Around The World With Music Gourmets

Najat al Saghira - Best Of Najat al Saghira Volume 1 (2011)


Time to revive this thread. I ran across this artist on the Rough Guide To Egypt and was mesmerized by her beautiful voice and the dramatic instrumental arrangements. Wiki sez:

(born 11 August, 1938) is an Egyptian singer and actress. She retired from filming in 1976 and from singing in 2002. Najat began her career at the age of five and retired 59 years later.

Nagat El Saghira is part of music from the Egyptian “golden age” of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. She still inspires others. For example, Paris based Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan (born 1976) mixes different dialects and forms of Arabic in her singing, inspired by performers who include Nagat l Saghira.

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Abdel Hadi Halo & The El Gusto Orchestra Of Algiers - s/t (2008)

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Pitchfork sez:

While working on an upcoming documentary chronicling Algerian chaabi (the more traditional of Algeria's two prominent strains of pop music), filmmaker Safinez Bousbia tipped off Damon Albarn, who headed down to the Conservatoire D'Algiers with his Honest Jon's crew to capture Abdel Hadi Halo & the El Gusto Orchestra of Algiers, who performed after a lengthy period spent underground while Algeria developed more hospitable mores.

The project's already drawn more than a few comparisons to the Buena Vista Social Club, and the comparison largely holds. Here's a once vibrant music, chaabi, making a comeback, brought back into the spotlight thanks to the dogged work of a select few but mostly Halo, who tracked down graduates (all aged 60 to 90) of his chaabi pioneer father El Hadj El Anka's music school, and brought them together in Algiers.
 
Pawlo Humeniuk - King Of The Ukrainian Fiddlers (rec. 1925-27, Folklyric comp. 1993)

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For this series, I have generally tried to post contemporary music rather than indulge my love of old recordings. However, this collection from the Roaring 20's has so much energy and was so well recorded that it transcends any technical shortcomings. With over 250 sides to his credit, Pawlo was a major force in ethnic music until his death in 1965. Listen for the deeply soulful vocals of Naszra Roza Krasnowska on several songs.
 
The Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir - Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares (1987)

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This one rolled in recently on Music Boomerang and I'm glad it did. The liner notes explain that the uniquely haunting quality to these massed voices comes from the use of diaphonic harmony. The dissonance and minor key together impart a mysterious aura to these Balkan songs, performed largely a cappella. We will hear some similar music from Italy and even Tahiti :oops: later in this series of posts.
 
Monsoon- Third Eye (1983)

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Shiela Chandra performed under the name "Monsoon". While this is her only full length album, she released a slew of singles, all of which are excellent. She combines Indian raga music with psychedelipop to produce very hypnotic music. While she was never really big in the US, she had a huge following in England. Her best known track is probably her cover of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows". As I have stated before, very, very few people are able to pull off what I consider a good Beatles cover. Chandra does it. The remixes of this track are even trippier. in addition to her English-language releases, she released most of her catalog in Hindi as well.


Her biggest hit in England was "Ever So Lonely", also with multiple remixes, some of which could take you through a work day.

 
It's been over a year since my last post here. :elisabs:

So without further delay, let's take a trip to Greece:

Danai - Tha Xanarthasis (1934-40, comp. 2014)

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I ran across Danai on the late Holy Warbles blog and fell in love with her warm, folkish songs. Wiki sez:



Danai Stratigopoulou (Modern Greek: Δανάη Στρατηγοπούλου) (born 8 February 1913 - died 18 January 2009) was a Greek singer, writer, and university academic. She acquired recognition in the literary world for translating the works of the Chilean nobel laureate Pablo Neruda into the Greek language.

Danai was born in Athens but grew up in Paris and Marseilles, France where she studied political science, orthophony and phonetics, whilst she developed her career as a singer. In the early years of her career as a musician she collaborated with a number of Greek musicians. In 1935 she interprets the songs of the modern music composer Attik (Kleon Triandafylou) and subsequently recorded and popularised many of his songs.

Throughout her career as a musician, she devoted herself to interpreting Greek folk and popular songs. She earned awards and decorations for her singing and compositions at national and international music festivals and during the Second World War she fought in the anti-Nazi and anti-fascist resistance.

In Chile, Stratigopoulou held an academic post at the University of Santiago de Chile as an educator in Greek folklore and phonetics. It was during her residence in Chile that she composed much of her musical work (which totaled about 300 songs), and published a number of literary works and poetry.

Stratigopoulou formed a personal friendship with the Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Nerudaand would spend time at Neruda's residence in Isla Negra where she read and discussed poetry. Her vast knowledge of Neruda's work and literature and language led her to become an important translator of Pablo Neruda's Spanish poetry into Greek. For all her cultural work in Chile, she was decorated by the Chilean Republic.

Danai's recordings are collected in two sets. I offer the first, covering the pre-war years. The subtle, acoustic accompaniment suits her wistful voice perfectly.
 
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