Big Box Of Afrosound

ARTIST: various artists
TITLE: Big Box Of Afrosound
LABEL: Vampisoul
Vampisoul and DJ Bongohead are back with their third installment in the Afrosound series, collecting the best psych and funk-inflected material from Discos Fuentes, Colombia’s oldest and largest record label.

Chico Trujillo | Reina De Todas Las Fiestas

ARTIST: Chico Trujillo
TITLE: Reina De Todas Las Fiestas
LABEL: Barbes
Looking for the best party band in the world? These guys would be on the short list of contenders. Chico Trujillo is a cumbia band from Chile that started in 1999 on a lark, a side project of the ska-punk band La Floripondio.

Charts June 8, 2015

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 GINGER JOHNSON AND HIS AFRICAN MESSENGERS | African Party | Freestyle
2 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Highlife On The Move: Selected Nigerian And Ghanaian Recordings From London And Lagos 1954-66 | Soundway
3 NOZINJA |  Lodge | Warp
4 LILA DOWNS | Balas Y Chocolate | Sony Music Latin
5 BASSEKOU KOUYATE AND NGONI BA | Ba Power | Glitterbeat
6 LETTA MBULU | In The Music The Village Never Ends | Be With
7 KHAIRA ARBY | Gossip | Clermont Music
8 BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB | Lost And Found | World Circuit
9 VERY BEST | Makes A King | Moshi Moshi
10 MBONGWANA STAR | From Kinshasa | World Circuit

Program June 3, 2015

The latest and greatest sound in electronic dance music comes all the way from Limpopo, in northeast South Africa: that's the birthplace of Soweto-based producer Richard Mthetwa, aka Nozinja (above center, with two members of the Tshetsha Boys).

Nozinja's first-world debut album Lodge has just been released by Warp Records, and it's a blast.  You'll hear two tracks from it on this week's show, plus one by the Tshetsha Boys.

Also this week: contemporary son oriente from Cuba; calypso, konpa and highlife; and some new music from Mali and Niger.

Ginger Johnson & His African Messengers | African Party

ARTIST: Ginger Johnson & His African Messengers
TITLE: African Party
LABEL: Freestyle
Here’s a little slice of history – a crucial album in the dissemination of African music. Ginger Johnson was a Nigerian drummer who joined the British Merchant Navy and moved to London after World War II.

Nozinja | Lodge

ARTIST: Nozinja
TITLE: Lodge
LABEL: Warp
The latest flavor in electronic dance music comes from South Africa – specifically, from the Tsonga or Shangaan ethnic group hailing from Limpopo province in that country’s northeast. The style is called Shangaan electro; its leading exponent is producer Richard Mthetwa, aka Nozinja, who is based in Soweto like so many of his fellow Tsonga.

Charts June 1, 2015

Illustration by Ed Tucker

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 THOMAS MAPFUMO | Lion Songs: Essential Tracks In The Making Of Zimbabwe | Lion Songs
2 MIDDLE EAST'S REVOLUTIONARY ARTISTS | "Zombie" [Single] | Freemuse
3 LETTA MBULU | In The Music The Village Never Ends | Be With
4 MORGAN HERITAGE | Strictly Roots | CTBC
5 RANA SANTACRUZ | Por Ahi | Chicavasco
6 LE VENT DU NORD | Tetu | Borealis
7 DOKKERMAN AND THE TURKEYING FELLAZ | Illegal Move | Tramp
8 SKINTS | FM | Easy Star
9 TITI ROBIN AND MEHDI NASSOULI | Taziri | World Village
10 BLUEBEATERS | Everybody Knows | Record Kicks

June 2015 Concert Calendar

June's Global A Go-Go picks:

1. Balliceaux is closing this summer for renovations, but not before the next installment of the Richmanian Ramblers' Travelers Series on Tuesday June 2, with special guests the Afro-Zen Allstars
2. An amazing double bill of Hungarian music on Thursday June 18 at DC's Sixth & I Historic Synagogue: folk-rock legends Muzsikas plus Frank London's Glass House Orchestra
3. Paul (DJ Spooky) Miller presents another of his mind-expanding global mashups: this one, called "DJ Spooky's Electric Imaginary: Compositions Inspired By Nam June Paik" happens at the Smithsonian's Freer & Sackler Galleries Meyer Auditorium on Sunday June 21
4. Nigeria's legendary King Sunny Ade (pictured above) & His African Beats, the pioneers of juju music and 20 members strong, play DC's Howard Theatre on Saturday June 27

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 June calendar.

Letta Mbulu | In The Music The Village Never Ends

ARTIST: Letta Mbulu
TITLE: In The Music The Village Never Ends
LABEL: Be With
This is one of those ultra-collectible albums (it has sold for over $300) that gets reissuers salivating – they know there’s plenty of demand out there if they can just find the master tape (hell, a clean vinyl copy will do in a pinch) and the license holder, and make a deal that works for everybody.

Middle East's Revolutionary Artists | Zombie

ARTIST: Middle East’s Revolutionary Artists
TITLE: Zombie
LABEL: Freemuse
This one’s so new that the band doesn’t yet have a name. Culture-jamming guitarist-professor Mark LeVine (Heavy Metal Islam) and Reda Zine of the Italian afrobeat band Voodoo Sound Club are spearheading this project, bringing together Arab and Iranian revolutionary artists to record new versions of songs by the original one-man Nigerian Spring, Fela Kuti.

Ola Fresca | Elixir

ARTIST: Ola Fresca
TITLE: Elixir
LABEL: PiPiKi
Cuban-American singer-songwriter-bandleader Jose Conde has been putting his personal spin on a variety of Latin pop and dance music genres for the last decade, both as a solo artist (his 2011 eponymous solo album was a standout) and fronting his combo Ola Fresca.

Program May 27, 2015

That's my summer reading pictured above: Banning (Afropop Worldwide) Eyre's brand-new, sure to be definitive biography of the Lion of Zimbabwe, Thomas Mapfumo.

In honor of the new book, I'll spin a set of five of my favorite Mapfumo songs on this week's program, covering everything from his early years in the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band (nope, not making up that name) and the Acid Band to his classic and recent work with the Blacks Unlimited.

Also this week: Celtic music without borders, African disco, and the Arab Spring meets Fela Kuti.

Charts May 25, 2015

Photo by Michael Nagle

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 LILA DOWNS | Balas Y Chocolate | Sony Music Latin
2 OLA FRESCA | Elixir | PiPiKi
3 MORGAN HERITAGE | Strictly Roots | CTBC
4 RANA SANTACRUZ | Por Ahi | Chicavasco
5 TIPSY OXCART | Upside Down | self-released
6 KHAIRA ARBY | Gossip | Clermont Music
7 VERY BEST | Makes A King | Moshi Moshi
8 FATOUMATA DIAWARA AND ROBERTO FONSECA | At Home: Live In Marciac | Jazz Village
9 NNEKA | My Fairy Tales | Bushqueen Music
10 MACACO | Historias Tattooadas | Sony Music Latin

Program May 20, 2015

Photo by David Kruger

Lila Downs (pictured above) has a new album out -- it's called Balas Y Chocolate (Bullets & Chocolate), it's one of the best things I've heard this year, and you'll hear a song from it on this week's program.

Lila Downs | Balas Y Chocolate

ARTIST: Lila Downs
TITLE: Balas Y Chocolate
LABEL: Sony Music Latin
Mexican-American singer-songwriter Lila Downs has released 12 albums (including a best-of and two live ones) since 1994; her new one is her most political, most personal and I’d say most satisfying to date.