Good ole #144 potpourri

A dozen dozens add up to program #144 this week, and being the ardent numerologist that I am, I have to regard this milestone with both admiration and suspicion. I’m pleased at myself for having found this Mexican radio gig in the first place and yet I can’t help but imagine we just might run out of musical attention-getting devices, say, by the year 2050. Maybe it’s time to play a little Stockhausen...? For example, his “Helicopter String Quartet” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13D1YY_BvWU would be a sure crowd pleaser and I could take the rest of the week off. See what you think. Play it in a continuous loop for 60 minutes and see if it doesn’t rev your engine. Should it fail, I suppose you can always fall back on this week’s Al compás del mundo playlist wherein you shall discover Caribbean rhythms, a brief dalliance in religious or down-in-the-mouth folk tunes, a leap in faith to Asian overtures, and a final touch down in northern, central and southern Africa.

Which hour of listening pleasure would you prefer? I face for your answer.

Listo Al compás del mundo, programa #144, potpourri
First broadcast 9-5-24

01 Creations - Qua Kue Shut (Jamaica)

02 Joseph Lacides - Yo ka biguiné (Guadalupe)

03 Willie Colón - La Murga (Panama)

04 Trio Zamora - Anoche Soñe Contigo (Cuba)

05 Tlacuatzin - Xochipitzahuatl - Flor Menudita Día de Muertos (Mexico)

06 United Sacred Harp Convention - Hallelujah (USA)

07 James 'Son Ford' Thomas - Cairo (USA)

08 Jimmie Davis - Doggone That Train (USA)

09 The Turbans - Chubby (international)

10 Kebi Dhindsa - Chak Deyan Ge (India)

11 Yusuf Azad Qawwal - Malan Dil Mein Basale (India)

12 P.M. Pocket Music - Pama Rum Kwan (Thailand)

13 Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou - Madjafalao (Benín)

14 Izintombi Zomgqashiyo - Sithunyiwe Thokozile No. 3 (South Africa)

15 Mundeke Cecile Kayirebwa - Mbaririmbire (Rwanda)

16 Mazouni - Chérie Madame (feat Meriem Abed) (Algeria)

Comments

Guitarras del mundo

Choosing music and writing about “the guitar” opens many doors. I could have gone off in any number of directions and with a singular narrow focus - but I didn’t. Instead, I threw a whole bunch of varied tunes against a wall to see which ones stuck. Sometimes there’s a continuity and other times none: just two aesthetically pleasing pieces that worked well in tandem and, hopefully, were preceded and followed with similar morsels. Usually, that is how these programs come together. I receive a divinely inspired revelation for a certain theme, region, or style of music and build it from there. Baden Powell, Brazilian beatnik poet and guitar master, seemed to me an obvious choice to begin the program. From there (as you can well see) we stick around Latin America a bit; segue into Spain, notorious as a guitar hotbed; head South to North Africa for the venerable Bombino (yes, again!) and more of that desert blues ilk; logically morph into a short blues set and settle at the bottom sid...

Electric Chicago blues

Al compás del mundo Run List #172, 3-20-25 - electric Chicago blues 01 James Cotton - Love Me or Leave Me 02 Sonny Boy Williamson - Wake Up Baby 03 Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers - Wild About You, Baby 04 Howlin Wolf - You'll Be Mine 05 John Lee Hooker – Louise 06 Junior Wells - Snatch It Back and Hold It 07 Koko Taylor - Wang Dang Doodle 08 Little Walter - I Don't Play 09 Jimmy Rogers - Walking by Myself 10 J.B. Lenoir - Don't Dog Your Woman 11 Otis Rush - Keep on Loving Me Baby 12 Muddy Waters - I Can't Be Satisfied 13 Sunnyland Slim - Shake It 14 Walter Horton - It's Alright 15 Buddy Guy - When My Left Eye Jumps 16 Magic Sam - She Belongs to Me 17 Johnny Young - Cross-Cut Saw 18 Eddie Boyd - Third Degree 19 Willie Dixon and Friends - I Cry for You Got to feature the blues from time to time on Al compás del mundo as there seems to be a shortage of such on Mexican radio. Although RadioactivaTX.org, the ...

India y Nepal y Tibet

W here a human voice is heard in today’s program it’s often starkly different from what most Westerners might find pleasing and melodic. But I must remind my listeners that the West probably did not invent the concept of vocalizing as accompaniment to plucked/blown/percussed musical instruments. Why do we sing in the style that we do? I imagine there are knowledgeable tomes wrestling with that idea. I ’ve read that vocals were meant to imitate the sounds made by instruments...or vice versa? The chicken or the egg? I’m not here to answer that question, in spite of the college course I had taken of “Music Cultures of the World” decades ago. What I offer is the opportunity to pay attention to and digest musical expressions performed by people steeped in the traditional ways of their culture. T here is a geographic component to lumping together India, Nepal and Tibet as the Himalayas served to isolate and circumscribe the peoples of those northern regions. But here’s where I fud...

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