Charts October 4, 2015

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 CEU | Live | Six Degrees
2 SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA | Resistance | Strut
3 AMADOU BALAKE | In Conclusion | Sterns
4 WESTERN STANDARD TIME | A Big Band Tribute To The Skatalites, Vol. 2 | self-released
5 GRUPO FANTASMA | "Solo Un Sueno" [Single] | Blue Corn Music
6 MACKA B | Neva Played A 45 | Peckings
7 VIEUX FARKA TOURE AND JULIA EASTERLIN | Touristes | Six Degrees
8 FLAVIA COELHO | Mundo Meu | Mr Bongo
9 ZEDASHE | Our Earth And Water | Living Roots Music
10 QWANQWA | Volume Two | FPE

Bixiga 70 | III

ARTIST: Bixiga 70
TITLE: III
LABEL: Glitterbeat
Bixiga 70 is a five-year-old, leaderless 10-piece Brazilian instrumental collective. Their name refers to the street address and neighborhood in Sao Paulo where they formed.

Roger Damawuzan & Les As Du Benin | Wait For Me

ARTIST: Roger Damawuzan & Les As Du Benin
TITLE: Wait For Me
LABEL: Hot Casa
American funk and R&B swept like the Harmattan across West Africa in the late 1960’s, covering almost all popular music in a gritty 4/4 groove. The front men of the hottest bands would inevitably be described as the “James Brown of [your country’s name here].”

Program September 30, 2015

Ceu (pictured above) is a Brazilian singer-songwriter whose first three albums have earned her four Grammy nominations and a slew of fans, both at home and around the world.

Her new live album is the rock 'n' roll record I've been waiting for her to make.  You'll hear a cut from it, and music from some of her Brazilian peers, this week on Global A Go-Go.

Also this week: crazy rhythms of West Africa; dancehall and ska, including a great new track from Macka B; and Grupo Fantasma's new single plus more Latin rock.

Ceu | Live

ARTIST: Ceu
TITLE: Live
LABEL: Six Degrees
After three well-received studio albums, here’s a live set from this popular young Brazilian singer-songwriter. Those three albums earned Ceu four Grammy nominations, but they didn’t quite do it for me – a little too mannered and precious for my taste. This one is just the opposite.

October 2015 Concert Calendar

October's Global A Go-Go picks:

1. The big one in October is always the Richmond Folk Festival, free to all Friday October 9 through Sunday October 11 on Richmond's historic downtown waterfront; world music artists to watch this year include Georgian chorus Zedashe (pictured above), Afro-Colombian ensemble Grupo Rebolu and DC-based Ethio-jazz combo Feedel Band
2. There's a big Folk Festival after-party at Capital Ale House on Sunday October 11 featuring Bio Ritmo, the aforementioned Zedashe, Capoeira Resistencia and possibly some special guests
3. The amazing Czech singer-violinist Iva Bittova plays DC's Atlas Performing Arts Center on Thursday October 22
4. A cool world music double-bill at the Camel on Monday October 26, with Richmond's one-of-a-kind Indo-Appalachian string band Rumput and Fado Nosso, RVA's homegrown fado combo

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 October calendar.

Charts September 27, 2015

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 TERAKAFT | Alone (Ténére) | Out|Here
2 LURA | Heranca | Lusafrica
3 VIEUX FARKA TOURE AND JULIA EASTERLIN | Touristes | Six Degrees
4 RIM KWAKU OBENG | Rim Arrives / International Funk | BBE
5 SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA | Resistance | Strut
6 ZEDASHE | Our Earth And Water | Living Roots
7 BRIAN CHILALA AND NGOMA ZASU | Vangaza! | SWP
8 QUARTER STREET | Quarter Street | HopeStreet
9 DABY TOURE | Amonafi | Cumbancha
10 EZZA | "Alkher" [Single] | Ma Case

Program September 23, 2015

Richmond has a lot of visitors this week, and maybe a few of them will be tuning in to WRIR and checking out Global A Go-Go.  So I've been thinking about what I'd want to tell them about my home town.

We've got a pretty great music scene here for all sorts of sounds: punk and metal, bluegrass and old-time, indie rock and indie hip-hop, jazz and classical, roots rock and singer-songwriters.  If you live here and you don't know have at least one friend who's a musician, you're probably just lame.  Or lying.

Of course, my thing is world music, and we've got some amazing, imaginative, skilled and experienced world music acts here in Richmond.  (None more experienced than Hotel X, pictured above in their original 1992 incarnation.)  I'll feature four of them on this week's program.

Also this week: some songs from behind the former Iron Curtain, that rockin' Central African guitar sound, and what's new in desert blues.

Charts September 20, 2015

Photo by Philippe Lafreniere

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA | Resistance | Strut
2 VARIOUS ARTISTS | The Rough Guide To Psychedelic Cumbia | World Music Network
3 BOMBA ESTEREO | Amanecer | Sony Music Latin
4 QWANQWA | Volume Two | FPE
5 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Big Box Of Afrosound | Vampisoul
6 DENGUE FEVER | The Deepest Lake | Tuk Tuk
7 BRIAN CHILALA AND NGOMA ZASU | Vangaza! | SWP
8 HECTOR GUERRA | Gracias Por Existir | Pachamama Dreams
9 HAILU MERGIA | "Hailu" / "Yegle Nesh" [Single] | Philophon
10 AMARA TOURE | 1973-1980 | Analog Africa

Program September 16, 2015

Photo by Jean-Claude Batista

Well, it was a great music weekend for yours truly last weekend. I got to see legendary singer Mahmoud Ahmed play to an adoring nearly-all-Ethiopian audience, plus one of my favorite contemporary bands, Cambodian-American rockers Dengue Fever, on the next night.

And somewhere in between I heard two of the best albums I've come across so far in 2015: Resistance by Ottawa, Canada's Souljazz Orchestra (pictured above) and Volume Two by Qwanqwa, a remarkable Ethiopian-American quartet.

You'll hear The Souljazz Orchestra play Afrobeat and Caribbean cadence on this week's show, and Qwanqwa will anchor an Ethiopian set that'll also feature Mahmoud Ahmed, naturally.  And I'll work in some chicha and cumbia as well, just for good measure.

Qwanqwa | Volume 2

ARTIST: Qwanqwa
TITLE: Volume 2
LABEL: FPE
“Ethio-jazz” usually refers to the music of Mulatu Astatke, Getetachew Mekurya and the other innovators of 1970’s Ethiopia who combined their country’s pentatonic scales with Western instruments, harmonies and improvisational strategies. The Addis Ababa-based quartet Qwanqwa (Amharic for “language”), on their second album, provide a new angle on Ethio-jazz.

The Souljazz Orchestra | Resistance

ARTIST: The Souljazz Orchestra
TITLE: Resistance
LABEL: Strut
If there’s one band in the world that best captures the Global A Go-Go esthetic, it might be The Souljazz Orchestra. The sextet from Ottawa, Canada has its roots in Afrobeat, incorporates an ever-increasing assortment of global influences, improvises like a jazz band, wears its left-wing politics on its sleeve, and never fails to make you wanna dance.

Charts September 13, 2015

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 LURA | Heranca | Lusafrica
2 ORQUESTA EL MACABEO | "Eutanasia" / "En La Luna" | Vampisoul
3 SK KAKRABA | Songs Of Paapieye | Awesome Tapes From Africa
4 QUARTER STREET | Quarter Street | HopeStreet
5 TROMBORANGA | Golpe Con Melodia | self-released
6 AMADOU BALAKE | In Conclusion | Sterns
7 BRIAN CHILALA AND NGOMA ZASU | Vangaza! | SWP
8 WESTERN STANDARD TIME | A Big Band Tribute To The Skatalites, Vol. 2 | self-released
9 LES AMBASSADEURS | Rebirth | World Village
10 BASSEKOU KOUYATE AND NGONI BA | Ba Power | Glitterbeat

Program September 9, 2015

Cabo Verde is a nation of 500,000 people (with a disapora of equal size) where it seems like every fifth person is a musician.  You'll hear three of those musicians, all women, on this week's program.  That includes Lura (pictured above), whose wonderful new album will be released on October 16.

Also this week: the sound of the balafon; ska, rocksteady and Afro-reggae; and the new wave of indie-salsa.

Lura | Heranca

ARTIST: Lura
TITLE: Heranca
LABEL: Lusafrica
Cabo Verde is an island nation off the coast of Senegal with a population of about half a million that has long punched way above its weight in the music world.