Around the World in 80 Bands – Bolivia

This stop this week is Bolivia, where I’ve selected the music of Willy Claure as the representation. Bolivia is located between Chile, Argentinia and Brazil, and was founded by Spain during the colonial era. The country has since gone through several military dictatorships in the 1900s, although there have been elections in 2002.
Willy Claure is the stage name for José Wilfredo Claure Hidalgo. His primarly style of music is the acoustic guitar, with a big influence from Spanish singers and guitarists.

Brave Margot – Willy Claure
Le parapluie – Willy Claure

Prior Stops:
Australia
Argentina
Azerbaijan
Algeria
Afghanistan
Belgium

Around the World In 80 Bands – Austria

For this next trip, we’re going to Europe, and back several hundred years, to 1700s. The country is Austria and the artist is possible the greatest musician that the world has ever seen: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Mozart was a musical genius from a very early age. Over the course of his lifetime, he composed more than 600 pieces of music, most of which are still played today and is regarded as one of the most influential figures in classical music.

Austria has long been a focal point of classical music, with numerous well known composers from the country, including Mozart, but also Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Anton Bruckner, Johann Strauss, Sr., Johann Strauss, Jr. and Gustav Mahler, all big names in classical music. Often, musicians would travel here, to Vienna, where they would perform for the Royal Family, making the city as important as major entertainment cities such as Hollywood, LA, London or New York are today.

Here is my favorite piece by Mozart, Concerto in A Major for Clarinet K. 622, performed by the Indiana University ad Hoc Orchestra, conducted by Chen-Sheng Lee.

I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Rondo: Allegro

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Prior Stops:
Australia
Argentina
Azerbaijan
Algeria
Afghanistan

Around the World In 80 Bands – Australia

The next stop around the world continues in the same hemisphere from our last stop, this time with Australia. One of the oldest inhabited areas in the world, going back 40,000 years, the country was first claimed by Great Britain in 1770, where they placed six colonies. In 1901, these colonies joined together to form the Commonwealth of Australia. It’s also home to some incredibly talented actors and musicians, including Heath Ledger, who died last night.
The artist that I’m using to represent this country is The John Butler Trio, a funk/jam band that has since released three successful albums in the country, and who’s music has spread to the US. They have a fantastic, if offbeat sound that’s quite distinctive, mainly through Butler’s guitar style.

Better Than – John Butler Trio

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Prior Stops:
Argentina
Azerbaijan
Algeria
Afghanistan

80 Bands Around the World: Argentinia

I missed last Friday’s post for this feature, so this is the first of three. Today’s stop is Argentina, down in South America. The artist representing the country this time around is Federico Aubele, who currently lives in Buenos Ares.

I think of this music as a sort of world-electronica. There’s a real fusion of sound here, along with the feel of 4hero or Thievery Cooperation. The music here is influenced by a number of American styles, from Jamacia, Mexico, the US, and of course, Argentina.
His first album was actually produced by the Thievery Cooperation, entitled Gran Hotel Buenos Aires, and was released in 2004. His latest album, Panamerica, was released in 2007.

En cada lugar – Federico Aubele

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Prior Stops:

Azerbaijan
Algeria
Afghanistan

Around the World In 80 Bands – Algeria

Stop number two takes us to the African country of Algeria. Representing the country this time is Khalèd, (Khaled Hadj Brahim) (pronounced ch-loch). Algeria is located on the northern shores of Africa, bordering the Mediterranean sea and is the second largest country on the continent.

Khalèd started music at an early age, at 14, playing for weddings and other social events. He considers himself a raï singer, which has caused some problems in the country since the 1980s. In 1985, Algeria claimed the raï style as a national music, which angered fundamentalists in the country. Khalèd received several threats, which forced him to move to Paris, France. Since then, he’s released numerous albums, his most recent being Ya-Rayi in 2004.

El Harba Wine – Khalèd

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Prior Stops
1 – Afghanistan

80 Bands Around the World: Afghanistan

Most people are familiar with Afghanistan nowadays, with the rise of the Taliban during the 1990s and the invasion by US forces in 2001, people have seen the country as an extremely violent place in the world. Readers of the book The Kite Runner, will also know of the country.

There is a music culture there though, with some really interesting sounds, here, especially with this artist.
The musician that I found with Afghanistan, and the one who’ll be starting off this adventure is Ahmad Zahir, one of the biggest names in Afghani music. He was born in in 1946 and died in 1979, breaking into the music scene in the 1960s. He composed music based on traditional poetry, and became well known for his voice. He released a number of albums to widespread fame in the region, and recently, two of his songs were included in the Kite Runner movie soundtrack. He died at the age of 33 under extremely suspect circumstances, and has never had a rival for his fame in the country since.

Yarak-e Ma - Ahmad Zahir

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Around the World In 80 Bands

Something that I’ve been interested in for a little while now has been World music, either traditional or contemporary works. I’ve collected, over the past couple of years, a number of songs from various nations around the globe. It’s fascinating to see the huge differences in styles between countries, which isn’t all that surprising when you consider the huge differences in countries from around the world.
Unfortunately, most people only are really familiar with the music of two countries – the United States and the United Kingdom. This is to be somewhat expected, given that we’d be generally more familiar with music from our own home (at least for those of us in those countries). So, in an effort to help show the diversity in the music of the world, I’m going to be embarking on a regular feature over this coming year, highlighting eighty different groups from around the world from eighty different countries, Around the World in 80 Bands.
Some countries were easy to find a representative band, while a couple others took some narrowing down, and even more required a bit of research and some learning on my own part to complete the list. Some artists were born in the countries and gained fame elsewhere, or have had their career there. In some cases, there are a couple of countries that I’m more familiar with that I’ll include a bonus band or two to cover the country – this won’t however, add to the 80 count.

See The World - Gomez

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