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It's been a while since I've put out a newsletter; that wasn't because there's been a shortage of great music! Keep an eye on the event listings; they are updated frequently.

In this issue:
1. Benefit for Burma tonight
2. Events
   a) Upcoming
   b) Festival season ... and an amazing 12 days in June/July
3. Video updates, including "Barack Obama's WorldBeat Album"
4. CD & Book notes
5. Other:
  a) The "world music market" in Toronto: four local musicians discuss
  b) CBC Radio Two: what kind of music?

1. BENEFIT FOR BURMA - Tonight, May 20, Lula Lounge

No doubt many of you are aware of this event. Performers and speakers include: Sunshine State, Jason Collett, Eliana Cuevas, Torq Campbell, Jesse Cook and Batucada Carioca. With speakers Olivia Chow. MC: Garvia Bailey, Speakers include MP Olivia Chow, Karen Connelly, Zaw Kyaw.

Details of the show are here: http://lulalounge.ca/weblog/burma_relief_concert.html

Notice from the organizer, Jeremy Ledbetter:

All proceeds from the concert will be sent to Buddhist monks and non-governmental local aid organizations in Burma through the International Burmese Monks Organization - bypassing completely the Burmese government and their obstruction of foreign aid. Buddhist monks are the most trusted and reliable institution in the country, and have been the most effective providers of food, water, and shelter to survivors in the wake of the disaster.

Donations can be sent to:
Burma Buddhist Association of Ontario
12 High Meadow Place
Toronto, Ontario M9L 2Z5
Phone: (416) 747-7879

Donors are requested to write cheques payable to "Burma Buddhist Association of Ontario", and mention "Burma cyclone relief" as reference memo on the cheque; and on the envelope if donation is in cash. We also request donors to provide the return mailing addresses to provide tax receipts.

For more information contact:
Jeremy Ledbetter 647-220-6222 jeremy@canefire.ca
Zaw Kyaw 416-358-2318 zaw.w.kyaw@gmail.com
Lula Lounge 416-588-0307 tracy@lula.ca

 

2. EVENTS

a) A few upcoming shows of note. As always, check www.to-music.ca/events.htm for details on these and other shows.

• May 18-24: Cool Drummings Festival, at various locations features: Marimba, tam-tam, tom-tom, celesta, vibraphone, cimbalom, frame drum, steelpan, taiko drum, propeller and electric buzzer. Various locations. For more info, see:  http://www.soundstreams.ca/
• May 23: Luanda Jones Trio (Brazillian) & Samba Squad at the Lula
• May 24: KT Tunstall at the Danforth Music Hall
• May 25: Yoshida Brothers at the Enwave Theatre (Small World Music)
• May 27: DK Ibomeka CD launch at the Lula
• May 29: autorickshaw's Indian, jazz, classical and funk fusion at the Lula.
• Jun. 4: Bicycles for Humanity benefit at the Lula: a night of Argentinian Tango. Click here for info
• Jun. 5: Lorraine Klaasen at the Lula: South African singer follows the announcement of this year's Afrofest lineup
• Jun. 4-8: Art of Jazz Spring Celebration at the Distillery District

Note: The highly anticipated Afrissippi show, originally scheduled for May 22 at Hugh's Room has been cancelled. (The Canadian tour fell through because of visa issues). As a poor substitute, here's a YouTube clip, from the Rootsway Festival, Parma, Italy in 2007
 

b) Festival Time

The events page includes links to a number of spring and summer festivals, including the Art of Jazz, Muhtatdi Drum Festival, Toronto Jazz Festival, Harboufront's summer World Routes, Afrofest, and lots more. Of note this year is that the Jazz Festival seems to have more "world music"-related performances than in recent years. (Topped off by the great Salif Keita on Jun. 29).

And while looking ahead to warmer weather and hot music, just check some of the performances jammed into a  a 12 day period:

• Jun. 25: Blind Boys of Alabama, Jazz Festival
• Jun. 26: Pinetop Perkins, Jeff Healey's Roadhouse
• Jun. 27: Gilberto Gil at Massey Hall
• Jun. 28: Arturo Sandoval, Jazz Festival
• Jun. 28: Omar Portuondo, Roy Thomson Hall
• Jun. 28: Jayme Stone, Mansa Sissoko & Katenen Dioubaté, Hugh's Room
• Jun. 28: Sergio Mendez, The Music Hall
• Jun. 29: Salif Keita, Jazz Festival
• Jun. 30: Lee "Scratch" Perry, Harbourfront (Free)
• Jul. 2:   Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Harbourfront (Free)
• Jul. 3:   Orchestra Baobab, Harbourfront (Free)
• Jul. 3:   Sonny Landreth, Jeff Healey's Roadhouse
• Jul. 3:   Johnny Winter, Phoenix
• Jul. 5-6: Afrofest, Queen's Park, Free
   

• Excerpts from two documentaries: The African Rock 'n' Roll Years (a BBC 4 series). These clips cover the Southern Africa area; and Sam Cooke: The Legend
• Kaushiki Chakrabarty, a great voice from India; Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock: two-thirds of the great Texan (occasional) group The Flatlanders (who will be in Toronto this November); two views of Altamont; two great West Side (Chicago) blues guitarists: Otis Rush & Magic Sam, plus Mahalia Jackson and the Swan Silvertones in the Gospel section of the page
• "Subtitling world music" the way it sounds...
• There's lots more great video on the page.
   

Also: "Barack Obama's World Music":

Obama's appeal has clearly reached people around the world, and has been reflected musically. Calabash music has collected 6 videos and "packaged" them as Obama - The Worldbeat Album. It leads off with "The Calypso King of the World", the Mighty Sparrow singing "Barack the Magnificent", and is followed by Toronto's own Fojeba (Jean-Baptiste Foaleng) whose Cameroonian makossa rhythms back Obama's "Fired Up, Ready to Go". There's also Mariachi, reggae and more, finishing up with the iconic "Yes We Can".

(I had been surprised and happy to see Fojeba included; and it was a nice surprise to find the video ended with a photo of him I took at the Gladstone last year).

And to those who haven't seen Fojeba play around town recently, he has been busy recording for his new CD.

 

CD:

• Various: Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6.
  This double CD has been spending a lot of time on my CD player recently. The last several years have seen numerous excellent compilations of African music, notably the (so far) 3 volume Golden Afriques series, and the 4 volume African Pearls series.
  
  But you won't find a funkier release than this Nigerian Special - 26 songs by mostly little known bands. An excellent booklet as well.
  
  See a BBC review here.

 

• Various: The Very Best of Ethiopiques
  I've mentioned this great re-issue series (now up to 23 volumes), and the double-CD "best of" release before. This collection is the result of quite astounding effort and research by the series compiler, Francis Falceto. Most importantly it is just full of greet and unique music. This weekend, the U.K. Guardian carried an article about the series, the release, and an upcoming package tour featuring some of the artists on the series, headed by Mahmoud Ahmed.
  
  Note: that tour, backed by the Either Orchestra will perform in New York City on Aug. 20. Sadly, it doesn't appear to be heading to Toronto, but Harbourfront will present Mulatu Astatke (whose music was featured in the film Broken Flowers, and is found on vol. 4 of Ethiopiques), backed by the Either Orchestra on Jul. 26.

Links:
 - Guardian article
 - Website for the "Best Of", with extensive full-song audio samples (click on the "Hear More Ethiopiques" link)
 - A 13 minute interview with series compiler, Francis Falceto

 

• Tabu Ley Rochereau: The Sound of Lightness
  This 29 song double-CD compilation covers recordings done between 1961-77 by one of Congo's greatest singers. This past Sunday, the New York Times carried a full page article on the album, Tabu Ley, and the head of the American branch of Sterns Music, Ken Braun who assembled this collection.

Links:
 - NY Times article
 - Sterns info page, including extended samples of all the songs
 - YouTube video of Tabu Ley, singing to a room full of dancers
 

• Orchestra Baobab: Made in Dakar
  The long-awaited CD by one of Africa's greatest-ever bands will finally be released in North America this week. It was released in Europe last year to (no surprise) rave reviews. Anyone who knows this great Senegalese band will no doubt be buying it. On July 3, at Harbourfront Centre, Baobab will be performing their first Toronto show in over 4 years. It will be one of the year's highlights.
  
  Links:
   - Video: "Nijaay" at the Malta Jazz Festival
   - part of a nice guitar solo by Barthélemy Attisso at a workshop at WOMAD (Australiia), 2006

 

BOOKS:

• Alex Halberstadt: Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life & Times of Doc Pomus
  In a December newsletter, I described this as one of the best music books I'd ever read. It's an even better deal now, as it has recently been released in paperback. Click here for my article about the book and the amazing life of this great songwriter. (Includes more links about Doc, interviews with the author, and clips of Doc during his time as a blues singer).
  
   
• Sheila Weller - Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon - and the Journey of a Generation
  This recently published profile of the three singer-songwriters has received some mixed reviews, however the following excerpt from the New York Times Sunday Book Review (April 27/08) struck me. The reviewer (Stephanie Zacharek) disagrees with the author's argument that Mitchell and Simon were ground breakers, and argues that "It’s Carole King — the best songwriter of the three — who comes off as the one who really did help change the [musical] world".

Zacharek beautifully captures the moment of how one of King's great songs came about. King was just 19, married, and a mother. She and her then husband, Gerry Goffin co-wrote songs in their spare time, King the music & Goffin the lyrics.

King wrote much of the melody for “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” during the course of an afternoon. She recorded what she had and then dashed off to a mah-jongg date with a friend, leaving a note near the tape recorder for her husband to find upon his return from work. The song had to be ready to present to the Shirelles the next day. “Please write,” the note said.

Goffin loved what he heard on the tape. “I listened to it a few times,” he tells Weller, “then I put myself in the place of a woman — yes, it was sort of autobiographical. I thought: What would a girl sing to a guy if they made love that night?” And so this glorious song, as astonishing a summation of women’s insecurities as has ever been written, and one that shocked listeners with its frankness, came to be. The melody, at once pleading and confident, had come first: it was so powerful that it inspired a man to slip into the skin, and the heart, of a woman.

Links: NY Times review  (inlcudes links to book excerpts and more)

5. OTHER

a) The "world music" audience in Toronto

The current issue of Sway Magazine has an article featuring four local musicians talking about the challenges of performing "world music" here, and reaching audiences within and outside the communities they come from. Lizzy Mahashe, Humble, Amanda Martinez and Adam Solomon are interviewed. Read the article online here.

 

b) CBC Radio Two: what kind of music should it cover?

The following item was posted on a Canadian music forum. It may well be that readers of this newsletter and website have an interest in broadening the kind of music CBC Radio Two plays.

The House of Commons standing committee on Canadian heritage will be holding hearings on proposed changes to CBC Radio 2. Committee member and NDP heritage critic Bill Siksay brought forward the motion to hold hearings.

"I'm concerned that the commitment to classical music in Canada is a key part of the Canadian culture. CBC Radio 2 has been a key player in classical music," Siksay told CBC News.

"And I'm also concerned as a member of Parliament for West Vancouver about the disbanding of the CBC Radio Orchestra, which might be the only national cultural institution based in Vancouver.. I think it's a significant national institution and one that we shouldn't give up lightly. "

See: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2008/05/09/heritage-cbc.html


The committee's clerk is now gathering a list of potential witnesses. Anyone who would like to speak to the committee can send letters - pro or con the changes - to:

Clerk of the Committee:
Room 6-37
131 Queen Street
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Tel: (613) 947-6729
Fax: (613) 996-1962
E-mail: CHPC@parl.gc.ca

The voices against the changes will no doubt be plentiful, so if you are pro-change, you might want to send your thoughts on in.....