Just had a wonderful afternoon discovering more about an area in Mexico that has fascinated me for a long time since I read an article in National Geographic. For most people Mariachi will be the music that is synonymous with Mexico. Yet this wonderful country is rich in different types of indigenous music that goes back for at least 4000 years. Singer Eugenia León explores this wonderful heritage in a 3 part series. Here is one of the episodes.
Dear friends – the news of famine in Tanzania is not good and according to Switzerland-based non-governmental organisation ACT Alliance “Nine regions of Tanzania, namely Arusha, Manyara, Kilimanjaro, Shinyanga, Dodoma, Iringa, Mwanza, Mara and Tabora, are caught up in chronic and transitory food insecurity due to poor or no harvests,” Seth writes …..
“I am at Dodoma this time,trying to go in the villages to see and evaluate the famine effect to the poorest and disable communities,and trying to rescue just few of them,because so many people are becoming very weak,sick and dying.”
We are looking at sending a truck load of maize to the village – and we need your help – if 1000 people gave £4 each we would be able to send roughly 100 sacks of maize to Mnase village. We so appreciate your help – Asante sana.
Martin’s musical mystery tour – We are out in San Diego and so this month’s selection is from another Spanish speaking country – Mexico. One of the radio stations I always look for when travelling in the car in southern California is the Mexican music stations. This music just makes me smile – pure fun. The mariachi orchestra is composed of at least two violins, two trumpets, a Spanish guitar, and two other types of guitars – the vilhuela and guitarron. Here is an amazing Mexican folk ensemble the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, who have been together in various formats since 1897 – must be some sort of record!
Seth writes from Tanzania – ” The food Problem is covering the whole Dodoma Villages and town,Central Region and More other parts of the Country,No rain this time and the food prices especially maize still shooting higher,last time as I shared to you 1 sack of maize was 100,000.TSH from 40,000 TSH,But now is 130,000 SHS, the situation is very bad.”
You can help by buying their music –
An amazing initiative – the Landfill Harmonic Orchestra in Cateura, Paraguay, directed by Favio Chavez. An orchestra that plays instruments created out of literal trash, made lovingly for them by their community.
Silbo gomero is a whistling language of La Gomera, one of the smallest islands of the Canaries. Here’s a link to a short English documentary about this amazing tradition.
Here is a very passionate drum group from Korea. Kim Duk Soo playing the hourglass drum in this video was the founder of this genre of traditional Korean drumming called Samul nori (Samul meaning four objects and nori meaning to play). The group consists of the Kkwaenggwari (a small gong) a Jing (a larger gong) the Janggu (an hourglass-shaped drum) and a Buk (a barrel drum similar to the bass drum).
Martin’s musical mystery tour – I am out visiting family in Spain – so this month’s blog comes from the land of flamenco.
There are so many incredible sounding instruments that we have encountered on our travels, yet there is nothing quite like the human voice for it's range, diversity and uniqueness. From Tuvan throat singing practised amongst nomadic Mongolian farmers to the South Indian art of vocal percussion called Konnakol, every culture, people group and religion uses their vocal chords to produce singing. In some communities, it is so much a part of life that everyone participates, ie. Central African pygmies where everyone is an incredible vocalist and is able to sing complex yodeling.
The roneat is a Cambodian instrument that is similar to the Western xylophone. There are two played in an ensemble, the roneat ek, positioned at the front of an orchestra, considered to be the female voice and the roneat thong, the male voice.
Celebrating a wonderful musician who has left an incredible legacy.
It’s that time of the year when Christmas songs hit the airwaves. Read More
Martin’s musical mystery tour – Just come back from Sweden so this months music videos comes from that beautiful land. They have some unique traditional instruments like the nyckelharpa and wonderful traditions like yoiking (a style of singing).
I love this song sung by Sofia Jannok a singer-songwriter from Sweden who has taken the tradition of yoiking (Sami singing) and made it her own on this pop song.
