San Francisco (California), USA – The Rough Guide to Latin Arabia (RGNET1175CD) journeys to the little known but highly musical region of Latin-Arabia, located somewhere between Cairo and Havana. Here, it explores the long-standing influence of Latin music on the Arab world and similarly, the imprint of Arabic music on Latin America.
The connections run deep: from the Nubian sounds of ‘Mambo el Soudani’ by Salamat to the Spanish and North African music of Benjamín Escoriza, the voice of Radio Tarifa. The album includes collaborations between musicians from the two regions including Algeria’s Maurice El Medioni and Roberto Rodriguez as well as Omar Faruk Tekbilek and Flamenco legend Enrique Morente.
The Rough Guide to Latin Arabia fuses three of the most popular dance styles: belly dance, salsa and flamenco (including Flamenco rumba).
The Rough Guide to World Music: Africa and Middle East
Compiled and edited by Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham and Jon Lusk with Duncan Clark
Published by Rough Guides, Distributed by The Penguin Group, ISBN-10: 1843535513
The third edition of The Rough Guide to World Music: Africa and Middle East, set to hit the streets on March 13, 2007, is a veritable pleasure cruise for the back porch music lover to the hardcore backpacking musician with a guitar slung over his shoulder. This chunky paperback tromps across the musical map from Algeria to Zimbabwe, from the Arab world to Turkey, riding the rails with traditional roots music pioneers and picking up cross-pollinating travelers along the way. Chocked full of engaging articles, discographies, playlists and photographs, this 656-page reference guide lures even the most casual of page flippers onto the musical landscapes of Africa and the Middle East.
Various Artists – Next Stop … Soweto Vol. 2: Soultown. R&B, Funk & Psych Sounds from the Townships 1969-1976
Strut continue their essential three-part excursion into the archives of South African music with the second volume of the ‘Next Stop… Soweto’ series.
With international forms of music discouraged by the South African authorities during the 1960s, township jive or mbaqanga arose as innovative artists combined close harmony singing and traditional African styles with a bouncy township beat. Imported US music became strictly the domain of house parties, private record collections and underground shebeens.
Despite this, a small but healthy soul scene flourished with bands like The Movers adding marabi elements into their funk and early disco sound, The Klooks and the Anchors all directly inspired by US soul and R&B and the Hammond organ of Booker T and Jimmy Smith. From ’69, a string of 3-minute blasts of energy surfaced on local labels like City Special, Soul Town, Atlantic City and Soul-Soul, often under the intimidating gaze of producer David Thekwane.
Volume 2 of Next Stop… Soweto also touches on mbaqanga and jazz artists who dabbled with soul and funk fusions during the early ‘70s – the Mgababa Queens and Mahotella Queens, and revered SA jazz combo The Heshoo Beshoo Group. We also feature a rare psychedelic track from one of the only recordings made of playwright Gibson Kente’s acclaimed theatre pieces, ‘Too Late’.
The Next Stop… Soweto series is the result of several years of painstaking research and vinyl archaeology in South Africa by compilers Duncan Brooker and Francis Gooding. The CD package features an extensive booklet featuring detailed notes by David Coplan, author of ‘In Township Tonight’, alongside many previously unseen archive photos.
Volume 3 coming soon: South African jazz 1960-1978
