World Fusion with: Anouar Brahem, Richard Bona, Dhafer Youssef, John McLaughlin, Shankar Mahadevan, Zakir Hussain, Jan Garbarek and Arat Kilo.
1- Anouar Brahem, François Couturier, Klaus Gesing, Björn Meyer and the Orchestra della Radio Svizzera Italiana.
Anouar Brahem composed music for a string orchestra for the first time, with the help of the Austrian composer Johannes Berauer. The organic string sounds form a delicate and transparent foundation for the subtle solos. The solos are not central, as is the case with much World Fusion music, but everything is in service of atmosphere and emotion. The listener is taken into a hypnotic, dreamy trance. CD. Souvenance – Anouar Brahem. LABEL: ECM Records (2015), code: 3797776. Video
2- Richard Bona, Mandekan Cubano.
Heritage is Richard Bona’s first album in Afro-Cuban music style. The versatile jazz bassist and vocalist of Cameroonian descent gives his original and inspiring vision on the music of the African slaves in Cuba. Richard Bona’s velvety singing voice, often polyphonically dubbed, and his masterful playing on bass or guitar are complemented in a Caribbean-swinging manner by his band Mandekan Cubano. Richard Bona’s special fusion with Afro-Cuban influences, rich in varying sounds and rhythms, often captivates the listener with sunny, heart-warming music. CD. Heritage – Richard Bona, Mandekan Cubano. LABEL: Membran (2016), code: 234245. Video
3- Dhafer Youssef.
Sometimes you have to go north to find the south and vice versa. Dhafer Youssef, originally from Tunisia, is a special migratory bird who finds and reinvents his voice in this way again and again. If much is not certain, finding and accessing the deeper solid core becomes an ongoing challenge. Dhafer Youssef certainly has the necessary self-confidence and sense of favorable conditions. And he has proven to be able to organize this well. Youssef’s exceptional singing unfolds on Birds Requiem in an impressive musical environment. Here too he works with simple yet catchy, seductive melodic motifs that unfold loosely in space. CD. Birds requiem – Dhafer Youssef. LABEL: Okeh (2013), code: 88883721842. Video
4- John McLaughlin.
81 year old British master guitarist John McLaughlin still does not lack a sense of musical adventure. He played an important role in introducing Indian music into jazz and rock, with his group Shakti. This group toured with tabla grandmaster Zakir Hussain, assisted by the Indian singer Shankar Mahadevan. The album Is That So? (from 2020) contains six melodious ragas. McLaughlin uses the guitar synthesizer to create almost orchestral soundscapes, but gives all the space to Mahadevan with his plaintive and meandering vocal notes. Hussain also plays in service of this, with tabla patterns dancing around the singer. Is That So? is not an emphatic mix of Eastern and Western music, but a coming together of three inspired musicians. CD. Is That So? – John McLaughlin, Shankar Mahadevan, Zakir Hussain. LABEL: Abstract Logix (2020), code: 700261477541. Video
5- Jan Garbarek.
Norwegian Jan Garbarek composed all the music and is essentially the only soloist. The music is full of world music influences that have characterized his work since the 1970s. Garbarek’s resonant, carefully articulated tenor and soprano tone matches the spatial, minor/modal themes. He is both a singer and an instrumentalist. Jan Garbarek also plays digital synthesizers, usually as string or flute pads under the folk-like melodies. For the most part it is quiet, contemplative music – attractive, but not superficial music. The Visible World album features six musicians with whom Jan Garbarek had previously worked. CD. Visible World-Jan Garbarek, Rainer Brüninghaus, Eberhard Weber, Marilyn Mazur, Manu Katché, Trilok Gurtu, Mari Boine. LABEL: ECM Records (1995), code: 0158520 V30. Video
6- Sowal Diabi – From Kabul to Bamako.
‘Sowal’ means question in Persian while ‘diabi’ means answer in West African Bambara. The name of the project Sowal Diabi can be seen as a metaphor for the history of their record From Kaboul to Bamako. Female refugees from Mali, Iran, Afghanistan and Kurdistan found that answer together with the French Ethio-jazz group Arat Kilo. The musicians were first brought together by the organization of an event in the Brussels theater Bozar, which wanted to draw attention to the many different cultural expressions of refugees. In the album you can hear fragments from the respective countries of origin. Certainly the Iranian tar (a type of lute) fits nicely into the band’s rather raw rock sound. The group is certainly no stranger to elements from jazz, prog and reggae. CD. Sowal Diabi – De Kaboul à Bamako : From Kabul to Bamako. LABEL: PIAS (2022), code: AC 198. Video
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