cdRoots favorites: a small, changing list personal picks by the proprietor.

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Les Amazones de Guinee - Wamato - $17.99
(cdRoots# st-wamato)
Les Amazones de Guinée are a unique and quite amazing institution within African music. Since the early 60s they have criss-crossed the continent, with only occasional forays beyond, to help bring their particular brand of joy to the cause of women’s emancipation. Yet this is only their 2nd album, tight yet fluid, with the loping rhythms so particular to Guinea, bitter-sweet harmonies and vocals full of conviction. As the cry of “Retour en force des Amazones!” at the beginning of this album attests, these women demand to be heard. The Amazones are back with a vengeance. This is the gold-standard for female (or any other) bands in Africa and an enduring symbol of African women’s emancipation. Highly recommended. Listen

Riccardo Tesi - Accordeon Diatonique - $17.99
(cdRoots# cp-09381)
The master of Italian accordion offers a completely solo recording that shows the breadth and depth of his skills, talents and interests in the music of the instrument. Highly recommended

Jolie Vilaine - Jardin d'amour - $16.99
(cdRoots# galad-jv)
Yann-Fañch Perroches (accordion), Véronique Bourjot (voice), Vincent Guérin (doublebass), Jean-François Roger (percussion) and Erwan Bérenguer (guitar) come together to produce an exciting new Breton sound, filled with surprises, deeply rooted and yet thoroughly new. fRoots says: 'One just has to sit back and bask in this aural beauty. No one should be surprised if Jolie Vilaine turn out to be the strongest influence in Breton music this decade.' Cliff says 'Highly Recommended!'

Charley Patton / R. Crumb - BD Blues (2 CDs and Book) - $19.99
(cdRoots# bd-patton)
Available again: You might already know the music, but this is a unique opportunity to see it as well. Robert Crumb has written a biography in words and drawings and presents it in a full-color, hardcover book. 2 CDs cover the legendary blues master's music, 31 pages of graphics and text (in French only) tell his story. Highly recommended!

Justin Adams, Juldeh Camara - Soul Science - $17.99
(cdRoots# hm-wv468076)
Buzzing bass lines, no-holds-barred guitar licks, tough but playful rhythms, searing fiddle riffs, percussive groundswells and ancient-rooted vocals, Soul Science is less of a cross-cultural collaboration than a fascinating dispatch from an entirely new nation.Evoking the blues from several continents, American rock 'n' roll, a hot Sahel afternoon and desert evenings, Justin Adams (electric and acoustic guitars, Tamashek lute, percussion, banjo, vocals) and Juldeh Camara (lead vocals, one-string fiddle, West African banjo, percussion) and the tight rhythm section of Salah Dawson Miller (percussion) and Billy Fuller (bass), have achieved a synthesis instigated by centuries of history refracted through the kaleidoscope of the information age. Already an international sensation, Soul Science was nominated for "best album" in the "Culture Crossing" category at the annual BBC World Music Awards, and was selected among the "top 100 albums of the year" by both fRoots and Songlines magazines. Highly Recommended

Huong Thanh and Nguyen Le - Fragile Beauty - $16.99
(cdRoots# alg-amv9451)
Huong Thanh is one of the most prominent contemporary vocalists of Vietnamese origin. She has released three solo albums and two albums with Nguyên Lê, all of which have been highly acclaimed by the critics. This 2008 release is reinterpretation of traditional Vietnamese music using jazz as its center, incorporating traditional with modern instruments and tools to create a creative new sound.

The Garifuna Women's Project - Umalali - $16.99
(cdRoots# sst-umal)
Blending the vocal textures of women from the Garifuna communities of Central America with echoes of rock, blues, funk, African, Latin and Caribbean music, Umalali is a journey into the heart of a unique culture. Raw, rootsy and full of vibrant energy, and highly recommended.

Enzo Favata Tentetto (featuring Tenores di Bitti) - The New Village - $18.99
(cdRoots# cni-favata07)
Sardinian musician and composer Favata has been roiling the roots-jazz of Italy for decades now, recording Cds and playing more than 2,000 concertsaround the world. He fuses tradition with a contemporary sense, forging a new music form folk, jazz and avant garde elements that are strictly original. He has studied classical and jazz saxophone, plays the soprano, sopranino and tenor sax, and the bass clarinet, as well as other ethnic wind instruments from Sardinia and elsewhere. Adding Latin, African and middle eastern influences, he has come up with a creative and original new sound that pays homage to the jazz greats while being beholden to no one. This recording features the incredible Tenores di Bitti, who offer not only their voices, but the inspiration of their melodies that are infused into the very core of Favata's new compositions.

Ammaraciccappa - Al Qantarah - $18.99
(cdRoots# cni-qant)
This Salentine ensemble have a lot of phrases for their music: "electro-world+salento+maghrebi, ecstatic rhythms of south Italy, desert voices and metropolitan sounds." They make thoroughly modern Italian music, completely rooted in the ancient past, and totally beyond classification or pigeon-holes. Highly recommended.

Riccardo Tesi - PresenteRemoto - $18.99
(cdRoots# cni-tesi08)
A full blown ensemble release by the master organetto player from Italy. A great ensemble that includes Stefano Bollani, Elena Ledda, Ginevra Di Marco, Gianmaria Testa, Daniele Sepe, Gavino Murgia, Patrick Vaillant, Gabriele Mirabassi and of course, Tesi's Banditaliana. Highly recommended, like everything Tesi does.

Zegar Zivi - Zegar Zivi (Zegar Lives) - $18.99
(cdRoots# ac-z)
Powerful acapella group vocals, often using the wild beating-against-drone technique of groktenje, diple playing, goat-calling and church-bell ringing from a group of amazingly resilient Serbian singers who've moved back to their village of Žegar in the rocky hill-country of Dalmatia in Croatia – a region war-shattered in the 1990s and still depopulated, but beautiful and now peaceful - to rebuild their homes and pick up the threads of their lives and rich musical traditions. The album's title, and the group's name, means Žegar Lives.Recorded in Žegar in May 2007, produced by Andrew Cronshaw in collaboration with Svetlana Spajić. The digipak contains a 60 page booklet with many photos and extensive notes including the background story to the recordings (in English). Listen

Lucilla Galeazzi, Marco Beasley,L'Arpeggiata and Christina Pluhar - La Tarantella: Antidotum Tarantulae (SACD) - $17.99
(cdRoots# alp-503)
A fascinating, original crossover of folk and classical, with the musicians of the Renaissance ensemble L'Arpeggiata joining the illustrious singers Galeazzi and Beasley, performed on modern and ancient instruments including chitarra battente, lutes, harp, psaltry. With Alfio Antico, Eero Palviainen, Marcello Vitale and many other fine musicians.

Aly Bain and Ale Moller - Beyond the Stacks - $12.99
(cdRoots# ns-6094)
Scottish fiddle master Bain and Swedish multi-instrumentalist Möller have been exploring the Nordic roots of Scottish music together for over ten years, and this is the second CD to come from this collaboration. Mostly fiddle/mandola duets are a culmination of Bain's extensive research into the Scandinavian history behind so much of the traditional music of his native Shetland Islands, and Möller's creative arrangements. It is a masterpiece of understatement, a relaxed session between friends who anticipate oneanother's every phrase and respond with passion. Highly recommended.

Berit Opheim, Nils Okland and Bjorn Kjellemyr - BNB - ein song frå dei utsungne stunder - $17.99
(cdRoots# 2l-bnb)
Berit Opheim, Nils Økland and Bjørn Kjellemyr are inspired by a wide variet y of classic styles but find common ground in the field of improvisation.Berit Opheim has won the traditional Landskappleiken with her shining vocal. Nils Økland is an extraordinary music who plays fiddle, hardanger fiddle and viola d 'amore. Bjørn Kjellemyr's double bass and his recent fondness of the colascione, a bass lute from the Renaissance, adds the appropriate gravity to this recording, performed live in the Ullensvang church in Norway. There is a deep tradition here, but also an untamed avant garde, and together they make BNB a highly recommended CD.

Enrico Fink - Il Ritorno Alla Fede Del Cantante Di Jazz - $17.99
(cdRoots# matson-fink2)
'The Jazz Singer's To Faith' is an exploration into Italian Semitic tradition from a decidely modern viewpoint by one of Italy's premier Jewish musicians. With Amit Arieli,clarinet; Stefano Bartolini,saxophones; Arlo Bigazzi,bass, Percussion, programming; Enrico Fink, voice, flute, programming; Alessandro Francolini, acoustic guitar; Filippo Pedol, double bass; Guglielmo R. Gagliano, programming and featuring Orio Odori and la Banda Improvvisa.

Kristi Stassinopoulou and Stathis Kalyviotis - Taxidoscopio - $18.99
(cdRoots# res-stassi07)
These Greek artists are producing global pop without peer, mixing local roots with international sounds and modern technology to create, over the course of the last few years, a completely unique aural pallette that relates to almost no one else. fRoots says: '…a completely unique, utterly recognisable and forward-looking style of their own. And in that distillation, it seems to have become more distinctly Greek - a strange, other-worldly Greekness, for sure, but a 21st century Greekness that's modern within its own culture, out there, ahead and rooted rather than just banging off some local language version of what the globised industry dictates. No predictable Greek rock, Europop or hip-hop here then.'

Mbilia Bel - Bel Canto (2 CDs) - $22.99
(cdRoots# st-belcanto)
2 CDs of crucial recordings of Mbilia Bel, the queen of Congolese music and one of the most popular pan-African stars throughout the 1980s, selected from Tabu Ley's 'Genidia' label by Gerald Seligman with additional notes by Ken Braun. These recordings represent an artist at the peak of her career, and included is a bonus track, the hard-to-get single version of 'Mpeve Ya Longo' - the recording that started her career. Beautifully packaged with a full-color, 44-page booklet with detailed notes, lyric translations, a discography and rare photos. Highly recommended.

Helene Blum - En Sød Og Liflig Klang - $16.99
(cdRoots# go-blum06)
Folk and modern interpretations of Jule music old and new by the Danish singer, accompanied by Harald Haugaard (who also produced the recordings), with Ditte Fromseier, Harald Haugaard, Kirstine Elise Pedersen, lea Havelund, Mikkel Bøggild, Sune Hånsbæk, Torben Sminge, Hans Mydtskov, Karen Mose, Jullie Hjetland, Kristian Stærke on violins, cello, guitar and vocals. One of the best Christmas recordings I have heard in a while. Highly recommended.

Dazibao - E40 - $coming soon-19.99
(cdRoots# hrbe-039)
The second release by this wonderful Belgian ensemble will surely garner as much acclaim as their previous CD, Alma. The diatonic accordions of Sophie Cavez and Jonathan de Neck are still in the forefront, musically and compositionally, but this 2007 release offers a more confident ensemble sound, a little richer in jazz roots while still solidly enthralled the folk roots of their region. Exceptional music from an exceptional ensemble, once again.

Savina Yannatou - Primavera en Salonico (Spring in Salonika) - $23.99
(cdRoots# res-yannatou-spring)
Sephardic songs performed by the great Greek singer and the Primavera en Salonica ensemble

Kristi Stassinopoulou and Stathis Kalyviotis - Taxidoscopio - $18.99
(cdRoots# res-stassi07)
These Greek artists are producing global pop without peer, mixing local roots with international sounds and modern technology to create, over the course of the last few years, a completely unique aural pallette that relates to almost no one else. fRoots says: '…a completely unique, utterly recognisable and forward-looking style of their own. And in that distillation, it seems to have become more distinctly Greek - a strange, other-worldly Greekness, for sure, but a 21st century Greekness that's modern within its own culture, out there, ahead and rooted rather than just banging off some local language version of what the globised industry dictates. No predictable Greek rock, Europop or hip-hop here then.'

Trio Mio - Stories around a holy goat - $16.99
(cdRoots# go-triomio07)
Trio Mio continue to explore their Danish/Swedish connection with Kristine Heebøll Violin, backing vocals - Nikolaj Busk Piano, accordion, harmonium, melodica, pumporgan backing vocals – and Jens Ulvsand, Flat back bouzouki, guitar, vocals. This is the third and best recording so far by this remarkable ensemble. Highly Recommended.

Di Grine Kuzine - Berlin Wedding - $14.99
(cdRoots# sky-wed)
More klezmer intuitions from the Germany-based ensemble, firmly rooted, decidedly modern and wildly energetic. Great musicianship and vocals by a wonderful group of artists. 2006 release.

Polina Shepherd Vocal Experience - Baym Taykh - $17.99
(cdRoots# rien-64)
Singer, composer and pianist Polina Shepherd, of Russian-Jewish descent, lives and works in Brighton,UK with her husband Merlin Shepherd (clarinet, guitar, saxophone). They are among the most innovative musicians in the Jewish Music scene in Europe today - be it New Yiddish Song or Classic Klezmer. With Quartet Ashkenazim they range from beautiful unison to skilfully executed four part harmony. The traditional ornamentation and modes of the songs are known and yet the new melodies suggest that the tradition has never been broken. The songs cover many themes and are settings of Yiddish poems. Highly recommended.

Tsuumi Sound System - Hotas - $17.99
(cdRoots# aito-010)
The Finnish modern folk music group consists of eight musicians with very different backgrounds. The record was made by a steady eight-piece group known for spectacular live performances and with the assistance of producer Roger Tallroth they bring their on-stage energy into the studio in a way they have not done before. Highly recommended.

Calicanto - 25 anni Calicanto (2 CDs) - $24.99
(cdRoots# rd-cal14)
Calicanto is one of the most important bands in the northern Italian folk musicscene. This double CD is an anthology of this amazing group, born in Padova 25 years ago. All the tunes in CD 1 were recorded live in 2006 and present favorites form the repetoire as well as songs never before recorded by the ensemble. The tunes in CD 2 are all original versions taken from the 12 CDs published by Calicanto, most of which are no longer in print or readily available. Highly recommended

Knut Reiersrud and Iver Kleive - Nade over nade - $17.99
(cdRoots# kkv-313)
Nåde over nåde is the third recording by Norwegian guitarist Reiersrud and organist Kleive, again recorded with the full pipe organ and in the beautiful acoustics of the Odense Cathedral. As with their earlier albums, old psalms and folk tunes predominate, with a few interesting reinterpretations of contemporary songs ("What a Wonderful World" and "Grandma's Hands"). But this time Reiersrud and Kleive have maximized the church's dynamics and three-dimensional qualities, fully exploited under guidence of recording engineer Alf Christian Hvidsteen. Highly recommended.

Frifot - Flyt - $coming soon
(cdRoots# amigo-frifot07)
The super-group of Nordic roots music returns in 2007 with another fantastic release. Per Gudmundson, Ale Möller and Lena Willemark pretty well define the new folk-movement in Sweden, and this release finds them returning to a rougher, rootsier sound. Highly recommended.

Ale Moller Band - Djef Djel - $17.99
(cdRoots# amigo-djef)
Nothing that has ever come from the hands of Ale Möller has been anything less than brilliant, in my opinion, and this one continues his exploration of the Swedish ethos in the global continuum. This time around, it is just the band, a now well-seasoned sextet of musicians from all over the planet, in sync with each other's ideas and exploring new applications of their roots in Sweden, Greece,Mexico, Canada and Senegal.

various - Thracian Rhapsody: The New Wedding Music in Bulgaria - $17.99
(cdRoots# labor-7019)
The music that has come to be known as 'Bulgarian wedding music' has always been a strange mix of odd bedfellows. Jazz, folk songs, popular and ancient dances all seem to be brought together in this music. The set features unique recordings (not release don other CDs) by big names and small: Ivo Papazov and singer Yildiz Ibrahimova, the Christo Yotsov Trio, led by drummer and percussionist Yotsov with Nedyalko Nedyalkov on kaval and Stoyan Yankulov on tupan, clarinetist Philip Simonov with the ensemble Tristenik, clarinetist Mladen Malakov and Bisery, with Aliyosha Shibelev (accordion) and Matiyo Dobrev (kaval), and a searing gaida solo by Alexander Raitchev finishes it all off. Originally released in 1999. Highly recommended.

Roberta Alloisio with Orchestra Bailam - Lengua Serpentina - $17.99
(cdRoots# cni-lengua)
Italian vocalist Alloisio offers a project that joins an Oriental sound, the tempos of the Balkans, the chant-like singing of Genoa and lyrics taken from both classical and popular literature spanning from the XIII century to now. A rich mixture of different sounds is completed with arrangements of Franco Minelli and the Orchestra Bailam, with additional vocal help from another fine singer of baroque and ancient music, Marco Beasley. Highly recommended.

Lucilla Galeazzi - Amore e Acciaio - $18.99
(cdRoots# cni-galeazzi06)
"love and steel" refers to the lyrical content of the songs presented here, about factory layoffs, famous murders, sons going off to war. But it is also a good description of the music of Lucilla Galeazzi. She has a huge heart that comes through in every note she sings, and those notes are powerful, full of the strength and wisdom of Italian roots. This 2006 recording confirms my opinion that among the firmament of Italian singers, Galeazzi still shines as bright as any.

Bembeya Jazz National - The Syliphone Years (2 CDs) - $20.99
(cdRoots# st-bemsyl)
Newly repackaged set of two CDs with a 44-page illustrated booklet and 27 tracks from the 1960s and 70s, in chronological order from their first single, 'République Guinée,' a celebration of Guinea's independence, to 'Petit Sékou,' one of their last recordings for the Syliphone label. Those shrill horns, those watery, reverbed guitars, that heavy bass and percussion... and those voices! This is damned near perfect African pop. Highly recommended!

Tabu Ley Rochereau - The Voice of Lightness 1961-77 (2 CDs) - $21.99
(cdRoots# st-3027-28)
This 2 CD set is comprehensive look at trhe legendary Congolese artist's career in recordings from the 60s and 70s. Beautifually packaged with excellent notes by Ken Braun. Essential work by a ground breaking singer and bandleader. Highly recommended.

Maria Kalaniemi - Bellow Poetry - $15.99
(cdRoots# aito-mk1)
Maria K's 2005 release is a solo recording that examines the potential of accordion in the Finnish rune song and lament tradition. Highly recommended.

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