World fusion is the mixture of jazz and world music and/or folk melodies. Consider the combination of jazz with African music, jazz with Indian music and jazz with music from the Middle East. World fusion also includes folk jazz, in which folk melodies form the starting point for improvisations. Separate styles such as Latin jazz and Brazilian jazz.
1- Manu Dibango.
The young Emmanuel Dibango N’Djocke (1933-2020) was sent from Cameroon to France by his parents at the age of fifteen to receive technical training. In Paris and Brussels in the 1950s, the young Manu discovered blues and jazz. He trained in classical piano before switching to the saxophone. Upon returning to his native country, he managed to combine his love for jazz with African folk music. In 1972, Dibango personally created interest in African music in the Western world with the album Soul Mokassa. In the twilight of his life, guiding young musicians was one of his most important activities.
CD. Negropolitaines – Manu Dibango.
LABEL: Frémeaux & Associés (2020), code: FA 8560. Video
2- Dhafer Youssef.
He was born in Téboulba (a small village on the coast of Tunisia. He calls radio “the most important school” for him). Dhafer developed an interest in jazz at an early age and listened to it clandestinely during his education at a Koranic school. Later he left Tunisia to start a jazz career and has lived in Europe since 1990, usually in Paris or Vienna. He also works in avant-garde and world music, where he has been nominated for awards. Dhafer Youssef has released many albums of his own and notable work made with the Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu and the Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset. He also has an affinity with Indian and Scandinavian music. On this album Malak Dhafer Youssef plays, together with Markus Stockhausen, Nguyên Lê, Renaud García-Fons and Patrice Héral.
CD. Malak – Dhafer Youssef.
LABEL: Enja Records (1999), code: ENJ 93672. Video
3- Ravi Shankar & Philip Glass.
This album is a well-functioning collaboration between Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar. Shankar’s smooth style fits in nicely with Glass’s dissonant orchestrations. This involves a lot of technical data. Both artists have long taken an intellectual approach to music. The music is brilliant. The symphony dominates the soundscapes, but Shankar’s atmosphere is integral to the success of this project. This album will appeal to fans of John Cage, Terry Riley and Steve Reich.
CD. Passages – Ravi Chankar & Philip Glass.
LABEL: OCCD 13041 + Ariola 260.947 + Ariola 0886948 (1990). Video
4- Vicente Amigo.
The album starts off strong with Amor de Nadie. Self-portrait follows the melancholic line. Vicente Amigo published the album Paseo de Gracia in 2009, together with several collaborators. About his recent musical experiences, Vicente says: Music moves through unfathomable fields and they can all be combined with respect, accuracy and knowledge. I start with flamenco and like to bring it closer to other musical manifestations to find emotions, although I always try not to distort them. Vicente Amigo is considered one of the best artists of his generation in Spain.
CD. Paseo de gracia – Vicente Amigo.
LABEL: Sony (2009), code: 88697-492592. Video
5- Ernie Watts & Gilberto Gil.
The album Afoxé is, just like the music that Ernie Watts & Gilberto Gil and their friends made in Brazil, the sum of striking contradictions. In Bahia, the vast coastal state known as the heart of African culture, contemporary secular versions of sacred Afro-Brazilian candomblé hymns are called afoxés. (The candomblé ritual cult is the product of an innovative blending of Catholic tradition and the beliefs of the secretive African religious societies.) The procession of musicians and singers who bring the candomblé message to the streets of Salvador every year during Carnival, is itself known as an afoxé. And that also applies to the drums, Brazil’s answer to the Cuban conga.
CD. Afoxé – Ernie Watts & Gilberto Gil.
LABEL: ZYX Music (1992), code: CTI 1003-2. Video
6- Gianni Iorio & Pasquale Stafano.
When it comes to the bandoneon, it is impossible not to think of Astor Piazzolla, the great virtuoso and father of nuevo tango, whose influence and legacy are still very much felt. Since the late 1990s, bandoneonist Gianni Iorio and pianist Pasquale Stafano’s Nuevo Tango Ensemble have found inspiration in Piazzola’s jazz-inspired tango and released a handful of beautiful recordings. The album Mediterranean Tales may stem from specific Italian-Argentine roots, but its appeal should be universal. After all, good music, played so beautifully, knows no boundaries.
CD. Mediterranean tales – Gianni Iorio & Pasquale Stafano.
LABEL: Enja Records (2020), code: ENJ-9679. Video
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