Funk / blues

Bad Girl by Lee Moses

Hindi Zahra - Imik Si Mik

Release date : June 20th, 2014
Get the album here: http://glitterbeat.com/glitterbeat_store/

Noura Mint Seymali, from Mauritania, comes from an ancient family of griots, and she has a commanding, wide-open voice…the pentatonic melodies of her songs had something in common with the blues. But her fusion was particular and selective…She only meets American music on her own terms.
+++New York Times, January 13th, 2014

She cleverly merges her powerful voice with the twangy guitar sound created by her husband…this Mauritanian music is an excellent example of roots rocketed into the 21st century.
+++Songlines, April/May 2014

TZENNI in Hassaniya means to circulate, to spin, to turn. It’s the name for a whirling dance performed to the music of Moorish griots, often under khaima tents thrown up for street gatherings in the sandy quartiers of Nouakchott and out across the wide deserts of Mauritania. Tzenni is an orbit, the movement of the earth around the sun, the daily progression of light and dark, lunar cycles, tides and winds. Tzenni, the dance, comes forth as the cyclical trajectory of a Moorish musical gathering builds to a fervorous pitch. It’s a word whose expansive valence reminds us how only the most basic reality can create such romantic metaphor.

Produced and recorded across an appropriately dizzying array of locations and social contexts (New York City, Dakar, Nouakchott) the album Tzenni is a contemporary articulation of Moorish griot music from Mauritania—an artform that has been evolving and gaining momentum for centuries—as voiced by Noura Mint Seymali, an artist profoundly steeped in its history and rigorously devoted to its global resonance.

Noura Mint Seymali comes from a long line of visionary musicians. Seymali Ould Ahmed Vall, her father, was a scholar-artist instrumental in opening Mauritanian music to the world; devising the first system for Moorish melodic notation, adapting music for the national anthem, and composing works popularized by his wife (Noura’s step-mother), the great Dimi Mint Abba. From her precocious beginnings as a teenaged backing vocalist with Dimi Mint Abba, Noura Mint Seymali now drives the legacy forward, re-calibrating Moorish music for our contemporary moment. Her band’s arrangements, rigor, and experimental spirit may be understood as a continuation of the tradition of Seymali, Dimi, her grandmother Mounina, and countless others.

Together with her husband, heroic guitarist Jeiche Ould Chighaly, who brings the force of yet another powerful branch of Moorish musical lineage, the band on this recording was conceived as a distillation of essential elements, the “azawan” and the backbeat. The ardine & tidinit (or guitar) together are the “azawan,” the leading ensemble of Moorish traditional music, while bass & drums, played here by Ousmane Touré and Matthew Tinari, fortify it with genre transcendent funk and a basic pop urgency. Tzenni re-visits several classics of the Moorish repertoire, but does so within a novel formation, conversant in the pop idiom, and with Noura Mint Seymali’s personal history interwoven throughout. The practice of aligning music to a given socio-historical and personal moment is an essential charge of the iggawen, or griot, and, we believe, of artists everywhere.

As we seek to convey another turn in the Mauritanian musical dialectic, Tzenni is ultimately an album about shape shifting, faith, and stability found through instability. It’s about taking the positive with the negative in a world that can only ever keep turning at break neck speed. We invite you to spin with us, to dance with us, through the music on this recording!

--Matthew Tinari: producer/drummer for Noura Mint Seymali

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Noura Mint Seymali - Tzenni

First single from the upcoming album 'Night Moves' out in january on Vietnam / Because Music.
Produced by Rob Schnapf
Mastered by Greg Calbi
all rights (c) Vietnam / Because Editions


NOWHERE TO BE

Noir Desir & Jeanne Moreau - Les Petits Papiers

Ibrahim Hesnawi crafts restless grooves with evident buttressing from a reggae foundation. Highlighted across the LP is how Hesnawi essentially pioneered such an effortless synthesis between traditional Libyan music and Jamaican reggae stylings, plus the endlessly disparate funk, jazz, and disco accents which firmly situate Hesnawi in a league of his own. 

In many countries, reggae was a widespread fad before its popularity gradually subsided. In Libya, however, the genre remained popular since its initial introduction in the late 1970s. Reggae’s thematic throughlines like references to Pan-Africanism, liberation, and the end of oppression and exploitation resonated—and continues to resonate—forcefully amongst a Libyan audience. To this day, you will find countless bands playing variations of the genre as are there Facebook groups with predominantly Libyan members sharing old and new reggae tracks with ten-thousands of members. And no matter who you ask, chances are high that the genre’s popularity in Libya will be largely attributed to one man: Ibrahim Hesnawi. 

Born and raised in Tripolis, the capital of Libya, Hesnawi initially was not interested in music, however he credits Bob Marley as foundational to changing his life after having listened to his music in a electronics shop a friend of his was working at. 

Reggae is instantly recognizable from the counterpoint between the bass and drum downbeat and the offbeat rhythm section. This very particular rhythm is part of the story of why the genre became so popular in Libya as Hesnawi explains: 

"The Libyans are inclined to Reggae for a reason, I think due to our traditional musical rhythm known as Darbuka “Libyan Drum” or Kaska, its rhythm is very similar to the one of Reggae therefore the society got closer to this music and the the nation loved the reggae style and embraced it“ 

There is a handful songs Ibrahim Hesnawi sings in English but the 95% of his output is sung in Libyan Arabic. A conscious choice as this is not only the language that came natural to him but also it allowed him to convey the message of his songs that is so close to his heart in the best way to the young generations of Libya listening to his music. 

The album was licensed from Ibrahim Hesnawi. We pay 50% of the profits of this release. Only project related costs are deductible from the gross income, research and travel costs come out of our own share. Publishing rights were not included in our agreement.

The Father of Libyan Reggae

Habibi Funk 024: Ibrahim Hesnawi - Never Understand

❤  FREE DOWNLOAD → http://j.mp/WildSide_freedownload

LYRICS / PAROLES

Holly came from Miami F L A
Hitchhiked her way across the U S A
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She says "Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side,"
Said "Hey honey, take a walk on the wild side."

Candy came from out on the Island
In the backroom she was everybody's darling
But she never lost her head
Even when she was giving head
She says "Hey baby, take a walk on the wild side"
She said "Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"
And the colored girls go

Do da do da do da do do do
Do da do da do da do do do
Do da do da do da do do do
Do da do da do da do do do
Do da do da do da do do do
Do da do da do da do do do
Do da do da do da do do do
Doo

Little Joe never once gave it away
Everybody had to pay and pay
A hustle here and a hustle there
New York City is the place where they said
"Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"
I said "Hey Joe, take a walk on the wild side"

Sugar Plum Fairy came and hit the streets
Looking for soul food and a place to eat
Went to the Apollo
You should have seen him go go go
They said "Hey sugar, take a walk on the wild side"
I said "Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"

Alright
Huh

Jackie is just speeding away
Thought she was James Dean for a day
Then I guess she had to crash
Valium would have helped that dash
She said "Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"
I said "Hey honey, take a walk on the wild side"
And the coloured girls say

Do da do da do da do do do
Do da do da do da do do do
Do da do da do da do do do
Do da do da do da do do do
Do da do da do da do do do
Do da do da do da do do do
Do da do da do da do do do
Doo


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Lou Reed — Take A Walk On The Wild Side (Isaac Delusion Cover)

Titi Winterstein Quintett - Milko

Country is a vibe. That vibe is everywhere.

Boots in Brooklyn

Écrit par Jacques Lanzmann et Anne Ségalen pour Jacques Dutronc

(p) & (c) Hollydays 2015


Il est Cinq Heures, Paris s'éveille (Jacques Dutronc Cover)

Sodade - Cesaria Evora & Bonga & Foxy Miller

The New Album 'Face Your Fear' is out now via ANTI- Records. http://curtisharding.com

Rachid Taha - Minouche

Muhammad Hamid

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