Tim Lister's World Tour on WMLB

World Tour Show 25

2011-07-27T10:20:00.002-04:00

This week (07/27/11), the chart of favorite World Music albums (and the definition is a loose one) from radio producers, presenters and critics across Europe, who vote every month for their favorite albums. The full chart has 100 albums and I'll post it elsewhere on the blog. But July's top ten starts with a new release from one of Cape Verde's many talents. (Cape Verde is an archipelago off the west coast of Africa heavily influenced by Portuguese music because of the many traders and sailors that visited in decades and centuries past.)

Teofilo Chantre was born on the island of São Nicolau. At the age of thirteen, he and his family left Cape Verde and migrated to Paris. But as a teenager he wrote songs inspired by the traditional morna and coladeira of Cape Verde. He was also deeply influenced by Brazilian music, and wrote several songs for the album Miss Perfumado by the legendary Cesaria Evora.

Chantre has also established himself as a respected performer. His albums include Di Alma and Viaja and most recently , Mestissage (link in French) his soulful, lilting ballads in Portuguese and French sitting on a bed of accordion, double bass, guitar and drums. The track on the show: "Tu Verrais."

On her latest album Afrodiaspora, Peruvian diva Susana Baca looks beyond native influences to New Orleans, Puerto Rico, and Pernambuco in Brazil. The foundation of the album is Spanish guitars and cajon - the rhythms are cumbia, son and the Peruvian lando. The album includes a collaboration with Reggaeton band Calle 13 from Puerto Rico led by stepbrothers René Pérez Joglar and Eduardo José Cabra Martínez. They won album of the year at the Latin Grammys two years ago and are outspoken supporters of independence for Puerto Rico. The song is "Plena y Bomba" - named after the two different styles of music found in the predominantly African regions of Puerto Rico.

At #8 another of a glittering generation of lady Latin stars. Paula Morelenbaum and her husband Jaques are mainstays in the ever dynamic Brazilian music scene and were in the band that toured with legend Antonio Carlos Jobim from 1984–1994. She has also worked with Japanese composer and keyboard guru Ryuichi Sakamoto. But her new album Agua is a collaboration with Rio-based Joao Donato - and is quintessential Brazilian bossa nova. On the show "Cafe com Pao."

From the beaches of Rio to the deserts of north Africa for #7, a new release from Omara "Bombino" Moctar, a young Tuareg guitarist and songwriter. Raised during an era of armed struggles for independence among the Tuaregs, a nomadic people in Niger and Mali, his music captures the spirit of resistance and are reminiscent of fellow Africans Tinariwen and Ali Farka Touré - as well as John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Page. His new album is called Agadez - which has quite a story behind it. American filmmaker Ron Wyman encountered Bombino while traveling near Agadez, a Tuareg town in northern Niger. Wyman says he was blown away by the cassettes he heard and asked Bombino to come to Cambridge, Mass., to record at his home studio. They later finished the album in Niger. Try "Tar Hani (My Love)" from Agadez.

Onto the latest in a Nigerian dynasty, with a horn section that could have graced his father's many albums. Seun Anikulapo Kuti heads up Egypt 80, the extraordinary combo first fronted by his renowned father Fela. From Africa With Fury: Rise sees Kuti finding his own idiosyncratic voice as songwriter, singer, and band leader, its songs marked by a provocative edge that's more than a little reminiscent of Fela. As co-producer John Reynolds puts it: "Amazing beats, horns, chants, all beautifully crafted and delivered with the punch of a Jūdan master. A most incredible force, Seun carries a great soul which will touch everyone who meets him.". Here's the title track and an interview with the man by Afropop's Banning Eyre. Last month #6 ; this month #6...

An album that seems destined to remain in the European World Music chart indefinitely is this month at #5. It's Uniko with Finnish accordion players Kimmo Pohjonen, Samuli Kosminen joining the celebrated Kronos Quartet.

As someone from NPR so elegantly put it: “I feel like this music could be soundtrack for a thriller set during a blizzard in Lapland. The soundscapes build to giant avalanches of strings and electronics, aided by the Finns’ tricked out accordions and sampling. Then poof! We’ve just fallen off the cliff, floating downward in silence.” On the show this week, the Third Movement, "Plasma," as played live in Helsinki in 2004.

At # 4 this month, a new entry and a new album from the renaissance man of Argentina, Juan Carlos Cáceres. Growing up in Buenos Aires, he was a student of Fine Arts during daytime, trombonist at night, agitator (and opponent of the then military regime), and became established at the famous Cueva de Passaroto, a jazz club and epicenter of revolutionary trends. His new album is Noche de Carnaval and he talks about it here. A master of experimentation, Cáceres has left the bandoleon or Argentine accordion in the closet and instead used the bass clarinet, sax and cello on which to base the songs. Jazz with an occasional hint of tango.

The son of the late, great Ali Farka Toure, Vieux Farka Toure, has a new album, called Secret. The Malian musician combines traditional melodies with western riffs and influnces - and voices, like Dave Matthews, who sings on "All The Same." Also helping out are Eric Krasnow, Derek Trucks and John Schofield.

There's tremendous variety on the album - as one reviewer put it: "Vieux Farka Touré is very much his own man as a musician and recording artist, which is an astonishing thing to say about someone whose career has been so short and whose father was so dominant in the field. It is exciting to wonder where his creativity and talent will take him next. Judging from this release, it could be anywhere."

An established favorite among the European chart-makers is New York's Wade Schuman and his nine-piece band - called Hazmat Modine - clocking in at #2 this week. They venture in many different directions on their latest releast - Cicada. Two harmonicas, a three-piece brass section, guitar, steel guitar and percussion - it's all in there. The songs here are often blues-based, but always different....On a couple of tracks they get help from Natalie Merchant and the Gangbe Brass Band from Benin in west Africa....One of them is " Child of a Blind Man" - though Natalie is absent on this live performance.

Which brings us to a thoroughly unexpected chart-topper and a new entry to boot. This month a European act gets to look down at the rest of the field, and it's clear the taste for Balkan horns is growing. The album is Balkan Brass Battle - an efferverscent and almost delirious collaboration (or should that be competition) between the Boban & Marko Markovic Orchestra from Serbia and Fanfare Ciocarlia from Romania - a twelve-piece Romani brass band from the northeastern Romanian village of Zece Prăjini.

Think of it as music by drinking contest. There's an hilarious video to prove it. On the show, Fanfare's signature track "Asfalt Tango."

World Tour is on air every Wednesday at 7pm ET, on Atlanta's Voice of the Arts - WMLB 1690AM - and online at 1690wmlb.com.

World Tour Show 23

2011-07-13T18:28:00.000-04:00

The 23rd edition of World Tour (on air 7/13/2011) was a Lusophonic extravaganza, starting in Brazil and wafting eastwards across the Atlantic to Angola and Cape Verde. The music of each of these countries has echoed to the influences of the others.

Starting off with Lucas Santtana, born in Bahia (the most African of Brazilian states) in 1970, a musician who is both daringly innovative and respectful of Brazilian traditional genres. He has worked with all the Brazilian greats, it seems. In 1993, he was invited to join Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil on tour for the album Tropicália 2. His solo career started in 2000, with the album Eletro Ben Dodô, followed in 2003 by Parada de Lucas. He also played a part in albums by Chico Science and Nação Zumbi, Marisa Monte, Fernanda Abreu, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, as well as having songs recorded by Marisa Monte, Fernanda Abreu and Arto Lindsay.

In 2009 Lucas Santtana produced his forth album, Sem Nostalgia on the label Mais Um Discos. All the sounds in Sem Nostalgia were produced using only acoustic guitars and voices. Check out the track played on the show and the turbo-charged energy of the video: "Super Violao Mashup." And just to illustrate that Lucas has a soft side, listen to his lilting ballad "Mensagem de Amor" - from the album Eletro Ben Dodo - with the lyrics:

"The books on the shelf are not really that important, that much of what I read the little that I know, nothing remains to me except the desire to meet you....."

Santanna worked with Marisa Monte on her 2000 album Memories, Chronicles and Declarations of Love, her most successful to date and a wistful compilation of Brazilian ballads. Working with her New Yorker compatriot, Arto Lindsay, Monte produced an album that's polished and languid - featuring Carlinhos Brown (a frequent collaborator) and Arnaldo Antunes; and Caetano Veloso also contributes.The album shows off her pop sensibilities but also her ability to breathe new life into a traditional ballad, like the song "Abololo." To some critics the album is a little too finessed, but the arrangements and Marisa Monte's seductive voice are hard to beat.

As a producer, Marisa Monte has promoted the work of the Velha Guarda da Portela, a group of veterans from one of Rio's most famous Samba schools, the Portela (of which her father was once director.) She wanted to capture the essence of an oral tradition on disc before it literally died out. The best collective display of their work is in an album called Tudo Azul - recorded in 1999 but not released until 2008. Two of the leading protagonists of the school were Argemiro do Patrocinio and Jair do Cavaquinho - and Monte's label Phonomotor released albums by both. On the show we feature Patrocino's "Meu Sofrimento" - but get an idea of his old-time take on Samba with "Solidao."

Jair do Cavaquinho took the name of the instrument that made him famous - a four-string guitar well-known in the Samba tradition of Brazil and the Semba traditional of Lusophonic Africa. A member of Portelo since he was 7, Jair do Cavaquinho wrote "Meu Barracão de Zinco," the samba which made him famous outside his community when it was chosen to represent the samba school in 1962. On the show, we have "Doce Na Feira" - and here's "Pecadora." from the double album Roda da Samba by the collective known as A Voz do Morro.

Marisa Monte has worked with many other artists - from Brazil and further afield. Along with Carlinhos Brown, she collaborated with Angolan singer Bonga on the track "Mulemba Xangola"" for the AIDS benefit compilation Onda Sonora: Red Hot + Lisbon released in 1999.

Before he was Angola's best-known singer, Bonga was a star athlete. But his opposition to Portuguese colonial rule meant a life of itinerant exile. It was in the unlikely setting of Rotterdam that he recorded the seminal Angola 72 and adopted the name Bonga Kwenda. While in Europe, Bonga met other Portuguese-speaking musicians and adopted the sounds of Samba.

Bonga 's 2003 album Kaxexe finds him extolling the virtues of semba (Angola's version of samba) - his gruff voice complimenting the percolating rhythms and melodic guitar of the genre. 'Kaxexe" means 'En Cachette' in French, which means 'secretly' in English.

Semba’s roots run deep in the traditions of the Angolan people. It was originally used to celebrate harvests, weddings, and births. When Angola came under the colonial control of Portugal in the sixteenth century, many Angolans were enslaved and sent overseas to other Portuguese colonies. This exodus brought Angolan culture and music to the New World, and semba had a major impact on Brazilian samba.

A typical example of Bonga's style is "Olhos Molhados", while the show features his ballad "Moname" - which has faint traces of the morna style better known as the template of Cape Verdean music.

An archipelago north of Angola, Cape Verde has produced a plethora of great artists, the best-known among them Cesaria Evora, who delivers the bluesy morna with a plaintive acoustic sound that has won fans worldwide. The title track from her album Voz d'Amor is a quintessential example of her style, which she also passed on to the next generation of Cape Verdean singers - among them Fantcha, whose album Criolina, recorded in Portugal and released in 1998, is probably still her best.

Fantcha, whose two brothers played guitar and cavaquinhos (that transatlantic instrument again), was introduced to Cesaria Evora as a young child. And her debut performance came when Evora encouraged her to sing at a local piano bar. After they toured the US together in 1988, Fantcha decided to stay, joining a vibrant Cape Verdean community in Rhode Island. From Criolina, here's "Cinderela."

On her most recent album Viva Mundelo, Fantcha works with several Cape Verdean song-writers and performers, among them Tito Paris. Paris has nurtured that Lusophonic link with Angola, performing with
Paulo Flores, who was born in the Angolan capital Luanda and spent some of his childhood in Lisbon. His music is mostly written in Portuguese though some is in the Kimbundu language. Flores and Paris performed together on the song "Clarice"

Finally the new release on the show takes us back to Brazil and the rebirth of Banda Black Rio, one of the great Brazilian bands of the 1970s and 80s. Formed by saxophonist Oberdan Magalhães, they were pioneers of the country's soul, samba and funk movement. The band has now been revived by his son William, who wrote or co-wrote every track on the album Super Nova Samba Funk. The cast includes new samba hero Marcio Local, Seu Jorge, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. And the track we've squeezed in is "Lindos Olhos" featuring Seu Jorge and Don Pixote.

World Tour Show 22

2011-06-22T16:50:00.001-04:00

This week (air date June 15) a voyage around the British Isles, catching traditional and contemporary sounds from Scotland, Ireland and England. Plenty of variety, new and old, from the Emerald Isle, the windswept Scottish islands and finally the heart of England.

The thread that links all these songs is the thriving traditional and folk music scene. And no-one's done more to revive adapt and promote the music of Ireland than the Chieftains. Their album The Wide World Over included collaborations with Sting, the Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello and more. And a couple of tunes with a deep Irish heritage, including "Carolan's Concerto" – a gorgeous piece where Derek Bell's expertise on the harp shines.

Carolan's Concerto is thought to have derived from a rivalry between the Irish composer Carolan and an Italian musician in Dublin. Turlough O'Carolan himself was a master harper, mystic, dreamer and extravagant drunkard.

If the Chieftains have led the way in popularizing and updating Irish folk, there are plenty of new artists who tapping into Ireland's rich musical heritage. One of them is Villagers - which is actually one very talented guy called Conor J O'Brien. His debut album, Becoming A Jackal, is a collection of poetic, lilting songs described by the judges of one prestigious music award in the UK as "a record of great charm and mystery". "We wanted to make it sound a bit like a Neil Young album,"he says . "Not to dress it up too much. Like someone is whispering in your ear, but also to get the epic-ness at times." Well, they succeeded: it is surely one of the strongest records of the year - and amazing that one man played nearly everything on this album. Beautifully orchestrated, and yet warm and intimate...and here is the title track.

Another rising star in Ireland is Julie Feeney. Her recent release Pages is a rich mix of pop, piano-lounge intimacy, and classical brilliance. The lyrics are poetic; the arrangements glorious and she took a big risk to get it right - digging into her own pocket to hire (and conduct) the Irish Chamber Orchestra for a whole day.

Feeney wrote the lyrics for “Pages” during a month-long retreat at an artist’s colony in northeast Ireland. Three years worth of material, including essays and overheard scraps of conversation, whittled down into poems and set to music when she returned to her Dublin home. One of the songs on the album is Myth which by the way she once performed spontaneously in Terminal 5 at JFK.

Staying with the Julies but crossing the wild Irish Sea, we reach the windswept archipelago of the outer Hebrides,thrashed by Atlantic storms for most of the year. Which is why they stay inside and make music, I imagine. One woman whose mission has been to preserve and present the best of the islands' musical traditions is Julie Fowlis.

“The thing about Gaelic songs is that something very old and ancient in them resonates with modern culture," Julie says. "People sang about love, work; difficulties like death and loss, tragedy. A lot of the songs from the Hebrides are influenced by the nature - the sea and the landscape.”

And you don't have to understand a word of Gaelis to fall in love with Julie's voice - as limpid as sunlight after an Atlantic storm. And she can cover the Beatles…Lon-dubh or "Blackbird" as rendered in Gaelic.

On the Scottish mainland are the Cairngorm mountains, home to the highest peak on the British Isles. And the inspiration for Mhairi Hall's debut album. And a fine spin it is too on traditional Scottish tunes. The album is called Cairngorm and features a mix of Mhairi Hall’s own compositions, and 18th and 19th century melodies with roots in the area. Hall says she’s been collecting tunes from old musical manuscripts for ten years. Her trio - which includes Fraser Stone (drums, percussion) and Michael Bryan (guitar) is directed and joined by the Irish bouzouki wizard Donal Lunny. Check out the jazz-tinged "A Good Winter"; on the show we played "Strathspeys from Strathspey."

Next up, three veterans of the Scottish folk scene: Brian O' hEadhra (and that is the right spelling , Bruce MacGregor and Sandy Brechin. Their album Sonas (the Gaelic word for happiness, good fortune, prosperity) draws on a wealth of tunes and songs from the Gaelic and Scots traditions, as well as each being acclaimed composers in their own right.

Of all the many folk groups and troubadours that have wandered the British Isles over the past 40 years, playing clubs and pubs and eating too much fried food traveling from one gig to the next, none have had more staying power than the McCalmans. They’ve been together almost as long as the Rolling Stones and have made 26 albums, before their final curtain call at the end of last year. One of the many traditional Scottish songs they've recorded was Farewell tae the Haven – off their compilation The McCalmans In Harmony: 30th Anniversary Collection.

'Farewell tae the haven my heart it is sad, The drifters I'm leavin' tae work on the land.'

Karine Polwart has not been around nearly as long as the McCalmans but looks destined for a long and storied career. She has twice won the 'Best Original Song' award at the BBC Folk Awards, and has also been a member of the cleverly named folk collective known as the Burns Unit.

"The most beautiful thing about songs is how they can take on a life and a meaning of their own," Polwart says. " I’m constantly moved and inspired by the deeply personal experiences people let me in on to me as a result of hearing them”. Karine took time out to give birth to her son in 2007. In an extraordinarily creative maternity leave, she recorded not one but two albums. But her best album is perhaps Scribbled in Chalk from 2006, which includes the song Terminal Star (and I won't charge you for the creative Dr. Who video.)

Scotland is also producing a fine pedigree of mainstream female singer-songwriters, including K T Tunstall and Amy Macdonald. her debut album from 2007 had the audacity to knock the revered radiohead off the top of the UK album charts. It was called This is the Life and has sold more than three million copies worldwide. (I was recently in Spain and her songs were constantly on the radio.) Not bad for a girl who was 19 when she wrote the album. Her depth of her lyrics goes well beyond her youth - suggesting a world-weariness about celebrity and tabloid-driven gossip that's best heard on Footballer's Wife.

Long before Amy was even thought about, the Battlefield Band was fusing the rich heritage of Celtic music with ancient and modern instruments.

In the vanguard of Scottish music's revival, the band (named after a Glasgow called Battlefield) have mixed old songs with a self-penned repertoire, all played on a fusion of ancient and modern instruments - bagpipes, fiddle, synthesiser, guitar, flutes, bodhran and accordion. Tthe group was formed by four student friends in 1969 and have now been on the world's roads for over 40 years. Their album Threads won some sizzling reviews - "A case of familiarity breeding respect" .... "If you are feeling down, throw away the Prozac and listen to this." One of the songs on Threads is "Tramps and Hawkers" and on the show we played "Miss Kate Rusby." And the reason we did that is that one of the band's members, John McCusker, was married to the doyenne of English folk music, one Kate Rusby, and produced her albums. They are no longer an item, but the link still works.

Described as a "superstar of the British folk scene" and "the first lady of young folkies" Rusby is one of the few folk artists to have been nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize. Her album Sleepless from 1999 was her breakthrough, a collection of gentle ballads, including "Sweet Bride" with understated arrangements perfecly complimenting her delicate voice.

Rusby duets with American folk/bluegrass singer Tim O'Brien on "All God's Angels," and ventures beyond the traditional folk realm with a deeply affecting version of Iris DeMent's portrait of small-town life, "Our Town." Incidentally, she is devoted to her dog Doris, and married again.

Finally, and from a warmer, drier place a new release. The offspring of Malian duo Amadou and Mariam now has a record of his own. His name is Sam and he's part of SMOD, and like Mom and Dad his debut album is produced by Franco-Spanish eccentric Manu Chao. It's very much more hiphop-oriented than his parents' songs, but still very much rooted in Africa as tracks like "Fitri Waleya" demonstrate. And the young band is more than capable of a ballad, like Simbala.

"SMOD’s bouncing melodies and appealing guitar-lines recall nothing if not a younger, more sinewy version of Dimanche à Bamako,"concludes one reviewer. Dimanche... was the breakthrough album for Sam's parents, and from the trivia department, they've met President Barack Obama.

Tune in every Wednesday evening at 7pm ET to World Tour on WMLB, The Voice of the Arts, on 1690AM in the greater Atlanta area. And online at 1690wmlb.com.

World Tour Show 21

2011-06-13T16:14:00.000-04:00

First, apologies that this blog entry is rather later than the show, which aired June 8th...But anyway here goes: the curtain rises as World Tour goes to the movies...featuring some of the best music from "world" artists to grace the soundtracks of recent movies.

The Spanish film-maker Pedro Almodovar takes a lot of care with the songs he includes in his often quirky movies. And for the artists being part of an Almodovar film can open the door to new audiences. So it was in 1992 for Spanish singer Luz Casal, whose heart-breaking bolero "Piensa En Mi" became the signature song of the movie Tacones Lejanos (High Heels), which began to establish Almodovar's reputation.

Casal has made a name for herself reinterpreting flamenco, bolero and jazz to become one of Spain’s most successful artists. Over the course of her career, she's sold an estimated 5 million albums. 'Piensa En Mi" written by Agustin Lara is on Casal's 1991 release A Contraluz (Behind The Light), which sold over 400,000 copies.
Ten years after Tacones Lejanos came perhaps Almodovar's most successful movie "Hable con Ella" – Talk to Her. The movie included a beautiful ballad from Mexico, sung by one of Brazil’s greats, Caetano Veloso. The song is "Cucurrucucu Paloma." It’s about a very sad man…

“They say that at night he would do nothing but cry;
They say he wouldn't eat, and would do nothing but drink.
They swear heaven itself shuddered at the sound of his crying.”

Cucurrucucu Paloma was originally written by Tomas Mendez and first performed by Lola Beltran in the film of the same name. Covered by many artists, it can also be heard in the movies "The Last Sunset" and "Happy Together."

And before we leave the subject of Almodovar’s music – if you saw his captivating 1999 drama All About My Mother, you were probably enchanted in equal measure by actress Marisa Paredes, and this unlikely choice of music for the opening titles – accompanied by a panoramic view over Barcelona…A beautiful ballad from the Senegalese artist, who plays harmonica too.

Recorded in 1990, it was the song that launched Lo internationally. As for the movie, this is the way the New York Times described it. “Starting at that place in Mr. Almodóvar's great big heart where womanhood, artifice, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and "All About Eve" collide, it weaves life and art into a rich tapestry of love, loss and compassion.” Not bad.

Ridley Scott's epic of modern war "Blackhawk Down" could not be more different. The score to this riveting film about the U.S. intervention in Somalia is by Hans Zimmer, who turns to one of Africa's greatest voices for the haunting and atmospheric track that opens the movie. The voice is Baaba Maal's and the song (sung in his native Fulani) is "Hunger."

One of the most imaginative and eclectic of soundtracks of recent years was for the movie "Broken Flowers" directed by Jim Jarmusch. Released in 2005 it starred Bill Murray, Jessica Lange and Sharon Stone. The music includes a track from the Brian Jonestown Massacre, several by the Ethiopian jazz artist Mulatu Astatke – and a cover of one of his compositions “Ethanopium", by the wonderfully-named Dengue Fever.

Very few bands have the convoluted but fascinating history of Los Angeles' Dengue Fever. Inspired by a trip to Cambodia, brothers Ethan and Zac Holtzman went about forming a band that would pay tribute to that country's pop music from the 1960s before the genocidal regime of Pol Pot came to power. Somehow, the brothersstumbled across Chhom Nimol, a native Cambodian who was already a well-known karaoke singer in her home country, when she was singing in a Long Beach nightspot. Armed with a Khmer singer, Dengue Fever was born.

As a movie "The English Patient" has everything: forbidden love, heroism, tragedy and a boatload of Academy Awards, plus a soundtrack that ranges from "Yes We Have no Bananas" to an aria from Bach. And from Hungary it had "Szerelem, Szerelem" performed by Muzsikas featuring Márta Sebestyén. Sebestyen's floating vocals over an arrangement that hints at the Orient is the mystical opening

Sebestyén's mother was a composer, and a music student of Zoltán Kodály. Her father was an economist and author. When Sebestyén was seven years old, her father came home from a visit to the U.S. with a large collection of ethnic music recordings from the Smithsonian Institution. And his daughter's destiny was cast.

While the English Patient was a sweeping wartime drama, the "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" was a surreal fantasy that might be best described as non-linear. Like "The English Patient," it won Academy Awards and had an interesting soundtrack, which included a song by the Indian star Lata Mangeshkar: "Wada Na Tod."

Mangeshkar is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India whose career started in 1942. She has recorded songs for over a thousand movies and has sung songs in nearly forty regional Indian and foreign languages. She is also the sister of the equally famous playback singer Aaashe Bhosle.

From the Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind to the very different and quite hilarious "Little Miss Sunshine." Both won Best Original Screenplay, but there any comparisons melt away.

There's not much "worldy" about the soundtrack, but it’s a great excuse to include a track by my favorite Detroit-based singer songwriter, the distinctly alternative Sufjan Stevens. Off his 2005 album Illinois, the breezy "Chicago" works perfectly in the movie. Illinois was Stevens' fifth album, and part of what he then said was an ambitious if not impossible plan to record albums about all fifty states (the first was Michigan in 2003.) He later said the idea was just a promotional gimmick, but that's not to detract from an album that found its way into several respected "best of decade" lists.
On the subject of heart-warming and distrinctly oddball comedies, the charming French film Amelie was an Oscar contender in 2001…with a soundtrack from Yann Tiersen. He grew up in Rennes in the west of France enjoying Joy Division, and at the annual Transmusicales festival saw acts like Nirvana, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, and Television. But his own compositions derive more from Chopin and Philip Glass. Amelie includes more than a dozen tracks from Tiersen, including La Valse d'Amelie.

For our next offering we stay in la Belle France. Sometimes it seems as if a movie is almost a vehicle for the music within. The film "Something’s Gotta Give" with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton had 29 songs on the soundtrack - it's a surprise there was time for a plot. There were a lot of mainstream and largely forgettable songs shoe-horned in, but hidden away was also a gentle bossa nova tune from French singer Coralie Clement: Samba De Mon Coeur Qui Bat sung by the seductive Coralie Clement. You can tell her inspirations include Serge Gainsbourg and Astrud Gilberto. The song was originally on an album called Salle des Pas Perdus from 2002 - which Clement described as a soundtrack for a film that doesn't exist, but if it did, it might be Jean Luc Godard's "A Bout de Souffle."

And finally before the end credits roll, a track from another of Pedro Almodovar’s movies, the 1993 film "Kika", wherein a young cosmetologist is called to the mansion of an American writer to attend to the corpse of his stepson, Ramon. Ramon, who is not dead, is revived by Kika's attentions and she then moves in with him. And it’s only just started. "Kika" includes a track from Mexican diva Chavela Vargas called Luz de Luna and is one of 28 on an album called Songs of Almodova.

Vargas herself was a pretty outrageous type – dressing in men’s clothes and packing a gun and having some scandalous relationships. She’s now north of 90, and made her Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 83. Someone needs to write her biography.

Tune in every Wednesday @ 7p ET to World Tour on WMLB Atlanta - "The Voice of the Arts" - on 1690AM and online at www.1690wmlb.com

World Tour Show 20

2011-06-01T17:37:00.001-04:00

This week "World Tour" features another chart from Europe, as compiled by some 50 radio presenters, producers and critics across the continent who listen to music from around the world. From Estonia to Portugal they list their favorite albums of the moment, and we feature the top ten. This time: music from Greece, France, Finland, Colombia and Palestine among other destinations.

At #10 a compilation album of the best in Afrocolombian music. It's called "Afritanga" and draws on the great diversity of music produced by Colombia's Caribbean coast. One track is by the band Calambuco and it's called Guajira de un Abandanado. The band's style is known as salsa dura - roughly translated as hard-boiled salsa....and its name ‘Calambuco’ comes from the means of transport used by sugar workers in the Valle del Cauca. A few years back, as you can tell, they visited Cuba....Calambuco: a one-stop shop for bolero, descarga, mambo, guajira, currulao and of course salsa....

At #9, the album "AsFar" (which means journeys) comes from three Palestinian brothers originally from Nazareth and now settled in Paris. They are the Trio Joubran - Samir, Wissam and Adnan - and they are all virtuosos on the oud, an instrument in the Arab world that's the cousin of the lute. Their music is steeped in Palestinian traditions as well it might be - their father is one of the best-known makers of the oud in the region. But the trio are not beyond imaginative improvisations. To get immersed in the heat and exoticism of the Middle East, as well as its immense history, try the track Masana  - and check out the band's website.

Speaking of improvisations, there's a band -- yet another band -- from Mali that's finding international acclaim with a hybrid of west African, middle eastern and western influences. Call it desert rock for short - there are striking similarities with trailblazers with Tinariwen - but this band - called Tamikrest is not beyond the occasional reference to Latin influences too. Their album "Toumastin" is #8 this month  - and here is the very cool "trailer" for it. The track on the show is Tarmanahine Assinegh.

#7 takes us to the other side of Africa - at least metaphorically. Dub Colossus is the vision of Brit Nick Page - aka Dubulah. Composer, guitarist, bass player and programmer Nick started his music career with Steel Pulse and in 1990 he formed Trans-Global Underground. Several incarnations later, he is the driving force of Dub Colussus - jazz Ethiopian pop and reggae wrapped together. The latest album is Addis Through the Looking Glass (clever or what?) and among the tracks is Satta Massagana; on the show we play another track "Dub Will Tear Us Apart."Vocalist Sintayehu 'Mimi' Zenebe runs a nightclub in Addis and has been described as Ethiopia's Edith Piaf. Experimental but very accomplished fusion.

Imam Baildi is a Greek recipe and the name of a band that take traditional Greek music and does outrageous things to it. The reicipe is this: "Place an aubergine over a hot flame and heat until it surrenders." The term literally means "the imam fainted". Well, the Imam are in fact two brothers - Orestis and Lysandros Falireas -

and they have a new album at #6 in our EBU chart called "The Imam Baildi Cookbook." As the show went to air it was impossible to get hold of the new album or any of its tracks, so i had to settle for Poso Lypamai   from 2008. If you like artists such as Wax Poetic, I bet you like these guys. Purists in Greece are not wild about what they've done to classic Greek songs, but anyone who can segue between Greek ballads and Mariachi music deserves at least respect....

Next fusion of an an almost nuclear dimension. At # 5 in the European world music chart: a Vietnamese-French musician covering Eleanor Rigby. It's one of a dozen covers of rock and pop songs from another era, on Nguyen Le's new album "Songs of Freedom," which can now be found on iTunes. Lê is on guitars, and the album features the stunning vocals of Guo Gan. Born in Paris from Vietnamese parents, Le began to play drums at the age of 15, then took up guitar & electric bass. Le has dabbled in just about every style of music, and played with just about every sort of musician over the past thirty years - Ornette Coleman, the Yellowjackets, Cassandra Wilson, as well as knocking out a couple of filmscores...His website will give you a taste of his remarkable range.

For decades Peruvian diva Susana Baca has dedicated her life to keeping Afro-Peruvian culture and music alive (just like the artists on Afritango in Colombia's case.). On her latest album, "Afrodiaspora," she looks outward - toward New Orleans, Puerto Rico, and Pernambuco in northern Brazil. The foundation of the album is Spanish guitars and cajon - the rhythms are cumbia, son and the Peruvian lando. And her lithe vocals flutter through every track effortlessly. Several tracks, like Plena y Bomba feature the Puerto Rican brothers known as Calle 13. According to one review: "The unity of past and present, obscure and familiar, across continents, is Afrodiaspora’s greatest strength."

A new entry to the chart at #3, and one of my favorite bands of the moment. They are Watcha Clan, who have a new album out called, rightly enough, "Radio Babel." Rightly because they feature Balkan, North African and Latin sounds in an eclectic and often frenetic collection.  The band are from one of teh most diverse cities in Europe, the port of Marseille. And they're pretty diverse themselves. Singer Sista K is the daughter of an Ashkenazi Jewish Polish mother and a Sephardic Jewish Berber father from Algeria.

Like Dub Colossus, they draw on rock, dub and Africa, but throw in a few more elements too in their pursuit (musically and lyrically) international cultural fellowship. But if you get the album, I guarantee that no track sounds like the next....There are more instruments than the Berlin Symphony and more styles than Lady Gaga's hair. Have a listen to We Are One; the track on the show is the more chilled "Overseas Reveries."

In the last chart they were #6. This time around it's #2 for the sound of the Kronos Quartet and their ethereal collaboration with the Finnish duo, accordion adventurer Kimmo Pohjonen and sampling guru Samuli Kosminen. The album is "Uniko" and it's truly a multi-national enterprise - produced by Iceland's Valgeir Sigurosson, (known for his collaborations with Bjork) and recorded at Avatar Studios in New York. Uniko was first performed in 2004 in Helsinki , so it's not exactly new but this is a new recording on the Ondine label   Here's the world premiere (performed in Helsinki in 2004) of the track featured on the show, Avara.

So to #1, and what a surprise that a band based in New York should be the most popular among our European panel. Wade Schuman and his nine-piece band - called Hazmat Modine - provide a sweeping portrait of American musical history on their latest release - "Cicada". On several tracks they get help (not that they need it) from Natalie Merchant and the Gangbe Brass Band from Benin in west Africa. Here's the promo thingy for it. And a live version of the track on the show - The Tide.

If you've got this far the least I can do is offer to play your requests or try to find that forgotten track you heard while under the influence on a Mediterranean ferry or at a Brazilian beach bar. Let me know by posting a comment somewhere below.

World Tour airs every Wednesday at 7pm on WMLB AM1690 in Atlanta, and online at 1690wmlb.com.

Tim Lister

World Tour Show 18

2011-05-25T15:33:00.152-04:00

This week we’re singing in the rain. Because in many parts of the world, the arrival of the rainy season is something to celebrate – and is greeted with song, dance and other rituals. Just as the rains are welcomed, their absence is lamented. In Africa, it seems about half the songs ever written have to do with rain. Perhaps the best known of them is from the group made famous by Paul Simon and his Graceland album. They are of course, the Zulu ensemble from South Africa better known as Ladysmith Black Mambazo…and the song is Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain - an example of perfect acapello singing from Joseph Shabalala and his troupe.

"The Very Best of Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain" is a 2-disc compilation album released in 2004, with some of their greatest work from the 1980s and 1990s.

Johnny Clegg is originally from northern England, where there's plenty of rain, but he's spent most of his life in South Africa. As a white artist, he attracted the wrath of the apartheid authorities for his collaborations with black musicians, among them a bank called Jukula, led by Sipho Mchunu. In 1983, they produced an album called "Work For All" - which included December African Rain - among some much more polemical songs.

The closer you get to the Sahara the more the elements and the seasons become a part of the musical landscape, because the rains are so rare and so precious. Baaba Maal, Senegal's best known musical export, has often sung of his home area near the border with Mali. On the album "Lam Toro" in 1992 - the record that made him popular far beyond Senegeal, he had a song called Olel which included the lyrics "We don't care where the rain comes from, As long as it rains In Senegal... In Mali."

"Lam Toro" remains one of Baaba Maal's finest efforts - an exciting blend of traditional and modern instruments. Baaba studied traditional music with his blind guitarist and family griot (spiritual mentor), Mansour Seck.

The spread of the desert is a theme often taken up by Malian band Tinariwen, who exploded onto the international music scene about ten years ago with their gritty desert rock- blues, winning admirers like Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin in the process. Their 2007 album "Aman Iman" means literally "Water is Life" in Tuareg, the language of the nomads. Band members have seen two catastrophic droughts in their lifetime – that nearly wiped out nomadic way of life. From "Aman Iman", we played Assouf  - a blend of Arabic song, desert wails, and tough blues guitar.

OK, I admit it, the next song really has very little to do with the elements, but is a great excuse to play a gorgeous arrangement and showcase the vocal talents of Indonesian artist Anggun.

Snow on the Sahara is the title track of her 1998 album, when Anggun became the first artist from Asia to enter the Billboard Charts. The album went on to sell 92,000 copies in the United States and over 1 million copies around the world. And the title track has more to do with emotional likelihood than precipitation.

Mohammed Reza Shajarian  is a critically acclaimed Persian traditional singer, composer and ostad (master). He has been called "Iran's greatest living master of traditional Persian music." And he's not beyond courting controversy. When Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad referred to anti-government protesters in 2009 as "dust and trash", Shajarian responded that he considered himself the voice of dust and trash.

A performer for more than 40 years, Shajarian's technique and emotional finesse has won him a global audience   has won fans around the globe with his flawless technique, powerful tone and superb sense of emotional nuance. His professional career began in 1959 at a radio station in northern Iran. Nowadays he spends much of his time touring with two other legendary Iranian artists, kemencheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor and tar master Hossein Alizadeh. They perform as the Masters of Persian Music, and here is his song about rain - or Baroun.

In Brazil they are less happy about the rainy season, as it gets colder and makes playing on the beach less fun. Sao Paulo gets an average 53 inches a year . So it's maybe not surprising that one of the mainstays of the Brazilian repertoire is Chove Chuva (Constant is the Rain) written by Jorge Ben Jor, composer, jazz musician, reinventor of Bossa Nova, pioneer of Tropicalia and more. Legend has it that he changed his name from Jorge Ben after some of his royalties accidentally went to George Benson. Chove Chuva has been covered and sampled countless times, but the song's a metaphor for the "endless pain" of a relationship gone wrong. It was originally on his 1963 debut album "Samba Esquema Novo."

The inspiration for Águas de Março comes from Rio de Janeiro's rainiest month. March is typically marked by sudden storms with heavy rains and strong winds that cause flooding in many places around the vertiginous city. The lyrics and the music have a constant downward progression much like the water torrent from rains flowing iton the gutters, carrying all sorts of debris with them. It's another song covered many times, but the classic version is by Rosa Passos and can be found on her album "The Best of Rosa Passos."

While we're speaking Portuguese, the fado artist Mariza sang all about the Chuva on her album "Fado em Mim" from 2002. "The rain listened to my secret, and shared it with the city. And now, rain taps on my windows bringing the longing back."

Mariza is the child of a Portuguese father and a mixed-race African mother and spent her early years in Mozambique - before moving to Lisbon. Her father strongly encouraged her to take up fado - Portugal's traditional style that dates back to the 16th century - as he thought it would gain her greater acceptance in Portugal's music circles. Turns out he was right.

The new release this week is from Mayra Andrade - live in Studio 105 at Radio France in Paris. Hence the title of the album "Studio 105." Andrade is from Cape Verde but like Cesaria Evora before her has made Paris her artistic home, and the album has an intimate, atmospheric feeling well suited to her tantalizing jazz vocals.   Released late last year, Studio 105 features Munir Hossn on guitars, Rafel Paseiro on bass, and Zé Luís do Nascimento on drums. The track on the show this week is Storia Storia.

World Tour is aired every Wednesday evening at 7pm ET on WMLB in Atlanta, the Voice of the Arts - and online on the station's website - http://www.1690wmlb.com/.

World Tour Show 16

2011-05-17T23:45:00.012-04:00

Welcome to World Tour - and show 16 (air date May 18), which began at one end of the Mediterranean and ended at the other, with a flavor of the movie 'Borat' added for good measure. If you've seen the film, you may remember the wild Roma (or Gypsy) music that featured in the opening titles. It's the signature tune of Macedonia's national treasure Esma Redzepova. The song's called Chaje Shukarije or "Beautiful Girl," and it's an anthem that sent generations of Yugoslavs onto the dance floors.

Amid Yugoslavia's many upheavals, Esma's story is a remarkable one. When she was 14, her school principal signed her up for a singing competition on the radio. She won and collected 11 million Yugoslav dinars - then about five months average salary. She established herself as the queen of Balkan folk - and also fostered 47 boys, throughout the '60s,' 70s and '80s. Now grown men, they often play gigs with their foster mom.

Not far away, the Romanian brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia were mining a similar vein, with traditional tunes of great energy and joy. They also had a track on 'Borat' - their unique cover of "Born to be Wild." Fanfare Ciocarlia are from a tiny village in north-east Romania, where the art of making music is handed down from one generation to the next - usually without sheet music. The twelve-piece Romani band were discovered by a German producer in 1996, and he brought them to Berlin to cut their first album. Since then, it's been something of a whirlwind - ciocârlia perhaps appropriately means skylark in Romanian. Intricate rhythms and super-charged tempos are the band's forte. Asfalt Tango is from their album "Baro Biao"; and there's more about them on the worldmusiccentral website here.

Which leads us westward to the gritty but always exciting French port of Marseille, home of the fabulous Watcha Clan. They have collected everything their city has to offer - Arab melodies, electronic and hip-hop influences, even Sufi trance. And they've often looked eastward to the Balkans too. If you know the band Gogol Bordello, Watcha are not a million miles removed. And one or two of their songs sample our Romanian friends. Their lead vocalist Sista Ka is on fine form on Balkan Quoulou -from "Balkan Beats Vol.3."

On a trip to North Africa a few years back Watcha Clan hooked up with one of the emerging Berber bands of Morocco. Despite not having a country of their own, the Berbers of Morocco and Algeria have jealously preserved their own language and culture. Watcha spent time with two Berber bands - Amarg Fusion and Style Souss from Agadir. Amarg's music is mystical and modern at the same time, with Ali Fariq on vocals and Ahmad Ouarsass on outar (a three-stringed instrument) and guitar. Iwighd Adar is the track on the show - and as someone on YouTube remarked, "If music has 1,000 souls, this is one of them."

Much of North African music is influenced by the gnawa sound - and the French-based Gnawa Diffusion combined this mystical sound of the African diaspora with ragga, punk and rock to create a stunning fusion - driven by the vocals of Algeria's Amazigh Kateb - who has also enjoyed solo success. Ya Laymi somehow (and triumphantly) combines the searing Sahara and the Jamaican beach. And it came out of Grenoble in eastern France. It featured on one of Putumayo's collections: "World Reggae."

Malika Zarra has taken her gnawa roots in a different direction. Born in a small village in southern Morocco, she moved to a suburb of Paris as a child and began picking up many other styles, including jazz and Lebanese oud music. The result is scintillating. She sings in Berber, Moroccan Arabic, French and English - but always with a sultry feel. Zarra's latest album is "Berber Taxi" - and the title track is the one included on the show (her live performance of the song at the Jazz Standard in New York is right here.)

Malika was also influenced by another woman whose life straddled Europe and North Africa - Warda al-Jazairia. She was actually born in France in 1940; and her Algerian father was active in Algeria's nationalist movement (as well as the owner of the Tam Tam cabaret bar!) When the Algerian war for independence broke out, the family had to leave France, first for Lebanon and then to an independent Algeria. For while she gave up music at the request of her husband, who refused to let her sing at an Algerian independence day concert. So she divorced him. One of her most famous songs is Batwannis Beek - a lush romantic number that evokes sand dunes and bazaars. It's a nine-minute track, and she only sings toward the end. But it's more than worth the wait. It was also (infamously) sampled on Aaliyah's R&B song Don't Know What To Tell You.

Anyway after she was divorced, Warda left Algeria to start over in Egypt, where she met and married the famous composer Baligh Hamdi. Hamdi started life as a singer, but later took to composing - and his work was much sought after by Egypt's gretaest singers - including Oum Kalthoum. Baligh Hamdi drew upon Egyptian folk melodies and contemporary music - along with the typically Egyptian string orchestra.

It's not that easy to find his stuff on disc nowadays, but his track Salamat appears on "Bellydance: Homage a Baligh Hamdi" on the Artistes Arabes Associes label.

Finally - in the spot normally reserved for a new release - I've cheated this week. I heard a track by the Portuguese fado artist Antonio Zambujo from a 2004 album "Por Meu Cante." Fado is a genre dominated by great female artists, but Zambujo has had a string of successful albums with his sensitive interpretations of fado. You can hear why he lists Tony Bennett as an idol on Amor de Mel, Amor de Fel - and on the show I've included "Noite Apressada."

World Tour Show 15

2011-05-03T23:27:00.000-04:00

This week World Tour starts in a country that's currently in turmoil. For the last several weeks Syria has seen protests against the regime of Bashir al Assad, and hundreds of deaths. A far cry from the spiritual music and rich culture for which it's justly famous. Among its most famous musical exports in Abed Azrié, who sets ancient and modern Arabic texts to traditional instruments such as the ney, kanun, and darbuka. Azrie came to prominence with his 1990 album Aromates, his deep mellifluous voice floating over an almost orchestral background. For a good sampling of his music, try his website http://www.abedazrie.com/ - the show features "Like Water" off his 1995 album Lapis Lazuli.

One of Azrie's collaborators on his majestic choral album L'Evangile Selon Jean [The Gospel According to St John] released last year is a master of the oud, a pear-shaped cousin of the lute that underpins much of the music of the Arab world. He has collaborated with a wide variety of musicians including French rock guitarist Serge Teyssot-Gay, who stumbled across a performance by al Jaramani at the end of a tour of Syria in 2002. At first sight their album Interzone is an unlikely marriage of ancient and modern, but it's mystic, bold and experimental. The track on the show: "Out of Walls." And accessible here Shataraban - from the same album.

There's a guy called Rahim Alhaj who wanders the streets of Albuquerque with his oud. Alhaj settled in New Mexico after fleeing Iraq in 1991, where he had a spell in one of Saddam Hussein's prisons after writing a song that questioned the Iran/Iraq war. He still worries about his family back in Sadr City - but he now plays for audiences across America and was nominated for a Grammy back in 2007. Last year he came out with an ambitious double CD called Little Earth which featured collaborations with Peter Buck, Robert Mirabal and Bill Frizell among many others. One of the finest tracks on the album is a meeting of two venerable string traditions - the oud and the 21-string kora - a duet with Mali's Yacouba Sissoko. The blog Inside World Music has a review of the album, and the song on the show is called "The Other Time."

Yacouba Sissoko toured North America last year with banjoist Jayme Stone, who spent months in Mali getting into its rich griot traditions. The fruits of that trip can be heard on his album Africa to Appalachia, a collaboration with Mansa Sissoko (the name Sissoko in Mali is more common than Jones here) and featuring a guest appearance by fiddler phenom Casey Driessen. No surprise that the 2008 album won the Canadian Juno award for Best World Music album. And there's plenty of music from a live performance in 2008 as well as some interesting background on the artists at this NPR mini-site - where the fourth song they perform is the one on the show - "Bibi."

Casey Driessen had his own African odyssey with Bela Fleck, a journey to explore the roots of the banjo. The trip was documented in the film 'Throw Down Your Heart' which is well worth finding. They travel to Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia and Mali, meeting and playing with local musicians and discovering the cousins of American folk and bluegrass. An album of collaborations also called Throw Down Your Heart came out of the trip. All About Jazz said "every track is a gem. Throw Down Your Heart is a masterpiece not to be missed."

One outstanding track is "D'Gary Jam." Fleck says: “This track started its life in Nashville. We had a great jam one day, which went for 22 minutes straight, the whole take was really cool." It's not 22 minutes on the album, but I wish it was. The title track can be heard here.

The contributors on the album read like a who's who of African music. One of those jamming on D'Gary Jam is the Cameroonian jazz artists and bass player Richard Bona, whose 1999 album Scenes From My Life brought him to the attention of an international audience. I met him at the St Lucia Jazz Festival (tough gig), where he told me his first guitar was fashioned from the spokes of an old bicycle. Nowadays, his music is all refined melody with some gorgeous vocal arrangements in his native Douala. The track on the show is "Konda Djanea" and his website is here.

Another highlight on Throw Down Your Heart is “Djorolen,” a duet with singer Oumou Sangare, who delivers a vocal that expresses heartbreaking beauty and sadness. Sangare - known as the 'songbird of Wassoulou' (a region of Mali) - made her first album at the age of 21 and was subsequently championed by Ali Farka Toure, who introduced her to World Circuit Records. Another of her laments is Saa Magni - which translates as "Death is Terrible", from the album Ka Sira. It may be sad, but its soulful essence is perversely a thing of joy.

Any excuse to play a track from Ali Farka Toure, however tenuous the link. So here's one from his album with Toumani Diabate In the Heart of the Moon. It was the first of two collaborations between the two, the second being called simply Ali and Toumani. The virtuosity on display in the track Kadi Kadi is stunning. Little wonder that In the Heart of the Moon won the award for Best Traditional World Album at the 48th Grammy Awards. Sadly Toure died before he could accept the award. Check out the Guardian's review of the album.

So finally, the new release, and it features the voice of Taj Mahal, who also produced Vusi Mahlasela's new album, Say Africa. Taj Mahal also collaborated on an album with Toumani Diabate, recorded (naturally enough) in Athens, Georgia; and they kicked up a storm playing live together in Central Park, New York. Vusi's latest offering is a more mellow affair, but the man known as "The Voice" in his homeland is in fine fettle and he has plenty to say about social and cultural issues in southern Africa. On the show, the track chosen is "In Anyway" with Taj Mahal on vocals. Hear Vusi sing it live on Seattle station KEXP. Most of the album was recorded in Dave Matthews' studio in Charlottesville (they have long been friends). Oh, and Vusi was also on Throw Down Your Heart - and performed at the opening of last year's World Cup.

As always join me on World Tour - every Wednesday evening on WMLB Atlanta, the "Voice of the Arts" -- at AM1690; and online at http://1690wmlb.com.

World Tour Show 14

2011-04-27T14:16:00.003-04:00

Over in Europe about fifty radio presenters and producers who are into world music vote every month for their favorite albums. And their selections make for a fascinating mix of the best music from five continents. So Show 14 (aired 4/27/2011) plays the top ten from the World Music Workshop of the European Broadcasting Union.

Where better to start than with some Dutch Klezmer music: the Amsterdam Klezmer band with "Desert Banjo" off their new album Katla - music that wouldn't be out of place in a woody Allen movie. Check out their website: The Amsterdam Klezmer Band

At #9 "something completely different" - the first of several albums with a Colombian flavor. The sound of Afro-Colombia is a musical journey in itself - a compilation featuring the maestros of the country's Pacific and Carribean coasts and the urban sound of a new generation. The album is called Afritanga: The Sound of Afrocolombia, a play on Africa and fritanga - a mixed grill dish. Exemplified by the fusion served up by Will "Quantic" Holland, with dub and reggae flavors and Latin and African ingredients. The track is "Cumbia Sobre El Mar." Get a taste here: Quantic : Cumbia Sobre El Mar

Mercedes Peon is a Spanish phenom, famous for her Sinead O'Connor looks and multi-instrument talents. She is from Galicia in Spain's north-west and uses traditional instruments (like the Galician bagpipe) in a contemporary setting. Her latest album Sos has taken Spain by storm. And her sampling is ethereally evident in the track "Sao Paulo." For more of Mercedes Peon: Mercedes Peon official website

At #7, an outstanding collaboration between the prince of contemporary Tropicalismo, Vinicius Cantuária, and American guitarist Bill Frisell. Bossa nova 'nova' meets one of the great omnivores of modern music, as someone clever described it. A BBC review of their album Lagrimas Mexicanas describes it this way: "Frisell’s teasing tremolos glisten over spirals of processed sound before an abrupt reprise of the sunny opening chords, the effect of which is as bizarrely beautiful as it is beautifully bizarre." Cool album cover too. Here's the title track: Vinicius Cantuaria & Bill Frisell ; Lagrimas Mexicanas

Another change of direction for the #6 in the European pop-pickers' chart. A haunting collaboration between the Kronos Quartet and Finnish duo, accordion adventurer Kimmo Pohjonen and sampling guru Samuli Kosminen. The album is Uniko and it's truly a multi-national enterprise - produced by Iceland's Valgeir Sigurosson, (known for his collaborations with Bjork), and recorded at Avatar Studios in New York. It's not exactly a new album, but who's counting? Here's the world premiere (live from Helsinki in 2004) of the track featured on the show: "Avara." Great to soak in the bath to... Kronos Quartet & Friends : Avara

And it's back to Colombia (sort of) for #5, a new release from Jacob Edgar's enterprising Cumbancha label. Bruno "Sergent" Garcia is a latter-day Manu Chao, a Franco-Spanish troubador whose music has been described as "salsamuffin." Garcia is a Franco-Spanish rapper whose new album Una y Otra Vez is a Latin-reggae fusion to Colombia but throws in some Balkan brass and Vallenata accordion for good measure. The track on the show: "Mi Son Mi Friend" Bruno "Sergent" Garcia : Mi Son Mi Friend

Hats off to the fabulous Soundway label for a lovingly compiled album of Colombian classics on Cartagena! (Check out the Soundway site for a trove of musical goodies: Soundway Records A golden age of Colombian cumbia spiced with salsa compiled by Robert Gyemant with the help of that man again - Will Holland. My pick from a parade of riches: a rare track from Los Seven del Swing (can't argue with a name like that): "Celoso." And no, it's not on YouTube - but the album is available on iTunes.

Into the top three and a few hundred miles north of Colombia, Aurelio Martinez is a politician and guitarist from Honduras. And he's produced one of my favorite albums in a long time, Laru Beya, with just a little help from Senegalese demi-god Youssou N'Dour and those veterans of the Afro-Cuban scene Orchestra Baobob. The result is an album that takes in the languor of Honduras' steamy coast and politically-charged tracks like Yurumei, where Garifuna percussion and strong female backing vocalists make for a strirring lament about the days of slavery. This guy can sing: Aurelio Martinez: Laru Beya

At #2 one of my all-time favorites - Boubacar Traoré from Mali - a country that produces more than its fair share of brilliant musicians. I was lucky enough to catch him on a rare appearance in Atlanta a few years ago. He's been around longer than his country has been independent. In fact, soon after colonial rule ended he was a national celebrity thanks to his "Mali Twist." He's back with his first album in six years - Mali Denhou, and it's a joy. Traore's soulful voice is complimented by the outstanding harmonica of Vincent Bucher. Blues riffs with west African soul from the Lusafrica label. Boubacar Traore : Minuit

And so to #1, and appropriately it's the ultimate in fusion. Iness Mezel has a French-Italian mother and an Algerian father and was brought up both sides of the Mediterranean. She came to the attention of guitarist and producer Justin Adams - who has worked with Tinariwen and Robert Plant. he provides many of the instruments on this album, entitled Beyond the Trance. Mezel provides the dynamic vocals and the striking personality on an album that dips into many styles, from jazz to R & B and blues. The track on the show is Amazone and the album is on the classy French label Wrasse.

Tune into the show at WMLB 1690AM in Atlanta, or online at www.wmlb.com. Every Wednesday @ 7pm ET.

World Tour Show 13

2011-04-26T17:36:00.001-04:00

Welcome to World Tour…Show 13 (which aired 4/20/2011) explores the musical connections between the Caribbean and Central Africa. Our musical journey begins in Martinique with Kali – whose life mission is to explore the roots of Zouk music. He also harks back to the 19th century when former slaves in Martinique developed the “beguine” style of music, a combination of traditional bele music with – of all things – polka. The song on the show is “La Biguine des Enfants du bon Dieu.”

Kali (real name Jean-Marc Mournerville) drew inspiration from the godfathers of Zouk – Kassav. They are another Martinique act that had an international hit with the song featured on the show – Zouk se sel medikamen Nou Ni – in 1985. That’s Creole for “Zouk is the only medicine we have.” Kassav mix Haitian, Jamaican reggae and Nuevo Rican salsa – and dip into Cameroonian Mokassa.

And that’s where the Caribbean meets Africa in this show, because Kassav were in turn influenced by a band from Congo that turned up to play a few Christmas gigs in a hotel in Martinique in 1967, and ended up staying four years. They were Ry-Co Jazz, and we have a song on the show called "Ry-Co Band."
Among an evolving line-up on Ry-Co Jazz were sax master Jean Serge Essous and the brilliant guitarist Jerry Bokilo Malekani.

Malekani went on to play with another sax giant – Cameroon’s Manu Dibango, best known for “Soul Mokassa” back in the 1970s. Dibango was heavily influenced by Cuban music, and was very much in demand himself in the Caribbean. That’s how we get to the next song in edition #13 – as Dibango plays with the Cuban ensemble Curateto Patria, led by the cowboy-hatted Eliades Ochoa. The album was called Cubafrica (1998) and the song is "Carnaval."

Eliades Ochoa is one of the giants of Cuban music – but is actually Chilean-born. Not only did he lead Cuarteto Patria from 1978, expanding its repertoire far beyond the traditional bolera and criolla. He was also involved with the break-out Cuban band Buena Vista Social Club (on “Chan Chan”,) and several of his greatest tracks on the superb 2005 compilation Hecho en Cuba. It’s a three-disc journey through the best of Cuban music, featuring Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo and many more.

The next link in the daisy chain is a Cuban-African project originally intended for Buena Vista, featuring guitarist Djelimady Tounkara from Mali and his compatriot Bassekou Kouyate – on the ngoni lute. They came together almost by accident, bumping into each other in Madrid back in 2008. Under the guidance of Nick Gold, who produced Buena Vista for World Circuit records, they recorded more than a dozen tracks in just a few days. They became the basis for Afrocubism, an album of great trans-Atlantic collaborations.

Tounkara’s story, like that of so many Malian musicians, is pretty remarkable. he was once a shepherd and drummer in a remote part of western Mali, a large but sparsely-populated west African state that is largely desert. As a young musician, he made his way to the capital, Bamako, absorbing Congolese and Cuban influences as he went.

Tounkara was recruited into the prestigious Orchestre National du Mali before moving onto the equally famous Super Rail band, whose first home was the Buffet Hotel de la Gare in Bamako. We squeeze in two tracks from Tounkara: Fanta Borama and Lanaya, as well as the Super Rail Band standard, “Silanide” – off the 1995 album Mansa. Not often do you come across a guitar played like that.

Lanaya was featured on a wonderful compilation by Banning Eyre of Afropop Worldwide, who spent much time in Mali researching his book ‘In Griot Time.’ Eyre’s book – and the accompanying CD – delves into the rich traditions of Manding guitar music, which stretch back seven centuries. Today the country boasts an extraordinary array of talented musicians who have won international acclaim – Ali Farka Toure, Amadou & Mariam, Habib Koite and many more.

Finally, and changing gears altogether – thee new release this week is not that new. In fact it came out last year, but I did want an excuse to feature a song from Harmony, the album by Chinese artist Sa Dingding. She’s actually of mixed Han Chinese and Mongolian stock and sings in several languages, including Sanskrit and Tibetan. But she’s also dedicated to fusion, and the well-known DJ Paul Oakenfold is involved in several tracks on Harmony.