The Night: World Music

I. Cajun – Zydeco, timing: 01:07:16 min.
American roots music from the southern state of Louisiana. It is striking that the lyrics are usually not sung in English but in Louisiana Creole, a language that sounds more like French. The Cajuns are also descendants of French migrants who ended up in Louisiana via Canada. The leading instruments in Cajun are the accordion and the violin. The black population of Louisiana came up with the Cajun-related zydeco. In zydeco, the washboard is also considered a rhythmic instrument. It is an infectiously swinging bastard genre, which has been the most popular music among the Cajuns since the sixties.
CD. Cajun – Zydeco. LABEL: Air Mail music (2000), code: SA 141060. VIDEO

II. Les plus belles chansons du Québec, timing: 01:16:06 min.
The French-language song, also called ‘chanson’. The text is at least as important as the music and exposes the French soul: romantic, impulsive and a touch nostalgic. The current chanson originated at the beginning of the twentieth century from older song forms, some of which date back to the Middle Ages. Icons that give the Canadian chanson colour include Gilles Vigneault, Félix Leclerc and Robert Charlebois. In the Netherlands, the chanson reached its peak in the seventies when Julien Clerc, Joe Dassin and Dave scored summer hits with the so-called pop chansons.
CD. Les plus belles chansons du Québec. LABEL: Versailles (1993), code: VER 473667 2. VIDEO

III. Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, timing: 01:03:25 min.
Tsirkus is the fourth album by the Toronto-based Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band. With this album, the band takes a new direction. Founded in 1992 by trumpet player and band leader David Buchbinder, the song interpretations are very expressive. According to the band, they initially played somewhat chaotic, playful dance music without finesse. Over the years, the band members have started to reflect on the Yiddish tradition and other styles. Tsirkus presents a subtle mixture of Yiddish and Balkan music with Beatles-like pop, soul and jazz. A special album full of original, sometimes crazy sounds and with a lot of freedom of improvisation, played by excellent musicians.
CD. Tsirkus, Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band. LABEL: Traditional Crossroads (20002), code:  CD 4292. VIDEO

IV. James Keelaghan, timing: 01:20:16 min.
Contemporary folk songs, at their best, offer insight into the hardships, attitudes and determination of the characters and events that shape our daily lives. James Keelaghan digs into that same rich layer with equal skill and conviction. He is, for many, Canada’s finest songwriter. Indeed, over a career that has now spanned nearly four decades, the Juno and Canadian Folk Music Award winner has created a priceless repertoire – a unique body of work, inspired by or derived from the folk tradition.
CD. History : The first 25 years, James Keelaghan. LABEL: Borealis Records (2015), code: BCD222. VIDEO

V. April Verch, timing: 53:29 min.
April has been a vocalist/fiddler since early childhood. She launched her professional career by winning the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddle Championship and the Canadian Open Fiddle Championship (the first and only woman to win both). Since then, she has applied her technique to a wide range of styles. She has reached a point where the technique she strived for so hard no longer has any meaning in itself. The album Take Me Back has an eclectic range and so do the upbeat bluegrass and jazz influences.
CD. Take me back – April Verch. LABEL: Rounder Records (2006), code: 11661-70622. VIDEO

VI. Silde to Freedom, timing: 18:38 min.
A collaboration between two slide guitarists with different backgrounds. Canadian Doug Cox is a blues and fusion musician. Salil Bhatt is an Indian classical musician. He also plays a slide guitar, but the Indian variant that consists of 20 strings, 12 of which are resonant strings. Slides of Freedom also includes vocal traditions in the whole. In this way, we hear country or blues songs in addition to Indian singing. The subdued atmosphere in which both the songs and the beautiful slide passages move has a hypnotic effect.
CD. 20.000 miles – Slide to Freedom. LABEL: Northern Blues Music (2012), code: NBM 0062. VIDEO

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