World Music Resources

March Issue features Devonian folk singer Seth Lakeman who talks about his Mayflower-inspired new project. We also feature Japan’s premier taiko-drumming group, Kodo, prior to their return to the UK. Other features include a piece on music’s role in keeping indigenous languages alive; an interview with the Sámi singer Marja Mortensson; a Beginner’s Guide to the Cuban composer, bandleader and pianist Omar Sosa, plus all the latest news, event listings and CD, book and world cinema reviews. As well as streaming excerpts from the Top of the World album, digital edition subscribers can download all 15 tracks which this issue includes Sam Lee, Yorkston/Thorne/Khan, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and Michael Cleveland, plus an exclusive playlist by Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi, featuring music by Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, Rokia Traoré, Taraf de Haidouks and others.

According To Songlines World Music Magazine

Friday, April 3, 2020, 10:30pm

Walk Together Children

Monday, March 30, 2020, 12:30pm

Years ago, while a voice student at San Francisco State University, I fell in love with spirituals and included at least two in all of my required recitals. And, whenever my wallet would allow, I'd trek off to one of several used bookstores and spend hours flipping through old groupings of dusty sheet music in pursuit of unearthing a used collection of operatic arias for baritone with the hope of unearthing a collection of spirituals too. On one such expedition I stumbled upon a first edition paperback copy of "Walk Together Children". I paid the full price of $2.95 cents.

As I turned the pages, I...

World Music: A Global Journey

Monday, March 23, 2020, 12:30pm

by Terry E.Mille and Andrew Shahriari, Routledge, 2016

This book offers readers both listening guides and resources for instructors, and students with interest world music. I celebrate it for its humanistic embrace of people, and their approach to music-making. In all, this is a solid text to consider as an addition to your world music library.

World Music: A Global Journey, Fourth Edition takes students around the world to experience the diversity of musical expression and cultural traditions. It is known for its breadth in surveying the world's major cultures in a systematic study of world music within a strong pedagogical framework....

The Oxford American - A Magazine Of The South

Friday, March 8, 2019, 12:30pm

The Oxford American Magazine offers insights on a host of important literary and cultural topics to which I find edifying, educational and entertaining. Their recent publication the "Southern Music Issue" with a CD of music featuring Nina Simone, my mother's favorite singer, is one I'm looking forward to airing later this this March for Women's Heritage Month. Moving forward the Oxford is going to be a valuable resource to TRTHG largely because of its diverse, cultural, and artistic inclusion. Obviously, my concentration is on music and yet I'm intrigued by the publication's dedication to what I call "good community" in...

Cuba and Its Music

Friday, March 8, 2019, 12:30pm

Ned Sublette's book is by no means, a 'quick' read. It is not written from a scholars point of view. However, it is indeed scholarly, and experientially - voiced through the lens of a practitioner. Before traveling to Cuba, read this book.

"This entertaining history of Cuba and its music begins with the collision of Spain and Africa and continues through the era of Miguelito Valdés, Arsenio Rodríguez, Benny Moré, and Pérez Prado. It offers a behind-the-scenes examination of music from a Cuban point of view, unearthing surprising, provocative connections and making the case that Cuba was fundamental to the evolution of...

Learning How To Play West African Guitar Styles

Thursday, March 7, 2019, 12:30pm

Want to learn how to play West African guitar style? To be sure, there are many online courses to consider. Among them is one lead by West African guitarist Zoumana Diarra. I'm attracted to his story because of the important role Griots play in the lifeblood of African culture, storytelling and of course, music making.

Diarra is also and educator born in Mali in a family of Griots: West African praise singers, musicians, poets and storytellers. He has been making music since the age of four, when he manufactured his own guitar from an empty can and fishing thread. Diarra's...

Songs Of Our Native Daughters - New 2019 Release

Thursday, March 7, 2019, 12:30pm

I am delighted to partner with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings with the airing of some of their most diverse, informative, and celebrated releases over the last handful of years. This spring tune-in, hear, and enjoy them as each will be blended with other world music works from "lands near and far". What's more, I predict that this recording will be come a valuable resource for future study related to womanist music making.

Among the recordings I'll share is, "Songs Of Our Native Daughters", Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 2019. I am particularly honored to air this album as a womanist tribute to Women's...

Hispanic Folk Music - Self-Portrait of a People

Friday, August 3, 2018, 12:30pm

First published in 1980 and now available only from the University of New Mexico Press, this classic compilation of New Mexico folk music is based on thirty-five years of field research by a giant of modern music. Composer John Donald Robb, a passionate aficionado of the traditions of his adopted state, traveled New Mexico recording and transcribing music from the time he arrived in the Southwest in 1941. -University of New Mexico Press

This publication is large in size, richly investigated on the topic of Hispanic folk music and, a tribute to musical contributions of Mexican Americans and those who...

Cambridge History of World Music

Tuesday, April 17, 2018, 12:30pm

This is a welcomed addition to my library of world music resources and finally in paperback! At this post , I'm just beginning to turn the first pages and really thrilled to read the text's connection with humanity's sacred, cultural, and ethnic expressions. This is a rich read that hints early one as a source I'll lean on with enthusiasm. Here is the introduction to the book: "Scholars have long known that world music was not merely the globalized product of modern media, but rather that it connected religions, cultures, languages and nations throughout world history. The chapters in this...

The Rough Guide Phrasebooks

Friday, February 16, 2018, 11:30am

The Rough Guides series of full-color dictionary phrasebooks are unrivaled, featuring over 5,000 words and phrases and free mp3 downloads of common travel dialogue scenarios. Each dictionary phrasebook includes an extensive two-way dictionary, a food and drink menu guide, and free audio downloads so you can perfect your pronunciation. Depending on the country and language, a copy generally finds its way into my backpack - a solid reliable source for my travel (certainly other publications exists as well). I also download a dozen or so key phrases and place them in my "Notes" on my iphone. --Jonathan...

Jean Jenkins Unsung Ethnomusicologist & Collector of World Music Instruments

Friday, September 1, 2017, 12:30pm

I discovered the musical world and work of Ethnomusicologist Jean Jenkins during my first visit to Edinburgh, Scotland in 2016. I traveled to there to review solo artists and musical ensembles from around the world performing at the Festival Fringe.

By chance I visited the National Museum of Scotland set in Edinburgh where upon entry, I was treated to music being rendered in the museum's grand gallery as a part of its annual young Scottish musicians showcase called "Live Music Now Scotland". I strolled around the museum and discovered to my amazement Jenkins' broad collection of musical instruments gathered...

Sufi Singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Thursday, July 20, 2017, 11:30am

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, affectionately known as “the brightest star”, was a legendary Punjabi musician from Pakistan. Ali Khan was primarily a singer of devotional music called qawwali, the well-known vocalized form of sacred musical expression of the Sufis, equally edified in Pakistan and India. The Sufis, practitioners of this tradition, sustain and celebrate the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. Ali Khan, remembered as one of the greatest singers of qawwali sacred music, took a unique approach to rendering this ancient genre by reframing qawwali with a distinctively contemporary flavor. Intentionally, he experimented with a number of musically diverse musicians...

Early Legacy Of The Banjo

Friday, April 21, 2017, 11:30am

Early enslaved African Americans existing in the South and Appalachia crafted banjos after instruments they had generously employed in their original homeland - Africa. Some students of music history call the earliest banjos "gourd banjos". Examples include the akonting - a spike folk lute of the Senegambia Jola tribe and, the similarly sculptured xalam of Senegal which reportedly dates back to ancient Egypt.

The more contemporary banjo (shown here) was perhaps best popularized by minstrels such as Joel Sweeney in the early 1800's. It is reported that Sweeney, who routined performed in "blackface", learned his craft from lessons gleaned from slaves whose...

ARC Music - Super Source for World, Folk & Roots Music

Friday, April 21, 2017, 11:30am

ARC Music is a invaluable resource for Higher Ground. I'm pleased by the label's affinity for so many genres of music edifying to diverse music traditions from around the globe. ARC is a good source to consider when building your world music library.

“Those familiar with some of the staggering array of world music produced by ARC Music, the oldest such label… will be aware that they not only introduce the listener to fine traditional music but also to tradition as a template for the production of music that is new and creatively substantial. By eschewing the ephemerally trendy in...

The Story Of Indian Music

Wednesday, April 19, 2017, 11:30am

O. Gosvami's book "The Story Of India Music" is a well-written text perhaps best suited for college students or a reader who has more than just a passing interest in Indian Music. I'm just beginning to read it after skimming over the entire work. Because the book discusses Indian music indepth, social conditions, psychological aspects of music and the author's interpretations, I'm reading it slowly - three or four pages at a time in order to ingest and process his discoveries and claims. It is quite comprehensive and a solid choice for those curious about the history and development of Indian culture as well. ...

Gimbri - A Moroccan Guitar Like No Other

Friday, October 9, 2015, 11:30am

The gimbri, a three stringed rectangular lute-like instrument from Morocco is commonly is used by Gnawan musicians readily attached to a repertoire of rich and ancient African Islamic spiritual songs and rhythms used in prayer and healing. Learn more by visiting The Odyssey Series on the Hg page.

Krakebs - Critically Important to Gnawan Music

Friday, September 18, 2015, 11:30am

Krakebs are large heavy metal percussive castanets that serve as the all important rhythmic underpinning to Morocco's and Algeria's Gnawa music. And though they are considered to be a hypnotic instrument, practitioners of the Gnawa music as a healing tool, are oftened engulfed in a trance-like state. Passsing listeners might find them exciting and a cause for energetic dancing. After multiple visits to Morocco, I purchased a pair and readily discovered that they require more physical energy to negotiate than I first thought. Their sound is fuller, deeper and quite different from most castanets used around the world. It's nice...

Instruments of Cuba Series No. 2 - Bongos

Thursday, February 26, 2015, 11:30am

Bongos (Spanish: bongó) are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed drums of different sizes. In Spanish the larger drum is called the hembra (female ) and the smaller the macho (male). They are membranophones, or instruments that create sound by a vibration of a stretched membrane. Most sources on Afro-Cuban cultural history argue that the bongo derives from Central African (Congo/Bantu) drum models, noticeable in the open bottoms.

Additionally, a Santería influence from Yoruba culture in the symbolic "twin" drum is assumed. The strong historical presence of Africans from the Congo/Angola region in Eastern...

Instruments of Cuba Series No. 1 - Chekeré

Wednesday, February 4, 2015, 11:30am

The Chekere is an instrument hailing from West Africa and consists of a dried gourd with beads woven into a net covering the gourd's surface. Throughout the continent there are similar gourd/bead or gourd/seed percussion instruments. This particulary instrument is used both within folkloric traditions and popular music styles. In performance it is shaken and/or hit against the hands.

In Cuba the chekeré (always spelled thus) is also known as aggué (abwe) or guiro (a word that means 'gourd', though not to be confused with a different percussive instrument, more specifically known as a guiro worldwide and "raked" with a...

The Marimbula

Thursday, November 6, 2014, 11:30am

While traveling just a few years ago in the Caribbean, I landed on the island of Curaçao in the southern Caribbean Sea. The island is just off the Venezuelan coast - a part of the Dutch Caribbean region.

When and wherever I travel, my first thoughts upon landing usually zero in on finding out where I can hear and purchase music that represents the area. In this case, what I learned about and heard, came from street musicians. And, to my delight I discovered not only music I had never encountered before, but a new box-like instrument the locals call a marimbula.

When I first heard its low and melodious sound...

The Tabla

Thursday, November 6, 2014, 11:30am

Rarely do I travel abroad without returning home to Wisconsin with a percussion instrument unique to the land I visited. My collection includes several from East and West Africa, Cuba, Peru, and Morocco. Getting some of them through Customs has been an adventure in and of itself. And though I don't necessarily play them all or well for that matter, I do stare at them often as they grace my study - dust free.

My mother, a school teacher in Milwaukee, had a tabla in her livingroom for decades. I begged her to let me have it from the day...

2000 Year Old Chinese Pipa

Friday, October 17, 2014, 10:00am

The traditional Chinese Pipa is a four-stringed lute with up to 30 frets and a pear-shaped body. The instrumentalist holds the pipa upright and play with small plectra attached to each finger of the right hand.

The history of the instrument dates back at least 2000 years and developed from a pentatonic scale to full scales. The instrument has an extremely wide dynamic range and remarkable expressive power.

References:

Sound The Cymbals

Tuesday, June 3, 2014, 2:45pm

Cymbals are as common in classical music as they are at home in rock, jazz, R&B, Latin, Balkan gypsy and, just about every other form of music on the planet.

Cymbals are common members of the concussion family where pairs of similar objects are clashed together to make sound. Imagine their absence in the lives of jazz drummers like Buddy Rich, Arthur Taylor, Jack DeJohnette, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Roy Haynes and Gene Krupa.

German composer Nicolaus Strungk is believe to be the first to use them in an opera in 1680. Composers including Mozart, Haydn, Berlioz employed them as...

The Kora

Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 4:00pm

A kora or African lute is constructed from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin. This ancient instrument is fitted with a bridge like a lute or guitar. The sound of a kora resembles that of a harp characteristics of flamenco and delta blues guitar techniques. The play the kora, the performer uses only the thumb and index finger of both hands to pluck the strings. The remaining fingers depress the strings to create different pitches and to secure the instrument.

Most koras have 21 strings, eleven played by the left hand and ten by the...

The Gamelan

Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 12:00pm

Gamelan music is the most popular and important style in Indonesia. Gamelan orchestras accompany all dances and dramas. Gamel means "to hammer," and most of the instruments of a gamelan orchestra are struck with wooden mallets, padded sticks or hammers.The conductor of a gamelan orchestra is a drummer who is part of the orchestra.

A complete orchestra could have about 40 or more different instruments. There would be instruments that are struck to produce sound, such as kettledrums, xylophones, and gongs of various sizes. There would be a wind instrument, a such as a zither or lute. There would be...

The Mbira

Tuesday, January 14, 2014, 9:45am

The Mbira or African thumb piano (other identifying names include: kalimba - contemporary term; the most popular term is either sansa, or mbira) is a percussive instrument originating from Africa. The instrument, also used in Cuban music, is generally held with both hands and played with the thumbs. The physical features of the instrument include a wooden sound box, attached on the face are flexible metal or bamboo keys (also called tines or reeds) of varied lengths which give each specific pitch. Performers pluck or stroke the keys with the thumbs. The sound is quite pastoral and reflective of region traditions and...

The Djembe

Monday, January 13, 2014, 11:15am

The Djembe is a cup-shaped wooden drum covered by a membrane or drumhead made of goat skin. The Djembe (or jembe) originates from West Africa, where it is used, not just for listening, but for dancing. Dances done to djembe drumming include celebratory communal events such as marriage, (a right of passage) coming into adulthood or joy in an abundant harvest. Djembe musical patterns are generally represented by three percussive tones, although more are possible. Some djembes are shaped like a drinking goblet. The instrument is played by striking the drumhead with open hands. By depressing the attached ropes which...

The Cajón

Wednesday, January 8, 2014, 3:45pm

The Cajón is a percussion instrument originating from the African framed folkloric tradition of Peru, readily found throughout the country and most prominently in both Chincha and El Carmen where a significant population of Afro Peruvians reside.

The instrument is of magnificently simplistic construction. Essentially, it is wooden box with a circular hole in the middle of one of the vertical panels. It is negotiated as one would a congo drum by rhythmically slapping its thin front surface at various angles and heights while the player sits on its top. The front face is only partially fixed to the body...

The N'goni

Monday, January 6, 2014, 11:00am

The N'goni is the Bambara name for this ancient traditional lute-like instrument found throughout West Africa. It is typically a small instrument with a big sound and an even a bigger place in the history of West African music.

The body of the ngoni is a hollowed-out, canoe-shaped piece of wood with dried animal skin stretched over it like a drum. The neck is a fretless length of doweling that is inserted into the body. Unlike the kora, whose neck goes totally through its calabash resonator, the dowling of the ngoni stops short of coming out the base of...

Pages

New World Records

Friday, May 22, 2020, 10:30pm

March Issue features Devonian folk singer Seth Lakeman who talks about his Mayflower -inspired new project. We also feature Japan’s premier taiko-drumming group, Kodo, prior to their return to the UK. Other features include a piece on music’s role in keeping indigenous languages alive; an interview with the Sámi singer Marja Mortensson; a Beginner’s Guide to the Cuban composer, bandleader and pianist Omar Sosa, plus all the latest news, event listings and CD, book and world cinema reviews. As well as streaming excerpts from the Top of the World album, digital edition subscribers can download all 15 tracks which this issue includes Sam Lee, Yorkston/Thorne/Khan, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and Michael Cleveland, plus an exclusive playlist by Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi, featuring music by Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, Rokia Traoré, Taraf de Haidouks and others.

According To Songlines World Music Magazine

Friday, April 3, 2020, 10:30pm

Walk Together Children

Monday, March 30, 2020, 12:30pm

World Music: A Global Journey

Monday, March 23, 2020, 12:30pm

by Terry E.Mille and Andrew Shahriari, Routledge, 2016 This book offers readers both listening guides and resources for instructors, and students with interest world music. I celebrate it for its humanistic embrace of people, and their approach to music-making. In all, this is a solid text to...

Cuba and Its Music

Friday, March 8, 2019, 12:30pm

The Oxford American - A Magazine Of The South

Friday, March 8, 2019, 12:30pm

Songs Of Our Native Daughters - New 2019 Release

Thursday, March 7, 2019, 12:30pm

Learning How To Play West African Guitar Styles

Thursday, March 7, 2019, 12:30pm

Want to learn how to play West African guitar style? To be sure, there are many online courses to consider. Among them is one lead by West African guitarist Zoumana Diarra. I'm attracted to his story because of the important role Griots play in the lifeblood of African culture, storytelling and of...

Hispanic Folk Music - Self-Portrait of a People

Friday, August 3, 2018, 12:30pm

Cambridge History of World Music

Tuesday, April 17, 2018, 12:30pm

The Rough Guide Phrasebooks

Friday, February 16, 2018, 11:30am

Jean Jenkins Unsung Ethnomusicologist & Collector of World Music Instruments

Friday, September 1, 2017, 12:30pm

Sufi Singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Thursday, July 20, 2017, 11:30am

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, affectionately known as “the brightest star”, was a legendary Punjabi musician from Pakistan. Ali Khan was primarily a singer of devotional music called qawwali , the well-known vocalized form of sacred musical expression of the Sufis, equally edified in Pakistan and India...

ARC Music - Super Source for World, Folk & Roots Music

Friday, April 21, 2017, 11:30am

Early Legacy Of The Banjo

Friday, April 21, 2017, 11:30am

The Story Of Indian Music

Wednesday, April 19, 2017, 11:30am

O. Gosvami's book "The Story Of India Music" is a well-written text perhaps best suited for college students or a reader who has more than just a passing interest in Indian Music. I'm just beginning to read it after skimming over the entire work. Because the book discusses Indian music indepth,...

Gimbri - A Moroccan Guitar Like No Other

Friday, October 9, 2015, 11:30am

Krakebs - Critically Important to Gnawan Music

Friday, September 18, 2015, 11:30am

Instruments of Cuba Series No. 2 - Bongos

Thursday, February 26, 2015, 11:30am

Bongos (Spanish: bong ó ) are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed drums of different sizes. In Spanish the larger drum is called the hembra (female ) and the smaller the macho (male). They are membranophones, or instruments that create sound by a...

Instruments of Cuba Series No. 1 - Chekeré

Wednesday, February 4, 2015, 11:30am

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World Music Resources

by Terry E.Mille and Andrew Shahriari, Routledge, 2016

References:

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