free

very rarely does it happen that a music video takes a perfect piece of music and makes it better, makes it come to life, makes it reach out and grab you.

this is one of those rare times.

"i think there are very few people on this earth that are totally free. i'm not free but i'm working on it." - stevie wonder



find this here

related:

• finley quaye - even after all
  
• geoffrey oryema - makambo
  
• miriam makeba - malaika
  
• stevie wonder - as/another star

nneka

on first look, in her baggy jeans and hoodie, a haze of coils almost hiding her trademark scowl... you'd think she's just some pretty teenage girl from philly or atlanta... but on first listen, it's clear: she's got the melodies of the universe flowing through her body.

with two albums under her belt already, twenty-eight year old nigerian/german nneka egbuna is a study in contrasts, betraying that youthful look with messages of truth, all conveyed through that signature soft voice, fine and melodic like a flute.

while often compared to fellow nigerian sade or hip hop maven lauryn hill, nneka is still young in her career. she weaves through traditions and styles, having been influenced by anita baker, marvin gaye, fela kuti, bob marley, afrobeat and hip hop, singing in both her native igbo and english. on her first two genre-defying releases, victim of truth and no longer at ease, it's clear the continuity is her voice, which floats through like a butterfly and yes, stings like a bee.

already having dazzled nigeria and europe, her first US record, concrete jungle, is set to release in february 2010. she's going to take the place by storm.

nneka - africans:


nneka - beautiful:



related to this:

• nina simone - sinnerman
  
• marie queenie lyons - see and don't see
  
• derek vincent smith/etta james - finally moving
  
• little brother - atari 2600

oh and big thanks to cam at giantstep for tipping me off to the pounding, rhythmic nneka and j.period collaboration "the madness" (onye-ala) mixtape released yesterday. download here

get this at amazon

perpetuum jazzile - africa

before you judge me for posting a slovene choir performing toto's africa, hit the play button and close your eyes. see how long you can keep them shut!

this storm makes me shiver every single time.
mo, thanks so much for the reminder! i've been so lax in posting here!

gonna take some time to do the things we never had...
oh snap, that guy in the corner just started beatboxing!!

perpetuum jazzile - africa:


related to this:

• gigi shibabaw - gela
  
• mama afrika forever
  
• yamasuki singers, black blood, bananarama - aieoa
  
• yonderboi - riders on the storm
  
• payolas - eyes of a stranger

makambo

geoffrey oryema - makambo

it was the summer of '98 that i took my first-ever business trip: a 2-hour thursday night meeting in washington, d.c.

with the rest of the weekend i explored the city... monuments, sights, georgetown u, record shops, 18th street lounge (where i met rob and eric from thievery corporation, before they became famous. definitely a highlight). one evening i wandered into a high-end persian rug and artifact shop.

inside, time stopped. hypnotized by a nostalgic melody, sensing that i was far away from home, i became drawn to the african masks, ancient giant pots and urns, beautifully crafted rugs... totally lost in time and space. suddenly, i heard a man calling me from above. i looked up. it was the shop owner. he had been watching me from the loft space above.

he had a friendly smile so i went up the steps to his loft office. he was a fascinating and engaging man. we spent a few hours engrossed in conversation over tea and music. i was falling in love.

as i was leaving, he insisted on giving me one of his gorgeous persian rugs as a gift. i couldn't accept.

instead, i asked him for a copy of the cd he was playing. yes, he said but it would cost me my phone number.

totally worth it.

the cd? the ugandan musical genius, geoffrey oryema's exile.

and here's the track that i fell in love with that night.

ps - who knew that ten years later i'd be taking work trips to uganda? funny where life leads you...

and - to answer the questions! i fell in love with this song, not the man!

find geoffrey oryema's exile at amazon

related to this...

• mama afrika forever
  
• yamasuki singers, black blood.. a.i.e.o.a
  
• mmm... mulatu
  
• more mulatu
  
• rokia traore
  
• gigi shibabaw
  

mama afrika forever

miriam makeba - malaika

she lived an incredible life, fighting aparthied, lost access to her homeland but instead through her spirit and passion to fight for what she valued, became a true great citizen of planet earth.

few women have this type of unwavering grace... this is a beautiful song, sung by a beautiful soul. we'll miss you miriam. our angel.

ladies and gentlemen this next song comes from tanzania.
it's a song in swahili, a love song

it simply says, "malaika, na cupenda malaika"

which simply means, "i love you my angel".

miriam makeba - malaika:


*dedicated to my mother*
more info about miriam makeba.
get miriam's music on amazon

related to this...

• yamasuki singers, black blood.. a.i.e.o.a
  
• mmm... mulatu
  
• more mulatu
  
• rokia traore
  
• gigi shibabaw
  

salty kisses...

dobacaracol - baiser salé

just back from almost a month in africa and didn't once jump into the ocean... i did, however, spend a glorious and magical two days on the nile river...

thanks to measha b for introducing me to these two ladies - who charmed me with their beautiful melodic voices. despite the familiarity of their french accent, the bell like guitar and tumbling drum rhythms led me to dream they were from west africa. i was so wrong.

turns out the duo doriane fabreg (aka 'doba') and carole facal (aka 'caracol') and their entourage are from montreal, quebec.

so i've returned home with the gorgeous memory of my last days in africa, surrounded by wild animals, serenaded by two seemingly african mermaids swimming and singing along the nile river.

in my dreams, the nile bears salty kisses...

dobacaracol - baiser salé:


thanks to paul at aurgasm for the posting. available at amazon.

related:

• l'ascenceur pour le ghetto
  
• une rose noire
  
• mission apollo

more mulatu...

just because i can't get enough, here's more mulatu for me and you...

this time accompanied by the dancing stylees of mike long. no matter where he is in the world, you can see him dance... his way, every day.

mulatu astatke - kasalèfkut hulu ("from all the time i have passed"):


apologies... some time after this was posted, the mike long youtube account was deactivated and is no longer! all things good and bad change, right?

related to this...

• mmm... mulatu
  
• mama afrika forever
  
• yamasuki singers, black blood.. a.i.e.o.a
  
• rokia traore
  
• gigi shibabaw
  

mmm.... mulatu

my colleague has been stuck on standby in addis ababa, ethiopia for four days now following a business trip. on a brighter note - who knew that ethiopian airlines has duty free music?!

specially packaged and available inflight, is a recording by prolific ethio-jazz icon, mulatu astatke. schooled in europe and north america, astatke returned to his native ethiopia in 1969 to pioneer a wave of ethiopian jazz music that blended african, latin, modern jazz and ethiopian instrumentation. a highly addictive brew filled with infectious energy.

i'm sure my colleague could use some of that until she finds a flight home.

so in the meantime...

mulatu astatke - yegelle tezeta ("my own memories"):


thanks to jim jaramusch's film, broken flowers for getting this into my head. and for making me want to get my hands on astatke's work.

• more mulatu
  
• mama afrika forever
  
• yamasuki singers, black blood.. a.i.e.o.a
  
• rokia traore
  
• gigi shibabaw
  

drum thing in the air tonight

i've always loved phil collins' in the air tonight. mostly its tom tom drum - the dark, ominous beating heart that explodes a good three minutes deep into the track in an angry face off against cowardice and evil.

it's this sound that floats me back in history to when the first people of this land used drums that sound like this to communicate, to signal, to pow-wow, to live by. a skin, broad diameter, pounded steadily with a mallet.

and i can only guess that it's this sound that also caught the ear of house music guru and ifá priest, osunlade. the yoruba records boss polished up the sound and layered polyrhythms over top in his remix release, the backside of which is an instrumental dub.

thanks to jez proctor and his project innersounds, for weaving side b over a with a surprise horn, piano and cymbal-laden crescendo that pours back into to collins' original backbeat before it flies off.

i smile and think that eshu - yoruba god of spiritual justice - should be pleased...

phil collins - in the air tonight (yoruba soul mix) side a/b edit:

l'ascenseur pour le ghetto

amadou + miriam feat manu chao - senegal fast food

freshly back from a driving trip from paris to dakar, i'm re-living the sights and sounds of senegal through this track. and i so ache to go back.

this song by malian amadou + miriam (featuring manu chao and his infectious guitar) recalls our travel: choo-chooing train whistles, gearshifting between french and wolof, soulful harmonica and west african guitar.

watching this makes me feel like that's my family i've left behind. brilliant art direction visually bringing lyrics to life: local joints with western names like 'le paris' cinema or 'manhattan fast food' ('over 2,000 served'!) show how eager senegal's people are to leave their country in search for a better life elsewhere... but where? bamako, mopti, algeria, tunisia, italy - pas de problème - anywhere but here! amadou + miriam respond: 'you may leave but never forget your family, your home'.

yes it's midnite in tokyo. it's 5am in mali. but 'what time is it' in the paradise of a rich country? yes we have health care, education and porcelain toilets. but do we have each other?

almost a lyrical-satirical play on 'stairway to heaven' is 'l'ascenseur pour le ghetto': inevitably, most refugees to rich countries land in the heart of the ghetto. so why leave the sun and the beach for the cold and the hustle? funny, my travel partner alexis theorized a country's gross national product is inversely related to its 'human happiness' product. could he be right?

the video gives us a glimpse. yes a west african life is tough. 'family' means a dozen people in the house, grandparents, grandchildren, but it's also all the more love...

i especially treasure how real the video is - endless fishing boats on the coast, sweet tea served in little glasses, donkeys pulling carts, shell-casting by the roadside... if any of this makes you want to get in a car and drive to africa, pas de problème: call me and i may just join you.

amadou + miriam featuring manu chao - senegal fast food:

related:

• salty kisses
  
• une rose noire
  
• mission apollo

9.0 gigi shibabaw - gela

traditional music always strikes a chord with me. with instruments that only a select few still know how to play, richly layered percussions, vocal scaling, story-telling, intricate compositions, throws, echoes, the call, the response. it all resonates within me. it takes me home.

how do i explain the feeling of home? maybe it's my childhood, listening to my great-grandmother singing devotional ginans in a combination of sanskrit and gujarati...

or growing up with my columbian nanny, who taught me to communicate in spanish and produce sounds that don't exist in the english language...

or listening to the lyrical arabic prayers recited at the mosque...

or spiritual chanting radiating out of aboriginal tradition that i came to love as a child while traveling to western canada each year...

and i forgot to mention: i'm a sucker for hand-claps.

gela is a track taken from abysinnia infinite, which is ethiopian soul and roots music. it's a collaboration between ethiopian ejigayehu "gigi" shibabaw and (her husband) producer and label owner, bill laswell.

you may not 'get' gela at first, but if you listen to it three times quickly, like three clicks of dorothy's red shoes in the land of oz, you may just be transported home.

gigi shibabaw - gela:



related to this...

• mmm... mulatu
  
• more mulatu
  
• mama afrika forever
  
• yamasuki singers, black blood.. a.i.e.o.a
  
• rokia traore
  

6.0 yamasuki singers - aieoa, black blood - aie a mwana, bananarama - aie a mwana

after a little departure from posting music... i've returned with something special. i'm happy to see my folks back from uganda safe and nicely toasted, and to celebrate i'm posting something that was conceived in the '70s, made its way to the african continent and traveled north and west, but kept it's original soul...

the japanese yamasuki singers first issued the track "aieaoa" on their wacky album "le monde fabuleux des yamasuki":


the track then took an african twist when it was reissued by a '70s band from zaire. we used to dance around to this as kids. if i played it for my mom she'd go wild. [edit! they were actually belgian - which explains how the track got play in europe... read on]
black blood - aie a mwana:


three models heard the black blood cover in a paris nightclub and went home to london to record the song on their debut album.
bananarama - aie a mwana:


thanks to wfmu.org

and totally unrelated...

• bill cosby and quincy jones - hicky burr, sargeant pepper's lonely hearts club band
  
• go go golem