Sonic sojourn

WORLD Beat

It's taken me a long time but I have finally joined the "digital revolution". A couple of weeks ago I was given a WiFi connection to my son's broadband line (I think he was embarrassed at my troglodyte tendencies), so for the last few weeks I've been scouring cyberspace for the juiciest film and TV clips of all my favourite musicians and what I've discovered is that there really is a world of truly wonderful music out there, all, as the cliche goes, at the touch of a button.

Footage of African artists like Salif Keita are readily available on a number of websites.

Much of my time on the web has been centred on YouTube, which like many of my generation, I mistakenly thought was just for teens with a preference for mainstream pop music. Wrong. There are many genres of music available on the web, from Indonesian gamelan in the 1930s to latest DIY Congolese electronica from Kinshasa, and not everything is on YouTube - there are other sites that offer "World music" audio and video clips.

Here are some online World beat favourites. I started by going back to some deep roots music by searching for some r'n'b legends. Blues harmonica giant Little Walter Jacobs is featured on quite a few clips but the one that had me rocking is a two-minute film for the maestro's induction into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, which ends with another blues legend, James Cotton, telling it like it is: "Do I think he [Little Walter] was the greatest? No I don't. I know he was." I also found some hard-edged clips of Walter's former band leader Muddy Waters, including a stomping version of Got My Mojo Working (1966) with James Cotton on harmonica.

The bass player on many of the classic records Waters and Little Walter recorded at Chess Records was the inimitable Willie Dixon, who also wrote many of their greatest hits. His novelty comedy song I'm Nervous was a revelation but it was an awesome clip of a Howling Wolf song How Many More Years? that caught my attention.

It's interesting, too, to note how songs have been covered by different bands over the years. While searching for Sonny Boy Williamson II's Help Me I found a treasure trove of clips by him but also covers by, well, everyone and their uncle. There are even harmonica learning clips for Help Me.

Since I was on a blues track, naturally I took a detour to New Orleans. I wanted to find a clip of Aaron Neville's cover of the classic Sam Cooke song A Change is Gonna Come, which I was sure would be part of US president-elect Barack Obama's inauguration celebration (it was), and his version of Randy Newman's Louisiana. It was worth the keyboard work.

I found many clips of the late great pianist Professor Longhair, including one of his signature tunes, Tipatina and a clip from a documentary in which another New Orleans pianist, Allen Toussaint explains the Prof's musical innovations by playing them on the piano. He added this comment: "In Fess's music, you can always hear the Mardi Gras coming down the street."

I checked out some ancient and modern clips from the gospel group Blind Boys of Alabama and their version of Satisfied Mind with Ben Harper at the Apollo is heavenly. Naturally, this led to some deep soul from Al Green (killer 1973 version of I'm So Tired of Being Alone) in the form of a classic rendition of Take Me To The River, which I then compared to the Talking Heads 1977 version. Fascinating.

After luxuriating in some of my favourite African-American music, I took a quick tour of the Caribbean via my all-time favourite ska track, Funky Kingston by Toots & the Maytals; sadly I couldn't find any tracks from the '70s, only recent festival clips, but it did inspire me to have a look at a Brazilian band, Os Paralamos do Sucesso, who I have heard but never seen. Now I know what the band looks like and can recommend two wonderful clips: Alagados and Uma Brasilera.

My marathon search then took me to Cuba where I wanted to check out my favourite timbales player and bandleader Elio Reve - look out for some terrific clips of his big hit Mi Salsa Tiene.

From Africa, there is a wealth of good music available. I found Malian duo Amadou et Mariam on a clip from their last album, Senegal Fast-Food as well as on new clips from their new album. Cesaria Evora, the diva from Cape Verde, is on a host of excellent clips, including Miss Perfumado and Sodade.

I finished my Africa sojourn with a search for Franco classics of which there are many (check out Likambo Ya Ngai Na Papa) and for Salif Keita songs like Mandjou, a version of which I found from a local TV station played by the great band Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux.

Lastly, I made quick search for some Asian music and found not only that self-proclaimed "musical anarchist" Tademaru Sakuragawa, a folk singer from central Japan, but also Indonesia's dangdut star Inul Daratista, infamous for he "drilling" dancing style - look out for Goyang Inul and Kopi Dangdut.

So, don't be downhearted when it comes to YouTube and the like. Sure, there are plenty of teen pop bands and rock acts but there are also clips from all over the planet. You might not be able to buy some of the music I write about here in Bangkok but at least now if you have broadband, you can at least check out the music online.

There are a couple of evenings left of the Fourth Rhythm of the World Festival down at CentralWorld, tonight and at the weekend. Check it out for music from around the globe and food to match it.

This column can be contacted at the new email address: john - clewley@hotmail.com