When potpourri met potpourri - from Thailand to Madagascar

I'm momentarily at a loss for how to encapsulate what this week's Al compás del mundo brings forth, but maybe "loss" is the key, or rather "lost", as in showing up where one normally does not belong. There are several cases in this playlist of folks outside their usual musical boundaries. Which can actually be a positive step, artistically speaking.

Take revered Japanese folk singer, Hajime Chitose. Here she stays true to her school and sings in a most traditional manner, while accompanied by the Minyo Crusaders, a fun-loving goofball funk band, equally at home with R&B or Latin rhythms. Works beautifully, no? Than there's Johnny Clegg, a White songwriter and singer, deeply involved with Black South African music. An ardent anti-apartheid activist, he spoke Zulu, was thoroughly acculturated in that ethos, and recorded albums with a mixed-race band despite government and police persecution. Bela Fleck, known principally as a bluegrass banjoist, is heard here contributing his instrumental licks to a Ugandan group’s traditional piece of music – quite successfully, in my opinion. We are also privileged to hear Spanish flamenco allstar Diego el Cigala, this time in Havana, Cuba, surrounded by a wealth of home-grown talent, his raspy voice sounding as if he had been singing the Cuban “son” all his life.

Everything else in the playlist comes from somewhere else and can probably be heard in the same program nowhere else. That’s the beauty of streaming Al compas del mundo on alternative broadcaster RadioactivaTX out of Central Mexico – you never know what you’re going to hear. And, modestly speaking, it’s usually worth your attention.

Al compás del mundo - programa #158,
12-12-24,
potpourri Run list

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

02 Gift Fumulani - Tiye Kwathu (Malawi)

03 Hajime Chitose with Minyo Crusaders - 元ちとせ「豊年節 (Japan)

04 Aza - Akal (Morocco and international)

05 Danait Yohannes - Fqrna Kab Kone Kab Bmado (Ethiopia)

06 Johnny Clegg & Juluka - Jwanasibeki (South Africa)

07 Hazolahi - Talia (Madagascar)

08 Indian Rajasthan Gypsy dance (India)

09 anonimo de Crete - Sose me giatre mou (Greece)

10 Bela Fleck, Haruna Walisimbi, Okiror & Ronald Mabandha - Spirit Song (Uganda and USA)

11 Diego el Cigala (en Cuba) - El Ratón (Spain)

12 Cumbia Santeña - María Luisa (Panama)

13 Ceferino Nieto - Río Sucui (Colombia)

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