Despite what some people think, Parisians are fascinated by the Anglophone world. English-speakers are often surprised to learn that it’s the dream of many French youth to leave France for the UK or N. America so that they can escape the constraints of their relatively conservative society. Those without the gift of language skills look longingly to Montréal, that dreamy city where one can speak French but still feel American. (Most return after their first Québec winter.)

Relatively conservative? Paris? Well, compared to London… yes. In cuisine, fashion and music, absolutely. A trip across the manche will quickly convince anyone who has lived in Paris for a while that, for better or for worse, often the latter in my opinion, people make a much greater effort to individualize themselves in London. Goodbye to the seas of matching black clothing at Paris cafés; farewell to blandly-spiced “asiatique” cuisine; adieu to attractively unhappy brunette singer-songwriters. Hello to gutsy use of colour, brash drum’n'bass, fiery south Asian eats and an unabashed fusion of cultures everywhere you turn. I may be a francophile at heart – I’ll take Paris over London any day – but I’ll readily admit that Paris is London’s tamer, less integrated neighbour.

I was in London last week. Most evenings were busy with work nights out and catch-ups with friends but I did manage to see some music upstairs at Ronnie Scott’s in Soho. It was Friday, so it was Viva La Revolucion! night featuring live latin music. The band was Lokkhi Terra, a “Cuban Bengal” group from London.

Talk about a good example of London cultural mixing. Lokkhi Terra features Bengali, Indian and Cuban vocalists, drummers on congas and tablas, and horns backing-up the frontman, Kishon Khan, on piano. The enthusiastic crowd – very mixed in age, ethnicity and ability to dance – worked the bar for mojitos between salsas.

While I’ve grown to love the Paris music scene in its many forms, this live show was something that you wouldn’t find here. As a French teen might say, it was “so London.”

Lokkhi Terra – Gottogotodhaka
Lokkhi Terra – Nodir Kul (BAS remix)

Gentle, Cameroonian jazz to ease you into your Monday.

I don’t think I ever mentioned this, but I saw a great little Herminia concert a couple weeks back. She was even smaller and older-looking than I imagined, but her voice filled the room.

The venue was the Mam’Bia, a good Cap Verdian restaurant near Strasbourg St-Denis in Paris. It’s small so only about 50 of us were at the show.. your typically random mix of “world music” people: old, young, strange, seemingly normal.

The woman I’ll post today, Cameroonian Anne-Marie Nzié, is a bit like Herminia in that her voice is still as powerful as ever at the age of 67. I don’t know much about her except that her one and only wide-release, Beza Ba Dzo, is a great listen. It features the likes of Manu Dibango, Brice Wassy and others.

The most interesting part of her biography is when she had to spend a long time in hospital after falling from a mango tree in the mid-1960s. It was there, in her hospital bed, that she was introduced to Hawaiian music by her brother. After finally leaving hospital the two started performing together, him on Hawaiian guitar, Nzié providing the vocals. That’s an original start to a career if I’ve ever heard one.

Anne-Marie Nzié – Sarah

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

I liked that Maurice El Medioni track from yesterday’s post so much that I picked up more of his music today.

Back in 1947 when he was only 19 years old, Medioni, or “Boogie” to his friends, invented his “pianoriental” playing style that blends rai with elements of Latin and French chanson music.

Today’s music is off Maurice El Medioni’s 1982 release, Pianoriental, re-released by Buda in 2002. The music on this album is much more piano-based. I love the way most tracks start with streaming melodies using Arabic scales, often for several minutes, before the Algerian percussion and Latin influence kicks in.

This North African trend will continue for the next few days. I’ve had two tagines in the last 24 hours and I’m just getting started…

Maurice El Medioni – Ouine Rak
Maurice El Medioni – Touchia Sica

I don’t want to seem like a Rough Guide fanboy or anything, but the CDs they graciously keep sending me are consistently great. The latest, The Rough to Latin-Arabia, is of particular interest because lately I’ve been trying to pull my Arabic music knowledge out of the depths of ignorance.

I was going to post Rhany’s track, Chan Chan, but Paul over at Aurgasm beat to it. You also on the Rough Guide dist list? Either way, that’s cool, because I’ll post some Maurice El Medioni whose life story is conducive to a great post title. I also love any song that starts with the lyrics, “tu as assisté à ma naissance.”

Born in the Algerian rai hot-spot of Oran, Medioni got his start playing piano for American troops after Algeria was “liberated” from France in 1942. He had to flee in 1962 following a rise in intolerance towards Algeria’s Jewish population and he eventually settled in Paris.

Medioni blends rai and various Latin musical styles to create a sound very much appropriate for the Parisian cabaret scene.. or a Cuban salsa bar. There’s a good quote over at the Piranha records site that sums it up:

“The basis of my music is Andalusian, but I mix in Boogie Woogie, Jazz and Latin. Despite this my music still has the resonance of the Maghreb.”

The good people over at fly.co.uk have written much more about Medioni if you’re curious.

Maurice El Medioni – Oran Oran