Program October 17, 2018

WRIR's Fall 2018 Fund Drive is now underway -- we're working to raise $40,000 by Wednesday October 24 to power independent community radio in Richmond for another six months. Thank you for your previous donations to Richmond Independent Radio; I'm writing to encourage you to make a donation once again this fall.

You can make that donation in two minutes by clicking this link: http://wrir.org/donating. Or you can call or visit us between 9 AM and 9 PM during the drive, now through October 24. Our phone number is 804-622-9747; our address is 1621 W. Broad Street, 2nd floor.

Charts October 14, 2018

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 SUPERFONICOS | Suelta [EP] | Discos Fonicos
2 VISHTEN | Horizons | Productions Takashoun
3 PEREGOYO Y SU COMBO VACANA | Mi Buenaventura | Vampisoul
4 MICHI SARMIENTO Y SU COMBO BRAVO | Salsa Con Monte | Vampisoul
5 DOCTOR NATIVO | Guatemaya | Stonetree
6 DIALI CISSOKHO AND KAIRA BA | Routes | Twelve | Eight
7 GAYE SU AKYOL | Istikrarli Hayal Hakikattir | Glitterbeat
8 ANDRE SAMPAIO | Alagbe | Sony Brasil
9 RAM | 7: August 1791 | Willibelle Publishing & Sales
10 DOCTEUR NICO | Dieu De La Guitare | Planet Ilunga

Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird | The Butcher's Share

ARTIST: Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird
TITLE: The Butcher’s Share
LABEL: Oriente
Here’s the fifth album from Berlin’s Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird, released in Germany last year and getting an American push now with the band touring the USA in November.

Kaleta & Super Yamba Band | Mr.Diva b/w Hungry Man, Angry Man

ARTIST: Kaleta & Super Yamba Band
TITLE: “Mr. Diva” / “Hungry Man, Angry Man”
LABEL: Yamba
Sometimes it seems like every time I turn over a rock, hiding under it is another American or Brazilian or British or European band that plays Afrobeat and Afro-funk.

Program October 10, 2018

For years, you've heard me (and my WRIR colleagues DJ Daudi and DJ Graybeard) go on and on about champeta music: how it's the sound of Colombia's Caribbean coast, how it's built from the records that sailors brought from African to Colombia's seaports, how it's some of the world's most awesome dance music.

Now you get to see and hear champeta for yourself -- for free, to boot.  Tribu Baharu (pictured above) will be rocking the 14th annual Richmond Folk Festival this year, performing on Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday evening on downtown Richmond's historic riverfront.  And you'll hear them recorded live in WRIR's Studio C on Daudi and Graybeard's The Motherland Influence radio show, Sunday October 21 during WRIR's Fall '18 Fund Drive.

This week, I'll give you a taste of Tribu Baharu to get you motivated to see them at the Folk Festival, and I'll feature three other artists that I'll certainly be catching at this year's festival: Sona Jobarteh from The Gambia, the world's foremost female kora player; the Puerto Rican salsa band Orquesta El Macabeo, who played live on Global A Go-Go three years ago; and the kings of Jamaican nyabinghi drumming, Ras Michael & The Sons Of Negus.

Charts October 7, 2018

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 KALETA AND SUPER YAMBA BAND | "Mr. Diva / Hungry Man, Angry Man" [Single] | Yamba
2 DUR-DUR OF SOMALIA | Volume 1, Volume 2 & Previously Unreleased Tracks | Analog Africa
3 DOCTOR NATIVO | Guatemaya | Stonetree
4 JOHNNY CLARKE | Creation Rebel |17 North Parade
5 ALPHEUS | Light Of Day | Liquidator
6 MYSTIC BOWIE | Mystic Bowie's Talking Dreads | MTMB Entertainment
7 EL DUSTY | Cumbia City | Aftercluv
8 MAKU SOUNDSYSTEM | 5 Fuegos [EP] | Peace & Rhythm
9 HOLLIE COOK | "Sweet Like Chocolate" [Single] | Merge
10 ANDRE SAMPAIO | Alagbe | Sony Brasil

Program October 3, 2018

Sorry to say, it's once again time to pay tribute to a Global A Go-Go inspiration who's shuffled off this mortal coil.  Two weeks ago it was Rachid Taha; this week it's trumpeter/conguero Jerry Gonzalez, who died in a house fire at his home in Madrid on October 1.

I came to world music from jazz, and Jerry Gonzalez is one of the players who led me there.  He grew up in New York City in the 1960s playing both jazz and Afro-Latin dance music.  When Jerry was 21, he was simultaneously playing the cuchifrito circuit and working with Dizzy Gillespie's combo.  He was looking for something more: he wanted both the freedom of jazz and the deep roots of his Puerto Rican folklore, all in the same music.

He found it in the bands he started and joined: Conjunto Anabacoa, Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquina, Manny Oquendo's Libre, his own Fort Apache Band.  Just when you thought he had it all figured out, he moved to Spain in 2000 and somehow added flamenco to his unique cultural hybrid.

You'll hear a sampler of music from Jerry Gonzalez' career this week on Global A Go-Go.  Also this week: celebrating the birthday of Vincent "Randy" Chin, one of the unsung heroes of reggae; new Afro-funk from Kaleta & Super Yamba Band; and a set of electro-cumbia to send you home dancing.

Charts September 30, 2018

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 PEREGOYO Y SU COMBO VACANA | Mi Buenaventura | Vampisoul
2 BLACK MASALA | Trains And Moonlight Destinies | self-released
3 SARAZINO | Mama Funny Day | Cumbancha
4 DUR-DUR OF SOMALIA | Volume 1, Volume 2 And Previously Unreleased Tracks | Analog Africa
5 NEWPOLI | Mediterraneo | Beartones
6 ALBA GRIOT ENSEMBLE | The Darkness Between The Leaves | Riverboat
7 LEMON BUCKET ORKESTRA | If I Had The Strength | Six Degrees
8 KALETA AND SUPER YAMBA BAND | "Mr. Diva / Hungry Man, Angry Man" [Single] | Yamba
9 RIO MIRA | Marimba Del Pacifico | AYA
10 DELGRES | Mo Jodi | PIAS

Sarazino | Mama Funny Day

ARTIST: Sarazino
TITLE: Mama Funny Day
LABEL: Cumbancha
Lamine Fellah is as cosmopolitan as they come: the son of an Algerian diplomat, he grew up in Spain, Switzerland, Burundi and Burkina Faso; he moved to Canada for college, and since 1996 he’s been based in Quito, Ecuador.

Program September 26, 2018

Newpoli (pictured above) is a band from Boston featuring three Italian immigrants (plus one from Sweden and one from Finland, just because) who play the swirling, energetic, hallucinatory traditional music of Apulia, the heel of Italy's boot.

They call their sound "Mediterranean Pulse"; you could also call it folk-rock, Mezzogiorno style. You'll hear a track from Newpoli's superb forthcoming album on this week's show, in a set you could call folk-rock, Global A Go-Go style.

Also this week: the music of Colombia's Pacific coast; crossing the Balkans, from Romania to Macedonia and from Toronto to DC; and a set of global dance pop to wrap things up. 25 countries are represented this week, making this one of Global A Go-Go's most global editions ever.

Charts September 23, 2018

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 SUPERFONICOS | Suelta [EP] | Discos Fonicos
2 DUR-DUR OF SOMALIA | Volume 1, Volume 2 And Previously Unreleased Tracks | Analog Africa
3 MICHI SARMIENTO Y SU COMBO BRAVO | Salsa Con Monte | Vampisoul
4 TWO NILES TO SING A MELODY: THE VIOLINS AND SYNTHS OF SUDAN | various artists | Ostinato
5 LA REDADA | "Abrete Sesamo / Africa Bom" [Single] | Vampisoul
6 PEREGOYO Y SU COMBO VACANA | Mi Buenaventura | Vampisoul
7 AFRO-CUBAN ALL STARS | A Toda Cuba Le Gusta | World Circuit
8 RED BARAAT | Sound The People | Rhyme & Reason
9 NICOLA CONTE AND SPIRITUAL GALAXY | Let Your Light Shine On | MPS
10 SEKOU BAH | Soukkabe Mali | Clermont Music

Dur-Dur Of Somalia | Volume 1, Volume 2 & Previously Unreleased Tracks

ARTIST: Dur-Dur Of Somalia
TITLE: Volume 1, Volume 2 & Previously Unreleased Tracks
LABEL: Analog Africa
Five years ago, Awesome Tapes From Africa introduced the rest of the world to the Dur-Dur Band, a supremely danceable combo from 1980’s Somalia that brought together disco, funk and local rhythms from the Horn of Africa; four distinctive singers backed by a well-drilled seven-piece ensemble.

Newpoli | Mediterraneo

ARTIST: Newpoli
TITLE: Mediterraneo
LABEL: Beartones
Even though I’m of Southern Italian heritage, I’m a newcomer to the swirling, energetic, hallucinatory traditional music of Apulia, the heel of Italy’s boot and the birthplace of my father’s mother.

Peregoyo Y Su Combo Vacana | Mi Buenaventura

ARTIST: Peregoyo Y Su Combo Vacana
TITLE: Mi Buenaventura
LABEL: Vampisoul
When you think of Colombian music, what comes to mind? Maybe cumbia, champeta and the other Afro-Colombian styles of the Caribbean coast. Or maybe salsa, since Cali is now arguably the world capital of that pan-Latin genre.

Michi Sarmiento Y Su Combo Bravo | Salsa Con Monte

ARTIST: Michi Sarmiento Y Su Combo Bravo
TITLE: Salsa Con Monte
LABEL: Vampisoul
Vampisoul’s Discos Fuentes reissue series continues with this dancefloor filler. Michi Sarmiento is part of the Discos Fuentes family: his father Climaco was an in-house arranger there after playing in Lucho Bermudez’s legendary porro orchestra.