For those of you who love Desert Blues, that loping, hypnotic guitar music that we associate with the Tuareg and the Saharawis, consider this: The electric guitar has reshaped traditional Saharawi music, but the situation in the refugee camps grows more dire every day, with fewer and fewer guitars for young people to play, thus further endangering an already endangered cultural legacy.   
Got an electric guitar that is gathering dust somewhere?  Want to put it to truly good use? Check this out!

Okay, if you've gone to the URL above, you know that this is a great site.
It's maintained by my old friend Angel Romero, and it's a terrific resource for what is going on in world music, and as you can see, what is happening on many tangential levels.

Continuing with my theme of how preconceptions can get in the way of hearing something simply for what it is, I give you two much maligned instruments: the accordion and the banjo. The accordion started out innocently enough, but due to its capacity for playing rhythm, melody and harmony simultaneously, and being incredibly loud and portable, it became immensely popular and supplanted older instruments, ending up becoming the heart and soul of many folk idioms. Eventually, it became the most conspicuous member of the Polka ensemble, and from there it was a short hop to the Lawrence Welk Show, where its fate was sealed to an entire generation of young people who simply HATED the instrument, and were enamored of the electric guitar. It is only recently that the accordion has lost some of its stigma.

Next, turn back the clock to the late late 70’s and banjoist extraordinaire Tony Trischka’s fascination with the African roots of the banjo. Who knew? But yes, that instrument which we associate with Country music (plus bluegrass and old-timey), minstrel shows and Dixieland comes from Mama Africa. Years later, I interviewed Angelique Kidjo who told me how much she hated the banjo.  Why? Because her father loved American banjo music! Now fast forward to this week, when the soundtrack to the film “Throw down your heart” about banjoist Bela Fleck’s journey to Africa to commune with musicians and find common threads of sound, is now available. What is it about these instruments that has aroused so much emotion?  They are only instruments, things to make music with!  All I can say is let’s hope that Bela’s explorations bring us al a little bit closer to throwing down our preconceptions about music.

This week, I went to hear a fine Korean singer named Jang sa-ik, started reviewing the series on Central Asian music that we will be bringing you soon, and revisited the music of the Master Musicians of Jajouka, from Morocco, because they are performing in New York City this weekend. In the case of both the Central Asian and Moroccan music, there is no western harmony to speak of, and although the music of Jang sa-ik had been orchestrated, his most powerful songs were those which were sung against a drone, and unconcerned with harmony. I'm a harmony freak, so it wasn't  "easy listening."  But here is what I have found: the first time I heard Central Asian music I was at a festival in Samarkand, and after listening to it performed for a while, the western music played afterward sounded rather saccharine.

Similarly, I once went to a demonstration of the oud. After hearing a number of intricate melodies played, one of the audience members asked if it were possible to play chords on the instrument. Sure, said the lecturer, and strummed a "c" chord. It sounded positively mundane. What had changed in the way I heard music in that short space of time?  Perhaps music, like food or wine has "acquired tastes" and we just have to keep listening until we start to enjoy it. These days, though, when we tend not to make that effort…how many wonderful flavors do we miss out on?

If you love Afropop, and enjoy the Afropop Worldwide radio shows that have pioneered the dissemination of the music throughout the US, AND if you're in the NYC area (or will be), come to the world-famous Tavern On The Green for a truly classy 20th Anniversary Gala, in which Angelique Kidjo and Harry Belafonte will be inducted into the Afropop Hall of Fame. Here at Link we just have to tip our hats to the Afropop team, both as fellow world music crusaders and as co-producers with us for the film "Festival in the Desert: the Tent Sessions". They've worked tirelessly to bring the music they love to an ever wider audience. They're ready to go just about anywhere on earth to learn about, to collect, to archive and to trumpet every manifestation of the African musical diaspora and they've been doing it for twenty wonderful years. To find out more, click on the button just to my right…up a bit--- there you go... And Bravo!

Several wonderful music documentaries will be making their last appearance on the channel in the next few weeks, and among my favorites showing this week is “Amadou and Mariam Live at la Gout D'Or.”  We don’t generally show full concerts, but this one had such great energy coming from both the stage and the audience, and the entire neighborhood, for that matter, that we bucked our own directive and licensed it. The band is tight, and the songs are simple, but catchy. No wonder Manu Chao decided to produce the blind couple's CD, as these elements are similar to his own music. Not only is the performance great, but you get to see one of Paris' most ethnically colorful neighborhoods, as both North and West Africans make La Gout D'Or their home.

Another great film that will be bidding us adieu soon is Jupiter's Dance.  If you haven't seen it yet, make a point to check it out in the next few weeks, and you'll hear some of the wonderfully sweet singing that Congo is famous for.