Oh Momma!

Carla Brunimore photos

Right off the bat, I want to clarify a little something about this week's World Music Show (5/12). It's not all about Mothers or Mothers who are musicians. Oh sure, I'll feature a few artists who happen to be mother's. But the main crux of this week's show is an ode to a mother I'm quite fond of, my wife Mariah, who happens to also be the mother of my two kids, Piper and Emmett. This means that most of the tunes played on this show are either favorite's of Mariah or were actually part of Mariah's immense World Music CD Collection. She actually turned me on to this genre through her explorations at various records stores when we lived in Oakland, Ca. 

To get the ball rolling, we'll kick off the show with the now-former first lady of France, Carla Bruni. She's a mother of two and I guess the former "mother" of her country--that's safe to say, right? Mariah loves French music, and Bruni's melodic and lilting voice fit right in with her CD collection. I'll follow Bruni with one of my wife's favorite singers, the late Cesaria Evora. Mariah loved this singer from Cape Verde, also known as the barefoot diva, so much that she bought a few of her CDs. 

In a few other sets of music during this first hour, we'll hear some electic music from a few countries in Africa. For starters, we'll hear from the new Minister of Cuture and Tourism, Youssou N'Dour. N'Dour has been playing moving and striking music for years, and has played with a ton of accomplished musicians, like Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springstein and Paul Simon--just to name a few. In 2004, N'Dour was named by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the most popular singers in the world. Besides N'Dour, we'll hear a couple more new tracks from the latest CD from Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Well, new is a relative term, as this two-disc CD is a collection of all their musical partnerships over the years. In fact on one of the cuts I'll play, LBM will be paired with "Afropean" singer Zap Mama. I'll end this chunk of music with a moving track from South African legend Johnny Clegg and his band Savuka. All these tracks are something that I was able to turn my wife onto, as sort of payback for all the cool music she got me hooked on.

In another set of music, we'll head to Latin America--another of Mariah's favorite spots on the globe for great music. We'll hear from the band Tiempo Libre, as well from the Latin Playboys, who have members from the long-running East L.A. band, Los Lobos. To close out the first hour, I'll play two different styles of music from India. One will be from the Bombay Dub Orchestra--they do a cover of the title theme from the movie "Get Carter," which in one form, starred Michael Caine, and in another, Sylvestor Stallone. And, I'll cap the hour off with a tune from the soundtrack to the movie "The Darjeeling Limited." In this case, though, the cut is actually from another movie (that Wes Anderson is one creative guy), called "Teen Kanya."

In hour two, I'm so excited! I get to play a couple of tracks off a new CD that features both David Byrne and Brazilian Caetano Veloso--a few other people that Mariah also loves. In 2004, Veloso was invited to curate a program for Carnegie Hall's Perspectives Series. This means, he was allowed to invite guests to play with him on stage. And he chose Byrne because, he says, because "David was the first rock musician who could really feel the essence of Brazilian music. He was open to enjoying the savvy within the naive, and vice versa." I'll be showcasing songs from this live recording over the next few weeks, that's for sure. 

I'll follow those two with a couple of David Byrne songs (how could I resist) off of one of my wife's favorite Byrne CD's,  "Look into the Eyeball" (which is actually her CD), as well as duet featuring both Byrne and Veloso from a collection of Brazilian music found on the CD "Red, Hot & Rio 2." I'll transition from that to one of my wife's other CD finds--the CD "Tribal Bahia," which is a collection of Timbalada music. Timbalada music is beat-heavy percussion that was founded by Carlinhos Brown (who took the last name Brown in honor of Soul Singer James Brown). 

A couple of other highlights to look out for include some more new music off the latest CD by Ziggy Marley, as well some Chilean Reggae music from the band Gondwana. Plus, I'll feature a song found deep in the archives from recordings done when Hungary was a Communist country. 

So, really, when you look over this week's World Music Show, there is something for everyone--not just mothers. The World Music Show aires Saturday nights at 10:00 p.m. on 88.9FM WCVE Public Radio or online at this website. You can follow my expoits on Twitter, via @wcveworldmusic.