Jazmin

Jazmin

My wife correctly criticizes me in that I will listen to a lot of pop music from other countries that I would never listen to if the music was American and sung in English. My defense is that what is pop in the United States is more mainstream in other parts of the world and to not listen to it is to not listen to much of what much of the world has to offer.

Jazmin is example number one. My first experience with this singer was her video for the title song to this album (watch and listen). I like the rhythm guitar, the video and it’s locales in Helsinki and Stockholm, and I freely admit that I think the singer is attractive to watch. Her music may be pop, but it is still much better than the cheesy covers on her CDs might suggest.

Jazmin was born in Dagestan. You can find her web fan site (in Russian) here.

Songs of Innocence

Songs of Innocence, Tomas Gubitsch & Hughes de Courson

I first got wind of this album from the video (view) of Toma que Toma in one of the world music video blocks on Link TV, a largely unknown gem of a channel on DirecTV. On Songs of Innocence, Tomas Gubitsch and Hughes de Courson take childrens’ songs from around the world and arrange them for children’s chorus, orchestra, and a wide variety instruments from around the world.

Cheb Khaled

Sahra, Cheb Khaled

I had the track Aicha (listen and watch) from this CD of Cheb Khaled in my world music collection for years and never listened to it before Shadi came and gave me an education in music from the Muslim world. Aicha is a song of which I never tire, and I will sometimes set the CD changer in my car to repeat so that I can listen to it over and over again. Think of it as sort of the Pachebel’s Canon of Raï.

Paul Tingen wrote an excellent article in Sound on Sound that goes in-depth about Khaled, Raï, and the recording of Sahra.

Cheb Khaled’s fan site (in French) can be found here.