John Henrique Cazes & Choro 1900
Choro 1900

Choro music was born in Brazil in the late nineteenth century as various European dance music traditions gained rich new flavors once they were allowed contact with the heat of Brazil. Choro soon spread throughout the country to become its true popular music, with the traditional choro group consisting of a flute, a guitar, and a cavaquinho (a small guitar resembling a traditional Portuguese ukelele).

On this recording, Brazil's greatest living cavaquinho player, Henrique Cazes, has gathered a group of Brazil's most accomplished young musicians to undertake a fresh exploration of the development and history of the choro through its golden age.

John Keola Lake & Na Wa'a Lalani Kahuna
Hawaiian Chant: The Lyrical Poetry of Hawaii

Though musically best known for its popular slack-key guitar style, the Hawaiian culture contains some far more hidden and ancient traditions. On this rare recording, modern practitioners of the age old Hawaiian chant practice take us back to a time centuries ago, when chants were the basic musical expression of everyday life for the islanders.

John Keola Lake established Honolulu's Academy of Hawaiian Arts, Music & Dance, and was declared a "national treasure" in 1987. Na Wa'a Lalani Kahuna is a group of accomplished individual chanters (including Lake) who first collaborated in 1990 while preparing for the 200-year anniversary observance of the last Hawaiian temple built in Hawaii.

Villagers of Fadiouth Island
Tom Tom Arabesques: Drums of Shell Island

Brilliant Senegalese tom tom drumming from the island of Fadiouth, a stunning jewel in the Atlantic known for its beautiful shells. The drum ensemble is made of five young master drummers of the Serer tribe. Six tom toms are used in the performance, including the bass tom tom, which beats out the basic rhythm, and high-pitched tom toms, which beat out finely delineated rhythms. This rapid and crisp cross-beat drumming is an almost entirely secreted music tradition; performing arts on the island are virtually never performed for tourists. This recording captures this hidden tradition live at a secret festival, so it can now be enjoyed off island in all of its fiery glory!

Manikasanti
Bronze Blossoms

The incredibly rich gamelan tradition of Bali continues into the twenty-first century with Manikasanti! The name of the group derives from the name of the gamelan that they use: Manik means "jewel" and Santi means "peace."

Manikasanti's leader, I Wayan Sinti, was born in 1943 in Dauh Kutuh and is a music teacher at a specialty school. His career has spanned nearly forty years, and he is well known as a vocal music specialist with a strong background in old gamelan music. He received an M.A. from the University of California – San Diego in 1981. He is very energetic in his activities as a composer, and has provided a great number of pieces for the annual gamelan music contest.

Most Balinese gamelan groups are traditional village groups with amateur musicians from each village forming around that village’s traditional instrument, but I Wayan Sinti, the leader of Manikasanti, has instead scouted the most talented players from across the island and formed a new diverse group of members who simply love to perform the music ... this is the new face of Balinese gamelan!

Papi Basaldua and Grupo Cantares
Tiempo de Amar

Though not well known in the rest of the world, Papi Basaldúa and his Grupo Cantares are immensely popular in Latin America, especially in Argentina, where they fill large arenas, and in their homeland of Paraguay. The group is made up of three brothers and their sister, and is one of the foremost exponents of Paraguayan folklore. Basaldúa studied harp with his father, and was already participating in recordings at the age of eight. His younger brother Hugo is a vocalist and plays guitar, and has won songwriting contests in Paraguay. The youngest brother Yiyo also sings, and plays folk instruments such as the quena. And their sister, Hilda Maria, is a highly attractive and original singer, taking most of the lead vocals, and is also an expert in Paraguayan folk dance. In performances, Papi Basaldúa and his Grupo Cantares prize the purity of their tradition while at the same time expressing the feelings and emphases of the modern Paraguayan people… herein lies the secret of their great popularity in their homeland.

Rhulinobo Elige/Joker Shamavu/Munyeno Vesoo & Bolungwe Munyeno
Music of the Shi People

Rhulinobo Elige, Joker Shamavu, Munyeno Vesoo and Bolungwe Munyeno are not professional recording artists. They were found in Lwiro, a small village in Zaire, by Japanese musicologist Dr. Tsutomu Oohashi in the 1990s, and all of them are part of the Shi branch of the Bantu tribe. All four are expressive singers who also play the distinctive likembe, which, like the kora, is an indigenous instrument among Africa’s traditional thumb pianos.

Philip Koutev National Ensemble
A Bird is Singing

Polyphonic choral music forms an important part of the cultural heritage of Bulgaria. The primary features of this music are its method of vocalization without a trace of vibrato, and the use of discordant harmonies based especially on clashes of minor seconds and major sevenths. This music had remained hidden to the general public until 4AD picked up a recording of various female Bulgarian choirs and released it under the title Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares... Nonesuch grabbed the American rights and the album became a surprise best-seller in the late 1980s. The origins of all of this success spring from the founding, in 1952, of the first Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir by Philip Koutev. Koutev revitalized dying folk traditions, collecting folk tunes and creating complex arrangements for female choirs. This original female choir was the key group participating on the Le Mystère CD. This same choir is part of The Philip Koutev National Folk Ensemble, heard on this rich collection of traditional vocal and instrumental music. The ensemble consists of 120 members, including forty singers, sixty dancers, and twenty instrumentalists, and is a Bulgarian cultural ambassador that frequently tours around the world.

Hamza El Din
Muwashshah

Arguably the most famous of all Arabic musicians, Hamza El Din hails from Nubia, the now-underwater land of the Aswan High Dam in Northern Africa. His 1963 album on Vanguard, Music of Nubia, was the first recording of Afro-Arabic music to be distributed in the West. He is a titan of world music, an ambassador of Nubian culture, the founder of the modern Nubian music tradition, and the world’s greatest player of the oud (an Arabic lute-like instrument). Hamza El Din first started singing as a means to warn his people about the inevitable destruction of their land due to the High Dam. He spent years wandering and collecting traditional music. He later studied classical Arabic music, and then in Rome began working on a synthesis of Arabic, Nubian and Western music. When he was finished studying in Rome, the High Dam had been built and he was homeless. Since then, he has become a citizen of the world, traveling and playing on all continents, and eventually emigrating to the Bay Area in California. Muwashshah is a tribute to Ziryab, a legendary African slave who escaped from the court of Baghdad to become one of Arabic music’s most important composers, and is one of El Din's most celebrated recordings, called "a triumph" by All Music Guide.

Carlos Garcia
Tierra Querida

A delightful tango album that exudes the rich history and sensuality of exotic Buenos Aires! Carlos Garcia, who has been steeped in the music of his homeland for decades, credits the remarkable atmosphere of this legendary city for infusing his music with the true essence of the tango. Garcia, who directs the Tango All-Stars on this recording, was born in 1914. He began his musical career as a pianist during the 1930s, gradually gearing his performances more and more towards the traditional music of Argentina. After he returned to the world of tango, he began conducting studio orchestras and accompanied many celebrated singers. In addition to tango, Garcia’s musical interests have expanded to involve him in such diverse and eclectic fields as jazz and Hawaiian music. Such influences have given his style a rich, broad appeal. Garcia once stated in an interview that of all the musical genres in which he had worked, it was the tango that gave him the fullest arena in which to exercise his abilities. He claimed that when working in the realm of the tango, his arrangements seemed to flow with the utmost ease and creativity, and he believed that the remarkable atmosphere of Buenos Aires deserved credit for his fluent and natural music.

Lita Ariran
Black Turtle

This is the first on-location recording of the folk music of the Garifuna people. The songs reflect the varied history of the nomadic Garifuna, who constantly roam from their home of San Vicente Island. Music and dance are at the core of their lives; their music features the rhythmic dynamism and diversity that derives from their African heritage, along with repeated melodies of inherent beauty and simplicity, accompanied by a variety of traditional drums, tortoise shells, clappers, maracas and conch shells, which are used as wind instruments. Aurelio Martinez and Lucas Caldren formed Lita Ariran in Honduras in 1989 with the goal of reinforcing the cultural identity of the Garifuna. Due to modern economic conditions, many of these people have been leaving their villages and their country to seek better opportunities in the U.S. and elsewhere. Lita Ariran are struggling to preserve the gradually disappearing traditions in light of these circumstances, playing a valiant role as the irreplaceable successors of the traditional arts of their people.

Laszlo Berki Gypsy Ensemble
The Gypsy Violin

A passionate exploration of traditional Gypsy violin music featuring Laszlo Berki at the head of an authentic ensemble of violins, bass, clarinet and cimbalom! This CD contains mainly traditional pieces at the heart of the Gypsy repertoire. These perfectly coordinated ensemble pieces center around the first violinist, who leads the ensemble. In their performance of the czardas, the slow opening lassu section is played with a deeply moving lyricism and pathos, and is followed by the friss section, in which the tempo picks up as the performers play fiercely passionate rhythms with flawlessly coordinated dynamism. Since these orchestras rarely use musical notation, and improvise according to their mood and that of the audience, the same piece will never be played in the same way, either by different ensembles or even by the same ensemble on different occasions.

Laszlo Berki is among the most renowned exponents of the Gypsy violin. As well as working with his own ensemble, which performs on this recording, he is active with the National Folklore Ensemble and a one hundred-piece Gypsy orchestra. In 1992, the same year in which this project was recorded, Berki organized an international festival of the Gypsy arts. This festival was an important event which presented the Gypsies — a people with a long-established reputation as nomads — the opportunity to come together and cement the cultural and ethnic bonds which link them. An innovative spirit with a strong grasp of the traditional, Berki believes that in order for Gypsy violinists to present an always- challenging performance, they should not blindly follow tradition, but should constantly strive to play their music in an inspired and uninhibited manner, a philosophy which is strikingly manifest on this recording.

Kim Suk Chul Ensemble
The Shamans of the Eastern Seaboard

The Republic of Korea is a country where shamanism continues to play a completely natural part in everyday life. Shamans perform a wide variety of rites all year round in the context of seasonal functions, festivities, and religious ceremonies. Kim Suk Chul is the leader of a group of performing artists of shamanist background active all along the eastern seaboard of South Korea, from the cities of Gangneung in the north to Pusan in the south. The Korean government has recognized him as an Important Intangible Cultural Property (No. 82). Korean shamans are by no means the mystical beings one might envisage. They serve as mediums between the gods, liberating people’s conscious awareness and spirits through their vocal and instrumental performance. The shamans of the eastern seaboard present performances with unparalleled polyrythmic qualities using instruments such as the gwaengwari and jing gongs, the jegum cymbals, the double-headed hourglass drum janggu, and the double-reed woodwind hojok. At shamanistic ceremonies, the musicians may be called on to play and dance for several days on end; this means that they have to master more than one hundred rhythm patterns, both individually and as an ensemble. This disc presents three sprawling, epic songs containing the essence of the shamanist music of Korea's eastern seaboard.

Sunjul Cissoko & Marhawa Kouyate
Akakaje

Sunjul Cissoko was born into a family of hereditary griots in 1921 in southern Senegal, and began studying the kora (the harp-lute popular in West Africa) at an early age. His father and grandfather immersed him in training for the broad abilities essential for any griot: prose and poetry, songs, instrumental performance, musical composition, masterful communication skills. Cissoko finished his training at the age of 20, and has followed the artistic path of the griot for over half a century. His natural manner of vocal delivery and the superb sound of his kora have gained him overwhelming popularity throughout West Africa.

In this brilliant recording from 1990, Cissoko is accompanied by his wife, Marhawa Kouyate, a majestic and skillful griot singer. This is an astonishing, vivacious and joyous performance, all the more impressive because Cissoko was well into his 70s at the time of this recording. As the influence of western music seeps into West Africa, Sunjul Cissoko stands as one of the last great representatives of the ancient historic griot tradition.

Sekhe Gong Semara Ratih
Awakening the Mountain

Formed in October 1988, the Semara Ratih gamelan ensemble is led by an up-and-coming young dancer, Anak Agung Anom Putra. Gamelan groups in Bali generally center around an entire village, with the instruments jointly owned. Such village-based gamelan ensembles are obligated to offer their services at temple festivals, and various other village ceremonies.

Semara Ratih was formed by a group of young musicians who hoped to break away from this village-bound tradition. Most of its members are teachers or students at STSI (Sekolah Tanggih Seni Indonesia), the national arts university. The remaining members actively perform in the Ubud village and surrounding area. The group strives to perpetuate traditional Balinese music and dance forms while exploring new and experimental works. The guiding force behind this search for new direction is the well-known composer and performer I Nyoman Windha, the group’s musical director. Semara Ratih has performed a variety of his works under his direction, while breaking new ground in the dance realm and simultaneously reviving classical works that face seeming extinction. Their goal to challenge both the old and new is made possible by its innovative gamelan, known as gong semara dana.

Danzas Panama
Songs of the Mestizos

On this recording, Danzas Panama, one of the preeminent traditional folk music groups from the nation of Panama, presents the essence of Latin American music — the natural warmth of the unadorned singing voice, dynamic phrasing, the poignant sense of nostalgia evoked by the sound of the guitar — together with the distinctive flavor which gives Panamanian music its character.

The style of music heard here is that of the urban dwelling mestizos, people of mixed Spanish and Native American blood who comprise about 60% of the entire population of Panama. While Spanish and Portuguese domination of South and Central America had a generally destructive influence on native culture, in the field of music the European influences produced a rich harvest of new musical styles and contributed greatly to the creation of a new form of ethnic music that took root among the mestizos.

Danzas Panama is renowned throughout Panama for their performances at secular and religious celebrations, in small venues, such as restaurants, and large venues, such as the National Theater in Panama City. Perhaps because the group’s members are related by marriage, their performances transmit and endearing sense of warmth that exceeds mere musical connection. The instruments used in this recording include accordion, violin and guitar, as well as indigenous instruments, such as the five-stringed mehoranera, and various native percussion instruments, such as the tambor repicador, tambor pujador, caja, churuca and maracas.

Danzas Panama
Songs of the Mestizos

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was almost certainly the greatest qawwal of the 20th century. Qawwali is a form of religious song performed by the Sufis of India and Pakistan. It is essentially comprised of religious poetry set to music, meant to draw Sufi mystics closer to God, with a distinctive sound built upon sweeping melodies accompanied by rhythmic clapping. Over the years, its growing popularity has caused qawwali to become a form of entertainment appealing to the general public, so that it is now heard in Bollywood films and at clubs, and is performed at wedding ceremonies and other celebrations.

Nusrat was born in Pakistan in 1948 into a revered musical family. His father was the acclaimed classical musician and qawwal, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, who discovered his son’s talent when the young Nusrat was just nine years old. Drawing upon the work of past masters of the art, including that of his father and also his uncle, Ustad Mubarik Ali Khan, he created his own style of performance, slightly altering elements of qawwali to reach a wider audience, thus being a leader in bringing this age-old music into the present day. His collaborations with rock and experimental musicians have drawn even greater attention to qawwali. In 1991, he worked with ambient music composer Michael Brook on the Real World album Musst Musst, his breakthrough album in the West; a single from that album, remixed by Massive Attack, was an alternative and dance hit. He collaborated with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ, with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder on the soundtrack for Dead Man Walking, and numerous albums, both traditional and crossover, brought his mystical, transcendent music to a wide audience in the western world.