singing the body eclectic

BY CYNTHIA JOYCE | For many people, "world music" is synonymous with the "miscellaneous" record bin, a vague and unappealing genre falling somewhere between jazz and new age, and distinguished only by the impossible-to-pronounce names of the artists. Though artists like Youssou N'Dour, Margareth Menenzes and the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan were legends in their own countries long before they were "discovered" by Western pop stars, few have crossed over to mainstream audiences unaided by such associations and even fewer have stayed there long enough to gain recognition in their own right. Paul Simon's "Graceland" may have made Ladysmith Black Mambazo a household name in the late '80s, but how many people do you know who bought any of their subsequent recordings?

Learning about world music can be as daunting as learning a foreign language, and in many ways the two experiences are similar. Though you may be able to appreciate the beauty in the sounds, you have no idea what any of it means. And before you become fluent, there's always the danger that your newfound enthusiasm will land you in long, pointless conversations with any idiot on the bus -- when you're traveling alone in a foreign land, after all, it's hard to know whom to trust.

Maybe that's why so many casual fans are loathe to venture beyond what the Great White Hunters of the pop pantheon -- among them David Byrne, Keith Richards, Mickey Hart, Ry Cooder, Peter Gabriel and producer Don Was -- have cherry-picked for them. But now, with the increased availability of both traditional and contemporary world music (due in part to new U.S. distribution deals with world music labels and the lifting of the U.S. cultural embargo against Cuba), there's no reason for music lovers not to venture into the wider world on their own.

To help map out the territory, we asked six of our regular contributors to write about the current releases that moved them. For Milo Miles, it's the current crop of Cuban music. Hans Eisenbeis talks about the folk vocals of England's June Tabor and Hungary's Muzsikás with Márta Sebestyén, who provide a much-needed respite from what he calls "these intractably baby-voiced times." Banning Eyre celebrates Senegalese pop singer Cheikh Lô, while J. Poet discusses Brazilian superstar Gilberto Gil and Native American Robert Mirabal. Kevin Vance sends up the latest Irish offerings from Green Linnet, and Will Hermes debates world music's move toward modernity. Between them, they cover more than 20 artists from 15 different countries.

Bon voyage!
SALON | Oct. 3, 1997