Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Jewish classic revisited
Life, John Clewley, Published on 25/10/2025
» Good news fans of klezmer music. The groundbreaking, award-winning klezmer outfit The Klezmatics have reissued their classic album Rhythm + Jews: Revisited (Piranha, Germany), which was recorded in 1990 and released in 1991. The reissue is part of the band's 40th anniversary celebrations.
Timbuktu calling
Life, John Clewley, Published on 20/05/2025
» Mali and West Africa dominate the Transglobal World Music Chart for May 2025, with the "desert blues" rockers Songhoy Blues leading the way in top spot with their new album Héritage.
Top tunes this June
Life, John Clewley, Published on 20/06/2023
» Veteran kora master Toumani Diabaté and Kayhan Kalhor soar to the top spot on the June edition of the Transglobal World Music Chart with a new release on Real World, The Sky Is The Same Colour Everywhere. Diabaté is well-known for his cross-cultural collaborations, from his early days with Ketama, a flamenco, jazz, West Africa fusion, to later work with the London Symphony Orchestra (Korolen), while Kalhor is an award-winning Kurdish-Iranian master of the kamancheh (fiddle) and setar (lute).
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.
Riding the clog dancing wave
Life, John Clewley, Published on 11/05/2021
» People have been wearing wooden footwear for centuries.
Ambuya!'s back baby!
Life, John Clewley, Published on 16/03/2021
» Piranha Records, a Berlin-based independent record label, was founded in 1987 to produce and distribute mainly African, Gypsy and Jewish music. The label expanded its roster to include various projects by 3 Mustaphas 3 bass player and crooner Colin Bass. His work with Sundanese (West Javan) musicians, under his Asian moniker Sabah Habas Mustapha, produced several excellent albums and one much-covered popular love song, Denpasar Moon.
Goodbye reggae legend
Life, John Clewley, Published on 15/09/2020
» Toots Hibbert, the soulful leader of the legendary ska/reggae band Toots and the Maytals, died last week in Kingston, Jamaica, at the age of 77 from complications related to the Covid-19 pandemic. His death, following the recent release of Got To Be Tough, his first studio album for 10 years, shocked the global music community.
Trombone's place in modern music
Life, John Clewley, Published on 17/03/2020
» The funky sound of Fred Wesley's trombone landed on the World Beat desk this week courtesy of an album he released in 1974, with his band, Fred Wesley & the New JB's, called Breakin' Bread (originally released on Polydor, re-released 2015). Wesley was James Brown's musical director at the time, and Brown produced the album and co-wrote most of the songs with Wesley.
In tribute to the mighty Charles 'Horn Man' Neville
Life, John Clewley, Published on 01/05/2018
» World Beat is in mourning this week, following the sad news that saxophonist and founder member of one of New Orleans finest bands, The Neville Brothers, Charles Neville, passed away last Thursday. He was 79 years old.
Remembering Kak Channthy
Life, John Clewley, Published on 03/04/2018
» The news last week that the lead singer of the Cambodian Space Project, Kak Channthy, had died in a car crash in Phnom Penh has shocked her fans in Cambodia and across the globe. She was 38 years old.