Zeca Afonso is one of the most influential folk and political musicians in Portuguese history. He became an icon among Portuguese left-wing activists due to the role of his music in the resistance against the dictatorial regime. In the ensuing Portuguese revolutionary process, after 1974, Zeca Afonso was a very active musician and continued composing political and folk songs, often criticizing the post-revolutionary changes. Years after his death, Zeca Afonso is still widely listened to, not only in Portugal, but also abroad. He died in February 23, 1987.
Coliseu de Lisboa, January 1983
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Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Kroke: Live at the Pit
Essential World Music Records #2: Kroke - Live at the Pit
Anyone who had the opportunity to see Kroke live will hardly forget them. They may not be Jewish, but the whole feeling that the eastern Diaspora introduced into klezmer music is very present. You just need a bass, violin and accordion to make this replica perfect and the concept reinvented. Kroke is Yiddish for Krakow. The birthplace of this trio was until 1939 one of the major European centers of Jewish culture.
"Live at the Pit
" despite being a live album, reproduces only the sound stage, that in itself worthy of note. But a Kroke show is much more than that. It lives from a strong presence of the musicians who dress just like the orthodox Jews, together with a virtuosity and remarkable rapport. The feeling is Jewish, the energy seems to have been stolen from the Balkan gypsies, the strumming of instruments denotes a classical education and the rapport of a group that plays on average more than 250 times a year. Throughout the performance of "Live at the Pit" we are deceived by the unexpected. The ease with which they change rhythm in "The Night in The Garden of Eden" or the ordered disorientation of "Sher" in which musicians play at different times for fun, are examples of this.
Please Visit Echoes of the Land aStore
Anyone who had the opportunity to see Kroke live will hardly forget them. They may not be Jewish, but the whole feeling that the eastern Diaspora introduced into klezmer music is very present. You just need a bass, violin and accordion to make this replica perfect and the concept reinvented. Kroke is Yiddish for Krakow. The birthplace of this trio was until 1939 one of the major European centers of Jewish culture.
"Live at the Pit
" despite being a live album, reproduces only the sound stage, that in itself worthy of note. But a Kroke show is much more than that. It lives from a strong presence of the musicians who dress just like the orthodox Jews, together with a virtuosity and remarkable rapport. The feeling is Jewish, the energy seems to have been stolen from the Balkan gypsies, the strumming of instruments denotes a classical education and the rapport of a group that plays on average more than 250 times a year. Throughout the performance of "Live at the Pit" we are deceived by the unexpected. The ease with which they change rhythm in "The Night in The Garden of Eden" or the ordered disorientation of "Sher" in which musicians play at different times for fun, are examples of this.Please Visit Echoes of the Land aStore
Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabete: Ali and Toumani
""Ali and Toumani" contains the final recordings made by a pair of master musicians: the Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré, who died in 2006, and the Cuban bassist Orlando "Cachaíto" Lopez, who died last year. But this 11-track album -- the second collection of collaborations by Touré and the Malian kora player Toumani Diabeté -- doesn't sound like death. Rather, it's an early contender for the warmest, most life-affirming listen of 2010.Read More
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Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Ali Farka Touré - "Niafunké"
Essential World Music Records #1: Ali Farka Touré - "Niafunké"
" with Ali Farka Touré. Artistically "Talking Timbuktu" represented the definitive affirmation of a Malian blues man that from then on, intensified the number of shows worldwide, in personal terms however it meant a drift from values that he considered more important.
Ali Farka Touré was never happy with the show business life, many were the times that Touré thought of abandoning his life as musician. This sentiment is reflected in his last rare live appearances outside their natural environment: the village of Niafunké, on the edge of the Sahara Desert, around the Niger River, where there is no electricity or running water. There, Ali Farka Touré, father of 11 and 60 years old, has put the cultivation of the land above the music, investing all the money earned from this activity in agricultural machinery. He felt a certain discomfort in his successive world tours for losing the essence of his roots, it would be inevitable to record Niafunké the 'place of origin of this music - deep Mali', recorded by a mobile studio fed by a generator.
"Niafunké" is probably the greatest album of the life of Ali Farka Touré and a serious candidate to best world album of the 90s. In "Talking Timbuktu" the production of Ry Cooder created a greater range of sounds that helped build the great songs sweetened for western ears; in "Niafunké
" we see the return to land and sound of the first recordings that "Radio Mali
" (96) document. "Niafunké" is the return of someone who matured his musical vision on a global stage and works the land every day. "Niafunké" may not have songs as melodic as "Talking Timbuktu", but gains in authenticity that is reflected not only in Toure's most audacious guitar playing, as the musicians accompanying him. The warm female choruses, the rhythms of the turbulent calabash, the djembe and congas to remind Oumou Sangare, the sound of Njarka 's trance, lead us into a journey of devotion and drunkenness and giving us all the purity of deep Mali, where the blues were born.
" with Ali Farka Touré. Artistically "Talking Timbuktu" represented the definitive affirmation of a Malian blues man that from then on, intensified the number of shows worldwide, in personal terms however it meant a drift from values that he considered more important.Ali Farka Touré was never happy with the show business life, many were the times that Touré thought of abandoning his life as musician. This sentiment is reflected in his last rare live appearances outside their natural environment: the village of Niafunké, on the edge of the Sahara Desert, around the Niger River, where there is no electricity or running water. There, Ali Farka Touré, father of 11 and 60 years old, has put the cultivation of the land above the music, investing all the money earned from this activity in agricultural machinery. He felt a certain discomfort in his successive world tours for losing the essence of his roots, it would be inevitable to record Niafunké the 'place of origin of this music - deep Mali', recorded by a mobile studio fed by a generator.
"Niafunké" is probably the greatest album of the life of Ali Farka Touré and a serious candidate to best world album of the 90s. In "Talking Timbuktu
" the production of Ry Cooder created a greater range of sounds that helped build the great songs sweetened for western ears; in "Niafunké" we see the return to land and sound of the first recordings that "Radio Mali" (96) document. "Niafunké" is the return of someone who matured his musical vision on a global stage and works the land every day. "Niafunké" may not have songs as melodic as "Talking Timbuktu", but gains in authenticity that is reflected not only in Toure's most audacious guitar playing, as the musicians accompanying him. The warm female choruses, the rhythms of the turbulent calabash, the djembe and congas to remind Oumou Sangare, the sound of Njarka 's trance, lead us into a journey of devotion and drunkenness and giving us all the purity of deep Mali, where the blues were born.
Friday, February 19, 2010
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