World Music Artists

[John]

I guess we all find our way into different musical styles from a variety of sources for me my love of world fusion comes from listening to people like; Santana, Strunz and Farah a variety of fusion players and Peter Gabriel. My interest in world music comes from a love of gypsy music and a passion/quest for music.
Music is found in every culture in the world and its history is as old as humanity itself.
I sometimes enjoy world music and often find myself really enjoying music that brings different musical concepts and traditions together, this has been going on for centuries for instance Flamenco music has traces of Spanish music Arabic music and Gypsy music.
World music can be loosely thought as music that is not from a Western background so the music of the different continents such as Africa Asia and South America all fit into world music. So the music offers a rich diversity which is far to reaching for me to even attempt to cover.
Within Western music the Beatles started to make the world aware of Ravi Shankar a great Sitar player but it was not till Paul Simons Gracelands that world music started to become poplar with Western audiences but in the UK it was the introduction of WOMAD that really kick started the whole genre

Some suggested listening
Africa
African music is as wide and Varied as the continent itself
Salif Keita Soro is well worth checking out and well produced
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HLx7eYpRH0
Fela Kuti The music is often called Afrobeat and combines African music with Jazz and Funk his music often has a strong political message
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBgewcFh-cg
Bhundu Boys another guitar based band love the way the guitar melody creates a sense of rhythm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhtNe4DfEyo
Hassan Hakmoun He plays the Sintir which in the past has been used to encourage people like state his music is varied and as well as traditional music has a Fusion band called Zahar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OLKS...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF_nj...eature=related
Ladysmith Black Mambazo a vocal based group from South Africa
Youssou n'Dour another great vocalist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbBSDE-Dywo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Q4bc86yiI
Ali Farka Toure A link into the early history of the Blues a great guitar player
Here is clip from a Blues Documentary with Corey Heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5Nem-PNHLY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBDU6...eature=related
and here is a good site to learn more African music
http://africanmusic.org/alpha.html

Asian Music Often when people think of Asian music they think of the great Indian musicians usually from the Carnic traditions but Asia is the largest continent and its music is as Diverse as the different cultures
Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan was a Qawalli singer a form of Sufi singing that celebrates the divine his most famous western album is Musti Musti but he recorded over a 100 albums
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9lt-JI86k4
VM Bhatt Just a great guitar player and has made many albums with other musicians from other traditions A meeting by the river is great place to start
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IRoKcSEVeU
Dr Subramaniam a great violin player has made traditional albums as well Fusion based albums Check out Global Fusion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLQdL...eature=related
Prasana Just amazing guitar playing !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFMBQj0lwZ4
Japan has a knack of absorbing culture ideas but then bringing there own identity to it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHIvup3rWdU
Atsuya Okuda http://www.shakuhachi.com/R-Shaku-Okuda.html
Two of my favourite Japanese musicians playing together
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tptzuNK0j0k
On Ensemble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiqBIuM-1DI
Hiromi Uehara Japanese jazz pianist I love the energy she brings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HcKr...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZaB9...eature=related
From Vietnam the amazing Nguyen Lee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o9psdo86x0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcEdTGFxWtM
From Mongolia Yat –Kha combines throat singing with a rock vibe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6DP1...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6DP1...eature=related

South American Music
Often the music is mixed with either European (Latin American) or African influences along with Native music
Artist worth checking out include Susana Baca, Toto La Momposina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXo4AfC8HFY
Music styles such as Samba Tango Salsa and Bosso Nova have developed from this region.
From Cuba came Buena Vista Social Club it helped to produce a revival of Cuban Music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whs1FAkPbTM
Some European artist I enjoy
Marta Sebestyen Fanous for the song in TheEnglish Paitent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNU2rTn161w
and her band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xNArC-hYmE
Paco De Lucia Agreat Flemenco guitar player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBAbJVzjyE4
Radio Tarifa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMgZz...eature=related

Sorry my knowledge really does not do this justice so can only give a taste but hope it might inspire you to try artist from different cultures

[jimdgoulding]

Vas (Azam Ali)- Feast of Silence (Narada) and Habib Koite & Bamada- Afriki (Cumbancha) are two recent favorites.

[Beechwoods]

I really don't like the term 'world music' - it implies that there's a homogenous thing that all sounds the same! It closes off minds more than it opens them I think! I'm sure John'll agree on this!

Ah well!

I'd also like to mention Fela Kuti. His stuff is funky as hell and his life story is an amazing one too. He had something like 27 wives at one point, a political party, a commune... the whole she-bang. I was mightily impressed when I heard some of his stuff a while back. I also saw his son Femi at Glasto a while back, very much in the same musical mould.

Fela has been massively influential. One band who have an obvious Fela influence is Antibalas, a Brooklyn based Afrobeat band on Ninja Tune. They are highly recommended; you will not be disappointed!

I'd also like to mention one of my favourite 'World Music' records, Heart Of The Forest by the Baka Forest People, on Rykodisc: http://www.baka.co.uk/shop/pages/albums/heart.htm

Check out Waterdrums, Limbindi, or Yelli.

Real back to basics 'World Music'.

[John]

hi Beechy
Yes i agree with you about the term it does imply a certain sound but the music is so different and branches off into so many areas,
Felia Kuti is so funky he made so many albums and came across as a larger than life charchter often his lyrics would have a strong political message dealing with the issues of his home country

[jimdgoulding]

Viva Manitas de Plata! (Connoisuer Society); La Revancha del Tango- Gotan Project (Random); The Living Road- Lhasa (Nettwerk).