World Fusion Archives - Renaissance Granddad

Archive by category "World Fusion"

Shahab Tolouie Master of the Fusetar born Jan 15, 1975!

So last year the FreeWheelin/ Music Safari discovered that on this date in 1975, a very talented world fusion guitarist, Shahab Tolouie was born! That’s him at the start of this post, he is pictured with a guitar of his creation an instrumentally speaking a very cool guitar. Well technically speaking, it is not a guitar it is a Fusetar (eng.“fusion”, “tar” – farsi. “strings” – fusion of strings). This three-necked instrument represents the culmination of his sound experiments in search of a mode of expression of his new musical concepts. The fusion of Setar, flamenco guitar, and fretless guitar Now the reason that this Iranian born musician created the Fusetar was to fuse the musical traditions of Iran and Spain by combining them into his own expression of Persian and Flamenco fusion. He has named the fusion of any ethnic music style with Spanish flamenco Ethnoflamenco. Here’s what Shahab says about music: Music is the common language and element that connects all people, nations and races together without borders. Musicians are citizens of the borderless world, and they create the best way of expression without fighting. These are the gifts that music brings to us all. Now if you have read this blog before you know that I am in total agreement with that sentiment!! After Shahab finished high school he left Iran and went to Seville Spain. While in Spain he completed the flamenco master course and attained the highest level of achievement “Nivel Alto” Returning to Iran Shahab…

“Into the Morning” with music from Hungary’s Söndörgö – “Jozo” from the album Tamburocket Hungarian Fireworks!

How about we go “into the morning” with the opening track “Jozo” from the album Tamburocket Hungarian Fireworks by the Hungarian band Söndörgö From their website: Söndörgő is one of the most active and interesting world music groups in Hungary. They play a style of music that is hugely attractive, but little known and quite different to the traditional, fiddle-led hungarian repertoire. Their aim is to foster and preserve Southern Slavic traditions of the Serbs and Croats as found in various settlements in Hungary. Most of these communities are situated along the Danube, but quite isolated from each other. The group was founded in 1995 in Szentendre a small Hungarian town near Budapest, with long-established Serbian tradition. The Eredics brothers got acquainted, and started to play music together with (bass player) Attila Buzás during their high-school years. Partly because of family reasons (Kálmán Eredics, the father of the Eredics brothers, was a founder member of the Vujicsics ensemble), all the group members are profoundly touched by, and drawn towards Southern Slav folk music. Söndörgő’s mission is to research it, arrange it and perform it on stage. The current members of the group are: Áron Eredics, Benjamin Eredics, Dávid Eredics, Salamon Eredics and Attila Buzás. Continue Reading Some press…. “Söndörgö are proving themselves to be one of Europe’s most versatile and exciting bands.” Simon Broughton, Songlines Magazine “Their music sparkles with virtuosity and foot-tapping joie de vivre” London Evening Standard I only listen to a little of the album the other…

The Safari finds Breather by Shlomi Cohen – a breathe of fresh world fusion!!

Yesterday, as I was reviewing the Jazz birthdays, I noticed one of the showcased albums on the sidebar. The album was Breather and the artist was Shlomi Cohen.Since the name sounded, and the album looked, interesting I thought I’d give it a listen. What I found was a very, very talented new musician. Who has been nominated for a Grammy as part of the nominated album “Frutero Moderno” by Gonzalo Grau & La Clave Secreta. He is also collaborates with Colombian Harpist Edmar Castaneda, bringing his incredible and unique form of music to the world. Shlomi is also a member of the horn section of the Bernie Worrell Orchestra (founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic). Now, where he finds time to record Breather, his debut solo album, I don’t know, but somehow these ultra-talented people always find a way don’t they! The music on Breather is fresh and original and is steeped in the sounds of the Middle East, and well it should be, because while Shomi now calls New York home, he was raised in Tel Aviv, with parents from Morocco and Yemen! From a review at Bop N Jazz: The great comedian Martin Mull once stated that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Shlomi Cohen is the epitome of why I rarely write the more traditional dry as dust technical analysis of a work. Music is from soul. The creative process and artistic integrity can not be accurately graded on a purely technical scale. Shlomi Cohen is as technically gifted…

The Safari visits Ethiopia and finds the Music of Mulatu Astatke – Sketches of Ethiopia

This afternoon the Music Safari took a little trip of the most populous landlocked country in the world Ethiopia. The reason for the trip was to explore the music of Mulatu Astatke. The genesis of the trip was a review of the World Music Charts – Europe – where his most recent release Sketches of Ethiopia was spotted at No 4! A trip to Wikipedia revealed that Mulatu is an Ethiopian musician and arranger best known as the father of Ethio-jazz. From Wikipedia: Born in the western Ethiopian city of Jimma, Mulatu was musically trained in London, New York City, and Boston where he combined his jazz and Latin music interests with traditional Ethiopian music. Astatke led his band while playing vibraphone and conga drums—instruments that he introduced into Ethiopian popular music—as well as other percussion instruments, keyboards and organ. His albums focus primarily on instrumental music, and Astatke appears on all three known albums of instrumentals that were released during Ethiopia’s Golden ’70s.[1] Astatke’s family sent the young Mulatu to study engineering in Wales during the late 1950s. Instead, he earned a degree in music through studies at the Welsh Lindisfarne Collegeand then Trinity College of Music in London. In the 1960s, Astatke moved to the United States, where he became the first African student to enroll at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he studied vibraphone and percussion. While living in the US, Astatke became interested in Latin jazz and recorded his first two albums, Afro-Latin Soul, Volumes 1 & 2, in New York City in 1966. The records prominently feature Astatke’s vibraphone, backed up by piano and conga drums playing Latin rhythms, and were entirely instrumental, with the exception of the song “I Faram Gami I Faram,” which was…

Today in Music – Dec 5, 1947 – Happy Birthday, Egberto Gismonti !!

Somewhere over the last several weeks I came across the name of Egberto Gismonti and even listened to his 1980 release Circense. From AllMusic guide…. This excellent release by Egberto Gismonti was conceived under the concept of a circus, an institution that has the ambivalent quality of being at the same time universal and regional; the “circense” tradition exists in almost all parts of the globe, but it is enriched by the smaller companies that keep struggling to survive in poorer setups, adding regional elements to the whole. It fits like a glove for the music of Gismonti, which also aims to enrich Brazilian musical tradition with elements of worldwide classical and popular acquisitions. More at MOG So I was familiar with the name when I saw it on the list of birthdays at All About Jazz and even though I had listened to his, well for me anyway “different” guitar music, I still did not know much about this Brazilian musician. So it was off to Wikipedia: Egberto Amin Gismonti (born December 5, 1947 in Carmo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)[1] is a Brazilian composer, guitaristand pianist Gismonti began his formal music studies at the age of six on piano. After studying classical music for 15 years, he went toParis to study orchestration and analysis with Nadia Boulanger and the composer Jean Barraqué, a disciple of Schoenbergand Webern. After his return to Brazil, Gismonti began to explore other musical genres. He was attracted by Ravel’s approach to orchestration and chord voicings, as well as by “choro”, a Brazilian instrumental popular music featuring various types of guitars. In order to play this music he…

2013 Jazz from Cuba’s Roberto Fonseca – Yo! (that resonates here in the Philly Area)

(Twin Sons of Different Mothers and times?) (tangentially speaking – about the headline the Yo – is usually followed by Adrian ….. here (ADD strikes again) Checking out the Roots Music Reports Jazz Chart this afternoon, I saw a name that interested me at number 12, right after the Duduka Da Fonseca Trio, was Roberto Fonseca and his latest album Yo. So the question before the house was who is this Roberto Fonseca and what does he play!! I download the album from Spotify and only got to listen to it on the way home. Now that is not a good thing because the trip home from work only last about four minutes (note that is one of the reasons that I have worked at the same job for the last 34 years!!) Anyway, the brief listen to the opening track “80s” was really all I needed to hear to know that I wanted to hear more from this artist! After work I listened to most of the album and while portions of it are not really my taste, I did enjoy the album, and who knows in another few months with the way that my taste is evolving, it may be right up my alley!! Anyway here’s some information about Roberto……. Roberto Fonseca (born 1975, Havana) is a Cuban jazz pianist. From an early age, Fonseca was surrounded by music: his father was a drummer, his mother, Mercedes Cortes Alfaro, a professional singer (she sings on…

2013 Jazz – The Music of Omar Sosa – Eggun: The Afri-Lectric Experience

So the other day MOG by way of their Just for You section introduced me to the music of Omar Sosa, and I’m glad they did!! Sosa is a Cuban born composer, bandleader, and jazz pianist. His newest band Afreecanos, combines Afro Pop, jazz, and a variety of European instruments. The band, which includes musicians from Africa, Cuba, Brazil, and France, released a CD in 2009 and went on a world tour in early 2010. The album that was recommended bby MOG was his latest release Eggun: The Afri-Lectric Experience. I gave it a quick listen and decided that I wanted to learn more about Omar and I took a trip to ALLMusic where I discovered: At the age of five, Sosa began studying music at the Escuela Provincial de Musica in Camaguey, which led to his intense study of drums and percussion at two other schools during the late ’70s/early ’80s: Cuba’s Escuela Nacional de Musica and Instituto Superior de Arte….. …. Sosa’s work with Cuban vocalist Vicente Feliú (1988’s Arteporética), the group XL Talla Extra with Cuban vocalistXiomara Laugart, the jazz fusion outfit Entrenoz, the Afro-Ecuadorian band Koral y Esmeralda, and playing keyboards in the band Koan Fussion. …. in the late ’90s, Sosa began issuing solo albums: the 1996 solo piano showcase Omar Omar, 1997’s ensemble-basedFree Roots, 1998’s Inside, 1999’s Spirit of Roots and Bembon, and 2000’s Prietos. In addition, Sosa has also produced recordings for Ricardo Williams, Leo Mass, and Vino y Miel. Two years later, Sosa issued the eccentric jazz album Sentir. It was later nominated for a Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album in fall 2002.Read More…

Yesterday in Music – Oct 20, 1957 – Happy Birthday – Anouar Brahem!

The second name on today’s list of jazz musician birthdays at All About Jazz was Anouar Brahem. The thing that caught my attention about Anouar was the instrument he was holding an Oud! Time out let;s first explore the Oud before finding out about Mr Brahem. From Wikipedia: The Oud is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in Arabic, Hebrew/Jewish, Greek, Turkish, Byzantine, North African (Chaabi, Classical, and Andalusian),Somali and Middle Eastern music. Construction of the oud is similar to that of the lute.[2] The modern oud and the European lute both descend from a common ancestor via diverging paths. The oud is readily distinguished by its lack offrets and smaller neck. It is considered an ancestor of the guitar.[3] According to Farabi, the oud was invented by Lamech, the sixth grandson ofAdam. The legend tells that the grieving Lamech hung the body of his dead son from a tree. The first oud was inspired by the shape of his son’s bleached skeleton.[7] The oldest pictorial record of a lute dates back to the Uruk period in SouthernMesopotamia (modern Nasiriyah city), over 5000 years ago on a cylinder seal acquired by Dr. Dominique Collon and currently housed at the British Museum.[8] The Turkic peoples had a similar instrument called the kopuz. This instrument was thought to have magical powers and was brought to wars and used in military bands. This is noted in the Göktürk monument inscriptions, the military band was later used by other Turkic state’s armies and later by Europeans.[9]According to musicologist Çinuçen Tanrıkorur today’s oud was derived from the kopuz by Turks near Central Asia and additional strings were added by them.[citation needed] A plectrum called a risha is used…

Musical Safari to Indonesia – simakDialog – The 6th Story

Yesterday as I was surfing around the Internet, I came across a review at Jazz Archives for a band named simak Dialog and their latest album The 6th Story. As I read the following, I thought wow! This band really fits this blog…a musical safari to the far reaches of Indonesia: More and more fusion fans around the world are beginning to realize that Indonesia has become a hotbed for fresh and original jazz fusion music. Along with the creativity and energy, there is also a lot of variety to the styles of these bands. Some Indonesian bands play in a style that could come from anywhere on the globe, while others tend to show more influence from their roots in Indonesian music and culture. With the release of their new CD, “The Sixth Story”, simak Dialog gladly shows that they are the band with the most roots culture as they mix gamelan rhythms and structure with a unique take on fusion to create one of the most original CDs to come out this year. Thanks to musical “borrowers” like Steve Reich and Robert Fripp, many people have a mistaken concept of what gamelan sounds like. There is nothing fake or borrowed on “6th Story”, this is the real gamelan; complicated, syncopated, earthy and not for amateurs to attempt. Read more The highlighted part of the above caught my attention for two reasons the first was “gamelan” rhythms and structures and the second was that one of the borrowers was Robert…