Spirits & Spices

Walk tall

2012-01-29T10:46:00.000-08:00

***

????????????

2012-01-28T13:09:00.000-08:00

It is not about the links, or love for music, or getting something for free, or whathever reason sick minds have, it is about diversity of cultural heritage of mankind, learning, expanding, it is a vision of a future, unselfish one, shared by many fools on the hills, court jesters, lovers, poets, maybe they are all running ahead of their time. The only good that came out of the computer is being able to take a peek somewhere your wallet can not take you. How much I have learned in past years from my friends, on spirituality, relations, human beings, form every corner of the earth. Well education is not really in interest of the masters, let me tanslate a saying we have the more witless the peasant is, bigger the potatos get. So go on with the culturocide, i'll write a letter to my friend saying I love him and thank him for his love and taking the time to write us something out fom his selfless hart.

A minute of silence

2012-01-22T12:31:00.000-08:00

mu is dead
and so are my links
years of love
were fed to the pigs
want mourn for long
in spite towards the pests
reups will follow
at your requests
cose the only here crime
is my writing
ridiculous
grammatically incorrect
childish little rhyme

Sedmina - II. Dejanje

2012-01-11T02:26:00.000-08:00

1. Gledališče (4:04)
2. V Polju gre pšenica v klas (4:17)
3. Ciganka (5:59)
4. Circus (9:23)
5. Pav (5:44)
6. Fotograf (5:42)
7. Kolo (Za Duško) (9:21)

Veno Dolenc / acoustic guitars 6 and 12-strings, vocals
Melita Dolenc / vocals
Lado Jaksa / clarinet, saxophone
Edi Stefancic / acoustic guitar, tambouritza, harmonica
Bozidar Ogorevc / violin, viola

Feed your Ears, say thegoodone, to jump over the fence.

The second album of SEDMINA was released in 1982. The band featured the same line-up like on the debut. However, the arrangements are somewhat different, offering longer tracks and more psychedelic, acid-folk sound. Unlike the debut, this one does not attract a listener on the first attempt, but several listens are needed to grasp the feeling. The performance is done with mastery and confidence. The leading instruments are clarinet, violin (and viola, probably because I cannot quite tell the difference) and saxophone, with backing acoustic guitars. Melody lines invoke the medieval or baroque ballads of typical European and Mediterranean musical legacy, but occasional hints of even American folk tunes are also present. "Ciganka" ("Gypsy Woman") is very dylanesque lively folky tune with violin. The epic "Circus" brings an extended violin solo with some eerie, melancholic passages turning more optimistic at the end of the song, with Veno's vocals and saxophone. "Pav" shows the incredible abilities of Lado Jaksa playing outstanding clarinet solo party. Closing "Kolo" brings a drunken, quite morbid and strange tonality, sounding like they had been tuning their instruments along the way - very trippy and mind-bending. The second half of the song is more optimistic because the rhythm is stronger and violin is accompanied very nice solo on acoustic guitar. "II dejanje" is a very dark album. It is also not very accessible and requires attention and patience. At times, it contains rather noisy and cacophonic moments which may force you to stop playing. It is demanding. But we are talking here about "progressive" and "experimental" music, aren't we? This album deserves a lot of guts from listeners. And from reviewers it also deserves something - a recommendation. It is simply not an average folksy troubadour "cry baby". 4,5 stars!
Thanks to progarchives.com. and Seyo

Sempervivum tectorum, Ušesnik, Čuvarkuća, Common Houseleek

2012-01-03T02:11:00.000-08:00

Houseleeks or Liveforever, Sempervivum tectorum, Jupiter's eye, Thor's beard, St. George's Beard, and Welcome-home-husband-
though-never-so-
drunk, gromovna trava, pazikuća,
čuvarkuća(Cro), ušesnik, netresk (Slo), was a gift from Jupiter to protect us from thunder and witchcraft, hence it was grown on the roofs of houses. If you give it a search in your language you will probably find that all traditions agree with it's power to protect us from all kinds of evil, maybe some traditions didn't come up with all the ways of exploiting this house doctor, but most of them agree on using it in treating skin and eye diseases, inflammations, burns and ear pain. The names in Croatian like "pazikuča" meaning house

protector or in Slovenian "ušesnik" coming from "ušesa" meaning ears, indicate their use in traditional medicine.

We in the family have very good experience using it to remove warts, treating a cough or sore throat, or ear pain.

In any case of last one, otitis, only pure juice is used, and the leafs must be thoroughly cleaned, not to cause more infection by adding dirt and bacteria into your ear. Just a few drops were enough to ease or completely remove pain from our screaming three year old in the middle of the night. He almost instantly fell asleep and didn't complain that his ears hurt again. Must add that second time it happened due to tonsillitis we got antibiotics, but in two other times we used it it worked like a charm. Some doctors don't approve of this, some do, in case you use this method you really must be careful not to infect the ear even more with pieces of dirt, or pieces of plant, use only juice. Some say that it is good only in the early stage. You must be patient in squeezing it, you can even use a garlic squeezer, and than filter it. It is your responsibility, intuitivly you will know if it is right for you or not, trust that pulse.

Other ways to use it is by putting freshly squeezed juice or crushed leaves as a compress for insect bites (wasps, bees, mosquitoes), burns, chapped and cracked skin, herpes zoster, hemorrhoids. Juice eliminates problems if placed in positions of cramps in legs or sore spot caused by the gout.
When reduced hearing, caused by cured fluid, the fresh juice of leaves is used to

dissolve it. Corns, warts and sun spots are also prevented by fresh juice. Contemporary studies are focused on polysaccharides from the juice, because they are attributed to effects on the immune system and help the cancer disease.
Belarusian experts recommend fresh juice with honey for heart defects, and the products and homeopathic preparations used in purulent inflammation of the gums and sore throats.
Tea made from fresh leaves is applied externally for cladding as well as juice, as a drink for the hemorrhoids, worms, too heavy menstruation, stones in the bladder. It refreshes the body, has a diuretic effect and reduces inflammation. (translation from)

Other common names, such as Anglo-Saxon singrēne, Modern English sigrim, sil-green, etc. and aye-green,refer to its longevity. William Fernie tells a tale in support of this:
History relates that a botanist tried hard for eighteen months to dry a plant of the House Leek for his herbarium, but failed in this object. He afterwards restored it to its first site when it grew again as if nothing had interfered with its ordinary life. (Wiki)

One more source in Slovenian: http://www2.arnes.si/~sopjslat/netreski/uvod.htm, with names in several languages, thank you very much.

Also take a peek at: http://sempervivum.aforumfree.com/

Thanks to Renata

Ethiopian Soul and Groove

2011-12-30T10:30:00.000-08:00

...& a little present for your new year's eve

the Wallias Band,Alèmayèhu Eshèté,Gétatchèw Mèkurya,Mahmoud Ahmed & co
during their heyday and
doing it to death....

a1-Wallias Band-Muziqawi Silt
a2-Alèmayèhu Eshèté And Hirut Bèqèlé-Tèmèlès
a3-Samuel Bèlay-Aynotchesh Yerèfu
a4-Ayalèw Mèsfin-Hasabé
a5-Seyoum Gèbrèyès & Wallias Band-Muziqa Muziqa
b1-Gétatchèw Mèkurya-Yègènèt Muziqa
b2-Mahmoud Ahmed-Kulun Mankwalèsh
b3-Tamrat Fèrèndji -Antchin Yagègnulet
b4-Assèlèfètch Ashinè & Géténèsh Kebrèt-Amlak Abét Abét

my rip of

Soul and Groove

Balžalorsky Drašler 3o - Wu-wei

2011-12-27T07:54:00.000-08:00

Vitja Balžalorsky - guitar, electronics
Jošt Drašler - bass
Vid Drašler - drums and other sounds

Young, Slovenian jazz trio with mature sound, left me surprised, even more when I noticed their age. I put the Cd in the stereo and some warm, pleasant tones filled the room, even my three and a half year old gave me an approving look nodding his head and lifting his eyebrows. There is an review on http://zalozba.radiostudent.si, please use translator,my English is too bad to translate it myself and I am also a lazy ass. Some comparison has been made with the ECM material, the peacefulness of John Abercrombie's jazz also has been mentioned, and some praises of Jošt Drašler's firm base, I agree with all of those claims, all is in favour of those three great musicians, that I hope that they look at a wonderful future.

Wu-wei by Balzalorsky/Drasler 3o

Group Doueh-beatte harab

2011-12-25T09:35:00.000-08:00

Group Doueh is part of a family entertainment business run by Salmou Baamar (aka Doueh), a native of Dakhla, Western Sahara. The rest of the group includes vocalists Halima Jakani (Baamar's wife) and Bashiri Touballi and keyboardist Jamaal Baamar (his son). Rhythm duties are shared between collective hand claps, Halima’s tbal (a hand drum), and the keyboard’s drum programs.

As a youth, Baamar listened to cassettes of James Brown and Jimi Hendrix imported from Spain. His first experiences as a professional musician were playing at local parties coincided with Mauritania’s occupation of Dakhla. You can hear both Western rock influence and Mauritanian rhythms in his music, which he’s been performing and marketing on cassette for over a quarter century throughout the Western Sahara region. Doueh plays electric guitar and the tinidit (or tidinit),the Moorish four-stringed lute.

I liked beatte harab from the beginning

even more than their 2 first records as this is a more straight forward traditional recording .

today I checked my files and found an impressive number of dls

without posting it anywhere..

just happy that people began appreciating them for their music

at last and not for any (stupid) hype---so here it is in the light of day.

beatte harab

my compilation from their two first records is always here at freedomblues

Tamara Obrovac & Transhistria ensemble - Sve pasiva (All fades away)

2011-12-14T02:45:00.000-08:00

1 Gredu lita / Years pass by (4:40)
2 Sve pasiva / All fades away (5:01)
3 Ne plači Lucija / Don't cry Lucija (5:55)
4 Ča mi povida more / What sea tels me (5:58)
5 Cansoneita / Chanson (6:00)
6 Sexuvalna (5:42)
7 Duet / Duo (3:30)
8 Stila / quiet (3:30)
9 Sudba ti je došla / Your faith has come (4:21)
10 Divojka / A girl (4:44)
11 Ona je čekala / She has waited (6:10)
12 Črno zlo / Black evil (4:57)
13 Sexuvalna live - bonus track (4:53)

Life is short, don't waste time
a tune, write a rhyme
all will pass, even sound
what's to do, you demand

listen, laugh, have fun

and be thegoodone

The composer singer and flutist Tamara Obrovac, is one of the most impressive artists on the Croatian music scene, she is one of those musicians to whom jazz means a path to understanding music as a whole. Moreover, it has ushered her towards an intensive investigation of her own regional music awareness, so she offers us a new musical journey through the Istrian and Mediterranean spaces and times. Istria is here homeland, beautiful Croatian region, a North Adriatic peninsula, particular for It's musical and dialectal tradition, which is the creative force of her works. She writes lyrics in a local dialect and sings in an ancient dialect which is not spoken any more - the Istriotic dialect.

Her international Transhistria Ensemble incorporates elements of Istrian and Mediterranean national music, jazz, and many elements of modern music, and her music, completely original and autochthonous, goes beyond time and geographical boundaries, thus becoming a universal artistic message, establishing Tamara Obrovac as an exceptional artist who managed to create her own unique musical expression. This creative musician has become known for her highly aesthetic performances, her interpretations are suffused with spontaneity, inventive improvisation, freedom, humour and the ability to communicate with the audience, an artist of a strong persona, a life and artistic force able to enchant any audience...

As she said: “jazz is my freedom, and my roots are my inner truth...”

source

Personal note,
For me this is the best thing I heard In Croatian Discography. A balsam for a Mediterranean soul.

Kiko Dinucci, Juçara Marçal & Thiago França -Metá Metá

2011-12-07T12:17:00.000-08:00

a little shout out for a very recent record that managed to become (almost) an instant classic! in 2011? well,this is what I call a big achievement-the comparisons with Baden Powell's /Vinicius de MoraesAfro-Sambas were inevitable(and the original Afro-Sambas are always here to judge for yourself)
enjoy Metá Metá and join (as I did) their club of fans-for their originality ...

The first album by Metá-Metá achieves two remarkable things; it manages to sound unbelievably fresh as well as sounding as if it could have come from Brazilian music’s hey-day of the 1960s.
Metá-Metá is essentially three musicians, Juçara Marçal on lead vocals, Kiko Dinucci on guitar and backing vocals, and Thiago França on sax and flute. Throughout this debut album I had the feeling I was listening to a long-lost Afro-Sambas tape, which I mean as the greatest tribute. This is guitar work as accomplished as Baden Powell, vocals from Marçal that are equal to greats such as the Maria Bethania and Maria Creuza. And while it will take me a while to decipher whether the lyrics are as strong as those of Vinicius de Moraes, this overall is an album that has that same environment that bestowed those ground-breaking Afro-Samba albums of the 60s.

Kiko Dinucci has been improving as a samba guitarist over the years, as well as becoming more and more embroiled in the world of candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion with a strong dance and musical element. In Juçara Marçal he has partnered with a singer who is just as passionate as the religion. The added atmospherics applied by Thiago França add another dimension to this music but it is the voice of Marçal and Dinucci’s dextrous, direct guitar-playing which steal the show.
The opening track “Vale do Jucá” and “Vias de Fato” are the two tracks that most readily resemble the works of Vinicius de Moraes and Baden Powell on the original Afro-Sambas, both strong samba songs with the eerie atmosphere that seemed to imbue many of those original songs. As a contrast “Umbigada” is a sunny melody that sings straght to the heart with a great telepathy between the guitar and flute that intertwine on the way to making the gorgeous melody.

Interestingly the repeated refrain and whispered vocals of “Papel Sulfite” bring to mind Juana Molina, an artist coming from a very different background. Other songs that push Metá-Metá in new directions are “Oranian”, a full band effort which occasionally erupts into a cacophony of drums and sax with Marçal’s singing almost rap-like in it’s directness and flow; and “Obá Iná” which starts with a guitar line which could easily have come from one of the punk bands that Dinucci was in in his early days. This track and the following “Obatalá” are two where there seems to be more of a jazz connection with cymbals crashing, França playing a bigger role on sax and there generally being a sense of free-form construction.

Metá-Metá is truly an extraordinary record, one with a strong candomblé heart – the gods Oxum, Xangô and Obatala feature heavily on these songs – but that also works as a great samba and jazz record. Kiko Dinucci and Juçara Marçal originally worked together on the 2009 album Padê, which was under their two names. That record had it’s moments, but it’s here as Metá-Metá with the presence of Thiago França that they have really managed to find their feet and produce something timeless which will surely be revered for some time, as well as vying with Criolo for the best album of 2011.

review from sounds and colours

You can download Metá-Metá for free from
Kiko Dinucci’s website

Saeid Shanbehzadeh - Musiques du Golfe Persique

2011-11-30T08:04:00.000-08:00

Shanbehzadeh Ensemble (Persian: گروه شنبه زاده) is an Iranian folk band, formed in Bushehr in 1990.

The band offers a rare aspect of the traditional music and dance of the Persian Gulf, more specially of the province of Bushehr, south of Iran and bordering Persian gulf.
The principal instruments of the ensemble are the neyanbān (bagpipe), neydjofti (flute), dammām (drum), zarbetempo (percussion), traditional flute, senj (cymbal) and boogh (a goat’s horn).
The band was founded by internationally acclaimed Iranian musician and dancer, Saeid Shanbezadeh in 1990. Hailing from the south of Iran, and tracing ancestry to Zanzibar in East Africa, the Shanbehzadeh family upholds a tradition that blends Sufi trance ritual and Persian and Arabic idioms.

Saeid Shanbezadeh was born in Bushehr, Iran, where he started playing music at the age of 7 with the old masters of the music of the region. He began with percussions, singing, and traditional dance. At 20 he founded the group of Shanbehzadeh Ensemble and won the 1st prize at the Fajr Music Festival in Tehran in 1990. In 1996 he was invited by the University of Toronto to teach a half-a-year course. In 2007 he was invited again by La Cité de La Musique of Paris to teach dance, singing and music. In 1998 he was named the professor and director of the House of Culture, Music and Dance of the Isle of Kish in Iran. That same year he portrayed himself in Talking with the Wind by Bahram Beyzaei.
Saeid Shanbehzadeh left Iran in 2002 and now lives in Paris.

there's a lot of influence in the music of south Iran, like the African influence, exactly like my face. You know if you look at my face, you cannot say I'm Iranian, not African, not Indian. You know, I am mix of all. I don't have the African nose, but my color it is. Because my mother's side from four or five generations they come from Zanzibar to Iran.
We play the music for a special reason. We have the music for the trance, for the "zar." We have music for wedding. We have music for work. We have music for the funeral. And what we present on the stage we try to introduce the people to different part of the life of south Iran.

more to read

The Shanbehzadeh Trio, with its driving rhythms, trance-inducing songs, and striking hip-swinging dances offers a rare opportunity to experience the fascinating music and dance of the southern Iranian province of Bushehr.. A cultural crossroads for centuries, Bushehr has been influenced by Sufi, Persian, Arab, African and Indian traditions. The ensemble is led by multi-instrumentalist and dancer Saeid Shanbehzadeh, who traces his ancestry to Zanzibar in East Africa, and includes his son Naghib Shanbehzadeh and Habib Mefhta-Busheri. Their alluring instruments include neyanban (double-reed bagpipe), neydjofti(double flute), and boogh (goat's horn).

les Musiques

Saeid Shanbezadeh – neyanbān, neydjofti, dammām
Naghib Shanbehzadeh - tombak, zarbetempo
Habib Meftah-Busheri

all photos by Borna Izadpanah

...& don't miss these two videos

Abrasaz - Biraminket

2011-11-16T15:43:00.000-08:00

Ravi Srinivasan, tabla, vocals, santoor, electronic percussion;

Mustafa El Dino, saz, darbuka, vocals, bendir;

Akira Ando, double bass, bells;

Paul Schwingenschlögl, trumpet, flugelhorn, piano.

1 Maya wati
2 Samraat
3 Lhasa
4 Dhara hara
5 Pentagram
6 Camels on sun alley
7 Darjeeling light
8 Oiwake
9 Biraminket
10 Two worlds
11 Kalbimiz bir
12 Ez din nebum le
13 Ahur
14 Abraxis No. II

For ears to have fun
you must first say thegoodone
I hope it is not a crime
enjoying my infantile little rhyme

The music of ABRASAZ leads us into another world, a world of fantasy and desire for outer space, a world of harmony and peaceful coexistence of mankind, an imaginary world of the musical globetrotter. The singing reminds us of Turkish uplands, but also of the gigantic mountains of Tibet and Nepal, the tablas of solemn ceremonies in India, the bass of Zen-meditation in Japan. Against this horizon suddenly appears a lonesome trumpet, subtly glides into the musical landscape, starts a musical dialogue with the bass, the tablas, the saz and gradually disappears into higher spheres. Four internationally highly acclaimed musicians, whose geographic and musical differences could not be greater, merge in a brilliant way into an ensemble which is extremely homogeneous just because of the emphasis which is put on these differences. This paradox is possible because the four artists never use their musical mastery for its own sake but for their common interest. Let it be jazz, world music, Indian classical music or contemporary music...ABRASAZ escapes the musical thinking in categories and lives from the incredible creativity of the excellent musicians of this outstanding ensemble. (from their official site)

Sonny Sharrock/The Freedom Sounds Featuring Wayne Henderson: Black Woman/People Get Ready

2011-11-14T12:35:00.000-08:00

Black Woman
1 Black Woman
2 Peanut
3 Bialero
4 Blind Willie
5 Portrait of Linda in Three Colors, All Black

- Sony Sharrock, guitar; Dave Burrell, piano; Norris Jones, bass; Milford Graves, drums; Linda Sharrock, vocals

People Get Ready

6 Respect
7 People Get Ready
8 Cucamonga
9 Things Go Better
10 Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)
11 Brother John Henry
12 Orbital Velocity
13 Cathy the Cooker

- Wayne Henderson, trombone; Al Abreu, saxes; Jimmy Benson, sax and flute; Pancho Bristol, electric bass; Harold Land, Jr., piano; Moises Oblagacion, congas; Ricky Chemelis, timbales; Max Gorduno, bongos; Paul Humphrey, drums.

How or why were those two put together I don't have a clue, I guss the motto was "and now something completly different". Anyway if you are in a mood for reading: Black Woman review or People Get Ready or you can read on both of them. Love the original Sharrock's cover.

One for our friend Miguel's collection of Baïlèros

ears here

P.S: And why is it Bialero instead of Baïlèro, please don't ask me. You can ask me what the pass is and I why I still use it, call it a habit of saying thegoodone.

the king of Raï (and the she-devil of trab)

2011-11-11T09:27:00.000-08:00

as promised earlier some Raï, (and not rai or rye)
from the king of Rai
and a k7-around early 80's ? when the young Khaled was better known as Chab Khaled.
essential Khaled

Mcpe 1060

equally you wouldn't want to miss this Algerian lady, another incarnation of the devil himself
Cheikha Djenia and her amazing trab
(the rural variation of rai played with tambour and gasba reed flutes)

right there.....
Kayene Rabi

:)
have a nice weekend

Ando Drom - Phari Mamo - Magnificent Gypsy Music From Budapest

2011-11-09T12:47:00.000-08:00

1. Zsa Mo (Zsa Mo, Rumelaj, Akhardemla)

2. Na Kamel Ma

3. Sza Tele Zsav

4. Phergyi E Bar

5. Matyilem

6. Le Shavore

7. Me Te Merav (Avtar Manca, Zug Mar A Malom, Me Te Merav)

8. Kado Gyesz

9. O Nanasi

10. Rodel Ma Muri Dej

11. Phari Mamo

12. Csi Lav Tu

13. Ho Bo Bo

JENÖ ZSIGÓ: leader, vocals, guitar, mandolin, tambura, kanna (nin pan), spoons, oral hass, udu, talking drum and other percussions

MÓNIKA "MITSOU" JUHÁSZ MICZURA: vocals, oral hass, percussions

ANTAL "GOIMA" KOVÁCS: vocals, oral bass, percussions

ANTAL "ANTI" KOVÁCS IFJ.: guitar, vocals, oral hass, percussions

JÁNOS "GUSTI" LAKATOS: vocals, kanna Ottlik pan), oral bass, percussions

Special guests:

MÓNIKA HORVÁTH: vocals os tracks 3, 5, 7, 11

FRANCOIS CASTIELLO from BRATSCWParis: accordios os tracks 1, 2, 7 ami 12

BRUNO GIRARD front BRATSCIVI>aris: violin os tracks 1, 2, 7 ami 12

LÁJOS KATHY HORVÁTH: vidin os tracks 5 ami 6

Duiring our first visit to Budapest, while researching for our "Road of the Gypsies" project, we had been warned by various musi-cologists: "just like with us, you will find it extremely difficult to differentiate between genuine Gypsy music and Hungarian music played by Gypsies". But nods of approval followed each time we reported that we were primarily interested in the Ando Drum group. At our first meeting with them, however, we were confronted with a certain scepticism that was quickly explained: past promises and projects with some western promoters and producers never concretised — and the fear that the group would be expected to play the hackneyed music and trashy clichés so prevalent in the cafés and restaurants.

Our second meeting took place in more intimate surroundings. With plenty to drink and even more to eat, we got down to planning the project. Closely adhering to the style of the group's current repertoire, and featuring several guest nuisicians, we would create an atmosphere in the studio, allowing enough space for the creativity of all the musicians concerned, as well as for the major improvised sections to unfold. And we talked a lot about Gypsy music and the group's history.

Originally a music theatre group, Ando Drom ("(in the road") emerged in the early 80's, from a Gypsy children's summer camp, run annually in close co-operation with the Romano Kher (a Gypsy cultural institution). The present group members, Anti and Gusti, taught to dance by their parents as toddlers, were already actively involved at the age of 10. Jenii is still the group's leader. Their performances moved audiences to tears and the group won press acclaim. Goima, Anti's father, already a magnificent child dancer, did his first performances at weddings. Ile recalls: "My grandfather, a famous dancer, discovered my talent when I was only three. His trick was to withhold my favourite food until I had mastered all the tasks he had set me to his satisfaction. Later, I tried to broaden the spectrum of song and vocal bass.

I ask Mitsou about the origins of her extra-ordinary voice. I had noticed the longing in her eyes whenever I spoke of my forthcoming journey to Rajasthan. She enlightened me: "When I first heard a cassette of Rajasthani music, I was very moved. Since then, I have been dreaming of the place. You see, we Gypsies originally came somehow from there — and I must have an unusual amount of Rajasthani blood in my veins." She, too, comes from a musical family. She told me of her mother, whose voice was celebrated in her native village on the Rumanian border. Having already won many prizes, she should have gone to Budapest to seek her fortune, "But we were very poor. She didn't even own a pair of shoes and was too ashamed to go to the big city. Many of her songs still live inside me." Shortly before my trip to Budapest, the group Bratsch offered me the then recently released book entitled, "Les Tsiganes de Ilongrie et leers musiques". I confronted the group with a brief summary of its contents: Patrick Williams divides traditional Hungarian Gypsy music into two distinct categories. Firstic the pure instrumental music, integrated into Hungarian folk music very early on. In the 15th Century, Gypsy musicians were engaged to entertain the court and in the decades, or even centuries, to follow, were frequently used to recruit soldiers for the army. The initial musical line-up was violin, cymbalon and double-bass, later, on occasions, to be joined by the gaida (bagpipes), bratsche, and piano. From the very beginning, these groups owed their immense popularity to the somewhat exotic style in which they played their chosen repertoire, as well as the emotional intensity of their interpretations. During the course of centuries it turned into urban music, mainly to entertain in restaurants and coffee houses. Vocals are only seldom incorporated in the music played by such groups. Or, as Patrick Williams, describes it, "when they play Hungarian music, they lose their tongues."

The music of the wandering Gypsies, on the other hand, is purely vocal. They travelled in small groups, working as tinkers and peddlers, their possessions few. As a consequence, there were no extravagant instruments. The voice was the focal point, accompanied by everyday objects and utensils, like milk cans, pots, or spoons. The music is not intended for others, as a performance for strangers, but serves their own social gathering. Personal experiences and events are at the heart of their songs, references to far away places or others not connected with their lives -tire irrelevant. The singing begins — whenever people gather to eat, drink and tell stories — mainly with pure vocal rhythms whereby vocal bass plays a significant role. Thereafter the pieces alternate between soft, often tragic ballads, to others played at a very fast tempo, sometimes with surprising sudden instants of quiet calm and pathos: despite incredible vitality and euphoria often leading to sacred moments of deep ecstasy, a deep regard and respect for the musicians always prevails. It is not unknown for a singer who is interrupted mid-song to draw a knife, or, depending on the location, throw the unlucky perpetrator over a fence, or out of a window

This music was first discovered in the 70's by intellectuals who while researching Gypsy culture hoping to make it socially more acceptable, investigated it in more detail. But the ethno-musi-cologists' early recordings focused too exclusively on the individual voices, "Call-and-Response" vocalisations were hardly ever recorded, "the voices lack the polyphonies of brotherliness". Lent) smiles before saying, "Gypsies live their music — others write about it. It is typified, romanticised. Our history is only passed down by word of mouth, anyway The division of the music into instrumental and vocal is correct: there are, in fact, various subcultures, which almost never touch each other — but I don't like it when one part of it is praised and the other devalued." And he tells of his father, who played in a group, entertaining non-Gypsies. "Ile played everything, from classic and every possible variation of Hungarian folk music, to popular songs from other lands. Playing musical requests demands an amazingly broad repertoire. Despite that. he retained his identity as a Gypsy musician with his own individual style, a specific virtuosity, unique form of presentation and Gypsy way of embellishing the pieces he played." But Ando Drom chose a different path. The instrumental style adapting the most diverse music directions, they characterise as "Playing in the Waxworks". Right front the beginning, Ando Drom found it essential to trace the traditions of the "pure" vocal music of the Gypsies and combine it with the way they feel today In so doing, the group takes care that for every musical theme, each of them "delves deeply within himself, to invest the whole of his personality in the interpretation. Unfortunately, in today's popular music form is everything. But stereotypes have no musical value; they are sterile and mechanical. With us, it's the other way round: we try to personalise the harmonies by living out many musical forms in close conjunction with the emotional depth of each individual musician." They characterise this path as an attempt to break out, but which brings conflicts of its own. Particularly within the Gypsy community, stereo-typed expectations prevail, making it very difficult for them to accept any deviations front the norm. "You have to have a very strong identity and belief in yourself to endure being rejected by many of your own people. That is why so many talented young Gypsy musicians so rarely get into new syntheses, which they often deeply desire, and are more than able to perform. It's a freedom we have to fight for." Once in the studio, it did not take long, to understand what Ando Drom meant with "the fight for freedom". There are set thematic guidelines for the old songs, each of which the members of the group approach with their own individual inter-pretation and emotional intensity; they rehearse, become inspired, improvise, dance, discuss, often quarrelling about the tiniest detail, and listen carefully — until each piece unfolds into its own ecstatic experience. They tell me about the songs, their lyrical content and their meaning and association to their daily lives.

thegoodone

the word to get the job done

Turning Dervishes Of Konya - Odes De Ney: The Cosmic Dances Of The Turning Dervishes

2011-11-08T23:02:00.000-08:00

The Turning Dervishes from Konya

- The Mevlevi Round Dance

Nobody knows the origin of this unique rite, probably it derives from a constellation cult, practised long before the dervishes adopted it and gave it a new meaning.

The position of the head and hands is typical. The right, "good" hand is opened and held towards the sky, the left, "improper" hand is held towards the earth. The head is slightly inclined to the right shoulder. The eyes are varly closed and are focussing the left thumb. A general belief is, that the dervishes have magic forces during their dance.

Once a year these Turning Dervishes, the Mevlevis, are meeting in Konya, in the highlands of Anatolia, and perform their dance in the hall of sports. Only one hour they are dancing, remembering to big white butterflies. Officially there are no mystic brotherhoods in Turkey since 1920's, and these dervishes need a special allowance from the Turkish government for their festivity to honour the founder of this sect, Mevlana Dschelal ed-Din Rumi (Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī), each December.

At the beginning there is a procession. Then the participants are lining up. The Sheikh, head of tl4e sect, has a special place in front of an altar showing towards Mekka. Holy City - altar - a red-coloured sheepfur, the place of the Sheikh, are on one line,

dividing the dance floor into two equal halfs, a mystic line called equator. The orchestra is playing mostly with "neys" (the Oriental flute of reed) and drums. All dervishes are wearing the conical "sikke", a cap made of felt, being the sign of the Mevlevi Sect, and the black-coloured "hirka" (cowl). The festival starts with a hymn to praise the Prophet Muhammad and a piece for solo flute. Then the dancers are walking three times around the Sheikh and the dance floor and return then to their places. After a second flute piece, accompanied by Per-sian songs and orchestral music the dance itself starts. The dancers are now wearing their white clothes only, the "tennure", and a short waistcoat called "destegiil". The hands crossed over their breast, the dancers are walking to the Sheikh, kiss his hands and are receiving a kiss on their caps. Then they start turning around themselves in left direction.

The origin of the Mevlevi Sect is going back to a public anger which ocurred in the year n44, exactly on November 3oth 1244.

An imam, Dschelal ed-Din, fell in love with a foreign preacher in Konya. Dschelal ed-Din came from the city of Batch (today in Afghanistan) and counted 37 years. He was a professor and mufti and belonged therefore to the important people of Konya. His students called him respectfully "Maulana", in Turkish language "Mevlana"(Mevlâna,Our Guide). Due to this love he became a stranger in his city overnight. He neglected his duties and services, but people did not realize that Mevlana had not seen a normal man in this foreign preacher, but a portray of God.

The Sufi, the Islamic mysticals, were searching for God's presence already on earth, and the unification with God. The mystic beliefs of Mevlana and most Sufis are bearing on the following thoughts: Except God there is no reality. Man itself is without a real being, but may participate - under certain circumstances - in the reality of God. This assumption is fulfilled, when man has freed himself from his own, human qualities. The way to this freedom is suffering (not in a stupid self punishing way of course, in The Sufi path of love: the spiritual teachings of Rumi, in section on separation and union at about pages 236 to 238 you can read Rumi's thoughts on this ". The power to go this way is coming from his love for God.

In February 1146 Dschelal ed-Din and Schems ed-Din, the preacher, were separated by jealous students. Schems ed-Din returned once again to Konya in later years, but he disappeared under unknown circumstances. Konya found its Mevlana again, but he was not the same anymore. Twice again Mevlana fell in love with other men. His last love was Hilsam ed-Din, member of a family with great influence. Due to this love, Mevlana wrote a giant poem called "Mesnevi" (alternate link), influencing Islamic mystics in an incredible way. The first verses of this poem are considered to be influenced by God. This poem is generally known as the "Lament of the Ney". In the second half of his life, Mevlana became the mystic father of Konya. He was called "Sultan of the Lovers". In his last years of life the Sect of Mevlevis was founded, the origin of the Turning Dervishes. The final form was given to the sect by Sultan Veled, the son of the master. In the evening of 17th December tin Mevlana died.

The Sect of Mevlevis treasured his heritage for over 700 years, but with some renewed interpretation. Today the tomb of Mevlana is never without visitors. Those who have the opportunity to observe the Mevlevis for some days will see that there is a very deep believe behind the Turning Dervishes from Konya.

form linear notes with some intervention

Terms of Mevlevi order

1 Naat (Lounge)
2 Peshrey (Prelude)
3 Niyaz Ayin (The Cosmic Dance)
4 Hay (Zirk) (Invocation)
5 Son Peshrev (Postlude)
6 Bayati Semai (Interlude)
7 Nukte (Humour)

8 Ferahfeza
9 Yayli Tanbur (Arch-Lute)
10 Bishnev Ez Ney
11 Odes De Ney (Ode)
12 Tanbur (Long-Neck Lute)

word
thegoodone

Black Cumin, Nigella sativa, spice, preservative & medicine

2011-11-05T01:03:00.000-07:00

Nigella sativa, Black Cumin (known as kaljeera (Assamese kalzira or kolazira), kalo jira(Bengali: kalojira, black cumin), karum cheerakam (Tamil கருஞ்சீரகம்), kalonji (Hindi/Urduकलौंजीkalaumjī or كلونجى/कलोंजी kalomjī) or mangrail (Hindi मंगरैल mamgarail), ketzakh (Hebrew קצח), chernushka(Russian),çörek otu (Turkish), habbat al-barakah (Arabic حبه البركة ḥabbat al-barakah, seed of blessing), siyah daneh (Persian سیاه‌دانه siyâh dâne), jintan hitam (Indonesian), karim jeerakam in Malayalam, Karto Jeera in (Beary Language). wiki.)

In Western Asia, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt and along the Eastern Mediterranean region black seed oil has been known for centuries for it's benefits to health and was a most common spice during the Middle Ages. The steam distilled oil of black cumin seeds is used in case of:

- Constipation, diarrhea and flatulence,
- Weakened liver function,
- Migraines,
- Strengthens the vitality of the organism,
- Anti-fatigue and inflammation,
- Improves digestion and appetite,
- Accelerates sweating and reduces fever,
- Removes parasites (worms) from the body,
- A good antidote for bacterial, fungal and viral diseases
- Bleeding (epistaxis, and hemophilia),
- Carcinogenic disease
- Reduces blood sugar level,
- Accelerates the excretion of urine,
- Stimulates milk production in nursing mothers,
- Regulates growth hormones,
- Good for lowering blood cholesterol,
- Iinflammation of the nasal cavity,
- Dry cough,
- Bronchial asthma and flu

- Allergies
- Neurodermatitis,
- Psoriasis,
- To regulate the immune system,
- To relieve the symptoms of asthma,
- For the alleviation of chemotherapy side effects,
- Digestive problems,
- High blood pressure
- In veterinary medicine.
- Also used as an aphrodisiac

Here you can find some more ways to use it, actually there are a lot of useful pages on how to use this wonderful miracle maker, I can confirm that it works almost instantly in case of diarrhea and works quite well in case of allergies (swollen throat, eczema). I heard that Mohammed said that black cumin cures every disease but death itself, in our times a lot of scientific research was done on black cumin, and some confirmed that many from the list above are rightfully holding their place on it. I am not saying that this or any other herb can totally replace medical treatments, but for sure they have bean used in pharmacy for years, and that is a certain testament to their value, especially for modern skeptics. Most of pharmaceutical medicine create imbalance in our bodies, use of natural substances can bring the balance back, after all, our organisms are used to those for centuries.

Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto-Un fuego de Sangre Pura

2011-11-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

Dark nights light up in fire

like a feast that enchants.

The beating of the drums,

the black race rises up,

and the Indian, passively

with his melodic gaita,

interrupt the silence

when a bonfire dances,

and I feel through my veins

a fire that goes unquenched.

It is the fire of my cumbia;

It is the fire of my race:

A fire of pure blood,

Sung in laments.

Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto has been the most important gaita ensemble (conjunto de gaitas) in Colombia since the mid 1950s. Gaita is a term used to name a Colombian musical instrument, various musical genres, and an ensemble (the conjunto de gaitas), all from the Caribbean region of Colombia, from where much commercially available Colombian traditional and popular music comes. Today, gaita is primarily performed in the Serranía de San Jacinto, the hilly region that embraces the municipalities of San Jacinto, Ovejas, El Carmen de Bolívar, San Juan Nepomuceno, San Onofre, and María la Baja in the departments of Bolívar and Sucre, all in the region known as Montes de María.

Before the 1940s, conjuntos de gaita performed in what the elder musicians refer to as rondas de gaita-nightlong feasts, at which the musicians would sit at the center of a circle, taking turns playing and surrounded by dancers. They also used to be performed at funerals-which is why some of this music is associated with laments. These rondas no longer occur in community life; today, the music is performed primarily in folk-music festivals, theaters,and discotheques, especially in Cartagena, Barranquilla
and Bogotá, and in Colombia’s Caribbean region.

The founder and initial leader of the Gaiteros de San Jacinto was Miguel Antonio “Toño” Fernández (1912–1988).Today, the elders of the group are Joaquín Nicolás Hernández (male long gaita and maraca), Manuel Antonio “Toño” García (female long gaita), and Juancho “Chuchita” Fernández (voice), who trace their direct lineage and heritage to the founding members. The other members of the group are Rafael Castro (voice), Fredys Arrieta(female long gaita), Gabriel Torregrosa (short gaita and pito atravesao, percussion), Joche Plata (percussion), Gualber José Rodríguez (percussion), and Adolfo Rodríguez (percussion).

The fact that the group has persisted and includes several generations of musicians speaks to the vitality of
this tradition. Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto are a musical icon in San Jacinto and Bogotá and a reference point for other gaita musicians throughout Colombia. Through their own new compositions and through
teaching young musicians, they are a crucial link between traditional gaita music and its contemporary renewal. Thanks in great part to them, gaita music has become one of the most influential traditional musics in contemporary Colombian popular music today.

from the notes

visit wiki

Gaiteros in space

Un fuego de Sangre Pura

Idris Ackamoor

2011-10-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

...
After incredible performances and experiences during the fall of 1972 Margo, Kimathi and myself left Amsterdam on our way to Africa in December 1972. We flew to Malaga, Spain and then to Tangier, Morocco. We were almost turned away from touching the ground of Africa by a bellicose customs official who thought we were "hippies". Fortunately, we got pass the official and entered the mystical legendary Kasbah. The smells, and colors of the Kasbah were just more musical fodder for ater compositions.
We finally landed in Accra, Ghana where we made our home. A young Ghanaian named Kojo befriended us and his family led by the "Diamond Queen", Aunti Bea. We stayed with the family of Aunti Bea at her compound entitled, "Weekend in Havana". From this base Margo, Kimathi and myself became immersed in the color, fascination, and incredible musical life and culture of Ghana. Ghana was a musicians dream!! Music was everywhere.
We were musicians, college students, seekers, and acolytes in Africa. Margo and myself took an amazing musical spiritual journey up into Northern Ghana. The land of the Fra Fra of Bolgatanga, and the Islam influenced Dagom ba in Tamale. We had our instruments and a tape recorder in hand. It was as if we had stepped back five hundred years into an ancient Africa complete with court musicians and colorful pageantry....(Idris Acamoor in linear notes)

disk 1
1 Shepherd's Tune
2 Lands of Eternal Song Suite, Pt. 3
3 Lalibela
4 Masenko Nights
5 Ya A Ya A
6 River Ganges
7 Mohgo Naba
8 Queen of the Spirits, Pt. 3

disk 2
1 Aomawa
2 Birth/Speed/Merging
3 Black Man of the Nile
4 Africa
5 Spiritual Rebirth
6 Topanga
7 Centurian
8 Cubana

thegoodone is the word to say

pass by or stay

you are welcomed anyway :)

2-CD collection of the ex-leader of legendary Afro-spiritual/deep funk/free jazz group from 1970s Ohio (later in SF), The Pyramids.
Their music is one of the most deep attempts by African-Americans, deep sounds like Strata-East, aggressive performances like Tribe or Black Jazz, every free jazz/funk collectors should agree on it. Featuring 10 pieces of The Pyramids taken from their 3 albums and unreleased (!) recordings (included first live recording in Holland!). Notably The Pyramids had even stayed in African countries like Morocco, Ghana, Kenya & Ethiopia and studied real African culture & music there in the early 1970s. Do you know other African-American jazz musicians who had done such a road trip in early 1970s?

Also featuring never heard pre-Pyramids, P. Sanders & Strata East recording as The Collective, and 4 pieces from the late '70s to '00s, recording as Idris Ackamoor Quartet/Ensemble.

REVIEW:
As with every review of a release on EM records, we feel obligated to gush just a little. WHAT AN AMAZING LABEL! Most definitely the coolest reissue label going. Completely off the wall releases dug up and given new life. Amazing packaging, killer liner notes, tons of photos. So much love and passion obviously goes into each and every release we'd almost buy every one regardless of the music. Thankfully, pretty much everything we've heard so far is absolutely amazing, and well deserving of a deluxe reissue treatment. read more

Jagjit Singh lives...

2011-10-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

Jagjit Singh

Saanwara- Krishna Bhajans & Kirtan

1. Baat Nihare Ghanshyam
2. Hey Krishna Gopal Hari
3. Tum Dhundho Mujhe Gopal
4. Krishna Maurariji Aankh Base
5. Banek Bihari
6. Krishna Pranat Pal Prabhu

.ღ•:*´♥`*:•ღ.

there is nothing left to say that friend Ajnabi did not say 100 times better:

The Voice That Gave Us Courage Is No More: Jagjit Singh

Jagjit Singh’s biography

Jagjit Singh (born February 8, 1941) is an Indian ghazal singer. He sings in the Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi languages, and Gujarati language. Jagjit Singh was born in Ganganagar, then in Rajputana in British India. His father Sardar Amar Singh Dhiman, employed by the Government of India, was a native of the village of Dalla in what is now Ropar district in Punjab and his mother Bachchan Kaur came from a deeply religious Sikh family from Ottallan village near Samrala. His siblings include four sisters and two brothers and he Singh is known as Jeet by his family. Although his late father wanted him to join the Indian Administrative Service, he was later reported to be happy with his son's achievements in the world of music. Singh went to Khalsa High School in Ganganagar. He then studied science after matriculation at Government College,Ganganagar and went onto DAV College, Jalandhar in to graduate in arts. He also achieved a post-graduate degree in history from Kurukshetra University, Haryana.

Jagjit Singh's association with music goes back to his childhood. He learnt music under Pandit Chaganlal Sharma for two years in Ganganagar, and later devoted six years to learning Khayal, Thumri and Dhrupad forms of Indian Classical Music from Ustad Jamaal Khan of the Sainia Gharana school. The Vice-Chancellor of Punjab University and Kurukshetra University, Late Professor Suraj Bhan encouraged his interest in music. He arrived in Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1965 in search of better opportunities as a career musician and singer. His early struggle in the music industry, though not too harsh by his own account, still had its share of trials and tribulations. He lived as a paying guest and his earlier assignments were singing advertisement jingles or performing at weddings and parties.

During 1970s, in India, the art of ghazal singing was dominated by well-established names like Noor Jehan, Malika Pukhraj, Begum Akhtar,Talat Mahmood and Mehdi Hassan. However, Jagjit was still able to make his mark and carve out a niche for himself. In 1976, his album The Unforgettables (On HMV LP Records) hit the music stores. Essentially a ghazal album, it's emphasis on melody and Jagjit's fresh voice was a departure from the prevalent style of ghazal rendition, which was heavily based on classical and semi-classical Indian music. Skeptics had their own reservations, purists scorned it but it was widely successful among listeners and the album set new sales records.

In 1967 he met Chitra, also a singer, while doing jingles. After a two year long courtship they got married in 1969. They epitomise the first successful husband-wife singing team. Jagjit Singh, with Chitra, has contributed immensely towards changing the course of this genre of music known as 'Ghazal' making it more ear friendly, melodic and enojoyable by a wider audience.

Later successful releases of the duo include Ecstasies, A Sound Affair and Passions. While these albums were breezy, Beyond Time released in the opening years of 1990s was an experimentation with sounds and conveyed a feeling that was beyond space and time. Around this time the duo was struck by grief as their only son, Vivek, who was twenty-one, met an untimely death in a road accident. Not only Jagjit and Chitra, it was a big shock to his numerous fans also. The album is a tour to the soul, ethereal, conscientious and introspective. The ghazals have a moving quality to them since they express the personal loss of Jagjit and Chitra. 'Someone Somewhere' was the last album containing ghazals sung by both. After that, Chitra quit singing.

Jagjit Singh continued singing his later albums, including Hope, In Search, Insight, Mirage, Visions, Kahkashan (meaning "Galaxy"), Love Is Blind, Chirag (meaning "Lamp"/"Flame") also achieved success. Sajda (an Urdu word meaning "offering"), which has ghazals sung by Jagjit and Lata Mangeshkar was another brilliant release and made its mark as a classic Ghazal album. The combined successes of his many albums made him arguably the number one ghazal singer in India. The audience wanted more and Jagjit Singh obliged with his Punjabi albums. Ebullient, effervescent and bubbly, his Punjabi songs are pleasant as well as joyous. Their enchanting ghazals use the choicest poetry by renowned poets including Mirza Ghalib, Ameer Meenai, Kafeel Aazer, Sudarshan Faakir and Nida Fazli…. and contemporary writers like Zaka Siddiqi, Nazir Bakri, Faiz Ratlami and Rajesh Reddy.

Jagjit also sang (as playback singer) for various songs in Bollywood films including Arth, Saath Saath and Premgeet (all from 1980s). The scores remain popular even today. In fact, all the songs of film Premgeet were composed by Jagjit. His compositions for the TV serial Mirza Ghalib (based on the life of the poet Mirza Ghalib), remain extremely popular among ghazal aficionados. The elusive element of Ghalib's poetry was sensitively and wonderfully brought out in the soulful compositions of Ghalib's ghazals by Jagjit Singh. The album could veritably be called a magnum opus.

Compared to his earlier ghazals (sung during 70s and 80s) his later ghazals have acquired a more soulful and poignant demeanour, as in albums such as Marasim, Face To Face, Aaeena, Cry For Cry. But all through this, romance never took a backseat! The journey to the soul is punctuated by romantic pauses like Dil Kahin Hosh Kahin. A testimony to his popularity is his ghazals in recent Bollywood flicks like Dushman, Sarfarosh, Tum Bin and Tarkeeb.

Most of the earlier albums of Jagjit Singh had English titles. Later, these had Urdu names like Sahar (meaning "Dawn"/"Morning"), Muntazir (meaning "In waiting"), Marasim (meaning "Relation"/"Relationship"/"Affinity" ) "Soz" (Pathos) etc.. The switchover may not be deliberate but marks a milestone in his singing. These new albums show a far better selection of lyrics and yes, even the singing has scaled new peaks.

Besides ghazals, Jagjit Singh has also sung Bhajans and Gurbani(Hindu and Sikh devotional hymns respectively) . Albums such as Maa, Hare Krishna, Hey Ram...Hey Ram, Ichhabal and also Man Jeetai Jagjeet in Punjabi, put him in the league of Bhajan singers such as Mukesh, Hari Om Sharan, Yesudas, Anup Jalota and Purushottam Das Jalota. The soothing effect that Jagjit's voice has on frayed nerves has prompted psychiatrists in metros (as large cities in India are called) to prescribe them as stress relievers.

Jagjit Singh is accredited with bringing the ghazal genre, which was previously restricted to the elite classes, to the masses. His music direction can be seen to be pioneering in changing the sound layout by adding more Western instruments while mostly retaining the traditional orchestra (which includes a tablaa, and harmonium, and a couple of string instruments]. Jagjit Singh is also nicknamed Gazaljit Singh.

Jagjit Singh is accredited with finding one of the foremost playback singers in Bollywood in modern times, Kumar Sanu. As he played a big part in Sanu's initial career, in an interview Sanu said that Singh took him to meet the legendary music composers Kalyanji Anandji after hearing his voice, from there on Sanu has become a legend in Bollywood for his range and singing as he went to win five male playback Filmfare Awards in a row. A record that still stands.

Jagjit Singh voiced his opinion against artists from Pakistan being allowed to sing in India, when Pakistan refuses to reciprocate the gesture.

In addition to cultivating his own successful career, Jagjit Singh has been involved in guiding many new, talented singers such as Abhijeet Bhattacharya,Talat Aziz, Ghanshyam Vaswani, Ashok Khosla, Siza Roy and Vinod Sehgal. He also lends active support to several philanthropic endeavors such as the Library at St. Mary's (Mumbai), Bombay Hospital, CRY, and ALMA (an organization that adopts under-privileged students for further education and development).

Jagjit Singh lives...

j

wiki

Ljubo Stipišić Delmata RIP

2011-10-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

Just a few days ago we had posted his Antology, on 09.10.11 this guardian of Dalmatian musical heritage, took of for the stars. His words and work show a man deeply spiritual, conductor, composer, arranger and melodist, leader and founder of numerous klapa groups, he has also published several books of poetry and aphorisms. "If this all doesn't have purpose of becoming a better man, than it doesn't have eny meaning at all". Described as natural, secretive and upright, lived a modest life in joyful gratitude, witnessing the truth in a world, where truthful walk alone. His works have long been making their mark, and their value is priceless ...

more on spirit

An interview in croatian

Certany moast known of his works...

SavoirFaire - Running Out of Time

2011-10-09T22:59:00.000-07:00

SavoirFaire explodes with joyous enthusiasm at the sounds made by another musician. So many times have I seen these expressions of pleasure and heard these shouts of approval. I 'realize that in these moments, he simply cannot contain his excitement and what a great thing that is.
Next I see an inward-centered and dark- edged violinist performing his elegiac classically bent solo piece "Aspen's Woes". The melody plays like the rainy-day watercolors of a child's mind: focused, wistful and dreamy. More than a song about one particularly special girl, the composition becomes a tribute to child princesses (and princes) everywhere, to their fragility, vulnerability and strength.
On the drive to the recording sessions one summer afternoon Savoir discussed the illusion we have all had that those around us are somehow background players to our own leading roles in life, as though we had the stage all to ourselves, to our egos. He spoke of music breaking down these walls, these facades — the harmony recreating itself in other forms, and die struggle to write and record the music that is always on the verge of slipping away.
I muse on Savoir's curiosity, his love of exploration and new ideas: his thirst for knowing about people and this planet in all of its manifestations: cultures ancient and present: where we are going and where we have been: and ultimately his interest in these questions; How can we put more of our lives into this design? What sort of soundtrack will truly accompany and enhance the state of our spirits today? What kinds of songs can promote our evolution and encourage us to be stars, that is - shining beings?...
Bill MacKay in linear notes

1. Running Out Of Time
2. One Inch Angels
3. Room For More
4. Martitha
5. Pendulum
6. Surazal
7. Interlude
8. Timetable
9. Sommer's Ashes
10. Aspen's Woes

Time well spent

word

thegoodone

Samuel SavoirFaire Williams

Born and raised on Chicago's south side, violinist SavoirFaire cut his improvisational teeth at local jazz sessions. His first performance was at age 5 on stage at Chicago Symphony Center's Orchestra Hall as one of 25 special Suzuki students. SavoirFaire

SavoirFaire might sound like the name of someone who specializes in dance music; it isn't hard to imagine a deep house, chillout, downtempo, or trance artist adopting the stage name SavoirFaire. But this SavoirFaire (whose real name is Samuel Williams) doesn't provide any of those things on Running Out of Time; he is a Chicago-based jazz violinist -- and when it comes to instrumental jazz, he is not easy to pigeonhole stylistically. Samuel "SavoirFaire" Williams (who wrote everything on this Bob Koester-produced CD) is quite capable of jumping from post-bop to fusion to avant-garde jazz; anyone who listens to the album in its entirety will get the impression that along the way, he has appreciated everyone from Regina Carter to Stuff Smith to Billy Bang to Jean-Luc Ponty. Parts of Running Out of Time find the Chicagoan getting into a '60s-minded post-bop groove; "Room for More" and the title track give listeners some idea what saxophonist Wayne Shorter or guitarist Grant Green might have sounded like on the electric violin when they were signed to Blue Note. But a more abstract and dissonant SavoirFaire emerges on the electric free jazz of "Surazal," which contains the disc's most outside playing. "Pendulum" moves into fusion territory, and the wistful ballad "Sommer's Ashes" has a '40s-like sense of romance; had SavoirFaire been around back then, the piece would have been appropriate for Lester Young, Stan Getz, or the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Much to SavoirFaire's credit, all this eclecticism doesn't sound forced or unnatural; he comes across as someone who genuinely appreciates a wide variety of jazz styles and has a need to express that appreciation on his violin. Running Out of Time demonstrates that SavoirFaire is well worth keeping an eye on. ~ Alex Henderson

Fragance of Dalmatia III

2011-10-08T01:02:00.000-07:00

Broad beans

and artichokes

Mladi bob sa artičokama

Artichoke is a medical plant that is recommended for people with elevated cholesterol, because it has a natural ability to lower blood fats. It also helps with indigestion, heartburn and flatulence problems and abdominal pain. With all this listed, artichoke is very delicious, so try to find a way to place your desk.
In the writings of traditional medicine says that the tea leaves of artichokes help you regain appetite, helps digest fats, stimulates urination, heal the liver and gall bladder, removed uric acid (urea)from the blood, a toxic product of disturbed metabolism in the body, cures jaundice, congestion and liver cirrhosis. It helps in case of sickness of the spleen, kidney stone, gout, rheumatism, and swelling with dropsy. Helps older people especially in the case of uremia, ie poisoning with toxins that are caused by the body's own diseased kidneys, obstructed urination, and the like.
Intensive scientific clinical trials have confirmed the beneficial effects of artichoke extract, and deepened understanding of this precious plant.

• 10 artichoke
• 300 g baby broad beans
• 300 g of young pea
• parsley
• garlic
• bread crumbs
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• good white wine

Clean the artichokes by cutting off their stalks and leaves that are slightly damaged, and they are usually at the bottom of the artichoke. When you clean them, put them into boiling, salted water, with few drops of lemon juice. Soak the artichokes so that are upside down and cook then for about ten minutes. When blanched, take them out and drain.
Cook peas and broad beans, length of cooking depends on how young or freash are broad beans and peas. Chop a couple of cloves of garlic and plenty of parsley, and mix with the cooked peas and 2-3 tablespoons of baby broad beans. Pour over enough olive oil, add salt, pepper and bread crumbs (all together is should be a compact mixture). Spread the leaves of artichoke and fill them with stuffing. Put filled artichokes in a pot with olive oil and butter.

The pot in which you cook artichokes should not be too deep, artichokes have to stand upright. Around them, put the rest of the baby broad beans and all the remaining filling. Then add about 3 deciliter of broth (the water you cooked with artichoke stalks, chopped parsley, salt and pepper and a bit of good, dry white wine). Cook gently for about 30 minutes. Enjoy your meal!

translated form
All apologies to english language, I tried to give my best :)

Some tips from my mother:
Lemon is used to prevent the artichoke from changing colour or prevent oxidation, use at least half of the lemon. Artichoke should be fresh and green, it must not turn dark of course.
You can prepare the filling without beans, or you can add hard boiled eggs to it, beans and peas are added when you start coking the artichokes for 30 min. if you have frozen peas and beans, put them next to artichokes when water starts boiling, you can also add some tomato concentrate. The level of the water shouldn't be to high, just to cover it all.

other source for the recipe in croatian.

There are several ways of prepering the tea from Artichoke.
Tea against rheumatism and water in the joints:
Dip the flower heads of artichoke in a hot white wine, let it sit for about 2 hours to use as a tea.
Also, you can pour over some boiling water over a pinch of leaves,and let it sit for a while to let the healing agents come out.
2.5 to 4 grams of dried leaf pour 250 mL of boiling water, let stand for 10-15 minutes and strain. This quantity is prepared exclusively fresh three times a day and drink it between meals. However, the infusion of artichoke leaf is extremely bitter and is rarely used. Formerly a bitter infusions used to increase appetite.

---------------------------------

And of course something for your ears while your tongue, liver and belly are enjoying.

Ljubo Stipišić Delmata
Antologija – Dalmatino povišću pritrujena

01. Dalmatino poviscu pritrujena - Oktet DC (Vranjic)
02. Intrade san popi - Oktet DC (Vranjic)
03. Namisto molitve ime ti ponavjan - Oktet DC (Vranjic)
04. Baren se iskaji, nevirna - Oktet DC (Vranjic)
05. Zlata jemas, dare primas - Oktet DC (Vranjic)
06. Prosti meni vilo - Oktet DC (Vranjic)
07. Ako smo mali djiografskin kartan - Oktet DC (Vranjic)
08. Dvi ruke u vrj sviju - Oktet DC (Vranjic)
09. Na posteji mojon ca san je udila - Oktet DC (Vranjic)
10. Ima posta slipi ol' ubogi - Oktet DC (Vranjic)
11. Imam dragoga - Klapa Luka (ž - Rijeka)
12. Mi ne domo cacu (Sprovod) - Klapa Nostalgija (Zagreb)
13. Ako vas svit dico moja - Klapa Cesarice (women - Zagreb)
14. Kod lepanta sunce moje - Vokalisti Salone (Solin)
15. Umra jedan bidni - Vokalisti Salone (Solin)
16. Testamentum - Vokalisti Salone (Solin)
17. Nostalgija za bogom Vokalisti Salone (Solin)
18. Pod krizem Vokalisti Salone (Solin)
19. Oce nas - Vokalisti Salone (Solin)
20. Gremo mi puntari - Gradski zbor Brodosplit (Split) (citty choir Split)
21. Dalmatino poviscu pritrujena - Gradski zbor Brodosplit (Split)

Something from dalamtia for full belly and full ears, oh, the pass simply must be thegoodone.

In the year 2009 Zadar Public Library is undertaking the digitization project of Mr. Ljubo Stipišić Delmata opus (b. 1938.).

Ljubo Stipišić Delmata's (or simply Maestro Delmata's) personality contains a multitude of traits: composer, poet, melodiographer, painter, producer, conductor of acappela ensambles, etc. Maestro Delmata has been honored numerous prestigious music awards including several lifetime achievement awards.

For his cooperation with the Zadar Public Library Maestro Delmata is honored the title as "Zadar Public Library best man". Together with the library, Maestro works in various projects ranging from acappela concerts, surveys and founding of children acappela choirs, exhibitions, guidebooks for acappela conductors etc. Wealth of common work conducted so far developed into the next stage of cooperation – digital presentation of his work, including music painting and literature.

The basis of Delmata project is a collection of rare tone recordings made during Delmata's ethnomusicological works. These recordings are being digitized together with accompanying notes, books etc. and put on the library webpage (www.gkzd.hr/delmata).

Delmata's work is of immeasurable musicological and cultural importance, especially for preservation and strengthening of the identity of South of Croatia, i.e. Dalmatia. The value and the importance of the project are recognized by the Ministry of Culture of Croatia and Raiffeisenbank who support the project (www.kultura.hr).

Once it is finished, the Delmata Project will be presented on the Zadar Public Library webpage and also on the Croatian Ministry of Culture web through the Croatian Cultural Heritage portal.

Delmata Project is meant for use by students, musicians, musicologists, ethnomusicologists and general public who want to learn about Croatian musical heritage, perform research, experiment, relax, or find inspiration for creative work.

Ismael Ivo

2011-10-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

“I let movements within me live their own life,

not knowing which hand or foot they come from.

I place my body at their disposal, so that ideas and movements can act

- then I am back at my own roots. It’s like being in trance.

I give my body over to the idea, letting the idea work within me

without trying to fix anything beforehand.

Everyday you go down to the river, but the river is never the same,

so you always have to bring new life energy back.”

Born in São Paulo in Brazil, Ismael Ivo is an international star of modern dance and choreography who moves provocatively along the border between dance theatre and expressive dance and is concerned with the taboo on the body in the Western world.

After receiving various honours in his hometown São Paulo and studying at the Alvin

Ailey Dance Centre in New York, Ivo emigrated in 1985 to Europe, where has worked mainly in Berlin with colleagues like Johann Kresnik and George Tabori and for the

House of World Cultures.

He defines existence in bodily terms. His existentialism makes him wary of the popular notion of conventions set by a social group as a whole, since he wants to get in touch with his public directly and physically:

“Existence, as I see it, is fiction. Existence is Utopia. This involves a faith in life in the sense of transforming moments and relationships, opening new possibilities again and again… I believe in the body, not only in the soul. It’s my present home. And I can try to explore it more and more and to make it more sensitive. I am trying to find a new spatial order, a spatial order from body to body, from dancing to the public… What are the possibilities of communication? The body is an open house of possibilities. It’s so complex that I am always holding a dialogue with it without ever understanding it.”

Lloyd Miller & The Heliocentrics

2011-09-28T23:47:00.000-07:00

On the heels of Strut’s successful award-winning pairing of the UK psychedelic electro funk/jazz ensemble The Heliocentrics with East African Ethio jazz pioneer Mulatu Astatke last year, the label decided to pair this British band with another enigmatic cosmopolitan jazz legend – Lloyd Miller. Casting off their electronic edge, for this project The Heliocentrics provide a deep, organic, and hypnotic Afro-Arab acoustic funk that flows and swings with agility behind the exotic tones and textures of Miller’s multi-instrumental explorations of Persian modalities and colors.

Miller is not just another jazzer attempting to jump on the world music bandwagon, but rather he is deeply committed to the foreign, namely Persian and Asian, musical traditions that give his brand of global jazz fusion a profound depth and authenticity. In fact, Miller has been mixing Middle Eastern music with jazz since the late 1950s, when he moved to Iran with his family. Building on his background as a Dixieland clarinetist and pianist, Miller studied with Middle Eastern music masters such as Dr. Daryush Safvat and Mahmoud Karimi, developing talents on multiple Persian instruments. He first showcased his unique Eastern-infused jazz on his seminal recording Oriental Jazz from the 1960s, which has since become a cult classic for global jazz connoisseurs and can now be heard on A Lifetime in Oriental Jazz, a recent compilation CD put out by the UK label Jazzman.

Archimedes Badkar – Tre

2011-09-26T01:00:00.000-07:00

"What a long strange trip it was", to paraphrase The Grateful Dead, only it wasn't that long - but it sure was strange! Archimedes Badkar ("Archimedes' Bathtub") was started by yours truly in elementary schools eight grade (1972) in Grondal, southern Stockholm as a combined light-show(!) and music unit: just a bunch of kids messing around, our influences ranging front complex Zappa-isms and Coltrane/Shepp/Sanders -free jazz" to the minimalistic methods ofTerry Riley widened with the arrival of "real musician- Jorgen Adolfison, who brought with him his vast knowledge of traditional music Irons all over the globe. Our real-life heroes were the grown-ups in -FIlisket Brinner" (with Sten Bergman), "Triid, Gras & Stenar- (with Thomas Mcra Gam and Torbjorn Abelli), "Arbete OcIs Fritid" (with Bengt -Beebe- Berger, Kjell Wesding, and later Tord Bengtsson) and the late Don Cherry, who resided in Sweden at the time, and whose fellow musicians included Christer BotIsa and -Beebe" Berger. Making a record was a seemingly unobtainable fantasy.

So it still amazes inc that in 1979 Archimedes Badkar had released four albums (including a double one), Don Cherry had been a frequent guest artist, Kjell Westling had recorded and toured with the band, and the other musicians mentioned above were all members of the band !

But before that the first years of playing benefit gigs and free festivals were really chaotic, in sort ola "anything goes" spirit of the time - to say that the audiences never knew what to expect would be a subtle understatement: hell, we didn't know what to expect ! The number of people on stage would range from four to twenty (including fire- eaters and extravagantely dressed dancers - Sun Ra surely was an influence). Guys we had never seen before would turn up with guitars and big amps (including one Che Guevara-look-a-like biker with enormous chains around Isis waist). It was hard to tell who was actually a member of the band, and what instrument they played.This is certainly true in the case of brilliant guitarist and bass- player Christer Bjernelind, who would turn up for rehearsals carrying the pieces of a clarinet in a plastic bag, a tenor saxophone with a rope as neck- strap, or, on one particulary memorable occasion, a vibraphone Ise had transported across town on it's wheels.

By the time -Tre", our third album, was recorded in 1977 things were comparatively more tightly structured. But we still kept things quite open, moving from thumb piano duos to indian instrumentation with electric bass soloing, to full "jazz- line-up of horns, piano, bass and drums.

When I left the band to fully concentrate on my duties in "Peps Blodsband" Bengt became bandleader and eventually transformed the band into "The Bitter Funeral Beer Band", developing his arrangements of music from Ghana that had started with "Darkpen". The album "BITTER FUNERAL BEER" (ECM 8393082) features Don Cherry, the Adolfssons, Bothen, Kjell Westling, Krantz, Thomas Mera Gartz, Tord Bengtsson and others. Christer Bother' recorded one of the best albums I've heard (big words, but I mean it), "TRANCE DANCE" (up-coming CD- re-release on MNW) featuring musical impressions of his stays in Mali and Morocco with Bengt, Mera, the AdolSsons, Wesding, Krantz, Bengtsson and his newly-formed band "Bolon Bata".

jorgen and Tommy continued to work as a duo called the "KARL BROTHERS" (though they are only musically, not genetically, brothers), recording a great album in 1994 (Slask Records SI.ACD 009).

I have made nine solo albums to date (inclu

ding one collaboration with the late painter and poet Mati Klarwein) featuring contributions from the Adolfssons, Botha, Berger, Christer Bjernelind, and Peter Ek who together with Jorge!' is part of my current band which can be heard on the CD "UNIVERSAL RIDDIM" 1'M1VW/RUBCD 17).

Archimedes Badkar has yet to follow the ongoing trend of re-unions, but with the release of this CD, who knows ?

— Linear notes Per Tyernberg,

Stockholm, May 2003 •

1 Badidoom
2 Wildlife
3 Akombah
4 Bhajan
5 Slum
6 Thumb Piano Music
7 Suite: Pharoah / El Legend / Marrakech
8 Desert Band
9 Tzivaeri
10 Nomads
11 Yugoslavian Dance
12 Jorden ("The Earth")
13 Charmante Yerevan
14 After The Rain / Waterfalls
15 Darkpen

word to pass around the bathtub is thegoodone

Spirits & Gifts

2011-09-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

the focus for today is on this contemporary rhythm shaman and renaissance man :

Originally from Chicago, composer and handrummer/percussionist Adam Rudolph has, for the past three decades, appeared at festivals and concerts throughout North & South America, Europe, Africa, and Japan.
In 1988 Rudolph began his association with the legendary Yusef Lateef, which lasts to this day. He has recorded 14 albums with Dr. Lateef including their large ensemble collaborations: “The World at Peace” (1995), “Beyond the Sky” (2000) and 2003’s “In The Garden” with Rudolph conducting his Go: Organic Orchestra. He has performed worldwide with Dr. Lateef in ensembles ranging from their acclaimed duo concerts to appearing as guest soloist with Koln, Atlanta and Detroit symphony orchestras.
Since the 1970’s Rudolph has been developing his unique syncretic approach to hand drums in creative collaborations with many masters of cross-cultural and improvised music such as Sam Rivers, Pharoah Sanders, L. Shankar, and Fred Anderson. He is known especially for his innovative small group and duo collaborations with Don Cherry, Jon Hassel, Wadada Leo Smith, and Omar Sosa.

Since 1992 Rudolph has led his own performing ensemble, Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures, featuring drummer Hamid Drake, Ralph Jones, and Venice based Butoh dance innovator Oguri. The group has performed in both Europe and the United States, and has released several CD’s featuring Rudolph’s compositions. In 1995 he premiered The Dreamer, an Opera based on Friedreich Nietzsche's "Birth of Tragedy".

links:

http://www.metarecords.com/adam.html
http://www.metarecords.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Rudolph

"Most musicians come to grasp an understanding of music in terms of style - such as the predominant style of music of the sixties. When you look underneath style, then you see more basic components, like rhythm and harmony. But at an even more essential level there is music as vibration; and I think this is the deepest level of understanding we can pursue".

"What's passed on is specific musical information about intervals, rhythms, use of sound and silence. But the more profound things that we learn from the elders have to do with an attitude and a reverence toward the creation of music. Don [Cherry] said to me: 'You have to respect the silence before you can respect the sound.'

2 gifts to keep you busy:)

Spirits with Pharoah Sanders and Hamid Drake

Gift of the Gnawa with Hassan Hakmoun and Don Cherry

3 Feet High & Rising

2011-09-17T02:11:00.000-07:00

<p>&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://gummysoul.bandcamp.com/album/fela-soul"&amp;amp;gt;Fela Soul by Amerigo Gazaway of Gummy Soul&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;</p>

What do you get when you put together afrobeat legend Fela Kuti and rap pioneers De La Soul? You get Fela Soul; a musical tapestry created by Gummy Soul artist Amerigo Gazaway. More than just a clever title, Fela Soul is an 8-track, 33 minute journey into the world of afrobeat rhythms, funky horn riffs, and classic hip-hop gems. Using dozens of hand-picked samples from the Nigerian instrumentalist and political figure Fela Kuti, and 8 carefully-chosen acapellas from the Native Tongue rap trio De La Soul, Amerigo seamlessly intertwines the two into something completely new and original.

~gummysoul~

King Sunny Adé - Juju Music

2011-09-14T23:04:00.000-07:00

In Nigeria they call him 'Chairman King Sunny Adé. The prefix succinctly reflects Adés role in JuJu Music, the prime popular music of the Yoruba people. If JuJu Music is BIG in Nigeria, then Sunny Ade is undoubtedly the biggest. Even a casual look at the Nigerian charts over the last year will reveal a constant stream of number one hits for Sunny Adé. Indeed, it's unknown for a Sunny Adé album to sell less than 200,000 copies: and the man has released some 40 albums during the past decade. JuJu accounts for a massive part of the Nigerian record business. An estimated 12 million records, for instance, will be sold in 1982. Yet despite its mass acceptance, JuJu Music has never lost its special 'roots' quality. it is, simply, a tough modern dance music freely drawing on the traditions of the Yoruba, Nigeria's largest tribe. JuJu Music is rooted in the complex call and response between the talking drums and the singers. Although the music has been around since the Twenties, contemporary .111.1u Music really took shape with the introduction of Western instruments in the Fifties. Electric guitars, for instance, are now central. To Western ears the electric guitar is the dominant sound, its tunings and its harmonies lending a unique distinction.

Other components include steel guitars and, more recently, synthesisers (which make an extraordinary blend with the traditional talking drums). Sunny Adé, with his band. The African Beats, has pioneered many of the innovations in JuJu Music, constantly embarking on new ideas and using the full resources of the modern recording studio, The African Beats, for example, was the first band to use Hawaiian guitar, synthesiser and now, on this new album, even reggae-style Dub effects. Sunny Adés new album, called simply JUJU MUSIC, was recorded in Lome, the capital of the West African state of Togo. It was mixed in London. The tunes featured on JUJU MUSIC are established favourites from Adés bulging repertoire, perhaps the best introduction that can he made to the Chairman's music. "JuJu music is essentially party music.. the fans out there want to dance and the rhythm is basically simple and, once you hook it up, it flows endlessly," says Sunny. it really is a very rich music."

1. Ja Funmi 7:08
2. Eje Nlo Gba Ara Mi 7:14
3. Mo Beru Agba 3:27
4. Sunny Ti De Ariya 3:46
5. Ma Jaiye Oni 5:07
6. 365 Is My Number/ The Message 8:16
7. Samba/ E Falaba Lewe 8:07

juju
pw thegoodone

Jùjú is a style of Nigerian popular music, derived from traditional Yoruba percussion. The name comes from a Yoruba word "juju" or "jiju" meaning "throwing" or "something being thrown." Juju music did not derive its name from juju, which "is a form of magic and the use of magic objects or witchcraft common in West Africa, Haiti, Cuba and other South American nations." It evolved in the 1920s in urban clubs across the countries, and was believed to have been created by AbdulRafiu Babatunde King, popularly known as Tunde King. The first jùjú recordings were by Tunde King and Ojoge Daniel from the same era of the 1920s when Tunde King pioneered it. The lead and predominant instrument of Jùjú is the Iya Ilu,"' talking drum. Some Jùjú musicians were itinerant, including early pioneers Ojoge Daniel, Irewole Denge and the "blind minstrel" Kokoro.

Afro-juju is a style of Nigerian popular music, a mixture of Jùjú music and Afrobeat. Its most famous exponent was Shina Peters, who was so popular that the press called the phenomenon "Shinamania". Afro-juju's peak of popularity came in the early 1990s.
Wiki

Mahishasura mardini stotram

2011-09-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

Ayi sumana sumana,

Sumana sumanohara kanthiyuthe,

Sritha rajani rajani rajani,

Rajaneekaravakthra vruthe,

Sunayana vibhramarabhrama,

Bhramarabrahmaradhipadhe,

Jaya Jaya Mahishasura mardini ,

Ramya kapardini, shaila Suthe.

Victory and victory to you,

Oh darling daughter of the mountain,

Oh Goddess of the people with good mind,

Who is greatly gracious to such people,

Oh Goddess who appears very pretty to the good minded,

Oh Goddess with moon like face,

Who is as cool as the moon ,to those in the dark,

Oh Goddess whose face shines in the moon light,

Oh Goddess whose very pretty flower like eyes attracts the bees ,

Oh Goddess who attracts devotees ,like a flower which attracts bees,

Oh Goddess who attracts her lord like a bee,

Oh Goddess who has captivating braided hair,

Who is the daughter of a mountain.

And who is the slayer of Mahishasura

source

other full version

A slightly different version of Mahishasura mardini stotram (regge flavour)

from Kultiration - Kultiration album

And a clasic
Sudha Raghunathan - Mahishasura Mardhini Stotram

Fragance of Dalmatia II

2011-08-31T03:00:00.000-07:00

Soparnik

Traditional dish from Poljica

for dough:
• 500 g flour

• 3 spoons of olive oil
• 1 / 2 spoon of salt
• 250 ml water

for filling:
• 1 bundle of parsley
• 1 kg Swiss chard
• 1 bunch stone leek
• 4 garlic cloves
• olive oil
• salt

Description:
Soparnik, specialties of the Dalmatian Poljica, dating from the old Ottoman times. Simple to make: little Swiss chard, parsley and stone leek, between two layers of most simple dough. In an original recipe, for the preparation or soparnik you would need two rounded wooden plates "sinije", dough is shaped with a rolling pin, baked in a fireplace. But an oven will do for a home made soparnik!

Wash the chard leaves well and cut of the hard parts. Cut it into straps, mix with stone leek and parsley in a deep dish, add salt and olive oil. Mix it again and leave it rest for a while. Take another bowl, put flour in it, add a little salt, two spoons of olive oil, a little water and kneaded it with a hand mixer. Dough is cut in two halves and shaped in a circle. Lay one half of the dough on a baking sheet sprinkled with flour. Add the filling and cover it with other half. Join the edges and fold them inward. Put in in a warm oven at 200 ° C for about 20 minutes. When you take it out spread some olive oil and and squeeze garlic over it. My tip is that for perfection you can put small crunches of walnuts and than even some sugar, that is what we used to do when we were kids.

Translated and adapted form http://www.sucurac.info:

Video in Croatian

Traditional recipe in Croatian

If you have a headache from my translation, which is propable, you can, for much more detailed discription, turn to: http://www.myconsciouseating.com

Make the dough: Put the flour into a large bowl and mix in the salt. Start adding water while continuously mixing the dough with a wooden spatula; add the oil. Once ingredients start sticking together start kneading with your hands. Knead this dough really well until you come up with into a smooth texture that does not stick.
Make the filo sheets: Divide the filo dough into two equal parts. Sprinkle some flour on the clean table surface and start rolling the first part: your target is a 2 mm thick sheet of somewhat round shape. There is a procedure to help the rolling: from time to time you can lift the dough with the tops of your two fists facing each other and gently rotate the dough by turning the thumb of the right fist apart and pulling the dough with the left fist - kind of a knitting motion. Alter this procedure with the rolling until you come up with the target thickness. Spread the cotton towels on the table and transfer the rolled dough on them. Stretch lightly to thin the edges that they tend to remain thicker. Repeat with the second part of the dough. Leave to dry for at least one hour.
Prepare the filling: Preheat the oven to 200 C. Wash the Swiss chard and chop. Cook in salty water for 2 minutes to remove the excess acidity, drain and leave to cool. When cooled completely drain as much of water as possible by squeezing the leaves with your hands and place. In a large bowl mix the cooked drained Swiss chard, chopped onion and garlic. Add little bot more salt and pepper than you would usually do - the filling needs to be rather spicy.

Make the pie: Oil a large baking tray with low sides. Cut about 1.5 sm of the thicker edges of the both sheets of the rolled dough and place one sheet of the rolled filo dough on the tray. Transfer the filling and evenly spread on the dough sheet leaving some 3-5 sm of the edges free. Now roll inside the remaining edges as if closing the pie. Cover the pie with the upper sheet and bend in its edges under the pie carefully. Now press the edges tightly to make sure the pie is well sealed - you end up with a round parcel.

Bake the pie: Bake for 30 minutes. Once done take soparnik out of the oven and spread some olive oil on it with a paper tissue. Serve warm or room temperature.

Source for picture (and another version of the recipe) http://www.coolinarika.com/recept/soparnik/

---------------------------------

And something to listen to while enjoying your food...

Pripovid o Dalmaciji (Short stories of Dalmatia)

CD 1
Puce moj Vokalisti Salone, Solin
'Vo je nasa zemlja Sinj, Sinj
Kampaneli I Nostalgija, Zagreb
More Fortunal, Rijeka
Galiotova pesan Kamen SSM, Kamen
Kod Lepanta, sunce moje Zadranke, Zadar
Dalmatino, poviscu pritrujena Oktet DC, Vranjic
Gledaj na reloj koja je ura Pucki pivaci Stobreca
Ako ti draga ja na more podjen Maestral, Dubrovnik
Susna zikva na skoju Sinj, Sinj
Zvizde mi kazu Lindjo-N, Dubrovnik
Moja jube Trogir, Trogir
Vrati se, mili cale Oktet DC, Vranjic
Prid didovon slikon Split, Split
Maslina Intrade, Zadar
Loza u skripu Cambi, K. Kambelovac
Ostav' se vise mora Trogir, Trogir
Sudamja Lucica, Split
Na omiskoj stini Luka, Ploce
Kolendra Vokalisti Salone, Solin
Materin plac Puntari, Omis
Plavi putevi mora Fortunal, Rijeka

CD 2
Pismo moja, hrli tamo Lucica, Split
Omili mi u selu divojka Sibenik, Sibenik
Golubice bila Osjak, Vela Luka
Da bis bjonda znala Trogir, Trogir
Dobra vecer uzorita Sibenik, Sibenik
Na me pogled tvoj obrati Maestral, Dubrovnik
Je da bis mi rastvorila Trogir, Trogir
Lipa li si Mare moja Kantaduri, Split
Ti si nestala tiho Srdela, Makarska
Prosti meni vilo Oktet DC, Vranjic
Jubavi, ufanje veliko Cambi, K. Kambelovac
Da je meni voja tvoja Lika, Rijeka
Kaleto moja draga Lucica, Split
Svet' Ivane o'moga Trogira Trogir, Trogir
Sijavica Sibenik, Sibenik
Zbogon Split grade Pucki pivaci Kamena
Moj tovar Kamen SSM, Kamen
Odes li mila Filip Devic, Split
Zlata jemas, dare primas Oktet DC, Vranjic
Sutra ce te ponit Lindjo-N, Dubrovnik
Kad sam bio na tvom grobu Maestral, Dubrovnik
Poljicani postovani Pucki pivaci iz Poljica
Testamentum Vokalisti Salone, Solin
Ca vridi Filip Devic, Split
Bilo cvice o'mendula Osjak, Vela Luka
Jute san se zajubija Oktet DC, Vranjic˝

Theblueone, Thegreenone

to keep you warm under the sun

take care

have fun

stop

say hallo when you pass by

cheers thegoodone

ABOUT THE STYLE OF PERFORMANCE OF CLAPA SONG
Clapas sing their tunes provoked by the moment which consists of a diverse set of circumstances including the character traits of an individual as a part of a group in a certain sociocultural milieu. They sing in the way inspired only by the spiritual mood in which the performance takes place. In such circumstances clapa songs seem to be self-sufficient. Owing partly to the fact
a clapa songs is, sui generis, a chamber music piece, which is performed in the intimate atmosphere of the Mediterranean-Dinaric characteristics. It is only the intense interaction of singing and environment that creates the mood, atmosphere and fullness of this musico-social phenomenon.
The main goal of singers is to achieve as good fusion of chords as possible, which is of crucial importance in order to attract the audience, first of all the admirers of their way of singing, but essential for reaching their own goal as well. The aspiration to enjoy homophony and the harmonious singing of chords has a long traditon in the Dalmatian urban circles despite the familiarity with polyphony as a consequence of the openness to the Renaissance.
One of the most recognizable characteristics of clapa songs is the fact that they are performed a cappella. (from linear notes)

a Night at Club Baobab

2011-08-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

Since 1960 independance, Dakar nights were livened up mostly by Cuban music. A wealthy clientele of political & economical elites whom lead President Leopold Sedar Senghor’s State used to drink & dance to the beat of the Cuban montuno. But the political will to give national culture an original & modern expression also encouraged autochtonous artistical events.
The Orchestra Baobab repeats a well established formula developped by its West African predecessors (such as the Bembeya Jazz National from Guinea Conakry, Boncana Maïga’s Marvaillas de Mali from Bamako, the Star Band from Dakar) : the elites of the new nationes were vibrate to the rhythm of musics inspired on local folklores as well as to Caribbean or Black American’s. Folklores are harmonized with orchestral arrangements to delight a public asking for night life that are reinterpretations of childhood or village folklores as much as foreign music fashionable in Western countries.
But contrarily to the Star Band, Baobab’s competitor from the club « Le Miami », the Orchestra Baobab chose not to stick strictly to wolof cultural contribution, the predominant ethnic group in Senegal. This is one of the reasons why the tama, or talking-drum, is almost absent in Orchestra Baobab’s music. The Senegalese roots of the Baobab express themselves mostly in Laye M’boup’s singing, a wolof griot & the first lead singer in the orchestra, as heard on « Yolanda »

Like in Guinea or Congo, Orchestra Baobab perpetuates an old practice in order to reinterpretate Cuban influences according to local ways & sensibilities. In Africa, the Cuban clave, that rhythmic pattern that caracterizes the son, is played not on the piano but with a guitar. It is Ben Geloum’s that gives its very singular accent to the Senegalese montuno : the result is sweeter & less percussive than Cuban clave’s sound and can be heard on « Yolanda » & « Jin ma jin ma » .

« Yolanda » is representative of Orchestra Baobab’s early latin sound. Moussa Kane’s tumba accompanies the orchestra for a version that’s very faithfull to the original Cuban montuno and the griots’ heritage resonates in Laye M’boup’s voice timber. Not exactly Cuban, not totally Senegalese either, the early Orchestra Baobab already carries its gestating originality.
The salsa « Jin ma jin ma » keeps the original montuno’s sweetness. But one can notice ther difference between this composition, recorded in 1978, and the old « Yolanda » from 1972. « Jin ma » drowns the remaining clave in a cross cultural hybridism that stands at the crossroads of wolof, Casamance & afro-cuban cultures.
This fast success can be explained by the band members’ talent of course. But it is also due to the contractors who put up the club. Their succes in gathering together some of Dakar by night’s leading musicians and singers ; their ability to divulgate Baobab’s music to a wider public than the one who could afford going to the Club Baobab ; their willingness to use musical industry’s newest technologies, are very definite contributions.
Much of Dakar musicians & a few orchestras fights for a room under the spotlights, but the capital only has a few clubs and even less customers. The impossibility to turn exclusivity contracts effective resulted in continuous band splits. Whithin less than ten years, Laba Sosseh, Y Oussou Ndour, Balla Sidibe, Idrisa Diop & many others leave their original bands to create new ones. Orchestra Baobab’s musicians are recruited in pre existing bands from other Dakar clubs. Balla Sidibe, Rudy Gomis & Barthélemy Atisso come from the Star Band that used to cheer up Ibrahim Kasse’s club « Le Miami » ; Issa Cissokho from the Vedette Band where he used to play with Laba Sosseh.
The businessmen behind Orchestra Baobab were also keen on creating a decent musical industry and pressing good records. The recordings included here come from the Buur (5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12) and Musicafrique (1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 11) labels ; these show a very distinctive progress compared to « Yolanda » in terms of recording & mixing work and a will to beat the local productions’ technique.

All of the Senegalese discography from that period is quite poor regarding recording & mixing technique. The recording is mostly made live in clubs with mediocre sound systems which results most of the time in staurated mediums & trebles and subdued basses.
In 1973-74, after two recording sessions issued in 1972, the impresari of the Baobab start mixing & pressing in New York and soon release the best recorded, mixed and pressed records ever released in Senegal. The Club Baobab closes in 1979. But the Orchestra Baobab remains active and keeps recording wonderful sessions. Following technical and stylistic changes based on the massified introduction of the audio tape in West Africa (which opens doors to bootlegging), the explosion of Youssou Ndour’s m'balax music or just the fact Orchestra Baobab stops playing in a club opened only to a few elites, the sound of the orchestra changes into the 80’s.......

source

so we invite you for
a night at the club some 35 years later

with thanks to the original

25:plus is a long time so relax ,take it easy & thanks to world circuit

Initiation songs of the Bauls of Bengal

2011-08-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

another obsession of this blog is of course Bauls......

“I obey no master; not any order; nor any customs.
Human distinctions have no hold on me.
I exult in the pleasure of loving, because in love there is no separation but union only.
And so I celebrate each and everyone in song and in dance."

Bengal is a land of rivers. The Ganges, Bramhaputra and other rivers, with their
tributaries, flow down from the Himalayas through the flat plains into the Bay of Bengal. More
often than not, the rice fields are under water and the mud houses washed away The only
means of travelling is by boat .Epidemics strike the poor and the sick. "Life is transient" sings

the Baul. In the hot summer, the land is parched and only the main rivers contain any
significant amount of water The peasant knows the moodiness of the rivers only too well.
They are bom beside them, live by them and, in death, their ashes flow down them. "It’s impossible to ignore the waves which lift the water of the river, how can I row my boat alone ?"
sings the baul.
Bengal is also a land of music. One hears the muezzim from the minaret at sunset and the boatman singing the river songs as he ferries the harvests to the other side Peasants hum as they plough the fields and rickshaw boys whistle film tunes. Children sing as they play games and women sing to the rhythm of threshing.
The Bauls call themselves mad because they crave for divine intoxication, lost to the
ways of the world, turning, moving, whirling in the breath of life. They are ecstatic, weeping
for joy crying in bliss, rolling about in mirth, singing the songs of the heart "I have lost my
mind, I don’t know in what it is lost or why it’s in such bliss" sings the Baul. These madmen
are not self-obsessed lunatics, grovelling in self·pity and unreal fantasies, out of touch with
the world and alienated into self-destruction. They are ordinary people with a unique tradition, who seek to live in and enjoy the world, to love and cherish it, for it is within this world that heaven exists. They are sensualists who desire to taste the essence of being, shunning the garb, the husk, the outer sheath of personality respectability and order:
“O heart of a Baul,where will you go living behind this worldly existence ?"

Mystic singers, wandering monks, the Bauls carry through their songs a knowledge which is essentially philosophical, synthesizing the buddhist, vaishnava and sufi traditions.
They can be compared to the "troubadores” of the medieval era or to the "asiks" of Anatolia
Garbed in multicoloured robes and carrying the simplest of instruments, they go from village to village singing about the way of love. They sing at sacred shrines and temples, at fairs and festivals, in the courtyards of palatial mansions, under the trees amongst the mud huts, and today in buses and trains.
To the poor, the Bauls carry the richness of the spirit, to the blind the inner vision of divine light .
To the sick and the old, they give the healing balm of faith. The rich and the arrogant receive their scorn.
The essence of the Baul movement is religious contestation. lt is a discipline called
"ULTASADHANA’, which goes against prevailing currents. The word "baul" means someone
who is possessed by the wind, hence their roving nature. Like the troubadores who do not
search for light but already possess it, the Bauls are "illuminated”, or “the madmen of God".
They are largely illiterate and mostly come from the lower strata of Hindu and Muslim society
with whom they share the same rustic language, the same
physical, psychological and spiritual mileu. They communicate their social, aesthetic and
spiritual beliefs through their songs.

"You will not come back again and again.
You will not be born as a human being again.
Be vigilant, o my spirit, the day ends and darkness descends.
Man is God come to this earth,
so don’t stain the lineage of humans.....

songs

'scuse me while I kiss the sky ...

2011-08-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

SVETLYO ZHILEV

A Concise Biography

Svetlyo Zhilev was born in 1965 in Gotze Delchev, Bulgaria. He acquired the love for music from his mother who used to sing Bulgarian folk songs to him throughout his childhood. He plays the bagpipe since he was 10 years old. From 1975 to 1982 Svetlyo was a member of the Gotze Delchev bagpipe orchestra, which consists of 40 bagpipes. During the period he carefully and systematically studied the diversity of bagpipes and techniques of playing in Bulgarias various cultural regions - from Macedonia to the Black Sea and from Dobruja to the Rhodopes. He was influenced by the works of Kostadin Varimezov, Kolyo Atanasov, Iliya Dimitrov, Dafo Trendafilov, Stefo Zahmanov, and others. Once, Svetlio combined a single voice with the disharmonious melody of the dvoyanka bagpipe, and thus created a new bagpipe sound utilizing a basic double tone a techique none of his predecessors had though of. His first solo album "Demo" was released in 2001, followed by "The Three Bagpipes" in 2003, "Wild Stories" in 2005, and "Marmoreal Apparitions" in 2006.

The international music festivals, in which he performed include:

1978 Sech - Czech Republic
1979 Strumica and Ohrid - Macedonia
1980 & 1982 Belgrad - Serbia
1988 Praha - Czech Republic
1990 Moscow - Russia
2006 Drezden Germany

Svetlyo Zhilev is a Bulgarian bagpipe player and folklore singer. He plays authentic songs and melodies from Bulgaria. Natural talent, he has developed an amazing technique with his jora and kaba bagpipes. Notable for his pure performance on pipe, drum and vocal abilities, he has also re-arranged classic rock songs including covers of Deep Purple and Jimmy Hendrix in the unique Bulgarian folklore style.

...no question I love his traditional playing a lot...

...Deep Purple in Bulgaria...

...who are we to tell...

...and...

'scuse me while I kiss the sky ...
:-)

some more ?!

The Free Zen Society

2011-08-05T16:56:00.000-07:00

Zeena Parkins (harpsichord); William Parker (double bass); Matthew Shipp (piano); Arranger: Peter Gordon (All other sounds).

1. Lightly Dropping
2. Thought Free
3. Surrender
4. Dream Escapes
5. Majestical
6. Glistening
7. Streaming Through
8. Clocking Space

You have read the names behind this project, If you know their usual stuff you are in for a surprise (it might be pleasant).

Summertime (again)

2011-07-18T02:55:00.000-07:00

Mahalia Jackson

Big Mama Thornton

Makanda Ken McIntyre

2011-07-15T06:57:00.000-07:00

McIntyre was born in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to his primary instrument, the alto saxophone, he also played flute, bass clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and many other woodwind instruments, as well as double bass, drum set, and piano. He recorded thirteen albums, one of which was released posthumously. He composed well over 400 compositions, and wrote about 200 arrangements, reflecting the culture of his Caribbean and African American roots, including blues, jazz, and calypso. His very first album entitled Stone Blues was recorded in 1960, accompanied by local Boston musicians with whom he had been rehearsing for several years.

In the early 1990s he changed his name to Makanda Ken McIntyre. While performing in Zimbabwe, a stranger handed him a piece of paper with the word "Makanda" written on it; the word means "many skins" in the Ndebele language and "many heads" in Shona.

Rythm is the essence of the universal philosophy in Africa. And rhythm is the essence of all African-American music. In rhythm there is a necessary tension that is oftentimes considered dissonant by those who wish to apply a harmonic analysis to a rhythm concept. The analysis should be capable of understanding that the fundamental reality of life is rhythm not harmony.

In the Wind: The Woodwind Quartets

1. Peas 'n' Rice 7:10
2. Home 6:42
3. Charshee 7:25
4. Black Sugar Cane 6:39
5. Chitlins & Cavyah 8:12
6. Mambooga 4:43
7. Blanche 9:54
8. Puunti 6:28
9. Chasing The Sun 6:26
10. Eileen 5:44
11. Amy 5:36

In his final years, multi-reedist Makanda Ken McIntyre was fond of saying in concert that a piece was off his last album, which came out more than twenty years prior. He would laugh, but the joke pointed out how criminally underdocumented he was during his life. In June 2001, that industry oversight was finally corrected with the release of A New Beginning , a bitterly ironic title since he died the same month.

McIntyre's associations were few, which perhaps is why he was so little recognized. He played a short stint with Cecil Taylor in 1966 and featured Eric Dolphy on the 1960 quintet recording Looking Ahead. With his interest in the woodwind family and the strong compositional sense he brought to his improvisations, Dolphy was perhaps the closest McIntyre had to a kindred spirit. In a just jazz world, McIntyre would also have enjoyed the sort of accolades Dolphy received.

He might get those laurels through the work of the Contemporary African American Music Organization (CAAMO), a project McIntyre himself founded over twenty years ago and which is now overseeing the release and publishing of his remarkable vision. In the Wind , the first CAAMO release, was recorded in October of 1995 and April of 1996, and it features a multi-tracked McIntyre playing a variety of pieces for quartets of like instruments. From a lovely clarinet setting of his staple "Peas 'n' Rice" to more challenging (for player and listener) pieces for oboe, English horn and bassoon, the disc is a gorgeous tribute while providing a fascinating insight into the composer and performer. For studio constructions, the pieces are surprisingly warm. At the same time, it carries the uncanny feeling of multi-tracked works by other masters (eg. Roscoe Mitchell) that give several voices to a single mind. The inner workings are made apparent by exponent.

CAAMO is in the process of cataloguing some five hundred compositions and two hundred arrangements by McIntyre, as well as digitizing over seven hundred recordings for donation to the Library of Congress and establishing repertory ensembles. It might engrave into history a great mind for the music. Better late than never. AllAboutJazz

---------------------------

The Contemporary African American Music Organization (CAAMO) was founded in 1983 by the world-renowned multi-instrumentalist, composer, orchestrator and educator Dr. Makanda Ken McIntyre. The mission of The Contemporary African American Music Organization is to promote free expression and continuing education in music and the performing arts with African-American origins.

CAAMO has produced more than 250 performances and educational workshops at venues throughout the New York City metropolitan area, including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Carnegie Recital Hall, the Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of Natural History, Roulette, the Brecht Forum and the Knitting Factory. From 1984 to 1989, CAAMO sponsored open rehearsals and weekly performances by the CAAMO Orchestra. CAAMO has presented performances by a huge range of artists, including Dr. McIntyre, Craig Harris, Charli Persip, Wilber Morris, Joanne Brackeen, Jason Hwang, David Murray, Hamiett Blueitt, Sonny Fortune, Reggie Workman, Andrei Strobert, E.J. Allen, Donald Smith and Kwe Yao Agyapon.

In addition to its support of musical performance, CAAMO has produced workshops on music and creativity for students at the pre-school, elementary, secondary and collegiate levels. A partial list of participating institutions includes the New School University, Cornell University, New England Conservatory, Harlem School of the Arts, the CODE Foundation, the Philadelphia Clef Club for Jazz and the Performing Arts and the East Bronx NAACP Day Care Center. These workshops cover a wide range of musical and creative territory, including singing, rhythm, instrumental technique, composition, ensemble performance, history, theory and inter-disciplinary collaboration.

Makanda Ken McIntyre (born Kenneth Arthur McIntyre; also known as Ken McIntyre) (September 7, 1931 – June 13, 2001)wiki

Yanomami

2011-07-11T16:46:00.000-07:00

‘We learn with the great spirits’

For the Yanomami of the Brazilian Amazon, the spirit world is a fundamental part of life. Every creature, rock, tree and mountain has a spirit.
Omama, our creator, made us think and talk with the soul of the forest, the soul of the mountain and with the soul of the moon, sun and stars, says shaman Davi Kopenawa, who describes here how Yanomami shamans look after the world.

Picture © Claudia Andujar/Survival

The word, ‘shaman’, is thought to have originated with the Evenk people of Siberia, but shamans have a pivotal role in many tribal societies. Typically, they are men and women who specialise in communicating with the natural world and its spirits; people who have a heightened awareness of the divine and the intangible.
Shamans have many roles. They are variously healers and priests, custodians of their peoples’ sacred rituals, weather diviners, cosmologists, dream tellers and keepers of botanical knowledge.
Guided by spirits (xapiripë) and the wisdom of their ancestors,Yanomami shamans (xapiripë thëpë) command thunder storms and caution the winds.They prevent the sky from falling down and use their powers to ensure hunting successes, cure human diseases and put flight to hostile spirits.
The shamans give orders to the sun, and instruct the spirits to speak to the moon.

Picture © Claudia Andujar/Survival

I am shaman of the rainforest and I work with the forces of nature, not with the forces of money or weapons, says Davi.
Our wisdom is different. Our knowledge is a different knowledge.
It is the wisdom of our shamanic spirits, of the Earth, which is very important for the survival of humanity.

Picture © Claudia Andujar/Survival

Through dreams and trances, Yanomami shamans transcend the physical confines of their bodies and the limits of the human consciousness to commune with the xapiripë.
We Yanomami learn with the great spirits, the xapiripë. We learn to know the xapiripë, how to see them and listen to them. Only shamans – those who know the xapiripë – can see them, because they look like humans but are tiny as specks of sparkling dust and bright like light.
Their songs are powerful, and their thinking is straight.

read it all here

some music maybe?

Fragance of Dalmatia

2011-07-08T05:43:00.000-07:00

The klapa music is a form of traditional Croatian a cappella singing. The word klapa translates as "a group of friends" and traces its roots to littoral church singing. The motifs in general celebrate love, wine (grapes), country (homeland) and sea. Main elements of the music are harmony and melody, with rhythm very rarely being very important.
A klapa group consists of a first tenor, a second tenor, a baritone, and a bass. It is possible to double all the voices apart from the first tenor. Although klapa is a cappella music, on occasion it is possible to add a gentle guitar and a mandolin (instrument similar in appearance and sound to tamburitzas).
Klapa tradition is still very much alive, with new songs composed and festivals are held. Many young people from Dalmatia treasure klapa and sing it regularly when going out eating or drinking. It is not unusual to hear amateur klapa singing on the streets in the evenings over some food and wine.
It is usually composed of up to a dozen male singers singing very harmonic tunes. In recent times, female vocal groups have been quite popular, but in general male and female groups do not mix. Wiki

Let us know if you had fun
pass?
you know same old boring
thegoodone

Read more on Klapa singing in pdf
thanks to Miguel

or even more:
Klapa singing is well-known folk singing phenomenon of coastal-urban and suburban areas and the islands of Dalmatia. The character, musical content and style of klapa were dynamically modified, through the time, freely adopting new changes. That is one of the reason for the present day popularity of the klapa, especially among the younger generation, and certain sign of long-lasting future of the klapa.Traditionally, the individuals who sing in the klapa are men. Female singers also sang the same tunes but on more of an individual basis. In the last two decades, there has been an accelerating popularity of klapa singing among women....

healing, feasting and magical ritual ~ songs and dances from Papua New Guinea

2011-07-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

The music is predominantly vocal, songs of hunting, war, totemistic ritual, cannibalism, myths, initiation, courtship, rain-making, funerals, magical healing, shark-catching and marathon feasting. Many are danced, accompanied by percussion instruments (the garamut slit drum, kundu hourglass-drum, launut friction drum, shell rattles), lengths of bamboo end blown to give a single pitch, and bamboo flutes. The rhythms can be forceful or trance-like, and are a mix of simple repetitions of regular patterns with more complex ideas. The vocalisation of songs, normally full-throated and open, and usually sung by groups in unison, is rich and vibrant.

The recordings were made by John Thornley, who for many years was a senior producer of world music programmes for BBC Radio 3. They are impeccable. In this guise, as intrepid explorer, Thornley travelled in Papua New Guinea between August and October 1987, funded by a bursary from the Commonwealth Relations Trust. He lodged his recordings with the International Music Collection of the British Library's National Sound Archive (collection C838), and this album, part of the IMC series issued with Topic, samples the collection.

The five regions represented are: Karkar Island, a volcanic island of copra plantations and fishing villages off the northern coast of New Guinea; the remote Green River, a tributary of the upper Sepik River in New Guinea proper, an area renowned for its legendary mosquitoes; the densely populated Wahgi Valley at Mount Hagen in the Western Highlands; New Ireland, the northeastern island first 'discovered' in 1516 by the Dutch; the Gazelle Peninsula to the East of the 500km-long New Britain. Each region has distinct and fascinating traditions.

1 Garamut Call
2 Mukoa Silali
3 Kanam Dance
4 Birua (Warrior Song After Killing)
5 Healing Songs
6 Two Healing Songs: Kua Kua! The Bird Of Paradise Is Singing / Let Us Kill A Pig And Put The Blood On Our Sick Friend's Wound
7 Women's Sago Song
8 Healing Song About Lake Kanary
9 Healing Song
10 Feast Song
11 Three Eevil - (Children's Healing Songs)
12 Hunting Song of the Moge & Kopi Clans
13 Women's Song of the Moge & Kopi Clans
14 Sing-Sing, Western Highlands
15 Two Songs of Love & Courtship
16 Bayer River Sanctuary
17 Pur
18 Bot - Malanggan Funeral Ceremony
19 Friction-Drum & Song on the Death of a Chief
20 Getting on a Lorry
21 Shark-Calling Song
22 Two Slit-Drum Improvisations
23 Rongari
24 Fire Dance

Magic ritual

thanks to the always present Arvind and to a kind soul out there

Ziryab & Muwashshah

2011-06-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

if you eat asparagus, or if you start your meal with soup and end with dessert, or if you use toothpaste, you owe a lot to one of the greatest musicians in history. He was known as Ziryab, a colloquial Arabic term that translates as “blackbird.”He was a freed slave who made good, charming the royal court at Córdoba with his songs. He founded a music school whose fame survived more than 500 years after his death. Ibn Hayyan of Córdoba, one of Arab Spain’s greatest historians, says in his monumental Al-Muqtabas (The Citation) that Ziryab knew thousands of songs by heart and revolutionized the design of the musical instrument that became the lute. He spread a new musical style around the Mediterranean, influencing troubadours and minstrels and affecting the course of European music.

continue

some more to read from wiki:

Abu l-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Nafi(c. 789–857), nicknamed Ziryab was a poet, musician, singer, cosmetologist,
fashion designer, trendsetter, strategist, astronomer, botanist and geographer.
He was active at the Umayyad court of Córdoba in Islamic Iberia.
He first achieved notoriety at the Abbasid court in Baghdad, Iraq, his birth place,
as a performer and student of the great musician and composer, Ishaq al-Mawsili.
According to many early historians, he was African or a racially mixed African-Arab;
in this period, the Muslims brought African slaves with them to the lands they had conquered,
and many of these slaves were known for their musical skills.
Ziryab was most likely born in Baghdad, and was trained in the art of music from a young age.
During that time, Baghdad was the center of music in the Muslim world.
According to many sources the accomplished and talented musician Ishaq al-Mawsili was Ziryab’s teacher.
The debate continues about how he arrived in al-Andalus, but it is clear he offended his patron
or some powerful figure with his musical talent.
Ziryab left Baghdad During the reign of Harun al-Rashid in the year 820.
He then traveled first to Damascus then to Ifriqiyya (Tunisia),
where he lived at the Aghlabid court of Ziyadat Allah (ruled 816-837).
Ziryab fell out with Ziyadat Allah but was invited to Al-Andalus by the Umayyad prince, Al-Hakam I.
He found on arrival in 822 that the prince had died,
but the prince's son, Abd ar-Rahman II, renewed his father's invitation.
Ziryab settled in Córdoba he was honored a monthly salary of 200 Gold Dinars,
he soon became even more celebrated as the court's aficionado of food, fashion, singing and music.
He introduced standards of excellence in all these fields as well as setting new norms for elegant and noble manners.

Ziryab was well known for his Olive skin color, thick Black hair, he was tall, slim.
His style was amazing, his voice defining he envisioned a bright future for all people.
Al-Maqqari further states in his Nafh al-Tib (Fragrant Breeze):
“There never was, either before or after him (Ziryab), a man of his profession
who was more generally beloved and admired”.

and finally Hamza el Din's "Muwashshah" that is his tribute to Ziryab,"the African slave who escaped from the court of Bagdad to become one of Arabic music's most important composers"

Muwashshah

data

Genghis Blues

2011-06-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

More than just a record, this is also the story of the journey of Paul Pena, a fine blind American bluesman who learned Tuvan throat singing well enough to win a contest in Tuva. His solo tracks, especially his take on Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues," are the real blues deal, but this record truly takes off when Pena and Kongar-ol Ondar duet. The blues and the eerie, often-guttural sounds of throat singing make a natural match, one that simply bewitches with the clear overtones and melodies, while the guitar and Tuvan banjo offer simple, but very plaintive, accompaniment. About the only misstep is the inclusion of the Cape Verdean "Tras d'Orizao," which sticks out like a sore thumb from everything else. Get that out of your system, and the rest is pure magic.

Read oficial.

01 What You Talkin' About
02 Alash Hem (The Alash River)
03 Gonna Move
04 Kaldak Hamar (The Other Side of the Mountain)
05 Tras d'Orizão (Beyond the Horizon)
06 Ondarnyng Ayany (Ondar's Medley)
07 Kargyraa Moan
08 It's Hard to Lose a Friend
09 Kongurey (Where Has My Country Gone-)
10 Dürgen Chugaa (Fast Talk)
11 Sünezin Yry (Soul's Song)
12 Center of Asia

Note: bluesmen-worldmusic has some other edition with some more tracks.

My Amigo Miguel is right when he says
music is love so music is free,
but people of industry
do not speak so poetically.
Ask my friend who got 500 € bill
for spreading his love on his own free will.
Laws are different from state to state
and mine is not in favour of higher bitrate,
so please forgive me for covering my ass
hiding ip, encrypting files or using a pass
just paranoia I guess
god bless

one litle word,
I hope, won't
spoil your fun
thegoodone

;)

Post from India

2011-06-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

“The message of Indian classical music is one of freedom and discipline. Musicians of the whole world are one big family with only one religion: humanity”

Amjad Ali Khan

***

one love

♥

Baden Powell & Vinicius de Moraes - Afro-Sambas

2011-06-18T09:57:00.000-07:00

In the early sixties Vinicius de Moraes was given by Carlos Coqueijo Costa a copy of the LP sambas de Roda e Candomblés da Bahia a record that deeply impressed the poet, revealing to him an aspect of popular music that he had not yet discovered. Vinicius then showed the record to his friend and partner Baden Powell who was also dazzled. In 1962 Baden visited Bahia to present a show with Silvia Teles at the Country Club,and got acquainted with some artists and intellectuals from Bahia and as he demonstrated his interest in Bahia's African traditions he was presented to capoeirista mestre Canjiquinha. with Canjiquinha Baden visited the terreiros and the rodas de capoeira where the most important performances of the songs and the sounds of Candomblé where given. Baden was fascinated, not so much by the mystical sense of what he had seen, but with the beauty of the harmonies he had heard.
When Baden was reunited with Vinicius started composing berimbau sambas and resolves to start composing a series of songs about African culture in Brazil.Around that time Baden Powell was studying Gregorian chants with the conductor Moacyr Santos and realized there were some resemblances to the afro songs he had heard in the terreiros of Bahia and inspired by these two influences he came with a series of themes composed by merging them with the beat of samba. the result is splendid and of great melodic beauty, giving rise to a new kind of music, the african sambas in the words and the lyrics of Vinicius de Moraes that would be the hallmark of the musical work of Baden Powell

Luiz Américo Lisboa Junio

Afro Sambas

probably you know it already since a long time,most likely you have it too in one form or another-it's everywhere too thanks to all good fellow bloggers,definitely one of the,or THE, modern samba milestone-s, and as I feel like revisiting familiar and loved sounds I share this age long affair here too and I propose a fresh listening for today , take it or leave it.

Vocais: Vinicius de Moraes, Quarteto em Cy e Coro Misto
Sax tenor: Pedro Luiz de Assis
Sax barítono: Aurino Ferreira
Flauta: Nicolino Cópia
Violão: Baden Powell
Contrabaixo: Jorge Marinho
Bateria: Reisinho
Atabaque: Alfredo Bessa
Atabaque pequeno: Nelson Luiz
Bongô: Alexandre Silva Martins
Pandeiro: Gilson de Freitas
Agogô: Mineirinho
Afoxé: Adyr Jose Raimundo

.

Can spices sing?

2011-06-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

Well I don't think so... But if you ask Fred Frith he will sprincle them over his guitar... Can you eat that guitar... Well I don't think so... Some Germans can hear the grass as it is growing... Well not really... Others make music just thinking of ginger, garlic, cumin... You don't think so? Well listen...

Mulo Francel & Evelyn Huber
Songs of Spices

Tracks:

1 Kakao 5:21
2 Koriander 3:30
3 Paprika 4:18
4 Cumin & kümmel 3:18
5 Nelke 1:24
6 Sternanis 4:19
7 Safrano 6:39
8 Menta 1:51
9 Romarino 2:14

10 Garlic Dances International 8:18

11 Silphion 5:32

12 Zimt 4:12

13 Paradieskörner 3:47

14 Lavendel 3:33
15 Liebstöckel 3:03
16 Mohn 4:34
17 Ingwer 3:20
18 Salz 1:52

Personnel:

Mulo Francel (Saxofón, Clarinete)
Evelyn Huber (Arpa)

Quadro Nuevo with :
D.D. Lowka (Bajo, Percusión, Xilófono)
Andreas Hinterseher (Acordeón)

Guests:

Vasilef Zourdanis (Lira)
Martina Eisenreich (Viola)
Uta Hielscher (Piano)
Prabir Mitra (Tabla)
Wolfgang Lohmeier (Percusión)

.ღ•:*´♥`*:•ღ.

You don't have to ask the ass to get a pass...

music does not know any borders

nor does it obey your orders

it's free

like the honey bee

:-)

Quadro Nuevo

Zim Ngqwana - Zimology : life through music

2011-05-31T09:35:00.000-07:00

“The reason I’m interested in music of different cultures is the spiritual element. I like to deal in world music, all music and cultures. I don’t want to confine myself to South Africa.
“I sit at the piano and write a piece. For months I live with the stuff I am writing and I develop a certain relationship with the music. When I hand it over to somebody else to play, I become very sad when they play just the notes and leave out the energy and understanding of the piece. Too many of the young generation know nothing about intensity and compassion.
“It’s all in the interpretation. Drummers must stop just bashing the kit with sticks, they must learn to stroke the drum with brushes for a change. Don’t just play the music, understand it. You have to lock into the music and know the purpose of playing it.”
”Dancers give me more energy than musicians. I learned a lot, I always wanted to SEE the music as opposed to just hearing it.”
Zim has managed to obtain something all artists aim for, an individual voice. His music can be deep and beautiful, then suddenly turn, becoming aggressive and assertive.Tough and tender, inspirational and spiritual, all are adjectives that describe his work, and it’s quality is augmented by the emotional tie to his deep-seated roots.
His musical chemistry will add yet another formula to the laboratory of World Music.
As a parting shot he says “We are reaching a very crucial state in this country whereby people won’t be able to hide behind politics singing ’Viva Mandela’ in the songs. Now is the time for pure art.”
Zim went on to become a superb player and a composer of note, as well as an educator. He is akin to a Charles Mingus in his writing, which is best defined as Afro avant-garde and musically tells the tales of migrant workers in South Africa.

by Don Albert

A blend of Xhosa folk music and township jazz, Zimology celebrates the rich heritage of South African music while paying homage to an earlier generation of the country’s jazz masters. And while he indicated that he had listened to a wide variety of jazz albums with his brother, he acknowledged John Coltrane as his definitive influence after hearing the US saxophonist’s A Love Supreme.
“I was immediately drawn by the power of his music and since then I have always wanted to perform,” he said. “To me Coltrane sounds more African than many local jazz artists.”
1998
Zimology

note that
there is always a pass for the high pass:
thegoodone

more Zim on freedomblues

Mercedes Sosa

2011-05-27T06:17:00.000-07:00

Mercedes Sosa, who has died aged 74, was the most renowned Latin-American singer of her generation; she was known as "La Negra" for her long, jet-black hair, and as "the voice of the voiceless ones", for her performances of songs which championed the rights of the poor.

Though not known as a songwriter, she was an unrivalled interpreter of works by her compatriot, the Argentinian Atahualpa Yupanqui, and Chile's Violeta Parra, both icons of the region's nueva canción movement towards the end of the 1960s, whose work often spoke of the struggle for human rights and democracy.

As a figurehead of the Left in her own right, Mercedes Sosa fell foul of the military junta that ruled her nation between 1976 and 1983 and conducted the notorious "Dirty War" against its own people. It was during this time that she had to live in exile, even though, as she once declared: "An artist isn't political in the party political sense – they have a constituency, which is their public – it is the poetry that matters most of all."

In spite of this, her choice of material demonstrated a shrewd ability to encapsulate popular consensus on the Left, and she sang definitive versions of many songs, including Parra's classic Gracias a la Vida and Horacio Guarany's Si Se Calla El Cantor (If the singer is silenced).

In a career spanning nearly six decades, which saw her popularity survive passing trends, she released 70 albums. Although these were often based in the Argentinian folkloric styles with which she first achieved success, she was notable for her extraordinary versatility. Her repertoire also included Argentinian tango, Cuban nueva trova, Brazilian bossa nova, rock and even liturgical music – with Ariel Ramirez's Misa Criolla, in 2000. From 1967 onwards she toured internationally, and subsequently collaborated with a huge array of artists, including Luciano Pavarotti, Sting, Nana Mouskouri, Joan Baez, Pablo Milanés, Caetano Veloso, and Shakira.

Pounding on her trademark bombo drum, acting her songs out with expressive gestures and singing in a rich contralto voice that effortlessly conveyed a strong moral authority, she was a familiar figure on the world's stages.

One of her most memorable UK appearances was at London's Royal Festival Hall in October 1999, shortly after the infamous detention in Britain of Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet.

"I cannot believe I am in London singing these songs, with Pinochet under house arrest," she cried, before launching into an emotional rendition of Todo Cambia (Everything Changes) another nueva canción standard which had long been part of her repertoire. She recorded the song several times, most recently in a stripped-down version for her 2005 comeback album Corazón Libre.

Haydee Mercedes Sosa was born on July 9 1935 in San Miguel de Tucumán in Argentina's Northwest, to a working class family with French and Amerindian (Quechuan) roots. She grew up with a keen appreciation of the local folk dances, such as the zamba and chacarera, and while still only fifteen won a talent contest organised by a local radio station. The prize was a two-month contract to perform on air for the station, and it effectively launched her singing career.

By 1959, she was an established voice and had recorded her first album, La Voz de la Zafra. In 1965, she appeared at Argentina's National Folklore Festival in Cosquin, which led to domestic acclaim. Within two years, she had achieved international success with her first tour of the US and Europe and after this she increasingly broadened her repertoire to include songs from all over Latin America.

By the late 1960s, she was becoming identified with the emerging nueva canción movement, an idealistic attempt to achieve political and social change through music. But then the political climate became increasingly conservative throughout Latin America, with Pinochet seizing power in a coup in Chile in 1973 and Argentina following suit in 1976, when Jorge Videla's military junta came to power.

Thereafter, Mercedes Sosa became the object of state surveillance and intimidation by the "Triple A" death squad. At a concert in La Plata in 1979, she and her entire audience of 200 university students were arrested and detained. Although she was released as a result of international condemnation, the incident forced her into exile, leaving with just "three suitcases and a handbag". She found life in exile tough, living first in Paris and then Madrid, but her music became a rallying point for those back in Argentina who had themselves been silenced.

With the Argentinian junta's power waning however, Mercedes Sosa returned home in 1982 shortly before the debacle of the Falkland's War, giving a triumphant series of concerts at Buenos Aires' Teatro Colón. These were immortalised on the double album Mercedes Sosa en Argentina, which sold particularly well and cemented her status as a legend of the musical genre.

She continued her international tours and collaborations, initially by working with Charly Garcia in the rock nacional movement, which challenged the regime. Collaborations with the folk singers Victor Heredia and León Gieco followed, as well as Brazil's Milton Nascimento.

Mercedes Sosa battled ill-health during the 1990s, but made a comeback in 1998 with a series of concerts staged in Buenos Aires' Luna Park. She later endured a two years hiatus after a series of falls, although she returned to performance in 2005.

In her later career, she became a UNESCO goodwill ambassador, and during the last decade received her greatest accolades. These included Latin Grammys for Best Folk Album for Misa Criolla (2000), Acústico (2003) and Corazón Libre (2006). Additionally, her song Balderamma was featured in the movie Che (2008). Her latest album Cantora 1 has been nominated for three Latin Grammys in the forthcoming awards.

Her last UK appearance was in London on July 15 2008. Although obviously in poor health and unable to stand onstage, she was still in fine voice.

Haydee Mercedes Sosa, who died on 4 October, 2009, was married twice. Both husbands predeceased her. She is survived by a son from her first marriage. source

Misa Criolla / Navidad Nuestra

1. Kyrie
2. Gloria
3. Credo
4. Sanctus
5. Agnus Dei
6. AnunciaciÓN
7. PeregrinaciÓN
8. El Nacimiento
9. Los Pastores
10. Los Reyes Magos
11. HuÍDa

Pass this one and you will miss thegoodone.

---------------------------------

Pope John XXIII had summoned a Vatican Council in 1962, the principle concern being the need for a manner of worship that included all worshippers. The Council ordered that the official language of the western Rites of the Catholic Church be changed from latin to the vernacular. A call went out to composers to create new music for worship in the languages of the people.
Ten years earlier Ramirez has wanted to write a mass in folkloric idiom, but clerics had advised him that a mass sung in Spanish was not permissible. When the Vatican Council refuted the longstanding sole legitimacy of Latin, Ramirez had already written most of the Misa Criolla. He quickly enlisted the help of the Liturgical Advisor to Latin America, Padre Catena, to finesse the text, and the director of the Choir of the Basilica del Socorro in Santiago, Padre Segade, to craft choral parts.

Ramirez, An Argentinean himself, did not simply set a text in Spanish: he infused his Misa with Hispano-American flavor, using traditional melodies, rhythms, harmonies, and instrumentation.

The Kyrie ("Lord, have mercy upon us") captures the vast solitude and aridity of the plateaux of the Andes. Two Andean songs, vidala and baguala, are combined. Vidala, a song of Argentine Indians, has two voices in parallel thirds, accompanied by drums and guitar. The baguala's rhythm pattern is long, short-short.

The Gloria ("Glory to God in the highest, and peace to all people on earth") is in three sections with an introduction. A plaintive and haunting instrumental call, the yaravi, opens the movement. This breaks into the first carnavalito, a joyful, catchy duple-meter dance found collectively in north-west Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru. A reprise of the soulful yaravi heard in the introduction is now given to the choir and soloists as a recitative, asking for the forgivemess of sins. The festive, carnival scene returns with even more ebullience than the first.

The Credo ("God almighty who made heaven and earth"), the confession of belief in Jesus Christ is underscored by the chacarera trunca, in which duple rhythms interlock with triples in the percussion and alternate between measures in the voice parts, setting up a heightened excitement.

The Sanctus ("Holy, holy, holy") is fuelled by the tension of the cochabambino: again, two rhythms butt against each other: one a defiant short, long; the other a more loping long, short, long. At times as many as seven different rhythms are played simultaneously.

The Agnus Dei ("Lamb of God") is a pampa: reverential and tender, it nobly beseeches peace and brings to a close a work that has run the gamut from earthy exuberance to innermost spiritual yearning.

Ironically and magnificently, this music, so rooted in a specific regional folklore, has profound resonance that is both personal and universal. Source

---------------------------------

Navidad Nuestra is a folk drama of the nativity of Jesus Christ in the rhythms and traditions of Hispanic America. Ramírez, a native of Argentina, also used this style in his popular Missa Criolla which was performed by The Naperville Chorus in December of 1994.

In this composition Ramírez gave to each episode of the story of the Nativity a distinctive regional voice which captures the mystery and glory of the birth of Christ in the musical idiom of the Composer's background. For example, a chamame for the annunciation to Mary and a huella pampeana for Mary and Joseph's pilgrimage to Bethlemen. The result is a creation of beautiful, and inspirational musical scenes .

Poet Felix Luna provided the lyrics for Navidad Nuestra. The collaboration of Ramírez and Luna has produced a marvelous work featuring Hispanic American characteristics and the universal appeal of the story.

The poetic translation in the music was quite free. The orignal Spanish poetry of Félix Luna also includes in the guaraní language - used by the Indian tribe that originally inhabited Paraguay and the provinces of Corrientes and Entre Ríos in northeastern Argentina. We thus give only a paraphrase of the movements. Source

Bamboo Voices- Khamvong Insixiengmai Ensemble

2011-05-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

a post ready since some time-excuse my absence from this lovely place, if you missed me-I doubt :)

(combination of successive pc crashes,data losses and extremely busy with work)

I promise to be a good boy from now on and participate more actively

and since music from Laos is almost a rarity in the webs,here's what I've got.-god knows how it came to me...

The best known musical instrument of the Lao is the khene, a three-foot long bundle of fourteen or sixteen bamboo tubes enclosed in a carved wooden windchest.

Within the windchest, each pipe has a small metal reed similar to those found in a pump organ,accordion, or harmonica.

The player inhales and exhales through the windchest, covering one or more finger holes at a time.

Each pipe whose fingerhole is covered plays the same pitch, inhaling or exhaling,

permitting the player to produce both drone harmony and patterned harmony.

Because the notes are tuned in a manner similar to Western music, khene music sounds more familiar and accessible to most Westerners than does music from other parts of Southeast Asia.

Vocal music, which in Lao is called lam or khap, is the most important kind of music in Laos.

The performance takes the form of a staged courtship between male and female singers.

Accompaniment is mainly provided by the khene, but other instruments,

such as the phin (plucked lute·sometimes called kachappi) and the so (bowed lute) as well as rhythm instruments (drums, gongs, cymbals) may also be featured.

Years ago, khene players were generally of local origin, while singers were often brought from far away.

ln modern times, singers usually retain their own favorite and skilled accompanist.

Poems are usually sung from memory, though the best singers are able to compose poetry spontaneously while singing. Lyrics are organized into four-line stanzas, each often having seven basic syllables.

ln addition, each line may begin with a prefix and conclude with a suffix.

These serve to complete the meaning or soften the words.

A complete performance begins with an opening verse, then proceeds directly to the main poem,

and concludes with a final or closing poem. Male and female singers alternate, as they feign a first meeting singing verses like “what is your name?", "are you married?".

They might then engage in discussion about each other and about general knowledge issues(Buddhism, history, literature) until they finally part in sadness.

Many lines are comprised of sophisticated phrases with double meanings

since, according to custom, direct statements are to be avoided.

Lao is a tonal language and a particular melody may be sung many different ways depending on the number of the words in the verse and the tones of the vocal inflections.

from the notes

bamboo

Ki Yi M'Bock - Werewere Liking - Un touareg s'est marié à une pygmée

2011-05-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

Created in 1985 by Werewere Liking, the Ki-Yi Company is a Collective made up of African artists from many countries residing in the Ivory Coast and attempting to use "Africa" as the inspiration for a multi-faceted professional activity. The organization, composed of some 70 members, includes: the Ki-Yi Village (the space where the group works and lives), Ki-Yi Arts Productions (painting and sculpture), the Ki-Yi Museum (ancient and contemporary works), Ki-Yi lines (clothing) and the Ki-Yi M'Bock Theatre, which presents in repertory dramatic, choreographic, lyric, and musical pieces -- both at the Village and on tour: to date in Africa, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, Canada, and Japan.

The Embodiment of a Panatrican Dream

The KI-Yi M'Bock, founded in Abidjan by the Cameroonian artist Werewere Liking (writer, director, singer), preserves in this album its first - the aural memory of its 1992 lyric opera about Africa: "A Tuareg Got Married to a Pygmy". The album embodies quite magically what might be called a signally "crucial meeting." Benefitting from the participation of some seventy members of different nationalities and ethnic groups, the Ki-Yi Company has become the melting pot for a cultural Symbiosis which embraces and represents Africa itself, a symbiosis which through performance realizes Nkrumah's Panafrican dream, his notion that From the Sahara to the Kalahari there will be but one country." (Osageyfo ) In recounting the voyage of a Tuareg who, after having left the desert, sets off to find water - a symbol for survival - and finally marries a forest-dwelling Pygmy, the Tuareg epic transports Us not only through diverse regions of Africa but also across lime zones : different tempos and different epochs - from a royal court (Ouidah) to today's political dramas (Sankara). The album illustrates remarkably the variations which comprise Africa: a dance of tongues - languages married to music - (Bete from the Ivory Coast in Libodou and Zoukou, Yoruba in Oshogbo, Lingala in Spectacular Evolution) and a round ol rhythms whose orchestration, seemingly so simple, results on the one hand from the talent of master arranger (and demystifier-) Ray Lema and on the other from the in-depth training of the company by Lema's longtime associate Thom's Sika. Refusing the cliché of African music as percussive explosion, Ray Lema's arrangements foreground the importance of the vocal patrimony the Ki-Vi explores. To weave the songs' rhythmic fabric, comprised in part of water drums, subtle congas, percussion from Benin (the lamanoual and suggestions of cymbals, Larva has delved into the resources of counterpoint and melodic line •• whether these be found in the polyphony characteristic of Central Africa or the incantations of West African griots. The Kr-Yin musical fresco invites us to experience the successful blending of tradition and modernity. We travel from the luxuriance of Pygmy song and the warm breath of the savanna to a reggae groove (Oshogbo) or a solemn oasis bathed by guitars and synthesizers (Mystic Assembly). The recording benefits from an exceptionally rich compositional palette : no other African album has included such Vast Cultural references. Together, Ray Lema and Werewere Liking have created the first real Panafrican album. The meeting of these two pioneers inaugurates a new era in musical composition in Africa.

Fara C. Translated by Judith G. Miller

Linear notes

1. Oshogbo
2. Libodou
3. Mbimba Gwet
4. Sankara
5. Zoukou
6. Shaka Zulu
7. Ouidah
8. Tombouctou
9. Osagyefo
10. Evolution Spectaculaire
11. Assemblee Mystique

OSHOGBO "Black faith has been reincamated In the body of a White woman with sea eyes. Adouni Olorisha named Wenger. Tho magician with heavenly hands, Offered herself to the spirits of Oshogbo As witness to the rnultiple dimensions of Black laith. With Adebissi, Akandji. Abiyu. Bouraimo. Sake, Kassali and Lawani, she embraced iron and concrete From the red earth's breast and made sacred forests blossom With groat and pure timeless Beings dedicaled to Oshogbo..."

LIBODOU Before leaving on their mission, the guides worried about those who stayed behind... In former times, in courageous villages, there were more of those known as lime's workers. "You who are staying, are you ready ? Are you able to fight an epidemic ? Do you accept responsibility ? Can you keep fails and preserve courage? Can you perpetuate The work of the Masters of time? Now's the lime to prove it. Now's the time for rebirth. Know that there is no place in our village for the lazy...

MBIMBA GWET The storytellers decide to tell Firoun the epic about wars and their fatal consequences: 'Rumors of wars swell like a river. Madness cuts scars inlo faces Like the zigzags of lightning storms... Do you see the small village perched on the rocks? We have guarded all our values there. Don't you dare pollute Pama."

SANKARA Firoun Ag Atinsear pays homage to Thomas Sankara whose memory has been nearly eradicated... 'And the story ol Burkino Faso has been leveled to its lowest common denominator the guns of people hanging onto their millet and games.. Always birthing tyrants in order to kowtow to them producing heroes ripe to be buried'

ZOUKOU The news has the used of a rail of gun smoke traversing cities and villages Firoun Ag Alinsaar. Pharaoh of all Tuaregs, has come back to make new life possible! He is traveling across the continent tu try and unite his people after having failed once before... 'We shall call him Yale Digba, Great Sufferer. He is Zoukou Goublignon. the eternal wanderer.. He is the emptiness which cars forth fullness. His presence lets us dream ol unthinkable forests supplanting treacherous sand..."

SHAKA ZULU -You said,'Let war become art. Art in which fleeing and affirming oneself Amazulu Becomes a question of life or death, An essential choice....' One isn't born Amazulu-Son of Heaven.

One becomes Arnazulu through total commitment. So the Christians called you bloodthirsty But could still baptize the one who ordered Hiroshima and Nagasaki And the Director of Surgery on the Iraqis. Being Amazulu means from now an In the reign of violence and scientific death Choosing to reinvent life..."

OUIDAH The women who are buried alive. Funeral biers for their royal husbands. Don't give birth to other people. And their children who are traded for canons Don't come back. The rusted canons don't thunder anymore. Women and children killed, sold no longer gossip And there is no one left to continua the line. You dare ask, 'what's this silence?' You. the Lord of Wars and Slaves...?"

TOMBOUCTOU Having started on his way accompanied by guides and storytellers designated by the Mystic Assembly, Firoun Ag Alinsaar, the Tuareg. enters Tanbuctu. But one ol the cities most celebrated in history for its openness and hospitality is no longer able to recognize its own children I "Timbuctu. Off en your doors to Firoun Ag Alnsaar And cast out the intolerance which rumbles within..."

OSAGEYFO For those people who wanted to share a great dream •• the PanafrIcan dream which invited them to think of themselves differently, perhaps even seeing themselves as great as the dream... "When Nkrumah the Osageyfo dreamed, He dreamed big, from the Sahara to the Kalahari. He sow only one country. Only one country on en entire continent. Ashantis the same as Zulus, Lances and shields united Where differences meant richness.'

EVOLUTION SPECTACULAIRE Firoun Ag Alinsaar arrives in the lorest and meets Ngolobanze, the pygmy woman, and her twin brother Tole, and other nomads, another wisdom, another way of doing things but soil all brothers and partners. 'Oh to convince all those between your tribe and mine. Those who claim lobe sophisticated, developed, But who can't stop imposing their 'civilization' With weapons and money. Kalachnikov, neutron bombs, Spectacular evolution. Bravo!

ASSEMBLEE MYSTIQUE The Tuareg must leave the desert, travel across his whole continent, track down the highest energies of Hina Ina, Mother Earth, and learn how to make them circulate throughout his body. Thus has spoken the Mystic Assembly.

Honeymoon starts here, and if looks like it passed quickly it must have been thegoodone.

Werewere Liking has earned the attention of much of the francophone world over the past seven or eight years for her novels and plays. A prolific and multifaceted artist, she also writes poetry, studies and practices traditional art forms (sculpture, Malian marionette performances), paints, produces and directs and acts in her plays, and has produced severalshort films. Growing up among the Bassa of Cameroon, Liking experienced her people's rituals of healing, initiation, and death, and it is this framework which serves as a theoretical base for her writings and personal philosophy. She belongs to a new generation of African writers who are concerned as much with the content of their works as with developing a new African esthetic that might further the social efficacy of their art. Unlike modern African theater in the decades after Independence (largely imitating a European esthetic), Liking's theater combines dance, music, song, speech, and traditional spatial arrangements and concentrates on eliciting an emotional response to engender an intellectual one. In many respects, hers is the "total theater" that Artaud envisioned.

Politically, economically, and socially, Africa's leaders have defaulted on their promises, declared goals, and responsibilities. They have also been instrumental in advancing dependency and promoting an unhealthy social imbalance between desire and self-indulgence and between the abuse of traditional beliefs and modern opportunism. Correspondingly, one of the most wide-reaching thematic springboards in the post-1970 francophone African literatures has been the conflict between traditionalism and modernism. This tendency emerges in the 1980s with what seems to be a new emphasis: the thematics of the assistés or (foreign) aid recipients.
Indeed, for some contemporary authors, the means of dealing with the negative forces "directing" African society lies not just in integrating traditionalism with modernism, but in combatting the facile excuses which keep Africa in a state of eternal alienation and dependence on borrowed principles. This is the point of departure for the following discussion of Werewere Liking's theater, a discussion which privileges her most recently published text, Un Touareg s'est marié à une Pygmée ( 1992 ) Launched in the late 1970s, the theater of Werewere Liking, while presenting the sociopolitical and spiritual trials of contemporary Africa, is one that attempts to go beyond presentation, protest, and criticism with the purpose of forging a new vision of the African world and the self as well as a collective dream that might enable the meeting of the possible with the seemingly impossible, the "marriage of stone with water" ( Touareg, 34). In this theater, it is a question not just of recovering a certain balance in life, but of the process through which freedom and a fullness of being can be accomplished in a contemporary sociopolitical environment dominated by fear, demagogy, and estrangement. This process is enabled first and foremost by the notion of rencontre: an encounter of history with myth, the past with the present, tradition with modernism, and the self with its conscience and with "the other." As Ngolobanza, the Pygmy bride, states: "Tout est une question de rencontre / Une question d'ouverture, de vision / Accepter de s'approcher, de se rapprocher / On ne connaît la différence que par l'expérience" (It's all a question of contact / A question of openness, of vision / Agreeing to draw closer, to come together / We recognize difference only through experience; Touareg, 35). In the final analysis, rencontre forms a philosophical imperative in the search for a healthy equilibrium between traditionalism and modernism.
It is the thematic and structural gateway that might open the doors to the wider perspective and in formed judgment that support the very raison d'être for Werewere Liking's theater.

Liking's theater is rooted in the premise that contemporary African drama should confront contemporary problems (and propose solutions) in Africa in a form that is based on African symbols, structures, philosophies, and performance techniques rather than on Western conventions. This premise is based on an esthetic need that is itself conditioned by a social need. For not only, as Hourantier says, does "imported theater obey a ritual whose code the African does not know and to which he does not react emotionally" ( Du Rituel au théâtre-rituel, 8) but many traditional beliefs, rituals, and the myths that lie at their inception no longer relate contemporary Africa to its former dynamic.2 Indeed, if these myths and rituals do still remain in collective memory, they have often been exploited nefariously or emptied of their meaning and efficacy.

source

William Parker - Long Hidden - The Olmec Series

2011-05-20T02:37:00.000-07:00

William Parker’s new album, Long Hidden: The Olmec Series, explores and expands on the ancient DNA/cultural codex that connects Africa to The Americas - reflecting William Parker’s long abiding interest in and study of the continental connection between the Manding people of West Africa and the Olmec of ancient Mexico (root culture of the Maya forward). A meditation exercise toward your enduring pertinence in the present world? A ten-track introductory manual on how to comport yourself in the reigning parallel? Yes to both questions. 2012 is on its way, after all.

The album opens with an arrestingly spacious solo bass performance of the traditional hymn “There Is A Balm In Gilead”, one of William’s favorites. It continues episodically with music from three different sessions: The title track is a series of solo pieces on the 8-string doson ngoni (traditional hunter’s guitar from West Africa). William was introduced to the instrument in 1975 by Don Cherry. Parker writes in the liner notes, “I had already owned a kora, but it was the Ngoni that made my heart sing. This music is daily music. It is connected to the people sitting on the porch after supper, playing that old guitar, a suspending time of tuning and detuning dreams.” The two further compositions on solo bass are rendered arco, revealing William’s theory of music - sound is light and light is sound.

The third session, launching off the grid, are four pieces by THE OLMEC GROUP. These tracks are at the crux of Long Hidden – mysterious and entrancing sound poetry embracing the Caribbean and Middle America via inspiration drawn from the Great Stone Head of the Olmec. Further to William on percussion and 6-string doson ngoni, the O.G. is composed of Dave Sewelson: the veteran saxophone player who has been active on the creative music scene for the last thirty years, Todd Nicholson: a formidable presence on the bass who when not leading his own bands can be heard with the violinist Billy Bang, and - Omar Payano, Isaiah Parker, Gabriel Nunez and Luis Ramierez - all under 23 years old, who play Merengue music. William writes: “It is the sound of hieroglyphics coming off the scroll or stone wall and marching onto boats that will soon set sail. Where these boats will land I don’t know, this new journey is just beginning.”

* IN CASE OF ACCIDENT - originally issued on the cassette album, Painter’s Autumn, self-released by William Parker in 1994 and long since out of print. A truly epic solo bass piece recorded live in Montreal in 1993, and here given its first wide release on the outer rings of this first edition pressing of Long Hidden. - SJ

1. There Is a Balm in Gilead
2. Long Hidden Part Two
3. Codex
4. El Puente Seco
5. Long Hidden Part Three
6. Cathedral of Light
7. Compassion Seizes Bed-Stuy
8. Pok-a-Tok
9. Espirito
10. Long Hidden Part One
11 In Case of Accident [live] (H)
11 In Case of Accident [live]

William Parker (bass instrument, 8-string bass); Omar Payano (vocals, guiro); Luis Ramierez (accordion); Dave Sewelson (alto saxophone, baritone saxophone); Isaiah Parker (alto saxophone); Todd Nicholson (bass instrument); Gabriel Nunez (bongos, timbales).

Hidden passage from Manding to Olmec is thegoodone.

The Olmecs probably founded writing in the Mexico. Dr. Coe, in "Olmec Jaguar and Olmec Kings" (1968), suggested that the beliefs of the Maya were of Olmec origin and that the pre Maya were Olmecs (1968,p.103). This agreed with Brainerd and Sharer's, The ancient Maya (1983,p.65) concept of colonial Olmec at Maya sites. Moreover, this view is supported by the appearance of jaguar stucco mask pyramids (probably built by the Olmecs) under Mayan pyramids e.g., Cerros Structure 5-C-2nd, Uxaxacatun pyramid and structure 5D-22 at Tikal. This would conform to Schele and Freidel's belief that the monumental structures of the Maya were derived from Olmec prototypes.
An Olmec origin for many pre-Classic Maya, would explain the cover-up of the jaguar stucco mask pyramids with classic Maya pyramids at these sites. It would also explain Schele and Freidel's (1990,p.56) claim that the first king of Palenque was the Olmec leader U-Kix-chan; and that the ancient Maya adopted many Olmec social institutions and olmec symbolic imagery.

The Olmec spoke an aspect of the Manding languages spoken in West Africa, not Mixe- Zoquean as suggested by Terrence Kaufman. The African origin of the Olmec was based on the research of C.S. Rafinesque and Leo Wiener.

In 1832, Rafinesque published the in this paper he discussed the fact that when the Mayan glyphs were broken down into their constituent parts, they were analogous to the ancient Libyco- Berber writing (which can not be read in either Berber or Taurag, people who use an alphabetic script similar to the Libyco-Berber script which is syllabic CV and CVC in structure).

The Libyco-Berber signs are analogous to the Mande signs recorded by Delafosse (1899). These Mande speakers, or the Si people , now centered in West Africa and the Sahelian region formerly lived in areas where Libyco- Berber inscriptions are found (Winters, 1983, 1986). Using the Manding languages I have been able to decipher the Libyco-Berber inscriptions (Winters, 1983).

The second clue to the Manding origin of the Olmec writing was provided by Leo Wiener in Africa and the Discovery of America (1922,v.3). Wiener presented evidence that the High Civilizations of Mexico (Maya and Aztecs) had acquired many of the cultural and religious traditions of the Malinke-Bambara (Manding people) of West Africa. In volume 3, of Africa and the Discovery of America, Wiener discussed the analogy between the glyphs on the Tuxtla statuette and the Manding glyphs engraved on rocks in Mandeland.

I was able to test the hypothesis of Rafinesque and Wiener through a comparison of the signs inscribed on the Tuxtla statuette and the La Venta celts. Using the should values from the Manding symbols, to read the La Venta celts I was able to decipher both the celts and other Olmec inscriptions.

LaVenta Celt. The Priest Pe is surrounded by other members of the cult.
The Mande people often refer to themselves as Sye or Si 'black, race, family, etc.'. The Si people appear to have been mentioned by the Maya. A. M. Tozzer (ed.), Relacion de las Casa de Yucatan (Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology ,1941) claimed that the Yucatec Maya said that the Tutul Xiu (shiu), a group of foreigners from zuiva, in Nonoualoco territory taught the Maya how to read and write. This term Xiu agrees with the name Si, for the Manding people (also it should be noted that in the Manding languages the plural number is formed by the suffix -u, -wu.

The Olmec script is a logosyllabic script. The Olmec had both a syllabic and hieroglyphic script. The hieroglyphic signs were simply Olmec syllabic signs used to make pictures.

Source

Something good will come to you

2011-05-18T11:53:00.000-07:00

Jajouka is an ancient village perched above a long valley in the blue Djebala foothills of the Rif Mountains in northern Morocco. The village is home to the Master Musicians of Jajouka as well as the sanctuary of Saint Sidi Ahmed Sheikh, who came from the East around 800 AD to spread Islam to North Morocco.

The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar, 1990

As founding members of the village of Jajouka, the Attar family maintains one of the oldest and most unique surviving musical traditions known on the planet. The music and secrets of Jajouka have been passed down through generations from father to son, by some accounts for as long as 1,300 years.

Brion Gysin, William S. Burroughs, Stephen Davis and other writers have connected elements of Jajouka’s musical traditions to Ancient Greek and Phoenician ceremonies. Burroughs famously dubbed the Master Musicians of Jajouka “A 4000 year old rock band.” However, he was likely connecting the unique rites of Boujeloudia, performed in Jajouka during the Aïd el–Kebir, to Lupercalia, the ancient Roman celebration, rather than precisely dating the origins of the music itself. Bachir Attar, leader of the Master Musicians of Jajouka, whose father, El Hadj Abdesalam el Attar led the group until his death in 1981, says the family’s most sacred compositions originated more than 1,000 years ago.

Although no one can say for certain exactly when the village was founded, all agree that Jajouka derives its baraka, or spiritual power, from the learned Saint Sidi Ahmed Sheikh, whose tomb is both the spiritual and geographic center of Jajouka. Most people who live in Jajouka are members of the Ahl Sherif tribe, which means “the saintly”. The musicians of Jajouka are taught from early childhood a complex music that is unique to Jajouka. After many years of dedicated training, the musicians may finally become Malimin or Masters. In the past, the Jajouka musicians numbered as many as fifty or more players at a time. However, not all musicians reach the level of Malim. Usually only a few great masters arise each generation to pass along the secrets to their sons and nephews. Much more...

Wiki:
Jajouka or Zahjouka is well known as home to two Sufi trance musicians groups, The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar and the Master Musicians of Joujouka managed by Frank Rynne. The music from Jajouka attracted the attention of writers Paul Bowles and William S. Burroughs in the 1950s because the Sufi trance musicians there appeared to still celebrate the rites of the god Pan. Brion Gysin, who had been introduced to the master musicians by Mohamed Hamri, propagated this idea. Gysin linked the village's Boujeloud festival, where a boy sewn in goat skins danced with sticks while the musicians play to keep him at bay, to the ancient "Rites of Pan". In 1967 and 1968 Brian Jones, lead guitarist with The Rolling Stones, visited the village; at the end of his stay, he recorded the musicians for the LP Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka. The LP was released on Rolling Stones Records in 1971, some two years after Jones' death. The record was reissued in 1995 by Point Music. The music from this village attracted an influx of westerners, including some who later recorded there, such as Ornette Coleman and Bill Laswell.

oficial

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Brian Jones Presents - The Pipes of Pan at Jajouka

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The Master Musicians of Joujouka - Joujouka Black Eyes (Frank Rynne)

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The Master Musicians of Jajouka Featuring Bachir Attar

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Ornette Coleman - Dancing In Your Head
Thanks to POWERPOPFANATIC1979

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Master Musicians of Jajouka feat. Bachir Attar - Apocalypse Across The Sky
Thanks to anonymousremain

Image links.

Pass if there is one must be thegoodone.

Ya Rayah

2011-05-06T17:59:00.000-07:00

"Ya Rayah" (Arabic: يا الرايح Yâ ar-râyiḥ) is an Algerian "chaabi" song composed and performed in the 1970s by Dahmane El Harrachi (Amrani Aberrahmane). Up until the past 15 years this song was known to be Dahman El Harrachi's original song and in the Chaabi/Andalous tradition of Algiers. This song is a ballad of the traveler, the exiled, the longing to come back, the immigrant, the "wanderin' star", etc. hence it's universal appeal. In 1993, it was also performed by French-Algerian pop singer Rachid Taha on his second self titled album. Also in 2003 by Enrico Macias at the Olympia in Paris.

Dahmane El-Harrachi:

Rachid Taha:

Kamel El Harrachi:

Like father, like son. In both appearance and talent, Kamel resembles his father, the late Dahmane el Harrachi, popular chaabi singer and composer of the song "Ya Rayah", which became an international hit by Rachid Taha. His father died in 1980. Kamel was only seven but he vowed to follow in his footsteps. He had grown up immersed in the classic sounds of chaabi and set out to develop these influences into his own style. In 1994 he moved to France and, like his father, began to play in small Parisian cafes. Over the next years he honed his craft, gathered his musicians and built himself a formidable reputation amongst the Algerian community in Paris. Finally he felt ready to record and 2009 saw the release of Ghana Fenou, a tribute to his father.

***

Ya Rayah

يا رايح وين تسافر تروح تعيي وتولينى
ايش حال ندموا العباد الغافلين قبلك وقبلى

ايش حال شفت البلدان العامرين والبر الخالى
ايش حال ضيعت اوقات وايش حال زيد ما زال تخلى
يا الغايب فى بلاد الناس ايش حال تعيي ما تجرى
تزيد وعد القدرة ولى الزمان وانت ما تدرى

علاش قلبك حزين وعلاش هكدا كى الزوال
ما تدوم الشدة ولا تزيد تعلم وتبنى
ما يدومولى الايام ولا يدوم صغرك وصغرى
ويا حليلو المسكين اللى غاب سعده كى زهرى

يا مسافر نعطيك وصية تيجاها ع البكرى
شوف ما يصلح ليك قبل ولا تبيع ولا تشرى
يا النايم جانى خبرك كى ماصرالك صار لى
هكدا رد القلب والجبين..سبحان العالى

Ya Rayah

Ya rayah win msafar trouh taaya wa twali
"Oh traveler where are you going, you'll go, get tired, and come back"

Chhal nadmou laabad el ghaflin qablak ou qabli
"How the people failed, before you and me"

[repition again]Ya rayah win msafar trouh taaya wa twali
Chhal nadmou laabad el ghaflin qablak ou qabli

Chhal cheft al bouldan laamrine wa lber al khali
"How many cities i've seen and the deserted desert"

Chhal dhiyaat wqat chhal tzid mazal ou t'khali
"How much time i've wasted, how much more, still and you leave it" (roughly)

Ya lghayeb fi bled ennas chhal taaya ma tadjri
"Oh you absent one from the country of the people, how tired can you be and run"

Tzid waad el qoudra wala zmane wenta ma tedri
"You'll add more og th epromising will, it became history, and you didn't know"

[repition x2] Ya rayah win msafar trouh taaya wa twali
Chhal nadmou laabad el ghaflin qablak ou qabli
Ya rayah win msafar trouh taaya wa twali
Chhal nadmou laabad el ghaflin qablak ou qabli

Ya msafer naatik oussaayti addiha el bakri
"Oh traveller, i'll give you my advice take it [with you] ahead of time"

Chouf ma yeslah bik qbal ma tbia ou ma techri
"Look, what could be good for you, before you start selling and buying" (this is a saying in algeria)

Ya nnayem djani khabrek ma sralek ma srali
"Oh you sleeper, i got your news, what has happened to you happened to me"

Hakdha rad el qalb bel djbine sabhane el aali
"Like this the heart has accpeted from the Amighty [God]"

[repition x4]Ya rayah win msafar trouh taaya wa twali
Chhal nadmou laabad el ghaflin qablak ou qabli
Ya rayah win msafar trouh taaya wa twali
Chhal nadmou laabad el ghaflin qablak ou qabli
Ya rayah win msafar trouh taaya wa twali
Chhal nadmou laabad el ghaflin qablak ou qabli
Ya rayah win msafar trouh taaya wa twali
Chhal nadmou laabad el ghaflin qablak ou qabli

translation by nanu

Demko Kurtov's Zurna Group~zurna

2011-05-04T14:29:00.000-07:00

Zurna has this beautiful,round ,piercing but refreshing sound,the closest image i can think of, is that of transparent sea urchins materializing and exploding in the air-the trumpets of Jericho must have sounded similarly,a powerful and demanding instrument to tumble down the walls of modern babylon ,so inspired by kokolo's previous post,let's roll on.
a glorious net find ,that goes for you Miguel that you love the zurna sound so well :)and for all of you of course....

The zurna, a wooden whistle with cane reed and oboe-like sound, is among the most colourful wind instruments in traditional Bulgarian music. In the past, the zurna instrument was used throughout Bulgaria, but today this tradition has been preserved in Southwest Bulgaria only. Some performers, descendants of folk musicians, still sustain the zurna tradition in these regions. One of the most outstanding representatives is the Kurtov family from the village of Kavrakirovo, Petrich municipality. Just as the founder of the Kurtov musical family, Kurta Demo Limanov, his followers Ismail, Shein, Demko, Selim, Asen and others, carry the tradition of the family and preserve the characteristic Petrich style of performance. Demko Kurtov's Zurna Group is the most active of them. Besides him, it includes his son Samir (Krassimir), his brother-in-law Lyuben Fetov, and his nephew Ognyan Fetov. Incredible virtuoso players, they demonstrate in a convincing way the possibilities of the zurna instrument.

zurna

Okay Temiz - Karşılama - the Zurna Project

2011-05-03T01:40:00.000-07:00

The Karşılama-project was originally set up by OKAY TEMIZ for the 2nd Balkan Brass Meeting in Greece in 1997. For TEMIZ, it represents a whole range of new and interesting perspectives and the further evolution of a career rich in world music experimentation.

Karşılama means "meeting" and "welcome".

"The sound of the zurna, one of the oldest instruments in the traditional music of the Middle East, has a rough, primeval character. Not only is the zurna difficult to play and keep in tune, it is also very loud, often making it unpopular among its player’s fellow musicians. On the other hand, it is especially effective in combination with drums such as the davul-darbuka, a double-skinned drum. Together, the zurna and the davul are the two most important instruments for the musical accompaniment of traditional weddings, dances and circumcision ceremonies. In Western Thracia on the Aegean Sea, three, four, eight, even ten zurna players join davul drummers and play until the mouthpieces are worn out. In my opinion, the best zurna players come from Eastern Central Turkey and the Balkans.

Ahmet Özden is a young zurna musician who learned to play and understand the instrument from his ancestors. An expert on the techniques and history of zurna playing, he feels committed to upholding its traditions. At the same time, however, he is a musician who constantly endeavours to widen the scope of his instrument.

As in my other projects, I use a large number and variety of percussion instruments I have collected in many different countries. The project thus reflects my outlook as an 'international' artist." (OKAY TEMIZ)

The ZURNA is a woodwind instrument which is played with a reed. Acoustically it is related to the bagpipes as well as the clarinet and saxophone, except that the latter are played with a flat reed. Due to the form of the reed, it requires considerable effort simply to produce a sound. The zurna player must therefore master the technique of circular breathing, which guarantees constant air pressure. Because it is very loud, the zurna is a typical "open-air"- instrument. This is one explanation for the fact that it was traditionally played at weddings and other celebrations, as well as in archaic military bands.

The zurna is also closely related to the Iranian tzurnay, the Greek zorna, the Yugoslavian zurla, the French shawm, the Moroccan mizmar, the Chinese sunay and the Indian shenay. It is played throughout Turkey. The small zurna (cura zurna) is typical of the regions on the coast of the Black Sea. The most penetrating sound is made by the medium-sized zurna of Eastern Turkey, while the long zurna (kaba zurna) from the West and the Aegean coast produces a softer sound. On "Karsilama", only the long zurna is played. source

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1. Kobra / Cobra v3:32
2. Dere Geliyor Dere / Running River 2:41
3. Canakkale Icinde / In Canakkale 4:25
4. Bu Gala Tasli Gala / This gala stony gala 5:50
5. Aydin Zeybegi / Aydin Dance 3:04
6. Ada Ciftetellisi / Island Ciftetelli 5:02
7. Kazibem / My Kazibe 2:37
8. Süleyman Aga / Mr. Suleyman 4:36
9. Kütahya`nin Pinarlari / Kütahya's Fountain 5:59
10. Ergün'e / To Ergün 7:24
11. Koca Arap / Huge Black 2:12
12. Karşılama / Meeting 6:24

High pitch
thegoodone is the word to clear your ears.

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Okay Temiz was born in 1939 near Istanbul. Having studied drumming at the academy of Ankara, he began his professional career as a member of show groups, with which he toured North Africa, the Near East and all of Turkey. In Europe, Okay Temiz felt especially at ease in Scandinavia, and he has since adopted both Sweden and Finland as second homes. Already at an early stage he regarded himself as an 'international' - what today would be called a world musician - and succeeded in bringing together widely differing musical influences.

In the late 1960s, the American trumpet player Don Cherry - who took great interest in African and Asian cultures - heard the Okay Temiz play in Stockholm. The incident sparked a collaboration which would last many years. In the mid-1970s, Temiz founded the ensemble ORIENTAL WIND, a regular and successful guest on the concert stages of Europe throughout the years of its existence.

Just as he has often invited European musicians to make guest performances in Turkey, Temiz has repeatedly introduced Eastern musicians to Europe, primarily people whose musical roots are in the folklore of their country.

According to one critic, Temiz 'is an energetic, and at the same time sensitive drummer with an incredible feel for nuances. Even when he chooses to be moderate in his setting of accents, the lovely melodies are threaded into a dense and powerful

weave of rhythms presenting a challenge to the co-musician. Okay Temiz is also an outstanding percussionist who has achieved true mastery above all on the South American berimbao.'

The zurna has accompanied Temiz throughout his life; its sounds being associated with the most exciting incidents of his childhood - celebrations, dances and holidays. In the 1970s Temiz frequently performed in Scandinavia with Binali Selman, a renowned zurna player from Eastern Turkey. In the 80s he worked with another zurna player in Stockholm - Ziya Aytekin from the north-eastern part of their homeland. In 1996/67, following his return to Turkey, Temiz met a young zurna player from the country's west, Ahmet Ozden, whom he regards as one of the greatest living masters of this difficult instrument.

Another side of Okay at Inconstantsol, Okay Temiz + Johnny Dyani – Witchdoctor’s Son, don't forget to thank Owombat

Mohammad Musavi - Ney of Mohammad Musavi

2011-05-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

Firs a small remark acording to some sources it is Mohammad Mousavi, not Musavi, but I am going to leave it as on this edition of CD. All apologies to anyone that might feel piqued, if you are sure what is correct please say.

IRAN : THE NEY OF MOHAMMAD MUSAVI

Mohammad Musavi was born in 1947 in Ahvaz, South-West Iran. He started playing Persian music (on flute and violin) in his childhood and stood out in school competitions. At the age ofthirteen, he traded his violin for a reed ney, which he practiced for a week before he could get one decent sound out of it. He remembers how he used to blow "until his eyes came out of their orbits" then fell asleep from exhaustion, his instrument still in his hand, to resume work as soon as he woke up. It must be known that the technique of the ney is as sophisticated as the instrument is simple, and if it takes hours of practice to get one note out of it, it requires years to reach a beautiful sound. Musavi had the good fortune to be given counsel by Ispahan's great master, Hasan Kasa'i. After this encounter, he progressed rapidly. At the age of seventeen, he settled in Tehran, in the very heart of musical life. Fundamentally self-taught, he learnt music mostly by impregnating himself with the classical programmes broadcast on the radio. At nineteen he was hired as a soloist by the National Radio and Television and Kasal, impressed by his talent, offered to help perfect his training...

Musavi's playing is characterized by its generosity and nobleness of sound; his perfect mastership serves uncommon improvisation abilities, instantly applicable whatever the circumstance. He mentally composes most of the rhythmic pieces which mark out his im-provisations. For the last decade he has elaborated a personal style, characterized by a return to the very roots of his instrument, as can be found in certain popular traditions, especially in South-West Iran where Musavi grew up. For that repertoire, he is accompanied by not only the drum zarb but also the Kurdish frame drum daf.

These recordings were made at his home in Tehran, in May 1994, in two evening ses-sions. Between these, he fell ill and went to hospital, but only at the end of the recording did he learn that he had had a heart attack. Fortunately, he has now totally recovered, but this attack forced him to stop playing ney for over a year. Despite his critical state, he had chosen to play Chaliargal, the most difficult mode on ney. In a way, he was giving, in a painful and pathetic interpretation, the full force of the last breath before a whole year of silence... (from linear notes)

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1 Tchahârgâh 15:42

2 Bayât-E-Tork 15:40

3 Shur 24:07

4 Shushtari 12:43

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

word is thegoodone

And one from the Master :)

The ney is an ancient oriental instrument which has retained the original simplicity of the reed it is made from, Spread under various shapes from Morocco to India as well as Eastern Africa or Bulgaria, it is used in both learned and popular music. In Iran it is played with an especially sophisticated technique : instead of resting on the lips, the edge of the reed tube is introduced inside the mouth and stuck in-between the incisor teeth. The breath, directed by the tongue into the flute, is formed inside the mouth with a technique using the whole mouth cavity as well as the lips, teeth and tongue. This way of playing confers the ney a sophisticated colour which is all refinement and subtlety. It allows the constant control of the sound pitch so that the performer can render all the finesses and inflexions of the human voice in a very vast melodic and dynamic register. (This mastering of the breath allows a good ney player to reproduce any melody on a simple tube a few centimeters long!)
This 'between the teeth' technique is also common to the Turks from Central Asia to Siberia, but it was Nayeb Asadollah (who died around 1910) who borrowed it from the Turkmen and notably perfected it. He used it so well that it soon definitely eclipsed the previous technique, last represented by Soleyman, his just-as-renowned predecessor. Nayeb Asadollah passed his art on to Naval, the master of Hasan Kasal (b. 1928) with whom the instrument found its second wind. After perfecting his technique with Kasal for more than twenty years, Musavi in his turn ended up creating his own style.
The ney basic scale is CD EP F F# GA' (in relative pitch), corresponding to the closed tube and the six holes, the last of which is occluded by the thumb. All the nuances of the micro intervals are produced from these basic pitches, by a constant readjusting of the breath. For "lack" of a B note, there is no continuity between the medium and bass registers but this deficiency, in principle easy to put right, has turned into an aesthetical choice: thusway, the low-pitched and high-pitched registers are always clearly separated and the symmetry dear to Persian aesthetics is helped by structures 'in mirrors' : high phrase / low answer.
Likewise, the adjustment of intervals, which could have been facilitated by new holes or semi-holes, confers the ney that specific plasticity which is all its charm.

Mahmoud Fadl - Love Letter from Tut-Ank-Amen

2011-04-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

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 eyes_—tender 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

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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)

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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

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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