[Agnostic]

Astor Piazzolla - The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night (Argentinian Nuevo Tango)

Yasmin Levy - La Juderia (Mix of traditional Sephardic music and Flamenco)
Don't play when depressed, you'll end up crying!

Atahualpa Yupanqui - Los Esenciales (Argentina's most famous folk singer)

Kimmo Pohjonen - Kluster (Finnish avant garde accordion music)

Kudsi Erguner - Sufi Music of Turkey (Sufi Ney flute music)

Madredeus - Ainda (Portugese Fado with many other musical influences)

 

[zenaphile]

Pamyua - must be heard to be experienced, words can't do it.

Best description... "Inuit soul in four part harmony. Traditional singing and drumming."

http://tribalfunk.wordpress.com/

 

[VicAjax]

Toumani Diabaté is a master of the Kora, a harp-like instrument from West Africa. Ali Farka Touré is a guitarist (and percussionist) from Mali, who plays a style of African blues:

Ali Farka Touré/Toumani Diabaté - In the Heart of the Moon

a live duet recorded by Ry Cooder in a hotel room in Mali. no edits, no retakes, no post production... the sound quality is quite great. and the two master musicians had never met before, so a lot of it was just riffing based off of mid-century political songs. a brilliant album.

if you like this, pick up Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra - Boulevard de l'Independance and/or Ali Farka Touré - Savane. neither really sound anything like the above album, but they offer fantastic music that you rarely hear this side of the Atlantic.

 

[Sarchi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gritzcolin /img/forum/go_quote.gif Jesse Cook pretty much anything by him but most definately Free fall and Gravity. One of the finest Flamenco guitarists in the world. His label Narada actually has a lot of good "world" musicians on it.

Thanks for mentioning Narada...I like Jesse Cook. Actually my wife dated him a few times in high school.

 

[tru blu]

The best klezmer-pop album I've ever heard is by the Klezmatics; most of their records are great, but Possessed is a cut above. Some of the music comes from a collaboration with the playwright Tony Kushner.

Oh, and IMO, Ali Farka Toure's best records are two older ones, The River and Niafunké.

As for Brazil, you can't go wrong with Caetano Veloso's Livro or Noïtes do Norte. If you want something that rocks a bit more, check out Tom Zé: David Byrne's label put out two excellent retrospectives a while back, but there's a studio thing from a few years ago called Jogos de Armar that's probably Zé's crowning achievement. He loves to litter his sambas with guitar pings and found-sounds like car horns; really inventive.

 

[tru blu]

Toumani Diabaté The Mandé Variations - A solo record that's unbelievably focused and beautiful. Pastoral, but not in an easy-listening way.

Moddathir Aboul Wafa Toola - Egyptian oud player with a small orchestra. Pretty fantastic with the exception of the final track, which mixes Arabic music with Brazilian samba.

 

[Aardvarks]

Google for Mali music.

Music of Mali - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anything on the Real World Record label owned by Peter Gabriel

Real World Records

I can highly recommed the album 'Assemby' by Zawose and Brook.

6moons.com - world music: Zawose & Brook "Assembly"

Hukwe Sawosi is from central Tanzania and his melodies are from his own people. The vocals on this record are in Kigogo and it is superb

 

[pdennis]

The term "World Music" isn't particularly helpful. Personally, I don't know of any Non-World Music.

Latin music I can help you with, though. I've recommended the music of Susana Baca several times in the last few months, and will continue to do so. If you like Afro-Cuban music but have never heard Afro-Peruvian, try the albums "Susana Baca" or "Espiritu Vivo". Afro-Peruvian music has incredible and unique rhythms, the band is terrific, and she has an excellent voice.

As mentioned earlier, "In the Heart of the Moon" is indeed a great album of Malian music. For something a little different, try Malicool featuring American trombonist Roswell Rudd recording in Mali with local musicians, including Toumani Diabate. A musical hybrid, but an effective one.

 

[tiantan]

Nac: i think you posted the wrong link,

To the OP go here:
The "World Music" Recommendations Thread

 

[NacMacFeegle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tiantan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nac: i think you posted the wrong link, To the OP go here: The "World Music" Recommendations Thread

Thanks for the link correction...However I am thinking the 'Crash' of last year messed up my link as I have no idea as to which forum that link would live