Abuelita!

I've been listening to a lot of cumbia sonidera in the early days of 2023.  It's a style of music from Mexico, where the listeners and dancers want their cumbia played hard and slow: 80 to 90 beats per minute.

 

The genre got started when DJs accidentally or intentionally slowed down cumbia recordings from Colombia, Peru and other parts of South America.  The first Mexico City band to play cumbia sonidera live was called Super Grupo Colombia (SGC), which featured several members of the Pedraza family of San Juan de Aragón, a small town that's now part of Mexico's sprawling Distrito Federal.

 

Ángel Pedraza, the son and nephew of SGC's founders, has his own band called Grupo Kual? (yes, the question mark is part of their name) who have a new album out now.  You'll hear a track from it this week on Global A Go-Go, plus some more examples of cumbia sonidera.

 

Also this week (Sunday January 29, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site): three new reggae singles; more chicha from the Peruvian jungle; a tribute to Zimbabwean feminist pioneer Stella Chiweshe, who passed away on January 20; Afrobeat with a political bent; and some blazing Malian Wassoulou rock.

Charts January 9-22, 2023

WRIR World's NACC Top Ten

1 LIRAZ | Roya | Glitterbeat

2 PERU SELVATICO: SONIC EXPEDITION INTO THE PERUVIAN AMAZON, 1972-1986 | various artists | Analog Africa

3 JUANITA EUKA | Mabanzo | Strut

4 BASSIDI KONE | Kaira | Remote

5 ORCHESTRA GOLD | Medicine | self-released

6 JOAO SELVA | Passarinho | Underdog

7 MASS KONPA | Sans Regret | self-released

8 FALLY IPUPA | Formule 7 | Elektra France

9 MAJID BEKKAS | Joudour | Igloo

10 ENEIDA MARTA | Family | Azziz

Global A Go-Go Classico: All about Moldova with Vlad Cuiujuclu

I'm on vacation today (Sunday January 15, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site) in New York City, where I'll be attending the annual Globalfest concert at Lincoln Center, with performances by a number of artists you've heard frequently on this show.

 

While I'm in New York, I'll also be getting together with Vlad Cuiujuclu, who was a frequent guest on this program when he was a high school and college student here in Richmond, and for a few years beyond that as well.  Vlad was one of my go-to sources for music from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and he never failed to correct my pronunciations of both Romanian and Russian.

I haven't seen Vlad in a few years, so in honor of our get-together I've dusted off an episode he and I did together on August 26, 2015 in celebration of the 24th birthday of the country of Moldova, Vlad's homeland.  The show is more than 7 years old now, but it's more topical than ever as Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine enters a second calendar year.

Charts Dec 12, 2022 - Jan 8, 2023

WRIR World's NACC Top Ten

1 LOS BITCHOS | Los Chrismos [EP] | City Slang

2 STAR FEMININE BAND | Star Feminine Band In Paris | Born Bad

3 VIEUX FARKA TOURE AND KHRUANGBIN | Ali | Dead Oceans/Secretly Group

4 BIO RITMO | Salsa System [EP] | Electric Cowbell

5 PERU SELVATICO | various artists | Analog Africa

6 CABRUERA | Sol A Pino | Polen

7 BALKA SOUND | Balka Sound | Strut

8 REDDY AMISI | Bailo Canto | Casa Do Canto

9 OLIVER NAYOKA | Oka Mmadu | Odogwu/Palenque

10 BABA COMMANDANT AND THE MANDINGO BAND | Sonbonbela | Sublime Frequencies

Top 10 compilations & reissues of 2022

 

This week on Global A Go-Go (Sunday January 8, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site), I'm wrapping up a 3-week-long look at my favorite recordings of 2022 by playing my favorite compilations and reissues of the year.

 

When every year begins, I think to myself "Well, this just might be the year when cratediggers start running out of worthwhile historical recordings to reissue and compile."  And when every years ends, I say "Well, it was another big year for compilations and reissues -- those cratediggers really found some great ones this year."

2022 was one of the best years for historic recordings yet.  I personally added more than 50 compilations and reissues to my own personal collection last year.  Narrowing those down to a top ten and ten additional honorable mentions required a sharp pencil.  Tune in this week and hear the results.

Without further ado, here are my top compilations and reissues of 2022: