May 31, 2013

The Ladies At Joe Gibbs

ARTIST: various artists
TITLE: The Ladies At Joe Gibbs
LABEL: 17 North Parade
Joe Gibbs was a TV repairman who started selling 45s in his shop and eventually became one of Jamaica’s top record producers. This well-curated collection picks 15 tracks by female singers who recorded for Gibbs in the 70s and 80s.

Lord Mouse & The Kalypso Kats | Go Calypsonian

ARTIST: Lord Mouse & The Kalypso Katz
TITLE: Go Calypsonian
LABEL: Piranha
Is calypso revival the new new thing? Well, two points don’t make a trend, but with Kobo Town’s superb new album (released in April) followed by this one, you do have to consider the possibility.

May 30, 2013

Program May 31, 2013

Hey, have you heard Gogol Bordello's new single yet?  You will on Global A Go-Go this week.  How about Rachid Taha's latest, a cover of Elvis' all-time best-selling song?  Yep, you'll hear that one too.

Also this week: a new calypso band from Berlin (seems logical), one of the most seminal Afro-pop recordings of the 80s, funk mixed with West African local rhythms, and, as always, much more.

May 27, 2013

Charts May 26, 2013

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 DUBMATIX | Rebel Massive | Echo Beach
2 ORCHESTRE POLY-RYTHMO DE COTONOU | Volume 3: The Skeletal Essences Of Voodoo Funk | Analog Africa
3 DIEUF-DIEUL DE THIES | Aw Sa Yone Vol. 1 | Teranga Beat
4 BOMBINO | Nomad | Nonesuch
5 CARBON LEAF | Ghost Dragon Attacks Castle | Constant Ivy
6 CRIOLO | No Na Orelha | Sterns
7 ETRAN FINATAWA | The Sahara Sessions | Riverboat
8 PIERRE AKENDENGUE | Destinée | Lusafrica
9 RAMY ESSAM | Introducing Ramy Essam | Introducing
10 CESARIA EVORA | Mãe Carinhosa | Lusafrica

May 23, 2013

Program May 24, 2013

Kick off your Memorial Day weekend with a very special edition of Global A Go-Go: a live, in-studio performance by Carbon Leaf.  They're back home in Richmond after a Navy Entertainment tour that took them to Bahrain (pictured above), Djibouti and aboard the USS Eisenhower in the Red Sea.

Carbon Leaf is one of the most accomplished and successful bands that Richmond has produced in the last 20 years.  While no one has ever called them a "world music" act (of course, lots of people think my program isn't a "world music" show either, starting with me), their sound has always been prominently influenced by Celtic folk and rock, staples of the Global A Go-Go catalog.

May 19, 2013

Charts May 19, 2013

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 VIEUX FARKA TOURE | Mon Pays | Six Degrees
2 DUBMATIX | Rebel Massive | Echo Beach
3 ORCHESTRE POLY-RYTHMO DE COTONOU | Volume 3: The Skeletal Essences Of Voodoo Funk | Analog Africa
4 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Stand Up, People: Gypsy Pop Songs From Tito's Yugoslavia 1964-1980 | Vlax
5 BOMBINO | Nomad | Nonesuch
6 ORCHESTRA SUPER MAZEMBE | Mazembe @ 45 RPM Vol. 1 | Sterns
7 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Harafinso: Bollywood Inspired Music From Hausa Nigeria | Sahelsounds
8 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Soca Gold 2013 | VP
9 JAIMEO BROWN | Transcendence | Motema
10 GILAD ATZMON & THE ORIENT HOUSE ENSEMBLE | Songs Of The Metropolis | World Village

May 17, 2013

Dubmatix | Rebel Massive

ARTIST: Dubmatix
TITLE: Rebel Massive
LABEL: Echo Beach
More now than ever, Jamaican popular music is a producer’s art. Just as in today’s American pop, R&B and hip hop, the producer is generally responsible for the total sound, the beats, and often all the instruments as well. The songwriter (frequently the producer) contributes raw materials and the singer/rapper is the song’s recognizable face, but the producer is (as they say in the cinema world) the auteur.

Vieux Farka Toure | Mon Pays

ARTIST: Vieux Farka Toure
TITLE: Mon Pays
LABEL: Six Degrees
On his first six albums and a series of international tours, Vieux Farka Toure carved out a style at arm’s length to that of his famous father, Ali Farka Toure: rooted in Northern Mali’s desert blues sound, but with an aggressive, electric edge and some of the flair of rock ‘n’ roll. This album finds Vieux in a more reflective mood, partly by design and partly as a response to Mali’s now 14-month-old crisis of coup d’etat plus Islamist insurgence plus international invasion.

May 16, 2013

Program May 17, 2013

Saban Bajramovic (pictured above) was the king of Balkan Gypsy song, arguably the greatest Roma vocalist of all time (and a serious pigeon-fancier as well).  This week I'll present two songs as evidence, one from 1969 and the other from one of his last recordings in 2006.  No pigeons were harmed in the production of this radio show.

May 15, 2013

Cause & Effect May 16, 2013

I'll be guest-hosting WRIR's Cause & Effect program this week on Thursday at 7 PM, a show where the host digs deep into an individual artist, a genre, a place and time -- it's like a 2-hour musical essay.

My topic for the week is Toots & The Maytals, the legendary reggae group who will be performing here in Richmond on Saturday night.  More information about the gig is here:

http://www.dominionriverrock.com/music/toots--the-maytals/

I'll spin some of my favorite Toots tunes, a few of the artists who influenced them, many of their peers and contemporaries, some covers of songs written by Toots Hibbert, and much more.    Join me if you can -- it's going to be a blast.

May 12, 2013

Charts May 12, 2013

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Dabke: Sounds Of The Syrian Houran | Sham Palace
2 ORCHESTRE POLY-RYTHMO DE COTONOU | Volume 3: The Skeletal Essences Of Voodoo Funk | Analog Africa
3 OLIVER MTUKUDZI & THE BLACK SPIRITS | Sarawoga | Tuku Music
4 BOMBA ESTEREO | Elegancia Tropical | Soundway
5 TEO LAURA | El Sonido De La Carretera Central | Masstropicas
6 BASSEKOU KOUYATE & NGONI BA | Jama Ko | Out|Here
7 KOBO TOWN | Jumbie In The Jukebox | Cumbancha
8 CHICHA LIBRE | Cuatro Tigres | Barbes
9 ORQUESTA EL MACABEO | Salsa Bestial | Vampisoul
10 SORIE KONDI | Thogolobea | Dutty Artz

May 10, 2013

Teo Laura | El Sonido De La Carretera Central

ARTIST: Teo Laura
TITLE: El Sonido De La Carretera Central
LABEL: Masstropicas
Masstropicas’ excavation of Peruvian chicha continues apace with this fine compilation of bands that all featured the guitarist Teo Laura Amao, who’s still active today.

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou | Volume 3: The Skeletal Essences Of Afro Funk 1969-1980

ARTIST: Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou
TITLE: Volume 3: The Skeletal Essences Of Afro Funk 1969-1980
LABEL: Analog Africa
This compilation is Analog Africa’s fourth reissue of Poly-Rythmo; their series plus Soundway’s The Kings Of Benin Urban Groove, PAM’s Reminiscin’ In Tempo, and the band’s 2011 comeback album Cotonou Club have firmly established Poly-Rythmo as one of Africa’s all-time greatest bands.

May 9, 2013

Program May 10, 2013

Previous reissues by the Analog Africa, Soundway and Popular African Music labels, plus an amazing 2011 reunion album, have provided proof positive that Benin's Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou is one of the greatest African bands of all time.

Analog Africa is back with their fourth Poly-Rythmo release, and I'm still finding new songs to add to my list of favorites from this amazing group.  I'll spin one of them on this week's program.

May 5, 2013

Charts May 5, 2013

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 BARRINGTON LEVY | Sweet Reggae Music 1979-84 | VP
2 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Stand Up, People: Gypsy Pop Songs From Tito's Yugoslavia 1964-1980 | Vlax
3 DIEUF-DIEUL DE THIES | Aw Sa Yone Vol. 1 | Teranga Beat
4 GRAVEOLA | Eu Preciso De Um Liquidificador (I Need A Food Processor) | Mais Um Discos
5 BASSEKOU KOUYATE AND NGONI BA | Jama Ko | Out|Here
6 KOBO TOWN | Jumbie In The Jukebox | Cumbancha
7 ORQUESTA EL MACABEO | Salsa Bestial | Vampisoul
8 YELLOWMAN | Young, Gifted, And Yellow | VP
9 VARIOUS ARTISTS | The Rough Guide To Psychedelic Brazil | World Music Network
10 BAJOFONDO | Presente | Sony

May 3, 2013

Stand Up, People: Gypsy Pop Songs From Tito's Yugoslavia 1964-1980

ARTIST: various artists
TITLE: Stand Up, People: Gypsy Pop Songs From Tito’s Yugoslavia 1964-1980
LABEL: Vlax / Asphalt Tango
Interest in popular music from the Balkans and particularly that made by its Roma (gypsy) natives has grown steadily over the last ten years. Likewise the interest in vintage vinyl, with crate-diggers now fanned out across the globe in search of nuggets that most all of us missed the first time out.

May 2, 2013

May 2013 Concert Calendar

May's Global A Go-Go picks:
  1. One of reggae's greatest-ever singing groups, Toots & The Maytals (pictured above) in Richmond at the Dominion Riverrock Festival on Saturday May 18, and in DC at the Hamilton on Wednesday May 22
  2. The Celtic folk-rock of Richmond's own Carbon Leaf at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens' Groovin In The Garden series, Thursday May 30
  3. The 14th annual Washington Jewish Music Festival, including performance by Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird (Thursday May 2 at Artisphere) and Frank London's Klezmer Brass All Stars (Tuesday May 7 at Washington DCJCC)
Have an event you'd like me to include, or a suggestion for the concert calendar?  Just drop me a line at globalagogoradio [at] gmail [dot] com, or leave me a message right here.

Click "Read more" to see the entire May calendar.

May 1, 2013

Program May 3, 2013

This week I'm pleased to debut (certainly on WRIR and perhaps in the USA, who knows?) a new compilation of 60s-70s vintage Roma pop 45s from the former Yugoslavia, dug and released (licensed as well, of course) by two enterprising young British vinyl collectors.  You can read about their adventures in Skopje and Belgrade here:

http://www.icrates.org/rare-roma-gypsy-vinyl-vlax-stand-up

I'll play a track by Muharem Serbezovski (pictured above), one of the most popular singers Macedonia has produced (despite appearances, he's not the token Macedonian on the Starship Enterprise), along with some groovy related Greek and Turkish music.