A Bold, Tense Album by Elza Soares
Elza Soares – The Woman at the End of the World (Mais Um Discos, 2016) The Woman at the End of the World (originally released…
There’s A Light by Liz Vice
Liz Vice is a singer of neo-gospel: music that sounds pretty close to the gospel of Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Tharpe used the blues and invented…
An Afro-Roots Experiment That Worked
Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra (Glitterbeat, 2016) Nigerian Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen recorded a set of jams rooted in Afro-rooted rhythms from Africa and Haiti that appear…
Artist Profiles: Rasbawa
Beninese singer-songwriter Rasbawa is the son of a businessman and a traditional music singer. Very early, he became interested in music. While in Abidjan (Ivory…
Artist Profiles: Julien Jacob
Julien Jacob arrived in France during his early childhood. His West-Indian parents settled in the South of France. For him, who was born in Benin,…
Artist Profiles: Orchestre Poly-Rythmo
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo is a national institution in Benin, West Africa. Formed during the late 1960s, they soundtracked the years following Benin’s independence under Kerekou’s Marxist-Leninist…
Landmark Bella Ciao Revisited
Riccardo Tesi, Lucilla Galeazzi, Elena Ledda, Ginevra di Marco, Gigi Biolcati, Andrea Salvadori, Alessio Lega – Bella Ciao (Buda Musique 4759288, 2015) Bella Ciao revisits…
Beguiling Gulaza
Gulaza – a word that conjures images of longing and despair under a scorching desert sun. The first time I went to listen to this…
Transglobal World Music Chart for July 2016
Amerli, an album featuring twenty musicians who are refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tibet is the number 1 this month at the Transglobal…
Everything’s Beautiful by Miles Davis & Robert Glasper
John Coltrane has made life after death difficult for Miles Davis. John Coltrane’s late period has so influenced contemporary Jazz musicians that we have lost…