Saturday, November 26, 2005

Playlist 26 November 2005

Here is the playlist for November 26 2005

Paolo Modugno-cd La Bala et La Mouche- Track Tammuriatta

Abida Parveena- cd Visal- Track Tati ro rowat nihara
(the new voice of qawali. Exploring love songs from India & Pakistan. One reviewer was quoted as saying "Even if she was reading out a shopping list, her voice would move you to tears"

Salif Keita- cd Moffou- Tracks Souvent / Madan

Various Artists- Congotronics Vol 2- CD Buzz'N'Rumble From the Urb'N'Jungle
(listeners to the show will have heard me play Konono No1 a fair bit over the months. This is a follow up to the first volume and this time on this recording seven bands from around Kinshasa are featured exploring new directions in sound for electrified thumb pianos, resonators and distorted sound systems. Plus you get a 41 minute DVD as well. Kinono No 1 has the honor of being the album I have had more calls about on air than anything else. Check out both Congotronics Vol 1 and Vol 2. Both recordings are raw and have more passion and soul than a lot of releases I have heard this year. Essential)

Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate
Malian blues guitarist meets kora player extraordinaire. First time together and first album in five years for both. Impromtu improvisations recorded in six hours, some overdubbing by Ry Cooder)

Ghazal-cd As Night Falls On The Silk Road- Track Snowy Mountain

Susheela Raman- cd Music For Crocodiles- Tracks Chordya / Leela / Sharavana / What Silence Said
(fantastic new release by Ms Raman, this being her third. Sung predominantly in English rather than Indian, this is more pop than Indian. None the less don't let this put you off. This is a lady whose voice is in fine form. Comparisons have been made to Norah Jones though I have not heard her sing. This is an album that has been on high rotation both at home and on air for good reasons. It makes me feel good when I listen to it and it has intelligent lyrics)

L. Shankar- cd Pancha Nadai Pallavi- Track Ragam Tanam Pallavi
(classic raga from three quarters of a group which were once Shakti. Even though this was recorded in 1989 this sounds fresh and exciting. Mind you what more do you expect from the recording studios of ECM)

Friday, November 25, 2005

The Important Questions according to Chris

My friend Chris sent this to me the other day. I thought I would share it with those who read this blog. You may have seen this before but it's still has some funny observations to think about.

Here are a few things to think about that you probably have never thought about.
Can you cry under water?
How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
Why do you have to "put your two cents in".. . but it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going to?
How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours?
If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?
Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?
Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They're going to see you naked anyway.
Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural?
If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a stupid song about him?
Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane?
If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat?
Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don't point to their crotch when they ask where the bathroom is?
Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs!
If Wiley E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME crap, why didn't he just buy dinner? Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?
Why did you just try singing the two songs above?
Why do they call it an asteroid when it's outside the hemisphere, but call it a hemorrhoid when it's in your butt?
Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride; he sticks his head out the window?

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Office Speak

I found this in Radar, one of the supplements found in Wednesday's Sydney Morning Herald Working in the corporate world I hear this sort of thing a lot, and pray that if God really is merciful, that those that utter this sort of thing go straight to hell, along with boy bands and Saddam.

Robert: I keep hearing about people who will talk to certain topics- for example-"We've just released the annual report and Joe will talk to that later" If Joe is going to talk to a stack of paper, he's clearly deranged.

Anon: The one management term that drives me insane is granular. Terms of user: 1. We ned more granularity or 2. We need to be more.less granular.

Ian: At every meeting the staff would write down the boss's boring buzz words. His favourite was "cascade your key learnings to all the stakeholders and seek a new paradigm"

Buzzwordssuck: Someone wanted to know how busy I was. They asked "How's your bandwidth today?"

Phil: Pushing the envelope pisses me off. And the government minister who referred to people killed in the Bali bombings as "non-survivors".

Dave; Management jargon is the corporate equivalent of the bird flu. Can a cure be found? hard to say- the whole issue needs more workshopping to come up with an action plan on how to move forward.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

The Institute of Eastern Music Presents....

Folks this will be a great performance. Don't miss it what ever you do.

The Australian Institute of Eastern Music
presents
Moving East
A Celebration of Asian Music and Dance 2005
Saturday 3rd December 7:30pm
Japanese Koto - Satsuki Odamura
Hindustani Sarod & Tabla - Adrian McNeil & Bobby Singh
South Indian Kuchipudi Dance - Vimala Sarma
Javanese Dance & Gamelan - Vi King Lim & Langen SukaAustralian Institute of Music
1-59 Foveaux Street Surry Hills

Tickets$25/20seniors/students/unemployed/AIEM members
Family rate (2 adults 2 children) $55
Groups of 10 or more - 10% discount
Refreshments available

For bookings call: 8250 5538 aiemevents@yahoo.com.au

About the Artists:
Satsuki Odamura is a Japanese koto virtuoso, who has pioneered the teaching and performing of koto, an ancient Japanese instrument in Australia. She has won the Australian World Music Awards 2000 World Music Instrumentalist of the Year, two Sounds Australian Awards for Most Distinguished Contribution to the Presentation of Australian Music by an Individual and the 1998 Green Room Award for Original Score.
Her performances range from jazz-like improvisations with saxophonist Sandy Evans and percussionist Tony Lewis to collaboration with sarod virtuoso Ashok Roy. In the process she has inspired a number of Australian composers to write music for the koto. Among these compositions are Carl Vine's concerto Gaijin written for her 13-stringed koto and bass koto, Peter Sculthorpes' Little Requiem written for koto and bass koto and premiered with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Liza Lim's work for the contemporary music ensemble Elision and Barry Connyngham's Afterimages for koto and small orchestra.
Satsuki has recorded two compact discs, Like a Bird and Burning House, a world-first CD consisting entirely of works by Australian composers.
Adrian McNeil is well known in India where he performs regularly and has made a number of recordings for television and radio. A guitar student since childhood, Adrian began training in Hindustani music in 1980 as a disciple of Pt. Ashok Roy He has intensively studied sarod and Hindustani classical music in India for more than twenty years according to the strict precepts of the guru-sishya parampara traditional training method. For the last five years he has been a disciple of Prof. Sachindra Nath Roy and also the expert vocalist and musicologist Dr. Ashok Ranade, both based in Mumbai. Adrian has a Ph.D. in music and has published important articles and books on Indian music, and has taught in music departments in Australia, U.S.A., U.K., India and Hong Kong.
" A scintillating sarod performance at the India International Centre " The Times of India (New Delhi).
Bobby Singh was born and raised in England, Bobby spent a great deal of his childhood in Mumbai studying with the great tabla maestro Pandit Nikhil Ghosh. Recognised at a young age as a tabla player of considerable ability, he was put under the care of Nikhil Ghosh’s senior disciple, Aneesh Pradhan, under whose guidance he has now matured into a performer of international experience. Now a resident of Australia, he has received numerous awards and accolades and has performed with some of the finest musicians in Australia. Outside of the milieu of Indian classical music, he has also formed his own fusion group DHA and also performs in the hugely popular and well-known dance music band, The Bird. Bobby has now become one of the most known and respected musicians in the World Music Scene in Australia. The demand for his exciting, virtuosic and inspiring playing is such that no world music festival in Australia is complete without his performance.

Vimala Sarma, an exponent of Kuchipudi South Indian classical dance has performed both in India at the prestigious Madras Music and Dance Festival and in other festivals both in India and Australia, including the AIEM Asian Music and Dance Festival at the Opera House. She is the founder and director of the Nayika Indian Dance in Sydney and has many students.

Langen Suka Sydney Gamelan Association is Australia’s premier gamelan ensemble specialising in the traditional music of Central Java. Since its inaugural performance Puspawarna—Many Kinds of Flowers at the Performance Space, Redfern in 1999, Langen Suka has been introducing the sensuous and meditative sounds of the gamelan to Sydney where it is based. In August 2002, Langen Suka captivated audiences at the Asian Music and Dance Festival held at The Studio, Sydney Opera House with its dance-drama production The Banishment of Sekar Taji, which was acclaimed for its "powerful elegance" and music "as soothing as the lapping of waves at a lake’s edge" (Sydney Morning Herald).
The group is led by its Artistic Director, Vi King Lim who lived and studied in Java during the mid-1990s and is currently teaching at the Department of Music, The University of Sydney. The gamelan instruments on which Langen Suka performs are owned and provided by the Australian Museum and the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia and are housed at the Old Darlington School, University of Sydney, where Langen Suka holds its weekly rehearsals.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Calabash Music

Anyone who is a regular listener to the show will occasionally hear me make a reference to Calabash Music. It is an online service whereby you can download mp3 music files though it's not for free. However having said that it is very reliable and cheap to use. Check out their website for more details.

Sydney's music stores seem to have abandoned any real reference to world music. Let's just say that there were a lot more titles and stock on the shelves of record shops a few years back from this genre.

It could be argued that the internet has changed the way we shop (no argument from me), however another cause for the possible decline is simply that there are not too many programs on the airwaves promoting the genre. Since Ms Jaslyn Hall departed from the JJJ network, there have been a few shows besides Powerspot who keep playing music from other ethnic parts of the globe. Doug Spencer & Lucky Oceans of course have their national program The Nightly Planet on ABC AM and are doing a fantastic job day after day promoting many varied styles. Seth Jordan now has Tikki Lounge over on 2SER on Mondays which I believe is syndicated, and I am often in awe when I hear what he comes up with. Pavane Olivero has an excellent program over at Eastside FM on Friday nights from 10pm till midnight called Media Luna, though the broadcasting range is limited and 2RES FM do not as yet webcast. Also Yaron Hallis from Monsieur Camembert amongst other styles deals in a lot of gypsy and kletzmer music on Wednesday nights at 7pm (again over at 2SER...hey I'm beginning to see a pattern here!)

Anyhow, I say the more the merrier when it comes to good music on the airwaves. If you wish to let me know of other programs then drop me a line and share the knowledge.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Welcome

I started this blog because I'm too lazy to design another website! "How sad is that?" I hear you say. After ten years of surfing on the net I'm over the technology - though I understand it has its uses and abuses.

What I've set out to do here is simply discuss the music which is featured on my radio program called Powerspot. Powerspot is more or less a world music show over on 2SER FM (107.3FM ) - the biggest public broadcaster here in Sydney. If you haven't yet tuned in Powerspot goes to air Saturday nights from 8pm till 10pm and live via the net.

World music is (for me) where all the interesting sounds are coming from these days and a lot of what I'm hearing excites me to no end. Having said that, I'll occasionally pass comments and opinions on other matters and I welcome your views on those matters if you would like to contribute.