Ancient Heart: Mandinka and Fulani Music of the Gambia (1990)

«Co-produced by bassist Bill Laswell and Gambian griot Foday Musa Suso, this album delves into the West African roots that inspired their fusionary Mandingo project. Ancient Heart features recordings of both of Gambia's two major ethnic groups, the Mandinka and Fulani. But while the 11 songs are fairly true to tradition, the approach is updated by recording the musicians in ensembles rather than

Ismaël Lo - Jammu Africa (2003)

«Ismael Lo, born in 1960, is the son of a Senegalese civil servant who loved American soul music. Lo grew up listening to stars like James Brown, Wicked Wilson Pickett, and Otis Redding. Lo built his first guitar from a cooking oil can, and learned to play harmonica and guitar together by nailing his harmonica to the wall. Lo was a guitarist for Super Diamano, a mbalax blues band, for five years

Marie-Line Dahomay & Kalindi-Ka - Yo (1999)

«The islands of Guadeloupe were colonized by the French in 1635. Under their watch the indigenous Carib Indians were routed and African slaves were brought onto the islands and forced to work in the burgeoning sugar industry. Several hundred years later, soon after the French abolished slavery on Guadeloupe in 1848, the island’s plantation owners had workers from one of France’s East Indian

The Rough Guide to Bellydance (2002)

«The Western image of bellydancing is associated with Greek or Middle Eastern restaurants, or some form of low-cost home seduction. The truth, of course, is something different. It's an ancient form of dance, requiring extremely complex body control to execute properly — and it's original name, baladi, has nothing to do with the belly, translating instead as "country dance." But whichever way you

Corsica: Ostriconi Plage

Various Artists: Corse (2003)

Here is a nice selection of Corsican recorded music. Most of these artists are not strictly polyphonic groups, at least not any more, since they don’t sing a capella traditional Corsican polyphony. Some of them, by the way, like Petru Guelfucci, still have their roots in Corsican polyphony, notwithstanding their musical evolvement. Those who do not innovate and develop their singing are likely to

Vavangue - Musiques Folk de l'Ocean Indien / Folk Music of the Indian Ocean (1989)

«Fondé en 1988 par Jean Pierre La Selve, (ex « Compères Grat’Fils ») Vavangue est une association « loi 1901 » qui a pour but l’étude, la pratique et la diffusion des musiques traditionnelles de La Réunion. Pour cela nous voulons continuer à faire entendre les instruments comme le bob le violon, le ralé-poussé ou le banjo, laissés de côté par la course à la modernité et à l’alignement sur les

Earth-Wheel-Sky-Band - Waltz Rromano (2003)

«There's definitely a concept of a journey about this album, but it's the kind of trip you'll be happy to make. Yes, it's gypsy music, coming from a Serbian home, but traveling everywhere — note the Indian inflection on "India Rroma," where guitar sounds like sitar, balancing a delicate violin line over chord changes that could almost have been lifted from "Get Back," filtered through, well,