Rodrigo y Gabriela
The story goes that Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero played in a thrash metal band in their native Mexico. Presumably having failed to thrash the charts the band split, jettisoning our nimble-fingered duo to Dublin, the buskers’ paradise. There they were spotted and snagged by the festival circuit. Massive success followed, with an album produced [...] More about Rodrigo y Gabriela
Omara Portuondo
At the time of writing, the Cuban singer is seventy eight years old and when she wants to, she can still belt them out. There just wasn’t much cause to do so this evening. Before a rather small crowd in Brussels’ crummy Cirque Royale, which these days shares more in common with Morley Con Club than [...] More about Omara Portuondo
Lambchop
Before I saw the band in concert, I would never have called the music of Lambchop romantic. Somehow, within a couple of tracks from their new release OH (Ohio), I found myself feeling the lurve. It could have been the semicute gaucheness of singer/guitarist Kurt Wagner, though he is rather an acquired taste. It could [...] More about Lambchop
Seun Kuti & Africa 80
Seun is the youngest son of the late Fela Kuti, the politically active leading light of Afrobeat. Having grown up in the thick of that scene, Seun now heads Africa 80, the second incarnation of his father’s band, playing the same energetic mix of funk, jazz, rock and highlife that electrified West African music in [...] More about Seun Kuti & Africa 80
Arthur H: L’Abondanse
H, the son and nephew respectively of eccentric singers Jacques Higelin and Brigitte Fontaine, is something of a musical lacuna himself. Throughout the course of thirteen albums, the Frenchman has pinballed between jazz, rock, pop and disco and on L’Homme du Monde his latest effort he’s done all of them. Looking like the bizarre offspring of [...] More about Arthur H: L’Abondanse
Matthew Herbert Big Band
After an awkward warm-up from studenty noodlers Wixel, who might be the Flemish answer to Sigur Rós, the stage of Brussels’ Ancienne Belgique was quickly cleared and rearranged for the main event of the evening. Matthew Herbert, renowned for the idiosyncratic music he records under a schizophrenic array of monikers, led on his jazz band [...] More about Matthew Herbert Big Band
Buena Vista Social Club presents (2008 Tour)
Last year, we managed to get tickets for the Buena Vista Social Club presents date at Sheffield City Hall but we were in the cheap seats. Having long since learned that the band was due to return this year, I was better prepared and booked early! As far as it was possible to tell, the thirteen [...] More about Buena Vista Social Club presents (2008 Tour)
Toumani Diabaté
For over 700 years, the griots have wandered the plains and villages of Mali, as much a part of the landscape as cottonfields and the Harmattan dust clouds. Griots (or “jeli” to give them their local name) are the curators of national history. They tell stories and sing songs drawn from a vast, unwritten repertoire [...] More about Toumani Diabaté
Salsa Celtica
I first heard of Scottish band Salsa Celtica back in 2004, courtesy of WFMU radio’s Doug Schulkind. I was just starting to get interested in latin and world music at the time and I hoovered up Schulkind’s Culture Shock collection. The Give The Drummer Some DJ had put together twenty soundclashes in which Latin would rub [...] More about Salsa Celtica
The Lion roared
Cadillac Jukebox @ The Lion, Castleford The problem with being a covers band is that your audience tends to judge you on the quality of your renditions rather than the quality of your musicianship. Cadillac Jukebox singer Ian McMullen acknowledges this, but for him the enjoyment comes from being able to play a wide, often surprisingly eclectic [...] More about The Lion roared
