Jan Fairley

Staff Benda Bilili - Très Très Fort

6 Jan 2010

(Crammed Disks) One of last autumn’s world music highlights, this spookily beautiful album, which includes musicians, amphibians and some catchier-than- the-cold rhythms, is still irresistible. The slightly eerie sound of the plucked string of the…

Havana Cultura - Gilles Peterson

17 Dec 2009

(Brownswood Recordings) Club DJ Gilles Peterson follows the footsteps of Cuban bandleader Juan de Marcos González whose DM Ahora label introduced the newest generation of Cuban musicians to the world, notably the Interactivo collective and female…

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…

Ojos de Brujo

Preview

13 Nov 2009

Walking out the lift of an Edinburgh Hotel, Marina Abad is pushing her baby son in a buggy. Pivotal singer, composer and the only woman in Europe’s most popular world music band – the Barcelona collective Ojos de Brujo. Renowned for their…

Mayra Andrade - Stória Stória

13 Nov 2009

(Sterns) Mayra Andrade is an award winning singer of the world music scene, charming fans with both her gorgeous voice and captivating performances. With Stória Stória this Cape Verdean continues moving towards Brazil, with an appetising roll call of…

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu - Gurrumul

13 Nov 2009

(Dram) Hear the song ‘Bapa’ (Father) on this multi-award winning album by one time singer with Yothu Yindi, Australia’s first ever aboriginal rock band, and you’ll know exactly why, despite being sung in native Australian Yongu dialect, this has made…

Totó la Momposina - La Bodega

29 Oct 2009

(Astar Arts) La Momposina is swinging towards her 70s in style, creating some of the most irresistible dance music to come out of Colombia in years. For La Bodega she uses the port warehouse as metaphor for the constant mixing of Colombian with…

Rupa and the April Fishers - Este Mundo (This World)

15 Oct 2009

With their second album, Rupa and the April Fishers establish themselves at the cutting edge of world music. Their unusual name, top-quality musicianship and linguistic versatility, fused by the eclectic ideas of a second generation brought up on world…

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - I Speak Fula

15 Oct 2009

Following on from Segu Blue, his award-winning debut album, Kouyate offers us a denser sound with his wife Amy Sacko’s glorious voice well to the fore. Championing the language of his own Malian ethnic group, he charges the sound with the energy of live…

Málaga Feria - a day in the life of the free, Spanish festival

23 Jul 2009

If there are a thousand reasons to be in Edinburgh during the Festival there are as many to escape, and where better than a free festival in a Mediterranean port founded by the Phoenicians some 3000 years ago. Which is why, at midnight on a mid-August…

Keletigui et ses Tambourinis: The Syliphone Years

9 Jul 2009

Look no further: the sultry, sensual dance sounds the summer demands can be found right here. Sterns are riding high on the back of their recent digital remastering of Mali’s Rail Band (Salif Keita, Mory Kante) and TPOK Jazz, and now give the same…

Mara Aranda & Solatge: Dèria

9 Jul 2009

Valencian singer Mara Aranda joins forces with Solatge in her latest post-L’Ham du Foc venture. Her voice is as spirited as ever as she sings stories of smugglers, mermaids and muleteers, re-vamping ancient Mediterranean-Spanish songs for the 21st…

Sara Tavares - Xinti

25 Jun 2009

(World Connection) Portuguese singer Sara Tavares writes amazing songs, delivering them with one of the most shape-shifting voices around, a fusion of the gentle and wistful with subtly buoyant rhythm. Xinti which means ‘feel’, tells its own…

Roberto Fonseca - Akokan

11 Jun 2009

Thrillingly lyrical Afro-Cuban jazz set from the supremely talented Fonseca who came first to fame as the young pianist who replaced veteran Ruben González in the Buena Vista Social Club. Recorded in the sacred Egrem studios, Fonseca’s second album with…

Tony Allen: Secret Agent

28 May 2009

Nick Gold – producer of Buena Vista Social Club, Toumani Diabate and other special artists – works his alchemy for British-based Tony Allen, one time drummer with Fela Anikulapo Kuti (and latterly Damon Albarn) for a wild Nigerian Afrobeat…

Baaba Maal: Television

28 May 2009

Why Baaba Maal is not on primetime radio is frustrating. Television, his first album for eight years, is so seductively sensual at times it’s almost chill out in style. It establishes him as a man with finger on the pulse of the musical times. Catchy…

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…