FROM EGYPT: Umm Kulthum is loved across the Arab world, but her legacy belongs to Egypt. Here is “Biography of Love”, a passionate, epic performance with music by Baligh Hamdi and the words of poet Morsi Jamil Aziz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrJ4DUP1oss&t=634s
FROM INDIA: Watch the hands! Alla Rakha is a legend whose mastery of the tablas is absolutely mesmerizing and incomparable. And hereditary: as we can see in this recording where he performs with his sons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ1lRTdqWHs
FROM JAMAICA: We love it when people genuinely love the country they’re from. Here is the reggae legend Bunny Rugs (of the band Third World) celebrating 50 years of Jamaican independence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PllKjgJ1fZo
FROM CUBA & US: When Herbie Hancock subbed for Chick Corea in Mongo Santamaría’s band at a Bronx nightclub one evening, this legendary rendering of “Watermelon Man” with conga drums was first played: here recorded in 1980.
FROM US: When people talk about New Orleans music they usually mean jazz and rhythm & blues. But you can’t forget bounce, a type of hip-hop that originated in the city’s housing projects, and Big Freedia, the artist who popularized it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtU1zjRuTdU
FROM RUSSIA: Valery Gavrilin carefully studied the folk musical traditions of Russia and then created his own compositions. “Perezvony” mixes satire with mythology and was inspired by the prose of Soviet writer Vasily Shukshin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b89PG_myqCE
FROM ARMENIA: Composer Tigran Mansurian created the music to films by some of the most important Armenian directors, including Parajanov’s “The Color of Pomegranates”. This composition, “Melody of Love” reminds us of a crystal spring in the mountains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXZWH_BNk6Y&lc=UghVbfLP6MrgQXgCoAEC
FROM RUSSIA, IZHORIAN PEOPLE & FRANCE: “Flames of Paris” ballet on the French revolution by composer Boris Asafyev was first performed in Leningrad in 1932 to Vasili Vainonen’s choreography. This is from the Bolshoi revival by Ratmansky/Belinsky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N4wLEKlsEQ
Supamodu is a daily online magazine that explores independent film, art, music and books from around the world. https://supamodu.com/