Music of Central Asia

[dave quam]

The "Stans"...

What's good?

[kp*]

A fantastic read that comes with a CD is:

Hundred Thousand Fools of God, The: Musical Travels in Central Asia
Theodore Levin

[grisha]

Dave, there is quite a bunch out there. there are quite a few on King Records (World Music Library), really good. try searching here:

http://www.welove-music.net/

and some here: http://zhuzhulingo.blogspot.com/

[Dohol]

A fantastic read that comes with a CD is:

Hundred Thousand Fools of God, The: Musical Travels in Central Asia
Theodore Levin

Hell yes..great book. I just heard Levin give a lecture/demonstration on Tuvan music a couple of weeks ago..an interesting guy..

[Dohol]

(great, great record..)





I could go on and on....I love central Asian music.

Smithsonian Folkways, Ocora, King World Music are all good labels to start with..

(and read Levin's book)

[dave quam]

Oh wow, never heard of that book, looks great!

I got a bunch of Ocora (as I have maybe 80% of the catalog) releases from the region, but I don't think I have any of the King Records stuff.

I'm in the middle of organizing all my music right now, but I'll chime in with some recs from my collection soon. It's not an area I know much about, but one I am very interested in. Figured there would be at least a few people on this board with an interest in music from this part of the world.

Also, not just folk music, current pop stuff, experimental, classical, anything.

[Dohol]

http://youtu.be/6IRSq7pZH3g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLzAgZKa22Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AdE8HyQ ... re=related

and then there is the whole astonishing sub-genre of Azerbaijani electric guitar...(these guys are bad motherfuckers..and they play weddings..)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afTzedy- ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjeiOSu2 ... re=related

http://youtu.be/LA2hn7KHtk4

[dave quam]

oh damn that electric guitar stuff is great!

[Dohol]

if you liked that, then you'll dig Ramish..



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaiaVD84_Os

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKEFsY6h ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zedetNr4 ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH3ThDyu ... re=related

[Dohol]

I really want one of those hip Soviet era guitars..

[dave quam]

Listening to this right now, it's nice, and I'd recommend it.

http://www.amazon.fr/Tadjikistan-Musiqu ... B00004V99A

[grisha]

http://www.welove-music.net/2011/11/wor ... stern.html

by the way, Dave, do you know this one: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Museum-Man ... B000000G9G ?

there is one track from Georgia, but that's a minor quibble. great stuff.

[dave quam]

Oh wow thanks for the link to those albums Grisha, just grabbed a bunch of them!

Just got that Secret Museum disc but haven't listened yet. I've heard that one is good.

[dave quam]

Just heard this for the first time, awesome stuff.

Also been reading Hundred Thousand Fools of God, really cool so far.

[Dohol]

big thumbs up...

[P. Wretch]

One of the few good things (from my perspective) to come out of the recent London Olympics was a tie-in outdoor world music concert that featured a performance from the 'Bardic Divas' (as featured on Volume 4 of that Smithsonian series). They were arranged on the stage in a semi-circle, dressed in suitably ornate national costume (bringing to mind a kind of Soviet-era manufactured notion of 'folk arts'), and only got time to perform one song each. This is a backstage photo, as taken by one of the members of the Kronos Quartet:



It was probably the most powerful line-up of singers I can remember hearing. They were all good, but particularly notable was Fargana Qasimov of Azerbaijan, who appears with her more famous father Alim on Volume 6 of the series (although Azerbaijan, being on the western side of the Caspian Sea, doesn't really count as Central Asia, and was presumably included by the Aga Khan Foundation because of its Islamic heritage). Despite the tacky title and orientalist presentation, it was also an impressively feminist venture, in its way.

[D.D.]

Munojot Yolchieva from Uzbekistan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7blR-Jy ... ure=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM9X1G2r ... re=related

[dave quam]

Some others ive enjoyed as well:



As Grisha mentioned earlier, King Records have a bunch of Central Asian titles, and most of them ive heard are great.



Some good titles on Kink Gong as well.