Putumayo Anthologies Make New the Love of Music

Don Bain

            During the past year we have reviewed several of the selections in the Putumayo line of World Beat, ethnic and geographical and geographic anthologies of music.  These recordings are not aimed at teenagers – as we noted last week, who knows what they are listening to now.  Rather this is music for those tired of pop, rock, alternative and jazz norms.

            Putumayo anthologies do not insist upon your rapt attention, being content to lazily lap at the beach of your mind.  At the same time, the music can be as refreshing as the pulsing stream of a morning shower full in your face.

            Over the past few months, a few new selections have been released worthy of mention.  First among these is a disc titled Women of Latin America – a who’s who of Latina singer/songwriters.  It includes the delightful La Ronda from Colombia’s Marta Gómez; a haunting track titled Sinuoso Trópico by Chile’s Jacqueline Fuentes; from Peru, the festive Anda Mareado by Tania Libertad along with the ethereal soul of Caras Lindas by Susanna Baca; Icnocuicatl by Mixteca Lila Downs; a jazzy number by Brazilian Belô Velloso and five more tracks.  If you know anyone who likes female vocalists and Spanish lyrics, this would make a great gift.

            A genuine surprise s the seductive recordings titled South Pacific Islands.  The bands come from Samoa, New Zealand, Takelau, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia.  The music uses a lot of traditional percussion instruments such as slit and log drums mixed with electric guitars and modern acoutrements resulting in a fresh organic sound, somehow less processed than the standard American fare.  Chances are you won’t understand the lyrics in the languages of the South Seas, and yet you will intuitively grasp the feelings the songs are built around.  You will feel the warm sand beneath your feet and the cool ocean breeze across your cheek.  Just as you finish thanking the heavens for your idylic life, you’ll wake up in your den, take another look at the album cover and wonder why your living in the Western hemisphere.

            A very different collection is comprised on the disc Music from the Chocolate Lands, said to be unforgettable songs from the countries where chocolate is produced.  These lands where the sweetest of confections is born are also the birthplace of some honeyed melodies.  The music of Congo, India, Brazil, Haiti, U.S.A., Mexico, Ivory Coast. Guinea, Hawaii, Belize, Peru and Cuba are all represented.  Peruvian Susanna Baca and the U.S.A.’s Ozomatli are included on the anthology.  This recording, along with a box of Godivas, would make for very sugary afternoon for your favorite chocoholic.

            Blues Lounge is the fourth in the Putumayo Lounge series and their fourth blues release.  This one encapsulates a new movement in the music world pairing recordings of traditional bluesman with cutting edge electronica DJs and producers who remix and reinterpret the archival files.  Superstar Moby was one of the first to gain exciting results from fusing soulful blues with modern electronica and dance music.  He is represented on the disc by a track titled Run On.

            Also on the recording are works by German DJs and producers Mo’ Horizons and Boozou Bajou, plus Belgium’s Gare du Nord, using samples of old blues recordings combined with contemporary blues and soul singers into a highly accessible club music form.  Gaining current radio play is a track titled Banal Reality by Organic Grooves, a collection of New York DJs inspired by a wide array of world and roots musical genres.

            Two tracks on the disc are from Tangle Eye, a team of new Orleans based remixers who use samples of original vocal performances collected by musicologist Alan Lomax in the South between the 1940s and 1960s.

            Songs are included from Oxford, Mississippi’s Fat Possum label, where innovative producers such as Britain’s Adrian Sherwood and Atlanta’s Organized Noize work with new blues vocalists such as Little Axe and Johnny Farmer.

            This disc is an excellent way for the blues lover to catch up on the latest trends in this old musical form, which seems to be growing younger.

            And of course these are just the latest additions to the Putumayo line which includes lounge, groove, Asia, Brazil, Middle East, Latin, Caribbean/Reggae, African, European, world, blues, Louisiana and Kids’ collections.

            Look for Putumayo displays at finer bookstores, coffee shops, museums and other unlikely music outlets or visit www.putumayo.com.  And remember they have them at Museo de Las Americas.