Today’s story is about Ottawa’s groovy Souljazz Orchestra. Now we all know Ottawa is the capital of Canada, and Canada’s primary export is multiculturalism. I’m just kidding!. The Turkish education system never teaches you cool stuff like this, I learnt this by myself on the internet. Anyways, based on the fact that Canada’s vast landscape is populated by not enough people and emigration is somewhat a state policy, multiculturalism is key for different cultures to live together and flourish. No wonder new afrojazz bands by non-Africans like The Souljazz Orchestra or Michigan’s Nomo are making noise right now and getting international acclaim.

Inspired by Fela Kuti & James Brown and other greats, Souljazz’ music is rooted in Nigerian afrobeat, but there are elements of salsa, soul, funk and free jazz in it as well. Founded in 2002, it took them about 5 years to break into international waters, but in the meantime they have toured across Canada and shared stage with artists like Femi Kuti, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, John Lee Hooker Jr. The opener Mista President has been voted by listeners as top song in Gilles Peterson’s end of year lists. I’ve been listening to this baby for a few months but somehow I’ve failed to introduce them to you before. Enjoy!

The Souljazz Orchestra - Mista President
The Souljazz Orchestra - Insurrection

(1 votes)

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I’ve downloaded 2 hard to rare albums of the 57 year old Indian saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath from Meshes of the Afternoon. Born in the Karnataka region in southern India, it took Gopalnath 20 years to master the Saxophone. I’ve personally never heard saxophone in Indian music, no wonder he’s the first musician to incorporate the saxophone in Indian music literature. He made certain modifications to the alto saxophone to play Carnatic music. Gopalnath has the distinction of being the first carnatic musician to be invited in the BBC Promenade concert in 1994, in the Royal Albert Hall at London and also participated in lots of festivals like the Jazz Festival in Prague, Berlin Jazz Festival, International Cervantino Festival in Mexico, Music Hall Festival in Paris. His music is very spiritual and meditative yet it certainly creates an awkward and out-of-this-world mystique because of the way the instrument sounds.

Kadri Gopalnath - Om Sharmbo Shiva Shambo
Kadri Gopalnath - Shakthi Sahitha Ganapathi

(2 votes)

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Another reissue by the lovely Tiliqua Records on their “Oriental Erotic Sunshine” series that we’ve been enjoying for some time is Masami Kawahara & The Exotic Sounds’ 1970 album “Kokotsu / Ecstasy”. Originally released by Columbia Records in 1970, “ Kokotsu” sees the 70’s Japanese obsession with vintage bossa & Latin music coupled with sexploitation sounds. 60’s and 70’s Japanese jazz seems to be highly influenced by Latin music, even to the point of surpassing the originals sometimes and Kokotsu is no other . Full of breathing, moaning and hissing ladies, erotic butt spanks but in the most classy and fetish way, and lustful sexual stimulation this is one rare record we enjoy thanks to the hunters at Tiliqua.

On a sidenote we watched the anime The amazing lives of Fast Food Grifters last night and while the animation technique was truly original, the narration and the story was extremely bizarre and inaccessible even for kookheads like us. A mockumentary of post-war Japan and a social critique, it truly remarked how bizarre and creative the Japanese can be sometimes.

Masami Kawahara & The Exotic Sounds - Taboo
Masami Kawahara & The Exotic Sounds - Manha de Carnaval

(2 votes)

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Here’s an astonishing reissue of exotic jazz from 1984. Still Around by the Rudy Smith Quartet is the first record Rudy Smith made under his own name after the Modern Sound Quartet. Now, if you’re wondering what steel pan music is, you should stop what you’re doing and watch the video mindboggling live video below. Rudy Smith apparently recorded this album while living in Denmark with Ole Mathiessen on piano, Niels Prøstholm on bass and the South African Gilbert Matthews on drums. Steel drums are generally used for traditional Afro-Caribbean pan music, but Rudy makes use of them in a bebop & jazz context. The 6:49 “Ursia” whose exotic melody is carved into my brain as of now, is a redoing of the original piece from The Modern Sound Quartet’s only record from 1971, Otinku, and “Be Bach” should be a Bach rendition whose name escapes me now. Comment if you know the original please!

Rudy Smith Quartet - Ursia
Rudy Smith Quartet - Be Bach

(3 votes)

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Here’s an outstanding album that’s blown me from track no1. The mysterious French-Vietnamese producer Onra has produced an album in the vein of J Dilla, Madlib the Beat Konducta’s Indian album and Galapagos 4’s Deejay OM. Chinoiseries is an instrumental hip hop album with 32 short tracks constructed from samples taken out of old and rare Vietnamese records.

The act of sampling exotic music is both good and bad in a sense, good because these old and hard to find records get recycled and recontextualized and brought to the ears of different audiences but also bad because it can theoretically be seen as western cultures looting peripheral cultures and using their music in different contexts. I’m not trying to spoil the fun for you and me though because, Onra is Vietnamese and who am I to judge the artists anyways!. Chinoiseries is an awesome tale from southeast Asia, a fresh contender in soulful and obscure hiphop and a nice way to lend your ears to different music of the world.

Onra - The Anthem
Onra - Relax in mui ne
Onra - I wanna go back

(4 votes)

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For all you kids who don’t buy into the St. Valentine’s consumer festivities, here’s 2 love songs that you can enjoy. The first is by the mighty Baba Zula, who’s one of the handful of internationally notable artists coming out of Istanbul. It’s a shame I haven’t written about their new album, but let this be a start. Baba Zula has this perfectly authentic mixture of Turkish folk elements with krautrock, psychedelia and dub. This song here though is a cover of the almighty traditional folk singer Neşet Ertaş. The title means “If I love, they’ll kill me, If I don’t, I’m dead“. The tragic rural love story dilemma. The second song although seemingly unfit for a Valentine’s Day post titlewise, is actually the opposite. A sleazy lounge vocal song coming right through the time machine!. Off the Berlin based Sonar Kollektiv sampler The Space In Between. Love it!

Baba Zula - Sevsem oldururler, Sevmezsem oldum
Erich Ferstl - All my love is gone

(4 votes)

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