Africa

1 Excerpt from Cantata BWV 147 No.10-Voice 0:13
2 Sankanda+"Lasset Uns Den Nicht Zerteilen"-Voice 5:07
3 Mayingo+Fugue on Mayingo-Instrumental 2:12
4 Herr, Unser Herrscher from St. John Passion, BWV 245 No.1-Instrumental 4:39
5 Mabo Maboe+Gigue from Suite for Cello No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 1010-I 3:38
6 Bombé+"Ruht Wohl, Ruht Wohl, Ihr Heiligen Gebeine" from St. John Passio 3:48
7 Pepa Nzac Gnon Ma+Prelude from Partita for Violin No.3, BWV 1006-Instru 4:23
8 Mamoudo Na Sakka Baya Boudouma Ngombi+Prelude No.14, BWV 883-Voice 4:28
9 Agnus Dei from B Minor Mass, BWV 232-Voice 5:06
10 Ikokou-Instrumental 2:11
11 Inongo+Three-Part Invention No. 3 in D Major, BWV 789-Voice 5:40
12 Okoukoué+Cantata BWV 147 No. 10 (Excerpt)-Instrumental 1:54
13 Ihr Lieblichste Blicke, Ihr Freudige Stunden from Cantata BWV 208 No.15 3:03
14 Excerpts from "Mousse Biabatou"+"Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude" from Canta 2:14


If you need a pass
please guess...

-------------------------------

or just for fun
type in thegoodone

The impetus behind this album, developed by Mariella Berthéas, was to create a tribute to Albert Schweitzer by bringing together the two musical traditions that were central to his life: the works of J.S. Bach and the musics of Gabon, where he dedicated his life to service as a medical missionary in the city of Lambaréné. To call this a crossover album, though, would be to misrepresent it; this is no clever synthesis of two disparate traditions. It's difficult to characterize the relationship between the two musical cultures. To say that the musics are "coordinated" misses the surprising spontaneity of the juxtapositions, but to say that they are "thrown together" suggests a randomness that underestimates the skill and art of the arrangers, Hughes de Courson and Pierre Akendengué. The music of Bach and the musical traditions of Gabon coexist without giving up their own integrity, and interact with varying degrees of obvious connection. The CD features classically trained European musicians, 10 ensembles from Gabon, and several Argentinean musicians, who worked together in the studio many months to create the album. The most successful tracks mysteriously capture the underlying musical impulse common to the two traditions, and the result opens up new meanings, and sounds natural and organic. For example, it's astonishing, on track 2, how beautifully a traditional song from Gabon dovetails and overlaps with "Lasset uns den nicht Zerteilen," from the St. John Passion, and how they complement each other in their exuberant affirmation of life. On track 6, the simultaneous performance of a ritual that includes a clapping pattern and hooting vocalizations and a chorus from the St. John Passion is breathtaking. Not all the efforts are equally successful; the chant at the end of the Agnus Dei from the B minor Mass simply sounds tacked on. But when the mix works, as it usually does, the effect is revelatory, transformative. The sound is intensely clean and beautifully differentiated, highlighting the wonderful strangeness of the mixing of traditions. Source






“Lambarena, Bach to Africa” was the idea of Mariella Berthéas and the foundation “L’espace Afrique”, organized to make this recording possible. Uniting the two integral elements which formed Schweitzer’s “sound world” - the music of Bach and the native melodies and rhythms of his adopted homeland Gabon - Lambarena is the work of two uniquely talented musicians: Hughes de Courson, French composer and producer, who pieced together the classical structure of Lambarena, and Pierre Akendengué, author, philosopher and guitarist from Gabon with more than 12 recordings to his credit.

De Courson and Akendengué began work on Lambarena by linking the traditional harmonies of Bach to various Gabonese ethnic harmonies (there are at least 42 different ethnic backgrounds in a country of one million inhabitants), creating a fascinating fabric of sound woven together from Gabonese chant voices and the classical melodies of Bach, permeated throughout by the underlying rhythms of the African forest.

Following months of preparation, the 10 musical ensembles from Gabon chosen by Pierre Akendengué to participate in Lambarena travelled to Paris to join with Western classical musicians as well as Argentinean tango and Jazz musicians Osvaldo Calo and Tomas Gubitsch, and percussionists Sami Ateba and Nana Vasconcelos for nearly 100 days in the recording studio. More...

April 20, 2011

Rango-bride of the zar



Everyone knows that Cairo has preserved ancient secrets and cultures for thousands of years,
 while Cairo's el-Mastaba Centre for Egyptian Popular Music has preserved 
three of the known remaining rango instruments.
A rango is a mysterious xylophone-like instrument with wooden keys and twisted gourds hanging
 beneath the keys for reverberation and amplification.
The rango has all but disappeared in this region of the world due to its affiliation with mysticism and the occult.
More specifically, it is a musical instrument used in the performance of the zar and Sudanese tanbura rituals, which are tranceinducing religious ceremonies intended to cure mental illnesses, exorcise jinn and resolve sundry other maladies of the soul.
These mystical healing rituals and musical performances, though mostly of Nubian, Saeedi and baladi extraction (in Upper Egypt, extending into Sudan), can today be enjoyed in Egypt's capital.
The performances are rich with rhythmic chanting, pounding percussion and feathered costuming, and, unlike the seemingly patternless scale of Arabian music, rango music is familiar to the Western ear " a musician would have to explain why that is.

Audience participation enhances the trance-inducing performances, with infectious dancing spreading, passim. The rango is believed to have been brought north from black African Sudan into Nubian Upper Egypt and then further north, following the dark-skinned diasporas of the slave routes, the instrument settling with Sudanese communities in Cairo and Ismailia.
And here, the instrument remained a part of the local communities' weddings, the hypnotic and entrancing music providing the soundtrack for the celebrations.
These celebrations and mystical ceremonies, though much part of contemporary rural Egyptian culture, are considered haram (forbidden) in the faith of Arabia, due to the pagan nature of this activity.
This taboo, associated with the forbidden rango instrument and the mysterious Sudanese voodoo music, is perhaps why the instrument faded from popular use, and ultimately disappeared in the 1970s.
Hassan Bergamon, who grew up in the Arayshiyyit el-Abid (Slave Stockades) in Ismailia, has helped save the rango from near extinction. He used to play as a boy " his mother was a fourth generation zar singer.
Bergamon is considered the last living player of the rango, and he learned from the old masters. 
But it was no easy task to revive this forbidden instrument from the brink of extinction.
Finding the last remaining instruments required as much patience as it did to convince the owners to part with the mystical instruments " the owners believing the rangos contain the souls and spirits of those relatives who once played the mystical instruments.
Hassan Bergamon still performs on an original rango a few times per month. 

Pete Willows
The Egyptian Gazette : 20 - 02 - 2010


and here's the proof
:)



April 16, 2011

Tamara Obrovac - Transhistria
















The composer singer and flutist Tamara Obrovac from the Croatian city of Pula is one of the most impressive artists on the Croatian music scene, and in the past few years she has become very popular due to the influence of the Istrian folk music that has been the creative force of her works. Istria is a beautiful Croatian region, a North Adriatic peninsula, particular for It's musical and dialectal tradition. She writes lyrics in a local dialect and sings in an ancient dialect which is not spoken any more - the Istriotic dialect.
Read morea at oficial site, withouth much exaggeration.






















Tamara Obrovac / composer, voice, flute
Dario Marusic / violin, voice
Elvis Stanic / guitar, accordion
Žiga Golob / double bass
Krunoslav Levačić / drums


1 Spovidnik (0:24)
2 Črni malin / Black mill (4:03)
3 Nad moren / Above the sea (5:10)
4 Šenica / Wheat (4:01)
5 Predi šći moja / Spin my daughter (3:52)
6 Touca'La Louna / Touch the moon (3:49)
7 Gredu nan kralji / The kings are arriving (2:40)
8 Rondinella (3:02)
9 Joh (4:11)
10 Biscoti ruduladi / Rolled cookies (3:31)
11 Dušo moja / My dear (3:55)
12 Ej Marine / Hey Marin (2:31)


Trans in Istria
thegoodone
, the usuall word
to keep your ears clear




The sopile (or roženice left picture, as it is called in Istria) is an ancient traditional woodwind instrument of Croatia, similar to the oboe or shawm. It is used in the regions of Kvarner, Kastav, Vinodol, Island Krk, and Istria. Sopile are always played in pair so there are great and small or thin and fat sopila. Sopile are musical instrument of sound very interesting possibilities and very piercing special sound. Sopile are, by "mih" and "shurle," today very popular in folk tradition of Istria, Kvarner and Island Krk.
Rozenice are ancient traditional musical instruments which continue to be used today in the region of Istria. Rozenice are very similar to sopile from Island Krk. Rozenice are always played in pairs so there are great and small or thin and fat rozenica. Rozenice have a very piercing special sound, and have the possibility of producing a variety of sounds. Rozenice are, by "mih" and "shurle", today very popular in folk tradition of Istra.The sopila is a wooden horn originating from Istria and some of the northern islands along the Adriatic Coast of Croatia. Like oboes, sopilas have double reeds, but are always played in pairs; one larger than the other. Both have six finger holes, being equally spaced on the smaller one, and set in groups of three on the larger one. Often used to accompany dancing, the voice of the sopila is that of the Istrian scale. source


Some more on Croatian traditional instruments (sorry no translation, but if you have questions ask in coments)

April 14, 2011

Rudresh Mahanthappa - Apti





















1. Looking out, Looking In
2. Apti
3. Vandanaa Trayee
4. Adana
5. Palika Market
6. Iit
7. Baladhi
8. You Talk Too Much

Apti
If you are lacking words, the word is thegoodone ;).

Rudresh Mahanthappa (alto sax)
Rez Abbasi (guitar)
Dan Weiss (tabla)
Composed by Rudresh Mahanthappa


"I first started a version of this group when I lived in Chicago back in 1996," Rudresh Mahanthappa explains. "There was a sort of pressure put upon me to do something Indian as there was no precedent for an Indian-American jazz musician at the time. I disbanded the group rather quickly as I felt I lacked the skills and knowledge to lead such a trio with musical and cultural integrity." Mahanthappa was concerned lest this attempt at crossing musical boundaries, sometimes as daunting as geographical ones, might collapse into "exoticism" or exploitation of his ancestry.

A dozen years later, Mahanthappa returns to the alluring intersection between jazz and South Asian music, and the result is a gripping recording that brings together contrasting traditions in a seamless whole. The affinity between Indian music and jazz, hinted at in countless modal recordings over the years, is made manifest in this high-voltage performance. From the opening melody statement, Mahanthappa plays right on top of the beat with a fierce insistence. Usually this type of playing strikes me as lacking in phrasing, yet the saxophonist shows that you don't need soft, warm contours to give shape to a melody line. If you put together the right combinations with the proper moments of emphasis, even a boxing match conveys beauty and grace. And, yes, this is something of a pugilistic performance. Mahanthappa's solo extends the energy and—perhaps even more remarkably—the vocabulary of the melody, and the torrent of notes does justice to both the South Asian and post-Trane tributaries that flow into its construction. Rez Abassi and Dan Weiss also impress on this track. The end result is surprising to the degree that it doesn't sound exotic, rather like a natural marriage of true minds to which none of us should admit impediments.

April 11, 2011

Flat Earth Society -the Armstrong mutations

"Louis Armstrong is viewed by many as the single most important figure
 in the history of jazz,introducing the world to the vocabulary of jazz soloing
and the effortless rhythms of swing.
 Indeed, various aspects of his artistic persona -- from his earliest sides with King Oliver
 in the '20s through his later hits like &"Hello Dolly" and &"What a Wonderful World" in the '60s -
- had a tremendous influence not only on jazz but on a wide range of pop music as well.
Any attempt at an Armstrong homage therefore has a huge legacy to confront,
 and is a risky proposition bound to court controversy and engender criticism
 from those who would believe there is a "correct" way to honor an artist
with such a towering reputation."
Well, the Belgian big band Flat Earth Society proves that there is indeed a correct way
 to tackle an Armstrong homage,
 and that is to throw the idea of "correct" completely out the window.
 With The Armstrong Mutations, FES examines Armstrong's music," but also his life, 
in all its conflicted glory.
 Peter Vermeersch and company seemingly acknowledge that Armstrong 
is seen largely as an amiable, entertaining personality (particularly by his later mainstream pop audience unfamiliar with his groundbreaking early King Oliver, Hot Five, Hot Seven, and big band music), 
but also that his life was filled with struggle, not only in battles to overcome poverty and racism,
 but also in his balancing act between groundbreaking artistry and commercial acceptance.
 The Armstrong Mutations somehow manages to touch upon all of that while,
 like Armstrong himself, remaining supremely entertaining from start to finish. 
Since the FES ensemble is an 18-piece big band, 
Armstrong's big band legacy naturally takes precedence from a strictly musical perspective,
 although the titles covered range from the beginning of the trumpeter's career
 (&"St. Louis Blues") through to the era that brought listeners &"What a Wonderful World,"
 while touching on Ellington and Gershwin along the way.
 There are plenty of driving, swinging, and rocking full-ensemble charts
 that are literally thrilling in the skill of their execution,
 but given the group's roots in the Belgian avant-garde and jazz-rock scene,
 don't be surprised to hear an occasional spoken word voice-over, heavy metal crunch in the guitar, 
or an interlude bordering on pure sound collage. 
The recording begins with humor (&"Spooks!") and ends with a requiem and final celebration 
in the style of a New Orleans funeral procession (&"Funeral & Binche"),
 and in between one hears everything from pounding tribal rhythms
 and the vitriolic vocal of Tom Wouters in &"(Little) King Ink" 
(a likely reference to Armstrong's crowning as King Zulu during the 1949 New Orleans Mardi Gras parade) to the singsong delivery of vocalist Anja Kowalski in &"What a Wonderful World." 
The latter tune seems sweet and naïve in isolation but ironic when placed
 in the context of the other music on the disc, and this apparent irony 
is reinforced by a snippet from the U.S. National Anthem that surfaces at the end. 
But finally, Armstrong's art becomes a gift to music lovers the world over,
 from New Orleans to Binche, 
and these Belgians are as skilled as anyone in expressing their love of the man,
 his music, and his legacy.
Dave Lynch, Rovi


mutations

stefaan blancke: trombone
benjamin boutreur: saxophones
david bovée: guitar
leonaar de graeve: tuba
anja kowalski: vocals & keyboards
pieter lamotte: bass trombone
bart maris: trumpet
michel mast: saxophones
marc meeuwissen: trombone
eric morel: saxophones
kristof roseeuw: upright bass
peter vandenberghe: keyboards
danny van hoeck: percussion
luc van lieshout: trumpet
teun verbruggen: percussion
peter vermeersch: clarinet
wim willaert: accordion & vocals
tom wouters: clarinet, xylophone & vocals





April 7, 2011

Ibrahim Keivo-Songs of Jezireh


In Arabic, Jezireh means “island”. This region of northeastern Syria takes its name from the
fact that it is located between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. This ancient fertile triangle,
bordered to the north by Turkey and to the east by Iraq, crossed by the Habour, Balih and Djaghyagh Rivers, was one of the great cradles of civilization.
Ibrahim Keivo's music is full of the strength of the soul of the entire region, which his multiple origins
and virtuosity allow him to present with great enthusiasm. His exalted singing brings forth
all of the nostalgia of the passing of time. He is the voice of the various populations of this
region that gave birth to civilization, to writing,the target of many armies and invaders,
but which, despite the torments of History,still vibrates with a note of joy and love,
where the peoples live side by side in respect of each other's differences.


 better watch this video instead,till the end...




From his early childhood, Ibrahim Keivo was thus surrounded by the peoples of multi-ethnic
Jezireh where Arabs, Assyrians, Chaldeans,Kurds, Syriacs and Armenians live side by
side and share their songs and music. From a very early age he learned to play the lute
buzuq, as well as the saz and the baghlama. Hethen learned the ‘ûd and the jumbush. He had
his higher education in Hassakeh, one of the two large cities of the region along with
Qamishliye, and then continued his musical training in Aleppo, particularly with the
composer Nouri Iskandar. Today, Ibrahim Keivo teaches music at the Hassakeh teachers’
college, dividing his free time between composing songs, some of which have been
very successful in Syria, and collecting folk songs.




1. Lauk – kurde botani / botani kurdish
2. Ashkalafem – kurde botani / botani kurdish
3. Rawi – assyrien/assyrian
4. Goudi – assyrien/assyrian
5. Tartiyawni – assyrien/assyrian
6. Yar dli – arabe de Mardin / Mardin arabic
7. Sabiha – arabe de Mardin / Mardin arabic 

8. Semsam – arabe de Mardin / Mardin arabic
9. Ayes Kechir – arménien/armenian
10. Teelo Jaan – arménien/armenian
11. Misho Akhchik – arménien/armenian
12. Sharfadina – yezidi
13. Edule & Derweshe Evdi – yezidi
14. Dehzarta Tauseda – yezidi
15. Siamand – kurde kurmandji / kurmandji kurdish
16. Mawwal, Kul al hala – arabe bédouin / bedouin arabic


a wonderful artist and an  amazing voice, if you ask my opinion....

Jezireh



.

April 4, 2011

Peter Broggs - Progressive Youth






















1 Never Forget Jah
2 Don't Get Weary Rasta
3 Jah Jah Help Us Progressive
4 I Don't Know See All 2
5 Cool Down See All 2
6 Forward Natty
7 Having a Party
8 Live Up
9 River Jordan
10 Give Thanks


When I first met Peter Broggs that fateful day on Chancery Lane in downtown Kingston in 1979, he could not believe that anyone from outside Jamaica actually knew of his music. I had bought his first album, "Progressive Youth", at a record store in California and had been playing it regularly on my Sunday night reggae show in Washington DC. He still did not believe me so I had to sing him some songs from the album. At last he now knew I was telling the truth and we talked about him recording an album for RAS. This became "Rastafari Liveth" and was the first album ever released by the RAS label. Over the years this album has continued to sell and now RAS is proud to release for the first time on CD a rare and virtually unknown album from Peter Broggs which was recorded before his career with RAS. 4 Peter often refers to this as his "opportunity album" since it led to many opportunities with the RAS label and his passport out of Jamaica into the rest of the world.
It's a rare glimpse into the beginning of an artist's career. We hope you enjoy it.
— Doctor Dread (linear notes)



Pass the word
thegoodone














I've always liked to put across positive messages, those that evoke God, those that show to people the existence of a beautiful and living God. The words that come out when I sing, Jah puts there for me. I am only a servant, and I try, thanks to Him, to guide His children down the right path. My whole career has been in the name of Jah Rastafari. I am a messenger of Jah. All I can do is use the gifts he gave me.

More on Peter Broggs

April 2, 2011

Mercedes Peón

"I am a woman who expresses freely her energy and the way those Galician women play is formidably strong and tribal."

Mercedes Peón has burst on the international music scene with her debut, Isué, a record of traditional and original Galician music that both reveres the past and also picks it up by the scruff of the neck and carries it into the modern age - not unlike a Spanish version of Värttinä, both in feel and execution. But behind it all is a very and lengthy devotion to Galician musical history, and not so much the piping that has given the region recent prominence, but the vocal tradition that has mostly been ignored....
..."I have gathered more than one thousand two-hour tapes with all kinds of unknown songs, which I recorded while doing field work, and I can assure you that Galicia is a rich land, unique in Europe," Peón explained. "The ease or difficulty in collecting those songs has a lot to do with a very good knowledge of the codes used by those people who have kept their Galician tradition from generation to generation." At the same time, she acknowledged that while her own material might have the spirit of the past, "I cannot say that the tradition continues since I am a composer and arranger. To consider anything as traditional, it has to be the evolutionary expression of the people, from generation to generation. This must not be static. In the 20th century, Galician tradition evolved through social changes without losing their essence, comparable to the North African expressions; in my case, it is the free expression of someone who has plenty of references, one of which is the vocal and percussive tradition, which I use freely to convey all that I want to express."

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1 Ben linda
2 Ingrávida
3 Aiché
4 Carencias
5 A miña
6 Igualiña que os antigos
7 Paralá
8 Intermezzo
9 As ás
10 Ajárrate

Sihá
Ethinc, world, rock, pop or ska,
whatever the genre
Try it it might be fun
just remember
first you must say
thegoodone
:)