Ghana’s Batman Samini – Nominated for 2006 MOBO Awards

Batman Samini is one of Ghana’s biggest stars. His sound is a hybrid of old school highlife, dancehall and hip hop, which some journalists have tagged raglife, but which the man himself refuses to classify

Dennis Rollins’ Badbone & Co – Big Night Out

Big Night Out kicks off with a growling swinger as shortMAN recounts the history of jazz delivered in a staccato ‘if you go down to the woods today’ style — and the evening has got off to a fine start

Theodore Levin – Where Rivers and Mountains Sing (Book)

Ted Levin is the scholar who, to his own surprise, brought the little known throat singing tradition of Tuva to a global audience in 1990. This thought provoking book, investigates the profound consequences for the musical ecosystem of this remote, mountainous republic and attempts to recontextualise the music from the point of view of its […]

Nneka – Victim of Truth

Beautiful, smart and soulful as southern cornbread, Nneka could be the new Lauren Hill. Everything is right about this stunning debut: a great new voice, conscious lyrics and more hooks than a fishing tackle shop in the Hook of Holland

Jazz Radio UK – Campaign for New Jazz Station

Jazz Radio UK is a pressure group formed to lobby for more jazz on the radio in the UK. They have just launched a survey online, giving you the chance to register your views

Miguel ‘Angá’ Díaz 1961 – 2006

We are shocked and saddened to announce the death of the great Cuban conga player Miguel ‘Angá’ Díaz who died unexpectedly at his home in Barcelona on 9th August 2006, he was 45.

Thomas Brothers – Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans (Book)

Sometimes less is more and by focussing on Satchmo’s early life, Brothers sheds more light on Armstrong than many biographies covering the artist’s whole life have done

Sun Ra – Concert for the Comet Kohoutek

This is an overlooked gem from 1973, recorded at the Townhall, New York City a couple of days before Christmas. Sun Ra’s mind was on his ‘Space is the Place’ film and like an avant-garde film of that time, the music is restless, shifting and all over the space

Orchestre Baka Gbine – Gati Bongo

If you were lucky enough to catch these guys on tour with Baka Beyond, you will know that this is unrelentingly upbeat music bursting with sunshine, like powerful rays piercing the canopy of their native rainforest

Gigi – Gold & Wax

After five long years, Gigi’s follow up to her eponymous debut takes that winning formula and beefs it up still further under the eye of uber-producer Bill Laswell

Fly

Global Music

Month: August 2006