HK's 10 Best CD's of 1999 East Bay Express The editor here at The Express insists on listing my top ten records in alphabetical order. But why not read this list in reverse order instead? My favorite discs are towards the end of the list here; I wouldn't want you to miss them. If I were to say one thing about World Music in 1999, I'd say that it was a great year for releases from Mali. Musical artists there have turned away from the culturally destructive influences of the "evil French Disco-Overlords" and are creating truly original music that reflects their own Malian roots. More freshness, surprises and creativity coming from Mali than anywhere else in Africa at the moment, I think. More about this below. BRUCE ANDERSON & DALE SOPHIEA: Strict (Quadruped - Family Vineyard) Appropriated contemporary classical music samples from Morton Feldman, Claudio Monteverdi, Hugo Distler, Jeanne Desselieux, and Frances Poulenc act as beds and transitions in the narrative flow of this modern oratorio for rock instrumentation. This is out on the edge of both what is expected and what is allowed. Anderson's darkly meditative and thoughtfully screaming guitar has never sounded more at home. These veterans of the band MX-80 have evolved into something that there is no name for yet.
DEREK BAILEY & HAN BENNINCK: Air Mail Special / When We're Smilin' (Incus) The prototypical improvisors: English guitarist and Dutch drum-maniac. Not playing together, in-the-tradition, in a room, but duetting via airmail and overdubbing. Each one sent the other a tape of themselves practicing and then they recorded themselves playing (and speaking!) along with each other. Beyond playing with their instruments, the two manage to play with their history, relationships, reality contexts, and home environments. This is a new and successful experiment in creating music together by two masters of the unexpected. If you only bought one CD, then I would suggest Air Mail Special as being the more interesting of these two fascinating documents.
HABIB KOITE & BAMADA: Muso Ko (Alula) Best East Bay concert of the year? For me it was the Malian singer-songwriter-guitarist Habib Koite at Yoshi's. Koite has developed a unique guitar style that is quite dissimilar from his colleagues in the Mali music scene and he's also a terrific songwriter with one of the best bands in Africa. In a way, he might be thought of as the Richard Thompson of Mali, in terms of originality, eclecticism that is still rooted in tradition. He's recorded 2 CDs and the best is 1997's Muso Ko, just released for the first time in the USA this year. His new release, Ma Ya (Putumayo), is a bit more considered for the European market and is a lot more lite weight than Muso Ko or his performance at Yoshi's. Many other CDs from Mali have also been worthy of note this year. Ali Farka Toure came up with his best album since Radio Mali with Niafunke (World Circuit), however he was totally blown away by his sidekick of many years Afel Bocoum with Alkibar (World Circuit). Both albums were recorded by the same production team that created the Buena Vista Social Club CD: Nick Gold and Jerry Boys. Boucom's CD is true country roots music of Mali recorded with stunning beauty at Niafunke the riverside hometown of the musicians. This music is so warm and eloquent in its evocation of everyday life of the region. One final CD from Mali to mention is Isa Bagayogo's Sya (Cobalt-Melodie). Bagayogo is a kamele n'goni player and singer, also from a small village. Here he is teamed with a Mali-based, French techno producer and the results are surprisingly great. The techno production techniques and drum machine operate completely in service to the Malian traditional rhythms and roots tradition rather than being destructive to the music, they add to the tradition and create something that is new and truly Malian at the same time. No wonder that in March Bagayogo was named Mali's brightest new hope for Malian song by Mali TV and radio. They call him Techno Issa.
KOUYATE SORY KANDIA: Grand Prix du Disque 1970 (Syllart-Melodie) Tour d'Afique de la Chanson Back in the early '70s, whenever I visited New York City, I would make the trek to the African Record Center in Harlem and pick up LPs directly imported from Africa that could be found nowhere else in the USA. In those days Guinee was developing its own unique mixture of Afro-Cuban rhumba mixed with their own local traditions. For me the music of those days is still the most adventure some and musical exuberant of African pop musics. Unfortunately it's been so rare and obscure that just about nobody around here besides myself has ever seen or heard of those old LPs. Finally they are being reissued on a large scale by the French Melodie label. I don't know much about the late Kouyate Sory Kandia besides the fact that his tremendous, operatic voice could fill the big stadium in Conkary, Guinee without any PA reinforcement. This 1970 release of his is, perhaps my favorite modern African pop release. Acoustic and electric bands provide swinging back-up to his giant voice. No drum machines, no synths - just real musicians playing inspired music. More of the most astoundingly beautiful and consistently amazing African pop music that I have ever heard is featured on other Syliphone compilation reissues such as Discotheque 70, Discotheque 71, Discotheque 72, and Guinee: 40th Anniversary of Syliphone Volume 1 & 2. Here you will find bands like: Bembeya Jazz National, Keletigui et ses Tambourinis, Balla et ses Balladins, and the Horoya Band. I don't know how long you will be able to find these fairly obscure CDs in the local shops. Probably not for long... You'd better pick them up now while you have the chance. This is as good as it gets.
WAYNE KRANTZ: Greenwich Mean (waynekrantz.com). Seeing the trio on this recording a couple of months ago at Yoshi's was one of the big musical revelations of 1999 for me. I went to the show expecting to see some NYC jazz fusion guitar in a pretty conventional context. Instead I heard a wildly unconventional band that constantly went out there, truly improvising and searching for new musical spaces with every song. And rather than the expected vocabulary and syntax of fusion guitar, Krantz seemed to be in some unexplored guitar territory that mixes funk with Bill Evans,The Meters, George Van Eps and Beefheart and space jamming.They sound as original and unique to me as Bill Frisell's original quartet sounded in its early days. This self-released CD, available only direct from the artist via the internet at www.waynekrantz.com, documents the band in its weekly gig at the 55 Bar in NYC. Rather than songs, it consists of fragments of jams that represent the bands' favorite moments of surfing the musical unknown. While it's not quite as exciting as personal attendance at the amazing show at Yoshi's, it gives one an idea of where these guys are coming from and where they could go. Tied with this release as my favorite guitar record of 1999 is: Nels Cline & Greg Bendian: Interstellar Space (Atavistic). A raging drum and guitar recreation/expansion of John Coltrane and Rashied Ali's classic duet recording. It's certainly Nels' best work on CD.
DAVID LINDLEY & EL RAYO-X: El Rayo-X Live (www.davidlindley.com) Here's another CD that is. practically speaking, available only over the internet. It consists of 1986 recordings of David Lindley's El Rayo-X band recorded live on cassette at various venues. The lack of recording quality is more than made up for by the superb tightness and monster groove of the band.Reggae, rock, surf music, zydeco, blues, and soul swirl together into a uniquely blended fusion that no ensemble before or since has so successfully accomplished.
TERRY RILEY: The Book of Abbeyozzud (New Albion) David Tannenebaum is the principle performer here for this group of classical guitar pieces, solo and ensemble, by composer Terry Riley. This seems to be the golden age for Riley, his many new compositions are some of the most exciting music of his career. This is great writing for guitar and all my favorite adjectives apply: unique, eclectic, surprising and full of wonder.
JODY STECHER: Oh the Wind and Rain (Appleseed) On this collection of American and English folk ballads Stecher demonstrates his enormous and expressive control of expression in tiny details. This is the richest folk recording that I have heard in a long time. Truly entertaining and inspiring at the same time. Rampant eclecticism and traditionalism happily coexisting, it's like nothing else in any year. A moment ago I mistyped "recoding" instead of "recording"... I think my fingers must have known what they were doing for Jody seems to be re-coding these ballads as well as recording them. Encrypting new shades of meaning that he has found within himself and his own life experiences that suddenly become part of the tradition in front of your ears. It's really a musical magic trick to hear his oud and mandolin version of the title track, informed by its own roots, as well as the Hindustani tradition of classical music that Stecher has studied for so many years; it's unconventionally new and traditionally right at the same time.
VARIOUS ARTISTS: The Raga Guide (Nimbus) Here's a 196 page book with 4 CDs that provides a survey of the Hindustani raga tradition. Raga examples are performed on the CDs by 4 of the top artists of India and their performances are explained and annotated in the book. While it's a little deep swimming for the uninitiated, this package provides about the only simple access to better understanding for someone who already knows just a little bit about North Indian classical music.This is the only book/recordings available that serves this purpose and it's long overdue.. Some background information is also provided on the history and development of raga. So if you have and enjoy listening to more than 5 or 6 CDs of Indian music - then I would say it's worth checking out. There were many fine releases of Indian music this year. I'd like to point out that the India Archive and Navras labels have produced some of the most exciting recordings from artists such as Vilayat Khan, Shujaat Khan, Buddhadev DasGupta, Hariprasad Chaurasia and Shivkumar Sharma. You might want to go to the local specialty shop to get specific recommendations on what to buy if you are interested in learning more about this deeply enjoyable musical tradition. I suggest that the most convenient and economical place to purchase the above and virtually all other current releases of Indian music is at Shrimati's Ltd., 2011 University Ave., Berkeley, telephone: 548-6220.
VARIOUS ARTISTS: Sahrauis (Intuition) Here is my favorite release of the year. And also the biggest surprise and revelation to me when I actually popped the first of its 3 CDs into my CD player. I was expecting typical Arab-Islamic music for voice and drums from the obscure country of Western Sahara. I did not expect the articulate electric guitars that also screamed with feedback, nor the delicate and complex acoustic and blues-inflected acoustic guitar playing that's as varied and rich as anything from Mali - yet different. Nor did I expect supremely passionate vocals as intense as the most startling flamenco singing. But that's what I heard on all 3 discs from these little-known people. Since the occupation of the state of Western Sahara in 1975, most of the Sahraoui people live in in Algerian territory where they preserve their completely different culture. And this is totally reflected in the music. It's not like anything else. It's the combination of the raw and powerful traditional vocals and the modern, creative guitar playing that is especially striking here, Those elements combine together with powerful Arabic rhythms and drumming into some that is simultaneously ancient and modern at the same time. The only way to really know or hear this music is to buy this package, which is accompanied by an excellent 123 page booklet.
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