The Worldmusic Blog (Seckou Kouyate)

WorldBeatUK (20th Show) - Broadcast Notes (13/7/11)

Tagged with: WorldBeatUK Glyn Phillips Adam Rapa Ziroli Winterstein Sound Nomaden Paito Simmer Down Festival Supa Bassie Sam Redmore Skaguitar Kiko Perrone Fissunix Fermin Muguruza Luke Daniels Julio Sosa Lucia de la Cruz Ibrahim Ferrer Altan Festibyn Malavoi

WBUK20 (13/7/11) - SHOWNOTES

1 “Intro-Mat” (1:47) by Matchatcha from the album “Nyekesse” (Melodie)

You’re listening to Rhubarb Radio transmitting live from the Custard Factory, Digbeth, Birmingham - I’m Glyn Phillips and this is WorldBeatUK!  

Coming up on the show tonight: Gypsy Swing, Calypso Jazz, Salsa Dura, Ska, Reggae, Bachata, Gaita, Electro Swing, Tango, Musette, Vals, Blues, and even Brazilian Blues.  

We’ve also got some Son, Folk, Township Jazz, Mashups, Balkan, Biguine and some great SambaReggaeRumbaPatchankaBreakbeat!  Trust me, you don’ wanna miss it tonight!  So fasten your sonic seatbelts, make yourself comfortable and enjoy the ride!

Welcome to the 20th edition of WorldBeatUK!  Yet another jamboree bag of sweeties from around the world - coz yo’ve all bin good boys and girls since the last time I saw ya!  So’s I thought as I’d get yer a bag o’ suck!  

Since last week I’ve had to take a few days out to attend the funeral of a dearly beloved uncle who passed away unexpectedly, so I have not done the same amount of research into the tunes this week that I normally do.  

However, despair not since the quality of the music is just the same and I’ve some right little gems lined up.  So, I’m dedicating the whole of this week’s show to the memory of my Uncle Reg - a top bloke indeed who will be sorely missed by anyone who came into contact with him.  Always upbeat and positive and full of life - what more can I say? - so here’s something to reflect that. This is Adam Rapa and an exuberant track called “Calypso”.

2 “Calypso” (5:00) by Adam Rapa

And to follow that? How about some salsa dura from the album “Boogaloo Pow Wow”?  The band’s the La Playa Orchestra and this track is called “Olvidate De Mi”.  Get yer dancing shoes on - a bailar!!!

3 “Olvidate De Mi” (2:51) by The La Playa Orchestra from the album “Boogaloo Pow Wow”

Breathless?  Here’s a little bit of manouche beauty for you: from the Rough Guide to Gypsy Swing this is the Ziroli Winterstein Ensemble and “Autumn Leaves”

4 “Autumn Leaves” (Ends at 2.20!) (2:26) by Ziroli Winterstein Ensemble from the album “Rough Guide to Gypsy Swing” 

Wasn’t that beautiful.  And so - inevitably - the link: this is Electro-Swing outfit Sound Nomaden and a tune called “Beautiful Music”:

5 “Beautiful Music” (4:16) by Sound Nomaden from the album “Beautiful Music”

[CONTINUOUS]

6 “El Gusto De Las Mujeres” (4:28) by Paíto (Sixto Silgado) from the album “Gaita Negra”

That last track was called “El Gusto de las Mujeres” and was an instrumental piece by Paíto (aka Sixto Silgado) from the album “Gaita Negra”.  Incidentally, I’d better explain what gaita means.  It’s a Spanish word which refers in most instances to bagpipes; it also refers to a piped instrument known in English as a fipple flute which is native to Colombia, Venezuela and parts of Panama and is blown direct (ie rather than using a bag to store a continuous current of air).  As well as that it’s also the name of the Colombian music where the gaitas are often employed and is related to cumbia.  So now you know!

And to follow that some Dominican bachata music by the New York band Fame - who are based in the Bronx - and a track called “Confesiones”

7 “Confesiones” (3:27) by Fame


Big up the Simmer Down Festival - Sat Jul 16th 12midday to 7.30pm in Handsworth Park, Birmingham.  Free.  Ken Boothe headlining and also Rose Capri, Claire Angel, Gabbidon, Reggaebaby Lounge, Hearts Aglow Steelband, Pulse Beat (a Steel Pulse tribute band), Louise Kilbride, Village Well, Glama Wayne, Maria Mour, Bingiman, Unique, Si Hayden, Kokumo, Lee Alexander, Annette Fagon and many more as well as ital food, dhol players, bhangra dancers and zumba dancers.  It’ll be a family affair with plenty of workshops in dance and music and a procession too.  

After the free event in the park the action shifts to The Drum in Newtown where there’s the Simmer Down Festival After Party with Barry Biggs, Ken Boothe, John Maclean, Paul Dawkins, Janet Lee Davis, Rose Capri and Delia all backed by the New Direction Band and also there’ll be DJs Mr Romantic, Gatecrash and Countryman with the Fatal Attraction Sound System. Tickets for that £20 in advance (MOTD).

So to get us in the mood a selection of reggae sounds - but, as ever with me, maybe not quite as you’d expect them!  First up is Supa Bassie from Valencia in Spain and a track from his album “Crónicas de un Viaje” called “Paremos Un Segundo” (Let’s stop for a second).  Trust me, not as you’d expect at all . . .

8 “Paremos Un Segundo” (3:52) by Supa Bassie from the album “Crónicas de un Viaje”

Sticking with the alternative reggae vibe here are a couple of remixes from Birmingham’s very own Sam Redmore.  Firstly his ultra-stripped back version of Bob Marley’s “Is This Love” - beautiful.

9 “Is This Love” (Sam Redmore's Acoustic Takedown) (6:17) by Bob Marley

[CONTINUOUS]

10 “A Day In The Life / Milk & Honey” (3:26) by The Beatles / Prince Fatty (Sam Redmore Remix)

Yeah that was the second in the double-bill of Sam Redmore remixes, in this case a mashup of Prince Fatty with the Beatles: “A Day In The Life / Milk & Honey”.  Absolutely love that one!  Brum’s got talent indeed. 

OK, check this next tune out it’s a version of the old Cuban tune “El Manisero” (known to many people - especially jazzheads - by its English translation as The Peanut Vendor”), but done here in wonderfully nuanced minor form of ska by the band Skaguitar.  Lovely.

11 “El Manisero” (ends at 2.43!) (2:52) by Skaguitar

[Change CD!!!!]

Yes, wasn’t that beautiful!  Don’t forget you’re listening to WorldBeatUK right here on Rhubarb Radio, coming at ya live and direct from the Custard Factory in downtown Digbeth, Birmingham in the heart of England.  My name’s Glyn Phillips and every Wednesday between 7and 9pm I’m your host on a two hour musical journey around the world.

Plenty of good stuff still to come on the show tonight including Biguine, Balkan, Township Jazz, Mashups, remixes, Breakbeats, Musette, Folk, Tango, Vals, Cuban son and even a little ditty by one of Scotland’s most under-rated cultural icons who seems to be having a spot of trouble trying to locate one of his garments . . . 

Maybe he needs a little good luck, something bluesman Mr Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown knows all about.  

1 (12) “Someday My Luck Will Change” (5:32) by Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown from the album “Froots 05”

Yeah, “Someday, My Luck Will Change” by Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown.  

Let’s follow that with some Brazilian Blues - or at least a tune called “Luz Azul” which means ‘Blue Light’. I don’t have a lot of info about it apart from that it was written in London a couple of years ago by the Paulista Kiko Perrone alongside Kita Steur and was influenced by the music of Jorge Benjor.

2 (13) “Luz Azul (aka Blue Light)” (3:45) by Kiko Perrone & Kita Steur

[CONTINUOUS]

3 (14) “Ain’t No Stairway High Enough to Hip Hop Heaven” (3:37) by Marvin Gaye & Led Zeppelin & Gramatik Remashed (Fissunix remash)

Yeah, bet you didn’t see that one coming did you!  That was the Fissunix remash of Gramatik’s remash of Marvin Gaye and Led Zeppelin and a tune called “Aint No Stairway High Enough to Hip Hop Heaven”.  Heavenly Groove indeed!

Ready to rumba?!  Here’s a groove for you, this is the riddim version of “Milakabilaka” by Fermin Muguruza (who’s name incidentally translates as ‘Various Artists’!!) and a thumping piece of Samba-Reggae-Rumba-Patchanka-Breakbeat!

4 (15) “Milakabilaka (Riddim)” (5:32) by Fermin Muguruza from the album “Asthmatic Lion Sound System” {Samba-Reggae-Rumba-Patchanka-Breakbeats}

Well that should have got you all fired-up, so let’s all cool down again with a little musette from Luke Daniels called “Musette a Teresa”.

5 (16) “Musette À Teresa” (3:35) by Luke Daniels from the album “Froots 03”

And because I’m feeling all old schooly and in a criollo mood here’s one of my favourite old school tangueros - no, not Carlos Gardel (who to be perfectly honest, never really did it for me), but el Varón del Tango himself Julio Sosa and a track called “Mano a Mano” (Hand to Hand).

6 (17) “Mano A Mano” (3:17) by Julio Sosa from the album “30 Aniversario 1964-1994”

And if that hasn’t made you nostalgic and romantic enough, this one’ll slay you.  The incomparable Peruvian songstress and larger-than-life character Lucia de La Cruz - a woman whose life is every bit as melodramatic as the songs she sings.  I love her every bit as much as I do Eva Ayllón, no matter how much scandal seems to surround her - she simply lives the life she sings about. This is called “Quiero Que Estes Conmigo” (I Want You To Be With Me).  Straight from the heart, boys and girls, straight from the heart . . .

7 (18) “Quiero Que Estes Conmigo” (3:04) by Lucia de la Cruz

Fantastic.  Now sticking with latin america we’re travelling North from Coastal Perú to the island of Cuba and the sad news that last week the world lost yet another celebrated member of the Buena Vista Social Club as well as being a founder of Los Zafiros (The Sapphires).  I’m talking of the guitarist Manuel Galbán.  Ironically I’d already programmed in the next tune into this week’s show, before I knew about Galbán’s death.  

It doesn’t really feature him as such since he’s just another all-star member of a band backing Ibrahim Ferrer, but he’s there all the same.  If I get a chance at the end of the programme I’ll see if I can find a tune where you can hear Galbán more.  In the meantime this is a storming tune from Ibrahim’s great album “Buenos Hermanos” (Good Brothers) on World Circuit Records.  This is my favourite tune off that album - ‘listen to the advice!’, “Oye El Consejo”:

8 (19) “Oye El Consejo” (3:26) by Ibrahim Ferrer from the album “Buenos Hermanos”

[CONTINUOUS]

9 (20) “Tommy Peoples/ The Windmill/ Fintan McManus’s” (3:16) by Altan from the album “Froots 03”

That was enough to raise the devil - a medley of “Tommy Peoples/ The Windmill/ Fintan McManus’s” by the Irish band Altan.  

Now, from Sconny Botland, is the next artist.  Undoubtedly one of Caledonia’s most under-rated performers and almost forgotten these days, this man put the High into Highland with such classics as “A Scottish Soldier”, “The Muckin o’ Geordie’s Byre”, “I’ve Never Kissed a Bonnie Lass Before”, “The Gallant Forty-Twa”, as well as the song I’m about to play you.  

Now, before the days of Jools Holland’s Hootenanny, television on New Years Eve in the 1960s meant one thing “The White Heather Club”.  Many’s the time I was left alone to see the New Year in with nothing but a load of tartan-kilted Jocks dancing the Highland Fling over a pair of crossed claymores, whilst some dodgy geezer hopped through a studio door on one foot whilst carrying a lump of coal . . .  

Come on, you must know who I’m talking about by now?  Caledonian Cultural Icon Supreme, Mr Andy Stewart of course!  And the tune? Well, that’d be telling, but I’ll give you a clue: he wrote it in 10 minutes whilst sitting on the lav in a recording studio.  Just let the image linger a moment . . . OK, got it?  Oh, and watch out for Elvis half way through!

10 (21) “Donald Where's Your Troosers?” (3:21) by Andy B. Stewart

Ha ha ha!  Well, that was fun!  As is this one: a balkan banger from Festibyn called “Dönme Bana Sevgilim”.  Back on the dancefloor everyone!!  Let’s get balko-funky!

11 (22) “Dönme Bana Sevgilim” (3:16) by FestiByn from the album “FestiByn”

Not long to go now.  And since I’m feeling all warm and loved-up and dancey, I’m going to lay this next one on you.  This is South Africa’s The Soul Brothers and a track called “Thandaza”.  Let’s see you rocking to this one then!

12 (23) “Thandaza” (South Africa) (5:09) by The Soul Brothers from the album “Africa”

OK, thanks for listening to the show . . .

[Shout-outs, reminders, etc, etc]

I’m going to leave you with a particular favourite track of mine - absolutely love this one. It’s from the island of Martinique in the French-speaking Caribbean.  The band is the excellent Malavoi with special guest Jean Philippe Marthely.  The track is called “Zou”!!  

See you all next week at 7pm, or if you’re in Birmingham on Saturday in Handsworth Park for the Simmer Down Reggae Festival.  Good night!

13 (24) “Zou” ('Malavoi Biguine') (5:03) by Malavoi & Jean Philippe Marthely

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