The Weekend Planet

Geej - the Wolof word for ‘sea’ - is the Senegalese songster El Hadj N’Diaye’s third CD. His remarkable voice will likely move even listeners unaware of his songs’ meaning. N’Diaye is a courageous, compassionate songwriter who wants ‘to show things exactly how they are.’ He sees singers like himself as, ‘in a way, the voice of the people’. His lyrics - pointed and poignant - are not designed to comfort Africa’s ruling elites. The music is uncluttered, but rich. African, Western and eastern elements/instruments are deployed with equal assurance.

El Hadj N’Diaye site:
www.elhadjndiaye.com/home.htm

Playlist

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Details of each track are presented in the following order:
BROADCAST TIME
TRACK NUMBER AND TITLE
COMPOSER
PUBLISHING AND COPYRIGHT DETAILS
RECORDING COMPANY AND CD NUMBER
( distributor/ source details, in brackets like this, in lower-case)
ARTIST AND CD TITLE
Duration of track
Description of track, in lower-case.
Where relevant, further info links to information, gigs/events/related programs

’THE WEEKEND PLANET’ SAT 7.6. 08

2205
THEME:
(details below, as per the original CD.. This cut is also on these compilations Ketama - ’Nuevos Medios Coleccion’ - Nuevos Medios NM 15 820
{ in Australia via MGM www.thegroovemerchants.com
worldwide, via: www.flamenco-world.com/noticias/nuevos.htm }
and ’Jarabi - the best of Toumani Diabate’ (Hannibal 334352 )

CD CUT 1, ’JARABI’
TRAD, ARR TOUMANI DIABATE
HAMILCAR MUSIC LTD
HANNIBAL HNCD 1323
( in Australia, some releases through Stomp Enquiries to: ben@stomp.com.au
worldwide: www.rykodisc.com )
KETAMA, TOUMANI DIABATE, DANNY THOMPSON - ’SONGHAI’
THIRTY SECONDS (EXCERPT)
(retains a stately-Manding air, whilst also embracing flamenco elements. Toumani Diabate’s kora, Danny Thompson’s beautiful double bass and Ketama’s flamenco guitars )

2208
CD CUT 10, ’JOLAA’
EL HADJ N’DIAYE
SIGGI MUSIQUE
SIGGI MUSIQUE/ MARABI 46825.2
( in Australia through Select Audio-Visual Distribution:
www.savd.com.au
Worldwide: www.marabi.net )
EL HADJ N’DIAYE - ’GEEJ’
4: 12
( The Senegalese author’s striking, impassioned male voice with prominent use of cello, tabla, soprano sax and elec guitar. His angry/anguished song is named after a fatally-overloaded and under- maintained Senegalese ferry. Its name is usually rendered as ’Joola’. Its September 2002 sinking claimed more lives than did the Titanic’s in 1912. {At least} 1,863 died and 64 survived the sinking of the Joola. According to US Senate figures the Titanic claimed 1,517 lives, with 706 survivors. The world in general may have forgotten the Joola disaster, but it { and what has happened/ not happened in its wake } remains a hot topic in Senegal.

LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT THE 2002 SENEGAL FERRY DISASTER?
( and likely understand why this outspoken Senegalese songster is still so full of outrage, six years later.. )

Go to:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2947745.stm

or to the longer version, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Joola

To see what happened to the enquiry about it, go to:
www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2003/08/09/920824.htm

Here’s how the promised compensation happened/not, one year after the disaster (the promised figure for bereaved families was equivalent to 9-thousand dollars US per family):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3142668.stm

To see how the compensation battle was going in September 2006 and how the municipal authorities in Ziguinchor { southern Senegalese city whence came most of the victims. Many were Dakar-bound university and high school students who just had their holidays at home} boycotted the 4th anniversary ceremony, go to:
http://www.panapress.com/archive.asp?code=eng&dte=26/09/2006
and then search for ’joola’

On November 9th 2006 Senegal’s parliament passed a bill making children of the Joola ferry sinking ’orphans of the nation’, { apparently } giving about 1,900 children free health care and education.
But the BBC’s Tidiane Sy in Dakar said ’some suspect the law could be a ploy to win votes ahead of elections due early next year’.
As reported here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/africa/6131884.stm’

The internet’s Joola trail then goes cold...

There is a 2008 online article about the current ferry trip from Ziguinchor to Dakar It refers to a conversation with a survivor of the ’02 sinking, and notes ’No journalist or government official or investigator had ever spoken to him before, no one had ever offered him counselling."

That article is here:
http://thelunaticexpress.blogspot.com/2008/05/dakar-to-ziguinchor-to-dakar.html )

2212
CUT 2, ’BAY OF BISCAY’
TRAD. ARR: WATERSON/CARTHY
PUB TOPIC
TOPIC RECORDS TSCD 509
( In Australia, through The Planet Company/ MGM
email: info@theplanetcompany.com
website: www.theplanetcompany.com
worldwide: www.topicrec ords.co.uk )
WATERSON:CARTHY - ’BROKEN GROUND’
5: 20
(Deeply moving ballad: grieving young woman awaits the return of {deceased, likely-drowned} sailor husband. His ghost returns. Norma Waterson w ac guitar, fiddle, melodeon, and low whistle.

LIKE TO SEE THE LYRIC AND BACKGROUND ON THIS SONG?

Go to:
www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/watersons/songs/thebayofbiscay.html )

SEGUE

2217
CD CUT 34, ’FARETHEEWELL TITANIC’
TRAD, VIA LEADBELLY AND JOHNNIE HEARD
PUB NOT SPEC. CD I S P 1991 SHANACHIE RECORDS CORP
SHANACHIE 98011/12
( possibly still available in Australia through Fuse Music
www.fusemusic.com.au
Worldwide: www.shanachie.com )
STEFAN GROSSMAN - ’BLACK MELODIES ON A CLEAR AFTERNOON’
2: 00
(swetly fingerpicked ragtime ac guitar solo - based on Leadbelly’s song which celebrated rather than mourned the Titanic’s sinking. That’s because of the { maybe true, but now-impossible to verify } belief that The Titanic refused boxer Jack Johnson a first-class berth. Johnson - then the most famous black man on earth - reputedly refused to accept a lower-class berth and booked with another shipping line. Just maybe, racism saved one life!

LIKE TO SEE THE LYRIC TO LEADBELLY’S SONG?
Go to:
www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/titan13.html

LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT ITS ’HERO’, JACK JOHNSON?
Go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Johnson_(boxer)

LIKE TO KNOW LOTS MORE ABOUT THE TITANIC?
Start here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic )

2222
CD CUT 5, ’GEEJ’
EL HADJ N’DIAYE
SIGGI MUSIQUE
SIGGI MUSIQUE/ MARABI 46825.2
( in Australia through Select Audio-Visual Distribution:
www.savd.com.au
Worldwide: www.marabi.net )
EL HADJ N’DIAYE - ’GEEJ’
4: 52
(stark, plaintive and haunting - its Senegalese male author, solo, accompanying himself on nylon-stringed ac guitar. His song is a kind if despairing prayer to the sea, in the persona of those who risk their lives by attempting to reach Europe from Senegal, in unseaworthy vessels )

SEGUE

2227
CD CUT 4, ’SIMNADE’
PASCAL DIATTA
PUB NOT SPEC. CD IS C 1992 ROGUE RECORDS
ROGUE RECORDS FMSD 5017
(this label is now defunct, alas)
PASCAL DIATTA AND SONA MANE - ’SIMNADE + 4’
3: 30
(The title means ’listen’: Pascal’s ac guitar and strong African male voice, in duo with his wife’s even stronger voice. ’Live’, late night in the back room of a remote restaurant in Casamance, southern Senegal in 1988)

SEGUE

2231
CD CUT 11, ’DÉGEULASSE’
EL HADJ N’DIAYE
SIGGI MUSIQUE
SIGGI MUSIQUE/ MARABI 46825.2
( in Australia through Select Audio-Visual Distribution:
www.savd.com.au
Worldwide: www.marabi.net )
EL HADJ N’DIAYE - ’GEEJ’
4: 47
(part-sung , part-spoken-cum-rapped, in a mix of languages - mostly, French - atop an irresistible groove. Prominent are tabla { Prabhu Edouard } , ngoni { twangy, fretless West African lute, played by Moriba Koita }, drums-percussion and elec bass. Don’t let the good-timey feel fool you - this is a full-on, mocking assault on compatriots who have become corrupt/ed, money-seeking, white-man-aping and exploitative of their fellow citizens. The title - and the word is constantly repeated - means ’disgusting’)

2238
CD CUT 7, ’DREAMING’
JAMIE OEHLERS, PAUL GRABOWSKY, DAVE BECK
(PRESUMABLY) APRA
JAZZHEAD HEAD091
( www.jazzhead.com )
JAMIE OEHLERS, PAUL GRABOWSKY, DAVE BECK - ’LOST AND FOUND’
8: 14
(AUSTRAL COMP AND PERF: free improvisation which begins and ends with Paul’s piano, alone. Mostly, a quietly-probing trio with Jamie’s tenor sax and Dave’s drums )

SEGUE

2246
CD CUT 9, ’THE EIGHTH DAY’
SIMON NIELD
APRA
SNO3
( www.simonnield.com )
SIMON NIELD - ’STILL’
2: 54
( AUSTRAL COMP AND PERF: amiable, cyclic-grooving sauntering instrumental for Simon’s ac guitar and elec slide guitar, plus digital-delays )

2250
CD CUT 6, ’CREATION DREAM’
BRUCE COCKBURN
GOLDEN MOUNTAIN MUSIC CORP. SOCAN
TRUE NORTH TND 216
( In Australia, through The Planet Company/ MGM
email: info@theplanetcompany.com
website: www.theplanetcompany.com
worldwide: www.truenorthrecords.com )
MICHAEL OCCHIPINTI - ’CREATION DREAM - THE SONGS OF BRUCE COCKBURN’
7: 29
(an audacious instrumental re-invention of a Cockburn song. An adventurous shade of jazz-funk, w the leader’s ripe-chunky-jangling-spitting elec guitar, Andrew Downing’s throbbing ac bass, Barry Romberg’s forceful drums)

2258
CD CUT 5, ’WATER INTO WINE’
BRUCE COCKBURN
GOLD MOUNTAIN MUSIC (BMI)
TRUE NORTH TND 285
( In Australia, through MGM / Planet Imports
email: info@thegroovemerchants.com
website: www.folktrax.com/planet/index.php
worldwide: www.truenorthrecords.com )
BRUCE COCKBURN - ’IN THE FALLING DARK’(DELUXE EDITION)
0: 50 (excerpt)
(v deft finger-style steel-string ac guitar, solo. From 1976. NOTE: This is also included on the all-instrumental Bruce Cockburn set - ’Speechless )

----
11 PM NEWS
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2305
CD CUT 1, ’RICH MAN’S WORLD’
EILEN JEWELL
PUB NOT SPEC
SIGNATURE SONDS SIG 2005
(in Australia - shortly - through Shock: www.shock.com.au
Worldwide: www.signaturesounds.com )
EILEN JEWELL - ’LETTERS FROM SINNERS AND STRANGERS’
2: 53
( wry-jaunty song delivered by its American author. Her first name rhymes with ’feelin’- listen, and you’ll hear why! She wrote this { very akin to the chirpier-side-of-Dylan} song in response to having moved to western Massachusetts.

ABC RADIO NATIONAL EILEN JEWELL ALERT

Next Saturday ’- June 14 - we co-feature this album with Bill Frisell’s ’History/Mystery’.

More details here: www.abc.net.au/rn/weekendplanet/comingup )

2310
CD CUT 1, ’BOOR YI’
EL HADJ N’DIAYE
SIGGI MUSIQUE
SIGGI MUSIQUE/ MARABI 46825.2
( in Australia through Select Audio-Visual Distribution:
www.savd.com.au
Worldwide: www.marabi.net )
EL HADJ N’DIAYE - ’GEEJ’
5: 01
( mesmeric, contemporary West African, darkly-anthemic song - layered, but with focus very much on the Senegalese author’s striking male voice. The lyric details the literally-fatal consequences for Africans of unpayable foreign debt burdens )

SEGUE

2315
CD (DISC ONE) CUT 1O, ’A CHANGE IS GONNA COME’
SAME COOKE
ABKCO MUSIC INC (BMI)
NONESUCH 435964-2
(the Australian end of the relevant conglomerate now shows us no sign of life in relation to Nonesuch albums like this..
When/ if issued in Australia, through Warner Music: www.warnermusic.com.au
worldwide: www.nonesuch.com )
BILL FRISELL - ’HISTORY, MYSTERY’
8: 44
( suitably passionate instrumental version of the Sam Cooke song which became the unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights movement. Octet, ’live, with strings, horns, bass, drums, guitar. This features eloquent solos from the leader’s elec guitar and Greg Tardy’s tenor sax.

ABC RADIO NATIONAL BILL FRISELL ALERT

Next Saturday ’- June 14 - we co-feature Frisell’s new double-CD and Eilen Jewell’s album {see 2305, above}

More details here: www.abc.net.au/rn/weekendplanet/comingup )

2327
CD CUT 7, ’CHEIKH ANTA DIOP’
EL HADJ N’DIAYE
SIGGI MUSIQUE
SIGGI MUSIQUE/ MARABI 46825.2
( in Australia through Select Audio-Visual Distribution:
www.savd.com.au
Worldwide: www.marabi.net )
EL HADJ N’DIAYE - ’GEEJ’
4: 54
( Prefaced by a recording of the late-dedicatee, speaking, in French. He’s mocking Eurocentric, colonialist notions of just who the indigenous Africans are. Then, N’Diaye’s Intimate, quietly intense praise-song-cum-plaint. He laments there being no current peer of theSenegalese scientist-activist. N’Diaye sings and plays ac guitar, with cellist Pierre-Francois Dufour.

LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT CHEIKH ANTA DIOP (1923- 1986) ?

This is a good place to start:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheikh_Anta_Diop )

SEGUE

2332
CD CUT 4, ’KAOUDING CISSOKHO’( VARIATIONS ON ’ALA L’A KE’)
TOUMANI DIABATE (DEVELOPED FROM A TRADITONAL MANDÉ SONG)
WORLD CIRCUIT WCD079
( in Australia, through Destra/ MRA: www.mraentertainment.com
worldwide: http://www.worldcircuit.co.uk )
TOUMANI DIABATE - ’THE MANDÉ VARIATIONS’
6: 20
( solo kora: variations on one of the instrument’s staple numbers - here, re-named as a tribute to the late, Senegalese kora player Kaouding Cissokho, who died of tuberculosis in 2003, aged 38.

LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT KAOUDING CISSOKHO ( 1964 - 2003 ) ?
You can read an obituary, here:
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article852675.ece )

2340
CUT 12, ’ADDUNA’
EL HADJ N’DIAYE
SIGGI MUSIQUE
SIGGI MUSIQUE/ MARABI 46825.2
( in Australia through Select Audio-Visual Distribution:
www.savd.com.au
Worldwide: www.marabi.net )
EL HADJ N’DIAYE - ’GEEJ’
5: 02
(Tender song. In part, it address his Senegalese compatriots, generally. He urges them to work hard, keep their minds open, to build a better country, together - to care for and love each other. It’s also in part an intimate love song to one person.. N’Diaye’s voice and ac guitar, plus atmospheric elec guitar, elec bass, drum-kit, tabla and flute. The title means ’life’)

2342
CD CUT 1, ’MASIT KHANI GHAT’
TRAD, VIA A FOLLOWER OF AMIR KHUSRO MASIT KHAN
PUB NOT SPEC
KHALIL GUDAZ CD 3
(available direct: www.khalilsitar.id.au/ )
KHALIL GUDAZ - ’TOLO’
12: 00 (excerpt)
(AUSTRAL PERF AND ARR: Hindustani classical: very lyrical, really ’singing’sitar of Khalil Gudaz. From Afghanistan, he now lives in Australia. W Yama Sarshar on tabla )

Presenter

Doug Spencer

Producer

Doug Spencer