Showing 1-10 of 50 results
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Get the party going
Life, John Clewley, Published on 03/01/2012
» In 1987, I bought a Charley label reissue called Soul Mine, a double vinyl LP that featured some of the hits of the New Orleans-born R'n'B and soul singer Lee Dorsey. I was interested in the album because I'd read in John Broven's wonderful book, Walking to New Orleans: The Story of New Orleans Rhythm & Blues (Flyright, UK/Blues Unlimited, USA, 1974), that Dorsey recorded many of his best tracks not only with my favourite New Orleans funk band, The Meters, but also with producer and piano virtuoso Alan Toussaint.
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The sounds of Isan
Life, John Clewley, Published on 15/05/2012
» There are two broad fiddle traditions in northeastern music, one from molam, the music of ethnic Laotians and one from kantrum, the music of ethnic Khmers. The division is also neatly delineated geographically into molam in the upper and central parts of the Northeast and kantrum in the lower part, near the Cambodian border. As the late great kantrum singer Darkie noted in his anthem to northeastern music, Isan Samakhee (Northeast Unity): "Isan nua me molam, Isan tai me kantrum."
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Cambodian retro
Life, John Clewley, Published on 29/05/2012
» The Cambodian Space Project burst on to the scene with a maxi-single vinyl release, I'm Unsatisfied, Cambodia's first vinyl for 30 years, in 2010.
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The Grace of spiritual music
Life, John Clewley, Published on 26/06/2012
» One of the main reasons I went to the recent Penang World Music festival was to see the Filipina singer Grace Nono and her band perform, which I wrote about in my review of the event. I also had the chance to chat with her about her remarkable career and work.
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Relentless rhythms
Life, John Clewley, Published on 24/07/2012
» The reissue of "golden oldies" from West and Central Africa has brought long-forgotten bands from the 1960s and 1970s back to life. The first wave of reissues was based on West African music from former French colonies, featuring songs from countries such as Mali, Senegal, Burkino Faso, Guinea and Gambia. Shortly after that, compilations from West African countries that were former British colonies, such as Ghana and Nigeria, started to appear with groove-laden styles like afrobeat, highlife, afro-soul and afro-funk.
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Unearthing a treasure
Life, John Clewley, Published on 28/08/2012
» I was rummaging through some backstreet stores in Khlong Thom market the other week, looking for VCDs and DVDs of old luk thung movies. There are several stores in the market that feature a plethora of all kinds of movies, as well as audio CDs, and I did indeed find quite a few movies that featured music _ molam and luk thung _ including several with the late Pumpuang Duangjan as the main star.
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Paraplegic Congolese act take on the world
Life, John Clewley, Published on 23/10/2012
» Staff Benda Bilili rocketed to fame a few years ago on the back of an incredible story and their take on Congolese rumba music from the 1970s and 1980s. Their debut album, Tres Tres Fort (Crammed, Belgium) has so far sold more than 150,000 copies, topping the European Broadcast Union's World Music Charts for several months and a documentary on the band played at mainstream cinemas on general release.
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Vintage molam, contemporary vibes
Life, John Clewley, Published on 19/03/2013
» Angkanang Kunchai is one of the great voices of molam music. She was a successful singer with Surin Paksiri and the Ubon Pattana band during the golden era of the early 1970s and her 7-inch vinyl singles from that era always get the club crowds moving.
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Departed musical giants leave enduring legacy
Life, John Clewley, Published on 07/05/2013
» Three giants of popular music passed away recently: US guitar maestro Bob Brozman; taarab icon Bi Kidude from Tanzania; and US country legend George Jones. The news of the deaths of these great musicians has saddened fans around the globe, but we can take comfort in the fact that each left behind a great musical legacy.
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Little Boy Blue has gone
Life, John Clewley, Published on 02/07/2013
» I was eight years old when Bobby "Blue" Bland scored his final R'n'B hit That's The Way Love Is in 1963, and it would be a few more years before I bought my first 7-inch vinyl singles (Little Stevie Wonder and the Dave Clark Five were my first purchases). But once I started to get really interested in the golden years of R'n'B _ from the late 40s to the early 60s _ Bland's songs and his influential singing style quickly won me over.
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