Jennifer W. Kyker - Oliver Mtukudzi: Living Tuku Music in Zimbabwe

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 128, June 2017.

Jennifer W. Kyker
Oliver Mtukudzi: Living Tuku Music in Zimbabwe
Indiana University Press (304 pages)

Oliver Mtukudzi – often known simply as ‘Tuku’ – is a living legend of Zimbabwean music, both within the country and out. His unique mix of traditional Shona styles, soul, jive and South African music consistently defies any other categorisation than simply ‘Tuku music’, and his lyrics have spoken to the hearts of several generations of listeners in Zimbabwe.

With this book, Kyker gives an account of Mtukudzi’s musical life, but to call it a biography would be misleading. While it does take a mostly chronological journey through Tuku’s story, it uses his life and music as a jumping-off point to talk about the role of music across various facets of Zimbabwean social life and history.

The major theme of Living Tuku Music in Zimbabwe is the Shona concept of hunhu – the idea of personal identity based on communality and constant renegotiation, or in Tuku’s words, “being a person among others”. Due to the depth and poetry of Tuku’s music and lyrics, his songs can be interpreted in a multitude of ways, often leading to different groups taking away different messages, even if they are the opposite to Tuku’s stated intent. As such, each chapter focuses on a specific topic (such as politics, HIV/AIDS, the Zimbabwean diaspora), which is then viewed through the dual lens of Mtukudzi’s songs and his audiences’ interpretations of them, demonstrating the hunhu inherent in his music.

As an essentially ethnomusicological text, the theoretical extrapolations and dense technical language may be off-putting for some readers, but there isn’t too much of this to render it completely opaque. Scattered throughout are plentiful lyrics, interviews, photographs and other assorted miscellanea, which provide nice breaks in the wall of words. This is a work that has been in the making for 13 years (including nine years of research), and Kyker has created a thoroughly fascinating book.

UK Festival Guide 2017

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 128, June 2017. Copy deadline 13 April 2017.



May 12-28
Norfolk and Norwich Festival
Various venues in Norfolk
www.nnfestival.org.uk

Norfolk and Norwich Festival’s 245-year history makes it one of the most venerable arts events in the UK. This year’s musical line-up is made up of 27 concerts across the 17 days, including such luminaries as Afro-Colombian cantadora Totó la Momposina, Welsh harp and Senegalese kora duo Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita and a genre-breaking collaboration between Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson. The festival also features a full literature programme (check out Guyanese poet John Agard), as well as dance, literature, theatre, visual arts and physical performance.

May 19-29
Alchemy Festival
Southbank Centre, London
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/alchemy

For ten days, the Southbank Centre plays host to the largest festival of South Asian culture outside of the region itself. Alchemy Festival lets you explore a wide range of subcontinental and British Asian art; many of the events are completely free. There’s comedy, film, art exhibitions, dance recitals and courses (both classical and popular), board games, lectures and discussions…and that’s not even mentioning the music! Concerts include Pakistani kafi singer Abida Parveen, a night of top hip-hop entitled ‘Beats Without Boundaries’ and an afternoon-long sitarathon. A focus this year is the life of Ravi Shankar, including a performance of his opera Sukanya.

May 25-28
Orkney Folk Festival
Various venues, Orkney, Scotland
www.orkneyfolkfestival.com

For more than 30 years, Orkney has opened its doors to folk music from across the UK with this wonderful festival. Homegrown heroes the Chair and Lau’s Kris Drever join the bill in 2017, alongside acts such as Eddi Reader and Blazin’ Fiddles. The most vibrant aspect of the festival, though, is its sessions – what’s more inviting than an Orkney pub filled with folk music? The pubs of Stromness will be the home to all-hours playalongs: don’t be surprised to see some of the ‘official’ line-up taking part. Bring your instrument and jump in!

June 2-4
Wychwood Festival
Cheltenham Racecourse, Gloucestershire
www.wychwoodfestival.com

All neatly contained within the Cheltenham Racecourse, what Wychwood lacks in size it makes up for in energy. The headliners are of the rockier variety, from the Buzzcocks to original punk-folkers the Levellers, while elsewhere on the card you can dance to Congolese soukous with Kanda Bongo Man, North Indian party music with the Rajasthan Heritage Brass Band and Celtic folk from Canada with the East Pointers. On top of the musical offerings are renowned comedy and children’s programmes (CBeebies’ Kate Ashworth has already been confirmed) plus film and literature sides to give everyone something to enjoy.

June 3
Field Day
Victoria Park, London
www.fielddayfestivals.com

Slimmed down from a weekend to a one-day affair for 2017, this über-cool gathering will nevertheless bring an outstanding and heterogeneous mix of hip-hop, electronica and alternative rock to East London’s Victoria Park. The line-up is full of crowd-pullers such as Aphex Twin, Run the Jewels and Flying Lotus. The worldier side of the menu is no less on-point, with Nigerian juju pioneer King Sunny Ade, Syrian dabke king Omar Souleyman, Afrofuturist jazzers Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids and more.

June 17-18
Africa Oyé
Sefton Park, Liverpool
www.africaoye.com

Africa Oyé’s 25th anniversary is marked with cultural events across Liverpool throughout 2017, but the highlight will of course be the festival itself. As the UK’s largest free African and Afro-diasporic music festival, #Oyé25 invites some of the best artists to grace its stage over the years to return for the birthday bonanza in Sefton Park. Among the line-up are previous Songlines cover stars Jupiter and Okwess International (DR Congo) and Mokoomba (Zimbabwe). The festival is also an excuse for Merseyside’s best African and Caribbean kitchens to come and sell their wares, so remember to bring an appetite!

June 21-25
Glastonbury Festival
Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset
www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk

It’s the Big One. The UK’s biggest arts festival has something for everyone, from druids to ravers to metalheads. World music fans are well-served with some of the biggest names on the scene across more than 80 stages – of the handful of artists announced so far, Songhoy Blues and Toots and the Maytals will whet your appetite. Keep your eyes and ears peeled around the site – there is always something special, unlikely or out-of-this-world happening. Enjoy it while you can: this year’s festival may be the last at the iconic Worthy Farm for a while, with no 2018 edition and talk of an alternative site for 2019.

June 29-July 16
Manchester International Festival
Various venues, Manchester
www.mif.co.uk

This biennial arts festival specialises in the one-off. Artists of every conceivable medium will descend on Manchester to create new and innovative works. On the musical side, this means an exciting programme featuring artists such as La Mambanegra, Chassol, Bokanté and Portico Quartet, but also Colin Stetson and New Order with visual artist Liam Gillick. There’s audio-visual spectacle with world premieres of multimedia pieces by Phil Collins (the Turner nominee, not the other one) and Underworld, plus exhibitions, films, improvisatory drama and more. Put on your art appreciation glasses and expect the unexpected.

July 14-16
Tropical Pressure
Mount Pleasant Eco Park, Cornwall
www.tropicalpressure.co.uk

With a different sonic destination each day – Latin America on Friday, Africa on Saturday and the Caribbean on Sunday – this is a festival to take your senses on a tropical voyage. Situated in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and with and some of the country’s best vendors and chefs offering 100% vegetarian cuisine, Tropical Pressure is guaranteed to be a feast for the eyes and taste-buds just as much as the ears. At last year’s festival, our reviewer said ‘It’s a sure-fire way to put a smile on your face’ – 2017 promises just as much.

July 19-22
HebCelt
Stornoway, Outer Hebrides
www.hebceltfest.com

HebCelt attribute their success to three things: the passionate community, the outstanding beauty (the site has views of the harbour and castle), and, of course, the music. The cream of Scottish folk will play in 2017, including Peatbog Faeries, Lau and the hot young things, inter-Gaelic ramblers Ímar. A show to look out for is the opening concert, which will explore the fiddle traditions of the Scottish islands with musicians from Lewis, Orkney and Shetland. As well as the main arena, the festival also has venues across Stornoway and the Isle of Lewis, so don’t forget to take a wander.

July 27-30
Cambridge Folk Festival
Cherry Hinton Hall, Cambridge
www.cambridgelivetrust.co.uk/folk-festival

The Cambridge Folk Festival has long been known as more than just a stage for British folk music. Having been founded way back in 1965, the festival treats their 14,000-strong crowd to some of the best artists on the world and folk circuits every year. In 2017, this includes folk legends from both sides of the Atlantic in Shirley Collins and Loudon Wainwright III as well as an interesting headliner choice in Olivia Newton-John. One to look out for is Amythyst Kiah, who has a unique take on country blues.

July 27-30
WOMAD
Charlton Park, Wiltshire
www.womad.co.uk

This is the calendar highlight for world music lovers. It’s a big year twice over for WOMAD – 10 years since their move to Charlton Park and 35 years of the festival overall. You’d imagine they would pull out all the stops, but that’s business as usual for WOMAD. Here, world music megastars like Angolan semba singer Bonga and Senegalese heroes Orchestra Baobab play alongside the best artists you’ve never heard of from across the planet. Already confirmed are legendary South African choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Benjamin Zephaniah’s live dub-and-poetry project and the Khmer Rouge Survivors’ Cambodian roots from before the war. Other highlights are workshops for adults and children, poetry, food demonstrations and, of course, the Songlines signing tent!

August 10-13
BoomTown
Nr Winchester, Hampshire
www.boomtownfair.co.uk

BoomTown has grown a lot since it started in 2009. Now it is a veritable city with its own vivid internal mythology of explorers, revolutions and alien contact. An impressively huge line-up is stretched across twelve distinct districts, each with its own personality and multiple stages: you can go from watching Cypress Hill and Ziggy Marley in Trenchtown to Chris Wood and Mbongwana Star after a short stroll over to the Wild West. Other highlights are Palestinian electronauts 47SOUL and Afro Cuban-Iranian adventurers Ariwo.

August 24-27
Shambala Festival
Secret estate, Northamptonshire
www.shambalafestival.org

Named after a mystical Tibetan kingdom and held in an idyllic secret location, Shambala helps to give you a glimpse of utopia for one summer weekend with their ethos of sustainability, independence and creativity. There’s a big bunch of stages, each with a speciality in anything from deep dance beats to puppeteering. Good music guaranteed, with artists such as Malian diva Oumou Sangaré, Persian-Arabic jazz architects L’Hijâz’Car, hip-hop team-up Chali 2na & Krafty Kuts and Eastern Europe-meets-Middle East boogie explosion The Turbans.

August 25-28
Shrewsbury Folk Festival
West Midlands Showground, Shropshire
www.shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk

Recently named What’s On’s ‘Best Midlands Music Festival’, Shrewsbury Folk Festival showcases the length and breadth of folk music from Britain and beyond. For the 2017 edition, they’re launching their ‘Room for All’ initiative, celebrating cultural diversity. The 18-month project kicks off at the festival with O’Hooley & Tidow performing alongside an ensemble of refugee musicians. Other acts include John Kirkpatrick, the Unthanks and a performance of the folk opera The Transports with guests The Young’uns, Faustus and Nancy Kerr. Folk dance from ceilidh to morris is also a large part of the Shrewbury vibe, so bring your dance-appropriate footware!

August 25-28
Towersey Festival
Thame Showground, Towersey, Oxfordshire
www.towerseyfestival.com

When it was founded back in 1965, Towersey Festival was a one-day village event to raise money for the Memorial Hall. Now, it is great excuse to spend a (hopefully sunny!) long August bank holiday weekend with some of the brightest stars of folk and beyond. Eliza Carthy & the Wayward Band, folk stalwarts Show of Hands and the Blockheads are cases-in-point for 2017. The festival also promises 36 hours of ceilidh and a spoken word and comedy programme including ‘The Adventures of Andy Kershaw’, light-hearted ruminations on a life-long musical journey from the intrepid journalist, radio DJ and once-upon-a-time Songlines columnist.

September 16-18
Darbar Festival
Various venues, London
www.darbar.org

The aim of the Darbar organisation is to promote and celebrate the classical arts of India (both North and South), and their flagship festival succeeds in this year on year. The Darbar Festival is expanding its footprint in 2017, with events hosted at the Barbican and Sadler’s Wells as well as its usual home of the Southbank Centre. Highlights include master khyal and thumri singer Kaushiki Chakraborty and kathak dance from Akram Khan. There’s also a crash course in Indian classical music by broadcaster Jameela Siddiqi.

September 15-17
The Good Life Experience
Hawarden Estate Farm, Flintshire, Wales
www.thegoodlifeexperience.co.uk

The brainchild of Songlines family member Cerys Matthews, the Good Life Experience is a down-to-earth weekend of culture and outdoorsiness in the picturesque shadow of the Hawarden Old Castle. With a line-up so varied as to include those such as Tuareg rockers Ezza and wildlife TV presenter Kate Humble, you never know quite what surprises are coming next. This is a place to get stuck in: try your hand at campfire cookery or homebrewing, and take part in crafts and activities from candle-making to axe throwing. Hands-off is not an option!

September 22-30
London African Music Festival
Various venues, London
www.joyfulnoise.co.uk/festival-history

Every September, stars from every corner of the African continent make their way to London to perform at this city-spanning event, and for its 15th edition, the London African Music Festival will enliven venues across the capital. It’s a little too early to start guessing about line-up just yet, but with last year’s event featuring turns from Sahrawi songstress Aziza Brahim, Guinean guitar master Sekouba Bambino, London’s own Afrobeat legend Dele Sosimi and a harp collaboration between Fang mvet player Sally Nyolo and Mandé kora player Djeli Moussa Diawara, this year’s offerings will no doubt be similarly exciting and wide-ranging.

October 19-21
Manchester Folk Festival
Various venues, Manchester
www.manchesterfolkfestival.org.uk

The very first edition of the Manchester Folk Festival will take place this year, and they’re starting off on a high, with headliners such as Bellowhead frontman Jon Boden, fusionistas the Afro Celt Sound System and Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell. But it’s not all about the big names: the festival runs concurrently with the English Folk Expo (previously in Bury), so expect to see the great and good of the folk industry hunting Manchester’s clubs for the next big thing in folk.

October 20-22
Musicport Festival
Whitby, Yorkshire
www.musicportfestival.com

There aren’t many music festivals that are also a shop, but Musicport is one. With a musical instrument shop and concert programme as year-round activities, the jewel of Musicport is the October festival, held in Whitby’s Victorian seaside Pavilion. Early bookings for 2017 include headliners Afro Celt Sound System, gypsy violinist Tcha Limberger’s Hungarian project and kathakali dancers from South India. Extra-musical offerings come in the return of Bob’s Blundabus, the comedy club that also happens to be a double-decker bus.

January 18-February 4 2018
Celtic Connections
Various venues, Glasgow
www.celticconnections.com

At the end of January every year, Glasgow becomes home to more than 100,000 visitors feasting from Celtic Connections’ international buffet: more than 300 separate events of British and Celtic folk and world music of many different flavours. Just one of Celtic Connection’s notorious highlights are its musical collaborations – this year, all eyes were on the meeting of Evelyn Glennie and Trilok Gurtu. Although it’s a bit early to know details of next year’s festival, a partnership with Culture Ireland has already been revealed, so Hibernian connections are definitely on the cards. Look out for the programme announcements in autumn 2017.

Photo: WOMEX flags, by Smoobs. Used under licence CC BY 2.0.

The Beginner's Guide to Johnny Kalsi

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 127, May 2017.



There are few people as synonymous with their instrument as Johnny Kalsi is with the Punjabi double-sided barrel drum, the dhol. The drum lends bhangra music its distinctive sound, and Kalsi has probably done more this amazing instrument’s popularity around the world more than anyone. It’s clear that there’s never enough music for Johnny Kalsi: he’s been involved with almost every world fusion group you could mention. If you’ve attended any sort of world or folk music festival in the UK, it’s likely that you’ve seen him do his stuff.

Born in Leeds and raised in London, Kalsi didn’t come from a musical family. But raised Sikh, songs and music were still part of daily life, from hymns and prayers to readings from the holy book. This exposure led him to learn tabla at age seven (“all the lads do at that age”), and music became a passion when he took up the drum kit in high school. The dhol came at 14 when he auditioned for a local bhangra band as a tabla player – they decided they wanted a dhol instead, so he tried it out and it stuck. By this point, it was obvious that Kalsi was something special, his experiences and skills from tabla and drum kit helping him develop a unique approach to the dhol drum. Within two years he was touring the world as a member of the biggest bhangra group at the time, Alaap.

From that point, Kalsi has blasted his dhol on the albums and stages of so many legends. Starting with Alaap, he was also there for the heydays of Fun^Da^Mental and Transglobal Undergound in the 90s. On the same touring circuit as these groups was the Afro Celt Sound System (ACSS), fresh from the success of their debut album. After many shared bills and becoming friends both on- and off-stage, ACSS asked Kalsi to play a few beats on their second album. He ended up contributing more than that – his dhol became an important aspect of the Afro Celt sound almost immediately, and he joined their ranks for good. He even took a step to the fore in 2016; since they reformed, Kalsi’s drum has shaped the band’s whole sound. When ACSS frontman Simon Emmerson embarked on a mission to create folk music to reflect the England of today, with its many international influences, Johnny Kalsi was of course natural for the project. That became the Imagined Village, and was hailed as one of the sparks of the latest English folk revival. Again, Kalsi’s sound was key. And, as if being a crucial member and sonic element of many of the most forward-thinking fusion groups of the last 25 years was not enough, he’s also taken part in seemingly endless collaborations with international artists. From world music favourites like Peter Gabriel, Khaled, Dimi Mint Abba and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, to more unexpected artists such as Avril Lavigne, the Kaiser Chiefs and Nelly Furtado, Kalsi’s dhol has enlivened hundreds of recordings and concerts.

But when he gets talking about his work, it’s obvious what Kalsi considers his real baby: The Dhol Foundation (TDF). First and foremost, TDF is a school for kids to learn the instrument, but they’re also an internationally touring and recording band, with four albums under their belt and another coming in June 2017.

It all started when he was touring with Alaap, being approached every night by people asking for lessons. He always said no, until he was convinced to make a one-off workshop to a couple of people in Slough. They persuaded him to come back once more, and there were six students. “By the time that happened, it was too much for me to look back. And that was The Dhol Foundation.” From that base, the project grew into the first ever institute of dhol, and with it, Kalsi created the first dhol-teaching syllabus, The Dhol Bible. His passion and excitement for the school is obvious. “People are teaching with that bible all over the country, and I’m quite proud of that! That bit was my fault.” At its peak, there were 14 schools and about 700 members. As with anything that grows, it makes branches: smaller groups formed and broke off, and from these more groups still. Now there are hundreds of schools around the world.

When they perform in public, TDF are second-to-none. Their live band is the ‘A-team’, those that have progressed through the ranks of the school to professional standard. This way, they are ever-fluctuating, featuring up to 30 drummers and giving opportunities to promising younger members. It’s a powerful spectacle, as Kalsi says: “It’s a massive wall of drumming noise, it’s wonderful to watch.” That noise has led them to perform on some of the world’s biggest stages; you may have seen them in the 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony, the Royal Variety Performance or the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

It’s on TDF albums that Kalsi really lets loose his creative side. These albums can be called Kalsi’s solo work, but they’re much more than that: “If it was just a dhol drumming album, it would become very monotonous and boring.” Instead, they echo the rest of his career, full of collaborations with international artists – musicians as disparate as Sultan Khan, Etran Finatawa, Michael McGoldrick and Natacha Atlas have graced TDF albums. It’s all mixed up, produced by Kalsi and with a healthy dose of dhol drumming to top it off. TDF have a fifth album ready to release this year – Besant will be a celebration of springtime – that will no doubt continue this trend. Kalsi sums his albums up well, saying “they’re all different flavours, they all sound different, they taste different, they look different when you close your eyes. And I love that!”

With the latest album in the works, running The Dhol Foundation schools and now a member of the reformed ACSS, Kalsi has, as ever, got his hands full. But you’d suspect that’s just how he likes it.


Best Albums

Afro Celt Sound System
Volume 2: Release (Real World Records, 1999)
Kalsi’s first recorded outing with the groundbreaking world fusion group came at the height of their fame, and he brought the first Asian flavours to the Afro Celt ensemble.

The Dhol Foundation
Big Drum: Small World (Shakti Records, 2001)
The debut album under the TDF name was a tour-de-force of bhangra and electronica, and provided the groundwork for their future releases with guests including Natacha Atlas.

The Dhol Foundation
Drum-Believable (Shakti Records, 2005)
TDF’s second album continues with all the fun of their first, brings in more international influences and contains probably their most banging track to date, the Irish-Indian bouncer ‘After the Rain’, with fiddler Mairead Nesbitt.

The Imagined Village
Empire & Love (ECC Records, 2012)
The middle album of The Imagined Village’s trilogy, their first as a cohesive band and a classic of Anglo-Indian folk music. Kalsi’s dhol and tabla are essential to their sound.

Afro Celt Sound System
The Source (ECC Records, 2016)
The new-look ACSS, risen from the ashes and with Johnny Kalsi as a member of the leading triumvirate, returned reinvigorated with this amazing album, their first for 11 years.



If you like Johnny Kalsi, then try…

Tabla Beat Science
Tala Matrix (Palm Pictures, 2000)
Indian percussion-led dubtronica of the tabla variety. This masterpiece is the only studio album by the supergroup including Zakir Hussain, Trilok Gurtu, Talvin Singh and Karsh Kale, masterminded by producer Bill Laswell.

Girma Bèyènè & Akalé Wubé - Éthiopiques 30: Mistakes on Purpose

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 127, May 2017.

Girma Bèyènè & Akalé Wubé
Éthiopiques 30: Mistakes on Purpose
Buda Musique (67 mins)

For the better part of 20 years, Buda Musique’s Éthiopiques has been the go-to series for Ethiojazz and traditional music from Ethiopia. You won’t find that here. Éthiopiques 30 covers a wide range of styles, from cheesy country ballads to slinky rock, from smooth and groovy soul to hard funk (and, okay, maybe a little bit of jazz) – all dripping in that classic Ethiopian sound.

Crooner Girma Bèyènè was a star in the ‘Swinging Addis’ period of the 1970s, but recorded very little of his own music – it was his compositions and arrangements that gained more notoriety. After being off-the-radar in the US for 25 years, he slowly made his way back onto the Addis music scene, and in 2015 was invited to play a concert with French collective Akalé Wubé – it was obvious then that a recording was necessary. With artistic direction from Éthiopiques curator Francis Falceto, Bèyènè and Akalé Wubé have recreated and reimagined the songs from the singer’s golden era, along with one Akalé Wubé original, the instrumental ‘For Amha’.

From Bèyènè’s age-worn voice and evocative spoken-word passages adding extra emotional dimensions to his classics to Akalé Wubé’s sometimes-sleek, sometimes-raucous arrangements, there’s only one term for it: this album is immaculately cool.

Various Artists - The Original Sound of Mali

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 127, May 2017.

Various Artists
The Original Sound of Mali
Mr Bongo (79 mins)

The dance band craze of the 1970s saw groups from all over West Africa putting their own spin on Latin music. Mali was no exception, where deep Mande roots blended with twinkling guitars, crunchy synths and punchy horn sections. This compilation explores the best of Malian music from that golden age.

Featuring tracks from the biggest groups of the era, such as the famous rivals of Les Ambassadeurs and the Rail Band, this album also showcases lesser-known bands, including Idrissa Soumaoro et l’Eclipse de l’Ija, whose long-lost recordings never received an official release.

This collection takes in the spectrum of Malian dance band music, from the more traditional, griot-inspired styles as heard on ‘Fadingna Kouma’ by Zani Diabaté’s Super Djata Band, to some straight-outta-Havana salsas like Les Ambassadeurs’ ‘Fatema’. An interesting inclusion is a piece in the wassoulou style (based on traditional hunters’ music) by Alou Fané & Daouda Sangaré. It’s as wonderful as the rest, but lacks the dance band aesthetic and stands out because of that.

Nevertheless, with such a wealth of amazing music from this period in one of the most musically-renowned countries in the world, it’s difficult to go wrong; The Original Sound of Mali certainly doesn’t.

Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble - The Road is Long: Live at Savoy Theatre

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 126, April 2017.

Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble
The Road is Long: Live at Savoy Theatre
No Problem! Music (37 mins)

When you have four attempts at recording a live album in Cotonou, Benin, and each of them fail, what do you do? Well, when your name is the Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble, the next step is rather obvious. That’s how the voodoo funk group ended up recording their third album on New Year’s Eve 2015 at the Savoy Theatre in Helsinki, Finland.

With this sort of band – their music made for heavy all-night dance parties – the popular opinion is that ‘you have to see them live’, so it’s a pleasure to hear the ensemble in their natural setting.

Of the five tracks on this album, it’s the two pieces from the group’s debut, ‘Agamafa Hèdé’ and ‘Adande’, that feel the tightest. That’s no doubt due to them having longer to stew and develop on the setlist, and consequently allow the band to let go and jump more: there is some seriously wigged-out Afrofunk sax solos on these tracks.

As enjoyable as this live album is, it serves as more of a teaser for their shows: the music is fun but it can’t recreate the atmosphere, and the length (only five tracks) will no doubt leave you angling for more.

Fendika - Birabiro

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 126, April 2017.

Fendika
Birabiro
Terp Records (47 mins)

Azmaribetoch are the centres of Ethiopian traditional music, places to enjoy the songs, dance and stories of the azmari troubadours. The Fendika azmaribet, run by dancer and artistic director Melaku Belay, is one of the most renowned in Addis Ababa, and with its house band recording and touring internationally as two ensembles – Fendika and Ethiocolor – their reputation is now extending worldwide.

Reflecting Addis Ababa’s standing as a cultural hub, Fendika’s repertoire expands across the many regions and ethnicities of Ethiopia, and their third album shows it off well. Birabiro captures an authentic aural experience of the azmaribet. The ensemble is small and acoustic – the music is made from just voice, kebero drums and overtone-rich masenko fiddle. But together they provide a whole range of atmospheres, from dark and bluesy on the track ‘Zelesegna’ to the party vibe of ‘Yewolaya Weyo’. It’s just a shame that we’ve not yet found a way to give the full impact of dancers on CD or vinyl.

So the next time you’re in Addis Ababa, head over to Fendika azmaribet for a great evening of music and dance – in the meantime, get this album and go there with your ears!