Showing 1-10 of 153 results
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Fusing different musical worlds
Life, John Clewley, Published on 13/02/2024
» Klezmer is the music of Ashkenazi Jews, who created the music in Central and Eastern Europe in the 16th century. Although mainly instrumental, the music is usually sung in Yiddish. It was hugely popular before the destruction of Yiddish communities in Central Europe during the Holocaust. Professional Klezmer musicians who escaped to the US founded large klezmer orchestras in the first two decades of the 20th century, who competed with jazz ensembles and Irish big bands in New York.
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Musical dissent
Life, John Clewley, Published on 26/03/2024
» Award-winning singer Kiran Ahluwalia was nearly lost to music fans 20 years ago. The Indian-born Canadian musician had completed an MBA and was all set to move forward with a career in finance, but she had misgivings about working with leveraged buyouts and her heart was not in it.
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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.
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Cambodian rock via LA
Life, John Clewley, Published on 21/11/2023
» Los Angeles-based band Dengue Fever has released a new studio album, Ting Mong (Tuk Tuk Records, USA), their first for eight years. The release marks the Cambodian-US band's 20th anniversary since their acclaimed self-titled debut in 2003.
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Celebrating three decades of discovery
Life, John Clewley, Published on 27/02/2024
» World Beat celebrates 30 years on the music trail this month. The column started in Feb 1994 when Chuan Leekpai of the Democrat Party was in his first term as Prime Minister.
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A tribute to Jamaican heritage
Life, John Clewley, Published on 30/01/2024
» Studio One, one of Jamaica's most influential recording studios and labels, was founded by Clement "Coxsone" Dodd in the 1950s on Brentford Road, Kingston. His first recordings were made in 1963 and for the next 20 years, he would help reshape Jamaican popular music and propel it around the world.
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Root of the matter
Life, John Clewley, Published on 20/07/2023
» Earlier this year, Craft Recordings released the 2CD compilation Birth Right: A Black Roots Music Compendium with the aim of introducing the astonishing variety and depth of black roots music in the US in just 40 songs. Historian Dr Ted Olson and producer Scott Billington have done a great job of presenting a wide range of styles and genres -- from trad jazz to gospel to Louisiana la-la to Gullah music to country blues to brass bands. It's a fascinating musical ride for the listener.
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Holy trinity
Life, John Clewley, Published on 14/02/2023
» The banjo is a key instrument in Western folk music -- from US bluegrass to Irish trad -- and over the past 20 years, research into the roots of this three-stringed instrument have revealed its west African lute origins, with two instruments, the ngoni and the ekonting, now understood to be the closest ancestors to the banjo.
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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.
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A timeless musician
Life, John Clewley, Published on 26/09/2023
» Eliades Ochoa was a key member of the legendary Buena Vista Social Club, which was established in 1996 and organised into a stellar ensemble of Cuban musicians, many of whom performed Cuban music of the 1940s and 1950s -- bolero, son and danzon. An album was released to great acclaim and a film documentary of the group garnered an Academy Award for director Wim Wenders.
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