Need a fresh fix of Afro-beat, but not ready to fly to New York to see Broadway musical Fela!? (Yes, really: youtube.) Listen to (KSPC to listen to) Tony Allen’s new album Secret Agent on Nonesuch records. Allen is Fela’s lesser-known partner in the creation of afrobeat (with Fela as the other), and famously called [...]
On “Pomegranates” Finders Keepers has assembled a fine group of Persian tunes from the so-called “Golden Age” of Persian pop music. After classical forms dominated Persian pop music in the ‘50s, the emergence of artists like Googoosh was an unprecedented revelation. “Pomegranates” documents the dazzling movement before pop music was banned in ’79 after the [...]
Thanks to the on-stage shenanigans of Vinicio Capossela and his band of merry musicians this past Saturday (a recent KSPC ticket giveaway), my spring break started out with a real BANG! The energy at the El Rey theater in downtown LA swelled and swarmed during the course of Capossela’s two hour show, and it was [...]
Ali & Toumani documents the meeting of two supreme musicians, Malian guitar player Ali Farka Touré and kora master Toumani Diabaté. After winning a Grammy for their previous collaboration In the Heart of the Moon, the two were eager to join forces again. The album was not released before Touré’s death in 2006, but the [...]
Aha! Treasure-hungers Soundway Records have unearthed another thirty-something forgotten gems- this time from 1970s Ghana. The two-disc compilation showcases the vibrant musical culture that emerged a decade after Ghana achieved independence. A new take on African and Caribbean styles challenged the colonial music of big dance bands and orchestras. Ghana Special showcases the vibrant hybrid [...]
