cdRoots
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For some audio samples and more info, please see:
http://www.cdroots.com/new.shtml
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Coming in this week:
The following four titles, from Guinea, Mali, DR Congo, Gambia and Tanzania, will all be arriving this week. You can preorder online right now to ensure you get a copy from the first shipment.
Dawda Jobarteh - Northern Light, Gambian Night (cdRoots# st-1112)
Taking his musical training from a Mande griot upbringing, Dawda Jobarteh creates an intense contemporary vision of an ancient tradition. With the support of long-term friends and band members, Preben Carlsen on guitar, Nana Osibio on bass and Salieu Dibba on percussion and including some deeply personal statements Dawda weaves his distinctive kora playing through modern musical landscapes. Jobarteh's musical heritage carries considerable weight. His grandfather was Alhaji Bai Konte, the first kora player to take the instrument to the US, Dawda's father is kora player Amadou Bansang Jobarteh and his uncles Malamini Jobarteh and Dembo Konte together 26 years ago recorded the seminal kora album Jaliya for Sterns Music. Listen
Western Jazz Band - Songs Of Happiness, Poison and Ululation (cdRoots# st-3052)
Formed in 1959, Western Jazz Band was both a band and a social club who derived their name from their home of Western Province in Tanzania, which many of the original members came from, and the ubiquitous term 'jazz' which for many decades denoted all things modern in African music. This compilation showcases songs from 1973 – 1975, a time when their singles were hits throughout Africa, a time now impossible to recreate. All tracks diligently re-mastered from earliest available sources, complete with rare images, song translations from the original Swahili and notes from East African musical expert Douglas Paterson. Listen
Zani Diabate and Les Heritiers - Tientalaw (cdRoots# st-1113)
In the 1980s and at the helm of The Super Djata Band, Zani and his fellow musicians became the toast of the Western concert circuit. As critic Robert Christgau put it: "Super Djata's groove is harder than Zairean soukous and fiercer than Senegalese mbalax". As a Diabaté, one of Mali's most renowned griot families, Zani had been schooled in not just the kora and balafon but also dance and percussion, and perhaps his distinctive guitar playing reflected this synthesis. Blistering solos with unpredictable and angular episodes identified him as one of the region's great players with a style that, in some ways, was well-suited to European ears. Sadly whilst putting the finishing touches to Tientalaw Zani, according to reports, entered the studio with guitar strapped on in readiness but shortly suffered a stroke. He later died in a Parisian hospital on the afternoon of January 5th, 2011. Listen
Sory Kandia Kouyate - La Voix De La Revolution (2 CD set)(cdRoots# st-3060-61)
Sory Kandia Kouyaté moved from the royal court of a local ruler to the urbane company of revolutionary artists and future politicians until in 1958, the year of Guinea's independence, his powerful, sonorous voice was at its peak. Here is where our story begins... This authoritative 2 CD album with 40-page booklet including rare, intimate photos never before seen outside his immediate circle charts both sides of his music, the contemporary and the traditional, to explain why today, almost four decades after his death, he is still the ultimate point of reference for all West African griots.
Ablaye Ndiaye Thiossane - Thiossane (cdRoots# st-3247952)
Ablaye Ndiaye Thiossane is part of the very fabric of Senegalese national identity, yet this is his first album recorded and released as lead artist. Joined here with members of Orchestra Baobab, legendary Congolese guitarist Papa Noel and Africando's Medoune Diallo Thiossane is a rich addition to Senegal's Afro-Cuban musical heritage.
Vijana Jazz Band - The Koka Koka Sex Battalion (cdRoots# st-3053)
The 2nd of January 1975 was a Thursday. Sometime that day, members of the Vijana Jazz Band from Tanzania entered the Hi-Fi Studios at Pioneer House on Government Road in Nairobi, Kenya, and recorded 6 tracks under the pseudonym of the Koka Koka Sex Battalion. Along with Rumba, Kamata Sukuma (grab 'n' push), Koka Koka was a style of music, but the band's name was a scam. Painting a picture of the unique energy that was East African rumba in the 1970s the intriguingly titled The koka Koka Sex Battalion includes hits and rarities while standing as the only available album of Vijana Jazz Band, one of the most popular groups of their time.
Also: another fine and important new recording:
Mariem Hassan - El Aaiun Egdat
In 2012 Mariem Hassan gives her music a new twist. The "Arab Spring" and the indomitable Sahrawi struggle for independence are the subjects of her new songs. Rooted in the traditions of the Haul, Hassan explores blues, jazz and contemporay sounds as no other Sahrawi musician ever has. El Aaiún Egdat (El Aaiún on Fire) embodies her fresh stylistic exploration. The Sahrawi diva is accompanied once again by Vadiya Mint El Hanevi, on tebals (drums) and choruses, by Luis Giménez on electric guitar, mbira and harmonica, by Hugo Westerdahl on bass, and Gabriel Flores on saxophone and flutes.
Also new in the catalog from elsewhere:
Kristi Stassinapoulou and Stathis Kalyviotis - Greekadelia
Let me start by saying 'Highly recommended." This Greek duo returns with a thoroughly rootsy and yet completely modern take on Greek folk music that includes ancient instruments with modern technology. I usually try to keep the hyperbole to a minimum, but this is quite brilliant.
Annbjørg Lien - Khoom Loy
2012 release by the Norwegian fiddler, produced by Bjørn Ole Rasch and featuring a fine group of guests including Pat Broaders, Per Hillestad, Per Elias Drabløs, Rolf Kristensen, Bjørn Charles Dreyer, Hans Fredrik Jacobsen, Bjørn Ole Rasch and Orsa Spelmän.
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Sale items:
There are still dozens of great items marked down on the web site this week:
http://www.cdroots.com/sale.shtml
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