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Fab Four
In April Select Global will be releasing the Fab Four series of 4-CD sets, with a broad catalogue ranging from jazz (Miles Davis) and blues (B.B. King) to early Johnny Cash and even Tangerine Dream! Beautifully packaged in clamshell boxes and retailing for only $19.95 Fab Four is perhaps the ultimate statement of high quality at a low price.
Putumayo on Australian TV
Select is proud to announce an exciting promotional campaign that’s ‘guaranteed to make you feel good’! Putumayo CDs will be featured on Foxtel from mid-April leading up to Mother’s Day.
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reviews |
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23 January, The Australian
Jaadu (Magic)
Titi Robin, Faiz Ali Faiz
ACCORDS CROISES | AC130 | CD | 794881937028
4 ½ stars
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Fusions of musical traditions are nothing new, but it is rare to discover a successful synthesis such as this working project between French guitarist Titi Robin and Pakistani singer Faiz Ali Faiz. For more than 30 years Robin has followed the adventure of his passion for flamenco, Indian and Arabic music with more than a dozen recordings. Faiz Ali Faiz is a qawwali singer, one of the best to emerge since the death of the acknowledged master Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in 1997. He had also previously worked with Spanish musicians Miguel Poveda and Chicuela fusing their raw flamenco voices and guitars with his group.
Qawwali is the Sufi devotional singing of praise songs and ghazals (love songs), generally sung over a background of harmonium and tabla by a lead singer with backing vocalists and percussion. Rather than adding beats or studio treatments to pre-recorded tracks as some have done with qawwali fusions, Robin’s usual group of guitars, accordion, reeds and percussion is integrated into Faiz’s traditional ensemble. Robin has composed melodies that he combined with texts and poems found by Faiz, written in a handful of languages including Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi. From the pounding Ya Ali, with its accordion leading the full company, to the tender guitar and vocal duet of Chambe de Booti, where Faiz sings of the jasmine flower, this is a perfect collaboration.
December 2009 – January 2010, MAG
5 stars
French gypsy, bouzouki virtuoso, composer and musicologist Thierry ‘Titi’ Robin is a tireless explorer of musical worlds, and his ability to assimilate musical styles is second to none. This recording finds him in Pakistan where he (and his remarkable band) join forces with the great Sufi singer Faiz Ali Faiz (and his remarkable band) in a performance that is simply outstanding. Rarely have two musical styles melded so perfectly; bouzouki, gumbass, Pakistani harmoniums, clarinets, cor anglais, accordion and tabla mix seamlessly. This is one of the best recordings of this, or for that matter any other year.
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30 January, The Australian
A Flor da Pele (Skin Deep)
Joana Amendoeira
LE CHANT DU MONDE | CD | CM2741747 | 794881928422
4 stars
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Although this is Joana Amendoeira's fifth recording, A Flor da Pele (Skin Deep) is the first available internationally. The young Portuguese singer has recorded a sublime feast of contemporary fado music. Meaning "fate" or "destiny" in Portuguese, fado dates from the early 1800s, and its origins are said to lie in old sea songs with African and Arabic influences. It is usually performed with a backing of double bass, acoustic guitar and the Portuguese 12-string guitar. Made popular worldwide in the 1950s and 60s by Amalia Rodrigues, fado lost favour in Portugal due to its association with the Salazar regime. The success of a new generation of fado singers, including Mariza, Madredeus, Misia and others, has generated considerable interest again in fado, both in Portugal and internationally. With Mariza now exploring a contemporary fusion sound, as evidenced by her tour here last year, the traditional acoustic format remains a vital element in the songs of younger singers, including Joana Amendoeira. The essential element of fado is saudade, the almost intangible sense of regret and loss, of a love affair, a country or a friend. In these 15 short songs, Amendoeira sings of the sea, love and hope, betrayal and regret. In Barco De Sonhos (Ship of Dreams) she sings of sending her love away. An outstanding recording.
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I can see the gates of heaven…
Marta Sebestyen
World Village | WV450009 | CD | 794881933822
4 stars
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Hungarian folk singer Marta Sebestyen came to international prominence when she contributed to The English Patient soundtrack. This new album finds her exploring traditional Hungarian song, seven of its eight tracks taking the form of medleys. On ‘Flowers Gatherer’s lyrical flute lines brings reminders of Irish traditional music, a perception strengthened at the six minute mark when uillean-sounding bagpipes join in to almost orgasmic effect. Having Central Asian throat singing on your album is getting close to being a world music cliché but its restrained use on one track works a treat. A beautifully sung, played and produced recording.
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12-13 December 2009, The Weekend Australian
rivermudtwilight
Les Triaboliques
WORLD VILLAGE | WV468088 | CD | 713746808822
4½ stars
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A collaboration between three guitarists could run the risk of being a festival of egos and flashy virtuoso fills, however this dazzling recording from three middle-aged English veteran musicians is the complete antithesis to that horrifying prospect. It is a lesson in musical intelligence tempered with modesty and one of the best discs of the year.
The depth of the trio’s musical lineage is an indication of the influences present here. Justin Adams, whose work as producer of desert-rockers TInariwen and guitar duties with Robert Plant, Jah Wobble and more recently the Gambian musician Juldeh Camara, has established himself as a musical voyager of note.
Lu Edmonds, whose background ranges from Public Image Ltd to the Damned, plays saz (long necked lute) and cumbus ( a banjo and oud hybrid), and Ben Mandelson, via Magazine and 3 Mustaphas 3 plays mandolin and banjo among others.
Apart from several traditional arrangements and an endearing barizouki (Mandelson’s own baritone bouzouki) tinged version of the classic Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, the songs are collaborations with influences which range from the Arabic rhythms of Afsanduni, the Latin melody with Russian lyrics of Gulaguajira, the salty delta blues of Black Earth Boys and the anti-war folk of Shine a Light.
Sounding like a regular gathering of musicians who have played together for many years, Les Triaboliques should be mandatory listening for anyone who is fascinated by the modern guitar and its wide family.
Michael Rofe
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20 February, Sydney Morning Herald (Spectrum)
Django Reinhardt 1933-1952
Django Reinhardt
BD JAZZ | ENJZ290 | 2CD + Book | 9782849072905
Feature Review
January 23 was the centenary of the birth in Belgium of Reinhardt, the son of a gypsy entertainer. Having bounced from violin to banjo to guitar, he was playing professionally by the age of 12, pursuing music at the expense of literacy. When he was 18, he accidentally set fire to the family caravan, suffering burns to half his body, losing his left hand’s ring-finger and little finger. Ingeniously solving the technical problems this created on the guitar, he attained a miraculous virtuosity.
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Another life-changing event came when the French painter Emile Savitry introduced him to jazz. Reinhardt was an instant convert. Rather than duplicate what he heard, however, he combined his native music – gypsy music – with jazz. While players from countries as diverse as Brazil, South Africa, Turkey and Norway would do this subsequently, it was unheard of in 1930.
Reinhardt was also a notable composer, with Nuages one of the glories of the era. The first disc of this two-CD set is dedicated to his compositions, mainly performed with the Hot Club, plus two dazzling pieces from the final years – he died in 1953 - on electric guitar and showing how open he was to new musical vocabulary. The second covers assorted sessions from 1933-46 with such major American players as Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter and Ellington.
This set is part of an imaginative 20-artist series (including Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and Art Tatum), each containing a booklet with an adult comic strip about the artist. The 15 page Reinhardt example deftly recounts an episode in which the notoriously unreliable guitarist stop up Ellington at Carnegie Hall in 1946. It was just the ammunition the American critics needed.
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December 2009 – January 2010, MAG
Asa Live in Paris
Asa (vocals, guitar), Keziah Jones, Yael Naim, Mayra Andrade
NAÏVE | NV818911 | CD + DVD | 3298498189117
3½ stars
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This live performance showcases some of Nigerian singer Asa’s most beautiful tracks, before her adoring French fans. The show was filmed at The Bataclas in October 2008, with guest appearances including Yael Naim and Mayra Andrade, as well as two bonus tracks with fellow Nigerian singer-songwriter/guitarist Keziah Jones. These are plaintive songs, draped in emotion; Asa personalizes the political with a true sense of conviction, leaving little doubt in the audiences’ mind about the authenticity of her experience. This isn’t a high-budget production, but that’s of little consequence when this superb vocalist opens her mouth to sing.
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video of the month |
Hailed by Songlines magazine as 'a true original', Nuru Kane was born in the Senegalese capital of Dakar in 1973. He migrated to Paris in 1998 where his multi-instrumentalism as a guitarist, bass blayer and singer put him in high demand both as a solo artist and as a guest for other ensembles. However it was a trip to Morocco that exposed him to the music of the Gnawa (a religous and social organistaion that is comprised of descendants of West African brought as captives to the Sahara and Marrakech). This experience informed and came to define his unique 'desert blues' sound. This is the video clip to the title track and single, Number One Bus. On the new album, Nuru Kane sings powerfully in English, French and Senegalese language of human experience, morality, the impact of colonial times and violence, all beautifully interwoven into a sound that blends North African Gnawa ethnic musics with more modern, bluesy arrangements. Fans of Rokia Traoré and Ali Farka Touré will delight in this highly original new release.
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Number One Bus
Nuru Kane (guitar), Bayefale Gnawa, Ensemble Gnawa
IRIS | IR3002012 | CD | 3464630020123
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