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Showing 11-20 of 247 results

  • LIFE

    House of the rising Son

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 27/09/2022

    » Son House is regarded as one of the greats of early blues, along with early recording stars like Charley Patton and Robert Johnson. He made 78rpm records in the 1930s but a spell in penitentiary halted his career and by the 1940s he had abandoned recording. It wasn't until 1964 that Nick Perls, Dick Waterman and Phil Spiro "rediscovered" him working at a gas station. He was completely unaware of the interest in folk blues at the time (Skip James and Bukka White were already playing crossover folk clubs).

  • LIFE

    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.

  • LIFE

    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.

  • 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

    Lift up your voice

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 10/10/2023

    » South Africa has a long tradition of harmony singing, stretching back to Soloman Linda's famous 1933 song Mbube, which created a genre of its own to isicathamiya folk singing that led to one of the country's most potent popular genres, mbaqanga and on to gospel choirs.

  • 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

    Music for the soul

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 29/08/2023

    » Highlife was one of the first popular styles to emerge in post World War II sub-Saharan Africa. It came out of Ghana's clubs and bars in the 1950s, where big swing bands, pioneered by the "King of Highlife" ET Mensah, whipped up one of West Africa's best loved urban dance genres.

  • LIFE

    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.

  • LIFE

    Remembering an icon

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 01/08/2023

    » On July 13, luk thung singer, actor, movie/TV producer and label owner Phanom Nopporn passed away in hospital at the age of 77. One of the giants of the "country music" genre, fans and stars of the luk thung industry attended his funeral on July 18 at Wat Bang Rak Noi Ban Sai in Nonthaburi.

  • LIFE

    Top tunes this June

    Life, John Clewley, Published on 20/06/2023

    » Veteran kora master Toumani Diabaté and Kayhan Kalhor soar to the top spot on the June edition of the Transglobal World Music Chart with a new release on Real World, The Sky Is The Same Colour Everywhere. Diabaté is well-known for his cross-cultural collaborations, from his early days with Ketama, a flamenco, jazz, West Africa fusion, to later work with the London Symphony Orchestra (Korolen), while Kalhor is an award-winning Kurdish-Iranian master of the kamancheh (fiddle) and setar (lute).

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