Showing 1 - 8 of 8
Fresh new sounds
Life, John Clewley, Published on 24/12/2024
» Justin Adams and Mauro Durante's second album Sweet Release (Ponderosa Records) tops the Transglobal World Music Chart for December. This fusion album carries on the collaboration from the success of their debut Still Moving, in 2021.
Say it loud
Life, John Clewley, Published on 27/08/2024
» On Oct 30, 1974, US boxer George Foreman, then the undisputed heavyweight champion, and challenger Muhammad Ali entered a ring in a stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) to fight for the title.
Ambuya!'s back baby!
Life, John Clewley, Published on 16/03/2021
» Piranha Records, a Berlin-based independent record label, was founded in 1987 to produce and distribute mainly African, Gypsy and Jewish music. The label expanded its roster to include various projects by 3 Mustaphas 3 bass player and crooner Colin Bass. His work with Sundanese (West Javan) musicians, under his Asian moniker Sabah Habas Mustapha, produced several excellent albums and one much-covered popular love song, Denpasar Moon.
Wander through the desert
Life, John Clewley, Published on 28/04/2020
» The Transglobal World Music Chart for April features one of the most popular of the so-called desert blues bands of West Africa, with Tamikrest in the No.1 slot.
A tribute to Manu Dibango
Life, John Clewley, Published on 31/03/2020
» Just after the World War II, in 1948, a gangly youth arrived in Strasbourg, France, after a long trip from Douala in Cameroon. He had 3kg of coffee in his luggage and a burning desire to be a saxophonist like Lester Young (later he would don a Young-esque pork pie hat and blow smoke rings like the acclaimed master). His name was Manu Dibango. Sadly, this veteran musician died last week of complications from the Covid-19 virus. He was 86 years old.
Last band standing
Life, John Clewley, Published on 19/11/2019
» I first heard Orchestre Les Mangelepa's seductive and sweet sound on one of their songs from the late 1970s, Embakasi, which was a nationwide hit in Kenya and beyond. Initially, I thought they had recorded the song in what was then Zaire but in fact they were expatriate Congolese musicians who had settled in Nairobi, Kenya, mainly to take advantage of the sophisticated recording industry that had developed around East Africa's biggest commercial centre.
Rumba in the jungle
Life, John Clewley, Published on 30/10/2018
» Everyone knows about the famous "Rumble in the Jungle", the epic heavyweight boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammed Ali held in Kinshasa, then Zaire, in 1974. The fight was immortalised in the Academy Award-winning film documentary When We Were Kings.
Likay lives on
Life, John Clewley, Published on 07/08/2018
» My first experience of popular theatre in Thailand was a likay performance in the main market in Chumpon. I had not been in Thailand for long and was on my way back from a trip to Malaysia, travelling by local bus and train.