The Shaolin Afronauts | Follow The Path

ARTIST: The Shaolin Afronauts
TITLE: Follow The Path
LABEL: Freestyle
The Adelaide, Australia-based Shaolin Afronauts straddle two worlds – they have one foot planted in soulful, funky Afrobeat and the other in avant-garde and spiritual jazz.

Program August 15, 2014

This week on Global A Go-Go, you'll hear Afrobeat in all its varieties: a 1969 Fela Kuti classic reissued; the jazzy influences of Shaolin Afronauts, Zongo Junction and Somi; and an Afro-Latin burner by Jungle Fire (pictured above).  And they're all new releases, to boot.

Also this week: Turkish psych from the 60s, 70s and 80s; music of the maroons -- escaped African slaves in the Caribbean and South America; the Berlin beat -- my favorite Berlin bands that didn't play in town when I was there.

Charts August 10, 2014

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 BIO RITMO | Puerta Del Sur | Vampisoul
2 RICARDO LEMVO AND MAKINA LOCA | La Rumba SoYo | Cumbancha
3 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Salsa De Hoy: An Independent Salsa Caliente Compilation | Discos De Hoy
4 BLACK HIPPIES | The Black Hippies | Academy LPs
5 SLIM ALI AND HODI BOYS | 70s Soul! | ARC
6 QUANTIC | Magnetica | Tru Thoughts
7 CUMBIA ALL STARS | Tigres En Fuga | World Village
8 SIA TOLNO | African Woman | Lusafrica
9 SONIDO GALLO NEGRO | Sendero Mistico | Glitterbeat
10 NOURA MINT SEYMALI | Tzenni | Glitterbeat

Charts August 3, 2014

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 RICARDO LEMVO AND MAKINA LOCA | La Rumba SoYo | Cumbancha
2 SONIDO GALLO NEGRO | Sendero Mistico | Glitterbeat
3 SIA TOLNO | African Woman | Lusafrica
4 BIO RITMO | Puerta Del Sur | Vampisoul
5 DEXTER JOHNSON AND LE SUPER STAR DE DAKAR | Live A L'Etoile | Teranga Beat
6 SEUN KUTI AND EGYPT 80 | A Long Way To The Beginning | Knitting Factory
7 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Ola Cabo Verde | Lusafrica
8 MARCIO FARACO | Cajueiro | World Village
9 SALLY NYOLO | Tiger Run | Riverboat
10 JOHNNY SEDES AND HIS ORCHESTRA | Mama Calunga | Andale

Program August 1, 2014

I'm back after two weeks on vacation -- thank you to Otto Konrad and Eric Walters for holding down the fort in my absense.  And that's my back above, perusing the miles of "Weltmusik" (German for "world music") at Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus in Berlin.  Who says the music mega-store is dead?

On this week's show, you'll hear two bands I saw live in Berlin: Chile's Chico Trujillo and local cumbiamba La Mula Santa.  I'll also offer a belated tribute to Charlie Haden, play salsa Africana circa 1969 and today, and wrap things up with a set of Afro-funk.

August 2014 Concert Calendar

August's Global A Go-Go picks:

1. Mauritanian singer Noura Mint Seymali (pictured above) tours the USA supporting her new album Tzenni, one of the year's best; she and her band (led by amazing guitarist Jeiche Ould Chighaly (also pictured) perform at Artisphere in Arlington on Friday August 1
2. Omar Souyleman, the king of Syrian dabke wedding music, plays the Howard Theatre on Tuesday August 5
3. Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, still on tour, return to DC at the Black Cat on Friday August 22

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 August calendar.

Charts July 27, 2014

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 NOURA MINT SEYMALI | Tzenni | Glitterbeat
2 SON PALENQUE | Afrocolombian Sound Modernizers | Vampisoul
3 RICARDO LEMVO AND MAKINA LOCA | La Rumba SoYo | Cumbancha
4 DEXTER JOHNSON AND LE SUPER STAR DE DAKAR | Live A L'Etoile | Teranga Beat
5 CUMBIA ALL STARS | Tigres En Fuga | Harmonia Mundi
6 SIA TOLNO | African Woman | Lusafrica
7 BIO RITMO | Puerta Del Sur | Vampisoul
8 OUMAR KONATE | Addoh | Clermont Music
9 BOULPIK | Konpa Lakay | Lusafrica
10 RAY LUGO AND THE BOOGALOO DESTROYERS | Que Chevere! | Freestyle

Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca | La Rumba SoYo

ARTIST: Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca
TITLE: La Rumba SoYo
LABEL: Cumbancha
Here’s the latest from American-based Congolese singer Ricardo Lemvo (he’s made Los Angeles his home since the ‘80s), and it’s a beauty.

Program July 11, 2014

Karikatura (pictured above) is a band that sounds like an amalgam of all the music you hear if you spend a day walking around New York City neighborhoods: the sounds coming out of apartment windows, shops, passing cars and even the subway.  It's Afrobeat, cumbia, klezmer, hip hop and more rolled up into one young, very enegetic sextet.

Speaking of the subway, one of their longest-running gigs is in the Union Square subway station, as part of the Music Under New York program.  They've also toured the world, and Ropeadope Records just released their first full-length album.  They're making a stop in Richmond on Friday night at Balliceaux; before that happens, they'll do a live set on this week's edition of Global A Go-Go.

July 2014 Concert Calendar

July's Global A Go-Go picks:

1. The Smithsonian Folklife Festival continues on the mall in DC with free shows of music from Kenya and China on Wednesday July 2, Thursday July 3 and Saturday July 5
2. Gogol Bordello returns to central Virginia after a long absence: they're at the Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville on Thursday July 17
3. Cesar "Pupy" Pedroso and his band Los Que Son Son (pictured above), maybe the hottest aggregation in Cuba, make a rare stateside visit to the Howard Theatre in DC on Friday July 25

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 July calendar.

Charts July 6, 2014

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 RICARDO LEMVO & MAKINA LOCA | La Rumba SoYo | Cumbancha
2 BIO RITMO | Puerta Del Sur | Vampisoul
3 BOULPIK | Kompa Lakay | Lusafrica
4 QUANTIC | Magnetica | Tru Thoughts
5 HASSAN HAKMOUN | Unity | Healing
6 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Ola Cabo Verde | Lusafrica
7 KASAI ALLSTARS | Beware The Fetish | Crammed
8 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Putumayo Presents: Australia | Putumayo
9 MERIDIAN BROTHERS | Salvadora Robot | Soundway
10 MELAZA | Melaza | Chulo/Daptone

Program July 4, 2014

It happens that I live in a Congressional district (Virginia's 7th) where the key issue in the recent Republican primary was immigration -- not the economy, not unemployment, not healthcare.  Here's a quick summary: the incumbent disliked immigration and wanted to make it more difficult, the challenger disliked it even more.

As the grandson of Italian immigrants (some of them illegal, even under the relatively relaxed laws of the early 20th century), I find both of those candidates' points of view repugnant.  I think immigration is one of the main things that makes America great, and I think we ought to encourage more of it.

Since I've got the floor for two hours on the 4th of July, I'll use it to do a radio show on this subject -- two hours of great American music made by people who emigrated to America.  Or if you prefer, you can call it two hours of music Dave Brat doesn't want made in America.

Charts June 29, 2014

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 BIO RITMO | Puerta Del Sur | Vampisoul
2 CUMBIA ALL STARS | Tigres En Fuga | World Village
3 RICARDO LEMVO AND MAKINA LOCA | La Rumba SoYo | Cumbancha
4 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Salsa De Hoy: An Independent Salsa Caliente Compilation | Discos De Hoy
5 VARIOUS ARTISTS | The Sound Of Siam, Volume 2: Molam And Luk Thung From North-East Thailand 1970-1982 | Soundway
6 BOBBY VALENTIN | El Mensajero | Andale
7 SONIDO GALLO NEGRO | Sendero Mistico | Glitterbeat
8 LOS HACHEROS | Pilon | Chulo / Daptone
9 QUANTIC | Magnetica | Tru Thoughts
10 DEXTER JOHNSON AND LE SUPER STAR DE DAKAR | Live A L'Etoile | Teranga Beat

Cumbia All Stars | Tigres En Fuga

ARTIST: Cumbia All Stars
TITLE: Tigres En Fuga
LABEL: World Village
In the last seven or so years, there’s been a worldwide groundswell of interest in chicha, Peru’s psychedelic cumbia music of the 60s, 70s and 80s, with a wide assortment of reissues and new bands grabbing attention.

Program June 27, 2014

Here at WRIR, the flavor of summer 2014 is most definitely "Latin."  We've received more good-to-excellent new Latin music releases in the last couple of months than at any other time in the first ten years we've been on the air.

We have so much good new Latin music that I'm going to feature an hour of it on this week's program.  You'll hear WRIR premieres of new discs by Angolan-Congolese-American salsero Ricardo Lemvo (pictured above) and by Peuvian chicha supergroup the Cumbia All Stars, a track by Bio Ritmo (celebrating with a record release show at the Broadberry on Sunday night), and much more.

Also this week: one from Debo Band (also in town this weekend, Saturday night at the Broadberry), and a set of songs by "the James Brown of [your country's name here]."