• LIFE

  Taylor-made sounds of Ghana

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 12/06/2012

  » In 1986, I went on a trip to China and stopped in Macau to visit a friend. He introduced me to an American teacher who had spent 15 years teaching in Ghana and Nigeria. Over dinner, he casually said that he'd picked up a "few records" while he was in West Africa and that I could make some cassette tapes if I wanted to.

• LIFE

  Spectacular molam show socks it to the city-slickers

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 07/10/2014

  » A lively crowd gathered last Saturday night on a vacant plot of land near Wat Payayang, just down from the Urupong intersection in central Bangkok, to enjoy a colourful show by the Khon Kaen-based molam troupe Prathom Banthoengsin. It's not often we get this kind of show right in the centre of town — the last one I went to was the Banyen Rakkan/Nok Noi Uraiporn joint concert a couple of years ago at the National Stadium — so I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

• LIFE

  Stunning chorus of molam sounds 

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 31/03/2015

  » One of the delights of hearing the morning dawn chorus of birds here in Bangkok and indeed many Asian cities is the sound of the Asian or common koel (Eudynamys scolopacea), which in Thai is called nok ka-wow. I can mimic the sound of the koel roughly with a whistle, but khaen player Sombat Simla echoes the bird's sound exactly in the middle of a molam tune, with effortless ease. He can also mimic horns, ambulances and police cars, disco beats and synth drums, and the sound of heavy traffic. But his tour de force, which I've written about before, is the sound of a train journey, complete with traffic crossings and the calls of barbecue chicken vendors.

• LIFE

  For the love of Y/Our Music

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 21/07/2015

  » I went to the cinema at the weekend. This is not something I do very often these days but then the movie I went to see was being screened at Lido in Siam Square, a place I knew well during my days teaching at Chulalongkorn University. Sadly, Lido is slowly being engulfed by vendors and the new Siam Square of Hello Kitty buildings and boutique shopping facilities.

• LIFE

  A world-music classic returns

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 24/05/2016

  » The Malian singer Oumou Sangare burst onto the West African music scene when she released her first album, Moussolou, on cassette in 1990. I was living in Tokyo at the time and African friends told me about a new singer rapidly rising to fame on the back of an album that had already sold a quarter of a million copies. A kind soul bought me the cassette from a trip to Mali so that I could review it for the Japanese newspaper I was writing for. I still have the original.

• LIFE

  Mesmerising molam

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 09/05/2017

  » Twenty-five years ago I joined a team from the Japan Foundation on a tour of Isan to meet and talk to molam artists, as part of a project on Lao music in the region. We met up with the then-president of the Molam Association, National Artist Kane Dalao, and his two female molam partners, Boonpeng Faiphewchai and Chaweewan Damnoen (both later awarded national artist status), and joined the trio as they performed concerts in villages for social ceremonies like weddings in and around Khon Kaen.

• LIFE

  Infectious grooves, taste sensations and shadow puppets

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 08/01/2019

  » World Beat was in the field in Pak Thong Chai, Nakhon Ratchasima, this past weekend for the annual Jim Thompson Farm party, bringing to a close the six-week farm tour which is open to the public.

• LIFE

  The day the music died

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 09/07/2019

  » The legendary leader of the famous and influential Petch Phin Thong Band, Noppadon Duangporn, died last week at the age of 77. He was well known across the country, not just as the founder of one of Isan's biggest bands but also as a comedian, radio DJ and movie actor.

• LIFE

  A global meeting for music buffs

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 30/07/2019

  » The 45th International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) was held at Chulalongkorn University earlier this month. The premier global meeting for ethnomusicologists was held in Southeast Asia for the first time in its history. As the secretary-general of the ICTM Prof Ursuka Hemetek said: "This is a special occasion for us to be in Southeast Asia for the first time."

• LIFE

  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.

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