Tag Archives: International/World

The legendary Nigerian drummer has died at 76: Babatunde Olatunji, 76, the Nigerian drummer whose 1959 Columbia Records album, “Drums of Passion,” helped introduce African music into the American mainstream, died of complications of diabetes April 6 in Salinas, Calif. He taught at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Calif., …

Ismail Hussain was an Iraqi pop star – Uday Hussein made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: In the 1990’s, you were a pop star in Iraq, and you were known as Uday Hussein’s favorite performer. How did you get involved with Saddam’s oldest son, who is known for his …

There has been mucho discussion of late regarding protest music or the lack thereof regarding war with Iraq. Nothing along those lines has really struck a chord here in the US, perhaps because the majority of Americans (and growing according to NY Times report today) support military action to disarm …

Smithsonian Folkways saw its sales jump 33% last year, part of which comes from burning rare recordings on CD-R for customers: And in doing so, the label best known for dusty recordings by Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly is taking initial steps toward creating a 21st-century “celestial jukebox,” where nothing …

Check out the serious reefer-sucking lineup for the 2003 Bonnaroo Music Festival June 13-15: three days of camping and jam band-big groove-acoustic roots-world beat-bluesy love everybody vibe headed up by the newly rechristened “The Dead.” 2003 Bonnaroo Confirmed Artists: The Dead Widespread Panic James Brown The Allman Brothers Band Ben …

Great popularizer of Latin jazz and polyrhythms was 85: He was best known for his 1963 recording of Herbie Hancock’s song “Watermelon Man,” which became his first Top 10 hit. In 1959, Santamaria penned “Afro Blue,” which quickly became a jazz standard covered by stars such as Count Basie and …

Interesting news and interesting characterization of that news – from the NY Times: A long misplaced recording of a young Bob Marley jamming in his pre-reggae days in a Bronx apartment sold for $26,290 yesterday at an auction at Christie’s. The recording was sold by Jimmy Norman, a former member …

The "world" and I don't agree.

While we’re on the topic of reggae, did you know that remixing and rap can both be traced back to Jamaica? That’s one musically influential little island. The art of remixing, used ubiquitously in dance music of every stripe since the late ’70s, can be traced back to Jamaica and …

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked something like this, as my son did just the other day: “Okay, I know Bob Marley is the greatest reggae dude, but who is second?” The complicated answer is that reggae has always been more producer/songwriter-based than artist-based, and to …