La Perla from Bogotá, live in Richmond Saturday May 4

La Perla, las tres brujas del tambor (the three witches of the drums) from Bogotá Colombia, are coming to Richmond this week.

 

They will be performing at the Get Tight Lounge, 1104 W. Main Street, on Saturday May 4.  Doors open at 7:30 PM; La Perla goes on stage at 9:00.  You can get your tickets here: https://dice.fm/event/g8rpb-la-perla-at-gtl-4th-may-get-tight-lounge-richmond-tickets

They will also be performing live on WRIR this Saturday afternoon between 1 and 3 PM.  I'll be hosting a special edition of the WRIR program "Cause & Effect," featuring the music of La Perla, their influences, and some of the many bands in the very hip current Bogotá scene.  And La Perla will join me in WRIR's Studio C for a live performance and conversation.  You can listen on 97.3 FM in Richmond or at wrir.org anywhere.

African day

Pianist Tete Mbambisa is one of the South African jazz greats who stayed in his home country in the 1970s, when many of his peers like Abdullah Ibrahim, Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba were beating apartheid by going into exile.  It was hard to get international recognition (not to mention make a living) as a South African jazzman in the 70s, but there's some fabulous music from that period that we're only started to hear.

 

The As Shams label has just issued previously unreleased recordings from 1976 featuring Mbambisa, his stellar quartet and guest soloists Basil Coetzee, Barney Rachabane and Dennis Mpale.  These sessions are right up there with Ibrahim's best work of that period.  Hear it for yourself this week on Global A Go-Go.

Also this week (Sunday April 28, 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): Mali's Soninke sound of the 1990s; Afrofunk from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Togo and Ghana; more from Colombia's La Perla, who will be at the Get Tight Lounge on Saturday May 4 (and live on WRIR that afternoon); what's new in the world of reggae; and the reissue of a qawwali classic by the Sabri Brothers.

Ritmo realidad

WRIR's Spring 2024 Fund Drive is now underway -- we're hard at work toward raising $45,000 by Saturday April 27th to power Richmond's community radio station for another six months.   Thank you for your previous donations to Richmond Independent Radio and for your continuing support if you're a monthly donor!  I'm writing to encourage you to make a contribution once again this spring, if you can.  Become a monthly donor by clicking this link: https://bit.ly/3QnrP5H.  Or make a one-time donation to WRIR here: https://bit.ly/3FnagN1.

Charts April 8-14, 2024

WRIR World's NACC Top Ten

1 JEMBAA GROOVE | Ye Ankasa/We Ourselves | Agogo

2 CONGO FUNK! SOUND MADNESS FROM THE SHORES OF THE MIGHTY CONGO RIVER | various artists | Analog Africa

3 SINKANE | We Belong | City Slang

4 DELE SOSIMI AND THE ESTUARY 21 | The Confluence | Wah Wah 45s

5 PROJECT GEMINI | Colours & Light | Mr Bongo

6 FLORENCE ADOONI | "Uh-Ah Song" [Single] | Philophon

7 LIRAZ | "Haarf" [Single] | Batov

8 AUSECUMA BEATS | Dakar Bamako | Music In Exile

9 EMAHOY TSEGE MARIAM GEBRU | Souvenirs | Mississippi

10 AZIZA BRAHIM | Mawja (Wave) | Glitterbeat

O Lord, increase my bewilderment

If you saw the late, great Baba Commandant & The Mandingo Band last fall at the Richmond Folk Festival or last spring at Get Tight Lounge -- Hisham Mayet made that happen.

 

Hisham produced all three of Baba's albums for Sublime Frequencies, the record label Hisham co-founded, and he was Baba's road manager for that epic American tour.  Hisham also produced the first recording of Omara Moctar aka Bombino, the Tamasheq desert blues guitarist who's now an international star.

 

Along with his audio work, Hisham Mayet is also a film maker and photographer who describes his ouevre as "folk cinema."  This year the James River Film Festival is screening two of Hisham's movies: The Divine River, a record of music, ritual, life and landscape along the Niger River in Mali and the Republic of Niger, and Oulaya's Wedding, which takes you inside the week-long wedding of the daughter of Western Sahara's most famous family band, Group Doueh.

The films will be shown at the Byrd Theatre on Saturday April 20 at 11:30 AM.  This week, one lucky Global A Go-Go listener will win a pair of tickets to the screening, and all Global A Go-Go listeners will get to hear a set of music from the two documentaries.

Also this week (Sunday April 14, 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): New Ghanaian music from Jembaa Groove and Florence Adooni, the South Bronx's fabulous Ghetto Brothers, brand new singles by Altın Gün and Liraz, more sounds of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and Senegal and Mali meet Australia in Ausecuma Beats.

Charts April 1-7, 2024

WRIR World's NACC Top Ten

1 SAHRA HALGAN | Hiddo Dhawr | Danaya

2 MERCI YAYA BONGO: LES GROUPES D'ANIMATION FEMININS DU GABON, 1982-1989 | various artists | Secousse

3 NEWEN AFROBEAT | Grietas [EP] | Lichens Family

4 CONGO FUNK! SOUND MADNESS FROM THE SHORES OF THE MIGHTY CONGO RIVER | various artists | Analog Africa

5 LA YEGROS | Haz | X-Ray

6 TOGO SOUL 2 | various artists | Hot Casa

7 DYNAMQ | "Khamsa Degiga" [Single] | River Nile

8 JOY, THE | "You Complete Me" [Single] | Transgressive

9 ORQUESTA AKOKAN | "Con Altura" b/w "TKN" [Single] | Daptone

10 OLUKO IMO | Glory Of Om | Soundway

Keep the culture

Sahra Halgan's back story is so compelling that it can be a distraction from her brilliant music.  She was a nurse on the front lines of Somalia's civil war when her own country's air force dropped bombs on her home town of Hargeisa in Somaliland, driving her and thousands of others into exile.

 

Then she was a faceless refugee in France for 24 years, working as a cleaner and a cafeteria worker, raising five children, and playing music as a side hustle.  In Lyon, Halgan connected with a couple of open-eared local musicians and this trio (now a quartet) has honed a remarkably organic sound that you could call East African post-rock: They're muscular, angular and soulful, recognizably Somalian yet unlike anything else from there or anywhere else.

Halgan's new album Hiddo Dhawr (Keep The Culture) is named for the music venue she opened in Hargeisa in 2013.  You'll hear three songs from the album, my favorite album so far in 2024, this week on Global A Go-Go.

Also this week (Sunday April 7, 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): South African a cappella, Gabonese singing in praise of maximum leader Omar Bongo, a ticket giveaway to see the twangy soul-cumbia band LA LOM at Richmond Music Hall on Tuesday night, Oluko Imo's Trini Afrobeat and new dancehall South Sudanese style from Dynamq.

Charts March 18-31, 2024

WRIR World's NACC Top Ten

1 AFRICAN BROTHERS BAND INT. OF GHANA | Locomotive Train (Keteke): Meko Tarkwa! Meko Tarkwa!! Meko Tarkwa!!! | BBE

2 ADAMA YALOMBA | Tanou | Remote/Studio Mali

3 OMAR SOULEYMAN | Erbil | Mad Decent

4 MERCI YAYA BONGO: LES GROUPES D'ANIMATION FEMININS DU GABON, 1982-1989 | various artists | Secousse

5 AUSECUMA BEATS | Dakar Bamako | Music In Exile

6 MEKLIT | Ethio Blue [EP] | self-released

7 JEMBAA GROOVE | "Makoma" [Single] | Agogo

8 SAMI GALBI | "Rruina" [Single] | Bongo Joe

9 PAT THOMAS | "Gye Wani" [Single] | Soundway

10 AZIZA BRAHIM | Mawja (Wave) | Glitterbeat