Sarathy Korwar Says There Are More Arriving

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Born in the US but raised in India, Sarathy Korwar has made a career out of blending the horizons. On 2016’s Day to Day, Korwar released what NPR called a “a knockout album.” “With his own field recordings of the Sidi Troupe of Ratanpur, which consists of five drummers who also vocalize, Korwar sought to illuminate patterns of human migration and drift, and the small-scale but profound ways in which cultures can meld.”

Where Day to Day was often meditative, More Arriving is urgent. Visceral even. And timely. More Arriving is still steeped in Jazz but this time speaks in the voice of Hip Hop. Korwar says in the album’s “mini documentary”:

“This album serves as a snapshot of a plethora of Brown voices in 2019. All unique, proud, vulnerable, and defiant. The diverse languages that people are rapping in brings with it some really interesting variation of cadence, meter, and flow that makes the music and its combination with jazz and electronic music really, really exciting.

Watch Korwar’s “mini documentary” for the new album More Arriving.

Listen to Bol (feat. Zia Ahmed & Aditya Prakash)

Taken from More Arriving (2019): https://sarathykorwar.ffm.to/morearriving.pbt

Watch the official video for “Mumbay” (feat. MC Mawali)

Watch Sarathy Korwar Play A Nighttime Meditation On Tablas And Computer for NPR in 2017 on a balcony.

  • Visit Sarathy Korwar's official website

  • Purchase the album at Bandcamp

  • Visit Korwar's Facebook page

  • Visit Korwar's Twitter

  • Purchase the album from Amazon
    Listen to "Bismillah" by Sarathy Korwar on Episode 08 of The Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow

Hear 3 Songs from Hiss Golden Messenger's Upcoming album "Terms of Surrender"

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North Carolina’s Hiss Golden Messenger is one of my favorite current acts. M.C. Taylor writes of love, loss, longing and anger. Things aren’t the way they should be and there’s something deep in each of us that knows it. But there is power in love. Of course there is darkness in the world, but it never drowns out the Light. This is the protest music we need. There is power in community. Hiss Golden Messenger waves this flag with what you might call “Southern (By way of Topenga Canyon) Folk Roots Americana With A Possibility of Jamband”(™).

Hiss Golde Messenger’s newest album “Terms of Surrender” is due out September 20 on Merge Records. But we are lucky enough to be able to preview three songs from the album now.

Watch the official video for “I Need A Teacher"

Preview the track “Cat's Eye Blue”

Preview the track “Happy Birthday, Baby”

  • Visit Hiss Golden Messenger’s official website.

  • Follow Hiss Golden Messenger at Facebook.

  • Follow Hiss Golden Messenger at Twitter.

  • Support Hiss Golden Messenger at Bandcamp.

  • Purchase Hiss Golden Messenger’s music at Amazon.

Weeping Bong Band (7.8.18 The Root Cellar Greenfield, MA)

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If you are the type to hazard a guess that a band called Weeping Bong Band would send forth cosmicy simmering shimmers of drone folk goodness into the universe, then your hazardous guess would be correct. The group’s page at the Feeding Tube Records site says:

Sub-underground super-groups are not common. This is less a function of the concept’s oxymoronic nature than of the fiercely independent stance of musicians toiling in this area. By definition, they are doing what they do simply because they love it. It can be quite difficult to distract them from their main focus long enough to get them to do anything else. Weeping Bong Band is a lovely exception that proves this rule.

Three members — Clark Griffin, Wednesday Knudsen and PG Six — are in the current line-up of Pigeons. One, Anthony Pasquarosa, has his own host of solo projects (Crystaline Roses, Gluebag, Burnt Envelope, etc.). And a final “ghost member,” Beverly Ketch, is half of the duo Viewer. Together, however, theirs is a rural psych engine that weeps as gently as a spring rain.

This is high-provenance instrumental hippie spew from the apex of the Pioneer Valley. There’s plenty of burbling psych guitar, laced with overtones that will make you conjure up visions of dark stoned nights. It is definitely music made in the day when marijuana had passed its medical-use-only status in the Commonwealth. Which is not to infer this music is unimbued with its own mystical curing properties, especially when played at mind-bending volume.

The band’s 2018 self-titled release is highly recommended.

Watch a live 2018 set from The Root Cellar Greenfield, MA and experience for yourself.

Artist Spotlight: Letta Mbulu

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This artist spotlight originally posted January 18, 2019 on the dearly missed Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow site.

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One of the joys of doing a project like the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow is discovering new artists we didn’t yet know we loved.

We featured Letta’ Mbulu’s track “Kukuchi” on Episode 32 of our very own podcast. We were so smitten with Mbulu’s music that we wanted to give you, the fine people of the Internet, more Mbulu. So we put together an hour-long mix of some of our current favorite tracks.

If you don’t yet know Mbulu, allow us to introduce you.

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Letta Mbulu (pronounced "let-ah" "em-boo-loo") was born in Soweto, South Africa in 1942 and remains a towering figure in South African music. Doug Payne says in his online biography of Mbulu:

Still in her teens, Letta began touring outside of Africa with the musical "King Kong," which ran for a year in England following a highly successful two-year run in South Africa. When the tour ended, she returned to South Africa but soon the policies of Apartheid were to force her to leave her native land for the U.S.A.

She arrived in the United States in 1965 and quickly befriended such fellow South African exiles in New York City as Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa - all alumni of the "King Kong" musical. Performances at New York's famed Village Gate club began to attract attention to her talents, particularly from jazz legend Cannonball Adderley, who invited her to tour with him (which she did throughout the remainder of the decade). 

To put Mbulu’s career and influence into perspective, Strange Sounds From Beyond says:

the South African vocalist released her first LP in the same year The Beatles released The White Album. She is the towering figure of South African singing – the proud matriarch of a strange, soulful, synth-powered hybrid of US and South-African influences. Along with the 12 LPs carrying her own name, she’s worked with jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, calypso icon Harry Belafonte, and even Michael Jackson on “Liberian Girl”.

According to South African History, Mbulu was also an accomplished actress who appeared “in the film Roots for which she received an Emmy award. Her other screen appearances include A Warm December with Sidney Pottier and The Colour Purple. She is also a founding member of the South African Artists United (SAAU) an organisation which was established in 1986.”

Allmusic quotes Quincy Jones as saying: "Mbulu is the roots lady, projecting a sophistication and warmth which stirs hope for attaining pure love, beauty, and unity in the world."

If you don’t know her yet, it is our pleasure to introduce you to the music of Letta Mbulu. If you already know her, please enjoy this mix and we’d love to hear your favorite tracks.

Tracklisting:

  1. Hareje *

  2. Kukuchi #

  3. Noma Themba *

  4. Jigijela (Don't Throw Stones) @

  5. Zimkile *

  6. I Need Your Love @

  7. Mamami #

  8. Aredze ^

  9. Afro Texas *

  10. Ade #

  11. Qonqoza (Knock) @

  12. Kube *

  13. Gumba-Gumba #

  14. Macongo @

  15. Olu Ati Ayo #

  16. Melodi (Sounds of Home) @

  17. Never Leave You *

Though there are many terrific albums by Letta Mbulu, for this mix, I focused on the following four albums (use the symbols to see which song is found on each album):

@ Letta (Chisa, 1970)

* Naturally (Fantasy, 1972)

^ I’ll Never Be The Same (1973)

# Letta Mbulu Sings/Free Soul (2005)

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Live at WOMAD 1985

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In honor of Real World Records releasing the monumental Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Live at WOMAD 1985, here is video of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan performing the first track from the release, “Allah Hoo Allah Hoo”:


  • Read some further thoughts on the album:

  • Visit Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s site at the Real World Records website.

  • Stream the album at NPR.

  • Purchase the album at Amazon.