Top of the world

The European Broadcast Union's Top 10 Chart for February -- taken from radio DJ playlists across the continent -- has just been released and there are some stunning new albums for world music fans to check out.

Malian ngoni (West African lute, similar in importance to the phin in Isan music) master Bassekou Kouyate and his band Ngoni Ba top the charts with their new release Miri, which means "dream" or "contemplation" in Bamana. Kouyate has worked with African stars like Youssou N'Dour and Ali Farka Toure (especially on the superb Savane album), as well as Bela Fleck, The Kronos Quartet, Paul McCartney and many others. His I Speak Fula album was Grammy nominated and he has won many awards.

Given the recent political upheavals in Mali, Kouyate's timely album sees him travel back to his native village, Garana, on the banks of the river Niger to reflect on love, family and "true" moral values. If you liked his previous albums, then this one is for you.

Also good to see is another favourite musician of World Beat, veteran Malian singer Salif Keita, charting at number 2 with his new and final album, Un Autre Blanc. Now 69 years old, the influential singer has decided that his 14th studio album will be his last. He invited a whole host of musicians to join him, from Benin's Angelique Kidjo to reggae star Alpha Blondy to South Africa's mbube masters Ladysmith Black Mambazo. What makes any record by Keita special is his distinctive and powerful voice, and if you have never heard this wonderful artist, try this one as an introduction. (At some point, you'll discover his work with Les Ambassadeurs and his praise song, Mandjou.)

But the news that has really excited everyone here at the World Beat desk is the reissue of Ali Hassan Kuban's fabulous 1988 release, From Nubia To Cairo, by the good folks at Piranha records. It was a fellow Nubian, the late oud master Hamza El Din who told me to seek out the music of one of Egypt's most popular "black" musicians. Kuban was a self-taught wedding bandleader and singer who changed his music radically to incorporate Latin rhythms (mambo), jazz and some funk elements and bring in Western instruments like electric bass, saxophone, organ, trumpet and accordion. Whenever I play tunes from this album at my DJ nights, particularly tracks like the huge hit Sukkar SukkarSukkar, or my favourite, Mabruk (Congratulations), people always ask me who the singer is and where the music comes from. Now they can seek out the reissue, which includes a dance floor remix of Mabruk. Get this essential album -- you won't be disappointed.

One album that I found intriguing is from Ustad Saami of Pakistan with the Glitterbeat release, God Is Not A Terrorist, which features the unique, multilingual, pre-Islamic, microtonal Surti music. Saami must risk his life daily to keep this thousand-year-old tradition alive, and when he dies, the tradition will end with him. The music is dense and rich and full of wailing that bends and weaves through music powered by the harmonium (like Qawwali music, which Surti predates), which has 49-notes in its scale (in comparison, Western music has seven). I love the message in the title track, "to sing is to listen". More on this album when I get my sweaty palms on it.

Finally, I'm really enjoying the music video of Leyla McCalla's The Capitalist Blues, Money Is King, which has a similar original roots sound to the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and pulls no punches. Perhaps this album is an antidote to the relentless pursuit of profit and "shareholders' value" that permeates and influences so much of our lives. I think Woodie Guthrie would be proud of a band prepared to sing it like it is.

See you in Chinatown today as I'll be there taking some photographs and looking for the Lion dancers. Happy Chinese New Year to you all.

John Clewley can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com

Photos: John Clewley