Around the World – Week beginning 16 July 2023 - Preview
Featured album - Laz by Saodaj'
Last week
This week
Music from: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Estonia, France, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Malawi, Mali, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Slovenia, USA, and Zimbabwe
Music by: Albaluna, Bakalina Velika, Bala Desejo, Crimi, Daoirí Farrell, Desmond Dekker, Fatoumata Diawara, Irma Ferreira, Kayhan Kalhor & Toumani Diabate, Keturah, Kuné, Liraz, Mari Kalkun, Morgan Heritage S'Villa & Eddy Kenzo, Nickel Creek, Oriane Lacaille, Paula Santoro, Payadora Tango Ensemble, Puuluup, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Saodaj', Shono, Tawanda Gadzikwa, Teun Creemers, Vincent Peirani Vincent Segal Ballaké Sissoko & Emile Parisien.
Featured Album - Laz by Saodaj'
I wrote about Saodaj’ in last week’s newsletter. I said that it is six years (and 2.8 million YouTube views) since the Réunion musicians released Pokor Lèr, a song and an album I have played many times on Around the World. The young, spikey, rooftop musicians have matured considerably since then.
SAODAJ - Laz [Official video]
ABOUT THE FEATURED ALBUM
Reunion Island is a department of France. It lies near Africa, is a crossroads where several the cultures of the world meet. It lies 700 km off the coast of Madagascar – a significantly larger island 400 kms from Mozambique on the southern African coast in the Indian Ocean. The official language is metropolitan French. But there is a French Creole which has developed on the island. The population of Reunion Island includes French, Malagasy, African and Indian.
Maloya is one of the two major music genres of Réunion, usually sung in Réunion Creole, and traditionally accompanied by percussion and a musical bow. Its origins lie in the cultures of African and Malagasy slaves and Indian indentured workers on the island.
The other music genre of Reunion is séga. Saodaj’ play Maloya music.
Since 2012 Saodaj’ have drawn influences from southern, West African and European cultures, while remaining faithful the music’s history and Traditions. Led by vocalists Marie Lanfroy, and Jonathan ITÉMA, they play traditional and classical instruments such as Bobr’, Kayamb, Tarlon | Jonathan ITÉMA – Vocal, Roulèr drum and percussion Kayamb, Sati-pikèr and Bobr’, Cello, Guitar, Ethnic flute.
After 300 concerts in Reunion Island and abroad, Marie Lanfroy, Jonathan Itéma and their group have devoted themselves to the production of their new album: “Laz” (age in Reunionese Creole). The writing of this album combines the poetry of the Creole and French languages, traditional Maloya percussion and classical instruments such as the cello. Emancipation, justice, resilience: with passion and humility, the texts are indignant, the texts dream.
Saodaj’s committed poetry deals with fundamental themes such as the thirst for justice, the struggle for freedom, the duty to remember and to pass on. Their musical creation is experienced as a necessity: “It helps us to accept the world as it is offered to us today, with its beauties and uglinesses, without resigning ourselves to fatality. [1]
Also on the show
There is a motif, rather than theme, running through the show this week. Much of the music is from musicians from one country working with musicians from another - sometimes recorded in a third.
It’s the world of music and music of the world.
For example, Fatoumata Diawara from Mali, recording in London with Damon Albarn and musicians from UK, Africa and USA. A Jamicain Reggae band from Brooklyn New York. They formed as a band in the mid-1990s, but they are five children of reggae artist Denroy Morgan – hence Morgan Heritage. I’ll be playing a track which includes S'Villa from Durban in South Africa and and Eddy Kenzo from Uganda.
Their album is Homeland.
Reggae Geel Festival Erupts with Morgan Heritage's Explosive Live Show!
Payadora Tango Ensemble’s “Tell Me, Where Can I Go?” (feat. Olga Avigail Mieleszczuk) from Silent Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango continues the motif with musicians in Canada with roots in Europe telling stories of the Holocaust.
Through music, the project tells stories of Holocaust survivors in Canada. Much of the material is based on Dr. Paula David's Terrace Holocaust Survivor's Group Poetry Project. Others are from Molly Applebaum, a Canadian author of the diary and memoir, Buried Words, who, during her adolescent years, was buried underground in a small wooden box in a barn in Dąbrowa Tarnowska, Poland during World War II.
Tawanda Gadzikwa - Nganyerre: There’s a lot of explaining to do in this. Tawanda Gadzikwa is a percussionist. The album JABULA! is full of African percussion celebrating greener pastures, pilgrimage, resilience and reverence.
It was a 5 year project with collaborations with artists from Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Brazil, Australia and England. The album was recorded in locations ranging from outdoor sites of spiritual significance in Zimbabwe to professional recording studios in Australia.
That is called Nganyerre is a word from the Dhudhuroa people of what is now North-eastern Victoria in Australia. It meand Dance. You’ll find the album on Australia’s Wantock Musik label and on Bandbamp
Some notes on other music
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Etude from Ongaku Zukan: Originally released in 1984, a version of Ongaku Zukan was released in 2015. The original Japanese version to be re-released by We Want Sounds – but not until September – so I’m a bit early with that.
Albaluna | Mercador de Ilusão [Official Music Video, 2023]
Albaluna should be a better known band than they are. Hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes and fiddle have never sounded as good together.
Albaluna formed in 2010 in Torres Vedras, near Lisbon . The influences include traditional Portuguese music, medieval sounds, prog rock, folk, Turkish, Arabic and Afghan music. The Mercador de Ilusão album is due for release soon.
(I’m not entirely sure what the storyline is here. I think it about music fighting prejudice. But I see a copy of Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Roads on the table towards the end.)
Hear the show on the web and radio
Saturday:
World FM 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am BST, 12:00 noon CET)
Sunday:
Bangor FM 107.9 (Radio Garden) 7:00 pm local time BST (8:00 pm CET)
Slice Audio 10:00 pm local time BST (11:00 pm CET)
Ferry FM 10:00 pm local time BST (11:00 pm CET)
Radio Larne 10:00 pm local time BST (11:00 pm CET)
Armagh City Radio 10:00 pm local time BST (11:00 pm CET)
Monday:
KNC Radio St Lucia 6:00 am local time (11:00 am BST 12:00 noon CET)
Akaroa World Radio 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am BST, 12:00 noon CET)
World FM 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am BST, 12:00 noon CET)
U Radio Sri Lanka 7:30 pm local time SLT (3:00 pm BST, 4:00 pm CET)
Tuesday:
Lisburn’s 98FM (Radio Garden) 7:00 pm local time BST (8:00 pm CET)
FM105 Down Community Radio (Radio Garden) 7:00 pm local time BST (8:00 pm CET)
Wednesday:
World FM 4:00 am local New Zealand Time (5:00 pm Tuesday BST, 6:00 pm CET)
Slice Audio 4:00 am local time BST (5:00 am CET)
Radio Skye (Radio Garden) 10:00 pm local time BST (11:00 pm CET)
Friday:
Akaroa World Radio 2:00 pm local New Zealand Time (3:00 am BST 4:00 am CET)
Saturdays
Essential Radio 10.00 pm local time BST (11:00 pm CET)