Soul, jazz, afrobeat, reggae, folk, ...

Her music is so rich, but at the same time reflects so much simplicity. The same is with her background. She is a child of a Nigerian father and a Romani Gypsy mother, raised in Germany. She has a multicultural ethnicity, but she is so plain and open with her looks, voice and music. She catches you in the first note.

Her name means joy in the Nigerian Yoruba language. Joy is what she is seeking, and what she wants to give as you can understand from the title of her debut album "Joyful" in 2006. Her albums represent her life experiences. With her second album "Gravity at last" she gives us another message of stability.

Ayo and her guitar act like one, on any performance, with a dialogue that seems more than real. You must listen to Ayo. Especially her live performance!
Although she has only two albums it was difficult for me to choose from her videos to publish in this post. They are all so good! Happy listening...

Visit:
Ayo's official website
Ayo @ myspace
Ayo @ banana republic

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What a lovely voice and creatively attractive style! This French lady born to a French academic family, has fluent English and studied political science previous her music career. While singing at jazz clubs in France, she also started acting with the film Les Morsures de l'Aube, for which she also contritributed to the soundtrack. In 2002 she released her first album Le Sac des Filles by Virgin Records. In 2005 came her second album Le Fil with an avant garde concept of a a string (le fil) to be a drone that continued throughout the album. The only instruments used in this album were bass, double base and keyboards, encompanied only by explorative vocal sounds. In 2007 she took part in the soundtrack of Pixar's aniation film Ratatouille, with the leading song Le Festin. Last year in 2008 she released her last album Music Hole.

For her inspirational and creative work she has received 5 awards including the Prix Constantin, 3 awards at the Victoires de la musique , and European world music winner from BBC Radio 3.

This lady has caught my ears and sight at a note and a glance. Even though I don't know French, I immediately understand that her work is very deeply conceptual, and her voice and music is very good, even better than most recent artists I've heard in the last decade. She is definitely worth listening to and watching.

Further Reading:
Camille's Music Hole
Camille's Le fil

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Are you ready for timeless music from Zakir Hussain? Here we go...

Indian prodigy child Zakir Hussain or in other words Ustad (grand master) of tabla, was touring the United States by the age of 12. As a master of percussion, he plays classical Indian tunes and has performed in collaboration with contemporary jazz artists such as John McLaughlin and Mickey Hart. Hussain is the founding member of Tabla Beat Science "World music supergroup" of Bill Laswell. Besides his musical practice he also teaches tabla to students in San Francisco, USA and Mumbai, India.

He is the founder of Moment! records dedicated to featuring original collaborations of world music, and concert performances of great masters of classical indian music.
He has also starred in various films and has recorded soundtrack albums for films such as Heat and Dust in 1983, The Mystic Masseur, In Custody, and has played tabla for Apocalypse Now, and Little Buddha. In 1999 he wins many awards and is nominated for the many more with the film Vaanaprastham, where he composes, performs and acts as a music advisor.

He has won many awards including the 1999 National Heritage Fellowship, a prestigious award given to masters of traditional art, and the grammy in 2009 for contemporary world music category.



Read more about Ustad Zakir Hussain:

Ustad Zakir Hussain @wikipedia
Ustad Zakit Hussain @imdb
Ustad Zakit Hussain @allaboutjazz

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Born in 1956 Mari Boine is a Norwegian Sami musician who combines her native Sami tunes with jazz and rock providing a touching emotional and moving sound. Her music is her voice for her fellow Sami people who are a minority of the Norwegian colonization and live in difficult conditions in the northern skirts of the country.

She made her first debut with "Gula Gula"



This is a film where Mari plays a woman who tries to escape from the difficult conditions of the Sami minority after the region was colonized.
Vuolgge mu mielde Bassivárrái



Related reading and listening:
mariboine.no Mari Boine official homepage
Mari Boine.no at Myspace

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