Trio Bulgarka (I think that’s how it’s spelled). They were featured prominantly on one of Kate Bush’s albums (had the songs Love and Anger, Rocket’s Tail, and This Woman’s Work on it, IMHO it’s her “jump the shark” album).
There’s also always Enya (though I’d take Lisa Gerrard over Enya). If you want to raise some eyebrows, then Tatu’s Dangerous and Moving would work. Even without the whole faux lesbian thing, it’s a good album, IMHO.
Eastern Europe - Sonja Drakulic of Stellamara is pretty amazing.
East Africa - check out Somali singer Maryam Mursal.
There is a new Yemenite Israeli singer on the scene - Michal Cohen. Her voice doesn’t sound anything like Ofra Haza’s, but she sings great and did a cover of “Im Nin‘alu.”
Archive Guy, here are 5 half-hour “podcasts” I have for you. These are the playlists:
Artist - Album - Song - Country
01
Márta Sebestyén - Aprocrypha - Szerelem Szerelem (Hungary)
Adriana Calcanhoto - Perfil Serie(?) - Esquadros (Brazil)
Angélique Kidjo - Aye - Djan Djan (Benin/France)
Shiela Chandra - Nada Brahma - Raqs (England/India)
Eva Ayllon - Rebeca - Bandida (Peru)
Alkistis Protopsalti - Like A Volcano - Kathreftis (Greece)
Madredeus - O Espirito Da Paz (?) - O Pastor (Portugal)
Virginia Rodrigues - Nos - Canto Pra Exu (Brazil)
02
Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares - Volume One - Polegnala E Todora (Bulgaria)
Zap Mama - Zap Mama - Din Din (Zaire/Belgian)
Eleftheria Arvanitaki - Meno Ektos - Meno Ektos (Greece)
Najma - Qareeb - Dil Laga Ya Tha (India)
Talitha MacKenzie - Solas - HoireannO (Scotland/America)
Sona Diabate - Girls Of Guinea - Kankele-Ti (Guinea)
Mercedes Sosa - 30 Anos - Todo Cambia (Argentina)
03
Dulce Pontes - Caminhos - CantigadaTerra (Portugal)
Vas - Sunyata - Astrae (Iran/India/America)
Agnes Buen Garnas with Jan Garbarek - Rosensfole: Medieval Songs From Norway - Rosensfole (Norway)
Googoosh - ? - Poul (could be Pol, I’m not sure) (Iran)
Bévinda - Great Voices Of Fado - Nunca Mais (Portugal)
Lydia Mendoza - Mal Hombre - Mal Hombre (Mexican-American)
04
Márta Sebestyén and Muzsikás - Muzsikás - Vetettem violát (Hungary)
Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares - Volume One - Svatba (Bulgaria)
Värttinä - Oi Dai - Oi Dai (Finland)
Djur Djura - Voice Of Silence - Derya U Mazir (Heirs To The Future) (Algeria)
Loreena McKennitt - The Visit - All Souls Night (Canada)
Eleftheria Arvanitaki - Meno Ektos - Dinata (Greece)
Chaba Zahouania - Nights Without Sleeping - Goulou Limma (Algeria)
05
Marta Sebestyen - Aprocrypha01 - Tavasz Tavasz (Hungary)
Márta Sebestyén and Muzsikás - Muzsikás 10 - Teremtés (Hungary)
Sheila Chandra with Monsoon - Third Eye - And I You (England/India)
Edith Piaf - The Very Best of Edith Piaf - Non Je Ne Regrette Rien (France)
Dulce Pontes - Caminhos - Fado Portugues (Portugal)
Djur Djura - Asirem - Igwerdan Ad Ddun Yidi (Algeria)
Googoosh - Zartosht - Khake Asir (Iran)
I hope your wife can find some songs she likes here. I suspect several won’t be right (too many drums, starts out soft but ends loud) but if there will be different moods they might work. I was shocked at how sparse my collection was of world music. I do have dozens of CDs and hundreds of songs, but so few of the songs seemed to work for this use. I kept tossing songs that were way too weird (I sobbed a bit when I had to toss Catherine Lara’s “Aral” and West India Company) and I resisted the tempation to put in a couple of English-American songs (hey, they’re citizens of the world too!) though I did sneak in a Canadian. I lamented the loss of my old hard drive and kept glancing at the drawer where it sits and moping. I hardly have anything from the current World Music scene but that’s not too much of a big deal. My philosophy has always been that good music is good music, no matter where it’s from or how old it is (which is why I couldn’t resist that Lydia Mendoza from the '30’s and Edith Piaf who just gives me chills and if used, could bring some French participants to tears).
Yes, I have a deep affinity for Portuguese music. Greek too. Odd, since I’m German/Irish/Swedish. I think I’m adopted, with a soulful fado-singing Portuguese mother and a swarthy Greek father with lots of singing female relatives out there somewhere.
Disclaimer: Like most Americans, I don’t speak a word of any other language (ok, I know “supermacado” and “zeitgeist” though I’m not sure if they’re spelled correctly) so I don’t know what any of these songs are about. I hope there’s nothing that will upset anyone. I just like listening to them. I do wish I knew what they were about. For instance, I’d love to know what Adriana Calcanhoto is singing about. That’s such a cool song and I haven’t a clue. Also, Mercedes Sosa never fails to bring me to tears when I listen to her voice and that flute in “Todo Cambia” but I have no idea what the song is about. “Bandida” sounds like a lot of fun, but…?
Most of these are probably going to be easy to find, but you might have to search a little longer for Googoosh unless you know some Iranian record stores. She has about a thousand albums. I discovered her on the old (good) Napster.God I miss Napster. The old, good one. I’m not even sure of the name of the first song. It’s an oldie and starts out very mundane, but as soon as she starts singing I’m fascinated by her voice and way of singing.
Enjoy!
So, like, you’re welcome?
I’d like to apologise to Archive Guy. I see he hasn’t posted for several days. I was in a bad mood about something un-Dope related and got snarky. I’m very sorry.
Btw, the Googoosh song is called “Pol” instead of “Poul.” It’s on the album of the same name. I just love Googoosh’s story. There oughta be a movie (there is a documentary about her). She was one of the most popular actresses and singers in Iran (beyond Madonna popularity) but when the revolution happened in 1979 it was forbidden for women to sing and perform in public, and so for 20 years she was silenced and invisible. During that time her music was secretly sold and passed around deep underground and she gained more and more fans, both in Iran and anywhere else Iranians had immigrated. She became almost a mythical figure. Then in 2000 she suddenly reappeared with a world tour and Iranians everywhere were in ecstacy. She now lives in Los Angeles and once again records.
I discovered her on the old Napster, and she (rather, her record company) got my account deleted because I had some of her songs in my sharing folder. Man it was a bitch to get back on Napster after that. Ah well, I don’t blame her of course.
Equipoise – I’m not the one you did the podcasts for, but thanks! I missed your post the other day, so I’m glad you bumped the thread – I’ll check those out this evening.
Thanks!
Thanks from here as well - great stuff!
You’re welcome twickster and Martha!
I was listening to the first one and noticed a mistake in the playlist. I made up the playlist after I had chosen the songs in Winamp but before I made the podcast. I switched around 2 songs and forgot all about changing the playlist. Madredeus comes after Eva Ayllon and Alkistis comes after Madredeus.
This playlist…
Should read:
01
Márta Sebestyén - Aprocrypha - Szerelem Szerelem (Hungary)
Adriana Calcanhoto - Perfil Serie(?) - Esquadros (Brazil)
Angélique Kidjo - Aye - Djan Djan (Benin/France)
Shiela Chandra - Nada Brahma - Raqs (England/India)
Eva Ayllon - Rebeca - Bandida (Peru)
Madredeus - O Espirito Da Paz (?) - O Pastor (Portugal)
Alkistis Protopsalti - Like A Volcano - Kathreftis (Greece)
Virginia Rodrigues - Nos - Canto Pra Exu (Brazil)
With luck that’ll be the only mistake. I didn’t listen to any of them before uploading and posting. I put them all together using their waveforms in Sound Forge* (god I love technology!) and only listen to the transitions after they’re mixed together to make sure the timing is ok. Once I was done with one I’d save it and upload it then start on another. Putting the shows together goes fairly quick. It’s gathering all the songs, listening to them, choosing songs, and trying to put them in some kind of order that makes sense aurally is the time-consuming part. I spent days just listening to songs and rearranging them. Anyway, I hadn’t gone back to listen to each podcasts from start to finish.
Oh, and Tuckerfan? I know you said IMHO, but MY IMHO is that Kate has NEVER jumped the shark, right up through her last, brilliant and beautiful album, Aerial. As far as The Sensual World goes, it’s a glorious, gorgeous album.
Anatomy of a show (scroll down)
I love Eleftheria Arvanitaki but her CDs are hard to obtain.
Thank you very much, Equipoise. My wife was thrilled with your contribution and is very excited about the prospect of listening (and hopefully incorporating) your ideas and suggestions into the event.
We don’t really have a working computer at home, so I don’t usually post on the weekend (though I did pull up the thread and bookmark the podcast link on her work laptop). Can you drop me an e-mail or PM? I have a question for you…
Thanks again! 
Badi Assad, incredible guitarist and vocalist.
As Meninas are good too, but I don’t know if they’re still together…
Great! PM is sent.
Joanna, I don’t know of a good source for Eleftheria albums. I had a friend from Greece who turned me on to her music. Haris Alexiou too (though I forgot about putting her on the podcasts). I discovered Alkistis on the old Napster when I made a bunch of Greek friends. Off-topic and very ego-centric story, but I’m probably never going to be able to tell it anywhere else (I’m not going to get into any discussions about the ethics or legality of it)…
Back when I was on Napster, the spring, summer and fall of 2000, it was a glorious time for music for me. I discovered more music during those months than I ever had before, and I BOUGHT more music than I ever had before or since. There were two things in particular that made that time on Napster particularly fun for me. One, Winamp came out with this program called “Shoutcast” which was a way to play music for people in real-time. It was the true beginning of Internet radio. If a person had Winamp and speakers, it didn’t matter where in the world they were, they could hear the music I played. Second, Napster itself had a chat program, one of the first of its kind I believe (don’t quote me though). So someone could look at my list and send me a chat message and ask me about a particular thing in real time. I’d ask them if they had Winamp and if so, I’d have them install the Shoutcast plugin, and then I’d play them whatever they were asking about in real time. It was like my own personal Internet radio station and people could request things in real time, even if they were on the other side of the world. This was 2000, remember, and none of this stuff was commonplace.
The most fun I ever had was when my Greek friends, two guys who shared an apartment in Athens, were throwing a party and asked me to do the music for it. They hooked up their computer to their home speakers, and for hours I played music in real time, my kind of music (which was their kind too, female vocals), and chatted with them and people at the party. At one point they put one of the speakers out on their balcony and I was playing music for Athens itself. And here I was, sitting in Chicago in my pajamas! shakes head Those were the days…
Then Napster got sued out of existance (well, there exists something called Napster now, but it’s not the real Napster), the RIAA started cracking down on private Internet radio stations of all forms, and that was the end of that era.
That’s a real world music story, Equipoise. Ditto on the female vocals.
Check out Sainkho Namtchylak, an experimental folk singer with an exceptional vocal range (seven octaves!). She’s also an accomplished Tuvan throat singer.
I’d like a cite for that other than Wikipedia because that entry sure needs a “citation needed” tag. Is that even possible? Heck, Happy Rhodes has a freakin’ incredible range and she’s only three and a half octaves. Even Mariah Carey, who can sing in the whistle register, is generally credited as having 4, sometimes 5 octaves. I think Yma Sumac was credited with 5 octaves. People throw around octave numbers for various singers but it really needs to be proven. My husband did just that with Happy Rhodes. Sound clips from her highest known note sung and lowest known note sung are on her Wikipedia page (which I’m updating at the moment, so there are unfinished bits) so people can judge for themselves.
I missed the edit window but I meant to add that she does sound fascinating. I haven’t heard of a female throat singer before, so I’d like to hear her, regardless of how many octaves she can sing.
Well, the same numbers have been claimed in quite a few links reviewing her work, a quick Google search will show that. Of course, they may have all been copying each other. However I do have 2 of her CDs and her vocal range is indeed extensive, easily 4-5. Add to that her abilities in Tuvan throat singing and I can see it reaching 7. That’s all I have right now, how does one go about measuring this exactly? I’d honestly like to know.
My husband downloaded a program called “Transcribe!” and played Happy’s low and high notes through it, and that’s how he figured out her range. It’s a pretty cool program. It has a 30-day evaluation period, and I think I’m going to buy it (25 English pounds, or around $49 according to the web site). I like supporting cool little programs like this.
That’s pretty sweet! I’m going to check it out, thanks!