1 - Chiwoniso - The Circle - The Voice of Conscience - Make Me a Channel of Your Peace - Zimbabwe - KKV - FXCD 249
2 - Manu Chao - Otro Mondo - La Radiolina - France/Spain - Because - promo
3 - Fajdiga - Micika Mlada/Hudič Trobovlje Trese/Indiijski Maharadža - Za fuk pa Å¡pila gramofon… - Slovenia - Nika - PLA-NIK001
4 - DuOud & Abdulatif Yagoub - Sakat - Sakat - Tunis/Yemen - Indigo - LBLC 2598
5 - Rhett Brewer - Millenia - Hotel de Ville - USA - Ex-Directory - EC-CD001
6 - Swati Natekar - Maikhana-e-hasti - The Rainbow - India/UK - Harmony Creations - HCCD001
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Chiwoniso
[photo courtesy www.BusaraMusic.com]
The Zimbabwean singer Chiwoniso is among the few African singers who is equally convincing whether singing in English or her own language – in her case, Shona. Surely it is only the desperate state of her country’s economy and policies that has prevented her from achieving international recognition. This song, written by Kris Kristofferson, always sparked emails when I played it at the time of its release a few years ago. Hopefully the admirable Norwegian label, KVV, will receive another batch of enquiries.

Manu Chao
[photo courtesy www.mp3sugar.com]
Still working my way through the many good songs on Manu Chao’s new album, scheduled for European and UK release next week (Sept 17th).

Fadjiga was a street singer in Slovenia during the 1970s. An album released in vinyl back then has now been issued on CD for the first time.

DuOud: Smadj and Mehdi Haddab
[photo courtesy www.ambafrance-ma.org]
Yemeni music is hard to find outside the country, so this is the first time I’ve ever played a Yemeni singer, thanks to the enterprise of the French label Indigo, who commissioned a collaboration between Abdulatif Yagoub and the Paris-based duo of oud players and programmers, Smadj (originally from Tunis) and Mehdi Haddab (from Algeria). The title track of their album Sakat gets better every time I hear it.

Rhett Brewer
[photo courtsey www.doornumberthreefilms.com]
Some years ago, I played songs from a haunting album sung in Latin by Rhett Brewer, who then operated under the name of Ronan Quays. I never met him, but we communicated by email a few times. Now he has resurfaced with a second album but a new project name, Hotel de Ville. I’m ashamed to admit that this has been sitting on my floor for over a year before I got around to listening, having not realised it was by Rhett. I think he’s American, and he may now live in France. Check his website www.rhettbrewer.com

Swati Naketar
[photo courtesy www.mondomix.com]
Finally, a new discovery through MySpace, Swati Natekar, an Indian singer based in the UK, who asked if she could be a friend on my site ( www.myspace.com/djjackdaw ). I liked the music on her profile, asked for an album, and here’s another song that gets better with each play.