#6 Ramata Diakite – MALI

Aye Yafama – Ramata Diakite

Ramata Diakite was born in the landlocked West African country of Mali. Regarded as one of the most talented singers from the Wassulu region, Ramata’s music made it international when she went on tour with Taj Mahal in 1999.

Ramata’s style is a flirtation between Wassulu traditional music and Blues. She marked a generation by her boldness to sing about the challenges facing African women as well as being a strong ambassador for her culture.

“A soulful, standout singer in a nation of standout singers, Ramata is now poised to share her path-breaking music with a worldwide audience. – Excerpted from Banning Eyre’s write-up of Ramata on Afropop.org

#5 Mashrou’ Leila – LEBANON

Embembelela – Mashrou Leila

Beirut’s underground music scene has been steadily taking root since the mid 90’s. The Basement, a local club serves as the epicenter for Lebanese alternative music – it’s slogan, “It’s Safer Underground”, is reference to the Israeli air-strikes through out the 2000’s.

The bands name, Mashrou Leila, is Arabic for ʻan overnight projectʼ and started out as a music workshop at the American University of Beirut in 2008. Embembelela is the main lyric in this song and is borrowed from a Lebanese nursery rhyme.

“[The band] wanted to turn this nursery rhyme around and turn it into some sort of satirical comment on materialistic tendencies in Lebanon,” Ziad Nawfal tells All Things Considered host Michele Norris. “How people are driven by greed, by money — how a nursery rhyme, using the same words, can be turned into something quite dark and brooding rather than soothing and lyrical.”

Ziad Nawfal is a DJ with Radio Lebanon, and also hosts a series of live shows across Beirut.

Mashrou Leila, Homepage

#4 Warsaw Village Band – POLAND

At My Mothers – Warsaw Village Band

The Warsaw Village Band formed as a response and affront to the globalization of Poland after the fall of the Berlin Wall. For the former Warsaw Pact countries, the early 90’s ushered in countless multinational corporations leading to the loss of Polish cultural identity.

Instead of subscribing to MTV, the band explored Poland’s musical traditions and took up Polish rooted instruments rarely heard in modern music. Member Wojciech Krzak has stated that the band is “trying to create a new cultural proposition for the youth in an alternative way to contemporary show-biz.”

Although they play the instruments of their forbears, (traditional Polish fiddle, dulcimer, hurdy gurdy…), the Warsaw Village Band creates a sound rooted in the past yet bearing a trance like intonation straight out of the here and now.

Warsaw Village Band Homepage

#3 Staff Benda Bilili – CONGO

Je t’aime – Staff Benda Bilili

Staff Benda Bilili, a group of Congalse street performers, can be found cruising around the grounds of Kinshasa Zoo on their fleet of custom motorized tricycles.

The band of homeless guitar-pickers is comprised of paraplegic polio victims that found it impossible to join other bands in Kinshasa. With four senior members and a team of abandoned street kids, Staff Benda Bilili are an orchestra of improvised instruments banging out joyful rhythm and blues.

Offering wisdom and refuge through music and presence the band has become a beacon in the homeless community. In Lingala, the spoken language in the North Western Congo, “Benda Bilili” means look beyond appearances.

Staff Benda Bilili Homepage

#2 Gilad Atzmon – ISRAEL

Dal’ouna On The Return – Gilad Atzmon

Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli born experiential jazz musician and an activist for the Palestinian struggle.  The musicians performing on this track live in exile. For some of them it’s a deliberate choice, others are unwelcome in their homeland.

Dal’ouna is an ancient Arabic song vocalized in this rendition by the impressive Palestinian singer Ream Kelani. It celebrates the traditional Arab line dance know as Dabke or “stomping of the feet”.

Gilad Atzmon’s ability to meld great Jazz artistry and Middle-Eastern roots in a sophisticated manner perfectly states his aim: similarity should outweigh difference; difference should be celebrated.

Official Homepage of Gilad Atzmon

#1 Billy’s Band – RUSSIA

Silly Woman – Billy’s Band

Billy’s Band hails from the museum like city of St. Petersburg where the band started out as mere musical joke for friends.

The band quickly became well known in the local bar scene with their uncanny ability to cover Tom Waits tunes and their bizarre and often violent renditions of Russian pop songs.

The band members refer to their style as Funeral Dixieland with an Infinite Happy End.

The song, Silly Women, was recorded during a four-week tour to Paris at a cheap recording studio.  The band paid for the session by selling a television set they where given for playing a local festival.

Frontman Vadim “Billy” Novik says of their first and only album to date, entitled “Paris Sessions, “My songs on the album are about nostalgia, an unfulfilled dream; they refer to the times I lived in Kupchino [in the south of the city], to my cheerless life there.”

Although many of the songs reflect a darker time, Billy’s Band performs with a quirky energy that translates right through to their recordings. “Silly Women” is no exception.

Official Homepage of Billy’s Band.