playlist #88 (11/9/2009)-nyquil for the soul

World of Music

Pgm #88 – Down with the flu blues – back by popular demand, this is the second annual flu season special. Songs of commiseration, consolation, and outright INDIGNANT OUTRAGE! If this don’t make you feel better, baby – you dead!

Listen Mondays 3-5pm EDT  – at 105.9FM in Burlington, VT or online at The Radiator

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Nas with Youssou N’Dour & Neneh Cherry: Wake Up (It’s Africa Calling) / Open Remix/  http://www.intrahealth.org/open/ (download) – (USA / SENEGAL)

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Squirrel Nut Zippers: La Grippe (the Flu) / The Inevitable Squirrel Nut Zippers / Mammoth Records 105 – (USA) * At Higher Ground tomorrow night: http://www.highergroundmusic.com/calendar/show/3345/ *

Big Joe Tex: Pneumonia / Hip To The Jive 2 / Sonic Scenery 708021 – (USA)

Shasha Marley: Evil Spirits Walk Away / Lost & Found / http://www.shashamarley.com 1229 – (GHANA)

Françoise Hardy: Comment te dire adieu? (It Hurts To Say Goodbye) / Divine Divas / Rounder 5071 – (FRANCE)

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Rupa & The April Fishes: Ç’est Pas d’l’amour/ extraordinary rendition / Cumbancha 7 – (SAN FRANCISCO) * At Parima tonight, 8pm: http://www.parimathai.com *

Will Patton Ensemble: Valse 29 / 6th Street Runaround / King’s Hill Music 2008 – (MADE IN VERMONT)

Albert Collins & The Icebreakers: Dyin’ Flu / Alligator Records 30th Anniversary Collection / Alligator Records    112 – (USA)

Johnny Long: Healin’ Touch / Lost & Found / Delta Groove 106 – (ST. LOUIS, MO)

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The Lost Fingers: Billy Jean / Lost In The ’80s / Sony 88697 – (QUÉBEC) *NEW*

Maria Bethânia: Feita na Bahia / Encanteria / Quitanda 18 – (BRAZIL) *NEW*

Los Silvertones: Tamborito Swing / Panama!2 / Soundway 13 – (PANAMA)

The Very Best: Chalo (World) / Warm Heart of Africa / Green Owl Records 8.98864 – (MALAWI / FRANCE / ENGLAND) *NEW*

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Rocky Fuller: Funeral Hearse At My Door / Chess Blues / Chess Records 9340 – (USA)

Neville Brothers: Will The Circle Be Unbroken / Yellow Moon / A&M Records 5240 – (N’AWLINS)

Allen Toussaint: St. James Infirmary / The Bright Mississippi / Nonesuch 480380 – (N’AWLINS) *NEW*

Tom Waits: Cold, Cold Ground / Franks Wild Years / Island 422-842 – (USA)

Robert Cray: I Shiver / Blues Guitar Greats / Universal 314 556 719 – (USA)

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Alex Cuba: Amor Infinito (Infinite Love) / Les Nuits d’Afrique Compilation 2007 / Les Nuits d’Afrique 2099 – (CUBA)

Omara Portuondo: Gracias / Gracias / World Village 479021 – (CUBA) * NEW – Latin Grammy winner, Best Contemporary Tropical Album *

Rupa & The April Fishes: La Linea (The Border) / Este Mundo / Cumbancha 15 – (SAN FRANCISCO) *NEW – at Parima tonight, 8pm: http://www.parimathai.com *

Aswad: Don’t Turn Around / Distant Thunder / Mango 9810 – (JAMAICA)

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Mathieu Mathieu: Cette Ville / Québec / Putumayo 279 – (QUÉBEC)

Hot Club of Detroit: Belleville / Hot Club of Detroit / Mack Avenue Records 1030 – (DETROIT)

Paolo Conte: Happy Feet / The Best of Paolo Conte / Nonesuch 79512 / (ITALY)

Haugaard & Høirup: Raaby Hopsa (Traditional Danish stick dance) / Lys (Light) / GOØ 501 – (DENMARK)

Kermit Ruffins: Kermit’s Second Line / Kermit Ruffins / Putumayo 233 – (N’AWLINS)

Shemekia Copeland: Turn The Heat Up / Alligator Records 30th Anniversary Collection / Alligator Records    112 – (USA)

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band: Me Like It Like That & Kidd Jordon’s Second Line / The New Orleans Album / Columbia    45414 – (N’AWLINS)

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retro

'Colombia!' from Soundway

A couple of years ago in late December, I was reading through one of those “best of” year-end lists, this one highlighting some of the best world music recordings that had come out in 2007.

One recording in particular caught my eye, with its retro-feel bright blue and yellow angular cover art — “COLOMBIA!”, it exclaimed.

Within a week or so it was in my hands, and I featured Colombia! that year on World of Music ‘s annual New Year’s eve show. (Could have had it sooner, downloads, yeah yeah yeah. I do know this. But I like actually touching and holding my tunes, and lingering over the liners. So there it is once and for all.) Great stuff, anyway, with enough groovy surf guitar cumbias and chicha to keep us dancing well into the new year.

'Tumbele', available this October

That recording was also my introduction to Soundway, a recently formed recording label devoted to “unveiling forgotten chapters from some of the world’s richest musical cultures”. They live up to every bit of that mission statement. Nigerian funk, disco, and soul from the dance floors of ’60s and ’70s Lagos? Got it. Ghana, Panama, and Benin…they’ve all been the focus of Soundway recordings, which generally pick a stated timeframe (of the past) from which to draw the collection.

I’m mentioning all of this today because yesterday I got a preview of the next Soundway release, and it just might be my favorite one so far. Tumbélé! moves away from Africa (but only geographically – musically, this is still very much African music)  to showcase “Biguine, afro & latin sounds from the French Caribbean, 1963-74”.

It’s exciting, it’s unusual, and the selections are solid, track for track. The production is also clean. (ie: this is no hack job ‘best of’ survey with song fragments and poorly edited fadeouts.)

And how else would you ever have a chance to relive the ’60s, via music from the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique? So many different influences are at play in this music: West Africa, Haiti, Latin rhythms and percussion from neighboring Cuba and Puerto Rico…the recording’s title – tumbélé – we learn, is the name of a dialect from Cameroon. It comes about as close as anything could in describing the unifying rhythmic undercurrent that connects every moment on this diverse and vibrant recording.

I’ll be featuring this one soon on World of Music – ’til then, don’t stop dancing.