Al compás del mundo – programa #104 - Greatest Hit Potpourri

Al compás del mundo – programa #104 - Greatest Hit Potpourri - Dr Ross to Bombino and Beyond

From the Shores of Bombino - A Bostonian Brahma advisor told me I should cull my early programs for the “best of Al compás”. Should I ever make it big in the radio world (ala Howard Stern), I’m going to hire this guy as my manager. Some time back I bemoaned the fact that long ago and during many earlier programs I had already picked and played my absolute favorites of every genre. I continue to find radio-worthy songs with two years of programming under my belt, but admittedly, it gets harder to find the exquisite gems that often populated the oldest playlists. And thus we find this week’s aggregation, replayed from my first four programs, of Colombian and Brazilian folk music; jazz; bluesy jazz (oh babe!); country blues; a most logical and satisfying segue into Ethiopian saxophone negus (king) Getachew Mekurya; South African, and Nigerien jazz-rap-blues – proving there’s nothing new under the sun but modern twists on traditional themes. Follow all that with Ederlezi, what has become a Roma anthem; Beirut the boy wonder, composing Scenic World while playing all the instruments and multi-tracking it together in his Santa Fe bedroom; and the coup de grace, French sophisticate, and teen idol of the late 60s and 70s, Yves Simon. Spicy, dicey, and oo-la-la all wrapped up in a neat little hour-long package, just for you!

Lista Potpourri: “the greatest hits” from programs #1-4 - Dr Ross to Bombolino and Beyond

First broadcast on 11-30-2023

01 Orito Cantora & Jenn del Tambó - Bullerengue para un Ángel (Colombia)

02 Nazare Pereira - Lancol De Estelas (Brazil)

03 Courtney Pine - I've Known Rivers (USA)

04 Gary Bartz Ntu Troop - Celestial Blues (USA)

05 Cannonball Adderley Quintet - Oh Babe (USA)

06 Doctor Ross - Cat Squirrel (USA)

07 Floyd Jones - Dark Road (USA)

08 Getatchew Mekurya - Shemonmwanaye (Ethiopia)

09 Lungiswa Plaatjies featuring Madosini - Solalemaweni (South Africa)

10 TransGlobal Underground - Cape Thunder (South Africa-England-India)

11 Bombino - Amidinine (My Friend) (Niger)

12 Goran Bregović, Emir Kusturica - Ederlezi Time of the Gypsies (Serbia)

13 Beirut - Scenic World (USA)

14 Yves Simon - Au Pays Des Merveilles De Juliet (France)

Beirut - not the city

Comments

Al compás del mundo - programa #99 - Los Folkloristas

This week’s Al compás del mundo earns a pair of dedications. Primarily, to Las Folkloristas, a group of Mexican musicians who first came together in 1966 and who continue to the present day, delighting their public and educating them as to the breadth of folk music genres and instrumentation found in every corner of Latin America. The second dedication is to me and my sweetheart wife Claudia – we met at a concert of Los Folkloristas at the Sala Agora in Mexico City, in 1976. And yes, we too are still together. Get out your handkerchiefs and dry your eyes because there’s a story to be told as evidence that there’s a soulmate out there for everyone. You just have to make the effort to look, even if it takes you to a foreign land. And so it goes like this: I spent all of 1976 living in Mexico City, ostensibly to learn Spanish, but en realidad to loaf around, drink beer, practice my saxophone, and maybe, just maybe, look to meet a señorita. I lived in a pension (boardinghouse) owned by Jul...

Al compas del mundo, programa #92 - Japan

The Japanese historically have been a most creative people, excelling in aesthetic conventions like architecture, painting, culinary arts, theatre, music, and more. A craftsman’s care and an artist’s flair have come to define everyday household objects such as articles of clothing and kitchen ware, designed with a sensibility that imbues them with import and elevated status. After WWII in the United States however, an item inscribed “made in Japan” usually indicated a tchotchke of mediocre quality. A perfect example is the large number of Northwest Coast Native American-style bone totem poles made for the tourist shops in the Northwest. There is a distinctive difference in these “artifacts” from the real, home-made variety that illustrates someone from another culture tackling aesthetics they don’t fully comprehend. And that leads us to some of this week’s musical choices. Imitating Western pop, rock and jazz, Japanese artists have recorded many forgettable efforts – not unlike those o...

Al compas del mundo - programa #114 - potpourri of fun, fun, fun

Fun, Fun, Fun. And I do mean fun. Sometimes this summary of a weekly radio show veers off to a serious side, but not today. Not with this batch of winners. Not when we’re leading off with Los Xochimilcas. Like a mix of The Three Stooges and Spike Jones, they clamor for a round of “pulque for two!” with an eloquent danzón accompaniment. Then there’s Pigbag showing off some serious jazz chops…but is it jazz? Then again, who cares? Why fret over labels when we’re here to have fun?! So The Magnetic Fields’ tune isn’t exactly light-hearted glee and all, but fun comes in many packages. I had fun when I first heard I Die You Die. They sounded like the Velvet Underground had they hailed from West Virginia instead of New York. That’s not fun? Relatively speaking, there’s always room for Ennio Morricone. That lonesome whistle thrills me, along with the chorus of grunting injuns. A Spaghetti Western at its stereotypical best. Allen Toussaint, by the way, is one hell of a song writer, in cas...

Search This Blog