Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad Live at Coke Studios Pakistan (2011)

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Speaking of Qawwali music, according to Asia Society New York:

Qawwali is a Sufi devotional form known as the “path of the heart”. Popularized by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, qawwali songs are based on the mystical poetry of Sufism. The traditional music works its way to ecstatic peaks with strong voices and percussive handclaps, seeking to transport musicians and audience closer to the divine.

Fareed Ayaz, Abu Muhammad Qawwal and Brothers are masters of Qawwali Sufi music as well as classical genres such as tarana, thumri, and khayal. They belong to the Qawwal Bachon ka Gharana of Delhi, a music school founded in the 14th century that remains the best-known gharana today. Weaving together devotional and secular traditions, Ayaz and company have been bringing South Asian music to international audiences for over 30 years.

Here, Fareed Ayaz, Abu Muhammad Qawwal and Brothers perform a mesmerizing set of Qawwali music at Coke Studios Pakistan. This set was produced by Rohail Hyatt.

First up is “Khabaram Raseeda:”

“Mori Bangri”

“Rung”

“Kangna”

  • Follow Fareed Ayaz, Abu Muhammad Qawwal & Brothers at Facebook.

  • Follow Coke Studio Pakistan at Facebook.

  • Listen to "Kangna" by Fareed Ayaz & Abu Muhammad on Episode 13 of the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.

Songhoy Blues at the Tiny Desk

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Songhoy Blues at the NPR Tiny Desk

NPR’s Bob Boilen says:

“The music I feel most connected to beyond rock is from Mali. The melodies are so fluid, so elegant and most of all so trance-inducing. It often sits on one chord and notes played revolve around that chord. It can feel like a drone at times, and in the case of Songhoy Blues it rocks, lulls and the percussion grooves are not only trance-inducing but dance-inducing.”

  • Visit Songhoy Blues’ official website.

  • Listen to Songhoy Blues on Episode 05 of the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.

  • Purchase Songhoy Music at Bandcamp.

  • Follow Songhoy Blues at Facebook.

  • Follow the group at Twitter.

  • Purchase Songhoy Blues music at Amazon.

Josh Rouse Radio 1998 and 2000

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I used to do a lot of live concert trading. I got rid of quite a bit of my collective over the years, but I did keep a few personal favorites for the treasure box.

Here we have three different radio appearances by Nebraska’s Josh Rouse. Two from 1998 and one from 2000, which also includes a couple of interview segments.

Originally from Nebraska, Rouse mined that heritage for his 1998 debut Dressed Up Like Nebraska, of which Allmusic says:

“Josh Rouse plays it straight like the roads and byways which criss-cross the Great Plains. This music is the no-frills variety that takes a bit of getting used to, but once acclimated, listeners start to feel like they've come across something real. The songs which comprise Dressed Up Like Nebraska sound like they've really happened, if not to the artist, then to those near and dear to him.”

21 years and 13 albums later, Rouse has left Nebraska but continues to play earnest Americana Folk Rock Pop(™).

Josh Rouse Live at Mountain Stage (The Culture Theatre, Charleston, WV, 08/22/98)

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  1. Introduction

  2. Dressed Up Like Nebraska

  3. Late Night Conversation

  4. Suburban Sweetheart

The introduction has some static and unfortunately, there is what sounds like a CD skip during the first few seconds of “Suburban Sweetheart.” I have had this disc since approximately 2001 and have just never tried to fix it. Sorry about that, but hey, otherwise this is a fantastic early acoustic set. Enjoy.

Josh Rouse Live at E-Town (Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO, 11/22/98)

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  1. Introduction

  2. Everybody Knows What’s Going On

  3. Interview

  4. Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want

  5. Little Know It All

  6. Interview

  7. Dressed Up Like Nebraska

  8. White Freightliner

Josh Rouse Live at NPR’s World Cafe (Cafe Studios, Philadelphia, PA, 08/14/00)

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  1. Introduction

  2. Marvin Gaye

  3. Interview

  4. Laughter

  5. Interview

  6. Direction

  7. Interview

  8. 100M Backstroke

  9. Interview/Closing

  • Visit Josh Rouse’s official website.

  • Follow Josh Rouse on Twitter.

  • Follow Josh Rouse on Twitter.

  • Purchase Rouse’s music at Amazon.

Chris Forsyth and the Broken Mirrors Motel Band 7​​.​​11​​.​​19

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Celebrating his latest double LP “All Time Present,” guitarist Chris Forsyth did a little mini-tour with “The Broken Mirrors Motel Band.” From Forsyth’s Facebook page announcing the run of three shows, Forsyth says:

Minneapolis/Milwaukee/Chicago dates in July. The band on this little run will be Doug McCombs (Tortoise, etc) on bass, Areif Sless-Kitain (Brokeback, The Eternals) on drums, and Jaime Fennelly (Mind Over Mirrors) on keys aka the Broken Mirrors Motel Band.

We are lucky enough to live in a day and age when we can get high quality live concert recordings within days. Ofter for free. Think about that. What a time to be alive. With that in mind, let’s all give a warm thanks to the people over at Southern Jukebox Music for not only recording 07/11/19’s show and sharing it, but making it a “name your price” release on Bandcamp with all proceeds going to the artist. That is cool. Really, if you can, throw a couple of bucks Forsyth’s way. The more we can do to support great music the better.

Southern Jukebox Music says:

In early July 2019, Chris Forsyth pulled three lauded Chicago musicians together to rehearse for a single day before they set out on a short three-night tour—Doug McCombs of Tortoise on bass, Jaime Fennelly of Mind Over Mirrors on synth, and Areif Sless-Kitain of the Regulator Watts on drums.

Before hitting Acme Records in Milwaukee and finishing at the Hideout in Chicago, they made their first live appearance together at the Fraternal Order of Eagles #34 in Powderhorn, Minneapolis, the fabled meeting place of young punks and irritated townies confused at the noise coming from one of the ballrooms that’s drowning out Karaoke at the bar.

This was recorded direct to reel. Enjoy and thanks to all involved!

Chris Forsyth 7​.​11​.​19 by Chris Forsyth, released 16 August 2019 1. Tomorrow Might As Well Be Today → Mystic Mountain 2. Dream Song 3. Dreaming in the Non-Dream 4. Techno Top 5. The Past Ain't Passed Live from Eagles 34 in Minneapolis. Any proceeds will go to the artist.

Sarathy Korwar Says There Are More Arriving

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Born in the US but raised in India, Sarathy Korwar has made a career out of blending the horizons. On 2016’s Day to Day, Korwar released what NPR called a “a knockout album.” “With his own field recordings of the Sidi Troupe of Ratanpur, which consists of five drummers who also vocalize, Korwar sought to illuminate patterns of human migration and drift, and the small-scale but profound ways in which cultures can meld.”

Where Day to Day was often meditative, More Arriving is urgent. Visceral even. And timely. More Arriving is still steeped in Jazz but this time speaks in the voice of Hip Hop. Korwar says in the album’s “mini documentary”:

“This album serves as a snapshot of a plethora of Brown voices in 2019. All unique, proud, vulnerable, and defiant. The diverse languages that people are rapping in brings with it some really interesting variation of cadence, meter, and flow that makes the music and its combination with jazz and electronic music really, really exciting.

Watch Korwar’s “mini documentary” for the new album More Arriving.

Listen to Bol (feat. Zia Ahmed & Aditya Prakash)

Taken from More Arriving (2019): https://sarathykorwar.ffm.to/morearriving.pbt

Watch the official video for “Mumbay” (feat. MC Mawali)

Watch Sarathy Korwar Play A Nighttime Meditation On Tablas And Computer for NPR in 2017 on a balcony.

  • Visit Sarathy Korwar's official website

  • Purchase the album at Bandcamp

  • Visit Korwar's Facebook page

  • Visit Korwar's Twitter

  • Purchase the album from Amazon
    Listen to "Bismillah" by Sarathy Korwar on Episode 08 of The Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow

Hear 3 Songs from Hiss Golden Messenger's Upcoming album "Terms of Surrender"

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North Carolina’s Hiss Golden Messenger is one of my favorite current acts. M.C. Taylor writes of love, loss, longing and anger. Things aren’t the way they should be and there’s something deep in each of us that knows it. But there is power in love. Of course there is darkness in the world, but it never drowns out the Light. This is the protest music we need. There is power in community. Hiss Golden Messenger waves this flag with what you might call “Southern (By way of Topenga Canyon) Folk Roots Americana With A Possibility of Jamband”(™).

Hiss Golde Messenger’s newest album “Terms of Surrender” is due out September 20 on Merge Records. But we are lucky enough to be able to preview three songs from the album now.

Watch the official video for “I Need A Teacher"

Preview the track “Cat's Eye Blue”

Preview the track “Happy Birthday, Baby”

  • Visit Hiss Golden Messenger’s official website.

  • Follow Hiss Golden Messenger at Facebook.

  • Follow Hiss Golden Messenger at Twitter.

  • Support Hiss Golden Messenger at Bandcamp.

  • Purchase Hiss Golden Messenger’s music at Amazon.

Weeping Bong Band (7.8.18 The Root Cellar Greenfield, MA)

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If you are the type to hazard a guess that a band called Weeping Bong Band would send forth cosmicy simmering shimmers of drone folk goodness into the universe, then your hazardous guess would be correct. The group’s page at the Feeding Tube Records site says:

Sub-underground super-groups are not common. This is less a function of the concept’s oxymoronic nature than of the fiercely independent stance of musicians toiling in this area. By definition, they are doing what they do simply because they love it. It can be quite difficult to distract them from their main focus long enough to get them to do anything else. Weeping Bong Band is a lovely exception that proves this rule.

Three members — Clark Griffin, Wednesday Knudsen and PG Six — are in the current line-up of Pigeons. One, Anthony Pasquarosa, has his own host of solo projects (Crystaline Roses, Gluebag, Burnt Envelope, etc.). And a final “ghost member,” Beverly Ketch, is half of the duo Viewer. Together, however, theirs is a rural psych engine that weeps as gently as a spring rain.

This is high-provenance instrumental hippie spew from the apex of the Pioneer Valley. There’s plenty of burbling psych guitar, laced with overtones that will make you conjure up visions of dark stoned nights. It is definitely music made in the day when marijuana had passed its medical-use-only status in the Commonwealth. Which is not to infer this music is unimbued with its own mystical curing properties, especially when played at mind-bending volume.

The band’s 2018 self-titled release is highly recommended.

Watch a live 2018 set from The Root Cellar Greenfield, MA and experience for yourself.

Artist Spotlight: Letta Mbulu

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This artist spotlight originally posted January 18, 2019 on the dearly missed Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow site.

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One of the joys of doing a project like the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow is discovering new artists we didn’t yet know we loved.

We featured Letta’ Mbulu’s track “Kukuchi” on Episode 32 of our very own podcast. We were so smitten with Mbulu’s music that we wanted to give you, the fine people of the Internet, more Mbulu. So we put together an hour-long mix of some of our current favorite tracks.

If you don’t yet know Mbulu, allow us to introduce you.

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Letta Mbulu (pronounced "let-ah" "em-boo-loo") was born in Soweto, South Africa in 1942 and remains a towering figure in South African music. Doug Payne says in his online biography of Mbulu:

Still in her teens, Letta began touring outside of Africa with the musical "King Kong," which ran for a year in England following a highly successful two-year run in South Africa. When the tour ended, she returned to South Africa but soon the policies of Apartheid were to force her to leave her native land for the U.S.A.

She arrived in the United States in 1965 and quickly befriended such fellow South African exiles in New York City as Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa - all alumni of the "King Kong" musical. Performances at New York's famed Village Gate club began to attract attention to her talents, particularly from jazz legend Cannonball Adderley, who invited her to tour with him (which she did throughout the remainder of the decade). 

To put Mbulu’s career and influence into perspective, Strange Sounds From Beyond says:

the South African vocalist released her first LP in the same year The Beatles released The White Album. She is the towering figure of South African singing – the proud matriarch of a strange, soulful, synth-powered hybrid of US and South-African influences. Along with the 12 LPs carrying her own name, she’s worked with jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, calypso icon Harry Belafonte, and even Michael Jackson on “Liberian Girl”.

According to South African History, Mbulu was also an accomplished actress who appeared “in the film Roots for which she received an Emmy award. Her other screen appearances include A Warm December with Sidney Pottier and The Colour Purple. She is also a founding member of the South African Artists United (SAAU) an organisation which was established in 1986.”

Allmusic quotes Quincy Jones as saying: "Mbulu is the roots lady, projecting a sophistication and warmth which stirs hope for attaining pure love, beauty, and unity in the world."

If you don’t know her yet, it is our pleasure to introduce you to the music of Letta Mbulu. If you already know her, please enjoy this mix and we’d love to hear your favorite tracks.

Tracklisting:

  1. Hareje *

  2. Kukuchi #

  3. Noma Themba *

  4. Jigijela (Don't Throw Stones) @

  5. Zimkile *

  6. I Need Your Love @

  7. Mamami #

  8. Aredze ^

  9. Afro Texas *

  10. Ade #

  11. Qonqoza (Knock) @

  12. Kube *

  13. Gumba-Gumba #

  14. Macongo @

  15. Olu Ati Ayo #

  16. Melodi (Sounds of Home) @

  17. Never Leave You *

Though there are many terrific albums by Letta Mbulu, for this mix, I focused on the following four albums (use the symbols to see which song is found on each album):

@ Letta (Chisa, 1970)

* Naturally (Fantasy, 1972)

^ I’ll Never Be The Same (1973)

# Letta Mbulu Sings/Free Soul (2005)

Dire Wolves: July 27, 2019 Market Hotel (NYCTaper Presents)

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NYCTaper continues to be one of the most valuable “free” resources on the Internets. Seriously, if you can, please donate to what they do.

This time, they’ve captured Dire Wolves Exactly Perfect Sisters Band. Led by Jeffrey Alexander out of San Francisco. The band is best described as:

Freak-folk?

Free Jazz?

Folk Jazz?

Drone rock?

“the higher dimensions of cosmic free-rock”?

Liquidy-musical space auras?

All of the above?

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Whatever you call it, Dire Wolves find the intersection of so many musics that I love: folk, jazz, rock, drone, repeat-o-rock, psych, etc. Building guitar swirls with vocals transcending language, this is transcendent music from the gut.

The group’s new album Grow Towards the Light opens with the sinewy “I Control the Weather,” which lets you slide just so into the musical world of Dire Wolves Exactly Perfect Sisters Band. Pulsating grooves and swirling vocals with hints of Ethiopian jazz, the music is both mesmerizing and cathartic. Somehow both transcendent and immediate.

According to NYCTaper: “On this night Market Hotel, presented by this site, Dire Wolves came bearing a special guest, Sunwatchers saxophonist Jeff Tobias, and a new album to jam, courtesy of our friends at Beyond Beyond is Beyond.”

Here’s the first track, ““Archons at the Gates of BSHWCK”:

Dire Wolves 2019-07-27 Market Hotel Brooklyn, NY USA Presented by NYCTaper Recorded and produced by acidjack Neumann KM150 + Soundboard (Engineer: RL)>Zoom F8>2x24bit WAV>Adobe Audition CC>Izotope Ozone 5>Audacity 2.3.1>FLAC ( level 8 ) Tracks [Total Time 53:40] 01 Archons at the Gates of BSHWCK 02 I Control The Weather>Love Everybody (For Moses)>Vibrational North Star

Here’s the first track (sort of) off of the band’s fantastic new release Grow Towards The Light, “I Control The Weather” // “I Control the Weather>Love Everybody (For Moses)>Vibrational North Star”:

Dire Wolves 2019-07-27 Market Hotel Brooklyn, NY USA Presented by NYCTaper Recorded and produced by acidjack Neumann KM150 + Soundboard (Engineer: RL)>Zoom F8>2x24bit WAV>Adobe Audition CC>Izotope Ozone 5>Audacity 2.3.1>FLAC ( level 8 ) Tracks [Total Time 53:40] 01 Archons at the Gates of BSHWCK 02 I Control The Weather>Love Everybody (For Moses)>Vibrational North Star

Watch the “Water Bearing One” video by Sheila Bosco from “Grow Towards The Light” LP by Dire Wolves Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band:

Watch the official “Spacetime Rider” video:

  • Visit the band’s official site

  • Visit the show’s page at the NYCTaper site

  • Download the show from its Live Music Archive Page

  • Support the band at Bandcamp

  • Follow the band on Facebook

  • Read a terrific interview with the band at It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Live at WOMAD 1985

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In honor of Real World Records releasing the monumental Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Live at WOMAD 1985, here is video of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan performing the first track from the release, “Allah Hoo Allah Hoo”:


  • Read some further thoughts on the album:

  • Visit Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s site at the Real World Records website.

  • Stream the album at NPR.

  • Purchase the album at Amazon.