[gigya src=”http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649″ width=”500″ flashvars=”offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=/photos/scionart/sets/72157626813156800/show/&page_show_back_url=/photos/scionart/sets/72157626813156800/&set_id=72157626813156800&jump_to=” allowFullScreen=”true” ] Scion’s upcoming show at their LA Gallery, “The Big Idea” features a […]
Month: June 2011
Helado Negro translates as “black ice cream” and Canta Lechuza means “sing owl.” Rightly so—like the wise ol’ owl, like Davey Crockett and the Jersey Devil, Canta Lechuza is a thing born of woodsy zones.
In November of last year Roberto left Brooklyn for a month-long artist residence in rural Connecticut. From his piny retreat, Roberto awoke each morning to the dead-quiet of the forest. He got up, showered, put on a kettle, fixed a cup of black tea, then sat in the woods, om-ing out into the almighty (and very scenic) Void. Staring straight ahead, he centered himself for the recording hours to come. When the tea was gone he went back inside to get warm and began the workday. It was no stress, no pressure; a great cosmic calm presiding. He was in a benevolent place where nothing moved, where all was quiet and subtle. The result is Canta Lechuza—a majestically pretty electronic pop record; easygoing and beautifully mellow, but each piece danceable, each part a dance party.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/24250511]
Stefon Harris, David Sanchez & Christian Scott will perform at their album release party at S.O.B.’s in NYC on June 21.
Opening Tuesday, June 21 – S.O.B.’s, NYC – Win Tickets
Hear ‘Ninety Miles’ In Its Entirety
All distance is relative, especially where geopolitical borders and ideologies are involved. We speak one language, they speak another. We follow our system, they follow theirs. When we focus on the differences, a relatively short stretch of land or water starts to look like a yawning chasm. But when we look at each other as individuals and focus on the similarities, that “chasm” is actually a very short distance. Less than a hundred miles.
Musicians – especially jazz musicians, whose craft is in many ways an improvised form of communication – understand this principle inherently, perhaps better than any politician or diplomat could ever hope to. Vibraphonist Stefon Harris, saxophonist David Sánchez and trumpeter Christian Scott cross that divide in Ninety Miles.
With a self-titled debut album and two 45s out now on RK, Australian heavy funk unit DOJO CUTS […]
Sorry Bamba was born in 1938 in Mopti — “The Venice of Mali” — a city whose setting at the confluence of the Niger and Bani rivers made it a true cultural crossroads. This diversity sparked an unsinkable curiosity and passion for learning that characterizes Sorry’s career to this day.
Sorry Bamba’s father was a noble, and a veteran of the Emperor Samory Touré’s army. In Mali’s caste-based society, this meant that he was forbidden to play music, an art reserved exclusively for griots. However, after being orphaned at a very young age, he turned to music for solace, particularly a six-holed flute that kept him busy day and night.
It was in 1957 that Sorry formed his first band, Group Goumbé, named after a dance craze from the Ivory Coast. Consisting of little more than some percussion instruments and a trumpet, Group Goumbé became popular with the young people of Mopti, publicizing their performances in a small van equipped with a loudspeaker.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J1vEukdN-A]
The two foremost Gypsy brass bands are battling it out: who is the king of Balkan brass?
Finally, the two titans of East European Gypsy music go head to head in a Balkan brass encounter of epic proportions. Following the tradition of brass battles from Serbia’s legendary Guca Brass Festival to New Orleans’ mean streets, the Balkan Brass Battle showcases the wit, passion and musical genius of Europe’s Romany Gypsy people.
Label boss Jim Thomson steers Electric Cowbell as an independent, artist-run label that produces and releases unique records. 101 Things To Do In Bongolia gathers the labels singles of the past year.
Initially the vinyl-oriented 45RPM Electric Cowbell record label politely shunned any concern that their singles be made available digitally until our family members and friends without turntables began asking how they were going to get a chance to hear the songs. This formatting issue, coupled with the label’s intrinsic desire to promote and disseminate the bands and their music to a wider audience, has been resolved by offering digital album version-also available as CD-of the label’s first year of singles. 101 Things To Do In Bongolia is a sonic brochure of Electric Cowbell’s first batch of singles from 2010-2011 with the addition of some bonus tracks and remixes from the label’s current releases.
HAMMOCK HOUSE – “AFRICA CARIBE” OUT Now. Amongst dance music fans Joaquin “Joe” Claussell needs no introduction. Anyone […]
Two free songs at end of article
It’s fitting that Red Hot + Rio 2 would pay tribute to Brazil’s Tropicália movement since both exhibit a desire to act on social-political issues through music. Red Hot + Rio 2 is the natural successor to the 1996 original Bossa Nova inspired Red Hot + Rio.
Owing its roots to musical tolerance and innovation, the arrival of Tropicália on the scene began in the 1960s. Despite its success, the movement lasted few years, its influence on Brazilian music was broad and far-reaching.
Politically engaged lyrics and artistic forms of activism drove much of the movement following the coup of 1964. Its initial leaders, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, were incarcerated by the military government over the political content of their work. Their 1968 collaboration album Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis is largely considered the musical manifesto of the movement. The two, along with other artists commonly associated with the movement, experimented with unusual time signatures and other means of unorthodox song structures.
After two months, Veloso and Gil were released and exiled to London by the military government, where they lived until 1972. “Others in the Tropicalismo movement were less fortunate; several underwent torture or were forced into ‘psychiatric care’. Not unlike what those living with AIDS today face daily in countries where violence and ostracization are part of the culture.
Red Hot + Rio 2, a pays tribute to late 60’s Brazilian Tropicália movement with over 30 original collaborations between Brazil’s legendary musicians and today’s international indie artists including John Legend, Os Mutantes, Devendra Banhart, Caetano Veloso, Dirty Projectors, Seu Jorge, Beck, Bebel Gilberto, José Gonzalez, Beirut, Tom Zé, Of Montreal, Marisa Monte Gogol Bordello, DJ Dolores, Aloe Blacc, Angelique Kidjo, Rita Lee, Madlib, Money Mark, Céu, Apollo Nove, Mayra Andrade, Trio Mocotó, Tha Boogie, Alice Smith, Carlinhos Brown, Los Van Van, Brazilian Girls, Marcos Valle, St. Vincent, Neon Indian, Forró In The Dark, Mia Doi Todd, Javelin, and many more.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gwMUZrixo] Summer 2011 sees the release of the long awaited exciting new album project from Bah Samba titled […]
After winning a Grammy Award in 2011 and backing the Tony Award winning broadway show “Fela!” with their […]
The endlessly inventive musical creator known as Dego will release his own solo debut “A Wha’ Him Deh Pon?” this summer in 2011. Having recorded several seminal albums with his previous musical collectives 4hero, 2000black, Silhouette Brown and under the moniker, Mr. GoodGood, “A Wha’ Him Deh Pon?” marks Dego’s continuing musical evolution, integrating his past as an avatar of electronica, jazz, dub and soul, while blazing a new path forward beyond convention and expectation.
Youssou Ndour’s journey to Kingston began with the music pulsing from the Dakar market stalls of his childhood. It began during long hours of listening to reggae LPs from his uncle’s record store. It continued decades later, long after Ndour became one of the world’s best known and best loved African singers, as circumstances conspired and he found himself at Tuff Gong studios, walking in Bob Marley’s footsteps and jamming with Marley’s musical friends.
Dakar-Kingston (Emarcy Records; June 7, 2011) maps this road, turning Ndour classics and several new originals into reggae anthems, reflecting reggae’s deep impact on West African music and culture. Guided by veteran reggae producer and former Marley collaborator Tyrone Downie, Ndour finds the sunny and urgent, the laid-back and the hard-grooving sides of Jamaican music, supported by a multigenerational crew of Jamaican and African reggae voices.
Ndour, a pioneering performer whose strikingly expressive voice transformed both the mbalax music of his native Senegal and Western pop, is an experienced traveler. He has effortlessly climbed charts in North America and Europe thanks to duets with Peter Gabriel, Neneh Cherry, and Sting. He has traced the roots of his griot (traditional oral historian) heritage, and explored his Muslim faith and its sonic impact by collaborating with Egyptian musicians, winning a Grammy® for his efforts.
Triumphant after a successful Spring tour, and receiving the 2011 Tamani D’Or Award (Mali’s highest musical honor), Khaira Arby will make a stateside encore for a national tour of the US coming up in July.
Arby mesmerized audiences at this year’s SXSW in showcases for NPR, The Fader Fort, National Geographic Music, All Music is World Music (The World on WGBH Boston and KUT Austin) in standout performances at a festival known for once-in-a-lifetime shows. This intensity comes as much from her home as it does her unique spirit. Born in a village not far from the famed city of Timbuktu , Arby is firmly planted in the desert sand. Her creativity flows in part from the people of her home region of Northern Mali-the young musicians in her band all hail from Timbuktu-and from their past and present struggles. As Arby puts it, “Trab is our land, our home, Timbuktu. Its history, its mystery, everything…”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGNBS6_0CCw]
Vieux Farka Touré premiered his new video for “All The Same” featuring Dave Matthews on PopMatters, which is directed by Sam Bathrick and produced by Adam Barton of Native Resonance.
Vieux is hot on the heels of the release of his third studio album, The Secret (Six Degrees Records), which has already entered the Billboard World Charts top 3 and Billboard Indie Chart top 200. The album is produced by guitarist Eric Krasno (of Soulive fame) also features Dave Matthews, Derek Trucks, John Scofield, Ivan Neville and Vieux’s final collaboration with his legendary father, Ali Farka Toure.