Showing 1 - 9 of 9
Modernising Mexican groove
Life, John Clewley, Published on 28/03/2026
» The Mexican Institute of Sound (MIS), founded in 2004 by Mexico City-based DJ and record producer Camilo Lara, is a project to bring together fusions of folk and traditional music with digital production and electronica. MIS started as a side project, based on Lara's own remixing of popular tracks.
Remembering soul' s ' Sultans of Sweat '
Life, John Clewley, Published on 21/01/2025
» For twenty years, between 1961 and 1981, the hugely popular US soul and R&B act Sam & Dave, thrilled audiences with their all-action, stompin' soul music. Both singers were brought up singing in gospel choirs at church and they took their 'pleading preacher' call-and-response gospel style to secular audiences.
A farewell to icons
Life, John Clewley, Published on 30/07/2024
» Several great music masters made their final journey during the past few weeks, several of whom have been World Beat favourites since the early days of the column back in the 1990s.
Remembering an icon
Life, John Clewley, Published on 01/08/2023
» On July 13, luk thung singer, actor, movie/TV producer and label owner Phanom Nopporn passed away in hospital at the age of 77. One of the giants of the "country music" genre, fans and stars of the luk thung industry attended his funeral on July 18 at Wat Bang Rak Noi Ban Sai in Nonthaburi.
When East meets West
Life, John Clewley, Published on 17/01/2023
» In 2017, the Japanese band Minyo Crusaders released their debut album, Echoes Of Japan (P-Vine, Japan), to great acclaim. The band's reworking and updating of Japanese folk music, or minyo, on a rhythmic bed of Caribbean, Latin and Afrobeat was truly inspired, and perhaps pointed the way for other fusion bands in East and Southeast Asia. The aim was to revive minyo as "music for the people", as quoted by World Music Central.
Longing for the homeland
Life, John Clewley, Published on 04/01/2022
» Mali emerged on international stages in the mid-1980s with singers like Salif Keita and bands like Bamako's legendary Rail Band du Buffet Hotel de la Gare (which launched the careers of both Salif Keita and the late Mory Kante). These singers are from the central region, they perform music of the Mande people and have been joined by music from other regions, notably from the southern Wassoullou region (music from megastars like Oumou Sangare) and northern and eastern Mali, the latter of which was promoted by the late guitarist/singer Ali Farka Toure.
Time to do the soukous
Life, John Clewley, Published on 12/10/2021
» Congolese rumba, sometimes called rumba Lingala or rumba Congolais, is likely to join khon, a Thai masked dance drama, khaen music of Laos, chapei dang veng of Cambodia, Cuban son and Dominican bachata on Unesco's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. In August this year, the two countries from the Congo Basin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of the Congo (ROC), announced a joint bid to add Congolese rumba to the list.
Documenting a documentarian
Life, John Clewley, Published on 14/09/2021
» Alan Lomax, who died in 2002 at the age of 87, wore many hats. In his long life, which spanned much of the 20th century, he worked as a folklorist, archivist, producer, writer, scholar, oral historian and filmmaker. He was also a musician and producer who played a key role in researching and preserving folk traditions, particularly in the US and England (spurring the folk revivals in the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s in both countries).
Twenty-five years of musical magic
Life, John Clewley, Published on 19/03/2019
» This year is the 25th anniversary of the World Beat column. It began all the way back in February 1994. That's right, in the last century. We survived the millennium and have forged ahead into the 21st century.