Tag: Kahil El'Zabar
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Tracks of the Week 09.03.24

Tracks of the Week
Great Britain likes to think of itself as the country which ended slavery, what with Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce and all that. Yet a few years ago a BBC documentary pulled back the drapes, revealing the names and circumstances of the 46,000 slave owners who received compensation when the Slavery Abolition Act was finally passed after decades of...

Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble – Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit

Albums
Ten months on from his rhythmic tour de force Spirit Gatherer: Tribute To Don Cherry, the visionary percussionist and veteran bandleader Kahil El'Zabar celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of his Ethnic Heritage Ensemble with his sixth effort on Spiritmuse Records in less than five years, a rich seam for the artist who now at the age of seventy remains in...

Tracks of the Week 20.01.24

Tracks of the Week
For the Uyghurs of the Tarim Basin who continue to raise a voice against the twin spectres of internment and cultural assimilation, muqam remains a key mode of expression, the name for a set of melodic formulas which guide musical improvisation and often take the form of sprawling epic suites. Combining song, dance and instrumental sections, characterised by rhythmic...