Ojos De Brujo - Techari Live
May 28th, 2008
It makes sense for Spanish collective Ojos de Brujo to release a live album since they are such dynamic performers. This album was recorded at the end of their 2006 tour. They have flashes of flamenco, electronica, hip hop, even reggae, and it sounds like a sonic stew but it works. The percussion keeps it together and though their gypsy guitarist gets buried in the mix on stage you sense he is driving from the back seat. Radio Tarifa were disappointing on their live album Fiebre, but Ojos show they can take it on the road and bring it back polished to a high sheen. After touring behind their Latin Grammy-winning Techari album they returned to Barcelona for a triumphal show which is also released on DVD (to be included in the package). Read on…
Mbilia Bel - Bel Canto: Best of the Genidia Years (Congo Classics 1982-7)
May 28th, 2008
In 1980 there were two big bands in Congo: Franco’s All Powerful OK Jazz and Afrisa International of Tabu Ley Rochereau. Tabu Ley was the underdog and knew it. Sam Mangwana & guitarist Michelino whom he had nurtured, had abandoned him a few years earlier for OK Jazz. Bopol was gone, Empompo Loway was gone. He had some good guitarists in the band: Dizzy Mandjeku & Lokassa Ya Mbongo. He had rock solid Ringo Moya on drums. But he still didn’t hit the heights of OK Jazz, and then these stellar sidemen ditched to join Sam Mangwana’s African All Stars in Abidjan. Still there was plenty of hot young talent to audition & his old buddy saxman Mekanisi Modero stuck around. Read on…
WENDO KOLOSOY On the Rumba River
May 28th, 2008
Wendo is now up to three albums since his return to performing in 1999. An orphan who was kicked out of the Belgian church school for his verses, Wendo worked on the riverboats and had a career as a prize fighter before recording “Marie Louise” in 1948 and becoming a top performer. He is the last survivor from the roots of rumba and has assembled some great sidemen nearing his own age (he is 82) to perform in the style he first popularized 60 years ago: the acoustic precursor of rumba Congolaise. He stretches to the high notes and with his shaved brown head he does look like a tortoise. Read on…
KEKELE LIVE: TOURNEE AMERICAINE & CANADIENNE
May 28th, 2008
by Alastair Johnston
(only available from CD Baby as a download)
For the first time I have bought a CD as a download (though I admit I have snaggled a few on the sly, most recently Neil Young in Amsterdam, which is worth seeking out). C.C. Smith, editor of The BEAT sent me the link to a live Kékélé concert: I checked out the sound on the CD Bébé site, which is board quality, so immediately grabbed it. C.C. has also started the inevitable myspace page for the band and if you check their friends there’s a link to Quatre Etoiles. As I said in my review of their show in San Rafael from this 2005-6 tour, they were a lot hotter live than on the CDs. On tour they had Rigo Star instead of Papa Noel on second guitar and three singers which kept it focussed. Syran decided to authorize the sale of the concert tape on line. Read on…
Brazilian Explosion!
May 23rd, 2008Spring 2008 = great Brazilian music. Why? Beats the heck out of me, but there it is. Something about feijoada and caiparinhas maybe? Whatever the reason, the meeting of classic Brazilian sounds with modern production and psychedelia is bearing the most fruit of any kind of music around, it seems. The overall direction of modern pop from that part of the world has already been somewhat established (not least of which by local label Six Degrees), but three new discs really exemplify what’s best about the modern Brazilian sound. Read on…
Guilty Secrets
May 23rd, 2008Right about the time Transatlantanticism
came out, I asked my friend Steve to tell me his favorite Death Cab album. As you may have guessed already, Steve thought the first album was great and everything after that was crap. Well maybe that’s saying it too harshly, but it definitely was the perfect indie snob moment. Especially since I happen to know that Steve dragged his wife to see them at the Paramount in Oakland last year, that most comfortable of rock and roll venues, after the major label debut Plans. Read on…
Bill Frisell - History/Mystery
May 23rd, 2008I’m going to go 
out on a limb here and proclaim this the best thing Frisell has done in quite some time. Not that I’m not enthusiastic about his other things (although Floratone left me kind of cold), and I really enjoyed East/West tremendously. But the expanded ensemble he employs here (Jenny Scheinman on violin, Evyind Kang on viola, Hank Roberts on cello, Ron Miles on cornet, Greg Tardy on clarinet and saxophone, Tony Scherr on bass and Kenny Wolleson on drums in addition to the leader’s guitar) really brings out something special in ol’ Bill. Read on…
Human Giant [Paramount]
May 18th, 2008
Sketch comedy doesn’t get much weirder than Human Giant – the brainchild of Aziz Ansari, Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer, that has aired on MTV since 2007. Using a combination of recurring bits and stand alones, the trio concoct some freakishly absurd moments that will either have you rolling on the floor, or…..not. Read on…