Global potpourri

Al compás del mundo 206, 11-6-25 - global potpourri list

01 Alogte Oho - Mam Yinne Wa (Ghana)

02 Jagwa Music - Mchawi Ndugu (Tanzania)

03 Polibio Mayorga - Altas Horas (Ecuador)

04 Nimco Jamaac - Buuraha U Dheer (Somalia)

05 Cheb Mohamed Sghir - Zoujouha Laaroubia (Algeria)

06 Pasteur LappÉ - Sanaga Calypso (Cameroon)

07 New Tutenkhamen - Joburg Bound (Zimbabwe)

08 Phuzekhemisi No Nothembi - Solo Ngiyathokoza (Ndebele, South Africa)

09 Saodaj - Pokor Lèr (Reunion)

10 Kaxgar Kizi - Chirayliq (Uyghur, China)

11 Nair Band - Mongolian Brown (Mongolia)

12 bAnda con Εύη Σεϊτανίδου - Ομάλ (Greece)

13 Les Négresses Vertes - Enfer et paradis (France)

14 Matmatah - Les moutons (France)

I suppose most of my potpourri programs take off for a global trek much like this one. I mean, if it were a potpourri of blues stylings, it would be a blues program.

Likewise, a jazz potpourri would be a jazz program. But when the reach extends from Ghana to Ecuador, Algeria to Zimbabwe, Mongolia to Greece and finally to France, it becomes a potpourri-apalooza, ready to embrace one and all. I enjoy finding links that somehow manage to enhance the transition from one culture to another.

The first five titles all share a reliance on electronics, as manifested by a variety of inorganic organs. Of particular note is the cut by Jagwa Music, a manic Tanzanian band that makes constant, driving use of a miniature casio keyboard – a toy in the hands of a true innovator.

While there are plenty of highlights, I find the song by Saodaj compelling in that it borrows from different global styles (i.e. a Bulgarian women’s chorus) but ultimately sounds like nothing else. I didn’t know what to expect from that remote island nation…and kudos to anyone who can point to Reunion on a world map.

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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