More Africa In Us

Afrofest yesterday. Roger Humbert of The Live Music Report sizes up the ever-increasing crowd.

Thanks for the post title, Eccodek... it's true.

My favourite weekend of the year - Afrofest weekend - started yesterday. As an early celebration, I was very pleased to write about the festival's 20th anniversary for Eye Weekly.

As I've said many times before, Music Africa has overcome many, many struggles to succeed as an arts organization. Other arts groups can learn a lot from their story.

Afrofest is on the short list of things that make Toronto special. You'll never encounter another crowd like this anywhere. What makes this festival different from, say, Harbourfront, is that it's a ground-up festival. I love Harbourfront's programming, but it's well-funded with a lot of human resources and strong links to the biggest media in this town. Afrofest has none of these, and as a result a strong community feeling pervades Queens Park every year; it's a sense that everybody there makes the festival better by their mere presence.

It's the only event I've been to which is equally fun for families, couples and singles. Moreover, I always dug the family vibe long before I had a daughter - kids and adults groove to the same music, and usually the kids set the pace for the whole experience by being the first dancers in front of the stage.

P.S. Best food EVER this year. Srsly. Make sure you wash it down with some fiery ginger juice from Amazones.

Once again, I'm looking forward to helping out with CIUT's broadcast today from 1-7PM. Come by and say hello.

Abstract Index Playlist - April 2/08

It’s a fine line between jam band fatuousness and cutting edge rhythm abstraction. With so many contemporary instrumental bands, often these two tendencies coexist in the same tune. And I don’t know what it is about trios these days. I blame Scott Lafaro for brilliantly exploding the conventional jazz rhythm section/solo voice. Several dozen musical generations later, we have trios such as this where all three members are multi-instrumentalists switching roles within songs. Electronics can be used as another sound source as they are here, or they can interact with the band as with the Australian piano trio Triosk. In any case, I'd say the trio has been reinvented more thoroughly than the quartet, in which there's still a division between the front and back line instruments.

Despite containing all the elements for disaster - sprightly flute leads, lush keyboard pads, big 'verb - more often than not the Hadouk Trio ends up sounding like a particularly inspired Bill Laswell production. The band is far more of a unit than most studio projects - that 'live album' energy is a big part of the sound here. than a studio session. It doesn’t take long for most grooves to lock into some serious dub postures anchored by hand drums and sintirs.

This is capital 'W' World Music - fusion with all the trimmings. But rarely is the cheese factor sustained for long, though a couple of tracks on this disc leave me cold. When it seems like they're threatening to turn into this decade's Enigma, the use of microtonal harmonies and the good ol' ring modulation gives some much needed tension to these billowing grooves.

Hour 1 Podcast
Hour 2 Podcast

chewing gum delirium - the free pop electronic concept (vampisoul)
little rootie tootie - jerry gonzalez (sunnyside)
exchange - matana roberts (central control international)
untitled 12 - box (rune gramofon)
the tiniest spy - insideamind feat laura barrett (no label)
you make me free - lal (ptr)
alena minena - think of one (crammed)
leanin' - randolph (still)
barretta - brownout (freestyle)
casa leule - abdoulaye n'diaye (justin time)
sufi bhakti - debashish bhattacharya (riverboat)
sonido amazonico - chicha libre (barbes)
parasol blanc - hadouk trio (naive)
maisha haya kufa kupona - les embassadors feat. michael ongaru (nonplace)
stop all the violence - sizzla (greensleeves)
ego - etana (vp)
genocide - queen ifrica (flames)
rastaman - jamayka boyz (junior boys own)
musical revolution - version xcursion feat. ammoye (vx)

Abstract Index Playlist - February 28/07

Tinariwen's new record could find a wide and diverse audience. First, there's the all-important "authenticity" factor which, rightly or wrongly, is still so important to an audience's perception of the legitimacy of a world music act. As Tuareg rebels in Mali and Algeria, these freedom fighters have unimpeachable cred. Their super-indie DIY cassette recordings which preceded their full-fledged recording career reinforce it.

Blending all kinds of influences from around the Sahara, from Gnawa and Mande traditions, to Arabic ululations and Santana, their sound rechannels American blues influences with high lonesome desert ambience. Their association with Robert Plant, likely netted them a producer in Justin Adams, who has always been better known to me as Jah Wobble's right hand man in Invaders of the Heart.

Aman Iman is remarkably catchy. Some chord changes seem straight from the Sheryl Crow songbook, but it manages to be profoundly accessible without sacrificing the band's power. They've achieved a universal groove which balances trance inducing moments with time honoured pop licks. Everyone I've played it for gets that involuntary neck bounce so characteristic of the sweetest hip hop.

Finally, there's the hair. That hair has star quality.

turn it up - assif tsahar/cooper-moore/chad taylor (hopscotch)
toumast - tinariwen (outside)
jalsat atabat - omar souleyman (sublime frequencies)
ghati nen el bal - rached kabbaj (barbarity)
sote sote adhi raat - salma agha/sapan-jagmohan (bombay connection)
happyfour twenty - christ (benbecula)
sans titre - les george leningrad (rythmo tropicale)
caterwaul - zavoloka vs. kotra (nexsound)
boom - pau torres (testing ground)
sakti/shiva - fred anderson/josh abrams (thrill jockey)
zig zag - colin fisher (ncra)
hot n' heavy - ethnic heritage ensemble (delmark)
akom 7 - follow follow (ombu)
stop to make a change - nostalgia 77 (ubiquity)
gb - tutty moreno (far out)
con la luz del la manana - sintesis (waxing deep)
electrocharge - dennis bovell (LKJ)
a rebel soul - aswad (island)
ire ire - keith hudson (pressure sounds)
natural mystic - jennifer lara (studio one)
behold - culture (virgin) nice bio...