Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate – Monistic Theory (Cumbancha, 2016) It struck me at the time of their first recording Faya (2014) that you couldn’t…
Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate’s Pleasurable Ride
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.
Blazing a New Path for Mali’s Musical Landscape
Oumar Konate – Maya Maya (Clermont Music, 2016) Following up on his 2014 release of Addoh, Malian guitarist and vocalist Oumar Konate has hit the…
Savagely Hip M.A.K.U. Soundsystem
M.A.K.U. Soundsystem – Mezcla (Glitterbeat Records, 2016) Done your stretches? Done your deep breathing exercises? Well, you’re going to need them when you get an…
Transnational Recreations of Gloomy Sunday Song
Various Artists – Hungarian Noir – A Tribute to the Gloomy Sunday (Piranha, 2016) Odd submissions are just part and parcel to music reviewer, but…
Artfully Crafted Rough Romanian Soul
Zmei3 – Rough Romanian Soul (Six Degrees, 2016) If you look up influential or powerful vocalists, more likely than not you are going to run…
Guajira Mas Guajira
Eliades Ochoa and Alma Latina – Guajira Mas Guajira (Tumi Music, 2016) Buena Vista Social Club member, guitarist and singer Eliades Ochoa says, “Cuban music…
Bonnie Raitt at Her Best
Bonnie Raitt – Dig In Deep (Redwing Records, 2016) She’s piled up recordings like Give It Up, Takin’ My Time, Sweet Forgiveness, Nick of Time,…
Musical Eye-Opener to Refugee Crisis
Various Artists – The Long Road (British Red Cross, 2016) With proceeds going to the British Red Cross UK Refugee Support Service and with help…
Cuban Musical Roots Propelled Into the Future
Gilles Peterson’s Havana Cultura Band – Havana Club Rumba Sessions (Brownswood Records, 2016) The British DJ, record label owner and producer Gilles Peterson is mastermind…
Yeominrok, a Thrilling Musical Journey
E-Do – Yeominrok (Pony Canyon Korea, 2015) Every once in a while I get the musical version of a kick in the pants and Korean…