#4468, Run the World: Women in World Music
New Sounds delights in amplifying trailblazing musicians who happen to be women from around the world – perhaps for more than just one day, or one month. Some of these master musicians play instruments or sing in vocal traditions traditionally reserved for men - like New York-based bandleader Rajna Swaminathan on mridangam (a two-headed barrel-shaped drum), Syrian-born, Paris-based Waed Bouhassoun on the oud (Arabic lute), London-based Sona Jobarteh on the kora, or Siti Amina singing and performing Taarab music of Zanzibar with her group Siti & the Band. Others, like Virginia-based guitarist Yasmin Williams, South Korean drummer and bandleader Soojin Suh, Taiwanese pipa player Yufeng Chung, and Estonian jaw harp player and bagpiper Cätlin Mägi (Jaago), are master musicians doing brilliant and innovative things with their chosen instruments. Listen to music by all of these women, and more.
From Syrian singer, oud player, and bandleader Waed Bouhassoun, now based in Paris, who also plays with Jordi Savall's ensemble, hear music from her solo album, The Soul of the Lute. Then, listen to music by Sona Jobarteh, the first female Kora virtuoso from a west African Griot family, who is also a singer, producer, composer, educator, and multi-instrumentalist. There's also an adaptation of the west African kora repertoire, in the piece "Jarabi" from lap-tapping guitarist, and multi-instrumentalist Yasmin Williams from her latest record, Urban Driftwood.
New York-based mridangam player, composer, and vocalist Rajna Swaminathan is an established name in South Indian Carnatic music, one of the few female percussionists to have become so. (The mridangam is a barrel-shaped drum from the South Indian tradition.) Listen to work from Swaminathan’s record as a bandleader of the ensemble Rajas, Of Agency And Abstraction. Hear new music by from Korean drummer Soojin Suh leading a piano trio in a motoric, systems music-leaning, and riff-driven work from the 2020 record, Colorist.
Listen to Taarab music of Zanzibar from Siti & the Band, led by oud player, composer, and singer Amina Omar Juma (aka Siti Amina), which fuses Taarab music, folk songs from East Africa, along with kidumbak and Afro Jazz. Then, there’s music by Taiwanese pipa player Yufeng Chung that incorporates Indonesian gamelan group Sambasunda.
Also, there’s a tune by Estonian traditional musician and educator Cätlin Mägi (Jaago) who plays bagpipes, parmupilli (jaw harp), and flutes. Hear her work, which loops the “voices” of some fifty jaw harps into a jaw harp orchestra to accompany layers of her own voice. Then, from the South of France, hear a foot-stomper/hand clapper by the Toulouse-based vocal and percussion trio called Cocanha. Plus, music from the Georgian women’s choir, Ialoni, and more.
- Caryn Havlik
Read more about these groundbreaking women, and others, in these online features:
Glory to Women I | Glory to Women II
Program #4468, Run the World: Women in World Music
ARTIST: Sona Jobarteh
WORK: Mali Ni Ce [1:00]
RECORDING: Fasiya
SOURCE: African Guild Records
INFO: https://sonajobarteh.com/fasiya or Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon.com, Applemusic
ARTIST: Yasmin Williams
WORK: Jarabi [3:34]
RECORDING: Urban Driftwood
SOURCE: Spinster Sounds
INFO: yasminwilliams.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Sona Jobarteh
WORK: Mali Ni Ce [3:34]
RECORDING: Fasiya
SOURCE: African Guild Records
INFO: https://sonajobarteh.com/fasiya or Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon.com, Applemusic
ARTIST: Waed Bouhassoun
WORK: Je Passe [5:44]
RECORDING: L'âme du luth
SOURCE: Buda Musique 3792908
INFO: budamusique.com
ARTIST: Yufeng Chung & Sambasunda
WORK: 7-Beat Flash [6:10]
RECORDING: Pendulum
SOURCE: Chung Yufeng / Trees Music & Art
INFO: Available via AppleMusic
ARTIST: Rajna Swaminathan & RAJAS
WORK: Chasing the Gradient [3:47]
RECORDING: Of Agency And Abstraction
SOURCE: Biophilia Records
INFO: rajnaswaminathan.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Siti & the Band
WORK: Longa Sharazad [2:58]
RECORDING: Fusing the Roots
SOURCE: Stone Town Records
INFO: sitiandtheband.bandcamp.com
ARTIST Iialoni
WORK: Ia Patnepi [3:45]
RECORDING: Healing songs and Lullabies
SOURCE/INFO: https://ialoni.bandcamp.com/album/healing-songs-and-lullabies
ARTIST: Cätlin Mägi (Jaago)
WORK: Lüttat-Tüttat [3:17]
RECORDING: Mu Pill Parmupill (My Harp – My Heart)
SOURCE: catlin.ee/cd3/
INFO: youtube.com/watch?v=3kfbTaGthMk
ARTIST: Soojin Suh Coloris Trio
WORK: Colorist III – Stream of Consciousness [5:11]
RECORDING: Colorist
SOURCE: Soojin Suh
INFO: soojinsuhmusic.com | youtube.com/watch?v=eUDa-zKEhhs
ARTIST: Cocanha
WORK: Au son deu vriolon [5:41]
RECORDING: Puput
SOURCE: Pagans Musica
INFO: pagansmusica.net
