Oum - Taragalte

 "Taragalte" means "Soul of Morocco."  Oum is a Moroccan born singer, songwriter and musician who is featured in this video.  It seems her band or management company work out of France.  This is the last video of my short little tour of African music.  I haven't even scratched the surface, I realize, but I'm traveling the world through the music, just following my nose and ear.

Asahra

Fascinating video. Hamid Ekawel is a member of the group Tinariwen, which is from northern Mali, in the Saharan desert, hence the references to "asahra."  I find this quite an interesting song -- it captures the spiritual unrest of the world right now.

Sona Jobarteh

 Sona was born in London but her father heralds from Gambia.  Her older brother and father taught her to play the kora.  This video was made in 2015 in honor of Gambia's Golden Jubilee of Independence.

A Short Tour of African Music

 Boubacar Traore and Ali Farka Toure.  Just a couple of guys hanging out in Mali.  Interesting how the guitar has made its way around the world.  I think of it as the primary instrument of this age.  I'll add another couple of videos along this thread as the week goes by.

Which Way Are You Walking?

 Anasazi Foundation is a nonprofit 501©(3) wilderness therapy program headquartered in Mesa, Arizona. Anasazi Foundation gives young people an opportunity, through a primitive living experience and a philosophy that invites healing at the hands of nature, to effect a change of heart--a change in one's whole way of walking in the world.

Many of the unique and life-changing teachings at Anasazi Foundation were inspired by two of its co-founders: Ezekiel C. Sanchez (a Totonac Indian whose given name is Good Buffalo Eagle) and his wife, Pauline Martin Sanchez (a Navajo native whose given name is Gentle White Dove). For more than thirty years these teachings have helped families turn their hearts to one another, begin anew, and walk in harmony in the wilderness of the world. VISIT OUR WEBSITE: ➤➤ https://www.anasazi.org

Vasen & Dreamers' Circus, Round Two

 This is a clip from the same concert as the prior post, but a bit more lively.  It was composed by Vasen's viola player, Mikael Marin.  Some good male energy.  It's called "Hasse A's."

Vasen and Dreamers' Circus

 Imagine my delight when I discovered that two of my favorite Northern European folk trios had played together live!  I thought this was a nice way to introduce Vasen to you after having focused on Dreamers' Circus last week.

This concert was held in Copenhagen back in 2016.  We have the three shorter, younger members of the Danish trio, Dreamers' Circus,  interspersed with the taller, older Swedish members of Vasen.  

The line-up from left to right is Nikolaj Busk on accordion, Rune Tonsgaard Sorensen on violin, Mikael Marin (in the bowler) on viola, Olov Johansson (really tall) on the nyckelharpa, Ale Carr on the cittern, and then Roger Tallroth, also in a hat, on what might be that octave mandolin rather than a guitar, I believe.

This piece is a beautiful wedding waltz which the wonderful Roger Tallroth composed, entitled "Pilvi & Eskos Brudvals'."  There is something especially moving in seeing this simple and sweet song played by six men standing abreadst a stage, imbuing the music with endearing and enduring friendship, sincere feeling, and the fond hopes one has for one's own friends' happiness.

Last One

 This is the last of a trio of posts featuring the Danish folk group, Dreamers' Circus.  This one is a short television spot, but though it's short, it's sweet and that's what I like about it.  Enjoy.

Kitchen Stories

 This is another video by the Danish folk trio, Dreamers' Circus.  The title refers to how, at any good party worthy of its name, people always wind up in the kitchen telling stories.  True.  Why is that?  Anyway, it's a lively and fun piece of music performed, of course, in a kitchen.

Dreamers' Circus

Before I delve more deeply into Roger Tallroth and Vasen, the Swedish trio he's a member of, I'm going to take a left turn at Albuquerque (to misquote Bugs Bunny), and go off on a short tangent.  We will reconvene the following weekend with the Vasen connection.

I became aware some years ago of the Danish String Quartet.  Out of that group, I focused on one musician/composer, a young fellow named Rune Tonsgaard Sorenson.   Rune's an interesting and busy fellow: not yet forty, he's the concert master of the Copenhagen Philharmonic, a teacher at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, the violinist for the Danish String Quartet, and in his free time started a folk trio called Dreamers' Circus, which also includes Ale Carr on the cittern and Nikolaj Busk on accordion and keyboards.  It's this last incarnation that I'm featuring now.

This video was the first I watched of them, and it sold me forever on their music and their performances.  The piece is called "City Gardens" and the video was shot on the Danish island of Mon.

Roger Tallroth

I'm on a bit of a kick, musically.  It's another form of biography and I've always felt it to be a shorthand method of communicating something vital, visceral, and not necessarily verbal.  So that's where this recent tack comes from.

 As it turns out, I'm Swedish on my mother's side, so I come to my love of Swedish folk music honestly.  Roger Tallroth was the composer of the previous post with Brittany and Natalie Haas performing one of his pieces.  Roger also is the guitarist in the folk trio Vasen, which includes Mikael Marin on viola and Olav Johansson on the nyckelharpa.  Later I will include some music by this group but first, I wanted to introduce Roger as both a composer and musician.  

In this video Roger is playing one of his own compositions on a Northfield flat top octave mandolin.

Natalie and Brittany Haas

 I mentioned some time ago that I had survived, emotionally, by listening to music by women from around the world.  This sister duo are actually from the Bay area, Menlo Park, I believe, although Natalie, the cellist, married a Canadian folk singer and now lives in Quebec.  Both seem to work with Boston-based musicians.  Anyway, this is a favorite video of mine -- simple and unassuming.  The composition is called "Kom Hem" by the Swedish folk musician and composer, Roger Tallroth, whose band, Vassen, I love.  I'll feature their music somewhere down the road.  But now for Natalie and Brittany Haas.

A new day, a New Year