320 kbps | 120 MB | LINKS
“Defying Gravity” deftly showcases that patented MR. BIG blend of crunch and melody, from the freight-train ride of opening cut “Open Your Eyes” to the harmony-laden wonderment of “Damn I’m in Love Again” to the grateful/wistful nostalgia of “1992” (recalling the days when the band was flying high atop the singles charts with their international No. 1 smash “To Be With You”) to the barnburning slide-blues closer, “Be Kind”. Overall, “Defying Gravity” is prime evidence that the only thing MR. BIG remains tethered to is their ongoing pursuit of achieving creative excellence.
Original members Eric Martin (lead vocals), Paul Gilbert (guitars), Billy Sheehan (bass) and Pat Torpey (drums) reunited with producer Kevin Elson (who was behind the boards for the band’s 1989 self-titled debut, 1991’s “Lean Into It” and 1993’s “Bump Ahead”) for an intensive six-day recording session in Los Angeles. While Torpey was unable to perform some of the songs on “Defying Gravity” due to a recent diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, Matt Starr has been filling in for him on a majority of the album. Starr also been touring with the band for the past couple of years, with Torpey able to play a couple of songs at each stop.
“It was great to get back in the studio with our original producer, Kevin Elson,” says Gilbert. “Kevin recorded all of our original classic albums from the ’80s and ’90s, and we immediately felt that magic chemistry with him on ‘Defying Gravity’. We basically played live in the studio.
“Over the years, we’ve all had a chance to experiment with every recording technique possible, but it’s still always the best just to play together as a band. Most of my guitar solos were tracked live with the band. I’ve worked hard on my improvisation in the last few years, and it really paid off on this record… both melodically and on the face-melting stuff.”
320 kbps | 138 MB | LINKS
AC/DC, live from the Old Waldorf, San Francisco on 3rd September 1977. Already a big draw in Australia and the UK, AC/DC were determined to crack the United States in 1977. Having replaced bassist Mark Evans with Cliff Williams in June, they headed over there to promote their new Let There Be Rock album, performing in many small clubs, as well as supporting bigger bands in larger venues. This classic set, broadcast on KSAN-FM, captures them at their early peak, performing their unique brand of bludgeoning rock n roll to an ecstatic audience.
Tracklist:
01. Intro 00:43
02. Live Wire 05:51
03. Hell Aint A Bad Place To Be 04:06
04. Up To My Neck In You 08:18
05. Kicked In The Teeth 04:23
06. The Jack 10:45
07. Whole Lotta Rosie 05:05
08. High Voltage 06:06
09. Baby Please Dont Go 08:25
10. Problem Child 05:51
Trumpeter Amir ElSaffar’s father immigrated to the United States from Iraq. His mother was American. Because of that biography — and because ElSaffar grew up to be an expert in Middle Eastern modes as well as jazz improvisation — he has been the subject of a lot of talk about cross-cultural practices. In the liner notes for his ambitious new double album, he seems over it. Of his new orchestra group, he writes: “Rivers of Sound is not concerned with ‘bridging’ divergent cultures. In each composition, one can hear elements of maqam, polyphony, polyrhythmic structures, melisma, and groove. But these do not exist as separate entities ‘belonging’ to any people or place.”
In other words: sure, there’s a lot of material that goes into music like this. You’re not likely to…
…have heard a jazz keyboardist playing a microtonally-tuned piano while riffing alongside a powerful rhythm section, a cellist, a vibraphonist, and musicians specializing in instruments like the buzuq (a lute-like instrument) or the santur (a hammered dulcimer instrument that ElSaffar sometimes plays). But focusing too much on individual ingredients isn’t the right approach.
ElSaffar is after balance, wholeness, a trance-like state of ecstasy. Throughout Not Two, the careful, even self-effacing manner in which ElSaffar guides his large ensemble manages to underline the benefits of this philosophical approach. The Rivers of Sound orchestra that plays ElSaffar’s compositions boasts some of contemporary jazz’s most prominent and powerful soloists: players like pianist Craig Taborn and guitarist Miles Okazaki. While there are select moments when individuals command center stage, the music never seems overly taken with a hero-soloist format.
Some of the best parts are dialogues, as at the tail end of the 12-minute composition “Ya Ibni, Ya Ibni (My son, my son).” After Taborn has contributed a short solo on an altered piano—required by this particular maqam’s scale—the sound of Jason Adasiewicz’s vibraphone joins the space. The latter’s resonant instrument creates strange but compelling harmonies alongside the microtonally-tuned piano. Next, percussion and guitar join, establishing a final groove. It’s a unique sound, and easy to dream along with.
The album is full of dramatic changes that sneak up in unassuming ways. Opener “Iftitah” begins with string instrument lines that create an ambient spell. The introduction of brass and reed instruments in the third minute could easily break the mood—but the ensemble’s control of dynamic levels makes the progression sound appropriately grand, all without seeming aggressive in nature.
There’s a stirring lute-instrument solo during “Jourjina Over Three,” but the group sounds most energized during a sprinting finish that manages to incorporate some free-improv style playing. The second disc’s opening tune, “Layl (Night),” introduces ElSaffar’s own vocals. The singer’s entrance comes after a long-lined theme that has been slowly, steadily building in intensity. The arrival of the vocal melody is the climax of the same community vibe that the other members of ElSaffar’s orchestra have been working to establish.
The smoothness of all those transitions means that one of the most complex pieces on the album—the 16-minute, suite-like composition “Shards of Memory/B Half Flat Fantasy”—moves through its changes in a comparatively harried manner. Every twist in the music is exciting, and the performances sound great. But it’s possible to imagine ElSaffar stretching the same melodic material out to symphonic length, and getting that much more out of all his ingenious sonic effects. For now, Not Two works as a towering statement of purpose—wise to many traditions, even while it remains accessible to anyone. — Pitchfork
320 kbps | 78 MB | LINKS
After two albums of feeling her way through the densely-populated landscape of contemporary singer-songwriter music she has picked a point in her career when most people are recycling their hits to bin the satnav, head off the map and commit to a graphically authentic version of her musical self. Sometimes you have to lose yourself to re-invent yourself.
Something’s Changed was recorded in Brighton with producer Tim Bidwell with contributions from bassist Ben Daniels and drummer Chris Boot, plus The Staves, Daughter’s Elena Tonra, Bear’s Den’s Marcus Hamblett, and Matthew and The Atlas’ Emma Gatrill.
320 kbps | 153 MB | LINKS
Tracklist:
01. Eyes of the World
02. All Night Long
03. S.O.S.
04. Stand in Line
05. God Blessed Video
06. Will You Be Home Tonight
07. Jet to Jet
08. Night Games
09. Suffer Me
10. Dancer
11. Desert Song
12. Island in the Sun
13. Since You Been Gone
14. Assault Attack
15. Lost in Hollywood
320 kbps | 112 MB | LINKS
New release from clarinet superstar Anat Cohen. On Rosa Dos Ventos, Cohen joins forces with cutting edge Brazilian ensemble Trio Brasileiro to explore Brazil’s traditional Choro music and it’s modern reflections. The compositions move from the traditional to the daringly modern. Some contemporary indie-rock influences are present, traditional bitter-sweet Choros can be heard, the blues makes an appearance, Flamenco is explored, and Indian-inspired drone-heavy compositions are offered. While travelling through these various styles and traditions, the musicians remain rooted in the improvisatory, virtuosic, grooving and deeply moving choro tradition.
320 kbps | 112 MB | LINKS
New release from clarinet superstar Anat Cohen. On Rosa Dos Ventos, Cohen joins forces with cutting edge Brazilian ensemble Trio Brasileiro to explore Brazil’s traditional Choro music and it’s modern reflections. The compositions move from the traditional to the daringly modern. Some contemporary indie-rock influences are present, traditional bitter-sweet Choros can be heard, the blues makes an appearance, Flamenco is explored, and Indian-inspired drone-heavy compositions are offered. While travelling through these various styles and traditions, the musicians remain rooted in the improvisatory, virtuosic, grooving and deeply moving choro tradition.
The post EMEF-Yeni-WEB-2017-ENTiTLED appeared first on Download Latest Music Releases.
On Fri., July 7, Afropop Worldwide and Stewart Avenue will be live broadcasting the Bronx Museum’s celebration of iconic Cuban visual artist Manuel Mendive at the museum’s First Fridays! Afro-Cuban Night. The evening event, held in Joyce Kilmer Park, will include music by the Cimarron Project and Cuban hip-hop artist DJ Asho along with a screening of the acclaimed documentary When the Spirits Dance Mambo.
Born in Havana in 1944, multiple-award winning visual artist Manuel Mendive is one of the most important and best-known artists to ever come out of Cuba. His work spans multiple styles and mediums from sculpture to performance art, and much of his works is linked through his strong connection to the Yoruba culture that he and many Cubans share from West Africa.
The Cimarron Project is an ensemble that too explores Cuba’s connections to the west coast of Africa by showcasing the diversity of Afro-Cuban music and dance traditions. They are particularly renowned for fusing lesser-known genres of Cuban music such as the bàtá drumming style, Abakua music, suku suku, and changui with more popular genres like rumba and Cuban son. The Cimarron Project also features the master percussionist and ambassador of Afro-Cuban music, Román Díaz. Also from Havana, Díaz is known for mentoring young musicians including Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Yosvany Terry, bassist Yunior Yosvany, pianist and composer David Virelles, and Grammy-nominated percussionist Pedrito Martínez. Díaz is regarded as one of the biggest innovators of Afro-Cuban music as an olú aña or “keeper of the sacred drum” and is a staple in New York’s avant-garde jazz scene. The acclaimed drummer also helped shape the sound we know today as rumba while in the groundbreaking Cuban ensemble Yoruba Andabo.
DJ Asho, also born in Havana, aims to utilize Cuban hip-hop as a means of social change. Born Ariel Fernández Díaz, DJ Asho is an internationally renowned cultural critic, hip-hop historian, journalist, essayist and event organizer with a passion for community building and cultural education. He started deejaying in 1996 in Havana’s most prominent venues with an audio system he built himself before becoming an audio engineer at Radio Ciudad Habana. DJ Asho moved to New York in 2005, and has since been traveling the country making presentions about Cuban hip-hop at colleges, universities, and various other cultural institutions.
Dr. Marta Moreno Vega is another integral ambassador for Cuban culture in the United States and is the creator of the documentary When the Spirits Dance Mambo, which explores “the spiritual energy that traveled from West Africa to Cuba” and traces “the role of sacred African thought and practice in the formation of the Cuban society, culture and popular music.” Dr. Vega is also the president and founder of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI), a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to presenting and preserving African diaspora cultures. She has also ensured the prevalence of African culture in the U.S. by serving as the second director of El Museo del Barrio, one of the founders of the Association of Hispanic Arts, Network of Centers of Color and the Roundtable of Institutions of Colors.
Produced in collaboration with the New York African Film Festival and Asho Productions. Film courtesy of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI).
6:00 p.m. DJ ASHO spins on the 1’s and 2’s
7:00 p.m. Performance by the Cimarron Project, featuring Roman Diaz
8:00 p.m. Screening of When the Spirits Dance Mambo by Marta Moreno Vega and Bobby Shepard
There are many ways to update traditions, some more obvious than others. When African artists retrofit ancestral lute or xylophone melodies on keyboards and guitars, or repurpose idiosyncratic old rhythms on drum kit, we know what’s going on. Modern musicians are channeling ancient ideas using contemporary tools. By contrast, this set of field recordings from northern Malawi often sounds like it could have been performed a hundred or a thousand years ago—notwithstanding the exceptional quality of the audio. But in fact, this music has been updated to suit our times as surely as any Mande pop song or mbira guitar number.
This live recording was made by Polish ethnomusicologist Piotr Cichocki outside the home of Emmanuel Mlonga Ngwira in Malawi. Ngwira is the son of a traditional doctor who used musically induced possession to heal the sick by invoking spirits. Ngwira’s Kukaya Group does not play any Western instruments. What we hear is layered polyrhythmic drums, hand clapping, bells and jangling metal accoutrements, flute, what sounds like a primordial kazoo, and voices—glorious voices of men and women interlaying, engaging in call and response and raising a rowdy, raucous spirit. They are not singing to induce possession, however, but rather to preserve through reinvention the premodern culture of the Tumbuka-Ngoni people of this region.
The reinvention comes mostly in the lyrics: “History and Culture,” “Be Careful, Malawians, HIV/AIDS Is Real,” and “Our Chiefs are Under Attack.” Malawi is today a deeply Christian country, and the harmonic flow and vocal harmonies on two of the songs—“Ulwindiko Kwa Kyala (Respect God)” and “Imwe Fumu Themba Lithu (Jesus Is Our King)”—bear a distinctly hymn-like quality. That is one audible element of modernity. But there’s more to this than rejiggering traditional music to boost a Christian message. There’s a deeper cultural dialogue unfolding within these performances. Kukaya makes vigorous use of music handed down through the centuries to address the concerns of people today, including but certainly not limited to, the embrace of Christianity.
All this cultural context is fascinating, but what makes this album a delight is the music itself—its energy, meticulous arranging and sonic clarity. Rich voices surround you, bells clang and jingle, handclaps sound crisp, and drums deep and sonorous. We don’t know what kind of gear was used here, but these are not your grandfather’s field recordings. Each song has its own character from the spare polyrhythmic clapping of “Makwa,” to the sing-along folk pop of “Kamchocho (True Love),” to the unglued celebratory clamor of “Malayirano (We’re Coming)” and “Ise Tazapano Kumkondweskani (We’re Here to Make You Happy),” a 12-minute-plus jam that concludes this joyous set. Put this album up loud and on repeat in your car and you’re apt to keep driving all day in a merry trance, unconcerned about your destination.
Interesting side note: You can buy this album as a download on Amazon, though not yet on iTunes, and it took Shazaam only about three seconds to correctly identify it. What times we live in!
The second season of the Afropop Closeups podcast series presents intimate stories of the struggles and triumphs of human life in Rwanda, Nigeria, Haiti, the Bahamas and the African diasporas of Greece, the U.K., Paris, New York and San Francisco. A diverse group of producers tell these stories through the lens of music, politics, history and culture, in their own voices. Listeners are drawn into the heat of a national controversy in the Bahamas; a Rwandan music star’s abrupt fall from grace; the pitfalls of Haitian copyright laws for one of Haiti’s top producers; the racism experienced by Greeks of African descent, including a rising rap star; and the plight of LGBT asylum seekers in the U.K.. Hear these and many more human stories from the African planet, told through music in the unique style of Afropop Worldwide, releasing biweekly starting Sept. 5, 2017.
Kizito Mihigo and the Politics of Music in Post-Genocide Rwanda
Photo courtesy of the Kizito Mihigo Peace Foundation
Kizito Mihigo is one of Rwanda’s most beloved singers, yet he is currently imprisoned, serving a 10-year sentence for treason. In 2014, Mihigo released a song which criticized the wartime actions of Rwanda’s governing political party. The song went viral, sparking a nationwide dialogue around the genocide, and weeks later, Mihigo was arrested on charges of conspiracy to assassinate the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame. Is Mihigo truly guilty of conspiracy, or only of speaking (and singing) truth to power? Produced by Charulata Sinha
About the producer:
Charulata Sinha is a writer and radio producer based in New York City. She has worked with WNYC’s Radiolab and Vice’s Radio Motherboard.
Collaboration: Vice’s Radio Motherboard
Rushin’ to Bacchanal: When Two Caribbean Festivals Collide
Junkanoo, an annual communal parade held in the Bahamas, is a labor of love for the Bahamian people that dates back centuries. The parade, which has Akan cultural roots, emerged in the time of slavery, but it has since moved from the margins to the very center of society, becoming the bedrock of national culture. When the government wanted to invest millions into the development of a major cultural festival designed to attract tourists, Junkanoo seemed like the obvious choice. In this podcast, we hear what happened when the government chose to use Trinidad Carnival as the model instead. Produced by Gabrielle Misiewicz
About the producer:
Gabrielle Misiewicz was born and raised in the Bahamas. She studied ethnomusicology in college and graduate school, focusing on West Africa and the Caribbean. She enjoys playing West African and Japanese percussion and singing early music and sacred harp. This is her debut story for radio.
Black, Greek and Proud: Negros Tou Mouria Challenges Greek Cultural Identity
As Europe closes Greece’s borders in an attempt to stem the seemingly never-ending flow of refugees, immigrant artists are finding it tough to survive in an increasingly xenophobic environment. Against the backdrop of Greece’s economic crisis, young Afro-Greek rapper Negros Tou Moria is working with his music collective, the 307 Squad, to connect musicians from different ethnic backgrounds, using the traditional urban Greek folk music rebetiko to inspire his lyrics and challenge stereotypes. Produced by Heidi Fuller-love
About the producer:
Heidi Fuller-love is an award-winning freelance travel writer and radio producer based in Spain and Greece. She travels for five months of the year and regularly contributes to radio outlets including BBC and Deutsche Welle. She also writes for dozens of print outlets worldwide, and she produces and hosts “British Airways City Guides” to the airline’s short haul destinations.
Shackled Love: LGTB Asylum Seekers in the U.K.
Sibo Dube and Maureen Nabisere met inside the U.K.’s most notorious immigrant detention center, Yarl’s Wood. In the midst of captivity and uncertainty, the two women bonded in the detention center choir group: They had both come to the U.K. seeking liberation from the emotional imprisonment they had faced in Zimbabwe and Uganda respectively, where their sexuality is illegal. Their relationship would be their emotional salvation, and potentially, their ticket to freedom in the U.K., which places a heavy burden of proof on LGBT asylum seekers to show they’ve had same-sex relationships. Produced by Hannah Harris Green and David Waters
About the producers:
Hannah Harris Green is an independent writer, reporter and radio producer interested in gender and globalization. Her work has appeared in How We Get to Next, Quartz, The Guardian and VICE News and has aired on KPCC, WHYY, Pacifica and KUNC.
David Waters, who produced the interviews for this piece, is a journalist and radio producer based in London, U.K.. David produces the Voices podcast coming soon on Audible. More on Sibo’s story will be featured in an upcoming episode this fall.
Collaboration: The Voices podcast, forthcoming on Audible
Haiti’s Fight For Copyright
Life in the music business has its ups and downs—especially in Haiti—and Serge Ternier (A.K.A. Powersurge) has lived both extremes. As a producer he makes his living from recorded music, not from concerts, and so many of those ups and downs have revolved around the question of copyright: a legal system for controlling who can copy, record and perform a piece of music. The concept can seem abstract, but in Ternier’s story it makes all the difference as he decides whether to give up on the Haitian music industry entirely. Produced by Ian Coss
About the producer:
Ian Coss divides his time between pursuing a Ph.D in ethnomusicology at Boston University and producing audio for programs including The World, Studio 360, Life of the Law, Afropop Worldwide and BBC’s Cultural Frontline.
Collaboration: This program was produced in partnership with Life of the Law.
IPOB, Trump and the Dream of Biafra
During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, some foreign observers were puzzled by groups of Nigerians who showed support for Donald Trump’s campaign. The most prominent supporters were the IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra), a controversial, fervently Christian, mostly Igbo, nationalist organization that is still fighting for independence from Nigeria. On Jan. 20, 2017 a rally in Port Harcourt celebrating the inauguration of Donald Trump turned violent, and a number of people were shot dead by Nigerian security forces. In order to understand Trump’s appeal to the IPOB, we hear from current Biafra activists and dissenting voices in the Port Harcourt community, and examine how the unresolved issues that triggered the devastating Biafran War in the 1960s still resonate and persist in the Niger Delta today. Produced by Banning Eyre and Morgan Greenstreet
About the producers:
Banning Eyre is an author, guitarist, radio producer and senior producer for the Peabody Award-winning public radio series Afropop Worldwide. He has been researching and learning African guitar styles for over 25 years, including a seven-month apprenticeship with Malian guitar master Djelimady Tounkara, which resulted in the book In Griot Time, An American Guitarist in Mali. His third book, Lion Songs: Thomas Mapfumo and the Music that Made Zimbabwe was published in 2015. He also reports on music for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.
Morgan Greenstreet is a musician, musical journalist and radio producer based in New York City. As a producer for Peabody Award-winning media company Afropop Worldwide, Morgan has traveled to Ghana, Benin and Nigeria and produced a wide range of podcasts and radio programs. His written work has also been featured on PRI.org.
Afro-Symphonic Folk: From the Coasts of Africa to the San Francisco Bay
The San Francisco Bay Area is a unique cultural space that has given birth to some of the most iconic countercultural American music. It is a place where identities can be fluid and hyphenated, where new voices emerge to speak to their times. Two very different Bay Area artists, Meklit Hadero and Zena Carlota, use their music to explore what it means to live on two sides of a hyphen: African-American, black-artist, Ethiopian-American, female-musician, to name a few. Produced by Lisa Bartfai
About the producer:
Lisa Bartfai is a freelance radio journalist, writer and translator based in Brunswick, ME. As a senior producer at award-winning Blunt Youth Radio, Lisa shares her love of radio with the next generation of noisemakers.
Underground: African Musicians in the NYC Subway
Underneath the streets of New York, in the tunnels and stations of the busiest subway system in the country, there is a thriving music scene. Buskers, as musicians who play for tips are commonly called, entertain travelers in the subways and hustle to make a living from donations. We follow two African musicians who frequently transform the underground soundscape with their sounds, François Nnang, a Cameroonian xylophonist and singer, and Malang Jobarteh, a kora player from Gambia. We will hear how and why these two musicians chose the underground environment, navigate the challenges of police attention, fellow buskers, aggressive strangers and public perception, to share their music, culture and make an income. We broach issues of musical and cultural space in the NYC subway system, immigration and identity. Produced by Morgan Greenstreet
About the producer:
Morgan Greenstreet is a musician, musical journalist and radio producer based in New York City. As a producer for Peabody Award-winning media company Afropop Worldwide, Morgan has traveled to Ghana, Benin and Nigeria and produced a wide range of podcasts and radio programs. His written work has also been featured on PRI.org.
Night At the Clash
Sound clashes have been a mainstay of reggae culture for decades. Mobile sound system teams face off to see who can best move the crowd with their selections of records and exclusive “dub plate” jingles. On a recent late night in Queens, seven sounds competed for the U.S. champion title, and many were surprised by the winner. We meet the sound-system operators and talk to fans about why they love the clash scene. Produced by Noah Schaeffer
About the producer:
Noah Schaffer is an award-winning music journalist based in Boston. He produced the 2017 Afropop Worldwide episode “Barbados at 50: Spouge to Soca” and is the roots and world music columnist for ArtsFuse.org. He is currently working on a story about southern soul for Living Blues magazine and a full-length oral history project with gospel legend Spencer Taylor Jr. and his group, the Highway QCs.
The Story of New York’s African Record Center
Behind an unassuming storefront on Nostrand Ave. in Flatbush, Brooklyn is the African Record Center and Yoruba Book Center. Run by Brooklynite brothers Rudy and Roger Francis since 1968, the store has had a deep impact on the musical and cultural exchange between America, Africa and the Caribbean; it was the first place in the States that distributed records by legends including Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango and Franco, and the racks are still filled with rare records from across the continent as well as an abundance of Caribbean zouk, Haitian compas and Cuban salsa, attracting record collectors and DJs from across the world. Alongside the records, shoppers find books and pamphlets on Yoruba religion and language, as well as ritual items. We’ll hear the untold stories from the Francis brother’s lives, including their involvement in promoting the Yoruba religion in the U.S. Produced by Nenim Iwebuke and Sebastian Bouknight
Enjaillement: A New Generation of French-African Hip-Hop
French hip-hop has always been tied to communities of North and West African descent, and many artists have explicitly explored their African roots over the past three decades. Yet the impact of their efforts is incomparable to the recent chart-topping successes of artists such as 22-year-old MHD, whose “Afro-Trap” series has garnered him hundreds of millions of views and international stardom. As a young generation of Afro-descended artists connect with their heritage through their music, we find a new expression of African identity in France, unpredicted, digitally connected and uninhibited. Produced by Alejandro Van Zandt-Escobar
About the producer:
Alejandro Van Zandt-Escobar is a DJ and radio producer based in Paris. He has produced radio shows for Peabody Award-winning media company Afropop Worldwide and hosted weekly music programs on community radio stations in New York and London. He deejays in clubs as Minutes of Funk and is a member of DJ duo Eko fo’ Show, which focuses on classic dance music from Western Africa.
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