Showing 1 - 10 of 22
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.
A Mediterranean union
Life, John Clewley, Published on 08/11/2025
» In 1993, multi-instrumentalists Fain Sanchez Duenas and Vincent Molino from Spain formed Radio Tarifa with singer/songwriter Benjamin Escoriza and released Rumba Argelina, an album that blended Flamenco, Arab-Andalusian, Arabic, Moorish and Mahgrebi music with that from the Renaissance, Mediterranean and even the Caribbean.
Exile songs resurface
Life, John Clewley, Published on 27/09/2025
» From the early 1970s to the 80s, Mogadishu boasted one of the Horn of Africa's liveliest night scenes with groups from this "Golden Era" like Dur Dur Band entertaining at clubs and hotels across the city. A coup in 1991 and subsequent civil war put a stop to the music and musicians had to go underground or migrate. Those who went by the latter route took their music and culture across the Somali diaspora (one of Africa's largest).
Carrying the torch forward
Life, John Clewley, Published on 04/02/2025
» Rizwan-Meuzzam Qawwali Group is a Pakistani Qawwali ensemble led by brothers Rizwan and Muazzam Ali Khan. The duo performs with their seven-member party, who provide harmonium, percussion and handclaps. The singing brothers are nephews of the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who popularised the Islamic Sufi genre worldwide before his untimely death at 48 in 1997.
Flamenco fusion
Life, John Clewley, Published on 03/12/2024
» Flamenco is one of the musical delights of southern Spain. It developed out of folk traditions of the Gitano subculture of Andalusia and features dramatic guitar, singing and dancing, often supported by some kind of percussion, especially handclaps and castanets.
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.
Farewell to a maestro
Life, John Clewley, Published on 10/04/2024
» The world of molam has been in mourning since news emerged that Thailand's greatest phin player Thongsai Thap Thanon passed away on March 20 at his home in Warin Chamrap district, Ubon Ratchathani, at the age of 77. The phin is a two- or three-stringed Isan Lao lute that is part of the trinity of molam instruments, along with the iconic khaen (free reed bamboo mouth organ) and the sor (fiddle).
A joyous sound
Life, John Clewley, Published on 07/11/2023
» In 2001, the legendary US Gospel group Blind Boys of Alabama released an album on Peter Gabriel's Real World Records label. It was a hugely popular album which garnered the band a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album. It included their version of Tom Wait's song Way Down In The Hole, which was the theme song for the TV miniseries The Wire. Their version is better than Waits' in my view.
Stories of migration and hope
Life, John Clewley, Published on 12/09/2023
» In 2016, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto invited musicians, mainly immigrant musicians, to audition for a new global orchestra.
The beat of Soweto
Life, John Clewley, Published on 04/07/2023
» Simon "Mahlathini" Nkabinde, known as the "Lion Of Soweto", was not allowed to leave South Africa until the mid-1980s, when he was invited to perform at a pioneering festival of music in Angouleme, France, along with the three Mahotella Queens, the musical engine the Makgone Tsohle Band, and producer and saxophonist West Nkosi.