The Night: World Music

I– The Glooming. (01:00:54 min)
The chemistry between the five musicians from Ireland and America proved so strong that The Gloaming’s debut album was recorded within a week. The Gloaming means ‘the twilight’ and is a fitting name for an ensemble that reinterprets and renews Irish tradition in an introverted and reflective way. Less is more!
Thanks to the slow tempo, the sparse ornamentation, and the mysterious and languid-sounding music, everything gains more depth and meaning, from the interpretation of ancient poems to the nuances and colors in the instruments. The Gloaming’s airs and reels are not meant for dancing, but for listening to in silence. In doing so, the band harks back to the older sean nós tradition, the narrative songs of minstrels.
CD. The Glooming.
LABEL: Real World Records (2014) code: CDRW 200. VIDEO

II– The Unthanks. (01:01:51 min)
Original and idiosyncratic are characteristics that perfectly suit The Unthanks. With their own recording studio and label (Rabble Rouser), the Northern English folk band charts its own course. The Unthanks entice the listener into a dark, magical dream world. Material rooted in the folk tradition is transformed into epic and cinematic music with elements from pop, jazz, and classical.
The otherworldly, husky voices of sisters Rachel and Becky Unthanks, the compelling piano playing of multi-instrumentalist and producer Adrian McNally, the melancholic trumpet solos, and the long, flowing string lines create an enchanting listening experience.
CD. Mount the air – The Unthanks.
LABEL: Rabble Rouser Music (2015) code: RRM013. VIDEO

III– John Lee Hooker. (01:10:36 min)
Starting out as a country blues artist in the 1940s, John Lee Hooker single-handedly developed an angular, electric variant of blues. With his instantly recognizable voice, he commanded respect well into old age. It is unclear at what stage the recordings were made and to what extent John Lee Hooker himself was responsible for the musical choices, but the result is impressive. Alongside the familiar, hypnotic blues numbers (Big Road, Face To Face, Up & Down, Boogie Chillen), we hear soul (Loving People) and pure funk in Funky Mabel. Although he is primarily associated with stomping blues, this album proves that John Lee Hooker was adept at handling multiple genres.
CD. Face to face – John Lee Hooker.
LABEL: Eagle (2003) code: EAGCD 265. VIDEO

IV– Bessie Jones, John Davis, Georgia Sea Island Singers. (01:12:40 min)
They gained widespread fame in the 1960s and 70s with their powerful performances of traditional songs of the African American Gullah Geechee community on St. Simons Island in Georgia. Most members of the group were born and raised on St. Simons and could trace their ancestry back to the enslaved West and Central Africans who worked on the island’s cotton plantations.
Throughout the 1960s, the Georgia Sea Island Singers were prominent voices in the civil rights movement and brought hundreds of years of Black musical tradition to a crucial period in American history. The album presents a variety of traditional music, including moving work songs, emotionally charged spirituals, cheerful nursery rhymes, and revealing renditions of Mississippi blues.
CD. Friends of Old Time Music concert: Bessie Jones, John Davis, Georgia Sea Island Singers.
LABEL: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (2024) code: SFWCD40258. VIDEO

V–
Songhoy Blues. (45:49 min)
The Malian Songhoy Blues has always been about resistance. “We started this band during a civil war, in the face of a music ban, to create something positive out of adversity. As long as we still have music in us and something to say, we will continue to fight every day with music as our weapon and our songs as our resistance.” With more time and a more extensive arsenal of equipment at their disposal, the album shows how Songhoy Blues are pushing their boundaries, with influences from R&B, soul, and hip-hop seamlessly blending with the band’s signature exuberant sound and themes relevant to our time.
CD. Résistance – Songhoy Blues.
LABEL: Transgressive Records (2017) code: TRANS298CD. VIDEO

VI– The Rosenberg Trio. (47:18 min)
Het Trio is een Nederlandse jazzband bestaande uit leadgitarist Stochelo Rosenberg, ritmegitarist Nous’che Rosenberg en bassist Nonnie Rosenberg. De band is beïnvloed door Django Reinhardt, de gypsy jazzgitarist uit de jaren 30. Voor de familie Rosenberg is het levend houden van de muzikale traditie van de briljante gitarist Django Reinhardt een succesvolle familie business. Toch doet die omschrijving het talent van de drie broers tekort. Het Rosenberg Trio zet niet alleen de ‘gypsy swing’, maar nog veel meer genres naar hun vakkundige hand. Daartoe werkte het trio samen met een groot aantal artiesten onder wie Herman van Veen, Jan Akkerman, Stéphane Grapelli en Cor Bakker.
CD. Django: La bande originale du film – The Rosenberg Trio.
LABEL: Impulse! Records (2017) code: 0602557450392. VIDEO

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