Recommendations from fROOTS / cdRoots

Selections from the folks at

fROOTS (that's eff-roots, formerly Folk Roots) is one of the primary editorial sources for information not only on the music you love, but the music you don't know you love yet! Their insightful (and often inciteful) articles and reviews leave no stone unturned in their quest for unique, genuine roots music from around the world. These CDs are by some of the artists recently featured in the pages of fROOTS, with quotes from the magazine. If you are ready to really explore the world, you can do no better than to consider subscribing to fROOTS, the magazine that covers Local Music From Out There

CDs you read about in

Lila Downs Y La Mysteriosa – En Paris – Live
various - Ghana Special
various - Gastonia Gallop
Franco and TPOK Jazz - Francophonic
Karl Skaarup - Musiker
Kandia Kouyaté Ngara
Ti-Coca & Wanga-Nègès - Haïti Colibri

D.O. MISIANI & SHIRATI JAZZ
The King Of History: Classic 1970s Benga Beats from Kenya
(Stern's Music)
After the very welcome release of Issa Juma’s World Defeats The Grandfathers, Stern’s follow up with another East African classic anthology, with another cute title – which refers to the respect accorded to the leader of the band, the late Daniel Owino Misiani, founder and central figure of Shirati Jazz. Also known as Mwalimu or ‘teacher’ in Swahili, D.O. was born a Tanzanian in the town of Shirati. He set up a band in his youth and had to leave home because of the trouble his songs were causing. He went to Kenya, where his Luo people are the third-largest part of the population, and again started stirring things up with hypnotic songs of social and political comment. His great achievement was to invent the benga beat. Here in all its down-home majesty is a selection of benga hits and otherwise from the ‘70s, characterised by bold throbbing bass, click-click drums over simple bass beat, long vocal lines sung in harmony, punctuated by circling twin lead guitars and occasionally sax. It sounds quite simple – and the component parts are usually straightforward – but benga is particularly insistent dance music. It may not have the voluptuous complexity of Congolese rumba, nor the euphoric headiness of its Tanzanian relative, but it’s solid, effective and sometimes liable to sweep you up in a passage of pure magic. - Rick Sanders

Issa Juma & Super Wanyika Stars
World Defeats The Grandfathers – Swinging Swahili Rumba 1982-1986
(Stern's Music)
We might idly think of African music as heavy on the drum, but surprisingly often it's not so, and especially not in East African Swahili rumba. This, largely derived from the Congolese model, is powerful and involving music but what controls the rhythm is little more than strict but feather-light cymbals, the timely roll or rim-shot, so you hardly realise how subtly and irresistibly you are being captured. There's a bass drum, but rarely prominent – all the bottom end is supplied by the bass, usually playing strange prowling patterns with a determination of its own, more like a lead guitar or marching tuba. Circling above are the guitars, not exactly rhythm and lead, but more like male and female, weaving, announcing, responding. It's actually ethereal. Clear vocal harmonies and a simply heartbreaking lead baritone – no wonder that Issa Juma, who died in the early '90s, was rated the best of the Wanyika singers.

Which leads to a whole convoluted other story: there wasn't just one Wanyika band but, forever splintering and rebudding, at least ten; at one point four Wanyikas were playing Nairobi nightclubs concurrently. For current purposes: the original Simba Wanyika band started in northern Tanzania, crossed the border into Kenya in 1975, and Issa Juma, who'd made his own circuitous way up from Tanzania, joined them a few years later. He left in 1981 to form Super Wanyika and then (among other names) the Super Wanyika Stars, a successful bandleader in his own right.

This album, a remastered mixture of hits and rarities, was recorded with a variety of musicians, but the style is cohesive, the effect utterly exhilarating. And the title, by the way, comes from the song Maria, track five: "The world is big… it defeats the grandfathers. - Rick Sanders

More CDs you read about in fRoots

Shouka - Mariem Hassan - 15.99
New for 2010 - Saharaui singer Mariem Hasan has become the representative voice for her exiled people throughout the world. The rough, bluesy sound is not unlike Tinariwen's 'desert blues' groove, but the voice of Hassan takes it all to a new level. These raw and wonderful songs speak of despair and hope, love and beauty in the face of hardship, and the accompaniment is equal to their force.

Panama! 3 - Calypso Panameño, Guajira Jazz and Cumbia Típica on the Isthmus 1960–75 - VA - 16.99
"Volume Three is the best volume so far." says Charlie Gillet. Co-editors Roberto Gyemant and Miles Cleret are joined by Will "Quantic" Holland showcase more of the unique tropical music created in Panama in the fertile decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Panama is the thin, tropical bridge that connects North and South America, and is home to three million culturally-diverse people; its music is a soulful blend of Latin American, Caribbean, European and indigenous forms. From bilingual calypsos to guajira jazz, from tropical guarachas to cumbia tamboreras, Panamanian musicians fearlessly combined and brilliantly executed styles that reflected their multicultural environment during a turbulent time in the young country's history. This collection presents more of the golden age of Panamanian music and the music of the combos nacionales on rare recordings that have never been released outside the isthmus until now.

Deria - Mara Aranda and Solatge - 17.99
Dèria is a new project by former L'Ham de Foc singer Aranda and instrumentalist Eduard Navarro (dolzaine, nyckelharpa, hurdy-gurdy), and also includes folks with connections to the now defunct group including Josep-Maria Ribelles (celtic harp) , Manolo López (double bass) and Jota Martinez (bouzouki, hurdy gurdy, tambourin mallorqui, renaissance guitar).

Musiker/Musician - Karl Skaarup with Kristian Bugge - 16.99
Traditional Danish folk music presented by an 85 year old master on the accordion, accompanied by fiddle

Soot - Boot - 18.99
Boot is Hållbus Totte Mattsson (mandora, Baroque lute, from hedningarna), Ola Bäckström (violin, bouzouki, well known fiddler and member of Swap) and Samuel Andersson (percussion, hurdy-gurdy, octave violin; from Hedningarna, Godrun), three well respected Swedish musicians who are familiar with tradition in a powerful new trio recording.

Francophonic (Vol 1, 1953-1980) - Franco and le TPOK Jazz - 22.99
Subtitled "The Greatest, A Retrospective" and Franco truly can be called one of the greatest musicians to hit sub-Saharan Africa in the 20th Century. From his very first session thru some of his monster hits, this 2 CD, 28 Track set has it all. Incoudes an excellent 48 page illustrated booklet written by Francophile Ken Braun.

Desbarates - Hexacorde: & Vanesa Muela - 17.99
"Traditional tunes and songs largely from central Spain including corrido, ronda, romance, ajechao, titos, seguidillas and mudanza, interpreted on flute, clarinet, guitar, bass guitar, percussion, the shrill Castilian shawm dulzaina and more, by instrumental sextet joined by singer Muela." - Andrew Cronshaw, fRoots

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