Hear some new approaches to guitar music from guitarist-composers on this New Sounds. The guitarist-composer Fabi Reyna is the founder and editor of the magazine "She Shreds" which bills itself as the only magazine dedicated to women guitarists and bassists. Her trio, Sávlia, places the guitar at the foreground of their unique blend of cumbia music and R&B. Fabi will be bringing her guitar even more to the front as a part of the 2018 New York Guitar Festival, presented in partnership with WNYC. Another guitarist featured as a part of the festival is Shana Cleveland, whose song "Change in the Ocean" by her band The Sandcastles can be heard on on this episode of New Sounds.
Listen to guitarist-composers not only from the Americas, but from North Africa. Rooted in Tunisian folk and popular music comes the singer Sabry Mosbah joined by a fretless guitar player Nada Mahmoud. Mosbah’s band utilizes the fretless guitar and fretless bass to work these instruments into a tradition of music that is not confined to the 12 notes on a normal guitar. Their piece “Rock Mjarred” also does not fit into one category, featuring chant-like vocals paired with the classic sounds of rock.
Moving to the Sahara, guitarist and composer Omara Moctar (known as “Bombino”) comes from the nomadic Tuareg people. His newest album is called Deran, and it celebrates his desert home - how to protect it, develop it, unify it, respect it and, above all, never forget it. In the 1980’s, Tuareg rebels founded the musical group Tinariwen, which foregrounded the electric guitar. It became a powerful symbol for the people, and Bombino follows in this tradition. Leading up to Deran’s release, Bombino stopped by the New Sounds studio to perform on Soundcheck:
All of this, plus the interweaving rhythms of Mary Halvorson, political guitar music from Rafiq Bhatia, and more.
PROGRAM #4122: Guitarist-Composers (first aired 06/04/2018)
ARTIST: Mary Halvorson, feat. Ambrose Akinmusire
WORK: My Mind I Find in Time [1:00]
RECORDING: Code Girl
SOURCE: Firehouse 12
INFO: firehouse12records.com
ARTIST: Savila
WORK: Carnival Cumbia [4:19]
RECORDING: Carnival Cumbia
SOURCE: Bandcamp
INFO: savila.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Bombino
WORK: Adouni Dagh (This Life) [5:31]
RECORDING: Deran
SOURCE: Partisan Records
INFO: partisanrecords.com
ARTIST: Sabry Mosbah
WORK: Rock Mjarred [3:39]
RECORDING: Mes Racines
SOURCE: Accords Croisés
INFO: accords-croises.com
ARTIST: Savila
WORK: Cantame [4:16]
RECORDING: Cantame
SOURCE: Bandcamp
INFO: savila.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Marisa Anderson
WORK: Sant Feliu de Guixols [3:54]
RECORDING: Cloud Corner
SOURCE: Thrill Jockey Records
INFO: marisaandersonmusic.com
ARTIST: Mary Halvorson
WORK: My Mind I Find in Time [6:44]
RECORDING: Code Girl
SOURCE: Firehouse 12
INFO: firehouse12records.com
ARTIST: Shana Cleveland & The Sandcastles
WORK: Change in the Ocean [4:46]
RECORDING: Oh Man, Cover The Ground
SOURCE: Suicide Squeeze Records
INFO: suicidesqueeze.net
ARTIST: Rafiq Bhatia
WORK: Hoods Up [4:34]
RECORDING: Breaking English
SOURCE: Anti-
INFO: anti.com
ARTIST: Leila Abdul-Rauf
WORK: Abjure [5:54]
RECORDING: Diminution
SOURCE: Suicide Squeeze Records
INFO: black-horizons.com