• LIFE

  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.

• LIFE

  Preserving heritage

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 22/11/2022

  » Field recordings of ancient, traditional music in the Southeast Asia feature in this column. Northern Khmer Spirit Music in Thailand – Kantrum Dongman (Animist Records, 2022) covers the traditional music of "Northern Khmer" people in provinces like Surin, Buri Ram and Si Sa Ket that straddle the Thai-Cambodian border in Thailand's lower Northeast, while Exploring Gong Culture Of Southeast Asia: Massif And Archipelago (Sub Rosa, 2022) covers traditional gong music from 50 different ethnic groups in the Philippines, Borneo, Sulawesi, Vietnam's highlands and northeast Cambodia.

• LIFE

  Where cowboys rule

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 05/07/2022

  » The Colombian writer and journalist Gabriel Garcia Marquez was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. At his award ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, a delegation of Colombian musicians performed for the event. Harp player Carlos "Cuco" Rojas, the founder of the Cimarron band, and lead singer Ana Veydo joined the musicians, adding their festive joropo dance music from plains of the Orinoco River (in Colombia and Venezuela) to the music on the Nobel stage.

• LIFE

  Summer vibes

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 24/05/2022

  » The Thai entertainment scene got a welcome boost this past week with news that bars, clubs and pubs will reopen from June 1, albeit with a closing time of midnight. The government also announced that the lifting of restrictions would apply to 31 provinces that have successfully controlled potential outbreaks of Covid-19, with the other 46 provinces still under Covid-based surveillance and restrictions.

• LIFE

  Latin soul with a Thai twist

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 29/03/2022

  » Amaru Tribe, a Latin band based in Melbourne, Australia, released their second studio album, Between Two Worlds, on March 18. The band visited Thailand in 2019 for a mini-tour, which culminated in a full band concert at Studio Lam, for which they jammed with phin and khaen players from Toom Turn Molam Band.

• LIFE

  Nora dance gets Unesco nod

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 21/12/2021

  » Nora, a traditional folk dance-drama from southern Thailand, was awarded intangible cultural heritage status by Unesco last week. The distinctive dance form joins khon and Thai traditional massage on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

• LIFE

  Forging his own path

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 22/06/2021

  » When Ethiopian music maestro Hailu Mergia toured the US with the Ethio jazz and funk Walias Band in the early 1980s, he had no idea he would become a taxi driver in his adopted country.

• LIFE

  Eclectic music to soak in

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 08/06/2021

  » I once spent several weeks travelling around Southern Italy, camping in Puglia and Calabria.

• LIFE

  A smoother blue from North Mississippi Allstars

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 13/04/2021

  » In 2014, I wrote a review about the unique sound of blues rockers North Mississippi Allstars (NMA), whose music is rooted in the "fife and drum" culture of North Mississippi. Unlike in the Mississippi delta, which has a distinctive brand of guitar-driven blues, North Mississippi African-American hill country musicians use fifes (a small shrill flute used in 19th-century military bands), fiddles, banjos, tambourines, snare drums and a huge bass drum to create their local sound.

• LIFE

  808s in Tamil Nadu state

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 10/11/2020

  » This month's Transglobal World Music chart has an Asian flavour with an Arabic twist as Ammar 808 took the top spot with a fusion of South Indian music from Tamil Nadu state that has been through an Arabic blender.

1 2 Next Last