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building of the Kariba Dam in the 1950s, and it’s a dwindling generation of elders making the music. The youngest recorded in the 2008 sessions was 49 years old and two others have since passed on.
But! A notable lack of young people tak- ing up and passing on the tradition, thanks to the growing popularity of the guitar, could mean a lack of innovation and injection of contemporary stories from the newer genera- tions. However, the subject matter covered is relevant nevertheless. Ranging from the local – the search for a father’s approval to concern about not being able to afford a proper funeral – to the global – criticism of Mugabe killing his own people and the terrible effects of AIDS on the young.
The kankobela itself is a fascinating instrument made of traditional hardwood and metal keys, similar to other regional iter- ations, and ingeniously it incorporates the membrane of a spider’s egg sack to create the buzz that in other areas is often produced by metal rings, shells or bottle tops from cola or beer (eg mbira, kalimba, likembe).
The playing and song styles are typically repetitious and at times rather long, but the individual vocal and musical renditions are indicative of just how creatively free the men of this community are. It would be very inter- esting to compare against a survey of women’s musical output and that of the young people (on their guitars for example).
www.swp-records.com Zuzana Novak
SIERRA LEONE’S REFUGEE ALL-STARS Radio Salone Cumbancha CMB CD23
Everybody loved the Sierra Leonians’ last album, Rise And Shine. Produced in New Orleans and Freetown by Steve Berlin from Los Lobos, it showed energy, a half-and-half balance of reggae and African songs, and was an international success. The band played on the Oprah show, opened for Aerosmith, con- tributed to the Blood Diamond film sound- track. So what to do for that all-important follow-up? A change of location and produc- er, for a start. This time they are produced by Victor Axelrod aka Ticklah in Brooklyn. He has worked with Amy Winehouse and is a “roots reggae, soul and afrobeat guru”. The sound is more urban in feel – more measured, more cohesive, and a bit neater round the edges. The good humour and passion survive intact. It opens with a convincing soukous, which could almost be Kanda. An afrobeat-type groove follows. We notice a judicious amount of dub-derived production fun from the start, but have to wait half a dozen tracks before the reggae – which seems really to be the band’s default mode – comes rolling in, with great big chunky brass, slinky guitars and jabby keyboards. This is music with a street- food flavour, and nowhere more so than in a memorable ska thing about a big fat dog sit- ting at the corner waiting for a big fat bone. Just the rhythm of the words – already you start to brighten up. These men have earned their optimism. They pass it on.
www.cumbancha.com Rick Sanders
DOMO EMIGRANTES Musica Etnica Popolase Own Label
An Italian band brings out an album of tradi- tional songs and tunes. The single sheet that passes for a booklet provides very little infor- mation and the internet is not much help either. The album is on the short side at 34 minutes. It doesn’t look as though it is going to be easy to obtain. Surely this album is not
worth a full review? Well, perhaps not, but the problem with that is the music itself; it is truly excellent.
From the first few bars of the opening tarantella, this exhilarating album grabs the attention and that initial promise is main- tained throughout the full album.
What we can learn about this trio (accordeon, various string instruments and percussion) is that they are from Lodi, a small city near Milan and that they are passionate about the traditions of the south of their country and it is a passion that comes through on every track. The dance tracks – other rhythms include the pizzica and the tammurriata transport us to hot sweaty dance nights in Sicily,
Puglia and Calabria and the Neapolitan- influenced singing sometimes in harmony maintains the ubiquitous high standard.
It is not likely that many people will fol- low up the email address – the only contact provided – but those who do will be reward- ed with some very fine listening,
domo.emigrantes@hotmail.it Vic Smith LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III
Older Than My Old Man Now Proper PRPCD098
“The strangest story ever told was how I got to be this old…” Loudon is on familiar terrain here writing about… well, himself mostly. In characteristically wry, self-demeaning fashion he reflects on mortality during his advancing years through the slightly sheepish perspec- tive of someone who at least likes to think he’s growing old disgracefully.
Yet, as usual, amid the knockabout humour and jokey irreverence, there’s a strong degree of poignancy and pathos as he consid- ers his somewhat erratic life and career in The Here & The Now, referencing Lennon-McCart- ney’s When I’m 64 on the title track (with a photo of his father’s grave on the inner sleeve to underline the point) while his family not only star in the text, they feature prominently on the album too – The Here & The Now has all four of his children and two of their mothers on backing vocals. Kate McGarrigle, the ex- wife sadly unable to take part, is remembered on the plaintive Over The Hill, the only song the couple ever wrote together (in 1975) with their daughter Martha on backing vocals; and the familial thread is continued with Lucy Wainwright Roche duetting with her dad on All In A Family, a track also notable for some lovely accordeon from Rob Morsberger and
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars
MTENDENI MAULID ENSEMBLE
Zanzibara 6: The Moon Has Risen – A Sufi Performance From Zanzibar Buda Musique 860219
This sixth volume in Werner Graebner’s excel- lent current series from the Swahili cultures of East Africa features the religious style known as maulidi, combining local ngoma rhythms and Sufi elements. Unlike many Sufi traditions elsewhere however, maulidi is not performed at exclusively closed ceremonies, but also at social events including the cele- bration of births and weddings where perfor- mances may last for several hours well into the night. In performance the group also has a strong visual element with two rows of singers swaying to the music in white robes as the tempo rises.
Although the group’s roots stem from the tariqa Sufi brotherhood originating in Egypt, their style (Maulidi ya Homa) only sur- vives in Zanzibar where it has developed a particularly local flavour. The four pieces on the album convey the basic style and spirit of these performances well. An introductory ‘warm up’ dahala (section) is followed by two further dahala pieces with steadily inten- sifying call-and-response vocals and height-
some classic Loudon couplets (“At the function let dysfunction rule/No shallow end in the family pool...”)
In fact it’s a better produced effort (by Dick Connette) and has a much broader musi- cal style than most of his albums with a ten- der violin instrumental (by Rob Moose) acting as the link between what in the vinyl days would have been sides one and two. We also get ragtime piano on My Meds (surely the first song ever to include the word Mer- curochrome); Mike Whellans plays bluesy har- monica on the darkly comic Ghost Blues; Rambling Jack Elliott duets on the uproarious Double Lifetime; Chris Smither joins Loudon on another song of gallows humour Some- body Else (“Somebody else I knew is gone/You don’t see it coming but you knew all along”); Rufus Wainwright almost steals the album with his vocal on The Days That We Die; and even Dame Edna Everage has a cameo on the very funny I Remember Sex.
Making a record dealing with the com- plicated vagaries of lifestyle, age and family members is hardly new territory for Loudon, but he’s rarely done it as effectively as here.
www.lw3.com Colin Irwin
Photo: Judith Burrows
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