Eric Bibb - Global Griot

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 144, January/February 2019.

Eric Bibb
Global Griot
DixieFrog (2CD, 90 mins)

Eric Bibb knows what he’s doing by now. He’s released about 40 albums, give or take, and netted a bunch of awards in the process. Bibb uses his music to examine his own place in the world, and Global Griot sees him continue on that journey. The album is described as Bibb’s ‘most collaborative project yet,’ which rings true: it’s filled with guests from across North America, the Caribbean, West Africa and Europe, and it was recorded in seven different countries. There is a particular focus on the African, and it is the sound of Solo Cissokho’s kora that stands out across the album, the nylon strings rippling across the lilting blues in a completely natural way.

With his signature style of chilled-out, cheerful and slightly cheesy blues, this is essentially Eric Bibb doing what he does best, and it yields some lovely moments, such as the tracks ‘New Friends’ and ‘Mole in the Ground,’ featuring gospel singer Linda Tillery and reggae legend Ken Boothe, respectively.

The album may not be as ground-breaking as it promises, and the collaborations don’t result in anything particularly new, but as a world-facing blues album, it still hits the mark.

Various Artists - Two Niles to Sing a Melody: The Violins & Synths of Sudan

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 143, December 2018.

Various Artists
Two Niles to Sing a Melody: The Violins & Synths of Sudan
Ostinato Records (2CD, 96 mins)

They dipped their toe into vintage Sudanese music with an album by Abu Obaida Hassan a few months ago; now Ostinato Records are taking a deep dive into that fertile ocean with this double album. This time they’re exploring the music of Khartoum, the capital city at the confluence of the Niles. The rivers are key to Sudan’s unique musical heritage, bringing in influences from North, Central and East Africa to give it a special swing.

The tracks on this compilation span from the 1970s to the 90s, and it’s interesting to hear the changes in style as time goes on. As the title suggests, there is a bunch of violins and a bunch of synths. The trend moves from one to the other over time, the pure disco of the massed violins and wah-guitars slowly making way for full-on synthscapes that really get the heart racing.

All the tracks here have been digitised from cassettes, so the audio quality is understandably varied, which can either be endearing or sonically troubling, depending on your ear. But as with most compilations of this sort, the sheer musical quality is excellent throughout – a wobbly track or two is a fair trade for a wonderful musical journey.

Kronos Quartet - WOMEX 18 Artist Award

First published in the WOMEX – World Music Expo 2018 delegate guide.



To become a pioneer in one musical stream requires immense dedication, determination and, of course, prodigious skill and creativity. To become such a leader in more than one stream must truly signal that there is some intense genius at work – genius that the Kronos Quartet possess in abundance.

They have gone through some line-up changes over the years, but Kronos Quartet as we now know them comprise David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cello). You may recognise that set-up as a string quartet, a mainstay in the Western classical tradition for over 250 years, but Kronos are anything but stuck in the past. Throughout their history, they have always been new; impressive for a group that have been going for more than 40 years.

Founded in 1973 under the intoxicating influence of Crumb’s terrifying avant-garde piece ‘Black Angels,’ Kronos have never quite been your usual quartet. They were a breath of fresh air in the often all-too stuffy world of classical music. Working with composers of cutting-edge contemporary sound art as well as revisiting the old masters, they were the very vision of counterculture where previously there was only orthodoxy. Their artistry was second-to-none and the music was of utmost importance in everything they did. They didn’t do anything that wasn’t complementary to the music, even if that meant rethinking what a string quartet looked like: if the music suited leather jackets better than evening dresses, then so be it.

All very groundbreaking, yes, but what do they have to do with WOMEX? Well, as it turns out, everything. They treat all music with the same passionate fervour and deep respect that other string ensembles would usually reserve for classical music. And that really is all music. It doesn’t matter if they’re sitting down to play Hildegard von Bingen or Harry Partch, Geeshie Wiley or Alim Qasimov, Konono No. 1 or DJ Spooky; Kronos’ music spans a thousand years and six continents. The interpretation of worldwide music is not a new thing in Western art music, but the way Kronos approach their musical adventures is revolutionary. They do not treat Western art music as immutable or unmovable. The usual balance is flipped: instead of fitting musics of other cultures into their own frame of reference, they mould their way of playing around the music itself.

This open-eared philosophy has been fundamental to the existence of Kronos, right from the beginning. Harrington tells of this lightbulb moment: “When I was 14 years of age, I had one of those moments that every one of us gets once in a while, if we are lucky, and it was while I was looking at the family globe. I realised there were a whole lot of cities other than Vienna where music composers lived. There were a whole lot of other countries with a lot of other religions and languages, and at that moment I realised I need to find out more about the kind of sounds that are present in other countries. I started to explore, and I haven't stopped ever since. I feel like I am just getting started because the world of music is so immense and anyone that thinks they know much about it is mistaken.”

One of the most important factors about the Kronos Quartet is that they are many more than four. Their extended family numbers in the hundreds. Collaboration has opened up soundscapes that would otherwise be inaccessible for a humble string quartet. The list of their collaborators is mind-boggling and features some (if not most) of world music’s greatest stars. It’s no longer a surprise to see them grace the stage with guest musicians playing balafon, dan bau, tabla, bandoneón, oud, pipa or rubab, or singing in any number of languages – in fact, one of their most recent successes was last year’s album Ladilikan, made together with the Malian Trio Da Kali, hit showcasers at WOMEX 16. The key to these collaborations is that they encourage everyone involved to reach new heights; together, they are more than the sum of their parts. Each collaboration brings new dimensions to each participant’s sound, and also adds new strings to the Kronos bow, as it were. Harrington says: “I believe with every collaboration we have ever had, I have learnt so much about life, music, and my instrument. I am not competing with anybody. All I want to do is the best work we can do with those partnerships that make us better musicians, and better people. I feel this is what our collaborators do for us.”

Collaboration for Kronos goes beyond performing with other musicians. It also extends to the lifeblood of our art: new music. It’s no exaggeration to say that they’re ultimately responsible for the creation of a whole new string quartet repertoire. Over 900 pieces have been composed especially for them, and one of their latest (and most ambitious) projects aims to take this even further. Over five years, Kronos have used their ‘50 For The Future’ project to commission 50 composers from around the world (25 male and 25 female) to each create a totally new piece of music for string quartet. All of the resulting pieces are then made freely available as recordings and scores for anyone to access via their website, opening up a wide range of potentially canon-upsetting music to flourish on the scene and encourage the next bright young string things.

The sheer scope and impact of this quartet’s work is impossible to condense into just a few pages of text. It would take listening to their 60+ albums, and even that would barely scratch the surface. So it is for their tireless efforts in the pursuit of the new; for bringing international music of all styles new audiences, new works and new outlooks; and for their stature as the most important string quartet of their generation, it is with delight that we award the WOMEX 18 Artist Award to the Kronos Quartet.


Photo: Kronos Quartet perform at WOMEX 18, by Yannis Psathas.

Dur-Dur Band - Dur-Dur of Somalia: Volume 1 & Volume 2

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 142, November 2018.

Dur-Dur Band
Dur-Dur of Somalia: Volume 1 & Volume 2
Analog Africa (2CD, 108 mins)

They were the biggest band in 1980s Somalia, huge across the whole Horn of Africa, and they’re not completely unknown outside the continent, either. Dur-Dur Band’s album Volume 5 was reissued by Awesome Tapes From Africa in 2013 to much acclaim, and now Analog Africa have taken the reins to release their remaining albums. This collection includes the band’s first two albums from 1986 and 1987, as well as a couple of previously unreleased tracks.

And wow. It’s a hot one, alright. As expected from Analog Africa’s output, this album is filled with funk, and Dur-Dur go hard: the track ‘Doon Baa Maraysoo’ is an intense seven-and-a-half minutes of driving groove, and it’s not alone in that. It all has its deepest roots in Somali traditional music, particularly the powerful sounds of the saar possession rituals. There’s also a surprisingly heavy dose of roots reggae in there too, complete with amazing bass guitar by Abdulahi Ujeeri Ajami. Add saxophones, synthesisers, electric guitars and the legendary voice of Sahra Dawo into the mix, and you won’t wonder why this band was so big.

Somali music is shaping up to be a world music phenomenon; Dur-Dur Band is a great place to start.

Root Salad: The Como Mamas

First published in fRoots issue 422, Autumn 2018



Como, Mississippi is a small place. It’s a rural town that sits on the edge of the Mississippi Delta, home to just over 1,000 people. Its size may be diminutive, but Como is world-renowned for its history of blues; it’s the hometown of Mississippi Fred McDowell and Otha Turner, among others. In today’s Mississippi, though, the town is known for one thing: gospel. The Como Mamas are telling the world all about it.

The Como Mamas are three wonderful gospel singers: Ester Mae Wilbourn, Della Daniels and Angelia Taylor. They’re a family group – Della and Angelia are sisters, Ester Mae is a cousin – and they’ve been singing together for fun and faith since childhood. Their start as a performing group, however, came rather by chance about ten years ago, when Della was looking for a record label to listen to her nephew’s hip-hop group. There was no interest in the hip-hop, but when Daptone Records learnt of Como’s gospel tradition, they headed down from New York and were blown away at what they heard – especially that trio from the Mount Moriah Church.

Those voices! They each have their own special sound. Della’s voice is sweet and girlish; Angelia’s is low, rich and occasionally roaring; Ester’s is somewhere in the middle. Each voice complements the others perfectly, and as they all weave together – sometimes melody, sometimes harmony, sometimes dancing over and between the two – they create something that is truly soul-nourishing.

As well as releasing two records – 2013’s Get An Understanding and 2017’s Move Upstairs – Daptone also gave the Como Mamas their name. Della says it took a while to adjust to: “At first we didn’t like it, we was like ‘that sound like they kinda making fun of us.’ But when the people of Como heard that our group was named after their town – and it’s such a small town – they started getting so excited, they kept asking us will we go here, will we go there, and it seemed like the more they was able to get us to participate, the more they became interested in us, you know?” Music is in the Mamas’ blood as much as it is in the blood of Como. Angelia recalls tales of her elders, “I listened to them tell the stories of when they were younger, they went to town and they went to church all the time and sang gospel, and that was just the big highlight of their week. That’s all what Como was big on back in the day, because they had nothing else to do! No other recreation but gospel or blues, that’s all they had for fun and enjoyment!”

While so many gospel stars make music closer to neo-soul or even pop, the Mamas stick to that older style. Theirs is the sound of old spirituals simmered in the birthplace of the blues, and there is no question that this is music of the soul. They’re the real deal. When the Mamas sing and dance and preach, they radiate power. Their sounds are hypnotic. In their live shows, their call-and-response sections can last five minutes or longer, endlessly repeating and subtly varying short phrases that swirl around the room. There are connections there with esoteric musical traditions from around the world: strangely, it doesn’t feel a million miles away from a Moroccan Gnawa ritual.

Gospel is just relentlessly joyous. It’s almost impossible to hear the Como Mamas sing without having a big stupid grin on your face by the end of the song. It’s telling that Angelia’s advice for the world is “don’t let nobody steal your joy.” She lives that message too – in May, she was shot through the chest in a drive-by shooting, but it was only two months later that her shining smile was lighting up all it touched as she shouted the good word at the group’s very first UK gig.

As their name implies, the Mamas have plenty of life experience to pour into their music. They picked cotton in the fields together as children, when Mississippi was still full of ‘whites only’ signs; now they’re matriarchs, with their own broods expanding to include great-grandchildren. They’ve seen it all. But for them, they couldn’t have chosen a better time to gain international recognition. “Because I am a Christian and because my life is in the Lord’s hands, I know that he knows when the best time was for me to do what we do,” says Della, “Because if I was younger, I would have a job and I wouldn’t be able to travel, there probably wouldn’t be no Como Mamas. The time is better for me now, because if I don’t want to do something, I don’t have to do that, I can just go on tour!”

It would be doing them a disservice not to mention the Mamas’ deepest passion – God’s word. They’re gospel singers after all. It’s the subject of every song, and every conversation with them is liberally sprinkled with Bible quotes and teachings. Spreading the word is their life’s work and deepest pleasure, and when they’re on stage, that energy is so palpable, whatever your faith. The Como Mamas may not make music at the cutting edge, but they uphold a real roots tradition that survives and thrives in the churches of Como, Mississippi. And they do it gloriously.


Photo: The Como Mamas, by Aaron Greenhood. Left-to-right: Ester Mae Wilbourn, Della Daniels, Angelia Taylor.

The Greatest Albums You've Never Heard: Bernard Kabanda - Olugendo

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 140, August/September 2018 as my small contribution to the article 'The Greatest Albums You've Never Heard.'

Bernard Kabanda
Olugendo
WOMAD Select (1999, 55 mins)

Olugendo is simply beautiful, although it’s not simple at all. Bernard Kabanda was a master of kadongo kamu music from Uganda. That literally means ‘just a small guitar’ – and that was all he needed.

Holding his acoustic guitar in a uniquely horizontal position, he somehow managed to play a bassline, chords, melody and tap a rhythm with his elbow all at the same time, the parts interweaving with mind-bending polyrhythms that makes it difficult to believe it all comes from one man. The real mastery is that it doesn’t sound complicated; it sounds like the easiest thing in the world. On top of it all are his cheery voice and delightful whistling. Kabanda’s songs are so sincere and often dark, but they’re filled with a cheeky humour that gets you smiling along, even if your Luganda is a little rusty.

Sadly, Kabanda died soon after this record was released in 1999. He was only 40 years old. We’re very lucky that he managed to get a slice of his wonderful music recorded before then. This is a truly and utterly joyous album, and it deserves to be much more widely heard.

Various Artists - Listen All Around: The Golden Age of Central and East African Music

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 140, August/September 2018.

Various Artists
Listen All Around: The Golden Age of Central and East African Music
Dust to Digital (2CD, 132 mins)

If it ain’t exquisite, it ain’t Dust to Digital. The record label is well-known for its high-quality compilations of remastered recordings, and Listen All Around is no exception.

This is a delightful collection of recordings made by archivist Hugh Tracey, exploring a range of popular music from modern day DR Congo, Kenya and Tanzania as it was in the 1950s.

Although Tracey didn’t exactly enjoy this type of music himself, his recordings are thankfully extensive. There’s tracks based on calypso, country, big band jazz, Cuban son, Ghanaian highlife, military bands and even French folk songs, all with more or less influence from traditional music of the various regions.

Each of the 47 tracks has an interesting story to tell, and there’s lots to arouse the curiosity, such as the massed kazoos of the Dar Es Salaam Jazz Band and ‘Chemirocha III,’ a song by Kipsigis girls in Kenya in honour of country legend Jimmie Rodgers. It’s useful, then, that the 84 pages of liner notes include detailed explanations of every track, as well as a fully-referenced essay about the music and culture of the time by the compiler, Professor Alex Perullo.

The wonderful variety of sounds and impressive depth of information make Listen All Around a great resource for world music fans and ethnomusicologists alike.