La canción de la semana #411

Francisco Sánchez Gómez, better known as Paco de Lucía, the greatest flamenco guitarist of all time, died this morning aged 66.

Adagio from Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo, performed by Paco de Lucía with Orquestra de Cadaqués in 1991.

La canción de la semana #410

...is Tonada de Luna Llena by Simón Díaz, aka "El Tío Simón", who died yesterday aged 85.

La canción de la semana #409

...is Mongulu performed by The Garifuna Collective (Belize). This song appears on their 2013 album Ayó. From the liner notes:

In February 2007 Andy Palacio & The Garifuna Collective released Wátina, an album that received unanimous acclaim and elevated the international profile of the music and culture of Central America’s Afro-Amerindian Garifuna community. On the cusp of tremendous fame, Palacio passed away suddenly at the age of 47 not long after Wátina was released, leaving many to wonder who would continue bringing the voice of his people to the world.

With Ayó (“Goodbye” in the Garifuna language) Palacio’s band proves they are up to the task. With a lineup that consists of the best musicians in the fertile Garifuna music scene, The Garifuna Collective promises to carry the torch of cultural innovation and promotion passed on by Andy Palacio far into the future.

La canción de la semana #408

From the liner notes to The Rough Guide to Latin-Arabia:

Born in Marrakech in 1972, Rhany Kabbadj spent his childhood between Morocco and Tunisia, which became his second home. He began to sing at a young age, and made his first performances on Tunisian TV in 1989. In his frequent performances on Moroccan and Tunisian television, he has often been paired with the top performers of Arabic music, including Warda, Cheb Mami and Khaled. Rhany has been greatly inspired by Latin music and has made the mixing of Afro-Caribbean and Arabic music a hallmark of his style. The album Alamtini, from which the classic son Chan Chan is taken, was recorded at the legendary Egrem studio in Cuba.

La canción de la semana #407

...is Julud by Sahrawi singer Aziza Brahim. This song appears on her new album Soutak (out on 7th February 2014 on Glitterbeat Records).

Aziza Brahim was born in the refugee camps of Algeria, an exile from her homeland in what the Saharawis call Occupied Western Sahara, the region from which they fled when it was invaded by Morocco in 1975. This is a conflict that the outside world seems to have forgotten and so Brahim, like other Saharawi musicians, is using her music to put that right. She no longer lives in the camps, for she managed to leave to study in Cuba and then to settle in Spain, but the struggle of the Saharawi people dominates this album.

Songlines