Category: 2005-2009

“As It Was in Ancient Times” (2007) – Village People Folk Band * Traditional * LP: As It Was from Ancient Times 

Now more familiar in Ukraine as a carol, “As It Was in Ancient Times,” true to the title, goes back to early pre-Christian days. It’s a solemn cosmogony song, speculating on how things got started. It frames the singers observing the blue waters and nearby fires, and deciding that the only way they are to create anything is to send someone down to the ocean floor, to gather the yellow sand, and to sprinkle it outward to bring us flowers and stars.

In the Christian era, it’s St. Peter who is given that particular assignment, and that’s the version we hear on this recent, ancient-sounding recording. The refrain “Oj Daj Bo’ ” is an entreaty to God, which likely appeared in the earliest versions. A word about locality to enhance these perspective-bound thoughts on deity, distance and time: The album cover specifies the music as coming from the right bank of Kiev which, on a map, is the West side. 

“Heydarbaba” (2008) – Sari Gelin Ensemble * Written by Mohammad-Hossein Shariar and B. Kerimov * CD: Azerbaijan Traditional Music (2011) * Label: ARC Music

The notes on this disc on the ARC label credits the “emotive vocals” of the  Lök-Batan Folklore Group’s Zulfiya Mamedova, who’s female, but the bonus track at the end features an uncredited male vocalist. He’s Gochaq Askerov of the Sari Gelin Ensemble, and he’s singing a musical rendering of the Iranian Azerbaijani poet Mohammad-Hossein Shariar’s “Heydar Babaya Salam.” It’s a mountain of a poem expressing Shariar’s childhood memories of a real, geographical mountain near Tabriz, Iran. Written in the Azer dialect, the verses won a place in the hearts of all Turkic nations to the extent that it brought Shariar’s dialect acceptance in Iran, while certain phrases in the poem became Azeri idioms. A full translation of it can be seen at Azerbaijan International. Music credits go to “B. Kerimov,” who is also credited on YouTube versions by the Azerbaijani vocalist Rubabe Muradova (1930-1983). This track first appeared on the Sari Gerin Ensemble’s 2008 Music from Azerbaijan disc.

“Los Guisados de la Berenjena” (2006) – Aman Aman * Trad. * Album: Música i Cants Sefardis D’Orient i Occident * Label: Galileo MC

Aman Aman are a side project by Mara Aranda and Efrén López, whose Catalonian group L’Ham de Foc (“the fire hook” in Catalan) got their names in circulation among Spanish and world music listeners. The offshoot enabled the two to explore the music of the Sephardic Jews, who had spread out into Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa after their expulsion from Spain in the 15th Century. It’s a musical trail that’s rich with distinct traditions and enchanting sounds. Their opulent version of the old song “Los Guisados de la Berenjena” describes seven ways to prepare eggplant, a Sephardic suppertime staple. Other versions of the song, from days of yore, are known to give as many as thirty-five different recipes. A repeating phrase between each verse gives a nod to “Uncle Cerasí,” who enjoys “wine, wine, and wine.”

“Dolorita” (2007) – Puerto Plata * Traditional * Produced by Benjamin de Menil and David Wayne * CD: Mujer de Cabaret * Label: Iaso

If you’re familiar with the story of bachata music in the Dominican Republic, how the dicatator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo (assassinated in 1961) played a part in developing an ongoing popular conception of guitar music as being inferior to the accordion sounds of merengue típico, it’s difficult not to approach Puerto Plata’s music away from that context. José Cobles is his real name, having adopted the resort town he was born in as a stage moniker, and his vocals and guitar graced his very first internationally-distributed album, which happened in 2007 when he was 83 years old. (But that’s Dominican guitar wiz Edilio Paredes handling those lead parts.) It took that long for musicians like this to finally gain acceptance? Surely there’s more complexity to his timeline than this, but what if we just zero in on the music, which Puerto Plata actually transports from an era predating the popular emergence of bachata. That’s definitely something to think about as you marvel at its effervescence. [Cobles passed away on January 4, 2020 at the age of 96.] 

No violation of the Baltic post-folk mandate of 13th-century apparel and group-singing occurs here, which is certainly not a problem. This Latvian group’s name is Baļķi, which means “logs” and is pronounced somewhat like “balchy.” They formed in 2000 in the port town of Liepāja, and have since recorded three albums, having maintained a consistent berobed druid look. The songs on their second album Te Man Tiki (2009) (I was here), focus on springtime themes and are presumably all traditional.

“Enduring” (2008) – Zhao Muyang * CD: The East Is Red

In the ’90s, Zhao Muyang made a name for himself among Chinese rock fans as the firecracker drummer for the thrash metal band Overload. In the late ’00s, he transitioned into an acoustic guitar-playing folksinger whose full-throated vocals drew from Northwestern Chinese folk traditions. A CD of his from 2008—hard to find outside of Muyang’s homeland—translates to The East Is Red, and it starts out with three fully-formed standard bearers of how you imagine Chinese folk rock ought to sound. Acoustic instruments dance over percussive heartbeats with an alluring pipa out front. The album’s other six tracks, though, are strummed guitar and voice offerings that make for less riveting of a listen for foreign ears. One of the first three songs, “Enduring,” now appears on a new compilation on the Riverboat label called Lost in China: Off the Beaten Track from Beijing to Xinjiang (2017), which gathers twelve tracks from the past decade-and-a-half’s Chinese folk rock revival.

“Garrib Tigy” (2009) – Ahmad Fathi * CD: Akher El Akhbar * Label: Rotana

Without previous familiarity with Yemeni oud master Ahmad Fathi, you might not suspect the music on this dance pop track to be the work of a virtuoso. Fathi is a triple threat, though: a respected musician, a singer on many Arabic pop market recordings, and a composer whose operetta “Children of the  World” set music to words by Syrian poet Mahmoud Yassin. Fathi is a tad older than he looks on the cover (born in 1957); his daughter Bilquis is an up-and-coming singer. “Garrib Tigy” is a true pop song title, translating roughly to “come on and try it.”

“Gül (Flower)” (2006) – Zainidin Imanaliev * Written by Atai Ogonbaev * Produced by Joel Gordon and Theodore Levin * CD: Tengir-Too: Mountain Music of Kyrgyzstan * Label: Smithsonian Folkways

Zainidin Imanaliev is the man on the cover of this compilation. He plays the komuz, a pear-shaped instrument with a long neck that you see players holding upside down (as he does in the photo) or cradling guitar-style. The song tells of hollyhocks and nightingales who “cling to the flowers” like dew and “exchange glances.” It’s written by Atai Ogonbaev, the region’s best-known bard, who lived from 1904 to 1949. Songs such as this, according to the notes, express a general optimism wafting through early thirties Kyrgyzstan, notwithstanding Soviet occupation. (“Our spirits rise and we open up [like fine flowers] in this new era,” goes the final verse.) It’s mountain music, with sunny strums and falsetto phrase-endings, with intriguing possibilities for an Appalachian interpreter. (Tengir-Too is the name of a Kyrgyz folk ensemble who receives top billing on this album.)

“Rossignol” (2007) – Lionel Loueke * Written by Lionel Loueke * LP: Virgin Forest * Produced by Robert Sadin * Label: Obliq Sound

On his 2007 Virgin Forest album, guitarist Lionel Luoeke mixes his West African roots and his jazz chops into an especially fine purée. As you can hear on this track, the sound is entrancing and organic, featuring chanted vocals that could be sung in Fon or French—the prevalent languages in his native Benin. If Loueke were simply singing from a lexicon of his own invention, though, he would get your attention. (The female voice on “Rossingol” and others on the album belong to Gretchen Parlato.) Loueke is currently based in New York City.