Franco

Milo Miles writes a biographical piece on Franco.

The African guitarist, singer and bandleader known as Franco was the first modern international pop-music superstar in the continent, a sensation not only in his native Republic of the Congo, but throughout central Africa. He sustained a busy career from when he was 18 in 1956 to his death at 51 in 1989. Yet he remains little known in America — he never found a US record label to support him and he did only two brief tours here in the mid-80s. Fortunately, Franco recorded a huge amount of material — and two collections were recently released that could finally establish him in this country.

Now that Nigerian Afrobeat originator Fela Kuti has a hit Broadway play devoted to him, it's safe to say he's finally edged into the pop culture pantheon, a dozen years after his death. It's an open question whether an even bigger star in Africa, who's been dead even longer, the Congo's soukous master Franco, will ever get the same acclaim. He deserves it, but he doesn't translate as well, and not only because he never sang in English. Even so, two recent collections, Francophonic Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, make a powerful case through music and performance alone that Franco was an irresistible force — the so-called "sorcerer of the guitar." When Franco started out in the '50s, "jazz" was a generic term in the Congo for modern music and his band was called OK Jazz. They could be wonderfully sweet even when loudly boasting, as in an early hit that might have described their effect on audiences. Translated, it says "You Come in OK, You Leave KO'ed."

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John Mayall: Tough

Mike Joyce reviews John Mayall's Tough.

"Tough" marks a lineup shift; Mayall isn't fronting yet another edition of the Bluesbreakers. Not only is he in good form, singing and playing organ, guitar and squalling harmonica, he's in good company, leading a robust quintet that boasts keyboardist Tom Canning and guitarist Rocky Athas. The songs aren't exceptional, but they are sturdy, and the best of them, including Gary Nicholson's dire blues "How Far Down" and Jeff Pitchell's "An Eye for an Eye," are keepers. Hard times and emotional despair inspire recurring themes, as the album's title suggests, but the performances are also a reminder of Mayall's remarkable resilience.

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Tommy T: The Prester John Sessions

Jill Turner reviews Tommy T's The Prester John Sessions.

Enjoy a musical road map of Ethiopia, and discover a musical Eden full of treasures as Gogol Bordello bass man, Tommy T, inspired by the legend of Prester John, leaves the harsh punky Balkan sounds behind as he explores his Ethiopian roots in The Prester John Sessions.

Tommy T puts the music of Gogol Bordello firmly to one side and in contrast to both the bright blue and orange graphics of the sleeve cover and the harsher punk stylings of the Bordello brand of Balkan pop, we find a lush, well rounded, rolling album that fuses some of Ethiopia’s many musical forms with jazz, reggae and dub that you’ll want to play it over and over again. Its softer and perhaps more accessible than last year’s offerings of Ethiopian Dub / Jazz fusion from Nick Page's 'Dub Colossus in a Town called Addis' and more focused, less psychedelic and meandering than Dan Harper’s 'Punt'.

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Robin Denselow reviews Tommy T's The Prester John Sessions.

He may be best-known as the bass player backing Eugene Hutz in the frantic and highly theatrical ­American punk gypsy band Gogol Bordello, but Tommy T is also an Ethiopian ­multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter determined to make his own contribution to the Ethiopian ­fusion scene. He is influenced both by the ­classic, brass-backed songs of 60s ­Ethiopian dance music and by the ­contemporary blend of dub ­reggae and Ethiopian traditional styles ­pioneered by Dub Colossus, and to all of this he has added a dash of cool American funk and moody jazz.

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Julie Fowlis: Uam

Julie Fowlis releases her new album Uam on March 9th (Cadiz Music/ Shoeshine Records).

Audio Samples available here.

Press release available here.

More on Julie Fowlis on Wikipedia.

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The Zero Hour Tango Fest

Between Shadows and Longing:
The Zero Hour Tango Fest Brings the Sensuality of Late Night City Streets onto the Stage

A tango festival unlike any other.

Walking among dimly lit streets, a clock strikes midnight and the mythical "zero hour" is upon you. It has long past since the skyline swallowed the sun, as familiar city scenes are reborn with a mysterious air. Shadows take on a life of their own, slipping between the glow of streetlights and neon signs. The seductive melancholy of a slow tango creeps into your heart, transporting you to a nostalgic dimension where memories of home, lament for lost loves, and hardships of daily life flash across your mind. The breaths of the concertina-like bandoneón reverberate throughout your body as they merge with a passionate delivery of poetic lyrics and the sultry intimacy of a dancing couple, stirring a swirl of emotions within your soul.

On March 26th and 27th, 2010, a commissioned ensemble of renown all-star tango masters will descend on the byways of Bloomington, Indiana, to put in motion the Zero Hour Tango Fest, an immersive, multi-sensory theatrical experience that will reinterpret this urban landscape through the lens of tango. In addition to musical and dance performances, throughout the evening concerts, local videographers, armed with cameras, will comb the corners of Bloomington's avenues and alleyways. Projecting live video onto the screens of the theatre, they will bring the street onto the stage. As these images merge with the musical performances, it will become clear that tango is not only an art, but also a way of being in the world. Tango is a worldview that works as well in a town like Bloomington as it does in Buenos Aires , Argentina. "Tango is music, dance, and poetry," explains Alfredo Minetti, musician, scholar, and producer of this event. "Tango is an expression, a gaze, a walk, and a type of character-an entire moral system. It is rare to see all these things represented on stage together. Usually, people just emphasize the dance or the music." Through the course of concerts, workshops, an open dance floor, and roundtable discussions, this festival will explore the intersection of these elements, connecting the shadowy zero hour with the darker sides of the human condition.

Check the Zero Hour Tango Festival Event Schedule

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