Music from the films of Tony Gatlif

Shown here - Tony Gatlif filming in Transylvania

- I was introduced to Tony Gatlif by virtue of the music from some of his films. Hearing Romani (formerly Gypsy) songs of great beauty, rhythm and passion, I felt the need to explore further how they came to be and who brought them to the world at large. Gatlif, a film director, producer, screenwriter, composer, and actor, focused largely on his Romani roots in some 20 film projects. These took him to record vignettes of Romani life in India, Egypt, Algeria, Hungary, Romania, France, Spain, and elsewhere. Music was an essential element in these depictions, and in fact, Latcho Drom, likely his best-known film, was a dialogue-free exposition of Romani song and dance around the globe. Gatlif has made it his life’s mission to reveal to the world at large the relevance, strength, creativity and value of a people largely despised by society, wherever their nomadic journey took them. The musical gems included in this playlist owe their place in the public’s consciousness to Tony Gatlif. All praise.

Runlist Al compás del mundo #176, First Broadcast 4-17-25 –
Music from the films of Tony Gatlif (Algerian-French-Romani)

01 Le Vent-1

02 Promesse

03 Gritos de Guerra (Arrincónamela)

04 Tchiki Tchiki

05 Regret

06 Le Tzigane Heureux

07 Santa Maria

08 L'amour en liberté

09 Le Chant De La Paix

10 Je t'ai cherché

12 Intrusa

13 Apparition

14 Soda

15 Le Vent

16 Doina Ciorba

17 Sainte-Marie

18 Vengo del Lejos

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...

Search This Blog