 Singer-songwriter Alex*Cuba hails from Artemisa, Cuba (1 hour west of Havana) and resides in Smithers, B.C. (14 hours north of Vancouver). Musically, he lives everywhere in between. His trademark sugarcane-sweet melodies, pop-soul hooks and rock chords subtly subvert commonly held notions of what Cuban music is. Alex is on the vanguard, crafting a cross-cultural sound that mirrors his geographical journey. Not tied to tradition, this Cuban-Canadian prefers his vintage Gibson over el sencerro (cowbell) anytime. In between tour dates and the Nelly Furtado collaborations, Alex recorded his third album at Baker Studios in Victoria, B.C. The self-titled project is being released October 27th in Canada and a Spring 2010 U.S. release. Featuring surprising new grooves, new electric guitar inflections and varying tempos and structures, the album is an important step in Alex Cuba’s ongoing musical revolution. He recently released the first single “Caballo” (Horse), a sizzling Cuban-funk-rocker, to fans as a small taste of what’s to come. Alex is gearing up for a cross Canada tour shortly after the release.
With a heart as big as his retro 'fro, Cuba takes it all in stride and focuses on what he does best: crafting songs that cut through linguistic and cultural barriers like a machete through sugarcane. |
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Cesaria Evora has overcome poverty, a revolution, and even a recent stroke to become a national treasure of
Cape Verde and uphold her reputation as an increasingly adventurous icon of world music. On her latest album, Nha Sentimento (digital release October 26, 2009; Lusafrica), Cesaria ventures further afield than ever before, twisting Arabic musical traditions into bluesy, sinuous compositions from some of
Cape Verde’s best songwriters.
Perhaps this is the spirit of morabeza, the warm welcome
Cape
Verdeans are known to give to visitors of their homes and of their country. “We are a people who like to be sympathetic with other people,” Cesaria explains. “It doesn’t matter where you come from, who you are… dress doesn’t matter,
the color of your skin… what we like to do is to make you feel at home. That is morabeza.” |
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“It’s such a vast and huge theme, love. You can approach it in different ways,” reflects Buenos Aires-born songwriter and guitarist Federico Aubele, whose new album Amatoria will be released by ESL Music (May 19, 2009). “Love is such an important thing for every human being, whether we notice it or not. We all experience it at least once in life. It’s one of the few things, along with dying, that is guaranteed to happen to you.”
Fast forward two millennia, when Aubele is swiping pages from Ovid’s playbook, by way of smoky tango bars and the sultry heyday of Mexican boleros in the 1940s, and falling hard into the acoustic yet lush Amatoria. In fine Pan-American style, the final impetus for the album came thanks to an all-love-song compilation of classic Johnny Cash. |
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The Rough Guide To Blues And Beyond
Various
(Rough Guide, RGNET1223)
This Rough Guide is a testament to the enduring power and continuous evolution of The Blues, vigorous enough to absorb rock, rap, electronic and global influences, while keeping alive its true spirit.
2xCD Special Edition - featuring bonus artist album by Nuru Kane. |
The Rough Guide To Brazilian Lounge
Various
(Rough Guide, RGNET1227)
Welcome to the freewheeling Brazilian Lounge groove where beautiful acoustic bossa nova meets electronic ingenuity, and where Brazilian roots music is transformed in the club scenes of the USA and Europe. |
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 Le Marigot Club Dakar
Daby Balde
(Riverboat, TUG1052)
Celebrated for his talents in West Africa, Daby Balde returns with more smoothly hypnotic sounds and gently lilting rhythms. Inspired by the music he regularly performs in Le Marigot, his popular Dakar club, this album showcases his stunning compositions based in the Fula traditions from the south of Senegal, incorporating the sumptuous sounds of the West African kora, balafon and acoustic guitar. |
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 Immortal Franco: Africa’s Unrivalled Guitar Legend
Syran Mbenza & Ensemble Rumba Kongo
(Riverboat, TUG1050)
Franco Luambo Makiadi was Africa’s unrivalled guitar legend whose lilting music changed the sound of a continent. Twenty years after Franco’s death, Congolese guitar maestro Syran Mbenza brings together a host of stars to celebrate his incredible musical legacy. Led by Mbenza, widely acknowledged as one of Africa’s best guitarists, the album features the honeyed voice of Wuta Mayi and bassist Flavien Makabi from Franco’s OK Jazz band, as well as leading musicians from the pivotal groups Quatre Etoiles and Kekele. Together, they deliver a dozen of the greatest Congolese tracks of all time and celebrate Franco’s dictum ‘En entre OK. En sort KO!’ (You arrive OK and leave knocked out!) |
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Artist: Bela Fleck
Title: Throw Down Your Heart: Tales From the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3 - Africa Sessions
Label/Year: Rounder Records/2009
Throw Down Your Heart chronicles banjo virtuoso and 9 time Grammy award winner Bela Fleck's musical journey to Africa to explore the little known African roots of the banjo. Bela's boundary-breaking musical adventure takes him to Uganda, Tanzania, The Gambia, and Mali, and provides a glimpse of the beauty and complexity of African music. Using his banjo, Bela transcends barriers of language and culture, finding common ground and forging connections with musicians from very different backgrounds. |
 The voice of Queen Ifrica is inspiring Reggae fans around the world. Many are discovering this talented 'newcomer' who has been on the scene for years. Ventrice Harriott was born into Reggae.
The daughter of Rocksteady legend Derrick Morgan began singing as a child. Recording and performing as Queen Ifrica (a tribute to the motherland Africa) since 2003, her major breakthrough came with the smash 'Below The Waist' in 2007. Developing a wider audience with the socially conscious follow up hit 'Daddy', she has focused her talents with the well rounded Welcome to Montego Bay.
Album producers include Reggae veterans Donovan Germain and singer Tony Rebel with whom she has toured extensively.
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 Artist: HUGH CD: PHOLA
Year: 2009
Phola is The 35th album from the legendary South African trumpeter and it is a quiet reflection on life,
love, politics and social consciousness, with Masekela's flugelhorn soaring splendidly throughout.
Breezy instrumentals, township vocals (from Masekela himself)
and gentle ballads that all vary from upbeat to tropical and genial. |
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Artist: Oumou Sangare
album: Seya (Joy)
Label/ear: World Circuit / 2009
Seya (Joy) is the first album in six years from 'Mali's Star of Stars' and it reaffirms her position as one of Africa's great female vocalists and an African phenomenon. Since 'Moussoulou', her debut release, rocketed her to national superstardom in 1989 she has retained her position as one of West Africa's most admired and outspoken artists. |
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Artist: Orchestra Baobab
Album; Made In Dakar
Label/Year: World Circuit / 2009
Orchestra Baobab returns with 'Made in Dakar', an album that celebrates their roots in one of the world's most explosive musical cities - which updates their classic mellow sound with a new edge and a new energy for new times. Beautifully recorded in Dakar's Xippi studios, 'Made in Dakar' builds on Baobab's renewed activity on their home turf, where they've undertaken their first Dakar club residency in nearly 20 years with hugely successful Saturday night sessions at the Just 4 U club. Combining the gritty lo-fi feel of their early recordings with dynamic new arrangements, this is an album that could only have been Made in Dakar. |
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Self-titled first offering from the son of the Legendary Afrobeat creator and exponent Fela Anikulakpo Kuti.
This is afrobeat with socio-political, corruption, injustice and trimmings humor.
Fela would pround of his "boys"
Following in the footsteps of his dad, Seun Kuti and does delivers a good package and record. |
 Ba Cissoko is the genuine article: born a griot with a musical lineage that stretches back centuries, Ba Cissoko, and his group of the same name, are as at home in the back-streets of Marseilles, France, as they are in the back-yard of the family compound in Conakry, Guinea. Their vision of tradition is alive and vibrant; there are no off-the-shelf drum loops with sampled vocals, no sterile fantasies. If they hook-up one of their Koras to an effects peddle, or crank up the fuzz on a lead guitar, it’s because that’s what their music demands and because that’s what works.
Personnel: Ba Cissoko (vocals, kora); Sekou Kouyate (kora, background vocals); Ibrahima Kouyate (bass instrument); Laurent Rigaud, Ibrahima Bah (percussion); Abdoulaye Kouyate, Kandia Kouyate (background vocals). "Group leader Kimintan 'Ba' Cissoko is a superb vocalist and his lovely songs ripple with sweet vocal harmonies and the fluid, cascading kora patterns of the leader and Sekou Kouyate..." |
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KELETIGUI ET SES TAMBOURINIS :
"THE SYLIPHONE YEARS"
Whether it was with songs about incest and suicide, or through those praising a local fruit-juice company or even, due to a typographical error, with the marvelously titled “Kiss My Noose” (it should have been “Kiss My Nose”), Keletigui et ses Tambourinis were at the heart of Guinea’s state-sponsored musical explosion in the 1960s and 70s. They faithfully upheld the principles of authenticité espoused by Sekou Touré, first president of the newly independent nation, when he announced on the radio: “If one can’t play the music of one’s own country, then one should stop playing altogether”. |
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RAIL BAND
"BELLE EPOQUE VOL. 3: DIOBA"
This is the final piece in the anarchic jigsaw that is the story - as told by world-renowned producer and entrepreneur, Ibrahim Sylla – of Mali’s legendary Rail Band. Once again we have the soaring guitars, impassioned vocals and long, compelling workouts such as “Wale Numa Lombaliya”, that were a trademark of this group. And again, in songs such as the chugging locomotive that is “Sinsimba”, we hear the powerful impact that Fela’s Afropop had throughout West Africa. |
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FRANCO & LE TPOK JAZZ
"FRANCOPHONIC: AFRICA'S GREATEST -
A RETROSPECTIVE VOL. 1 (1953-80)"
From his first recordings in 1953 to his death in 1989, Franco Luambo (to use one of the many possible extensions of his name) dominated the music of sub-Saharan Africa in a way that is difficult to over-estimate. And the fact that he is still comparatively unknown in the world of ‘world music’ is a travesty of justice that these 2CDs, with their rare photos, thoroughly reasearched and eloquent notes, sets out to redress. |
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Following the success of her ground-breaking album , "M'bem di Fora" released in 2007, the Cape Verdean sensation Lura returns with her finest album to date. Recorded in Brussels, Lisbon, Paris, Praia and Naples, this release confirms the talent and natural elegance of a singer who still has plenty of surprises in store. Displaying great maturity and a desire to cross boundaries in terms of age and genres, "M'bem di Fora" laid the foundation for Lura's arrival as the new torch-bearer of Cape Verdean culture, following in the footsteps of her mentor and influence, the great Cesaria Evora. On this album "Eclipse", Lura takes a loving, soulful look at the diverse range of her country's musical heritage, the different Cape Verdean genres from coladera to morna to funana and beyond. Full of verve and energy, but also with some ingenious touches, her voice again soars to a new level. |
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AMADOU SODIA
"CA VA SE SAVOIR"
Amadou Sodia is a central figure in the vibrant music-scene of today’s Guinea. Son of a poet, Amadou was born in the town of Fadama, close to the centre of present-day Guinea. He was born Amadou Doumbouya (the Sodia is taken from the name of a theatre company he co-founded in 1987) and it was still as a Doumbouya that he joined the Horoya-Band, one of the most popular groups in Guinea in the 70s and 80s, and later sang two songs on Ousmane Kouyate’s classic album of 1990, ‘Domba’. | |
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