Perceptive Travel World Music Reviews

September/October 2007

In this issue: Veracruz string music updated by Sones de Mexico, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan resurrected by Gaudi, a collection of world music hits from Putumayo, and a new big band salsa album by the legendary Spanish Harlem Orchestra.

Here at Perceptive Travel, our "world music" reviews are just that: tip–offs on music from places around this big planet of ours. If it's a little offbeat and it doesn't completely suck, we'll throw it into the global music soup.



Esta Tierra Es Tuya
Sones de Mexico Ensemble Chicago
We say: Mexican immigrants having fun with strings

The Mexican Son music played by the members of the Sones de Mexico ensemble is neither the music you'll hear on your local Hispanic radio station nor the Mexican folk music you'll hear on some highbrow collection highlighting authenticity. Instead it's the kind of mash–up you'd expect from Mexican immigrants living in Chicago who happen to know a few players from the big city symphony orchestra. A foldout insert shows the 50+ all–acoustic instruments used to make the album and a few Chicago Symphony Orchestra members make a guest appearance.

There's a 19th–century Chilean song about unrequited love for a black woman, a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Four Sticks," and a performance of Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 by J.S. Bach. Sones de Mexico performs the title track, written by Woody Guthrie and sung by school kids ever since, in two languages. It serves as the thematic centerpiece, hopefully getting across a uniting sentiment in these times of a bitter (and often pointless) arguments about the role of immigrants in a country's vitality and growth.



Dub Qawwali
Gaudi and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
We say: A dead Pakistani singer comes back to life via studio electronica

Messing with a dead guy's recordings has the potential to be an affront to both the artist and his or her fans. Thankfully, British producer Gaudi's Dub Qawwali is just the opposite: a tribute that manages to honor the original vocals while surrounding them with current production values. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who died ten years ago, was larger than life in more ways than one: he weighed around 300 pounds and had a voice to match. His Sufi Qawwali musical performances were the stuff of legend, with lots of improvisation and songs that often went on for 20 minutes or more. He was no purist, however. Over the years he collaborated with Peter Gabriel, Eddie Vedder, Michael Brooks, and others.

He probably would have liked this album, even the fourth track, where his music is backed by Gaudi's dubs and a theme from a Kraftwerk song, "The Model." Most of these remixes have reggae overtones, an apt fusion of two "peace and love" musical messages. Apart from some reverb effects here and there, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's vocals have not been altered: the dubs envelop the singing, rather than the singing serving the dubs. The result is an accessible new album that preserves the power of a musical legend.

Hear Gaudi talking about the album on NPR's Day to Day.

This month's music reviews were written by editor Tim Leffel, who spent seven years working for RCA Records before discovering that devoting his life to promoting lousy music was not so glamorous after all. He is author of Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune and is co–author of Hip–Hop, Inc.: Success Strategies of the Rap Moguls.