Artist: Gangbé Brass Band Title: The New Heroes Label: World Village Picture the sound of military brass bands, voodoo ritual chants and rhythms, scratchy American jazz records, with a dash of Fela’s Afrobeat, and you can almost hear Gangbé Brass Band. The band from the West African nation of Benin releases their second album Whendo in America on October 11, 2005 on World Village. Gangbé — which means “the sound of metal” referring to the trumpets, saxes, trombones, sousaphone (related to the tuba), and sometimes elaborate metal bell percussion — epitomizes the unlikely history so often found in Africa. The recording — produced by Belgian outfit Contre Jour — is accompanied by a national October and November tour across America, from New York’s Carnegie Hall to San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. The CD follows their 2001 release, Togbé. Once a prominent West African kingdom in the 15th century, Benin was colonized by the French in the late 1800s. The legacy of European brass bands is heard in many parts of Africa, and so is the legacy of vinyl that sailed from American jazz clubs. Witness “Segala,” which pays tribute to Oscar Peterson’s “Night Train,” which commemorates a year that Gangbé spent in a big band in Benin headed up by a German.  But as Michelle Mercer wrote in Time Out NY, Gangbé’s “mambofied horn arrangements also recall that Cuban music was once the rock & roll of West Africa.” In an effort to maintain traditional Beninese rhythms and share them with a wider audience Gangbé sought permission from voodoo priests and from their ancestors to use certain chants and rhythms. Furthermore, the band makes a point of singing in several languages indigenous to Benin, including fon, ngou, mina, yoruba, évé, as well as French. Benin shares a border with Nigeria and though many of the songs make an obvious connection to the legacy of Afrobeat originator Fela Kuti (including tribute song “Remember Fela”), the happy tone of Whendo seems also to make reference to the juju sounds made popular worldwide by Nigeria’s King Sunny Ade, belying any perceived allegiance to a military or militant sound. Their playfulness is front and center in their live performance. They often start a concert from off stage, sometimes seated in the audience. One percussionist can be seen playing a large metal bell balanced on his head. It will take a few minutes for audiences to readjust their eyes and ears to the bright colors of their traditional garb, the unexpected combinations of timbres, and the happy but serious playing. Adept listeners might catch familiar musical references, from New Orleans marching bands to Afrobeat riffs. The juxtaposition of sounds of Gangbé Brass Band — at once hard-hitting and sweet, simultaneously mischievous and soulful — catches listeners off guard, making it hard for them to decide whether to stare in awe or step onto the dance floor. Either way, Gangbé conjures up a place and time that is both real and magical. Back to top

Artist: SAVAE Title: La Noche Buena Label: World Library Publications Picture the cathedrals of the 16th and 17th centuries in what we now call Mexico and Latin America. Adventuresome composers of the era adapted music and dialects of the Indigenous Aztec, Maya, and Incas, as well as of African slaves, and created unprecedented styles of sacred music for the New World, including the earliest Christmas music written in the Americas. This music is captured on SAVAE’s latest recording, La Noche Buena, released by World Library Publications. The recording takes listeners on an intriguing and often unexpected musical journey into the cathedrals of the Spanish colonial frontier. The Nativity story is told here through music that captures the lively cultural exchange between Indigenous, African, and Spanish voices. European motets appear alongside Afro-Spanish guarachas on the recording. “We were initially drawn to this material because of our interest in performing ancient music and, because we live in San Antonio, we were looking for something relevant to where we live,” explains SAVAE Artistic Director Christopher Moroney. “In the course of researching this music, it became evident that a large portion of it was written specifically for use at Christmastime and, in fact, was the first Christmas music composed in the Americas by both Indigenous Americans and Europeans. In terms of the Americas’ contribution to the world’s repertoire of Christmas music, it’s extremely significant.” On La Noche Buena, SAVAE blends its seven voices with pre-Colombian, African, and European instruments to capture the unique cultural fusion that characterized the earliest part of the colonial epoch. These first Christmas celebrations featured new compositions inspired by the traditional music of the recently converted indigenous Americans and African slaves. The inventive fusion of European forms with diverse dialects and rhythms made church music the bittersweet common language of New Spain. “The pieces on La Noche Buena were written between 1570 and 1680 by Spanish chapel masters as well as Indigenous composers under their tutelage,” says Moroney. “Our use of Mesoamerican percussion instruments is based on Aztec artwork and early paintings from the first decades following the Conquest. The instruments SAVAE uses include the huehuetl (vertical drum), teponaztli (log drum), chicahuatzli (rain stick), and ayacaxtli (rattles and shakers). We also included European instruments such as the recorder, tambourine, and guitar as well as traditional West African drums and rattles. It is also important to note that SAVAE’s drumming patterns are adapted from those found in the codex Cantares Mexicanos, compiled in the 16th century by Aztec musicians and historians.” SAVAE made its mark with the billboard-charting Guadalupe: Virgen de los Indios. SAVAE’s inventive approach to the fusion of pre-Colombian and European musical elements won the ensemble an invitation to record Academy Award-winning composer Todd Boekelheide’s score for the documentary Discovering Dominga. SAVAE’s 2002 recording of ancient Middle Eastern music, Ancient Echoes, features the ensemble’s exploration of ancient music and dialects from the Holy Land and has received rave reviews for its blend of scholarly research and creative flair. Director Ridley Scott included a SAVAE track in his 2005 film The Kingdom of Heaven. Interestingly, La Noche Buena sees SAVAE returning to repertoire they performed at their 1989 debut concert at San Antonio’s historic San Fernando Cathedral, presenting Latin American Christmas music from the colonial period. “This was an unprecedented time in the history of the world - people from two hemispheres of the globe who had no previous contact with one another were suddenly face to face,” says Moroney. “Along with all the brutality, prejudice, injustice, and horrors that occurred, a remarkably unique and flourishing creative musical culture developed. Some of this now centuries-old music is still so fresh and inventive today that it practically ‘jumps off’ the manuscript pages to any musician who looks at it. It’s an important and often overlooked part of our musical heritage in the Americas and represents essential roots of today’s Hispanic, African American, and World Fusion music genres.” Back to top

Artist: The King’s Singers and Sarband Title: Sacred Bridges Label: Signum Records The world’s foremost a capella ensemble, The King’s Singers and Middle Eastern early music specialists, Sarband, will tour North America this fall with the program from their new release “Sacred Bridges” released on World Village. “Sacred Bridges” demonstrates similarities between the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths. Using these sacred texts as a bridge, the artists aim to reach a place of understanding and tolerance between the adherents of the three major faiths - a shared foundation for trust. Settings of the Psalms of David, revered and extolled in each of the three monotheistic religions, are by composers from the 16th and 17th centuries, performed in Hebrew, French and Turkish. THE COMPOSERS Salamone Rossi was an Italian Jew, (c1570 - c1627) attached to the court of Mantua. A contemporary of Monteverdi, Rossi was also an accomplished singer and violinist, but his fame was based on his numerous compositions, which survive today. Reflecting his court music, his liturgical compositions for the synagogue were the first to include Renaissance polyphony and Baroque ornamentation, the popular music of the period. Frenchman Claude Goudimel (1514 - 1572) created his most lasting liturgical works after converting to Protestantism, a decision which eventually cost him his life, as he died during religious riots in Lyons. Goudimel is chiefly noted for his four-part settings of the entire Genevan Psalter. Unlike other settings of the time, he put the melody in the topmost voice, creating the ‘lead tenor’ style, which prevails to the present day.  Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck (1562 –1621) succeeded his father as organist at the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, where his family members were organists continuously for almost one hundred years. A prolific composer of sacred and secular choral music, he left six volumes of psalm settings in French of the Genevan Psalter, although he is best known today for his keyboard music. The most important Dutch musician of his time, Sweelinck was one of the major figures in the transition from Renaissance to Baroque compositional styles. Ali Ufki (1610 – 1675) was born Wojciech Bobowski as a Polish Christian. He converted to Islam after his capture by the Ottoman Turks at the age of thirteen and became renowned as a musician and translator in the imperial court of Sultan Mehmed IV in Constantinople. Documents from the period indicate that he spoke sixteen languages, and his legacy includes the Turkish translation of the Bible. His Turkish settings of the psalms, based on the Genevan Psalter, are still popular today. Back to top   This website: Copyright © 2005 Dream World Media, LLC. / Urban Mozaik Magazine. All rights reserved. This website/publication, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced without written permission from the publisher or the previous publisher of original republished materials.