On this week’s program, you’ll hear Part 2 of the Best World Music Albums of 2020. There are so many excellent albums released around the world each year that there’s no way to honor them all. I try to create an eclectic playlist of albums from different regions that represents this broad spectrum of great music. Here are the artists on Part 2 of the Best Albums of 2020 playlist: Danyèl Waro, Sum Alvarinho (from the compilation album ‘Léve Léve: São Tomé & Principe Sounds (70s-80s)’ released by Les Disques Bongo Joe,) Bab L’ Bluz, Džambo Aguševi Orchestra, Siti Muharam, iyatraQuartet, Maria Mazzotta, Matthieu Saglio with Isabel Julve, Hamish Napier, Lido Pimienta with Sexteto Tabala, Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela, and Tamikrest.
You can find full details of how and where to hear the program on the Listen page from the top menu of the website.
Many thanks to all the artists, record labels, live music presenters, and fellow radio presenters who kept bringing music to us under difficult circumstances in 2020. The wonderful music that you created and shared helped bring much needed comfort and joy into our lives.
On this week’s program, I celebrate some of the Best World Music Albums of 2020 as we close out this most unusual and difficult year. I’ll continue this theme with a second helping of favorite albums next week – the first program of 2021. I’ve tried to find a representative mix of music from the multitude of excellent albums that I came across by artists from all around the world this year. This week I’ll feature Moonlight Benjamin, Mulatu Astatke & Black Jesus Experience, Ladama, Afel Bocoum, Salif Diarra, Aynur, WuFei & Abigail Washburn, The Rheingans Sisters, Damir Imamović, Trio Tekke, and Antibalas. Tune in next week for the second dozen or so choices!
You can find full details of how and where to hear the program on the Listen page from the top menu of the website.
Many thanks to all the artists, record labels, live music presenters, and fellow radio presenters who kept bringing music to us under difficult circumstances this year. The wonderful music that you created and shared helped bring much needed comfort and joy into our lives.
On this week’s program, we’ll celebrate the season with familiar Christmas carols and songs in fresh musical settings as well as holiday numbers from around the world that you may not have heard before. The playlist is full of festive music by artists from Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Louisiana, Norway, Italy, Ireland, and the Innu people – one of Canada’s indigenous First Nations. I hope you can join me for a cup or two of musical cheer!
¡Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noël! Merry Christmas to you!
Go to the Listen page for full info on when and where to tune in on your radio dial or links to listen online from your web browser.
P.S. If you’d like to read about my love of Christmas music of all kinds, check out this series of twenty-five pieces I wrote in 2014 for my short-lived music blog, Jukebox Delirium: 25 Days of Christmas Records (start here at Day 1 and go to each following post by clicking the link for the next day at the bottom of the page just above the Comments section.) I have a large collection of Christmas music!
We begin the end of year holiday season with a celebration of Hanukkah music from around the world on the program airing this weekend. You’ll hear some klezmer tunes, songs sung in Ladino from the Sephardic Jewish tradition with roots in Spain, one of Woody Guthrie’s Hanukkah songs, and some festive modern takes on the joyous celebration known as the Festival of Lights.
Also featured throughout the program are some spoken pieces from the wonderful 1987 album ‘Oy Chanukah!’ by the Klezmer Conservatory Band. In these pieces, we hear about Hanukkah traditions and reminiscences of Hanukkah celebrations from the early twentieth century by elders in the Jewish community.
It’s an eclectic mix with a little something for everyone.
Hanukkah Sameach! Happy Hanukkah!
Go to the Listen page for full info on when and where to tune in on your radio dial or online from your web browser.
I’ll be playing a new song from the Yiddish Glory Project on the radio program airing this weekend. Thanks to Dan Rosenberg, executive producer of the project, for sharing the song with me. The song is called “I Am A Typhus Louse” and was found by Anna Shternshis, Professor of Yiddish Studies at the University of Toronto, when she was researching songs about past epidemics. Here’s what they say about the song:
During World War II, typhus became rampant as Jews and other prisoners were victims of forced starvation and horrific living conditions. Typhus, which is spread by lice, killed hundreds of thousands, especially the malnourished with weak immune systems.
Some used music and humour to document these types of experiences. In 1942, L. Vinakur composed this comedic song, “I Am a Typhus Louse,” in a ghetto in Transnistria (a region that is now part of Moldova and Ukraine).
The piece is written from the perspective of a louse that had already ravaged the Jewish population, forced thousands into quarantine and wants to target Nazi soldiers.
The music was composed by violinist, composer and conductor David Beigelman (1887-1945). In 1912, he became the director of the Łódź Yiddish Theatre. In 1940, he was sent to the Łódź ghetto (where he conducted the ghetto’s symphony). In 1944, he was deported to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, where he died the following year just before the end of the Holocaust.
(From the information on the YouTube page for the video of the song, linked below.)
The song is performed by Yiddish Glory & Payadora Tango Ensemble: Psoy Korolenko – Vocals; Rebekah Wolkstein – Violin; Drew Jurecka – Bandoneon, Viola, Violin, Clarinet; Robert Horvath – Piano; Joseph Phillips – Double bass; Drew Jurecka – arranger, engineer, and producer; Dan Rosenberg – Executive producer.
Here’s the video for the song, which includes English subtitles, featuring Psoy Korolenko and Payadora Tango Ensemble as The Lice. (Full credits for the video available on the YouTube page as well.)
Around the same time that this song was shared with me, I had also heard an enlightening story on NPR about the typhus epidemic that swept through the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland during World War II. It is especially poignant given the current global coronavirus pandemic. You can read that story here: “The Warsaw Ghetto Can Teach The World How To Beat Back An Outbreak.”
I’m glad to hear that there’s more music from the Yiddish Glory Project coming our way in the future!
On the program airing this weekend, I’ll play music in tribute to two reggae greats who passed away recently: Toots Hibbert – founder of Toots & the Maytals – and pioneering dub producer Bunny “Striker” Lee. You’ll also hear from several recent releases: The Zonke Family from Zimbabwe; London-based singer-composer Esbe; A.G.A. Trio with inspiration from Armenia/Georgia/Anatolia (Turkey;) modernized traditional music of Poland by Karolina Cicha; and Sian, a trio of young women vocalists from Scotland.
I also play a piece by my friends in the Tulsa-based Irish traditional band Cairde na Gael, going out to my son Ryan who turns 15 this weekend. It’s a medley of polka tunes that Ryan has played with his violin teacher Jocelyn Rowland Khalaf: “Britches Full of Stitches/Mickey’s Chewing Bubble Gum/John Ryan’s.” Happy birthday, Ryan!
Here’s a video of Karolina Cicha performing the Tatar song “Tipir” live with her bandmates. She’s a singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist who often works with the traditional music of the ethnic minorities of north-eastern Poland. I hadn’t heard her until this new album came out recently. I’m sure I’ll be playing more of her music on the show in the future!
I hope you can tune in to this week’s show. Go to the Listen menu above for details on when and where you can hear it.
Albums featured on the Indigenous Peoples’ Day Special 2020
On the special program airing the weekend of October 10-11, I’ll feature a wide spectrum of music by Native American and First Nations artists from across North America in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day (October 12) here in the United States. You’ll hear: the brilliant poem-songs of Muscogee-Creek artist Joy Harjo; Cree musician Cris Derksen’s modern fusion of classical cello with powwow music; the beautiful voices of Diné singer Louie Gonnie and all-woman northern drum group The Mankillers; traditional powwow drums recorded in Oklahoma; a Cherokee language version of a Christian hymn by the Kingfisher Trio; an atmospheric composition by Mohican multi-instrumentalist Bill Miller; a folk-rock original by Inuk/Inuit musician William Tagoona; singer-songwriter Sharon Burch with a Navajo-language song; and more. I hope you can join me for this special show.
Go to the Listen page from the main menu to find out when and where you can hear the program on your radio dial in Tulsa and Spokane or streaming live from anywhere on the web.
Photo by Youri Lenquette, courtesy of Sacks & Co. / World Circuit Records.
On the program airing this week, we’ll celebrate 50 years of Orchestra Baobab – the beloved band from Senegal that began its career in 1970 as the house band for the newly opened Club Baobab in Dakar. We’ll hear music spanning their entire career as we pay tribute to their enduring legacy as one of Africa’s greatest musical collectives.
If you didn’t already know this, I’ve used Orchestra Baobab’s song “Colette” as the intro theme music for the show since it began in 2017. After a while, I also started using their song “Bikowa” as the outro theme music. (Both of these songs are found on their truly wonderful album, ‘Made in Dakar,’ released in 2007.) I think the band’s brilliant blend of West African and Afro-Caribbean rhythms beautifully exemplifies the kind of music I love to share with listeners, and they’re one of the bands whose music inspired me to create The Rhythm Atlas for Public Radio Tulsa.
Here’s a nice taste of Orchestra Baobab playing live in 2007. Since then, three longtime members have passed away: singer Ndiouga Dieng in 2016, saxophone player Issa Cissoko in 2019, and singer and founding member Balla Sidibe – who passed away in August 2020.
I hope you can tune in to hear this special show. Long Live Orchestra Baobab!
You can hear the program Saturday, October 3 at 7 p.m. (Pacific time US) on KPBX 91.1 FM – streaming online at Spokane Public Radio or on Sunday, October 4 at 6 p.m. (Central time US) on KWGS 89.5 FM – streaming online at Public Radio Tulsa.
Many thanks to Joe Cohen and World Circuit Records for providing some invaluable materials for this program.
Join me this weekend as I celebrate the show’s 3rd birthday with a special playlist of well-known pop, rock, and country songs as covered by artists from all around the world. People told me they so thoroughly enjoyed this same theme from last year’s birthday special, that I thought I’d dig up some more musical treasures for this year’s celebration.
You’ll hear some unexpected and highly entertaining renditions of familiar songs: a Dutch musician singing a Beatles hit in Spanish, a rockin’ Arabic version of a James Brown song, a classic from Black Sabbath reworked into a cumbia number, a mind-blowing psychedelic-prog rock version of “The Sounds of Silence” by a band from Spain, and much more. It’ll be a blast!
Many thanks to all of you listeners who tune in each week! I appreciate the support of the show and I love being able to share this music with you. And an extra special thank you to Public Radio Tulsa for adding me to their broadcast line-up three years ago, and also to Spokane Public Radio for starting to carry the show in 2020.
(Go the Listen page for further details and links to when and where to hear the show, and a link to the archived audio on PRX. My apologies for getting this posted after the program aired on Spokane Public Radio this weekend. You can still tune in to the Public Radio Tulsa broadcast tonight – September 20th, 2020 at 7 pm!)
Cover of The Golden Gate Gypsy Orchestra’s one and only album.
On a recent weekend trip to St. Louis, I was able to stop in at one of my favorite record stores – Vintage Vinyl in the Delmar Loop – and I picked up a couple handfuls of used CDs from a wide variety of international artists. They have a fantastic selection of music from around the world. One of the pieces I’ll play on the program airing this weekend is from a CD in that bunch: the one and only album released in 1981 by The Golden Gate Gypsy Orchestra of America and California, a large ensemble that was based in the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s a wonderful record full of Yiddish, Israeli, Russian, and Romany folk music. I was intrigued when I read in the liner notes that the album was produced and engineered by Mickey Hart, drummer for the Grateful Dead. (In 1988, it was remastered for CD release by Rykodisc.)
While doing some research on the group, I came across a wonderful video on Mickey Hart’s YouTube page that gives a nice history of the band and how they came to make the record with him. Spoiler alert: one of the band members was Mickey’s orthopedic surgeon! The 16-minute video features founding band members Gloria and Barry Blum; the story of meeting Mickey starts at the 5:44 mark.
Gloria and Barry Blum Present: An Oral History of The Golden Gate Gypsy Orchestra of California and America, otherwise known as The Traveling Jewish Wedding
I also found this related short video of Mickey Hart talking with his friend ethnomusicologist Fred Lieberman about the making of the Golden Gate Gypsy Orchestra album. Lieberman was a long-time faculty member at the University of California at Santa Cruz (my alma mater!) and was instrumental in helping to facilitate the establishment of The Grateful Dead Archive at the university’s McHenry Library. (I’ve been thinking about UC Santa Cruz and some of my Banana Slug friends that still live in the area as the wildfires have devastated parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains this past week. Here’s a place where people can help.)
Both of these videos were produced when Smithsonian Folkways Recordings released their “Mickey Hart Collection” in 2011.
You can find out more about the Golden Gate Gypsy Orchestra album and read a PDF of the full liner notes with information about the songs and each of the musicians in the band at the Smithsonian Folkways website.
I hope you can tune in to hear their lively music this weekend!
Go to the Listen page in the menu above to find out how you can catch the program on Spokane Public Radio on Saturday nights or Public Radio Tulsa on Sunday nights.
The Rhythm Atlas Radio Show 