What’s the best out there in World Beat/World Music?
I’ve been listening to some **Zap Mama’s ** “Ancestry in Progress” this morning realizing that I don’t have a big selection of the good stuff.
My favorites are:
Les Negresses Vertes : “Mlah”
Ladysmith Black Mambazo : “The Best Of…”
Angélique Kidjo : “Aye”
So what else is out there that is a “must have”?
Loreena McKennitt was a fairly popular celtic artist back in the late 90s. You might recognize “The Mummer’s Dance” off The Book Of Secrets.
David Byrne’s solo work has featured a lot of Latin music and is worth looking into.
allmusic.com has a lot of info on world music that you might be interested in.
Radio Tarifa, Manu Chau and Africando.
You can get some more pointers from the BBC. There are also world music programs on the World Service that’s available online on streaming audio.
I second Manu Chao (and Mano Negra). Also, check out Putumayo, they have good collections/anthologies of world music. Enjoy!
Personally I’m partial to 3Mustaphas3:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/glance/-/38433/ref=pd_ap_sr/103-8739453-1733454
One of my all-time favorite groups is Orchestra Baobab, a Senegalese bands that plays Cuban-flavored dance music. This is a desert-island album for me.
I personally like compilation albums, which Putamayo does wonderfully: I esp. recommend Congo to Cuba, Memphis to Mali, and Afro-Latino, which all do great mixes of African and various kinds of African-American music – Memphis to Mali focuses on the blues.
Another killer compliation album is Desert Blues 2, which introduced me to one of my current faves, Momo Wandel Soumah. This album took me a while to find, until it finally occurred to me to check half.com :smack: Imagine a guy with Louis Armstrong’s voice, only with more miles on it – and amazing sax playing.
If you like guitar, check out Habib Koite – I love this album.
For Brazilian music, let’s hope Mycroft Holmes shows up – he’s really knowledgable and has recommended a couple of albums that I like a lot.
Gigi (Electric Ethiopia)
Oliver Mtukudzi (Tuku Music)
African music like you’ve never heard it.
Both fantastic artists.
Oh yeah! I heard them on that World Service program I mentioned a few weeks ago, and bought a CD the next day. They’re absolutely fantastic.
World Music is a huge are of interest. From what you mention, stpauler, I would second raindog’s suggestion of Gigi.
However, if you want to explore Slavic, Russian, Middle Eastern, Irish, Tuvan, Indian, Scandinavian etc etc etc etc music than the advice would different.
If you or anyone are after anything more specific, please feel free to ask me, as I would say I know a fair bit about world music (Sub Saharan Africa and the whole South American thing are my weaker spots, though). I just love talking about it, so ask away.
In the meantime, an excellent world music program is Reels to Ragas on Irish radio Lyric FM, Sundays at six GMT. You can listen online if you so happen not be in Ireland. For Irish music in particular Clare FM has traditional music every weekday from 7 to 9 GMT.
Oh, I’d love to hear all about those styles as well. I really wanna become more familiar with, well…, everything. 
Maybe a good idea would be a primer for world music. What would be your highest recommendations from all points of the continents?
Okay, I’ll do my best to do that, but am running out of time for computer time today, so in the meantime, have a look at the Rough Guide(yes, as in the travel books) CD collection, Realworld Records and Naxos World.
These are three labels with a big accessible world music catalogue. The Rough Guide series are all compilations, but they are really handy to get an idea of what is out there in a particular country or region.
Of course there’s plenty of stuff on smaller quirky labels, but those should keep you browsing for a good while.
I recommend their “African Blues” compilation.
:smack: Rough Guides “African Blues” compilation, that is.
Well, you mentioned Les Negresses Vertes already, which was going to be my recommendation.
And Manu Chao has already been mentioned twice, so I’ll just add in a third. Clandestino is just a brilliant record.
N’issi N’issi and Sahra, by Khaled get played over and over and over here in the 'addi house. Khaled is an Algeria, who sings in french and I think the music style is called Raï. Whatever it’s called, it kills!
Check out Afropop Worldwide, and listen to your local National Public Radio station and college stations! Most of the stuff I love, I found either that way, or by going to some extremely random live shows and concerts at the Chicago Cultural Center and the local summer outdoor festivals. And Mom used to take me to all sorts of live shows when I was underage. The first world music concert I remember was a local Balkan/jazz fusion band called the Balkan Rhythm Band, when I was maybe 15 - they playes the old jazz standard, NIght in Tunisia, but in 7/8 time. I was hooked.
Afropop Worldwide: http://afropop.org (as the name suggests, they feature African-influenced music from around the world. Plus I am in love with their DJ’s voice.)
Some current favorites of mine:
Aterciopelados
The Rustavi Choir
Les Yeux Noirs (their lead violinist doesn’t know this yet, but he’s going to bear my children)
Fulanito
(and yep, somewhere I’ve got a 3 Mustaphas 3 cassette. Bought it at a live show out on Navy Pier a zillion years ago.)