World Music Reviews November 2016

Perceptive Travel World Music Reviews
November 2016 - By Graham Reid

In this issue: Whimsical songs from the Netherlands ride the rails; the past and present woven together in a pan-Arabic tapestry; the breadth of British folk well represented across two discs; but the Pacific is insulted by slapdash cultural tourism.

Snowapple

Tracks
Snowapple

We say: Charming songs which ride their own rails

This trio of women out of Amsterdam boast backgrounds in jazz, opera, gospel and theatricality. The latter comes through in the themed songs on this third album which captures the romance, rhythms and sounds of train travel. We are thrown into rush hour on the cabaret-styled “Businessmen” and a dreamy childlike escapism on “Choo Choo Train” (which appropriates from the standard “Hush Little Baby” a.k.a. “Mockingbird”). Part folk-cum-pop with jazz inflections, “Tracks” is an accomplishment of small delights which might play as well to children as adults for its sense of fun (the sonically quirky “pi”) coupled with reflection.

Mostly in English—aside from “Isabelle” about the 19^th century Swiss explorer Isabelle Eberhardt—this is world music by virtue of the singers' backgrounds (South African, Dutch and Latvia) but also the global reach of its themes of travel and trains. It draws from diverse musical sources to create a kind of universal folk which gets punctuated with horns, angular guitar, and jazz piano.

Unabashed fun.

Andalusia of Love
Marcel, Rami and Bachar Khalife

We say: An album speaking of aching souls and an illustrious past.

When the poet Mahmoud Darwish died in 2008 at age 66, the Palestinian people lost one of their greatest writers and political voices. His inspirational work spoke of spiritual and temporal loss, a people in exile and a yearning for reconciliation.

Lebanon-born oud player and composer Marcel Khalife was so moved by Darwish's work that he adapted a number of pieces for his repertoire, and the poet remains a guiding light in his life and music. Here with his sons Rami on piano (a graduate of Juilliard) and Bachar (a cross-genre percussion graduate from France), Marcel explores that emotional spirit again and it impels this music to great heights.

Although his sons have made independent names for themselves in the crossover of world music, jazz and orchestral works, this 14-piece collection is a tapestry songs and spare instrumentals based on a lengthy love poem by Darwish. The focus is on the Arabic tradition in engrossing miniatures and profoundly emotional singing.

Pieces like the moving “Nassiti” —which opens with elegant minimalism—transcend language and cultural divides to convey a deep sense of sadness with just enough suggestions of hope. As much as it comes from a long tradition and reaches to the Islamic history in Southern Spain, this collection also sounds utterly contemporary as their individual musical influences from Rami's Western classical allusions and Bachar's jazz-like accents are woven through.

The brief “Faracha” is an almost avant-garde expression of the tradition.

Engrossing.

The Ultimate Guide to English Folk
Various Artists

We say: Jolly well done, old man!

Those in the homeland or even the far-flung Commonwealth nations are perhaps much more familiar with the English folk tradition than mainland Americans. At best, any Americans who have heard threads of Anglo-folk have got it distilled through Appalachian or country music.

For anyone with an interest in British folk, we would highly recommend the thorough overview “Electric Britain: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music” by Rob Young which was published in 2010. But be warned, Young is such a persuasive writer he'll have you scouring the internet or record stores for dozens of albums.

He may set you back a pretty penny.

This double disc collection of 35 songs with useful biographical notes refines the focus down to English artists. It is a useful shortcut into the various styles and its reach is wide. It includes archival material by the traditional unaccompanied voices of the Copper Family and the Watersons. But it moves through many more contemporary players such as Steeleye Span (who were in the vanguard of British folk-rock), the Unthanks, legendary folk guitarist-singer Martyn Carthy and the Oysterband.

Here too are the compelling voices of Maddy Prior with June Tabor, the exceptional guitarist Nic Jones and the joyously rowdy 11-piece Bellowhead, plus more recent artists who explore the traditions.

Even if this kind of folk is a hard haul for some (it is a bit “finger-in-the-ear” as they say), you have to admire the inclusiveness of this compilation. And as with Young's book, it could have you in search of more by some of these artists.

An excellent introduction to a deep and wide genre.

Discover Music from the Pacific
Various Artists

We say: A misrepresentation of a region by the usually reliable ARC Music label

This curiously haphazard collection scoops up field recordings by the late David Fanshawe (one track of a dance at a tourist hotel in Western Samoa) and places them alongside recent studio sessions by Te Vaka (from Tokelau) and pieces licensed from other sources, some of them recorded at a cultural festival in Canada.

It makes for a somewhat bizarre attempt to offer an aural picture of the broader Pacific but the fact Hawaii is represented by Harry Kalapana tells you all you need to know. He was a good steel guitarist, but was born in the Balkans and his career was mostly in France and Madagascar. No actual Hawaiian available?

Graham Reid is a New Zealand-based travel/music/arts writer whose first book Postcards from Elsewhere won the 2006 Whitcoulls Travel Book of the Year Award in New Zealand. His second The Idiot Boy Who Flew won the Whitcoulls Reader Choice award. He hosts his own wide-screen website www.Elsewhere.co.nz,, loves deserts but also the chill of Stockholm, and is lucky enough to live in the South Pacific as an Aotearoa/New Zealand summer comes in...

See the last round of music reviews from Graham Reid.