Table of contents for July 2024 in Songlines

“It’s almost becoming a clichê for us, this idea of having the island as the constant headliner,” says Tremor’s artistic director, Márcio Laranjeira. “But, it’s also something we can’t run away from.” And given the natural beauty of Portugal’s São Miguel, the island in the Azores which hosts Tremor, a five-day festival, it’s a takeaway that’s easy to understand. And it’s not just the stunning natural beauty which impresses, but the swathe of city centre venues which make Tremor a memorable experience. From Jesuit churches made of volcanic rock to grand generations-old theatres and retro-fitted clubs, it’s a cut above the muddy bog associated with British festivals. And that’s even before you take in the bespoke musical experiences that the diverse landscape provides. Taking the form of post-punk shows in…

Lo’Jo ‘Viens (feat Jupiter & Okwess)’ The pioneering French troupe are back with a new album in September and the first taster is this devillish slow-burner with distorted bass and lyrics in French and Lingala. Bergå Folk Project – Encore EP Finnish folk quartet follow up excellent self-titled 2022 debut with four fine new tracks, from euphoric highs through Sámi rap-embellished paeans and bucolic nature-minded motifs. Criolo, Dino D’Santiago & Amaro Freitas ‘Esperança’ A dynamite collaboration between these three lusophone artists which is part hip-hop, part jazz, but most of all, full of rhythm and passion. Intoxicating stuff. Ingunn Bjørgo (feat Åsmund Reistad & Sindre Tronrud) – Cadansa Mazurka The award-winning accordion player winds her way with ease through two tunes: ‘Mazurka’ is charming, hesitant, prone to abrupt stops; ‘Askerladd’…

Baaba Maal The Traveller (Palm Recordings, 2016) I think this is Baaba Maal’s best album and it’s one of my favourite world music albums, where so many cultures come together, and where Baaba shows off his fun side. Right from the first track it’s great with ‘Fulani Rock’, but my favourite song is definitely ‘Lampenda’. Whenever I hear it, I feel I should write a song like that, a simple two-part song. And then there’s lots of vocal jamming on top of it, and such a beautiful, recurring chorus that sticks in your head from the first time you listen to it. Simple music always attracts me a lot, so that’s what I try to do as a result. This whole album is a beautiful travel album actually. Canzoniere Grecanico…

I can’t think of any group that represents the spirit and soul of Naples better than Ars Nova Napoli. They’ve played in China, Korea, India and all over Europe, so their UK debut – thanks to WOMAD – is long overdue. Their name, frankly, sounds a bit boring, but the musicians are certainly not. I’ve seen them in a couple of formulations: on their own and doing a brilliant collaboration with a brass band. They have grown out of Naples’ posteggiatori (street music) scene and evoke the special atmosphere of local city districts, strong communities and a love of partying. The line-up is vocals, accordion, mandolin, violin, guitar bass and percussion. It’s accordionist Marcello Squillante who fills me in on the band’s 15-year history. It started with Squillante, mandolinist Vincenzo…

Hasna el Becharia (1950-2024) Ground-breaking Algerian singer Affectionately known across North Africa as ‘The Desert Rocker,’ Hasna el Becharia passed away early May in her native Saharan city, Béchar, situated in the mountainous south-western Saoura region of Algeria. She was 74. From a young age, Hasna was profoundly inspired by diwan, the Algerian Gnawa, where both sacred and profane songs of the Black African former slaves intertwine. Music was constantly present in her household as her father was a Gnawa master of ceremony, a maalem. However, Hasna was prohibited to touch his gimbri, the emblematic bass lute, as it was forbidden to women. In the 2022 documentary The Desert Rocker, Hasna reveals that she broke this social barrier by secretly making her own instrument, becoming one of the first women…

The Joy’s first single, ‘Isencane Lengane’, is a warm farewell to a bride from her family. The music video flits between footage of the group’s five members as young, skinny teenagers singing in a dark classroom to them a year older, in pastel suits, standing proudly in the valleys of Kwa-Zulu Natal, ready to take on the world. Their dancing and smiles are infectious, even as there’s a poignancy to the song’s reflections, with lyrics translating as, ‘who would marry at such a young age?/married life is not an easy journey/she is still young, however she will grow.’ One may equally ask, ‘who would go into the music industry at such a young age?’ But occasionally things just happen. Sometime in 2018 in Hammarsdale, a township in South Africa’s KZN,…

Franck Biyong cuts an elegant figure both on- and off-stage. The tall, bespectacled Cameroonian could pass for the academic professor his parents always hoped he would become. Certainly, his aesthetic approach towards production, composition and guitar playing has a pedagogic side, allying explorations of his heritage with a prescient notion of what the musical future holds. Biyong contends that it was a brace of gigs at London’s Jazz Cafe in 2001 with his band Massak that kickstarted his career: “the crowd literally went nuts. Those two gigs really put us on the map.” Since then, Biyong has led us to the fault lines and bridges between the musics of sub-Saharan Africa and the West, giving birth to 20 category-defying albums along the way. Now, with Radio Masoda, the 50-year-old says…

Naná Vasconcelos, who died in 2016, has always had a special place in the hearts of Brazilian music lovers. For me, he was the first Brazilian artist I saw play live in London way back in the 1980s. Fred Soul & Zé Luis Nascimento pay homage to the much-missed man on Viva Naná (Barkhane⋆⋆⋆). There’s a light touch, and a certain Gallic quality, in these semi-improvised recordings. The title-track is a good place to start, Indigenous chants with Nascimento’s light-fingered percussion and swathes of piano played by multi-instrumentalist Fred Soul. What the country blues of Charley Patton is to American folk music, so is this guitar picking to the musical hinterlands of Brazil. The viola of Mestre Manelim on Deixa a Viola Me Levar (Selo Sesc⋆⋆⋆⋆) is one of the…

Charlie Grey & Joseph Peach’s A Breaking Sky (Braw Sailin’⋆⋆⋆⋆) is a superb set of synesthetic, improvisational, immersive, submersive and beautifully evocative pieces on fiddle and piano, recorded live at ‘Ardkinglas House on the shores of Loch Fyne in Argyll, renowned for its exquisite acoustics.’ It’s a set that combines and fuses the richness of folk traditions with the open field of contemporary classical music. It’s tough to choose a highlight among the 12 pieces here, though ‘’S Maise an Dòchas (Hope is Beautiful)’, ‘Ho Rò Mo Nighean Donn (My Brown Haired Girl)’ and the luscious heartbreak that seems to be embedded in ‘Lament for the Voice of Glengarry’ are all stellar showstoppers. Good Habits are a duo featuring Bonnie Schwarz on cello and vocals and accordionist Pete Shaw, with two…

Songlines picks… Noor Bakhsh (Jun 28 – Jul 5, On Tour) Innovative, deep rhythms aplenty as the legendary Pakistani benju player continues to flourish, late into his career Systema Solar (Jul 9, London) Hard to believe, but this is a London debut for the technicolour Afro-Colombian dancefloor troupe whose debut came out back in 2009 Gonora Sounds (Jul 11-28, On Tour) Honed on the streets of Zimbabwe, the talents of blind singer/guitarist Daniel Gonora, his son Isaac and friends are debuting in the UK Madalitso Band (Jul 17 – Aug 8, On Tour) No-one leaves seeing this Malawian duo without a smile on their face; a tour de force in raw and ruthless rhythms Nana Benz du Togo (Jul 24-30, On Tour) Feminist quintet from Togo pairing potent vocals born out…

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Evangeline Kim Evangeline is a cultural critic who writes about global performing and visual arts; she’s also a management adviser. She travels to Fes, Morocco for an unforgettable festival of Sufi culture on p71 Pierre Cuny As a teenager Pierre was a close follower of the folk revival movement and has been a radio DJ in Paris for many years. This issue he pays tribute to the great Algerian singer, Hasna el Becharia on p25 Tatiana Rucinska Since 2002, Stockholm-based Tatiana aka DJ Aïcha, has been compiling the Songlines Gig Guide. In this issue, she presents its final iteration (p72) and bids us farewell. You will be missed Tatiana! Songlines was launched in 1999 and is the definitive magazine for world music – music that has its roots in all…

The current trend in avian-inspired musical projects shows no sign of abating. Joining the distinguished ranks of artists professing an appreciation of birds are four highly acclaimed musicians – Inge Thomson, Jenny Sturgeon, Sarah Hayes and Charlotte Printer – who call themselves Birdvox. Besides their mutual passion for all things feathered, these four women bonded over their love of harmony singing and kitchen discos. Birdvox is an evolution of Northern Flyway, the multimedia project Thomson and Sturgeon began in 2017, featuring Hayes on vocals, beatboxer Jason Singh and sound recordist Magnus Robb. “We loved doing Northern Flyway,” says Sturgeon, who has a PhD in seabird ecology, “but it was quite logistically and economically difficult to tour because there were seven of us (four musicians, plus three crew).” They came up…

Cimafunk has taken his electric blend of Afro-Cuban soul and funk worldwide since he exploded onto international stages in 2019 after a legendary performance at Austin, TX’s SXSW. Born in Pinar del Rio in western Cuba, Cimafunk’s current home base is New Orleans, and his annual CimaFest adds a fresh experience to one of the most celebrated musical cities in the world. In 2023, during the first weekend of New Orleans’ famed Jazz & Heritage Festival, Cimafunk threw the inaugural CimaFest. This extended concert’s guests included master Afro-Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez and virtuosic flautist and vocalist La Dame Blanche along with New Orleans greats such as Big Chief Juan Pardo of the Golden Comanche Mardi Gras Indians. It was an exhilarating four-plus hours, as joyful raucousness shook the Beaux Arts…

A lejandro and Estevan Gutiérrez were born in Switzerland, but their music is deeply rooted in Latin America – their mother is from Ecuador. This heritage is clear in the instrumental guitar soundscapes that the duo create, which are infused with rhythms and cadences learnt from bolero, milonga, cumbia and salsa. At the same time, their music is removed from these genres too, taking place in another space, a desert, the cosmos, a childhood neighbourhood, a nostalgic vision from the past. “We leave the space for each person to add their own personal journey,” Alejandro tells me before their recent sold-out show at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire. They remember the day when they started to play the guitar together in Alejandro’s flat in Zurich. Estevan had come to visit,…

Salif Keita is one of the most adventurous, gloriously soulful singer-songwriters on the planet, and a man who likes to surprise. When he released his last album Un Autre Blanc in 2018, it was announced that this would be the last studio release from the great Malian veteran. And yet here he was in 2024, sitting in a London hotel room, playing guitar and talking about his next two albums and the intimate and historic appearance he would be making at Songlines’ 25th-anniversary show at the Barbican the following day. So, no retirement then? He laughs. “People convinced me to record again. And I’m happy.” Those lucky enough to have seen him at the Barbican will know that he’s still on remarkable form. Dressed in a magnificent gold robe and…

NANCY VIEIRA Where are you based, and how long have you been there? I’ve been based in Portugal for 35 years. I live in a small city close to Lisbon, at Tagus’ southern border, called Barreiro. Is it home? Cape Verde is my homeland. 35 years ago, my father was given a mission and came to work in Portugal. All the family moved and made home in Lisbon. I was a teenager. I followed my studies, went to university, met a young man, got married, had a beautiful daughter and stayed… How would you describe the current atmosphere where you live? My feeling about the music scene is very good. It’s very open, multicultural. In Lisbon, you can find musicians from different countries, especially African, getting together with Portuguese musicians,…

The US is roiling now with waves of student protest, the trials of the orange man and the upcoming election, so it’s a good time to be looking at artists who are catalysts for change. Here’s some who are breaking the mould, building new ideas and redefining genres in the US and Canada. It’s been delightful to see a wave of African artists in Americana recently, and a testament to the ever more open world we live in. Artists like Peter One, Mon Rovia and now Ugandan-born Jon Muq, who has a debut album on The Black Keys’ Easy Eye Sound, are making waves in the US. Muq’s voice on Flying Away (Easy Eye Sound⋆⋆⋆⋆) is a glory, and his life story is powerful, but what’s most interesting here is…

Multi-instrumentalist Alessandro ‘Asso’ Stefana, who hails from Brescia, Italy has had a career that’s hard to describe, not least because he’s often worked with musicians who can’t be pinned down to genre themselves, with PJ Harvey, Vinicio Capossela, Calexico and Penguin Cafe among his many collaborators. With all of them he has been a facilitator of sorts, producing, engineering and more often than not, adding guitars or one of the other many stringed instruments or organs in his arsenal. He brings this approach on his eponymous debut solo album to a trio of songs originally recorded by Kentucky, US folk singer Roscoe Holcomb. “I’m a big fan of Roscoe Holcomb and Appalachian music,” says Stefana. “And one day I discovered on a record from Smithsonian Folkways that there were a…

REVIEW FOCUS Wales Wrexham, Wales May 8-11 FOCUS Wales, like many similar events globally, intermingles the facets of showcase, conference and public gigs, the primary aim being to transmit the word on new artists and music. Taking over the swiftly rising north Wales city of Wrexham, this 15th edition presented an impressive number of sets, most limited to 30 minutes of condensed action. There were just a few established bands who were allowed to stretch further, such as Spiritualized and Snapped Ankles. Most artists operated in the rock, pop, electronic or singer-songwriter zones, but there was also a scattering of folkinclined performers. Most strongly representing Wales was Cerys Hafana, the singer, harpist and sometime guitarist from Machynlleth, playing in the very suitable location of the central Saint Giles Church. The…

Mumbai-born singer, actress and global jazz icon Asha Puthli, 79, has lived a life worthy of several biopics. The daughter of Hindu parents from the Saraswat Brahmin caste, she attended an English-speaking school, trained in Indian classical singing and opera, then studied home economics at university before switching on the radio station Voice of America and going mad for jazz. “I wanted to combine Indian classical music with American jazz and form a third-stream music,” says this prototype fusionist from her base in Miami. “Luckily the planets were aligned with my thoughts.” This was the late 1960s. The Beatles were vibing with the Maharishi. But a brown woman performing avant-garde jazz? That just wasn’t a thing. That is, until it became ‘Asha’s Thing’ – which is how legendary US producer…

TOP OF THE WORLD TRACKS 01 The Joy ‘Amaqatha Amancane’ From The Joy on Transgressive Records The smooth, rich harmonies of the South African quartet in this grin-inducing, joyful tune echo its playful story, thought up while teasing a friend at a barbecue for cutting the meat too small. See p44 02 Swamp Dogg ‘Ugly Man’s Wife’ From Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St on Oh Boy Records Though he’s not recorded bluegrass before, it’s clear Swamp Dogg has always been listening. With the genre’s classic swing and his laidback vocals, he shares his laconic advice on how to live ‘the high life.’ See p51 03 Kiran Ahluwalia ‘Jaane Jahan’ From Comfort Food on Kiran Ahluwalia With dancing, intricate vocals and a funky, bass-heavy melody, Ahluwalia urges listeners to…

“You just saw four Latinas from London[’s] dreams come true,” Desta French shouts to the sold-out crowd at The Jazz Cafe’s Latinas of London event. Joined by Sophie Castillo, JSCA and Milena Sanchez, they had just finished singing a medley of Selena classics including ‘Como la Flor’ and ‘Amor Prohibido’, to which the audience went wild, singing along and cheering in turn. During each number, each impeccably outfitted woman took a turn with the mic to solo part of the song, with the others shoring her up, at one point literally, as French knelt on the floor and pointed up at Castillo while she was singing. This moment encompassed the whole point of the event: Latinas supporting Latinas, a theme evident throughout as each woman’s set blended seamlessly into the…

WIN New Regency Orchestra’s self-titled debut p17 We have three copies of this exciting release to give away. To enter, answer: How many members make up this epic big band? The Zawose Queens’ Maisha p30 We have three CDs of this uplifting album up for grabs. To enter, answer: In which town is the Zawose village located? The Joy from South African stars The Joy p32 One of ten CD copies of this much-anticipated record might be yours! To enter, answer: Which song on the album was inspired by the singers’ fathers? COMPETITIONS Submit your entry for each competition via the website: songlines.co.uk/competitions. Winners will be chosen at random. Only one entry per competition per household. No cash alternatives. If you would prefer not to be sent details of other Songlines…

For generations the only role permitted to women in the music of Tanzania’s Wagogo people was to sing background harmonies while their male folk took the spotlight. The traditional instruments of Gogo music were also an exclusively male preserve, the only instrument women were permitted to play being a small drum known as muheme. Pendo and Leah Zawose, collectively known as The Zawose Queens, have resolutely set about changing all that. “Women in our music were always behind the men and we were never allowed to take the lead,” Pendo tells Songlines via a Zoom call from Dar es Salaam. “I was ten when I first joined my father on stage as a backing singer as that was all the tradition allowed,” she explains. Her father was none other than…

“In 1997 on Mardi Gras day, I happened to be jogging about 9am near my home when I encountered the courir [French for ‘to run’] on its way out of town. A few of the Mardi Gras [participants in a courir are referred to as ‘Mardi Gras’] made fun of me. I can’t recall any details, but I thought one jibe was pretty clever. When I got back home, I grabbed my camera and hurried to catch up with the courir. Once I had encountered the brightly costumed Mardi Gras dancing, begging, cutting up and really letting loose, heard the medieval sounding strains of ‘La Chanson de Mardi Gras’ played by musicians riding in a wagon, and watched my first chicken chase, I was hooked. ”So recalls David Simpson of…

Rehman Memmedli Azerbaijani Gitara, Vol 2 Bongo Joe Records Bongo Joe Records’ first foray into gitara music from Azerbaijan (the aptly-titled Azerbaijani Gitara by Rüstem Quliyev, released in 2020) was a revelation. Now we get Vol 2, this time a compilation of the work of Rahman Mammadli… and cor, it’s just as good. The key ingredient in gitara is the electric guitar – specifically Jolana guitars from Czechoslovakia, which Azeri musicians realised was a perfect fit for creating an exciting modern blend of folk and classical styles, as well as influences from East and West. Mammadli’s speciality is in pointing gitara towards classical mugham, transforming emotional, solemn art music into a wild rollercoaster of guitar wizardry accompanied by synths, programmed drums and the occasional accordion. This album’s opener, ‘Qoçeli’, is…

YNZN refuses to be boxed into conventional genres. Since 2020, the Nepalese producer has shown through his releases that he can skip across genres nimbly, showcasing his peerlessness in South Asia. Having featured on radio shows, appeared on multiple compilations and released several singles and two stand-out EPs as YNZN.P in how about that and Couldn’t Dance to Save My Life, there is no question that YNZN is one of the most exciting electronic music producers in the region. Those first two EPs were sublime. They’re both an agile blend of genres, moving across house, bass and electro with aplomb; vocal loops chopped up atop skittish drum rolls and bass-heavy, anthemic beats. Couldn’t Dance to Save My Life is more upbeat and cheerful, reminiscent of dance floors with its club-ready…

That Abdullah Ibrahim is not only still with us in his 90th year but continues to make magisterial music is one of the blessings of our troubled times – as anyone who saw his concert at London’s Barbican last year will testify. The South African pianist whom Nelson Mandela reportedly once called “our Mozart” has been a professional musician for a staggering 75 years since he started his career playing in Cape Town’s District Six township in the shadow of Table Mountain. Due to apartheid, he had to wait until he was 60 before he finally got to see the stunning views over Cape Town from the mountain’s top as the cable car was for ‘whites only.’ He finally got to make the ascent after the ending of apartheid in…

Postponed from last year due to the earthquake in Morocco, the 16th edition of the Fès Festival of Sufi Culture, took place April 20-27. Its theme was the Socratic precept ‘Know Thyself’, which wove itself brilliantly into the programme through two ideas: self-transformation through higher knowledge and the inner realisation of Sufism’s mystical dimensions. Morocco’s abiding Andalusian cultural heritage entwined with Sufi spiritual philosophy, developed over 14 centuries, has resulted in mutually beneficial, intercultural, humanistic values that imbued the festival with an intense, transcendent beauty and grace. And, relatively unknown to the outer world, Morocco’s musical ritual ceremony known as sama, the practice of ‘sacred listening or audition,’ was ever-present. Praises and supplications to the divine guided the listener towards spiritual attunement. The sama tradition, widespread throughout North Africa’s turuqs…

Festival International Nuits d’Afrique WHEN: July 9-21 WHERE: Montréal, Canada What the festival says: ‘From July 9 to 21, 2024, the 38th edition of the Festival International Nuits d’Afrique invites you on a planetary musical voyage, where the cultures of Africa, the West Indies and Latin America meet. Over 700 artists from some 30 countries will be on hand for 13 days in six concert halls, and from July 16 to 21 on the free outdoor site in the heart of Montréal’s Quartier des spectacles.’ What we said: ‘If you happen to be in Montréal in July and looking for African vibes, sounds and sights, then you can’t go far wrong with Nuits d’Afriques Festival. 11 days of the best in African and Afro-Caribbean music, mostly from the Francophone nations…