Music and World

Brazil! Brazil!

Capeoira kicks, samba hips and footie tricks

8 Aug 2010

Brazil! Brazil! is like the fantasy beach party everyone wants invited to. Chilled-out Brazilian beats to rival Astrud Gilberto, buff bare-chested guys wheeling out jaw-dropping capoeira kicks and backflips, voluptuous feather-topped girls in bling…

Oumou Sangare - Seya

5 Mar 2009

WORLD Oumou Sangare shows why she is one of the most significant African female musicians alive in this stunning set in which she marries gutsy lyrics about arranged marriage and polygamy to her seductively zippy Wassoulou music. Sangare’s…

Various Artists - Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2

Two-album reissue of classic compilations from 1989 and 1993

18 Apr 2012

(World Circuit) The sinuous dance rhythms of the Colombian music known as Cumbia are captured in this nicely packaged and documented two-album reissue of two compilations regarded as the classics of the genre, which first brought Cumbia to wider…

Susana Baca - Afrodiaspora

20 May 2011

(Luaka Bop) Grammy award winning Afro-Peruvian singer Susana Baca was an early signing to Talking Head David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label and her latest, long-awaited album sees her explore rhythms of the African-Latin diaspora. Her attractive, clear…

Five pop songs influenced by world music

7 Jul 2010

Arabic Gorillaz – ‘White Flag’ Damon Albarn has long foraged global sounds – his Chinese opera, his Malian album – but ‘White Flag’ was revelatory. Betwixt cameos from Kano and Bashy blazed the real stars of Plastic Beach: the Lebanese National…

Rodrigo y Gabriela - Area 52

Orchestral backing and lots of special guests leads to a fun if over-wrought latin-funk-rock record

6 Jan 2012

(Rubyworks) For their fifth studio album the Mexican acoustic rock duo have teamed up with 13-piece orchestra C.U.B.A. to rework nine previous compositions. The radically increased personnel (which is also augmented by several guests including Cuban…

Caetano Veloso & Maria Gadú - Multishow Ao Vivo

Concert from Brazilian singer/guitarist and up and coming singer

10 Nov 2011

(Universal) This superb stripped-back concert sees Brazilian hero and singer/guitarist Caetano Veloso partnered by up-and-coming female singer Maria Gadú. Armed only with acoustic guitars, their deceptively light, shapely and meaningful voices blend…

Orkestra del Sol: Lung Capacity

More globe-trotting party tunes from the many-limbed Edinburgh group

21 Mar 2011

(Sol) Gyspified, klezmeric, samba-soaked party tunes: anyone who’s heard the Orkestra’s previous two albums will be well prepared for what’s in store on this third instalment. As ever, the band’s infectious live energy is 90% present here – there’s…

Mama Rosin - Black Robert

Quirky, rootsy music from Swiss, Cajun punk trio

11 Feb 2011

Quirky, rootsy music from a Swiss, Cajun punk trio reassures us that wild creativity 2011 style is flourishing. This fresh take on North American French traditions gets these three young guys compared to Parisian gypsy-punkers Les Negresses Vertes for…

Cesaria Evora - Cesaria Evora &

3 Jan 2011

(Sony) When she burst onto the scene twenty-two years ago ‘the barefoot diva’ put Cape Verde on the map, blowing everyone away, even though live on stage she could be stiff and diffident. True, after her first irresistible albums her output became…

Festival collaboration unites Alonzo King Lines Ballet with Zakir Hussain

EIF show fuses Indian classical music and contemporary American ballet

16 Jul 2010

Zakir Hussain was always destined for musical greatness: one look at his childhood bedtime routine will tell you that. For years he would come home from school and go straight to sleep, only to be awakened by his father at midnight to rehearse through…

Coca Tenorio - Todo Transito

15 Jan 2010

www.cocatenorio.com Women singers composing their own great songs can be hard to find especially one who, as the title of her album Todo Transito (Everything in Movement) suggests, divides her time between the tropical coast of Esmereldas, Ecuador…

Ghana Special - Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968–81

4 Dec 2009

(Soundway) A thrilling soundscape of 33 tracks from Ghana between the ‘golden age’ of 1968–81, this maps the optimism and energy of new independence from British colonialism heralded by cutting-edge modern Afro-sounds and Ghanaian blues. Presented in…

Music In The Digital Age

Technology's impact on the artform

2 Oct 2009

To paraphrase the Creme Egg adverts, when it comes to music, how do you hear yours? Streaming over the internet? Nicking stuff from torrents on the web? A bag full of goodies from Fopp? Crates of obscure vinyl from your local specialist…

Kuljit Bhamra, Jacqueline Shave, John Parricelli - Postcards From Home

Cross-cultural fusion partly inspired by the Hebrides

18 Apr 2012

(Keda Records) A fresh and deftly executed cross-cultural fusion featuring a tabla player with strong jazz connections, a classical violinist and a jazz guitarist, playing music inspired in part by the Hebrides. Violinist Jacqueline Shave’s ‘Machair to…

Batida - Batida

African-inspired electronica record that probably works best in a club setting

8 Mar 2012

(Soundway) Having carved out a reputation for unearthing rare tracks of touchstone Latin musics, Soundway now champions hot sounds heard today on the streets of Luanda. Angolan/Portuguese DJ Mpula (aka Pedro Coquenão) creates electronic dance music…

Baobab-Gateway – Strings That Sing

Accomplished Scottish-African musicians with healthy, multicultural roots

6 Jan 2012

(Brechin All) Baobab-Gateway’s name pinpoints the West African influences found in their original sound. The international pedigree and multi-ethnicity of these experienced Scottish based musicians (Salsa Celtica, Bhundu Boys, Waa Sylla) is a…

The Very Best of Muzsikás featuring Márta Sebestyén - Fly Bird, Fly

Fantastic retrospective of the Hungarian folk group's career

16 Nov 2011

(Nascente) Early on, Hungarian musicians Muzsikás, with singer Márta Sebestyén, were at the forefront of the European folk scene. Forty years after they pushed forward traditions championed by ethnomusicologists Bartok and Kodaly, they sound as fiery…

Celtic Connections 2012 line-up announced

Glasgow traditional music festival features 2100 artists and 300 events over 18 days in 20 venues

26 Oct 2011

This year's festival will include 2100 artists, 300 events, 20 venues all over 18 days. Being that winter is in the offing, you now wake up in the morning for work and its dark, you then head home from work and its dark. One thing that will surely…

5 Reasons to Go See Toumani Diabaté

The Grammy-winning Malian musician has a rich history of collaboration

20 Oct 2011

1. His music is mesmerisingly beautiful Toumani Diabaté is a master of the kora, a traditional Malian harp-like instrument. His ability to weave a gorgeous tapestry of cascading melodies from the 21-string kora is magical. One thumb plays the tune and…

Archive Trails - Artists making new work from old photos and songs from Scotland's past

Scottish folk ballads reworked via song, video and puppetry

21 Sep 2011

After months of delving through old photos and songs, three performers aim to bring to life Scotland’s long-lost folk ballads through experimental vocals, video and glove puppets. Rachel Devine reports

Ravi Shankar - Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Mon 22 Aug

A mesmerising show of classical Indian music as part of 2011 EIF

24 Aug 2011

Ravi Shankar crossed over into popular culture with his associations with various 60s musicians, working with and/or influencing the likes of The Beatles, The Kinks and The Byrds. Going on to play at iconic festivals such as Woodstock and The Monterey…

Samba Sene & Diwan - Remind Me (Fatalima)

Debut album from Edinburgh-based Senegalese musician

11 Feb 2011

With this long awaited debut original songs, Edinburgh based Senegalese musician Samba Sene shows just why he’s an asset to the Scottish scene. With Senegalese musicican Baaba Maal as his mentor, a stellar list of international musicians in his band and…

2010 Le Weekend bows out with Faust, Murcof and Tarwater

Pioneering Stirling experimental music festival also hosts Ben Frost, Bill Wells and John Butcher

6 Oct 2010

Since its inception in 1997, Le Weekend has brought a remarkable range of beautiful and challenging music to Scotland. ‘The idea of an experimental music festival, and also the idea of a festival in Stirling, was quite unique,’ says Alastair Campbell…

Music festivals 2010: Festivals timeline

28 May 2010

From Rock Ness to Roskilde, Glastonbury to Glasgow Jazz Festival, we list the best of the many great fests happening throughout the summer. Which one(s) will you choose?

Odemba OK Jazz

23 Sep 2009

Scottish debut from African collective for a night of hypnotic guitars, horns, driving rhythms and dancefloor jazz. This twelve-piece are led by guitarist Dizzy Mandjeku in this special gig to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of the King of…

The Big Tent Festival

23 Jul 2009

‘There is a real sense of belonging and connection to something at the Big Tent Festival,’ explains the event’s programme director Mike Small. ‘The message is more “come join us” than “gimme your money”.’ Set up in July 2005, the…

Ben Zabo - Ben Zabo

Vibrant and inventive Malian Afro-beat, occasionally let down by naff blues guitar

22 May 2012

Described as Malian Afro-Beat, Ben Zabo’s music expands its scope well beyond the Fela Kuti-inspired sounds of 1970s Bamako to incorporate the bwa rhythms and melodies of his own Bo region, alongside elements of funk and rock. Slick production has…

Tinariwen - Oran Mor, Glasgow, Thu 5 Apr 2012

An evocative but occasionally flat show from the Tuareg blues guitarists

23 Apr 2012

A beguiling mix of blues guitar sounds, gently insistent but sometimes complex rhythms and desert sensibilities is what’s always made Tinariwen unique. Live, the blend is all the more compelling, which must be due, at least in part, to the sheer…

Various Artists - World Routes: On The Road

30-track BBC Radio 3 compilation featuring Toumani Diabaté, Tito Paris and Ilham Al Madfai

1 Feb 2012

(Nascente) How would we hear diverse world musics without Radio 3? Thank goodness they still have the budget to travel to far-flung places to capture stunning sounds from ordinary musicians we’d never know about otherwise. Since 2000 the World Routes…

Ibrahím Maalouf - Diagnostic

A groundbreaking album of brooding French-Arabic tones from trumpeter

1 Feb 2012

(Harmonia Mundi) The brooding French-Arabic quarter tones of Ibrahím Maalouf’s trumpet first seduced as guest on the late Lhasa de Sela’s desert island disc The Living Road. Bewitching then, Maalouf’s own debut with a brace of tremendous musicians…

Vieux Farka Touré set for Celtic Connections 2012

Blues and country influence from son of legendary Malian guitar player

27 Jan 2012

Farka Touré. Where have you heard that name before? Vieux is the son of legendary Malian guitar player Ali Farka Touré, one of the true stars of the world music scene. Farka Touré senior passed away in 2006, but junior has picked up where he left off…

Five picks from Celtic Connections 2012

Featuring Zoe Muth, Jack Bruce, King Creosote and Jon Hopkins and Vieux Farka Touré

6 Jan 2012

Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers The year in Americana 2011 belongs to Gillian Welch and the release of her album The Harrow & the Harvest, but amongst a promising field of young female country singers, Zoe Muth stands out. With her ear for an instant…

Simon Thacker and the Nava Rasa Ensemble – Nada-Ananda

Fruitful reinterpretation by the British classical guitarist and collaborators

5 Jan 2012

(Slap The Moon) Shirish Korde’s Nada-Ananda concerto allows classical guitarist Simon Thacker and South Indian violinist Jyotsna Srikanth, working with the Edinburgh Quartet, Brazilian bassist Mario Caribe and percussionist Iain Sandilands, to show…

Group Inerane / Flower-Corsano Duo - Kinning Park Complex, Glasgow, Fri 2 Dec

Two transcendent groups in a Victorian school turned artists’ studio

9 Dec 2011

This was always going to be special: two of the most transcendent groups on earth in the bohemian environs of a Victorian school building turned artists’ studio. The diverse crowd is not left disappointed. Mick Flower and Chris Corsano mesmerise with a…

Anoushka Shankar - Traveller

Thrillingly diverse yet fluent sequence of Indian and flamenco that does justice to both

7 Dec 2011

(Deutsche Grammophon) With cutting-edge Spanish producer Javier Limón as collaborator, Anoushka Shankar (daughter of Ravi, sister of Norah Jones) brings together two strong cultures linked historically by nomadic Roma gypsies. Created more or less in…

The Scottish Ensemble’s candlelit concerts to focus on the Baltic Renaissance

Music by composers Arvo Pärt and Erkki-Sven Tüür to feature

16 Nov 2011

While the phrase ‘it’s Baltic’ is usually heard in relation to Scotland’s freezing temperatures, this winter it can be applied to something a bit warmer. The Scottish Ensemble’s traditionally candlelit concerts home in on the Baltic nations and music by…

Carlos Paredes - Guitarra Portuegesa / Movimento Perpetuo

9 Nov 2011

(Drag City) Fêted by Six Organs of Admittance and the Kronos Quartet, Carlos Paredes was a virtuoso of the Portuguese guitar, a small 12-stringed instrument with a crystalline sound. Paredes was known as ‘the man of a thousand fingers’ and these…

Javier Limón - Mujeres de Agua

Spanish musician-producer's songs with 12 top female singers from across the Mediterranean

20 Oct 2011

(Wrasse) Spanish musician-producer Javier Limón is a man of tremendous intuition and vision: responsible for watershed discs for artists like Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucía, or the collaboration between Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés and Spanish singer…

Sia Tolno - My Life

Empoweringly feelgood collection from Young Guinean singer

14 Sep 2011

(Lusafrica) Young Guinean singer Sia Tolno overcame civil war exile to compose defiantly funky songs championing a better life for African woman and children. Her richly rhythmic tones have been rightfully compared to Miriam Makeba and Tina Tuner (as…

Various artists - The Rough Guide to World Lullabies

Globe-spanning collection of bedtime songs

24 Aug 2011

(World Music Network) Despite the fact that so many plug into i-Pods daily, it seems folk still enjoy going old school, and serenading their babes with a restful lullaby. For List readers who may have tiny ones in their immediate or extended family…

Lucas Santtana - Sem Nostalgia

Playful, laid-back guitar work from the Brazilian musician

24 Aug 2011

(Mais Um Discos) Publicity can backfire, as with comparing songwriter Lucas Santtana to bossa nova innovator João Gilberto. Where Gilberto distilled everything through a ‘cool’ Brazilian sensibility, Santtana represents more 21st century, universal…

Wesseltoft Schwarz - Duo

Norwegian ‘nu-jazz’ guru and techno producer make ambient jazz-meets-dance

24 Aug 2011

(Jazzland) The combination of piano and laptop computer would once have been pretty much the exclusive preserve of the free improv end of jazz, but Norwegian ‘nu-jazz’ guru Bugge Wesseltoft and techno producer Henrik Schwarz bring their collaboration…

Orkestra del Sol's Top Trumps

Balkan, gypsy and polka sounds in a musical face-off

12 Aug 2011

Orkestra del Sol’s Top Trumps show is an inspired concept for a live music performance. Flyers bearing each band member’s vital statistics are handed out prior to the gig, so that audience members can pick a favourite from the nine musicians. The…

Various artists - Cumbia! Bestial

10 Aug 2011

(Chusma records) Americans have been dancing in time with the Colombian cumbia music style, with its easy slide side-to-side moves in 2/4 time since the 60s, it really hit the international club scene in the 21st century. Cumbia! Bestial offers a…

Hammock House - Africa Caribe

Classic original DJ-friendly Latin music of 70s and 80s plus remixes

21 Jul 2011

(Fania-Código) Brooklyn DJ/producer Hammock House, aka Joaquín ‘Joe’ Claussell, wittily adds vital 21st-century underpinning to Latin classics created for Fania, the New York label responsible for the hottest, most pertinent Latin music of the 70s…

Vieux Farka Touré - The Secret

Tracks that decorate rather than eclipse Malian blues and father's legacy

13 Jul 2011

(Six Degrees) Anyone watching the 2010 South African World Cup opening concert will have seen Vieux Farka Touré showing he is no longer merely walking in father Ali’s footsteps. This album sees Vieux recording in Brooklyn and Bamako, developing…

Amjad Ali Khan to perform set of morning ragas on sarod at EIF 2011

Edinburgh 11am concert accompanied by Ravi Shankar's evening ragas

7 Jul 2011

The sarod may not be as familiar an instrument to western audiences as the sitar made famous by Ravi Shankar, but virtuoso player Amjad Ali Khan is happy to establish its proper context. 'Ravi Shankar's teacher was a sarod player,' says Khan on the line…

Theatre, music and dance highlights from the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Semiramide and King Lear among picks

7 Jul 2011

The Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) has been a benchmark for quality and innovation in the performing arts since its inauguration nearly 65 years ago. This year artistic director Jonathan Mills builds his programme around the multi-faceted…

Review - Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Tue 28 Jun

Beninese Afrobeat with brass, percussion, guitar, bass and drums

1 Jul 2011

Nine good men and true fill the stage of Glasgow’s most beautiful (internally) venues in a Django like return to European conscience. Presumed missing or dead, or both, in their home country of Benin, West Africa, the Orchestre Poly-Rythmo were hunted…