Covering African, world & roots music
Photos, events, news & comment from in and around Toronto
Website & photos by John Leeson.  email: info@to-music.ca

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The annual Brazilian Day in New York City begun 25 years ago to mark Brazil’s Independence Day on Sep. 7 takes place on 46th Street in Manhattan, and now covers 25 blocks and attracts up to 1½ million people. 2009 marked Toronto’s first Brazilian Day, and while its size is not up to New York’s standards, it didn’t lack anything in energy and excitement. And, coming after a dismally cool and wet summer, we were blessed with plenty of heat and sun, putting us all in “virtual Brazil” for the day.

Performers included Carlinhos Brown (see August, below), Elba Ramalho, both from Brazil, and from Canada: Batucada Carioca e Cibele Iglesias, Donna Lolla, Salviana Pessoa.

Links: Brazilian Day website; my photos; You Tube videos: Toronto, New York

The members' origins are in the Thar desert of the Indian province of Rajasthan in north-western India, claimed to be the original home of the gypsies.  Their website describes their music as one of “ecstasy, of majestic climaxes, punctuated by the gentle gestures of breathtaking tunes. An authentic and magical experience, Dhoad brings to life the passion and epic heroism of their forefathers…”

This show featured more than music and dance: how about carrying on your head a large clay pot of water on your head which is then balanced on a stack of glasses all the while standing on a board of nails? Not your typical club concert!  A Small World Music show.

Links: My concert photos  Artist website
 

Theo is a veteran of the Toronto African music scene: His old group, Nakupenda, performed at the first Afrofest in 1988; in 2008, he brought a re-formed group to play at the 20^th anniversary Afrofest. In the last several years, he has been the lead singer of the Juno-winning "supergroup" African Guitar Summit.

In February 2006, the AGS was releasing their second CD at a concert in the Glenn Gould Studio. In the midst of lengthy rehearsals (the members all have their own careers, and infrequently play together), the three Ghanaian members of the group: Theo, guitarist Pa Joe and drummer Kofi Ackah put on a performance of traditional Ghanaian palm wine music in the small, intimate NOW Lounge. It was a winner of a show, and still one of my favourite gigs of the last several years; there was a magic energy that night between performers and audience, and the music was entrancing.

The group – now known as Afrafronto, and joined by bassist Ebenezer Agyekum -- continues to perform periodically,  and have opened for Salif Keita and Vieux Farka Touré.

Their story, of Toureg armed rebels who “traded their guns for guitars” is now well known,  and they have become the epitome of Saharan “desert blues”, sharing bills with the likes of the Rolling Stones, and achieving "crossover" success in the rock market very rare for African acts.

But here's a small, personal Tinariwen story: The group had originally developed in the early 1980's while training in Libya at one of Col. Ghadaffi’s rebel training centres. In 2006, while I was travelling through the Libyan Sahara, I asked our cook (who was Touareg) about finding some Touareg music. It turned out he had a DVD of a Touareg group, and we were finally able to play and watch the DVD when we came across a restaurant/rest stop near a town. The group of course turned out to be Tinariwen (whom I had seen the previous summer in Toronto), and the DVD included some concert scenes from Libya, featuring his brother sitting in with the group. Here's a photo of some of us watching Tinariwen: I'm "driving"; Cheik (our cook) is on the left.

Small World Music will be bringing Tinariwen back to town in 2010: March 4 at the Phoenix.

Links: National Geographic Music article; Documentary on Tinariwen (YouTube) "Music from the Sahara" Artist website My photos: this 2007 concert; Harbourfront 2005

No information is needed about this singer, so I’ll share another small story.

In February 2002, I saw him perform in Madison, Wisconsin. This was a tour following his new acoustic CD, Mi Yeewnii. The show started with him sitting solo on stage telling us that it was going to be an intimate evening, just like sitting around in his village in Senegal, telling stories of elders, and village history… and then “RING….RING…”. Someone’s cell phone went off, jarring us back to urban life.

Jump ahead two years to the Phoenix, Toronto. Baaba comes out, sits down, and gives pretty much exactly the same introduction, followed immediately by “RING… RING…”.  Maybe there was someone else there who was at both shows.

I’ll be listening for a cell phone at his April 6 concert at the new Koerner Hall.

Links: Artist website; My photos of his 2004 Toronto concert

No doubt, the only trio of oud-playing brothers in the world, their music is breathtakingly beautiful, and the atmosphere at their concerts special. There is a special communication among the brothers as they play… shown off when two of them play the same oud without looking at each other’s hands. A photo here:

Links: Artist website;  My photos: 2008, 2005;  YouTube videos;  Some background

Two giants of African music, from west and east. Each of them had a huge impact on western audiences.

Salif Keita's 1987 Soro was, for a great number of people, the introduction to "world music": a term that was then just being adopted. It was as much for its impact as its music that Soro was listed #1 on Songlines magazine's "50 World Music Albums You Must Own" 2003 list. I'm one of many who prefer his more recent, rootsier recordings, including Moffou, listed in the top 10 of the Guardian's "Albums of the Decade".

In late 2009, he released a new album (still just in Europe): La Différence to help raise funds for the Salif Keita Global Foundation "for the social integration, protection and fair treatment of persons with Albinism". Salif has a short North American tour scheduled next June. Nothing listed in Toronto yet.

My photos of his 2008 and 2006 Toronto concerts
 

Mahmoud Ahmed is the most famous Ethiopian singer in the world now. His classic recordings from the early 70's reached the West much later via the great Ethiopiques series. In the writeup for his 2007 BBC Radio 3 World Music Award for Africa, the BBC compared the effect of those recordings had on that audience to that of the 1930's Robert Johnson blues songs released on LP in the 50's and 60's which so affected the folk, blues and rock audiences of that time. A key difference of course is that Mahmoud is still alive, and still a wonderful performer.

He will repeat his 2007 Toronto Christmas concert on Christmas Day, 2009.

Links: My photos from 2007 and 2003; his 2005 WOMAD concert (click "listen to this gig"). On YouTube, catch a few short clips from this concert, and longer ones: from Paris -- bouncing camera, but with the feel of a Mahmoud show, and another one with some grungy sound, but with all the energy and excitement intact.

For African music fans, July means Afrofest: two days & three stages of African music, featuring musicians from around the world and many of the great, Canadian-based African performers. Add in a huge variety of African and other foods, vendors, workshops, hot weather and a beer garden, and you end up with what is always one of the great musical happenings of the year.

In 2009, Music Africa was able to book the great Malian singer, Oumou Sangaré to close the festival. Her 2009 CD, Seya has been topping many critics' lists of the best albums of the year. Her performance was certainly among the best of the year in Toronto.

Links: There are music videos out there from Seya, but here are a couple of grittier ones from performances in Mali:  At the "Roll Back Malaria" concert, and the 2003 Festival in the Desert with Ali Farka Touré.
My photos from her Afrofest 2009 performance

The highlight of a great Brazilian Day (see cover, above), Carlinhos got an audience who had been energetic through a long, and very hot day, in the unforgiving and uncofortable Yonge-Dundas Square back up to a peak.

Links: Artist website; My photos from the day

Some musical months you can count on: extra shows during Black History Month in February: June/July: Jazz Festival, Afrofest & Harbourfront... and an excellent Ethiopian concert (or two) for Ethiopian New Year in mid-September.

This year featured an amazing treat: a concert that was definitely one of 2009's real highlights, starring the legendary, 72-year old sax player Getatchew along with his recent concert and recording colleagues, the Dutch punk/art group The Ex, the pairing could have been an interesting, but failed collaboration. Instead, it was superb. The original Saturday night show sold out, and the second one on Sunday was close to full.

If the music wasn't enough, the wonderful Ethiopian dancer Melaku Belay made several appearances, at times joined by Toronto's Saba Alemayehu.

Links: NOW Weekly’s review & video (highlighting The Ex and Melaku);  my photos;  video from NYC with Getatchew & Melaku; Some classic Getatchew recording

The master of Indian slide guitar, Pandit (master musician) Debashish Bhattacharya grew up with music. The story is that he learnt to sing in the Gwailor classical vocal style before he could talk. As a three year old, he was first drawn to a Hawaiian lap steel guitar. He says, “it was love at first touch.”

As he grew, he studied both western guitar and sitar, and now plays what he calls his "Trinity of Guitars": the Chaturangi with 22 strings evokes violin, sitar, sarod and veena. The Ghandarvi, a 14-stinged guitar that can sound like a veena, sarangi, saz or flamenco guitar, and the 4-stringed Anandi has been described as a slide ukulele.

In 2007, he won the 2007 BBC World Music Award (Asia/Pacific) for his CD 3:Calcutta Slide Guitar, and his Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide Guitar Odyssey received a 2009 Grammy nomination

Links: Artist website; video of performance and Debashish discussing his music; My photos from this 2006 concert and a few from "The World of Slide Guitar", part of Luminato 2009

Randriamananjara Radofa Besata Jean Longin has already won 3 Juno Awards: one for each of his performing personas: A World Music Album of the Year for his own Omnisource (2000); the same award for his part in the original African Guitar Summit CD in 2005; and also Roots and Traditional Album of the Year in 2001 as part of the trio, Tri-Continental.

The concert this photo was taken from was the CD launch for Good Life, Good Living: his first album in 10 years. The album reflects many of the musical roots and strains of Slim's music: from Malagasy rhythms to stinging blues guitar. Listen to the opening track, "Good Life" and you'll agree with him.

Links: Artist website;  my event photos; see also my photo index page for many more “Slim photos”, all listed near the top in the “African Guitar Summit” section.

The great Mavis. Hard to know what few words to include about her, but I'll quote an excerpt from an online column by Grant Alden, an editor of No Depression written on the day Barack Obama was elected President, in which Alden talked about the long commitment Mavis and the Staples Singers had to the Civil Rights and justice movements.

...she is both a profoundly gifted singer and an artist who has placed herself and her art at risk in honor of her beliefs, in the service of simple and fundamental human decency.

For all of us, then, I recommend the collected works of Mavis Staples, of the Staple Singers. I am not expert in these matters, I am simply a poor man fumbling for an anchor against these tumults. And, tonight, I find that anchor in this deep, eloquent, profound voice, this voice of patience and passion. All this, she has witnessed. Lived through.

Here are two videos capturing some of that passion:

• When Will We Be Paid": 1971 in Ghana with Pops and the Staple Singers from the movie Soul to Soul
• "Eyes On the Prize": music video from her great 2007 CD, We'll Never Turn Back

Links: Artist website;  my photos of her 2007 concert.