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  • LIFE

    Get the party going

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 03/01/2012

    » In 1987, I bought a Charley label reissue called Soul Mine, a double vinyl LP that featured some of the hits of the New Orleans-born R'n'B and soul singer Lee Dorsey. I was interested in the album because I'd read in John Broven's wonderful book, Walking to New Orleans: The Story of New Orleans Rhythm & Blues (Flyright, UK/Blues Unlimited, USA, 1974), that Dorsey recorded many of his best tracks not only with my favourite New Orleans funk band, The Meters, but also with producer and piano virtuoso Alan Toussaint.

  • LIFE

    Musicians for president?

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 17/01/2012

    » One of Africa's most well-known musicians, Youssou N'Dour, announced recently that he would run in Senegal's presidential elections next month. N'Dour was one of the first African musicians to ride the "world music" boom that started in the mid-1980s and his first international release, Immigres (Earthworks, UK), remains one of the standout albums of that period.

  • LIFE

    Lost souls

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 31/01/2012

    » Two giants of popular music in the US, bandleader, drummer, disc jockey and talent scout Johnny Otis and singer Etta James, passed away recently, Otis at 90 and James in her eighties. Both were colossal figures in the development of r'n'b and soul music and both crossed over to international fame and, late though it came for James, success.

  • LIFE

    Reviving a legend

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 21/02/2012

    » It's been a hectic year for local DJ and Zundrangma Records label owner Maft Sai. He's been on successful overseas tours to Europe and Japan with his partner DJ Chris Menist and the pair has put together two excellent internationally released compilations of Thai luk thung music, The Sound of Siam (Soundway, UK) and Thai? Dai! (Finders Keepers, UK). Never still for a moment, the duo's popular "Bangkok Paradise" night returns this month with a one-off concert by the legendary Wong Dontri Molam Theppabutr band to celebrate the event's third anniversary.

  • LIFE

    Molam Theppabutr Band &Okinawan show

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 06/03/2012

    » The last week of February was truly memorable for music fans in Bangkok with not one but two great gigs: the Wong Dontri Molam Theppabutr (Theppabutr Molam Band) gig at Sonic Ekamai on Sat and Kanako Horiuchi's set of Okinawan songs at Kinjo Restaurant on Wed.

  • LIFE

    In praise of dangdut royalty

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 20/03/2012

    » Travel anywhere in Indonesia and pretty soon you'll hear the catchy rhythms of dangdut music, which is popular right across the country. Current dangdut stars like Inul Daratista sell millions of CDs, cassettes and VCDs and perform glitzy shows in front of huge crowds.

  • LIFE

    New angle on Angola

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 03/04/2012

    » They say that war is hell and for Angola the four decades of civil strife the Angolan people went through from the 1960s was horrific. After fighting for independence from Portugal, a civil war broke out and the various sides in the protracted conflict virtually destroyed the country. And yet while the fighting was going on, musicians were still playing and recording brilliant music.

  • LIFE

    Musical styles meet in Malaysia

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 17/04/2012

    » The Penang World Music Festival returned recently after a three-year break and World Beat was there from March 30 to April 1 to enjoy the reconstituted three-day music festival.

  • LIFE

    Cool Colombian compilation

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 01/05/2012

    » Colombia has produced some memorable music and musicians over the past hundred years; it is certainly one of Latin music's powerhouses. Blessed with a unique geography _ Atlantic coast, savannah, Andean mountains and the lush Pacific coast _ and a mixed population of native Indians, Spanish, Africans and Caribbean immigrants, the country has a vast array of different musical styles from bambuco on the Atlantic coast to the savannah-based harp music llanera to the Afro-Colombian sounds of champeta and currulao from the Pacific coast to salsa and all kinds of Spanish-language pop.

  • LIFE

    The sounds of Isan

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 15/05/2012

    » There are two broad fiddle traditions in northeastern music, one from molam, the music of ethnic Laotians and one from kantrum, the music of ethnic Khmers. The division is also neatly delineated geographically into molam in the upper and central parts of the Northeast and kantrum in the lower part, near the Cambodian border. As the late great kantrum singer Darkie noted in his anthem to northeastern music, Isan Samakhee (Northeast Unity): "Isan nua me molam, Isan tai me kantrum."

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