I was in Brussels last weekend for the 3-day Couleur Café music festival. It was my third Couleur Café – it’s becoming a bit of a tradition.

If you’ve never been you should definitely check it out next year. I think the venue is changing in a couple years, so next year will be your last chance to check-out the festival at Tour et Taxi, a great festival grounds on the edge of Brussels. It’s apparently moving to the Atomium or thereabouts.. we’ll see how that works out. (Is there still that hilariously frightening Charlemagne Palestine exhibit of weird puppets inside the Atomium?)

The music at Couleur Café is always good, the event is well-organized, you eat well, the weather is inevitably sunny – at least every year I’ve been – and Brussels is a very fun place to spend a weekend if you know/meet the right people. A big plus is that Couleur Café, like Solidays in Paris but minus the attitude, is in a city instead of a muddy field somewhere.

The line-up this year was pretty good. You can never see everyone at these festivals, especially if you’re going to survive the million chopes in the uncharacteristically hot, sunny Belgian weather, but I did manage to catch quite a few good shows.

Today we’ll hear some music from some of this year’s highlights including Bibi Tanga, Asian Dub Foundation, Khaled, Alpha Blondy, Patrice, Cesaria Evora and the Kasai All-Stars.

I didn’t know Bibi Tanga before the festival – great show. Asian Dub Foundation put on a good, loud and sweaty set as usual. Patrice really rocked the crowd. Unfortunately for me, the Kasai All-Stars set had some of the worst sound I’ve ever heard. I was really looking forward to seeing them but the show was almost unlistenable due to bad mixing, bad mics.. oh well. Alpha Blondy was, well, an Alpha Blondy show with plenty of smoke in the air and dazed franco-reggae youth in the sun. Cesaria Evora looked like she’d seen a ghost or suffered a stroke, but her music still goes so well with the nice weather. (And no, Hocus Pocus didn’t actually play with her. That’s just a 20syl remix I like.. a nod to the Paris hiphop scene.) And we all know that Khaled is classic.

There was much, much more – some that I saw, much that I didn’t – but that’s enough for a big weekend. I’m still tired but Couleur Café is well worth the trip every year.

Big love to the whole Belgium crew – always a pleasure to see you guys.

PS Happy Canada Day!

Bibi Tanga – It’s The Earth That Moves
Asian Dub Foundation – Flyover
Alpha Blondy – Brigadier Sabary
Cesaria Evora – Petit Pays (20syl remix)
Kasai Allstars – Quick As White
Patrice – Fear Rules
Khaled – Raba Raba

During one of my recent trips to London my old friend James and I went to see Shantel & Bucovina Club Orkestar. I had always wanted to go to the Bucovina Club nights in Frankfurt but never made it over, so I’d finally catch-up with Shantel at a London venue conveniently near work, Koko.

If you’ve been to one of Shantel’s shows or a Bucovina night you’ll know that they’re a lot of fun. What’s not to like about a German DJ playing live then spinning tunes of heavy brassed Balkan dance music? The venue was great, too, and the crowd was dancing like mad.

The next night James and I found ourselves at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club in East London. As it happens, while sipping beers in a hall that reminded me of childhood Ukrainian weddings, the DJs filled our ears all night with gypsy brass attacks… my week in London was taking a definite turn for the Balkans.

My Paris has been heading that way lately, too. Zaklina had us doing strong Balkan shots at a Serbian dance party in a bar near my apartment not so long ago; Louise and I stumbled into a gypsy jazz party a few weeks ago; Alex reminded us all of the wonders of the cymbalom a couple months ago…

As my friend Emmanuel pointed out the other night this certainly isn’t the first time that big brass, cymbaloms and other things musically Balkan have invaded the clubs and mixtapes of Western Europe. A few years ago Taraf de Haïdouks were all the rage in France, and many others have come and gone since

But this time, personally, I’m more into it. I find myself listening to Boban Markovic and Fanfare Ciocărlia often now, and not just for a little horn fix.

It was the success of people and groups like Markovic and the various Fanfares from Serbia, Romania, Albania and elsewhere that Shantel built on to bring his Bucovina to the masses. So today we’ll start with some Shantel, move to his influences, then finish up with a couple favourites to round off the post.

You can see the video of Shantel’s big hit here. The second Shantel track I’ll post is an older mix from 2003 featuring the Boban Markovic Orchestrar.

We’ll hear two tracks from Boban Markovic: the first from his 2003 collaborative release with his 15-year-old son, Marko; the second from his 2005 release, The Promise. (I had a chance to see Boban Markovic in Paris the other night but I had already bought tickets to see Alela Diane. Alela was amazing, though, so no worries. Next time.)

Next some music by the wonderful Romanian group, Fanfare Ciocărlia. Romanian.. I’ve always had a thing for that language. I’ve got to visit the country someday soon. The first track is off their latest album, 2007′s Queens and Kings, and the second is from their first wide-release, Radio Pascani from back in that glorious year, 1998.

As I mentioned above a few weeks ago my friend Alex re-introduced us to the wonders of the cymbalom, a string instrument akin to an inside-out piano that’s very popular in Romanian traditional music. Today we’ll hear what’s easily my favourite track off Alex’s mix by the Romanian super-group, Clejani Express. It’s from their 2007 release, A Devla. I’ve caught myself singing this while riding my bike to work on a number of occasions.. you can imagine the strange looks this gets me from the Parisian passers-by, baguette and small dog in tow.

Last we’ll hear a tune that caught my ear by a Croatian band, now based in France, Darko Rundek & Cargo Orkestar.

We owe much of this music to the fine Germans at Piranha Records. If you’re into this stuff check-out their amazing catalogue of Balkan music. A lot of the Piranha albums are available for download at Calabash and Emusic.

Shantel – Disko Partizani
Shantel feat. Boban Markovic Orkestar – Disko (Friends of Boban mix)
Boban Markovic – Balkan Fest
Boban Markovic Orkestar – Voz
Fanfare Ciocărlia – Duj Duj
Fanfare Ciocărlia – Hora cu Strigaturii
Clejani Express – Foaie Verde
Darko Rundek & Cargo Orkestar – Ista Slika

BBC Sound System are a Senegalese hiphop group based in Paris, France. Their 2003 release, Na Banko, resurfaced in my collection lately thanks to a random shuffle.

Once again I’m reminded how Wolof is a great rapping language.. so angular, filled with rhyming sounds.

Unfortunately it’s not much more than a collection of sounds to my ears; with every passing day my Wolof disappears, word by word. I can still make a Senegalese person laugh when I hear the accent in Paris and respond with a Wolof joke, but that’s about it these days.

Anyway, just a quick post this morning.

BBC Sound System – Kalama

Benn loxo listener and friend, Rob, turned me on to Aldo Romano, Louise Sclavis and Henri Texier‘s jazz project, Carnet de routes.

The music is inspired by the trio’s travels around central africa, led by Magnum photographer and African travel veteran, Guy Le Querrec.

I liked Carnet de routes enough that I picked-up their third Africa-inspired release, African Flashback. This album comes with a beautiful 50-plus page booklet of Le Querrec’s photos from about 1969 until the 90s. He has taken photos all around Africa, though the central African countries seem to have caught his eye the most. I find his shots of CAR in 1970, Algeria in 1969 and of women of Mauritania particularly stunning.

Romano, Sclavis and Texier each picked four photos featured in the booklet to inspire a composition. Flipping through the photos while listening makes for great interactive listening.

You can buy all three recordings in the series, Carnet de routes, Suite africaine and African Flashback

ps- I just noticed a post last year on African Flashback on Undomundo.

Aldo Romano, Louis Sclavis, Henri Texier – Les petits lits blancs
Aldo Romano, Louis Sclavis, Henri Texier – Harvest
Aldo Romano, Louis Sclavis, Henri Texier – Bororo Dance

Paris is alive with concerts and patios. I love this time of year.

In the last couple weeks I’ve seen Tinariwen, Gotan Project and Sharon Jones. Upcoming shows include Cinematic Orchestra, maybe Marcos Valle, Ba Cissoko and Nuru Kane, maybe another Toumani Diabaté show, Cowboys Fringants, and more…

A couple nights ago I also went to see Julien Jacob and Gerald Toto at the New Morning.

Julien Jacob is great. He’s a good performer and I enjoy his music, plus he conveys a warmth on stage that makes you want to buy him a beer.

With only himself on vocals, a percussionist and an acoustic guitar he managed to really engage the crowd and create a full sound. Looking around the room I spotted several people totally lost in his music. A typically Parisian world music crowd, at that.

I wrote about Julien Jacob on this site before so you know the deal.. born in Benin, raised in France. He still lives in Brittany in the north of France.

Despite what it might sound like at first he’s not singing in a Beninese dialect – that’s no language at all, but rather sounds that he’s come up with to go with the music.

He has a new album coming out this year. You can hear clips already on his MySpace page. If you haven’t already be sure to pick-up his first album, Cotonou.

Gerald Toto took over for the second half of the concert. Let’s just say I left early. It’s a shame because in the past I’ve liked some of his other stuff such as Toto Bona Lokua. This night he just sounded too… polished and predictable. He should stick to his vocal sampling tricks and/or shake-up his rhythms and melodies.

Julien Jacob – Yacob
Toto Bona Lokua – Lamuka

Julien Jacob’s music isn’t African.
Yeah, but he was born in Benin.
He moved to France when he was four. I was born in the US and moved to Canada when I was three but I’m not American.. nor am I French any time soon.
Fair enough, but his songs sound West African.
Some of the percussion and guitar, sure, but I don’t know if you noticed that he’s singing in an invented language.
Doesn’t he live in Brittany? They speak a crazy language up there. Maybe you’re confusing it with that.
No, I’m serious: he sings in a language that he invented for his music, à la Ekova. It’s meant to sound good but not mean anything in any language.
So wait, if it’s not African why are you putting it on Benn loxo?

Because I can do whatever I want, and it’s a great album. Sounds like Francis Bebey tossed in a salad with Tom Waits and a dash of Ekova. His tune Yacob also features a great Algerian musician, Rachid Taha. Jenny, if you’re reading, thanks for the heads-up.

If you like it, pick it up over at Stern’s or Calabash.

ps- Benn loxo listener, Brian, is looking for a copy of Awadi’s song, Zamouna. If you have it then leave a comment or send me an e-mail.

Julien Jacob – Yacob feat. Rachid Taha
Julien Jacob – Meh