Musicians from the UK travel to The Gambia in this unique cultural exchange. Under the guidance of Gambian percussionist and vocalist Musa Mboob, musicians from both countries create an inspired, energetic, tribal, West African soul music. "... captivating sounds of West Africa in it's most innovative masterpiece of artistic creativity... " (ebonyonline. Net) Musa Mboob and XamXam aim to bring you the perfect blend of traditional West African music with a modern twist. Musa has made it his aim in life to continue the family tradition of playing percussion and promoting traditional music from The Gambia. In 2017 Musa returned to The Gambia with a new set of musicians and returned with this collection of new songs that capture the exciting Gambian vibe.

Much has been said and written about the origins and first appearances of the Gypsies. Their first documented existence in Europe dates back to the early fifteenth century and most scholars agree that they originally came from Northern India. This is based on the resemblance of their Romany language to certain languages in Northern India. Apparently, the Gypsies migrated into Persia in the 11th century and further into South East Europe around the beginning of the 14th century and from there into Western Europe. Today, Gypsies live all over the world, including North and South America and even Australia. As many Gypsies worked as musicians or entertainers, they had a considerable impact on the music of the countries in which they lived- their own particular musical style often combined with the folk music of a particular country, thus preserving the traditions over centuries. The so-called Gypsy repertoire can be described as a blend of Russian, Hungarian and Romanian influences but on the other hand the Roma have contributed their own style to many areas of music and influenced other artists in their music, such as Bizet, Brahms and Dvorak, to name but a few. In this compilation, a variety of Gypsy music has been included, from purely traditional to modern, including soloists who excel with their instruments, small Gypsy ensembles, large Gypsy brass bands, some of the greatest Gypsy singers and composers as well as travelling Egyptian Gypsies, recorded on location.

Classical Music

“Sosa and Keita deliver a work that variously ebbs, flows and sparkles.” (Jane Cornwell, Jazzwise)

SUBA is the second album from the collaboration between one of Cuba’s most prolific Jazz Artists, pianist Omar Sosa, and Senegalese kora master Seckou Keita. Omar and Seckou’s debut album Transparent Water has toured worldwide since 2017 to enormous critical acclaim. They are again accompanied on this tour and album by Venezuelan percussionist Gustavo Ovalles. Seven-time Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Omar Sosa has been passionately interested in exploring African musical cultures and their connections with his Afro-Cuban roots throughout his career, subtly blending traditional and contemporary sounds on many of his recordings. Seckou Keita has arguably become the most influential and inspiring Kora player of his generation, an exceptional and charismatic musician and a modern global citizen, with seven centuries of tradition and heritage expressed through his music.

Watch Sosa and Keita's Tiny Desk Concert for NPR Music!

REVIEWS:

With a lighter, lyrical, improvisational approach, the two musicians create something artistically special and pull it off with aplomb. With its sympathetic sensitivity to human condition, SUBA’s mesmerizing music is a hymn to courage, strength and perseverance in a post-pandemic world. Each relaxing track, whether emphasizing piano, kora or vocals, presents itself a prayer for health, unity and sunnier skies ahead.

-- Roots Music Report

Gary Stroutsos honors the Hopi Tribe with solo improvisations on a reincarnated leena. Featuring the plaintive and haunting sounds of the Hopi long flute, these pieces are inspired by the landscapes of the American Southwest, and the people who have lived there since time immemorial. Songs for Leena is the follow-up album to Öngtupqa. The Hopi Tribe have maintained their flute tradition for thousands of years. Today, it is still actively cultivated with the help of The Hopi Long Flute Preservation Project, of which Gary is an honorable member. Due to his dedication to the instrument, and long-term friendships with cultural practitioners of the tribe, the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office invited Gary to join the project – an offer never extended to a non-native before. Profits from this album will go towards The Hopi Long Flute Preservation Project.

Khöömei Beat are five outstanding musicians who excel in khöömei - Tuva’s unique style of throat singing. They layer traditional and modern instruments with their distinctive vocals to create powerful arrangements with modern rhythms and electronic sounds. Exhilarating and foot-stomping - a musical art that stretches back to the dawn of humanity, while simultaneously reaching forward to new horizons. An exhilarating mix of khöömei singing with razor-sharp drumming and earthy cello sounds that rush through the soul like the wind from an eagle’s wing. With the authentic Tuvan sounds of the doshpuluur, byzaanchyand igil, Khöömei Beat layer traditional and modern instruments with their distinctive vocals to create powerful arrangements with modern rhythms and electronic sounds.

A soul-stirring collection of some of Celtic Thunder's most inspirational recordings, combining contemporary classics such as "Both Sides Now" and "I Want to Know What Love Is" with traditional favorites including, "A Place in the Choir" and "My Land." Celtic Thunder has been hailed as Billboard's Top World Music Artist, along with Top World Music Imprint and Top World Album four times. With over 800 shows to date, the group has performed live for well over a million fans worldwide.

Lutz Cassel came in touch with the culture of his ancestors for the first time in the early 1960s. This was during song contests at the Castle “Waldeck” in Germany. Although he had no idea of his background (he had been raised in the Christian faith) the music touched him deeply and from this time onwards he began to collect everything connected with Jewish culture and especially with Jewish music and to adapt it for his performances in folk clubs. Step by step he developed a repertoire of songs and also the idea to describe the history of the Jewish people and its music and culture. By and by Lutz started to season his performances with jokes, anecdotes and stories from the thousands of years of history of this people, which consists of more than just the Bible, the Roman Empire and the Holocaust. Lutz was often dissatisfied with the fact that singers of Yiddish songs in Germany generally only described the modern history of the Jews. The origins of the songs were not explained and therefore only a few people understood their meaning. His successes in many small cabarets encouraged him to combine history, stories and music. He did this not in the then popular way of many singer/songwriters, with a moralizing undertone, but with humor and irony- the typical self-irony of Jewish humor. This release is a live recording of a concert which took place in the Hamburg Music Hall for the Hanukkah Celebration of 1986.

Part of ARC Music’s ‘low price’ range, this album is specially designed to be accessible to the casual or novice world music listener; those who wish to experience the music of a certain part of the world, but perhaps aren’t ready to pay the regular price for standard or deluxe albums. The present release is an amiable, deliciously delicate and inspired album with mellow tones, smiling vocals, relaxed earthy, rich vibes and sauntering summer grooves, featuring Ceumar Brazil, Marta Gómez Colombia, Trio Pantango Argentina, Catarina Dos Santos Portugal, Patricia Salas Chile, AKA Trio Fusion and more.

Vusa Mkhaya embodies the sound of the eclectic, pulsing, dusty streets of Tshabalala township in Zimbabwe’s Bulawayo. He captures the romanticism of the Southern African climes, his voice rich with the vibrations of a heritage that spans decades. Driven by an unquenchable thirst for sound, he has worked with a wide range of musicians and productions, amassing a hugely impressive body of work. Vusa has pushed the boundaries of world music, retaining a mind-bending, soul-searching, spiritually stirring sound that is inspired by life’s questions. It is in that depth he feeds, and is himself fed by the beauty of music. As part of the vocal trio Insingizi he has gained commercial and critical success since their 2004 debut album, Voices of Southern Africa / Spirit of Africa, which sold over 250,000 units in North America. His solo offerings The Spirit of Ubuntu (2006), Vocalism (2012) and now Umanyanyatha are emotive musical stories of love, heartbreak and everyday living; tales delivered in soulful, sometimes haunting, achingly beautiful pieces. Mkhaya gives life to the voice, and it is the voice that gives him life.

Recordings of percussion from around the world – an exploration of countries by their instrumental heartbeat: the drum. With Iranian rhythms on the tombak, a rich variety of tones and textures from Egypt on durbuka, advanced rhythms of Nigerian Yoruba folk music, Japanese taiko, Indian tabla, improvisations from Morocco and more… A fascinating journey into international beats and the culture and stories that lie behind them. The booklet contains in-depth liner notes provided by the artists that showcase the instruments used, the meanings behind the songs, and the cultural significance around the chosen rhythms.

Ssewakiryanga James Jr., also known as SSEWASSEWA, is a Ugandan multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, innovator and educator. He leads his audiences into the soulful African music culture with traditional instruments, songs and stories from his homeland, weaving these traditions together with a modern and global sound. Ssewa Ssewa's music is about social and global issues, diversity, economic development and empowerment. Ssewa Ssewa's music is a cross-cultural marriage between Uganda, Africa and the world. He seeks to promote Ugandan traditions while modernizing and interweaving them with other international genres to renew the spirit of his indigenous culture. The janzi is a Ugandan instrument created and designed by Ssewa Ssewa. It has 22 strings, eleven on each of it's two long, wooden necks. The strings on the left-hand neck are tuned in the diatonic scale, and the strings on the right to the pentatonic scale.

Dance to the Full Moon is the latest Mali & UK collaboration from the imagination of producer Dan Harper (Invisible System). Combining the traditional with the modern, forging new styles in ethnomusicology. Recorded in Bamako, Mali, alongside the best local musicians and griots - the traditional storytellers of West Africa - Dan's production continues to take Malian music into new territory.

Haïg Sarikouyoumdjian, young master of the duduk oboe (so emblematic and evocative of the Armenian people), favors a personal approach both sober and moving, between improvisations and traditional repertoire –refined aesthetic also at play in his own musical instruments making. Haig Sarikouyoumdjian studied the duduk in Armenia with different teachers, and mastered duduk technique and its multiple nuances of timbre, along with all the subtleties of traditional repertoire (perfecting intonation, rhythmic ambiguities, ornamentation, modal development). At the same time, he has collaborated on different projects directed by Jordi Savall like ‘Istanbul’, Mare Nostrum, and others. His research on duduk timbre began to draw him more and more towards instrument making. He learned how to make his own reeds with Ashot Martirosyan, and studied wood turning and tuning in the Myerrecorders studio workshop with Ernst Meyer and his two sons (renowned Baroque recorder manufacturers).

Celtic Visions is a captivating and beautiful collection of yearning laments, traditional folk songs and instrumentals from Scotland, woven together into a stunning tapestry of sound with piano, harp, bagpipes, violin and song. Tales of the druids and seers, visionaries and prophets are shared by award-winning artists, from one of the world's most mystical lands, Celtic Scotland. Songs in both English and Gaelic are featured, as are both folk tunes passed down over centuries and new compositions. The artists featured are well-known in their home country, and include Alasdair MacCuish and the Black Rose Ceilidh Band, Allan Henderson, Gillebride MacMillan, and many others.

A Celtic Journey is an album of music and song from Scotland and further afield, with pipes, fiddle, choir, courting songs, lullabies, humorous stories of whiskey smuggling and sad laments for love lost. The music comes from the Isle of Skye, Nova Scotia, Glasgow, Stornoway, Inverness, and the Scottish Highlands. With award-winning musicians and singers including Cliar, Author Cormack, Blair Douglas, Ceolraidh Gaidhlig Ghlaschu, and many others, whose tracks were selected for this album by Mary Ann Kennedy, this is an album that simply cannot be missed by lovers of Celtic music.

Celtic music is the collective name given to the native folk music of the Celtic nations. The Seven Celtic nations of Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, Cornwall, Wales, Galicia and the Isle of Man share a common tradition of folk music and songs. Each musical tradition includes lively dance-tunes, melancholic airs, and songs both serious and comical. The worldwide popularity of Celtic music has blossomed over the last decade or two and it has found a place as a worldwide musical language. Behind its popularity lies a tradition o fmusic and songs passed down through centuries and generations. This collection is a snapshot of the living reality of Celtic musical traditions in today’s world, presenting music from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, Asturias, Wales, and Galicia in a variety of sung and instrumental pieces.

The two masters of the Japanese shakuhachi, Hidekazu Katoh (shakuhachi, nishaku-issun, nishaku-yonsun) and Richard Stagg (shakuhachi), present atmospheric shakuhachi duets ranging from ancient to modern pieces. Hidekazu Katoh began learning shakuhachi as a member of the Chikuto Group at Chuo University. He became a student of Katsuya Yokoyama, and graduated at Gedai, later completing a postgraduate course there. Hidekazu is a member of Pro Musica Nipponia and of the Bamboo Orchestra. He regularly accompanies the acclaimed enka artist Ayako Fuji in her concerts. Richard Stagg has been a professional orchestral flute player for the last thirty five years, working in the Scottish National Orchestra and then in the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, from which he recently retired. In the early nineteen-eighties he was a pupil of the late Iwamoto Yoshikazu, and has been studying the shakuhachi and performing on it for over thirty years. With Aiko Hasegawa and Kikuko Satoh he cofounded the Yamato Ensemble in 1988. He now teaches shakuhachi and also makes, repairs, and tunes instruments. He regularly performs on the shakuhachi in Japan

Enjoy rembekitos and syrtakis by the Athenians, songs from Crete by Romiosini, pieces by Mikis Theodorakis, and melodies from the Aegean islands and original compositions by Michalis Terzis, one of the most prominent Greek composers today. Michalis Terzis is one of the most important contemporary Greek composers. He started his musical career in 1973, playing songs by Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hatzidakis and New Wave as well as his own compositions at music theatres in the historical part of Athens beneath the Acropolis. In following years Michalis wrote and recorded many pieces including instrumental music, lyrical songs and traditional elegies, as well as music for theatre, TV and film productions, for which he won numerous awards at many Greek and international film festivals. His songs have been performed and recorded by the most famous Greek singers including: George Dalaris, Dimitra Galani, Lavrendis Machairitsas, Glykeria, Maria Dimitriadi, and more. The group The Athenians renders masterly interpretations o fGreek composers such as Mikis Theodorakis, Stavros Xarcharkos, Manos Hadzidakis, Manos Loisos, etc, as well as their own compositions. Their repertoire, which encompasses contemporary songs and Greek popular music that originated as folk music, has been enriched by modern elements and thus developed into a new genre.

This album features three types of the most popular Chines lutes: The tenor ruan, the bass ruan, and the pipa with Xu Pingxin providing accompaniment on the yangqin and drum. The Ruan are a family of long-necked, round-bodied, plucked lutes with four strings. The ruan is an indigenous instrument of China with a history of more than 2000 years. It is recorded in many ancient Chinese literary works. In recent decades it has developed into a family of three types: an alto, tenor, and a bass. Ms. Miao Xiaoyun is a musician of outstanding virtuosity and versatility. She plays several types of Chinese lutes, including tenor ruan, bass ruan, and pipa. Born in Beijing, Ms. Miao started to learn various plucked instruments at an early age with renowned teachers in China, among them Wang Fandi, Wang Zhongbing, and Pan Yuzhang. In 1978 she won a competition for the entrance examination to the Central Conservatoire of Music in Beijing. Upon graduation in 1982, she became the first teacher in the China Conservatoire of Music to establish the ruan as a major instrument. She has toured widely, both in China and abroad, giving many concerts.

Esma Redzepova was a Macedonian Romani vocalist, songwriter, and humanitarian. Because of her prolific repertoire- which included hundreds of songs- and her contribution to Roma culture and it's promotion she was heralded as the "Queen of the Gypsies." These are the last songs she ever recorded- an album that will be truly cherished by her doting followers. Recorded in the studio with The Nune Brothers, the album is a blend of jazz, reggae, swing, salsa, and samba, all influenced by a range of Balkan sounds. "Beauty, charm, striking voice and performance skills." (The Guardian)

Arsen Petrosyan presents Hokin Janapar (my soul's journey), an album with a diverse collection of songs from many eras and genres of Armenia's historic timeline. Arsen has collaborated with Steve Hackett (Genesis), Emirati composer Ihab Darwish, and oudist Omar Bashir among others. He has performed throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. As a solo artist, Petrosyan has also toured extensively in North America and performed on BBC Persia. "Nothing short of exquisite." (Gapplegate Music) "Arsen's duduk playing sounds wonderful. It has a special magic." (Steve Hackett) "... one of the potential heirs to the duduk throne." (Deep Roots)

From the moment Karen Gomyo first heard Astor Piazzolla on album, at the age of fourteen, she was spellbound: ‘I had never heard such a combination of sensuality, fierceness, playfulness, sadness and nostalgia.’ As a violinist she found the role of the violin in Piazzolla’s music especially inspiring, and soon started playing it herself – first in various group combinations, and eventually together with Piazzolla’s longtime pianist Pablo Ziegler and his Tango Quartet. For the present disc she has chosen to record strings-only versions of three works originally for tango quintet (Seasons), guitar and flute (Histoire), and solo flute (Études). Piazzolla’s Cuatro Estaciones were initially conceived neither as a suite nor as a tribute to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Verano porteño (Summer) was composed first, as part of the incidental music for a play, with the other three following several years later. If the Seasons provide a soundtrack to the year as it unfolds in Buenos Aires, Histoire du Tango describes the development of the tango itself in four chapters – from the brothels around year 1900 to the concert halls where Piazzolla himself performed his tango nuevo. These two works frame three of Piazzolla’s Tango Études, which Karen Gomyo performs solo, while otherwise being partnered by the strings of the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire (Seasons) and the guitarist Stephanie Jones (Histoire).

Esma’s Band – Next Generation continues the legacy left by the great Esma Redžepova, the “Queen of Gypsy Music”. Made up entirely of members of Esma’s famed Ensemble Teodosievski, and fronted by her daughter, Eleonora Mustafovska, the band purveys irresistible Gipsy Dance from Macedonia in Esma’s style and honor. As members of Esma’s Ensemble Teodosievski, the band has performed many thousands of concerts all over the world, performing their own blend of pop music based on gypsy and Balkan songs and melodies. Following Esma’s death on 11th December 2016, the band continued touring, delighting crowds around Europe with dance music from the heart of Macedonia, exploring the intricacies of rhythm and sound.

After MANdolinMAN's successful first album "Old Tunes, Dusted Down" - a concept album devoted to the impressive field work of folklorist Hubert Boone - and a second album on which they explored the bossa nova style, MANdolinMAN return to their roots. The band digs even deeper into Flemish folk music and once again breathe new life into old tunes and melodies from the province of Flemish Brabant. Played on four mandolins, the music takes on new forms and teh historic melodies are injected with a modern and contemporary vigour, merged with various styles: African, polka, waltz, bluegrass and more. "...Passionate and polished playing...It's also refreshing to hear mandolins outside of bluegrass and Celtic folk settings..." - Rhythms, Australia