Ivory Coast sensation Manou Gallo will be on tour to celebrate the 10th year of Polish jazz vibraphone player Bernard Maseli throughout April 2011.
Gallo, a highly-rated bassist and percussionist, released “Dida” and “Lowlin” on the IglooMondo label. More details are available on the IglooMondo site. Click through for the Polish tour dates.
Amkoullel
Invited by various universities and students organisations committed to education and social change through Hip Hop, AMKOULLEL will be doing workshops, panels and performances with his multi-instrumentalist musician playing Ngoni and Talking Drums. He will also play in various NY and LA clubs… the buzz is growing fast!!
Outrageous South African hip-hoppers Die Antwoord (The Answer) have announced the dates of their upcoming North American tour. Starting on October 12 2010 they will play at Vancouver, before touring the West Coast and then switching coasts until a last date in New Orleans on October 30. Expect mayhem and broken beats, no subtitles!
The concerts tie in with the release of their new album “$O$”. Click through for the full dates.
Palestinian/Tunisian/French electro outfit Checkpoint 303 will be appearing (for free) in Rome on Sunday May 31 as part of the “Finding Palestine” event, featuring traditional and contemporary arts. They will also be appearing at the Venice Biennale. Click “read more” for further details.
Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. will host the 4th annual Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival, the first and largest international hip-hop festival in the US, on April 3rd and 4th, 2009. This year, the event is headlined by K’naan, the rising star in international hip-hop. The Somali MC spent the last 2 years touring with Damian and Stephen Marley. His vividly spoken images of war-torn Somalia and fierce criticism of American gangster rap has garnered him appearances on BET, MTV and collaborations with Mos Def and M1 of dead prez. K’naan signed with A&M/Octone in 2008 and released Troubadour in February 2009.
Rokia Traore provides another superb track in “Dounia”, with a clip that is as elegant, refined and intriguing as her music. She recently won a César award in France for the album “Tchamanche” and has a date in Paris in May. Click through for other dates and to see the clip of “Dounia”:
The Palestinian/French/Tunisian electro collective will be appearing at the Générale en Manufacture in Paris on February 2:
They will then appear at the Chabada in Angers the following day, February 3. Click through for details.
Brussels is getting ready for three days of slam and hip-hop. The “Sessions Ubraines” will feature a presentation of the new book “Souterrain 95-08 Bxl”, the first of its kind about the Belgian scene. There’s an extensive panel of guests from noted journalists to rappers Defi J, Lady N and others. Date December 17 at the Mason du livre.
Over at the Botanique on December 18, a rap session will bring together AB7, Mari’M, Invaderdz, Sismik, Maky, Gandhi & D’Johnny Six, Stan et Yassin, Za and L’Huissier.
The last night, the 19th, will see urban lyricists and slam artists battling it out. The organisers have done this several times already, and it’s usually worth checking out. Guests include Be-Lion Vagabond, Maky, Veence Hanao, Dynamic & B-Flow, Mochelan, Posa (from RCS), Verbal, Leawsane, Rézie , BD Banx, Maïa Chauvier, Stan (Les Autres), Manza. The night will finish with the incredible award-winning Baloji (check the album “Hotel Impala”).
For the full details, visit: Lezarts Urbains.
Romania’s impressive Fanfare Ciocarlia has announced a series of Australian and European dates in January and February. Zece Prajini is a village of just four hundred souls and home to the twelve Romany Gypsy musicians who make up the Fanfare Ciocarlia brass ensemble. The rugged, secluded hills have been echoing to the sounds of brass band music since the Turkish military bands marched in with the Ottoman occupation at the beginning of the 19th century. In addition to still being the most in-demand band for local weddings, funerals and other occasions, they have in the last years been touring around the world, a story well-documented in the must-see film by German director Ralf Marschalleck: “Iag Bari - Brass on Fire”.
Click through for the dates.
Africa fete festival
For 30 years already, Africa Fete has been one of the motors of African music, through their annual festival in Dakar and different events in France. The founder, Mamadou Konte, died some time ago but had built a up a highly professional team that is pursuing his work. If you look a the festivals and releases of the past two years, it is clear that African music is having a particularly hard time. So the role of Africa Fete is all the more important in continuing to allow new African music to survive.
The 30th anniversary will feaure a combination of new and established acts, that include: les Amazones de Guinée, Fallyssa, Imhotep (IAM) appearing Didier Awadi, Duggy T and others as well as Omar Pene, Thione Seck, Alioune Mbaye Nder, Saintrick and other surprise guests, playing with the Africa Fête big band.
The festival is to be held on December 6 in Dakar. For details, visit Africa Fete.
Mehdi Haddab & The Speed Caravan
Nutty oud players DuOud will be playing shows in London and Paris over the coming weeks. Mehdi Haddab’s experiment in blending percussive and snappy oud playing with electronics and even speed metal is a sight to see. They’ll be at the K-Wa in Paris on the 22nd and the Ginglik in London on the 27th, notably. Click through for dates.
MTV Base has announced the nominees for their upcoming MAMA African music awards to be held in Abuja, Nigeria on November 22. The ten categories cover best male, female, live performer, alternative, Hip-Hop, artist of the year, new act and video. I strongly recmmend a visit to their site to get an overview of the current music scene across Africa. Although South African and Nigerian artists get the most nominations, tiny Gabon is in with a good chance through one of our favourites: Movaiz’Haleine. They are nominated in the best video category for the track “Nous” (Us) directed by John Gibbs. Check it out and then visit the other tracks at MTV Base.
Shantel, the pioneer of Balkan dancefloor grooves, is touring Europe between October and January. The former DJ combines Balkan and Turkish music with dance grooves, creating a sound which is pretty much irresistible. His music offers a bold, colourful challenge to the wall-to-wall House/Lounge sounds of most clubs, provoking hysteria in more than one venue. He will be touring with an 8-piece band. Check out the album “Disko Partizani” and click through for the full tour dates.
The College Music Journal Marathon (CMJ) is New York’s largest music, film and media conference and will host hundreds of live performances, films, lectures and networking events. This year’s CMJ INTERNATIONAL HIP-HOP THROW-DOWN will unite the talents of a creative and diverse group of lyricists and DJs from Africa, Korea, Canada, and Europe at club DROM, located at 85 Ave A in New York’s East Village on Thursday October 23rd 2008. The event will begin at 8 PM and will last until 3 AM and will feature live international hip-hop music and DJs spinning music.
The show feature a handful of rising stars including Blitz the Ambassador (Ghana), Drunken Tiger (Korea), King Reign (Canada), Empire Isis (Canada), Chachi (Cape Verde) and Too Many Fish (France). DJs Boo and Soulscape from Korea will be on the turntables. V.J Kwon from Korea will set the tone and visuals for the night. There will also be an all French Hip Hop showcase at Hiro Ballroom on Friday, October 24th featuring La Caution, Mangu and Wax Tailor.
After their recent live shows in Australia and in Tokyo and the support set with Massive Attack in France (Nuits de Fourvière festival), Checkpoint 303 has been invited to perform an audio-visual electro-acoustic set @ Scala in London, Sat. Oct 4th, 2008. The line-up of this event organized by SOAS students’ union & SOAS Palestine Society:
Checkpoint 303 (live electronics/visuals/oud, Palestine/Tunisia/France)
Ramallah Underground (trip-hop/hip-hop + visuals by Ruanne, Palestine)
Visionary Underground (live D’n'B, UK)
DJ U-Cef + DJ Bashir
Doors open @ 8 pm, CP-303 Live sets start @ 9 pm // so be there early! For details, visit the Scala.
Before that, Checkpoint 303 will be the guests of “Les visiteurs du jour” a daily program on Radio France Internationale (RFI Paris Studios / 44 million listeners worldwide). The radio magazine is dedicated to news about the trends and challenges of the world’s societies with in-depth analysis and conversations with the world press and “audio snapshots” of key players in the world’s social mix. The program starts at 11h40. The Checkpoint 303 interview is scheduled for this thursday (2nd Oct. 2008) live from Paris (and by phone from Jerusalem) at 12h10 (World: 11h10 UT // Africa: 3h10 UT ). Check RFI for frequencies.
