World music... where did it all begin?

[Lewis R]

Since being handed the mantle of running Nascente music earlier this year I have been contemplating the idea of trying to assemble a compilation of formative world music tracks that helped shape/kick-start the genre.

Having read with interest the posts relating to Nigel’s “John Peel on African music in 1975â€

[Gordon Neill]

Nice idea for a compilation. But there's actually another SOTW thread which seems to be more directly related to this theme http://www.charliegillett.com/phpBB2/vi ... 92&start=0

But, no doubt, there are still plenty of other suggestions to be added....

[Neil Foxlee]

And then there's this, from even earlier:
http://www.charliegillett.com/phpBB2/vi ... highlight=

- though I see you specified "in the 1980s"...

[Nigel w]

Lewis,


There is a good list Charlie did elsewhere on the forum. I've copied it for convenience below, or at least the section covering 1980-87, which I think is the period you are looking at ... There are 28 names on it, but it's not that global - I think 22 of the names are African, although that's probably a fair reflection of what was happening at the time. See below...

I've also dug out the tracklist of the famous NME cassette from 1987, which was the main marketing tool in promoting the first world music campaign. Hope this is helpful, and it's quite a bit less Afrocentric...I researched it two or three years ago for another project and although I never did find a surviving copy of the cassette, with the help of Ian Anderson and Roger Armstrong I did get the tracklist, so thanks again to those two estimable pioneers...

NME WORLD MUSIC CASSETTE 1987

SALIK KEITA Sina Mali

NAJMA AKHTAR Dil Laga La India

YANKA RUPKINA ??? Bulgaria

KASS KASS Mister Oh Zaire

YIORGOS MANGAS Chorepste Tsiftefeli Greece

JALI MUSA JAWARA Fote Mogoban Mali

ZOUK TIME Zouk Time Martinique/Zaire

ABDEL AZIZ EL MUBARAK Alla Jaraa Sudan

SHIRATI JAZZ Dr Binol Kenya

HUKWE ZAWOSE ?? Tanzania

OFRA HAZA Galbi Israel

NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN Ye Mohammed Bula Lo Pakistan

REAL SOUNDS OF AFRICA Murumi Wangu Zimbabwe

SIDIKE DIABATE Ba Togoma Mali

DILIKA Amazimuzimu S Africa

KETAMA No se si vivo o sueno Spain

SADIK DIKO & RESHIT SHEHU Valle e Gajdes Albania

JORGE CABRERA A Fuego Lento Colombia/Cuba

SASONO MULYO Gamelan Bali

FROM CHARLIE'S LIST

1980: Franco & TPOK Jazz - Tailleur (Zaire) [Rough Guide to Franco] *3

1980: Pablo Lubidaka Portos - Mo Mbanda (Zaire) Sound D'Afrique

1982: King Sunny Ade - Ja Funmi [or] Eje Nlo Gba Ara Mi (Nigeria) JuJu Music
1982: Jali Musa Jawara -Haidara (Guinea Conakry)
1982: Orchestra Baobab - Utru Horas (Senegal) {Pirates' Choice}
1982: Orchestra Virunga - Malako Disco (Kenya)
1982: Sakhile - Sakhile (South Africa) Utru Horas (Senegal) {Pirates' Choice - NB the track listed as alt version on the CD, which is actually the recording from the previous vinyl release of the album}
1982: Orchestra Virunga - Malako Disco (Kenya)
1982: Explainer - Lorraine (Trinidad)
1983: Mbilia Bel - Esi Yo Wapi (Zaire) L'Explosive Mbilia Bel; {Bel Canto}
1983: Souzy Kasseya - Le Telephone Sonne (Congo/Zaire)
1983: Mbilia Bel - Esi Yo Wapi (Zaire) L'Explosive Mbilia Bel; {Bel Canto}
1983: Nyboma - Double Double (Congo) Double Double
1983: Youssou N'Dour - Immigres (Senegal) Immigres *5

1984: George Darko - Hilife Time (Ghana) Hilife Time
1984: Dissidenten (feat Lem Chaheb) - Sahara Elektrik (Germany/Algeria) Sahara Elektrik
1984: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Allah Hoo, Allah Hoo (Pakistan) {Very Best of...} *5

1984: Ofra Haza - Im Nin' Alu - (Israel) Yemenite Songs *1
1984: Baaba Maal & Mansur Seck - Sehilam (Senegal) Djam Leelii
1984: Amaswazi Emvelo - Indodo Yejazi Elimnyama (South Africa) The Indestructible Beat of Soweto, Vol 1

1984/5: Sipho Mabuse - Jive Soweto (South Africa)
1985 (?) - Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited - Mhondoro (Zimbabwe)

1985: Gilberto Gil - Toda Menina Baiana (Brazil) *1
1985: Gipsy Kings - Bambeleo (France) *2
1985: Joe Arroyo - La Noche (Colombia)

1986: The Bhundu Boys - Hupenyu Hwangu (Zimbabwe) Shabini

1987: Goran Bregovic - Ederlezi (Serbia) Time of the Gypsies *4

1987: Franco's OK Jazz - Attention La SIDA ({The Very Best of The Rumba Giant of Zaire}
1987: Salif Keita - Sina (Mali) Soro
1987: Mory Kante - Yeke Yeke (Guinea Conakry)
198?: Orchestra Makassy - Agwaya (Kenya)
1987: Orchestra Super Mazembe - Shauri Yako (Kenya/Zaire) *1

[Charlie]

To these , different people added

My list is updated to include everything suggested by others, and I think everything in that second list is also in the first one. Le Mystere de Voix Bulgares is missing because it was released in the late 1970s.

If you agree, maybe you could delete the second panel to avoid confusion.

[Jonathan E.]

I think "Sweet Mother" by Prince Nico Mbarga was a key track very early on. Kanda Bongo Man also emerged early with a lot of appeal. King Sunny Ade, however, was THE ONE — for me.

The Fela compilation Vol. 1 & 2 was an early and easy-to-get import from France. Tracks such as "Shakara," "Chop And Quench," etc. from the mid-seventies. Then, of course, Black President and Original Sufferhead got relatively early UK release, but were compilations drawn from Nigerian albums.

All those various WOMAD releases were vital. As was anything on GlobeStyle. And EarthWorks.

3 Mustaphas 3! cannot be overlooked!

"N'sel Fik" by Chaba Fadela & Cheb Sahraoui got an early(ish) 12" release — on Factory no less.

"Jack" by Mighty Gabby and "Lorraine" by Explainer were big soca tunes of the time.

The NME promo cassette rather solidified things at the time of the eventual World Music publicity campaign designed to raise the profile of all those who'd been putting out records for years — and finding (or losing) them buried, here, there and everywhere in the stores. I still have a copy. Actually my copy isn't even the one given away with NME, but was one sent out to journalists in advance to drum up the word, which means it probably sounds better. I'm going to get around to digitizing it assuming I can make my tape deck work. (Message to forum member I promised this to long ago: I know, I know, what I can say? I'm sorry. Lots to do.)

And, not to repeat myself ad infinitum or be too academic about it, the emergence of world music was not an exclusively English phenomenon. In parallel with what was happening there, the San Francisco music scene had substantial activity, much of it influenced by what was going on in early 1980s England, much of it independent. For those who haven't read it, here's my account of that time and place (as well as a lot of other guff that drifts off into irrelevance to this discussion), Secret History of World Music. I mention a fair number of other releases from the early 1980s.

[Nigel w]

Jonathan,

if you've got a copy of the cassette, can you fill in the missing titles of the Yanka Rupkina track and the Hukwe Zawose track? I've got a feeling that the Sasono Mulyo gamelan piece also probably had a title other than simply 'gamelan'...

[Rob Hall]

I found it earlier today, it's here.

[Jonathan E.]

Who needs the likes of me any more?

Well, I can add the info to what's on the site Rob Hall dug up that the Yankina Rupka track was taken from a Hannibal release of various artists called Balkana.

Also the Hukwe Zawose track came from the Triple Earth LP, Tanzania Yetu.

And the Sasono Mulyo track is called "Gamelan Gong Kebyar of Bali" on my cassette, but just "Balinese Gamelan Music" on my WOMAD Talking Book Volume One: An Introduction from which it is taken.

Incidentally, those Talking Books include some advertisements and such — a full inside cover from Oval Records!, which might be useful and/or interesting to look at for any serious researchers out there.

[Charlie]

Incidentally, those Talking Books include some advertisements and such — a full inside cover from Oval Records!, which might be useful and/or interesting to look at for any serious researchers out there.

I think we might have 'done a deal' agreeing to license a track in exchange for that ad.

I first met Thomas Brooman a year or so before he started WOMAD with Peter Gabriel, when he came to visit Oval with a plan to launch an album of new artists from the Bristol area which would be financed with ads from established labels, to be displayed inside the sleeve. As that would have entailed us spending actual money, I doubt if we got involved in that first venture.

[kevin]

3 Mustaphas 3! cannot be overlooked!

Agreed and the track I would select would be Mehmeteli - quintessential Mustapha from their mini LP Bam!

(My lack of visibility on the forum is due to a broken computer. I miss you all and hope to be back in full voice soon.)

[CantSleepClownsWillGetMe]

Kevin said:-

My lack of visibility on the forum is due to a broken computer

Nothing serious I hope?

......................

[judith]

(My lack of visibility on the forum is due to a broken computer. I miss you all and hope to be back in full voice soon.)

I have missed your presence - first noticed on the birthday YouTube posts. I hope you are back soon.

[Papa M]

Well, I can add the info to what's on the site Rob Hall dug up that the Yankina Rupka track was taken from a Hannibal release of various artists called Balkana.

I'm really loathe to mention this. Probably even more influential was Nadja Karadjova "A Lambkin Has Commenced Bleating" which was released in 1982 and received massive airplay from.............Terry Wogan (groan).

[uiwangmike]

My earliest recollection of John Peel playing something not in English was a BBC archive recording just entitled "Romanian Wedding Song", by an unnamed female singer. Does anyone else remember it? I think it was in the early 70s. He played it quite frequently, and went on to play more archive records. He later produced an LP, which I now wish I'd bought, called John Peel's Archive Things, though for some reason, that song didn't appear on it.