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."
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