world music

Songs for the Road No. 6: A Soundtrack for a Cuban Roadtrip

by Ekua on September 11, 2010 · 7 comments in Cuba,songs for the road

I wasn’t always interested in Afro-Latin music. In fact, as a kid, I used to dread Sunday afternoons when my parents would listen to a Latin music program on the local public radio jazz station that went on for hours. But fortunately, time brought me an expansion of tastes, and several years ago, I had an Afro-Latin music awakening. Soon, my distaste for the genre transformed into appreciation. And then appreciation grew into love.

Afro-Latin music just makes sense to me. It takes West African music, adds some European influence, and sprinkles in some other cultures. It’s a kind of mash up that is akin to my life story.

I was recently asked if I heard really good music in Cuba and how it compared to the live Cuban music I’ve seen here. It doesn’t compare. The fluency with which people play there and the absorption of the environment into the music made the shows I saw in Cuba several times more amazing than anything I’ve seen in the States.

And the same entanglement with the people and the landscape that made the live music so incredible also made the Cuban(ish) music I brought to listen to perfect for the time we spent on the road observing and discovering Cuba. Here are some of my favorites:

» Ibrahim Ferrer – Candela

» Celia Cruz – La Vida Es Un Carnaval

» Orishas – 537 C.U.B.A.

» Yerba Buena – La Candela

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Songs for the Road No. 4: Lila Downs’ Rendition of “Paloma Negra”

by Ekua on August 12, 2010 · 6 comments in Mexico,songs for the road

When a friend suggested that I check out the music of Lila Downs, at first, her name made me assume she was an R&B singer. I later learned that she is actually a Mexican-American singer with a Mixtec mother and a Scottish-American father and she grew up in both Mexico and the United States.

When I enjoy a country as much as I enjoyed Mexico, I always look for ways to experience a little bit of the culture at home. So now that I am back, I’ve finally listened to her music and I have been pleasantly surprised. Her approach is similar to that of Marie Daulne of Zap Mama; she fuses elements of music from both of her cultures with other styles from around the world.

I chose to share this particular song, because although she has a rich alto voice rather than piercing soprano voice, it resembles the type of song and feeling from the experience I wrote about in my previous entry. The genre of music is ranchera, traditional Mexican music which is often performed by mariachi bands and usually revolves around the subjects of love, nature and patriotism. Enjoy:

For more on Lila Downs’ interesting history, go here.

To listen to some more of her music, go here.

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Songs for the Road No. 2: West Africa in Southeast Asia

by Ekua on May 3, 2010 · 5 comments in Laos,songs for the road

Laos was my Southeast Asia savior. I am sure I will delve more into that story at a later point, but I’ll just say that traveling through the country of Vietnam was rough and I’d felt less than welcome there. When I crossed the border into Laos, the immediate mellowness and realness of it was exactly what I’d needed at that point. In the city of Vientiane, with each pleasant interaction, I felt like the country was welcoming me with a gentle, “Sabaideee!”

I was eager to check out Vientiane nightlife scene, so I headed out into town with my guide. We were pretty surprised when we reached the Mekong River’s edge and found a huge festival in progress. Tons of people were out, there were people in costumes riding unicycles, and a band was playing an awesome mix of ska, chanson and punk. When the band finished their set, party music blasted through the loudspeakers.

A song came on and I recognized the percussion beat, and eventually added to that were familiar bass and guitar lines. “No, it can’t be that song, not in Laos,” I thought. But surely enough, as a voice chimed in, I realized it was the song I was thinking it was— Disco Africa, a fairly obscure 70s afrofunk song from Ghana:

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