Program November 30, 2012

I'm featuring two tracks from Analog Africa's brand-new Colombian compilation Diablos Del Ritmo (pictured above) -- it may very well be my favorite compilation of the year.  I'll spin some old tropical recordings and some newer champeta to go along with the tasty Analog Africa selections.  By the way, here's my review of it:

http://www.globalagogo.com/2012/11/diablos-del-ritmo-colombian-melting-pot.html

Diablos Del Ritmo: The Colombian Melting Pot 1960-1985

ARTIST: various artists
TITLE: Diablos Del Ritmo: The Colombian Melting Pot 1960-1985
LABEL: Analog Africa
Analog Africa’s Samy Ben Redjeb has been collecting historic Colombian recordings for six years now. This is his second Colombian release, and it’s a great addition to the growing catalog of reissues from that musically diverse and vibrant country.

Charts November 25, 2012

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 TIM MAIA | World Psychedelic Classics 4: Nobody Can Live Forever: The Existential Soul Of Tim Maia | Luaka Bop
2 RITA | My Joys | NMC Music
3 LIJADU SISTERS | Horizon Unlimited | Knitting Factory
4 BOMBA ESTEREO | Elegancia Tropical | Polen
5 ONDATROPICA | Ondatropica | Soundway
6 MALHOMBRE | "Musique Rock"/"Fini" [Single] | Little Black Cloud
7 SON DE BARRIO DE PUERTO RICO | Que Nadie Te Quite Lo Bailao | self-released
8 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Cumbia Beat Vol. 2: Tropical Sounds Of Peru 1966-83 | Vampisoul
9 ROYAL BAND DE THIES | Kadior Demb | Teranga Beat
10 SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA | Solidarity | Strut

The Lijadu Sisters | Horizon Unlimited

ARTIST: The Lijadu Sisters
TITLE: Horizon Unlimited
LABEL: Knitting Factory
Knitting Factory finishes up one of my favorite reissue projects of 2012 with the fourth and last of the records The Lijadu Sisters made for Nigeria’s Afrodisia Records between 1976 and 1979.

Rita | My Joys

ARTIST: Rita
TITLE: My Joys
LABEL: NMC Music
In Israel, Rita Yahan-Farouz is like Madonna or Beyonce: an only-one-name-needed superstar singer with a dozen gold or platinum albums and some 40 hit singles.

Program November 23, 2012

International pop superstars and Global A Go-Go are usually oil and water.  But Israeli diva Rita (pictured above -- yes, she's so popular there she only needs to use one name) is the exception to that rule -- her new album of Persian material, sung in Farsi, is an unexpected tour-de-force.  Now if she could only get Netanyahu and Ahmedinejad to sit down together and listen to it ....

Charts November 18, 2012

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Cumbia Beat Vol. 2: Tropical Sounds Of Peru 1966-83 | Vampisoul
2 DIABEL CISSOKHO | Kanabory Siyama | World Village
3 SOFRITO | International Soundclash | Strut
4 MALHOMBRE | "Musique Rock" / "Fini" [Single] | Little Black Cloud
5 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Bollywood Steel Guitar | Sublime Frequencies
6 EMMANUEL JAL | See Me Mama | Transcendental Music
7 TIM MAIA | World Psychedelic Classics 4: Nobody Can Live Forever: The Existential Soul Of Tim Maia | Luaka Bop
8 SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA | Solidarity | Strut
9 BOMBA ESTEREO | Elegancia Tropical | Polen
10 ROYAL BAND DE THIES | Kadior Demb | Teranga Beat

Program November 16, 2012

Global A Go-Go's peripatetic correspondent Noah Scalin is recently back from a trip to France, where he picked up some music that they're listening to in Paris and we're more or less unaware of here in the USA.

That's a great excuse for Noah to crack the spines of his new purchases, and for both of us to add in some of our current and long-time French favorites.  So tune in this week for a special all-French-music edition of Global A Go-Go.

Charts November 11, 2012

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 TIM MAIA | World Psychedelic Classics 4: Nobody Can Live Forever: The Existential Soul Of Tim Maia | Luaka Bop
2 ROBERT SOKO | BalkanBeats Soundlab | Piranha
3 SAMUEL YIRGA | Guzo | Real World
4 SON DE BARRIO DE PUERTO RICO | Que Nadie Te Quito Lo Bailao | self-released
5 LENI STERN | Smoke, No Fire | self-released
6 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Jukebox Mambo: Rumba And Afro Latin Accented Rhythm And Blues 1949-1960 | Jazzman
7 ROBERTO LOPEZ AFRO-COLOMBIAN JAZZ ORCHESTRA | Azul | Curura Musique
8 MARTIN LOPEZ Y SUS ESTRELLAS | Cocinando | Masstropicas
9 SOOTHSAYERS | Human Nature | Red Earth
10 SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA | Solidarity | Strut

Son De Barrio De Puerto Rico | Que Nadie Te Quite Lo Bailao

ARTIST: Son De Barrio De Puerto Rico
TITLE: Que Nadie Te Quite Lo Bailao
LABEL: self-released
I’m always on the lookout for bands that play salsa dura, the hard stuff, the way they played it in NYC (and San Juan, Cali, Caracas and plenty of other places) back in the 1970’s. Son De Barrio do it, they do it their own way, and they do it well.

Leni Stern | Smoke, No Fire

ARTIST: Leni Stern
TITLE: Smoke, No Fire
LABEL: self-released
Leni Stern is back with a dispatch from Mali’s front line. I reviewed Leni’s last record, Sabani, in February; by March she had returned to Bamako and was in the midst of these sessions when the military coup erupted.

Program November 9, 2012

You'll get to hear a different take on Balkan, Roma and Eastern European music this week.  Vlad Cuiujuclu, a young man from Moldova who lives in the Richmond area (he's a student at King William High School) will spin a set of his favorites for you.

Zdob Si Zdub (pictured above) from Vlad's hometown of Chisinau (Moldova's capital) will be in the mix along with a bunch of bands you probably haven't heard before -- I know I hadn't.  It's great stuff, and I'll follow Vlad's act with my own, very different choice of Balkan brass & beats.

Charts November 4, 2012

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 BIO RITMO | Introducing Bio Ritmo | Introducing
2 ROYAL BAND DE THIES | Kadior Demb | Teranga Beat
3 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Jukebox Mambo: Rumba And Afro Latin Accented Rhythm & Blues 1949-1960 | Jazzman
4 ROBERTO LOPEZ AFRO-COLOMBIAN JAZZ ORCHESTRA | Azul | Curura Musique
5 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Cumbia Beat Vol. 2: Tropical Sounds Of Peru 1966-83 | Vampisoul
6 MARTIN LOPEZ Y SUS ESTRELLAS | Cocinando | Masstropicas
7 TIM MAIA | World Psychedelic Classics 4: Nobody Can Live Forever: The Existential Soul Of Tim Maia | Luaka Bop
8 SOFRITO | International Soundclash | Strut
9 SON DE BARRIO DE PUERTO RICO | Que Nadie Te Quite Lo Bailao | self-released
10 SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA | Solidarity | Strut

Jukebox Mambo: Rumba And Afro Latin Accented Rhythm & Blues 1949-1960

ARTIST:  various artists
TITLE:  Jukebox Mambo: Rumba And Afro Latin Accented Rhythm & Blues 1949-1960
LABEL:  Jazzman
The world music boom that started in Europe and the USA in the 1980s really isn’t anything new; here’s a collection that reminds us a similar phenomenon happened after World War II.

Program November 2, 2012

Something different this week on Global A Go-Go: the mambo kings of hep harmony.  I'm talking about the intersection of two major 1950s musical trends, doo-wop and the craze for Latin rhythms like mambo and cha-cha-cha, from vocal groups like Cuba's Los Zafiros (pictured above) and the USA's The Sultans.