A whole bunch of big groups from overseas owed a substantial debt to the blues born on these shores. We’re talking Fleetwood Mac (pre-McVie), Animals, Them, Stones, Kinks, Mayall, Yardbirds, Zeppelin, and yes, the Beatles too. Less famous, in most cases, were the progenitors: Big Joe Williams (Baby, Please Don’t Go), Ma Rainey (See See Rider), Junior Wells (You Don’t Love Me), Willie Dixon (I Can’t Quit You Baby), Memphis Slim (Every Day I Have the Blues), Slim Harpo (Shake Your Hips), and Sonny Boy Williamson (Checkin’ On My Baby). Of course, these are amongst the top names in the history of the blues, but if fame for a musician was measured by their bank account, they’d be also-rans to the willing young Brits who “discovered” them. Another good reason to have the blues. Though admittedly, the notoriety of these British Invasion legionnaires playing the music of Black blues artists led to youthful music lovers in places like Racine, Wisconsin, to embrace the genre and a whole new...

Sun Ra starting off this week’s show could spell trouble. But he reined it in and let that celibate band of his (for real - look this up!) cook up some truly satisfying be-bop. No butterfly dancers floating to Mars this time. Maybe next week? Many a jazz fan remains unfamiliar with The Cookers, a super group of seniors still…well, cooking.    Try sitting down (if you can remain seated!) with Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, George Cables, Cecil McBee, Billy Hart, and David Weiss. Well over a century of woodshedding and performance amongst that venerable group. And even though they’re not well known as a unit, they fit in easily amongst the masters represented here: Monk and Trane, Rollins, Hutcherson, Shorter, Sanders and two more only slightly less familiar. Duke Pearson and Teddy Charles require no excuses – great writers and band leaders like them will always rise to the top. Wahoo! – J.H. Space! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop   TRACKLIST Jazz broadcast on RadioActiva Feb 16, 2023 01 ...

A beautiful and jarring selection of field recordings and cassettes from early ‘80s Cairo. Compiled and mixed by Jim Haas from sounds and music collected during a trip to Egypt in 1982.   TRACKLIST rebroadcast on RadioActiva Feb 9, 2023 01 confluence of early morning muezzins - the beautiful chaos that is Cairo 02 street musicians - drummer, mizmars, firecracker, rooster, Cairo 03 Mitaal Enawy - Bellail Bellail; Dunya al-Fan Music Center advertisement 04 al-Sheikh Sawdeeq - Wa-Allah ya ghawaly (Bedouin) 05 radio drama, cool organ 06 Said Darweesh - Hellay halla (an expression of the worker's happiness) 07 Sawlih Abu Bakr - Zifat al-'Arees (Nubia) 08 Beyoumy al-Margawy - title unknown 09 Cairo street market and traffic sounds 10 Abdel Halim Hafez - untitled blues 11 Abanob and Dalia - Coptic Folk - Ancient Egyptian New Year 12 Coptic speaker المتحدثين باللغة القبطيةالمصرية القديمة 13 Coptic song - from the Pharaonic Institute for Coptic Music 14 Fatma Eid - Hassanen wa Mohamaden...

 Sorry if I’ve raised any hackles by lumping Ireland into the association of “British” Isles. Those of Northern Ireland would likely approve but the remaining population may end up trolling me on Twitter, Facebook, and every other social media forum…none of which I frequent, fortunately. Be that as it may, I’m all for a rousing good musical time and a cessation of divisive politics. That’s the here and now of this program and that’s all I’ll say about that.  My father was a fisherman, my mother a fisherman's friend. We Americans find the Brits’ accent engaging and somehow, still, with a suggestion of diffident superiority (methinks). But let Stick In the Wheel’s lead singer sport her Cockney accent and it’s love at first hearing – I want to sit in a pub and have a pint with her!  And then how is it that The High Kings, an Irish band, sound more Midwestern USA than sons of the sod? Another example of international commodities finding that sensible middle ground, maybe? The...

 One thinks of Peruvian music as all panpipes and El Condor Pasa. One would be wrong. Romantic trios, Colonial epoch dances, and Amazonian pop sounds all co-exist with another major influence – the legacy of African-influenced music mostly from the Southern coastal region. Previously ignored outside of the area of its origins, Afro-Peruvian songs are far more popular today than ever before. Hopefully, this little  Al compas del mundo  drop in the bucket will serve to further that growth. Less known still is the presence of Black taste-makers in Ecuador. Largely residing in the northwestern province of Esmeraldas, they make up roughly half the population there and wield a sizable impact on any popular (read “dance”) music charts. Unsurprisingly, Esmeraldas borders Colombia where Black rhythms and dance styles continue to influence the world’s dance floors. The cumbia and other popular dance styles originated here and are imitated from Mexico to Argentina. Those people know...

It’s blues time again on El compas del mundo.  And were going back to some of the forefathers,  those that could be caught on vinyl. Bringing to Mexico and the streaming world all the gravel-voiced hootin’ ‘n hollerin’, jumpin’ ‘n jivin’, shimmyin’ and shakin’…though mostly painful recollections of how things have been, are, and always will be moving forward, world without end, amen. -J.H. The hearing and speech impaired begin to talk.   AL COMPAS DEL MUNDO – programa #61,  was first broadcast on Radioactiva.TX on 1-19-22 The original blues - USA  Play List 01 Cat-Iron - Poor Boy a Long, Long Way from Home 02 anonymous - Little Red Rooster 03 Pattman - Low Down Blues 04 Peg Leg Howell - Skin Game Blues 05 Mississippi Fred McDowell - Big Fat Mama 06 James 'Son Ford' Thomas - 44 Blues 07 Robert Wilkins - I'll Go with Her Blues 08 Scott Dunbar - Lil' Liza Jane 09 Lovey Williams - I Feel So Good 10 Pink Anderson - Boll Weevil 11 Sam M...

Welcome to the land of a thousand potpourris. While we’re only handling one of them today, the past and the future speak for themselves. And what a story they tell. Fighting misfits in the jungles of Israel and the deserts of Colombia, we offer a world-wide view of melancholy and ennui…but not today. It’s energy time. Take a sip of Al compas del mundo and see if it doesn’t change your life. The motto of the moment is “complacency never”! – Jim Haas   "A Brother of Ska Walks into the Bar." AL COMPAS DEL MUNDO – programa #60,  was first broadcast on Radioactiva.TX on 1-12-22 Musical Energy Drink Play List   01 Amedee Pierre et l'Ivoiro Star - Pakora Ibo (Ivory Coast) 02 Baba Comandant and the Mandingo Band - Loga Fo Djelba (Burkina Faso) 03 Los Skarnales - Para Andar Igual (USA) 04 Xterminators - Rebel with a Cause (Jamaica) 05 Anakhi - Lok Boliyan (India) 06 Anonymous – Concert at a wedding in Luxor (Egypt) 07 Tony Grey Super 7 - Yem Efe (Nigeria) 0...