Al compás del mundo - programa #121

Al compás del mundo - programa #121 - Spring Potpourri

It’s spring! Which, I suppose, means different things in different places. Boston just got dumped on with hella snow; San Francisco is seeing cold (relatively), clouds and rain; and we here in Tequisquiapan, Queretaro in the middle of Mexico are suffering our way through 80-degree blue-sky days. I remember youthful exuberance in Madison, Wisconsin, when we played baseball on a March day when the temperature suddenly reached 50 degrees. We dodged patches of snow that still remained, but I guess that’s also something from the past that remains a wistful memory. Anyway, I’m searching for a theme for this week’s program that really has nothing to do with spring. But look! And smell the blossoms! The Kazakh folk group sings of flowers and Roma Indians from Rajasthan dance for the sheer joy of being alive! Regrettably, Johnny can’t dance as per Clifton Chenier and Billy wishes Stackalee hadn’t doubted his reading of the dice. But mostly it’s a positive bunch of tunes we’re putting forth here and I believe it gives “potpourri” a good name. - J.H.

Run list for Al compás del mundo - programa #121, – Spring potpourri
First broadcast 3-28-2024

01 Kiyohiko Senba and his Haniwa All-Stars -- ちゃーのみ友達スレスレ (Japan)

02 Yanti Bersaudara - Gumbira (Indonesia)

03 Yishak Binjaw - Libey Ma'aduley (Ethiopia)

04 Crimi - Mano d'Oro (Algeria-Italy)

05 Kader Tarhanine - Al Gamra Leila (Tuareg, Algeria)

06 Ihya Boudkir and Ahwach Ntfarkhin - Tiyt ajig a lward (Morocco)

07 Indian Rajasthan Gypsy dance (India)

08 Kazakh folk group - My Flower (China)

09 Kostas Nikitas - Ale Ale (Greece)

10 Eteria - Ой вийди Грицю (Ukraine)

11 Carmen Amaya - Tondero (Spain)

12 Lisandro Mesa y los Hijos de la Nina Luz - Cachaco Sabanero (Colombia)

13 El Piporro - Don Baldomero (México)

14 Frank Hutchison - Stackalee (USA)

15 The Jubalaires - Noah (USA)

16 Clifton Chenier - Johnny Can't Dance (USA)

17 Arthur Big Boy Crudup - My Baby Left Me (USA)

18 The Movers - Balele (South Africa)

On an alley, one dark and drizling night...

Comments

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 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 compás del mundo – programa #119 –Blues Harmonica

Any program that starts and ends with Little Walter has got something going on right. And in this version of Mexican radio’s Al compas del mundo (radioactivaTX.org – in Tequisquiapan, Queretaro) I can do no wrong. Though I kind of, sort of, do a chronology of the harmonica in American blues, I had to start off this playlist with Little Walter Jacobs for reasons obvious to me and, I’m certain, many others. Followed by an all-time favorite – Rollin’ and Tumblin’, with Walter again, Muddy Waters, Baby Face Leroy Foster and an unnamed participant or two. It is a given that the blues developed in the United States brought by an enslaved population that introduced African characteristics from many different roots and regions. This lyric-less version of Rollin’ and Tumblin’ is played, moaned and wailed to create a mood that – to these ears – evokes the sound of the motherland, how distant that might be. Followed by early recordings of a novelty harmonica solo, jug bands, and country sounds. F...

Search This Blog