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/.
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