World Music Matters
Paris is a hub for musicians from all over the world. Our weekly show is a forum for sharing that music, and exploring its emotional impact. World Music Matters is hosted by RFI's Alison Hird.
Read moreListen to the last episode
All episodes
-
The many voices, and opinions, of ALA.NI
"Some tracks have 300 different layers of vocals and most of them are me," says Ala.ni about her new album Acca. The London-born, Paris-based singer with a rare four-octave range beguiles us with her voice. The record is mainly her, a capella. With a bit of Iggy Pop.24/01/202017:17 -
Asa unpicks many faces of love on new album Lucid
On her latest album Lucid, Nigerian singer-songwriter Asa explores the many colours of love: warm, dark, brilliant, somber, the joy, the longing, the wanting. But also the violence that can seep into a relationship and destroy lives.17/01/202014:38 -
La Mòssa: five women, one voice
La Mòssa are a five-piece band of female vocalists who excel at polyphonic chant. They've just released their debut album A Mòssa and talk to us about reinterpreting folksongs they love in a free and playful way in the spirit of Nina Tirabouchon, a 1920s Italian cabaret artist with hip swing to die for.10/01/202014:44 -
Sona Jobarteh: Changing the tradition of kora playing to ensure its survival
Sona Jobarteh comes from a long West African tradition of Griots and kora players from Mali and The Gambia. She's become one of the rare women in the world to master the 21-string instrument which is traditionally reserved to men. She talks to RFI about working within the tradition to be better able to expand it.07/12/201916:41 -
Emmanuel π Djob: a soul man from Cameroon
Emmanuel π Djob started out singing gospel in his native Cameroon and is building a successful blues-soul career in France. He heads up the six-piece AfroSoul Gang, but it’s performing alone with guitar that his gravel-rough baritone voice, raw emotion and soul really shines through. We caught him performing live on RFI's Musiques du Monde.29/11/201913:07 -
Klezmer, funk and hip hop unite against racism and intolerance in Trump’s America
A decade after their acclaimed album Tweet Tweet, Abraham Inc. return with Together We Stand, using their eclectic mix of klezmer, funk and hip hop to show that different religions, ages, sexes and races get along. David Krakauer, Fred Wesley and Socalled talk to RFI about how the U.S. president’s “Muslim” ban got them back in the studio making great music.22/11/201916:45 -
Nick Gold: "I feel privileged and lucky to produce music with these people"
Nick Gold has been at the helm of World Circuit Records for close to three decades. The label has produced some of the best world music around: Buena Vista Social Club, Ali Farka Touré, Oumou Sangaré, Toumani Diabaté, Cheikh Lô ... and most recently Trio Da Kali and Fatoumata Diawara. The London-based producer has a nose for talent but maintains being allowed to work with such artists makes him the lucky one.01/11/201922:58 -
Raashan Ahmad: bringing light into the darkness
Raashan Ahmad is an American DJ, MC and hip hop artist with a big heart and a sharp mind. A thought-provoking rapper whose latest album The Sun explores joy and pain, hope and despair: the loss of his mum, the birth of his son. "Balance is something I've strived for... I can never get out of my mind how beautiful things are at the exact same time that they’re horrible."18/10/201915:45 -
Ghana's Pat Thomas still living the highlife
Dubbed "the golden voice of West Africa" Pat Thomas embodied the glory days of Ghanaian highlife in the 60s and 70s alongside the great Ebo Taylor. The music fell out of fashion in the 80s but Thomas never stopped singing. He made a much-praised comeback in 2015 with the Kwashibu Area Band thanks to Ghanian musician and producer Kwame Yeboah and together they've now released another gem: Obiaa! (Everyone).11/10/201914:10 -
Natacha Atlas: engaging dystopia on new album Strange Days
Natacha Atlas began exploring jazz and Middle Eastern melodies on her 2015 album Myriad Road with Franco-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf. She goes one step further on Strange Days, co-written and produced with violinist Samy Bishai. An accomplishment for the vocalist at the height of her talents, but who says she couldn't have done it without Bishai.04/10/201913:43 -
Collectif Medz Bazar: jewel of the Armenian and Turkish urban diaspora
Collectif Medz Bazar is a six-piece 'urban diaspora band' based in Paris. With roots its Armenia, Turkey, France and the US, they draw on the rich traditions of all those cultures, and sing in all four languages. But the blend of Turkish and Armenian musical cultures, based on deep friendship, adds to the band's originality. Their third album 'O', meaning love, is testimony to that.27/09/201913:55 -
Senegal's Abdou Mboup: master of the griot "cell phone"
Abdou Mboup's skills as a percussionist and kora player have led to collaborations with the likes of Johnny Clegg, Claude Nougaro, Nina Simone and Michel Pettruciani. After 25 years in the U.S. he's returned to France to build his career in Europe. He talks to RFI about his new album African Lullaby and the role of the tami (talking drum) in his native griot culture in Senegal. "I like to call it our cell phone," he says.20/09/201912:09 -
Kinshasa, Lagos, Tokyo, Paris: guitarist Kiala travels with Afrobeat
Congolese guitarist and singer Kiala Nzavotunga played with Fela Kuti's Egypt 80 band, founded Europe's first Afrobeat band Ghettoblaster in Paris, and recorded with avant garde bands in Japan. He's now released his first solo album Money with The Afroblaster.13/09/201912:37 -
Ibibio Sound Machine: The united colours of music
Ibibio Sound Machine is an eight-piece London-based music collective blending West-African funk and disco with shades of post-punk and electro. Its vibrant lead singer Eno Williams talks to RFI about the band's latest album, Doko Mien, and singing in Ibibio - the language of her Nigerian roots.05/09/201913:10 -
Cimafunk brings Afro-Cuban funk therapy to France
When Erick Iglesias Rodríguez discovered the power of groove, he quit medical school, went to Havana and morphed into Cimafunk. His 2017 album Terapia (Therapy) aims to make you sweat it out on the dancefloor. It worked in the Americas. Now he's determined to set Europe alight. Starting with France.04/07/201914:55
World Music Matters
Paris is a hub for musicians from all over the world. Our weekly show is a forum for sharing that music, and exploring its emotional impact. World Music Matters is hosted by RFI's Alison Hird.