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World Music Network/Riverboat Records specialise in world, jazz, blues, folk and a treasure-trove of undiscovered sounds.
Labels: Riverboat Records, Rough Guides, Introducing, Think Global

When the first Western explorers set foot in what is now known as the Chinese province of Yunnan more than a hundred and fifty years ago, they described a strikingly diverse land of mysterious kingdoms, fierce and proud tribes and hidden secrets - a wild land untouched by modernity. High mountains, deep canyons and dense forests had, for hundreds of years, provided the setting for a hardy collection of ancient peoples to play hide and seek with the great empires of the region. Their diversity often represents segments of long migrations away from control and assimilation, frozen in time by geographical barriers.The ‘frozen in time’ languages, customs and musical styles of the region have long continued to prove a treasure trove for anthropologists, linguists and ethnomusicologists alike, providing a looking glass into the history of music, language and even human society itself. However, aside from the academic papers, the music of Yunnan has remained largely inaccessible and little known to music fans in general. More often it is clumsily marked by the big red brush of ‘Chinese music’ or ‘Asian oddities’. This unique Rough Guide aims to draw attention to this area. Rather than being a blank in the map, it deserves be known as a source of some of the most unique and varied folk sounds ever created. Often the lack of written language amongst Yunnan’s staggering 187 recognised ethno-subdivisions (comprising of 25 official Chinese ethnic minority groups) means that much of the highly complex histories of many of them will never be fully known. The folk songs and dances, however, continue to pass on snippets and memories of their ancient survivor consciousness. Yunnan is a place where music permeates all facets of traditional life, underscoring identity, binding related populations and passing down traditional knowledge and history. It is home to hundreds of instruments and singing styles, mostly found nowhere else in the world. Over the last decades, the modern digital age, the highways, railways and airports have turned Yunnan from a ‘frozen in time’ backwater to a fully integrated part of a global superpower. Progress has chipped away at the conditions that allowed Yunnan’s great diversity to exist in the first place. At times this weight of what is being lost sometimes blinds us to the new and exciting developments emerging from the ruins. Whilst the traditional heritage of the region provides a huge reservoir of inspiration, Yunnan’s musical baton is slowly being passed from the traditional to the innovators, musicians that still have living relatives who remember the old ways while themselves being irreversibly part of the new. These conditions for unique musical fusion have already given rise to internationally recognized artists such as Shanren, Manhu and Puman (all featured on this CD), but the truth is that no one artist can truly represent a region like this. This Rough Guide aims to take the listener on a journey from the weird and wonderful ancient sounds of Yunnan to the cutting-edge productions of the modern generation. The result could be, finally, a coherent musical identity and hopefully a bridge of accessibility for the non-academics looking for fresh and exciting sounds. Those who cross this bridge will surely feel like those first explorers, a hundred & fifty years ago, entering a truly magical land for the first time.

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Rough Guide To The Music Of Yunnan

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If ever a title was justified, then ‘Queen of the Country Blues’ is the bare minimum that should be afforded to Memphis Minnie, a lone female voice in the male-dominated country blues scene whose musical legacy is nothing short of remarkable. Minnie transcended both gender and genre and her recording career spanned from the late 1920s heyday of country blues to the cutting-edge Chicago scene of the 1940s & 1950s, where she helped pioneer the roots of electric blues, R&B and rock ‘n’ roll.Born Lizzie Douglas to a poor family in rural Algiers, Louisiana on June 3, 1897, she was the oldest of 13 brothers and sisters, yet was always referred to as "Kid" throughout her childhood. When she was seven years old, the Douglas family moved to Wall, Mississippi, just south of Memphis, where she soon received her first guitar. Something of a wild child, Minnie ran away from home for the last time at 13, heading for the bright lights of the notorious Beale Street in nearby Memphis, where, as “Kid” Douglas, she quickly made a name for herself with the jug bands and string groups that played around the city. Life was hard for a female musician and she had to grow up fast, earning a reputation for toughness, both personally and musically. After touring the South with the Ringling Brothers circus, she eventually found her way back to Memphis where she became a member of the legendary Memphis Jug Band, something of a training ground for the city’s aspiring blues musicians. For a while she was the common law wife of guitarist Casey Bill Weldon, but subsequently went on to marry another budding bluesman by the name of Joe McCoy.Minnie and McCoy became a formidable musical partnership, with the sheer drive of the two guitars, coupled with Minnie’s vocal abilities, giving their imaginative songs and arrangements a life of their own. They were soon discovered by a talent scout for Columbia Records, whilst playing in front of a barber shop, and went to record in New York where they were given the names Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie. By the beginning of the 1930s, the Memphis blues had become quite a marketing phenomenon in Chicago, which is where Minnie and Kansas Joe migrated to in 1930 to become a part of the city's burgeoning music scene. Along with Big Bill Broonzy, whom she reputedly beat in a blues contest, and Tampa Red, Minnie helped the country blues style ease into an urban setting. Minnie’s guitar prowess was formidable, as testified by many a famed bluesman, and she literally "stood out" from other musicians by playing lead guitar while standing, at a time when everyone else played their guitars sitting down.This collection highlights the formative years of Minnie’s career as part of the duo and includes accomplished blues numbers such as ‘Memphis Minnie-Jitis Blues’, probably based on personal experience, as well as ‘Bumble Bee’ their first recorded song and one of Minnie’s most successful of her hundred or so songs that she recorded before retiring in the mid-1950s. Their wonderful versatility shines through on other novelty songs such as the horse-calling ‘Frankie Jean (That Trottin’ Fool)’ and the bawdy ‘New Dirty Dozen’, usually the province of male pianists, sung by Minnie from a female perspective. Further blues inuendo abounds on the comic vocal duets ‘What’s The Matter With The Mill?’ and ‘Can I Do It For You?’ and proves how Minnie had a singular ability to adapt her voice to the drama in hand, be it up-tempo and light-hearted hokum to deep and tortured blues.The couple recorded songs together and solo for Decca Records until they divorced in 1934. According to several reports, McCoy's increasing jealousy of Minnie's fame and success caused the breakup. Whilst McCoy achieved further moderate success, it was Minnie who went on to become a central figure in the early Chicago scene as the blues went electric.

Rough Guide To Memphis Minnie - Queen of the Country Blues

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With the help of the wonderful Galileo music label in Germany, we’ve been privileged to compile this collection of Jewish-inspired music, with its central theme being the value of cross-cultural exchange. During its near-thirty years in existence, the Rough Guide music range has released several Klezmer-themed albums, but never an album which includes some of the other different facets of Jewish music.With this in mind, what better way to begin than with a celebration of the rich and often overlooked Sephardic musical traditions, with their roots in the Jewish communities of medieval Spain and Portugal. The beautiful opener ‘Adio Kerida’, performed by Liona & Serena Strings, is sung in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) and combines influences from classical, folk and Spanish music. Also featured is the wonderful Al Andaluz Project, another musical ensemble renowned for their reviving of the music of the Jews who flourished in Spain under Moorish rule until the end of the 15th century when they were expelled. Sephardic folk songs are characterized by their heartfelt passion and have been passed orally from generation to generation, such as the moving ‘El Rey Nimrod’ by Annwn, which tells the story of the birth of Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. From songs of a ‘Golden Age’ to those of the present, Jewdyssee are a band formed around German/Israeli singer Maya Saban which transports Jewish/Yiddish culture into the 21st century with its unusual mix of electro beats, trumpets and clarinets. ‘Cabaret’ is a standout track from their revolutionary album 5773, best described as a musical mélange of traditional Yiddish music with club, electro and swing sounds. Likewise, the charismatic seven-piece Don Kipper imbue their music with cosmopolitan urban energy, born of the influence of North-East London’s cultural crossroads. She’Koyokh are another London-based band whose ‘Der Filosof/Flatbush Waltz’ partners a satirical song mocking rabbis of the Hassidic movement with a waltz that has become a standard of the klezmer repertoire.Andrea Pancur is a Munich-born singer who has been cited as one of the most important exponents of Yiddish culture in Germany with her unprecedented musical hybrid of Klezmer and Bavarian folk music, as can be heard on her flamboyant rendition of ‘Drey Dreydl’. German-Jewish history is likewise central to the work of fellow Munich musician Nizza Thobi. Born in Jerusalem in 1947 to a Sephardic family, Thobi came into contact with German and Yiddish culture at an early age and has since devoted her career to finding out more about their tragic connection, which she brings to life with her wonderfully soft and husky “mother tongue” vocals. Also of Israeli origin, Yinon Muallem began playing Middle Eastern percussion before learning the oud and developing his composition style, which takes in traditional Jewish music, Turkish Maqam and jazz. Now living in Turkey, Yinon travelled back to Israel to record and inspire his acclaimed Back Home album which includes the featured ‘9 Times Shalom’.Mames Babegenush was founded in 2004 by a group of friends with an ambition to reform the klezmer scene in Denmark. To this day they continue to leave their personal mark on their music and the rip roaring ‘Tornado Albastru’ is no exception. Further upbeat virtuosity can be heard by the band fittingly known as Klezmer-ish, a group who are committed to exploring the music of immigrants from different cultural backgrounds. Formed by four members of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the riotous closing track ‘The Klezmer's Freilach’ sees the band freeing themselves from the "shackles" of the rigid hierarchy of classical music.

The Rough Guide To Jewish Music

Musicians from all around the world have long learnt to harness the otherworldly sound created when sliding an object across the strings of an instrument. For well over a hundred years, blues guitarists have adopted this approach by using bottlenecks, bones and all manner of metal objects to create exhilarating melodies and driving chords. The luminous tones of slide playing have duly become one of the most enduring special effects associated with the guitar whilst helping to convey the raw and emotional power of the blues.The earliest roots of the blues belong in West Africa, where it’s thought the instrument commonly known as the ‘diddley bow’ derives. Typically consisting of a wooden board from a floor or shack with a single wire string stretched between two screws or poles, the diddley bow was played by plucking whilst varying the pitch with a metal or glass slide held in the other hand. Although considered a child’s instrument, its significance lies in the fact that it provided the first musical steps for future blues luminaries including Bukka White, Muddy Waters and Elmore James.The mesmerizing sound created by a slide guitarist was famously first documented by the composer and self-confessed ‘Father of the Blues’ W.C. Handy. Whilst waiting for a train in Tutwiler, Mississippi in 1903, Handy was awakened by a haunting melody of a guitarist playing with a knife, which in his words created “the weirdest music I had ever heard.” This experience had a profound influence on the development of Handy’s compositional style as he helped popularise the blues. Around the time of Handy’s encounter, Hawaiian steel guitar - a distinctive slide style that arose separately in the islands during the late 19th century - had already gained popularity on the U.S. mainland through the concert tours of Hawaiian musicians. Although Hawaiian guitar ultimately made its most significant mark on American country music, it’s likely that blues music, Hawaiian guitar and country music were to some degree mutually influential in the course of their early development. Certainly, traces of the Hawaiian style can be heard in the playing of a few of the featured guitarists, notably Casey Bill Weldon, who fittingly became billed as the ‘Hawaiian Guitar Wizard’. The use of the slide enabled the creation of supple melodies and runs at heightened speed like Kokomo Arnold’s ‘Feels So Good’, whilst also allowing guitarists to play slowly and take advantage of its ability to sustain notes, beautifully illustrated by Tampa Red’s closing track ‘Moanin’ Heart Blues’. Picking out a melody on the top strings with greater resonance lent itself perfectly to gospel tunes as well through the playing of guitar evangelists such as Blind Willie Johnson and Rev. Edward W. Clayborn. All these tracks prove how the player’s ear, and not eyes, was central to the art of playing slide, as pitch intonation depends on touching the string in exactly the right place. In essence, the slide guitarist must play more like a violinist, always acutely conscious of pitch. The Mississippi Delta blues has long been synonymous with the use of the bottleneck through the likes of Charley Patton, Bukka White and Son House. However, equally distinctive was the slide guitar artistry of bluesmen who performed in and around the Texas region such as Black Ace, Oscar Woods and Ramblin’ Thomas, whose playing represented a more refined and melodically complicated approach. Likewise, several notable East Coast bluesmen including Blind Willie McTell, Curley Weaver and Barbecue Bob had their own characteristic styles and are good examples of how easily distinguished the touch and timing of a particular player is when using a slide.

Rough Guide To Slide Guitar Blues

A country woven with spirituality, India has a mystical charm which draws people from all over the world to its colourful mosaic of cultures and religions. The traditional Indian way of life has been instrumental in the evolution and growth of spiritualism, and this is reflected in the mystery and beauty of its unbroken musical forms. As the world becomes increasingly capitalistic and materialist, the quest and urgency for spirituality grows, and this seamless collection offers the perfect soundtrack for an exploration of some of India’s most divine cultures. The album opener ‘In Between Us’ introduces the golden voice of Anandi Bhattacharya on a contemporary exploration of her musical roots. With sublime guitar accompaniment by her father Debashish and other leading instrumentalists, Anandi’s outward-looking approach imbues her music with real musical wisdom which belies her years. Likewise, the Guillaume Barraud Quartet reflect the spirit of India, but this time through the prism of jazz. After many years studying with the legendary Indian flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia, Guillaume Barraud explores the sound of the bansuri (Indian flute) with his contemporary jazz quartet. The nostalgic ballad ‘Esquisse’ highlights the delicacy and sensuality of the Indian bamboo flute to its full, with the beautifully understated backing of his band. Both Babu and Arman are Sufi Fakirs from Bengal, a group of musicians and Islamic spiritual practitioners who have preserved a series of esoteric teachings on breath, asceticism, philosophy and mystical devotion. Sufi Fakirs are also the guardians of an ancient standard of enigmatic songs about love and humanity, underlining their central belief that salvation is found in the present moment and within oneself rather than in a conceptual heaven. The Indian counterpart to the Fakir tradition is that of the Bauls. Paban Das Baul’s beautiful ‘Kala Re’ is taken from his album Music Of The Honey Gatherers. On that record Paban performed songs from the trail of the honey gatherers – wandering Baul singers from the very eastern end of the Indo-Gangetic plains. The honey they reference is spiritual rather than physical. Madhukuri (honey gathering) is a tradition amongst Baul singers, who every morning wander from village to village singing for alms with voices raised in ecstasy. Jyotsna Srikanth is a Bangalore-born violinist and is one of the foremost Carnatic musicians of her generation. The style in which she plays is called gāyaki which translates as ‘as if sung’. ‘Annapoorne’ is a composition by one of the most famous Carnatic composers, Muttuswami Dikshitar, and the subject concerns Annapoorne, the Hindu goddess of nourishment. The raga used is sama, one that denotes peace. Also manipulating string textures, but this time on his own specially modified guitar, Calcutta’s Debashish Bhattacharya is heard on the introspective piece ‘Aanandam’. Based on Raga Mishra Shiva Ranjani, this simpler piece features the tiny Anandi guitar of his own creation, singing like an innocent child above a six-beat rhythm. It combines an expression of elation with a hint of sorrow. ‘The small instrument brings a sound of innocence and purity,’ Bhattacharya says. ‘It is like holding a baby.’ One of the world’s foremost tabla players, Subhasis Bhattacharya has performed and recorded with his brother Debashish on many classic albums, and on Tablananda, his first international collaboration, Subhasis assembled an incredible line-up of musicians to produce a visionary album that showcases his incredible creativity. ‘Blood Of Two Oceans’ is a true world music hybrid, which blends musical sensibilities from far flung parts of the world; a celebration of universal music principles which bind all musicians and all music. All these artists can be seen as guardians of ancient traditions, and never has the role been more important than in today’s world. Like everywhere, modern day India vibrates with amplified sound; ringtones, radios, the blast of a horn from a passing rickshaw. Technology has changed the sound of India; it has made it louder and quite literally turned up the dial. Alongside this simmering, there is a continued need for India’s true spiritual identity to be reflected in its deep-rooted musical traditions, which are as relevant now as at any time in its history.

The Rough Guide To Spiritual India

Originally from Sétif in Algeria, charismatic band leader and multi-instrumentalist Anouar Kaddour Cherif is steeped in the classical music traditions of North Africa from his time performing with various ensembles in Eastern Algeria, where he developed his love of Arab-Andalusian music and honed his talents as a composer and singer.Djawla is the culmination of Anouar’s wandering life over the last three years since he left his native country at the age of 24 to settle in Switzerland, a place which in his words has become “a refuge for his ear and musical fingers to find multiple possibilities of expression.” These nine Arabic jazz-infused tracks showcase Anouar’s sublime mandole playing and see him team up with Clément Meunier on bass clarinet, Hannes Junker on drums and Antoine Brochot on double bass. Anouar also adds heartfelt vocals to ‘Call Of The Night’ and the closing track ‘Amiret Erriyam’, adding a further dimension to these wonderfully crafted compositions.

Anouar Kaddour Cherif / Djawla

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