Showing 1 - 3 of 3
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.
Mambo madness
Life, John Clewley, Published on 02/08/2022
» Latin music has been circling the globe for more than a century, creating dance crazes and inspiring local forms of music. From tango to reggaeton, with stops for mambo, rumba, son and salsa, bolero, Latin jazz and more, the Latin music juggernaut just keeps rolling on.
Prince Buster tribute: don't call me Scarface
Life, John Clewley, Published on 20/09/2016
» 'Al Capone's guns don't argue" declares the singer, Prince Buster, at the beginning of the classic ska track Al Capone. Then in comes the drums, the choppy guitar on the afterbeat, not the downbeat, punchy brass and the chukka-chukka rhythm vocalised by the band. Welcome to the ever-popular world of ska music, one of Jamaica's most potent musical exports, and the forerunner of rocksteady and classic roots reggae, the latter of which would take the world by storm and elevate Bob Marley to global stardom.