Category Archives: News

Salif Keita – Wamba

Salif Keita – Soro

Festival sur le Niger

Another interruption to the Lucky Thirteen series to mark the Festival sur le Niger which is being held this weekend.

Wouldn’t you just love to be lazing alongside the Niger river listening the musicians listed above? Wouldn’t you love to be able to watch & hear Salif Keita, Rokia Traoré and several bands / singers who you don’t know, will probably will never make it outside Mali, but are fantastic musicians? If you would, you will be jealous of Frances, Felicity, Jemma, Hibz, Rachel and the other IS volunteers who are chilling out in Segou this weekend.

To take the edge off your jealousy just a bit, I’ve the opening track of Salif Keita‘s breakthrough album Soro for you. While you listen to Salif’s magnificent vocals, trawl the Internet for trips to the festival at Segou and resolve to book for next year.

Salif Keita – Wamba

70th birthdays

70th birthdays – you wait for one and then two come along. Bob Dylan is 70 today. Happy birthday, Bob.

Robert Johnson Anniversary

D’oh! I missed an opportunity. Yesterday (Sunday 8th May 2011) was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Robert Johnson. It was commemorated in this article in the Observer. Never mind, I’ll post a track next week to celebrate the 100 & 1/52nd anniversary!

A blog is born

You may have noticed that, from time to time, I have strayed off topic on this blog and posted about politicians, bankers and issues of greater import than mere music. I am tempted more and more to post on such topics and so, rather than turn Furious Music away from it’s narrow remit of highlighting what is in my record collection, I have started a new blog where I can ~~vent my spleen~~ post on issues of the day. The new blog is confidently entitled “I know the way” and can be found by clicking on this link.

British Library Sound Archive

The British Library has made much of its vast archive of sound recordings available, for free, on the internet.

These recordings include world, folk and classical music; spoken word recordings including a collection of 288 English dialects and personal accounts from Jewish survivors of the Holocaust; and other collections including British wild-life recordings and soundscapes – sounds that “describe a place, a sonic identity, a sonic memory, but always a sound that is pertinent to a place”. In total, there are almost 24,000 items available online – plenty to dip into on a wet Sunday!

For a taste of what you might find, read the Guardian’s article on the opening up of the archive.