Singing the Body Eclectic
A SALON CRITICS' GUIDE TO WORLD MUSIC

Introduction
By Cynthia Joyce

Back to Africa
By Banning Eyre
Four artists mark their place on the musical map

Folk fidelity
By Hans Eisenbeis
Hungary's Muzsikás and Great Britain's baritone bodhisattva, June Tabor

Cuban vacation
By Milo Miles
Anthologies from behind the sugarcane curtain

Political vibrations
By J. Poet
Musical movements from Madagascar to New Mexico

Reels and Jigs
By Kevin Vance
Green Linnet records gets your Irish up

Passing the torch
By Will Hermes
World music modernity

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Sound Salvation
By Sarah Vowell
VH-1's "Pop-Up Video" is Duchamp's genius on TV
(10/03/97)

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Table Talk
DJ Battles: Milo Miles argues with readers who object to rap.

passing the torch

WORLD MUSIC MODERNITY

BY WILL HERMES

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The Ho'opii Brothers Band
"The Ho'opii Brothers"
Mountain Apple

Pity that so much current Hawaiian music is cheesy faux-reggae pop. Not this: a set of vintage leo ki'eki'e falsetto-style songs by two brothers, Sol (62) and Richard (56), backed by ukulele, slack-key guitar and some delicious Hawaiian steel work. It's haunting, floaty, romantic stuff, and I swear these guys hit notes that will make you lightheaded. Special guest appearance by "Auntie" Genoa Keawe, the octogenarian "First Lady of Hawaiian Song," known for holding high notes long enough for you to go out to the bar, refill your mai tai and return to your table before she glides down again (look for some of her old 78s on Cord International's "Hula Hawaiian Style").

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Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party
"The Supreme Collection Vol. 1"
Caroline

Badar Ali Khan
"Lost in Qawwali"
Worldly/Triloka

The world lost one of its greatest, most impassioned singers in August when Pakistan's Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan died at the age of 54. Known in the West for his recent soundtrack appearances ("Dead Man Walking," "Natural Born Killers," "The Last Temptation of Christ") and star turns (with Peter Gabriel, Eddie Vedder and Joan Osborne), this two-CD set is Nusrat in his true métier -- straight-up Sufi Qawwali songs, those spiraling, 15-minute-plus head rushes of harmonium drones, hand claps and vocal pyrotechnics. Nusrat may have been the preeminent Qawwal, but his younger cousin Badar carries the torch on a traditional set with slightly beefier drums and a more willful style, playing Joshua Redman to his elder's John Coltrane.

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Various Artists
"Big Noise 2"
Hannibal/Rykodisc

Various Artists
"Quango World Groove"
Quango/Island

Various Artists
"Island Outpost 2"
Quango/Island

World music snobs generally dismiss these sorts of modern dance-pop comps as debased and worthless. But as recent records by Cornershop and Talvin Singh's Anokha posse prove, you don't have to be a traditionalist to make your culture groovy. "Big Noise" is long on Brazilian and Latin jams, and gets points for both historicism and understatement (see Gal Costa & Caetano Veloso's vintage "Que Pena").

"World Groove" and "Outpost" are mellow, mostly tasteful exercises in modernity -- the former more ambient-electronica-flavored, the latter geared more to the tastes of the acid jazz/wine bar set. As Brazil-pop (well-represented on all three sets) has proven since the early days of Bossa Nova, bastardization is where it's at.
SALON | Oct. 3, 1997

Since "Macarena," Will Hermes isn't quite sure what "world music" is anymore, but he still buys a lot of records. His work appears in SPIN, Utne Reader, Request, the Village Voice and Minneapolis City Pages, among other places.

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HEAR IT:
"Que Pena"
from "Big Noise 2"
Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso