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OCCIDENTAL GYPSY 44070 Occidental Gypsy 888295583794
Ladies and Gentleman may I introduce Occi- dental Gypsy! As the website points out, the name Occidental Gypsy means western Gypsy. The group has taken the Gypsy sound that originated in Eastern Europe and blended it seamlessly with contemporary American music, thus reversing the journey of Gypsy swing, which was created by taking American jazz to Europe, and blending it with the Gypsy Folk tradition!
The music is performed with immaculate musicianship and features a couple of songs (Gypsy Blues and Tonight) sung by guitarist Jeremy Frantz. There are also some classic pieces (I’ll See You In My Dreams, Tears, and Over The Rainbow). Brett Lee Feldman pro- vides the ‘gypsy’ guitar, and composed much of the rest of the material. He is aided in arranging by Eli Bishop, a violin-playing genius, who moonlights playing jazz at Lin- coln Center. On the recording the bass duties are shared by Evan Veenstra and Jeff ‘JPhat’ Feldman, with percussion from Jon Chapman and Erick Cifuentes.
I think this is one of those fusions that really work, but don’t take my word for it, introduce yourself to Occidental Gypsy with the Soundcloud samples on their website. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
www.OccidentalGypsy.com Jon Moore
KONDI BAND Salone Strut 143CD
SOUND SPECIES AND ACHE MEYI Manana CD003
The combination of culturally specific tradi- tional music with contemporary electronica is old news now and there’s a lot of it about. So, in order to stand out from the mediocre, the brainlessly bangy and the wifty-wafty ambi- ent, this stuff has to be good. Here’s a couple of examples of such goodness.
Kondi Band is a collaboration between Sier- ra Leonean kondi (thumb piano) player Sorie Kondi and US producer/DJ Chief Boima (who has Sierra Leonean roots himself). It came about in a most 21st Century way, when Boima chanced upon a YouTube clip of Kondi performing his
Kondi Band
song Without Money, No Family which he was so taken with, he remixed (the highest accolade a DJ/producer can confer). Kondi subsequently travelled over to the US and the two worked on this, which must be the first West African-thumb- piano-meets-techno album. That description makes it sound like some horrible mismatch, but fear not, it’s anything but. Kondi’s deep, smoky vocals and fine musicianship are matched with warmly hypnotic beats and the odd stab of brass. That original remix is here, along with eleven other well-crafted and infectious pieces. Track two, Bella Wahalla is particularly catchy, but it’s all good (not something that you can say about many albums).
www.strut-records.com
And then over to Santiago, Cuba. Home of vocal and percussion ensemble Ache Meyi, who are as influenced by the rhythms of nearby Haiti as they are of those of their homeland. This nine-track album is the result of a collaboration between the group and Soundspecies aka DJ/producer brothers Oliv- er and Henry Keen, who hail from Dorset, of all places. The Keens have got previous with this sort of thing, as they’re also part of beats-meet-Moroccan-gnawa project Electric Jalaba. They show a lighter touch here, allow- ing the singers and percussionists from the six-piece Ache Mayi to take centre stage, adding the electronics as another element rather than the main event or overarching framework. There are little touches of sax and guitar. Singer Luzmira Zerpa, from UK- Venezuelan band Family Atlantica, guests on three tracks.
soundspeciesachemeyi.bandcamp.com/ Jamie Renton VAIR A Place In Time Vair 00001
If I ask you to shut your eyes and think of ‘Shetland traditional music’, I’m willing to bet that you’re not thinking of breezy, brilliant banjo tunes or fabulous fingerpicking guitar and mandolin. But that (and more) is exactly what’s on offer from this Shetland quartet of Ryan Couper (guitar and mandolin), Erik Peterson (percussion and vocals), Lewie Peter- son (banjo, mandolin and vocals) and Jonny Polson (guitar and vocals). This refreshing young band plays Shetland/Scottish/ Irish tra- ditional tunes with a cheerful bluegrass lick. Their bluesy banjo jigs and reels and high- tempo skiffle-beat percussion remind me of Treacherous Orchestra.
Vair also mix the traditional material with a couple of contemporary songs. There’s their own moving ballad Atween Da Wadders about the homesickness of young Shet- landers when they leave the islands and move to the big city. And there’s the inspired, eclec- tic inclusion of Warren Zevon’s Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner – which Vair turns into a cracking, funky, addictive Celtic bluegrass anthem that is guaranteed to go down a storm at music festivals.
All in all, it’s really hard to believe that this is a debut release. It’s an original, quirky album so full of flavour, it would provide a perfect soundtrack for a David Gordon Green indie movie set in North Carolina.
www.birnamcdshop.com Paul Matheson
AKSAK PROJECT Trebisonda AM Records AEMMECD2016001
Menacing shifting double bass drone, santur, violin squeals – a promising start. While not continuing in quite that vein, it’s an album of elegant, fluent band-composed music from eight instrumentalists and two singers plus a guest pianist.
They’re clearly skilled in jazz and classical music but, while there’s jazzish soloing on such as trumpet and piano, they don’t make the jazz or the classical noise. Their inspiration is wider, and their instrumentation includes such as laouto, oud, saz, panpipe, hang and charango, alongside soprano sax, trumpet, clarinets, violin (being based in Cremona, that’s a given), guitar, bass guitar, darbuka and other percussion. One of the tracks with vocals is a lament for the October 13th 2013 death of 300 refugees off Lampedusa.
I guess that might come across as describing ‘a fusion band’, but Aksak Project, formed in 1996, describes itself as a ‘music lab- oratory’, and that’s reasonable; it’s intelli- gent, not show-offy, and is the sort of natural communication and expansion that jazz with its skills and facility can make, shaking hands with the wider world.
www.aksakproject.it Andrew Cronshaw
RAMON GOOSE
Long Road To Tiznit Riverboat Records TUGCD1104
Essex’s finest Anglo-Argentinian blues gui- tarist, Ramon Goose, always seems to have so many projects on the go that it can be hard to keep up. He does solo country blues, vintage jazz guitar and a rocking blues trio to name but a few. But I like it best when he’s mixing his blues with the sounds of the Sahara. And that’s very much what he’s doing here.
Recorded in London and Marrakesh, these nine tracks may open with a Robert Johnson cover and close with some Bo Did- dley, but both of those songs get relocated to the desert and in between there are Berber chants, powerful West African vocals, Algeri- an oud and a shedload of other Saharan influences, alongside the tasty blues licks.
Guests include Justin Adams (who’s explored similar musical terrain himself, albeit in a more ambient style) and Anglo- Asian legend Najma Akhtar, whose vocals on the moody Morning Light are a highlight. There are moody soundscapes, poppier singa- long, nods to Rachid Taha, Davey Graham and Ali Farka Toure. Clocking in at under 40 minutes, this is a brief album, but there’s much to enjoy here.
www.worldmusic.net Jamie Renton
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