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Richard Galliano: Luz Negra
by Chris May
A little accordion can go a long way. The instrument's blowsy, wheezing sound, perfectly fashioned to express sadness and tears, can quickly become a downer, and it takes a player with unusual gifts to transcend all that. It is no accident that two styles intimately associated with the accordion, Argentinian tango and French musette, frequently deal ...
Tubby Hayes: The Little Giant
by Chris May
This is the kind of niche market compilation which gives reissue companies operating outside the fifty-year copyright rule a good name. This lovingly put together, decently remastered, comprehensively annotated, four-disc set focuses on the breakthrough years of one of the most fecund and formidable tenor saxophonists Britain has ever produced. Tubby Hayes--a child prodigy who took ...
Ali Farka Toure & Vieux Farka Toure
by Chris May
One immediate response, when presented with these two albums--the first posthumous release by the extraordinary Malian guitarist and singer Ali Farka Toure, and the first ever release by his son, Vieux Farka Toure--might be to see in the albums the passing of the “desert blues" flame from one generation to the next. In a sense, of ...
Rodrigo y Gabriela: Rodrigo y Gabriela
by Chris May
Forget every other acoustic guitar duo you've ever heard. Mexico's Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero up the ante with an album that owes as much to Metallica as it does to Paco De Lucia and Al Di Meola. It's a hard-driving, high decibel, rutting and strutting cathartic melange of metal, jazz, Mexican, Spanish and Gypsy musics. ...
Cameron Pierre: Pad Up (Get Ready)
by Chris May
While rocked-up holy barbarians like Charlie Hunter explode the boundaries of jazz guitar playing, there's still plenty of juice in the straight-ahead tradition--in the right pair of hands. Pat Martino proved that last year with his gob-smackingly inventive Wes Montgomery tribute on Blue Note, Remember. Lest we forget, British-based player Cameron Pierre sings his own legacy-affirming ...
Peter King Quartet: Janus
by Chris May
In 1994, the London branch of the international art auctioneers, Christie's, held a sale of Charlie Parker memorabilia. The prize exhibit was the white plastic saxophone played by Parker during his celebrated Massey Hall, Toronto performance with Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach in 1953. The winning bid of $150,000 was somewhat higher ...
Crossborder Traffic: Congo, Guinea and Mali
by Chris May
Four outstanding albums for the New Year--two from Congo, one each from Guinea and Mali--each coloured to some degree by crossborder, crosscultural traffic, but each remaining deeply and authentically African. Rumba On The River and 20ème Anniversaire track the impact of Cuban rumba on Congolese electric dance music. Electric Griot Land takes traditional Guinean kora music ...
Chris May's Best of 2006
by Chris May
21 toptastic albums, containing material recorded 1925-2006, from Britain, Congo, the US, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Mali, Poland, Lebanon, South Africa, Austria and France. New Releases Marcel Khalifé Taqasim (Nagam) Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet Husky (Hyena) Huw Warren & Peter Herbert ...
Marcel Khalife: Taqasim
by Chris May
Before discussing the extraordinarily beautiful and uplifting music on Taqasim, a last minute, odds-on favourite for the best of 2006 lists, a little background on the oud, taqasim and oud player Marcel Khalife (you can hit fast forward if you know it). Born in Lebanon in 1950 but now living in exile in Paris, Khalife's work ...
Ayetoro: Omo Obokun: The Afrobeat Chronicles Vol. 2 / Directions In Music By Funsho Ogundipe
by Chris May
The “problem" with this album is that the title suggests one thing and the music itself delivers another. The Afrobeat Chronicles suggests an album of post-Fela Anikulapo Kuti, in-the-groove, hot and raw Nigerian Afrobeat. This first impression is reinforced by a glance at the personnel listing, which is packed with horn players, drummers and percussionists and ...
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