My apologies for my extended break from this blog. Unfortunately yours truly ran out of inspiration and felt the need for a constructive break.
I thought it was time to introduce some jazz musicians to this blog. I decided to feature Zoe Rahman because I like her original approach to jazz, especially her jazz and Bengali fusions.
Her jazz style is often considered to be unique given her numerous influences, including her British and Bengali heritage and background in classical music. She's worked on an impressive number of collaborations pairing up with her brother (Idris Rahman), Courtney Pine, George Mraz and Jerry Dammers' Spatial AKA Orchestra.
My top 5 choices:
1. Muchhe Jaoa Dinguli
2. I'll Think About It
3. Unison
4. On the Road
5. Red Squirrel
Most popular on Spotify:
1. Red Squirrel
2. Down to Earth
3. Fast Asleep
4. The Sheikh
5. The Calling
Sadly I wasn't able to find all my favourites on YouTube but the alternative clips below are still impressive.
Sorry once again that it's taken me months to update this blog but as time goes on, I seem to have more and more to do and less time, in which to do it!
Maciré Sylla was born and currently resides in Conakry (the capital of Guinea). She nevertheless mainly grew up in the countryside, and it was there that her grandmother inspired her career in music by teaching her traditional songs as well as teaching her about her heritage and Guinean culture.
As Maciré has spent a lot of time in both the countryside and the city, she aims to combine the aspects of both parts of the country in her music. Her music is usually written in the Soussou language and it has been influenced by Afropop, funk and Mandingo music.
The idea for this post was inspired by a representative from Pure Song, who recommended Maciré Sylla's music to me.
In this song, Macire speaks to a semi-fictional confidante called Fredi (based on a taxi-driver, former actor, she met in her childhood in the village of Tayiré) and tells him about mean rumours spread by false friends.
The first few sentences of this song come from a old story from her village, when husbands would go on a long journey to hunt a rare, mystical feline called Tiama and bring back the feline's tail as a trophy for their wives. Sylla uses this story as a way of singing about how it is hard to travel in Guinea, particularly as the railways have been dismantled over time by thieves stealing the metal.
Hello to all my blog viewers! I'm very sorry for taking such a big break from updating this blog but I've had a lot to do. As I'm in the second year of my degree, I have a heavier workload. The university's also changed the timetable, so that I'm almost always busy with reading, coursework or revision until the summer holidays. I hope I can get back to my weekly blogging once my exams have finished though.
Nevertheless, I know that it won't be any easier to update this blog when I'm in 3rd year, so I'd like to invite some people to write posts for this blog. If you're interested in becoming one of my co-bloggers, then contact me via the Twitter or Facebook page for this blog and tell me what you could offer World Music Weekly. As you know, I have no musical qualifications so there are no restrictions with regard to
your qualifications either.
In any case, I will now tell you about Tekbilek. I can't remember how I found out about him but I was fascinated by his music, so I put one of his albums in my Amazon basket.
Tekbilek comes from Adana, Turkey. He's from a very musical family. His uncle and his brother have been particularly instrumental in developing his musical career. He received music lessons from his uncle in return for helping out at his music store. This helped him to learn the rhythms of Turkish music, how to read scales, etc. He has learnt to play many instruments including the ney, zurna, baglama, the oud and percussion. Although his music has always been influenced by his folklore roots, he has also experimented with Arabesque, Turkish and Western styles.
My favourite album by Tekbilek is Whirling but I also love his collaborations with other artists.
My apologies for not catching up on the blog neglect as I intended to. Somehow, I'm so much busier than I was last summer, so I find it so hard to make time for this blog nowadays. It is for this reason, that the blog will be undergoing some changes to the staffing team. This means that I will no longer be running this blog single handedly as my friend, who studies German and Music will also now be writing for this blog. I hope you like the change and of course the new perspective that will come with it. I decided that Ale Möller should be featured in this week's blog post as I like his original spin on Scandinavian music, that he's created by combining Scandinavian music with the sounds of Shetland, Greece, India and West Africa.
Ale Möller comes from Scania, in the south of Sweden. He began by
playing the jazz trumpet but his music was influenced by Greek music,
when he lived in Greece and learnt to play the bouzouki. I was quite
amazed by the fact that he can play so many different instruments and
that he has been a part of so many bands. He has also worked on duets
with many different artists, so he has seen a lot of this world in many
ways. As you can imagine, it's not hard to find examples of his
contribution to the world of Scandinavian music, if you look in the
right place because he has helped to create or been a member of the Ale
Möller Band, Frifot, the Stockholm Folk Big Band, Enteli, Filarfolket,
Ale Möller's Lyckliga Enmansorkester and Neo Minore.
This is another of the posts that was mainly written by my sister.
La Negra's real name is Amparo Velasco. She's a gypsy from Elche Alicante in Spain. She records Jazz, Latin-Jazz, Tango, Brazilian and flamenco music. Her singing is slightly flat but the twist of tango and linguistic mix give La Negra the charm she needs.
I know that this is the longest time for which my blog has been abandoned. My apologies once again, it all started with exams, as there was so much revision to do for them but since the holidays started, I've been so busy with internships, a funeral and job applications. The paragraphs below were actually largely in part written by my sister in order to help me during the exams but I've only just got around to uploading these posts.
Lately, my listening has been branching out into all sorts of strange
places thanks to the peculiarities of Youtube, which enjoys throwing
wildcards my way and the French radio station, RFI Musique Monde . This is
how I came across the quite wonderful french pop hit Double Je by
Christophe Willem, a very catchy tune absolutely stuffed with puns that
had me pushing repeat on a far too frequent basis.
Christophe Willem won the fourth series of Nouvelle Star, which is the French edition of Pop Idol. His interest in music began at a young age, when he learnt to play the piano. He developed this interest by joining a gospel choir, which could very well be the inspiration for his song, Double Je. He also demonstrated an interest in becoming a singer at the age of 14, when he began to compose songs. He enjoyed an incredible level of success in 2007, when Double Je became the number 1 hit in Belgium and France and he was listed as one of the top ten highest earning musicians in France. He joined the jury of the French equivalent of X Factor in 2010, so it is clear to see that he is a well respected musician.
I'm sorry for not returning to blogging at an earlier date than expected. As usual my free time has been scarce and at one point I'd lost my list of all the music, that I'd intended to share with you all. I chose Mahmoud Fadl because I thought it was time to branch out from just representing the Middle East with oud players. I like the way in which he combines the sound of drums with the captive sound of Arabic music.
Mahmoud Fadl comes from a Nubian Family, who adopted the Griot culture of the "Battikol" people. They were originally based along the River Nile, in a region that was between northern Sudan and southern Egypt. His family were forced to depart from that region when a decision was made to build a hydroelectric power dam there. Nevertheless, although he departed from the place that gave rise to his culture, he still adopted the culture and he embodies this by playing Nubian percussion.
