Various Artists
Hear Globally: A Cumbancha Collection (Cumbancha, 2009)
Regular World Music Central readers will recognize many of the artists on the clever sampler Hear Globally: A Cumbancha Collection. Featuring artists like Andy Palacio, Dobet Gnahoré, Rupa & the April Fishes and Chiwoniso, as well as three previously unreleased tracks, Hear Globally will give old fans and new fans, who might have missed any of the releases, a chance to snap of the delightful best of Cumbancha. The lure of this sampler goes to the very philosophy of the label and their search for the newest sounds on the global music scene set in expertly crafted recordings.
Opening with the sizzling and spicy "Tabu" by Ska Cubano, Hear Globally sends the listener on a fantastical journey that includes the brightly colored "Ayal-Ayale" by The Idan Raichel Project from the album The Idan Raichel Project and the warm vocals and delicious groove by Andy Palacio and The Garifuna Collective on "Wey Lárigi Weyu" from the album Wátina. Any self respecting world music fan will be unable to resist tracks like "Namania" by the stellar Habib Koité or the buttery vocals on "Maintenant" by Rupa & the April Fishes or the captivating "Vanorapa" by the electrifying Chiwoniso from her recording Rebel Woman. The sampler also includes the dishy Afro-Peruvian "Concheperla" by Novalima" and the powerfully soulful "Nibari" by Umalali off the recording The Garifuna Women’s Project.
Celebrating three years in the business and countless awards like a 2008 Womex Top Label Award, the Cumbancha label has set out to impress fans further this year with the launch of their Cumbancha Discoveries program with upcoming releases by Guinea Bissau’s Kimi Djabate and Algeria’s Sarazino. Industry news have put the independent label’s founder, Jacob Edgar, in India on the trail of new artists and filming and hosting a music and travel series for television. We can hardly wait so see what Cumbancha has in store for us in the up coming year, but for now we’ll revel in the sounds on Hear Globally.
Buy the recording or MP3:
- In North America: Hear Globally: A Cumbancha Collection
- In Europe: Hear Globally: A Cumbancha Sampler
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
