A Musical Tour of the World: All Countries A-Z One Per Day

A nice selection of different types of music there, @Jamsterdammer. I particularly enjoyed the dEUS track.

 

Yes, dEUS is excellent. This is a great compilation if you want to check out their music: https://www.amazon.com/Selected-Songs-1994-14-DEUS/dp/B00NVWWAYI

 

Listening on Spotify. The first song is more country than I expected from hearing The Architect.

EDIT: Posted too soon. 'Instant Street' goes elsewhere from half-way through the song and seems to be building to a 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' climax.

 

Good! Just continue.

 

Phantom Limb- "Deep in Mines" (Ostend, Belgium- 1982) I discovered this randomly on youtube, but like it.

 

Great find! Pretty obscure stuff. Sounds exactly like 1982 though, in a good way.

 

Thanks for the music, everybody.

Today's country is Belize. Belize is the smallest country in Central America, with a population of just 408,487 in 2019.

Like many countries in the area, and the world, the culture, language and music shows strong influence from Africa due to slaves brought to the region, who originally maintained their African identity, but who eventually assimilated to create the Kriol (Creole) languages, culture, and music. More history here: Forgotten History: Belize - Global Black History

First up, we have Andy Palacio with the song Watina, from his last album (2007) before his death in 2008.



Andy Palacio was a long time advocate for the Garifuna people. On youtube Watina is credited to him alone, but the album is attributed to Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective. The Collective is a collection of (it is said) the best Garifuna musicians from Belize and other countries. Here is a song of theirs: Ubóu.

One thing that I find challenging (in a good way) for these posts is understanding the various musical genres popular in the countries we visit. Gunjei is one of the less common genres among Garifuna Music. Here's the song Gunjei by Mohobub Flores.

I am aware that the number of songs in my posts is high, but I want to try and cover a fair range of music and genres from each country.

So, some more tracks. Here's Boogaloo a la Chuck by Lord Rhaburn. Gerald "Lord" Rhaburn was known for calypso, soca, reggae and brukdown music. "Brukdown" apparently might come from "broken down Calypso". The song I give here doesn't sound like any off these genres to me, but more like a 1960s style instrumental.

The most famous Brukdown artist was Wilfred Peters. Here I include a tribute to 'Mistaa Peetaz' and other musicians by Bredda David Obi & Tribal Voice. Belize Creole Music

Finally, here is comedian Bella Carib with the song Tie Me Up With Your Locks.

 

An excellent selection

This is one I found on YT by Umalali, the Garifuna Women's Project; I couldn't find the name of the singer who it appears may be non-professional

'Nibari' (My Grandchild)

Umalali - Wikipedia
The Garifuna Women's Project - Wikipedia

 

Beautiful song there, John.

 

A little late for Belgium, but two albums I have recently got into are Burning Plague from 1970.

 

And Irish Coffee from 1971.

 

Thanks for the music, everyone.

Today's country is Benin.

I'll start off with this song,'Madjafalao' by Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou.



The band was founded by bandleader Clément Mélomé in 1968, and has released 'dozens' of albums over the years. They were originally called Orchestre Poly-Disco. They recored music in, as Wikipedia describes, ' afrobeat, funk, soukous and other styles, often based on Vodun rhythms'. Vodun is the parent religion of Voodou, which has spread throughout the world with the African diaspora.

For some countries I'm not going to list songs by the most famous singers from that country as they are too obvious. But, here I'm going to mention Angélique Kidjo, who is certainly the Beninese singer that I'm most familiar with. While she made her career in Paris, and her influences are wide-ranging to say the least, I think she is seen as representing Benin on the world stage. Here's Wombo Lombo.

For traditional music, it's important to note the cultural diversity of the country. There are about 40 different ethnic groups in the physically small country of 11 million people. t's impossible to go through all those cultural groups and represent each one. I see that in my background research I've chosen a song of the Yoruba culture, partially, according to my own notes, due to the clarity of recording. Traditional Yoruba Music from Benin (II) So, to at least represent the Fon people, the most numerous culture in Benin, I'll include this song 'Happy New Year' by Fon traditional performer Dossou Letriki YouTube Angélique Kidjo has a Fon father, and a Yoruba mother. There is plenty of material on the net describing the cultures, music, instruments, and musicians of Benin. This article scratches the surface of the wide variety of musical cultures in Benin. Traditional music in Benin

With just a short post on a whole country, it's impossible to cover everything. I have seen a film on the plight of albinos in Africa, and noted several songs promoting albino rights, including this one Je Suis Albinos by Djamile Mama Gao YouTube The singer here is Tololese and Malian by descent, but was born in and made his career in Benin. The song, in my opinion, has a nice acoustic feel as well as discussing an important social issue.

Ending up with something in a modern style, this is Mpenzi by Faty YouTube Listening to modern music from many countries around the world, and commonly in African countries, it stands out that they are using a LOT of autotune. It's less obvious in this track than many I've heard. Faty is short for Fatima Kouchekeho. The singer was born in Benin but spent her childhood in Ivory Coast.

 

Excellent research and selection as always.

The singer Zeynab (Habib) was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast but is considered Beninese. On YouTube evidence I prefer her older less processed recordings to some of the more recent ones.


'Nanou'

YouTube
'Inan Ran' (originally by the Nigerian musician Haruna Ishola)

Zeynab Habib - Wikipedia

 

Great stuff! Let me post what apparently was a big hit in the seventies, Gnossas Pedro And His Dadjes Band - Feso Jaiye:

 

Thanks for the tracks.

@john hp - Zeynab sings beautifully. Why would anyone want to flatten out her performance with pitch correction?

@Jamsterdammer your 70s track too has a very nice natural sound that some of the mainstream modern pop songs have lost - particularly when considering the vocals.

I wanted to find something that would expand the coverage. I've found an album which has six traditional songs of the Bariba people, and six from the Somba people. Both groups hail from northern Benin and surrounding countries - as with other parts of the world lines have been drawn on the map in inconvenient places.

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings released this album:



And it can be heard on Spotify here: Benin: Bariba and Somba Music

I wanted to enlarge my sample a bit to more groups, and this album gets me two cultural groups at once. It's also far more traditional than anything I've posted so far, with the roots of the songs and music seeming to go back to the times of hunter gatherers. Songs here appear to be linked into people's lives, with songs and music for such events and activities as setting out for the hunt, carrying a corpse during a funeral, and this song here which is sung by Somba women on the album who are grinding karite nuts.



It's most definitely not the case that I knew all of this already. I even had to look up what the karite tree is - it's the original and French name for the shea tree from which we get shea butter. According to Wikipedia: 'The shea tree is a traditional African food plant. It has been claimed to have potential to improve nutrition, boost food supply in the "annual hungry season",[3] foster rural development, and support sustainable landcare.'

 

Interesting compilation, but somewhat too rustic for my taste. Regarding the track by Gnossas Pedro I stumbled upon, I decided to check it out when I saw that it was from the 70s. For me the 70s were the golden age for African popular music. Most African musicians of popular music are keen followers of what's going on in the rest of the world in terms of rock, blues, jazz, and more recently urban, rap, hip-hop, etc., and are able to weave those influences into their own music without compromising their sound. It remains quintessential African music. I love that about African music, and just as I love Western popular music from the 70s, so do I African music from that period (Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango, Franco, etc.). It sounds absolutely natural as you said, in contrast to a lot of 21st century stuff in the West as well as Africa (and Latin America). Anyway, these are just my ramblings, but when I see "Africa" and "70s" it is almost always great music.

 

Thanks for the music everyone.

Today's country is Bhutan. I'll start with the track Dungai Nanggo Nigma by Kheng Sonam Dorjii, who according to his LinkedIn profile is Executive Director of the Music of Bhutan Research Centre.



I was unable to find any tracks on youtube from the album Songs of the Third King's Court, said to be the first recordings of Bhutanese vocal music. However, I did find this contemporary synths + drum machine + vocals 'dance video' of a Tribute Song to the King of Bhutan, by Mewang Gyalpo.(If I've read the credits right.)

Here's another simple synth-pop song: Bhutanese Shawa Zawa. And yet another, Yar Gee Gungsa Thoen Po, said to be composed by Bhutan's chief abbot, and performed by the Royal Academy of Performing Arts. But, I don't know f that's the music or the dance, or both.

Looking for something different, here's a band which appears to be influenced by K-Pop boy bands, including a rap. Feeling by Trigga Sk X Jzee Spirit.

After a disappointment where I found the backing music for a video to promote a 2015 heavy metal festival to promote Bhutanese bands had a Nickleback song as the backing (how does that promote Bhutanese bands?) I'll finish up with this metal track composed by Sangat and Darpan, 'Instru-Metal'.

 

Contemplative and relaxing music on the YouTube link, thanks!

 

i grew up in Benin, well for 3 years anyway, good people! their musical rep is pretty big for such a small country. nice job there OP!

 

Love this.

 

I like the Bhutan dance videos. Here's one from 2019 with a disco beat, on which the singing is by Kezang D. Wangmo and the dancing by the Druk Puen Girls



wikipedia informs that Kezang is a politician, actress, poet, singer, dancer, and goodwill ambassador for organic farming, which cannot leave her much spare time.
Kezang Wangmo - Wikipedia

 

Thanks John. I like the dancing in the clips I've seen including your one.

In hindsight I think my post above should have been better, and include more contemporary music that I like. (I included the song above that I said was from a boy band but it's a solo artist, but TBH it's not really my thing.) I did a bit more searching and found the band 'Misty Terrace' formed in 2013. They say that their songs often have acoustic guitar hooks, but this song, Ling Shao Rey, is in a more electronic music style. But, with an interesting and not generic cookie cutter style, with some nice if simplistic guitar later on in the track. And, I really like this. The youtube video was released a month ago, and the track itself might be similarly new.



And, while I was searching around, I found this track as well that I'll include. It's The Song of Offering by Raphael, from the album Sacred Feminine Voices of Bhutan.

I woke up a bit late this morning and rushed out a post from my notes. But, I should have done what I normally do and spend a bit of time refining my previous research on a country.

 

I wouldn't have realised, but wikipedia indicates that Kutira, the singer on the track by Raphael, is from Switzerland
Raphael (musician) - Wikipedia

 

This is beautiful, thank you for posting.

And great idea for a thread!

 

Interesting. It came up in a list of Bhutanese music, but searching further Raphael himself is American. The album is credited to 'Raphael, Kutira, and the Nuns of Bhutan."

Raphael and Kutira run a spiritual institute. It is said that Kutira has studied with Osho, the founder of the Rajneesh movement.

I think (but don't know for sure) that this is a photo of Raphael and Kutira.



I wondered if they were Buddhists, but there is no mention of Buddhism on their site.

While the spirituality is not my thing, I appreciate their blending of music from different styles is interesting to me. However, despite the seeming participation of Bhutanese nuns, including this track here was a mistake. I think their music is cross-country and particularly in the light of the other albums they've done, doesn't really fit into any one culture or country.

One thing I've been thinking of in terms of cross-cultural music like this is the thorny question of 'cultural appropriation'. However, after reading a few articles like this one, it appears that artists such as Raphael and Kutira are performing cultural appreciation rather than appropriation.