World Circuit http://www.worldcircuit.co.uk

World Circuit Records have established their reputation by producing some of the finest world music albums of the past two decades, specialising in music from Cuba and West Africa. The label is best known for the GRAMMY winning Buena Vista Social Club album, which is the biggest selling world music album of all time, and led to the phenomenal rise in popularity of Cuban music. The Buena Vista series continues with solo albums from the GRAMMY winning Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Rubén González, Guajiro Mirabal, and the innovative albums from Cachaíto López and Angá Díaz, which take Cuban music into the new millennium and beyond. World Circuit’s African artists enjoy equal prestige, with Malian bluesman Ali Farka Touré’s GRAMMY winning Talking Timbuktu album recorded with Ry Cooder being the album that brought the label international acclaim. Malian diva Oumou Sangare, the legendary Orchestra Baobab and musical maverick Cheikh Lô from Senegal have emerged as major stars at home in Africa and around the globe. World Circuit’s acclaimed Hotel Mandé Sessions has generated incredible critical praise, the trilogy comprises of the GRAMMY winning duets album from Ali Farka Touré and kora virtuoso Toumani Diabaté, Toumani’s pan-African Symmetric Orchestra, and Ali’s final posthumous solo recording ‘Savane’. With these albums World Circuit continue to set the standard with their beautifully produced and packaged albums of the highest quality. By Dave McGuire ....................................................................................................................................... The World Circuit Story

When World Circuit was established in London in the mid-1980s little did they know that it would go on to become one of the most admired and successful ‘world music’ record labels. Anne Hunt and Mary Farquharson were running a touring organisation called Arts Worldwide which brought musicians to the U.K. who were popular locally but little known to a wider public. Many concert goers would ask for records at the shows and at that time there were none available. So they decided to set up a record company to bring this music from a local circuit to the world circuit. The one pre-requisite for a World Circuit artist was musical excellence. In 1986 the label released its first albums, Venezuelan Maria Rodriguez’s ‘La Tremenda’ and Abdel Gadir Salim’s ‘Sounds of Sudan Volume One’. The founders soon realised they would need someone to run the label and at this point Nick Gold, an African history student and avid record collector joined the label. The trio soon consolidated their vision of artistic excellence, a commitment to the artists and to ensure that they had the best possible production, packaging, promotion and marketing. Their philosophy was to be an ‘artist led’ label with all

aspects of each release tailored to the particular artist. Twenty years later, this is still key to how World Circuit operate. In 1987 the label licensed its first release from Cuba, Celina Gonzalez’s ‘Fiesta Guajira’. The album and touring band featured a laoud player called Barbarito Torres who would later feature as part of the Buena Vista Social Club. Also in 1987 Anne Hunt sought out the great Ali Farka Touré. Something of an enigma at the time, he was known via hard-to-find vinyl copies of albums released by a French company. Anne travelled to Mali and put out a message on National Radio Mali. Luckily Ali was in Bamako on a rare trip from his village in the north of the country. He agreed to come to Europe to play his first concerts outside of Africa and to record his debut album for World Circuit. One track on the album would feature an unlikely calabash performance by somebody who will feature later in the story: Toumani Diabaté. Recorded in an afternoon, the album proved a lot more successful than the previous half dozen World Circuit albums and was an early highlight for the label. Hot on the heels of Ali’s debut for the label came recordings of Guinean kora player Jali Musa Jawara and Algerian trumpet player and founder of pop-rai, Bellemou Messaoud alongside live albums from Ghanaian Alex Konadu and Sudanese singer Abdul Aziz El Mubarak. In addition to producing some acclaimed albums, World Circuit has also been instrumental in re-issuing a selection of seminal albums over the years. This began with the releases of some classic Colombian recordings from Joe Arroyo, Peregoyo Y Su Combo Vacana, Lisandro Meza, and the pair of ‘Cumbia Cumbia’ compilations which are still highly sought after to this day. Around this time the label also released Orchestra Baobab’s desert island classic ‘Pirates Choice’ sessions. The group that would play an important part in the label’s story many years later. As well as recording his second album ‘The River’ (which featured a guest appearance from The Chieftains) and touring throughout Europe, Ali Farka Touré brought the label’s attention to two of West Africa’s most brilliant women singers: Dimi Mint Abba and Oumou Sangaré. Already regarded as one of the Muslim world’s greatest singers, Dimi recorded the landmark album ‘Moorish Music from Mauritania’ for World Circuit, which was the first international release by a Mauritanian artist. After being handed the cassette release of Oumou’s debut album with Ali’s simply saying ‘this is music’, World Circuit gave the album, titled ‘Moussolou’ its international release. Oumou was quickly becoming a superstar in Africa. With her outspoken lyrics and sensational voice, she would also be met with acclaim throughout Europe. The link between the three owners of the label became increasingly distant as Mary left London to live in Mexico where she now co-runs the Corason record label and Anne concentrated on other artists and festivals. In the nineties there was an amicable parting of the ways with Nick Gold assuming ownership. Although World Circuit’s reputation was growing, the company was still essentially a tiny operation with Nick working alone or with occasional support from one or two others. At the time of asking Ali Farka Touré to record his third album for the label Nick was aware that Ali was being approached by several major labels. Crucially, Ali simply said “As long as you want to work with me, I’ll work with you,” this was a huge leap of faith for Ali and one that Nick Gold was keen to repay.

World Circuit’s first taste of major success was with the teaming up of Ali Farka Touré with Ry Cooder for the 1993 recording of ‘Talking Timbuktu’ album. There had been murmurs in the early 1990s that Cooder was interested in working with Ali, but when the call came through that Ry Cooder was on the line looking for Nick Gold, the long time fan could hardly believe it. The two guitarists finally met in London. An evening sharing a guitar led to them agreeing to ‘try something one day’. Ali had a tour in the US and Nick hired Ry’s favourite studio for a few days with the hope that Ry would turn up and do something. Nick had also put the call in to Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown. Ry did turn up, with John Patitucci, and Jim Keltner, and in a matter of three days the album was recorded. ‘Talking Timbuktu’ won a GRAMMY and went on to sell over half a million records, and incredible figure for an album of its kind. In the mid-nineties World Circuit released debut albums by new artists who would all have a long relationship with the label. Moving away from their usual Latin and West African bias, World Circuit released the album ‘Rumba Argelina’ by Spanish group Radio Tarifa. ‘Rumba Argelina’ rocketed them to cult fame, placing them firmly on the map of world music innovators. Another artist who made an immediate impact was Senegalese multiinstrumentalist and singer Cheikh Lô. The dreadlocked maverick’s debut album ‘Ne La Thiass’ produced by Youssou N’Dour, is an inspired acoustic/electric mix which embraced double bass, acoustic guitars, talking drum, flute and the merest hint of electric bass and keyboards. Rare mbalax and flamenco rhythms infuse this exuberant album which proved him a unique talent. By the middle of the decade World Circuit had become a name to be reckoned with, but nothing could prepare for the next chapter in the story: The Buena Vista Social Club. In 1994, Juan de Marcos González began his association with World Circuit, when his band Sierra Maestra recorded the album ‘¡Dundunbanza!’ in London. González had long harboured a dream to put together a band combining the ‘old masters’ and the new generation of Cuban musicians. “I wanted to mix the generations so there is the experience of the older guys and the energy of the younger players”, says González. He went in search of his heroes and found many of them ‘retired’ from music, forgotten figures who were delighted that someone was showing faith in them. He recruited the singers Manuel ‘Puntillita’ Licea, Pío Leyva and Raúl Planas, all in their seventies. Despite the doubts of others in his ability to still reach the heights, he approached the legendary pianist Rubén González. Rubén did not own a piano, so González found him a place to practice and encouraged him to rehearse with his chosen bass player, the great Orlando ‘Cachaíto’ López. González continued to assemble his dream band, including conga player Angá Díaz, and the Afro-Cuban All Stars were born. At the same time Nick Gold had been harbouring a dream to try a recording collaboration between guitarists from Mali and Cuba. He had been aware of the huge popularity of Cuban music in West Africa from recordings by bands such as Orchestra Baobab, the music he heard on his travels and from talking with such musicians as Ali Farka Touré. Recently World Circuit had released albums by Ñico Saquito and Guillermo Portabales two of the most popular Cuban artists in West Africa. Gold invited the guitarist Djelimady Tounkara and the ngoni (traditional guitar) player Bassekou Kouyaté both from Mali to team up with Cubans Eliades Ochoa (who had featured on Ñico Saquito’s album) and Barbarito Torres (who he had met years earlier with Celina González). Gold was given an immediate ‘yes’ when he invited Ry Cooder to produce. The engineer for the sessions was Jerry Boys who had just started his relationship with the label by recording the third album by Oumou Sangare.

Two albums were planned for Havana’s EGREM studios in 1996: the debut from the All Stars and the Mali-Cuba collaboration. Due to a saga of lost passports, the African musicians were unable to travel to the recording. However, the two week recording blitz yielded an extraordinary trio of albums: The debut albums from the Afro-Cuban All Stars ‘A Toda Cuba le Gusta’, ‘Introducing…Rubén González’ and the ‘Buena Vista Social Club’. It was clear from the atmosphere of the recording sessions that something very special was taking place. However, no one could have predicted that Buena Vista Social Club would become a GRAMMY winning, worldwide phenomenon, outselling any other record in the same genre, elevating the artists to superstar status and popularising Cuba’s rich musical heritage, all of which has contributed to a massive boom in Cuba’s tourist and recording industries. The enthusiasm that surrounded the Buena Vista Social Club album soon became apparent, and the charm of the music inspired Wim Wenders to make a film about these amazing musicians. Shot mainly in Cuba, the film also features concert footage from the group’s only performances in the Carré Theatre, Amsterdam in April 1998 and Carnegie Hall, New York in July of the same year. By this time World Circuit had established an enviable reputation, where people took notice of every release just because it was on the label. Staying true to their artist led ethos, and commitment to quality, World Circuit’s next major recording adventure was to travel to Niafunké in Mali. There they recorded the debut solo album from Afel Bocoum, and Ali Farka Touré’s long awaited follow-up to Talking Timbuktu, the appropriately titled ‘Niafunké’. Ali was feeling that his concert tours in Europe and North America were weakening the link between his music and its source in Mali. As a result, Ali chose to withdraw from music and was devoting his formidable energies into farming, managing to successfully cultivate large areas of the unforgiving desert land around Niafunké. It seemed logical if Ali were to record again it would be in Niafunké. However Niafunké has no electricity and is not easily accessible. Nick Gold and sound engineer Jerry Boys opted to drive, with Ali at the wheel, transporting with them a mobile recording studio, several hundred yards of cable and a generator. When they arrived, Gold and Boys found the perfect recording location: a brick building with high arched corridors and domed ceilings that lay abandoned like some elaborate folly between the village and neighbouring rice fields. This gives the album a radically different feel from its predecessors. It has that mood and the powerful feel that Ali has which is difficult to capture in the studio. “It’s more authentic, more real because it was recorded where the music belongs” says Ali. Afel Bocoum had been a member of Ali’s band since he was 13, and after many years in the great man’s shadow he was finally able to step into the spotlight with his album ‘Alkibar’. This would establish Afel as a solo performer in his own right and he continues to bring audiences his own brand of desert blues. Inspired by the extraordinary wealth of talent unveiled by the Havana recording trip, the label was keen to get more of this music on tape. Many of the artists had already embarked on a series of successful international concert tours and recording had to wait a while. One of the real discoveries of Buena Vista was the singer Ibrahim Ferrer, an unassuming man who despite his enormous talent was never given the opportunity to let it shine. Using the Buena Vista Social Club rhythm section and featuring the piano of Rubén González, the Ry Cooder produced ‘Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer’ is an album of great subtlety and beauty with great stylistic range from the nostalgic 1950s American big band style, to stunning ballads with an unusual and opulent guitar accompaniment, to rich country-style son.

The album was a smash hit, selling over 1.5 million copies. Already a superstar in Cuba for many decades, Omara Portuondo has been variously tagged the Edith Piaf and Billie Holiday of Cuba. With its theme: Unrequited Love – love lost and found, ‘Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo’ introduced her to worldwide audiences. The debut solo album by bassist Orlando ‘Cachaíto’ López marked a distinct departure for World Circuit and Cuban music. With the phenomenal conguero Miguel ‘Angá’ Díaz at his side, ‘Cachaíto’ fashioned a new sound, a new instrumentation and a new approach; likened to a soundtrack for an imaginary film it incorporates a wide variety of influences that stretch from dub reggae to jazz and DJ culture, while the music remains essentially Cuban, rooted in the deep tradition of Cuban rhythms. In 1989 World Circuit released the classic ‘Pirates Choice’ by Senegalese maestros Orchestra Baobab; recorded in 1982 the album became somewhat of a ‘holy grail’ for world music fans. The band split up in the mid-80s, with some members giving up music entirely, but Nick Gold had long dreamed of reuniting the group – and after an extensive search with Jenny Cathcart this dream came true and Baobab made an emotional return at London’s Barbican in Autumn 2001. To co-incide with their first tour in over fifteen years World Circuit re-released Pirates Choice with a bonus CD of unreleased tracks. Gold, along with co-producer Youssou N’Dour, took the band fresh from their reunion tour into the studio to record their now seminal comeback album ‘Specialist in All Styles’. The band played as if they had never been apart, generating an edge, energy, and exuberance that derived from old friends coming together and getting off on the experience of playing again. Baobab hit the road hard, and over the next few years would establish themselves as one of world music’s leading live acts, gaining a formidable reputation in the United States which has brought them GRAMMY nominations, a VH-1 special, and even an appearance on the David Letterman show. 2003 saw the release of Ibrahim Ferrer’s second album ‘Buenos Hermanos’. Produced once again by Ry Cooder, the album was a critical smash winning numerous awards including a GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY. In the same year Radio Tarifa would celebrate their 10th anniversary with the release of the live album ‘Fiebre’; ironically, for a band who began life as a studio based experiment, it’s in a live setting where they’re at their purest and most exhilarating. The previous year saw Oumou Sangaré release the album ‘Laban’ on cassette in Mali, selling over 100,000 legal copies it quickly became the biggest selling album in Malian history. Songs from Laban along with a career retrospective became the double CD ‘Oumou’ released in autumn 2003. At the age of 71, Buena Vista Social Club’s trumpeter Manuel ‘Guajiro’ Mirabal released his debut album. This album sees Guajiro leading a tribute to the spirit of the legendary giant of Cuban music, Arsenio Rodríguez. The music is performed by a specially assembled group in the mould of Arsenio’s great trumpet led conjuntos of the 1940s and 50s, featuring many of Guajiro’s colleagues from Ibrahim Ferrer’s touring band and was nominated for a GRAMMY. Unfortunately Ibrahim would not be around to share his friend’s success, passing away in August 2005 aged 78. Another long time World Circuit musician, Angá Díaz saw his debut solo album released in 2005. ‘Echu Mingua’ is an innovative set featuring an extraordinary range of styles including Angá’s unique and experimental take on classics of Cuban and jazz repertoire, original African, DJ culture, contemporary Argentine and improvised music. Featuring many of the musicians that appeared on Cachaíto López’s album, Echu Mingua continues the journey further into the musical leftfield; coming full circle, the album would also feature the final track recorded by the great pianist Rubén González who was

unquestionably a hugely influential, pioneering figure in Cuban music in a career spanning 60 years. Echu Mingua would also prove to be the swansong for Angá himself with the unexpected death of the world’s greatest conguero in August 2006, aged only 45. Ever since their initial encounter in 1987 Nick Gold was a fan of the kora virtuoso Toumani Diabaté. It would be almost 20 years later before Nick would get the opportunity to sign Toumani to the label. In summer 2004 the World Circuit team of Nick Gold and Jerry Boys travelled with mobile studio to Mali to record a trilogy of albums at the Hotel Mandé, Bamako. Released in June 2005 ‘In the Heart of the Moon’ is a duets album from Ali and Toumani that went on to win a GRAMMY. A handful of live dates by the duo in summer 2005 were met with universal critical acclaim. Second in the series is ‘Boulevard de l’Indépendance’ by Toumani Diabaté’s extraordinary pan-African Symmetric Orchestra, a record unlike anything ever heard before from the Malian genius. The third part of the Mandé Sessions trilogy is the new album from Ali Farka Touré ‘Savane’, work on which was completed early in 2006. Sadly, Ali would not see the release of the album, just a few weeks after winning his second GRAMMY Ali passed away at home in Mali on March 7th 2006. Ali Farka Touré was a true original. An exceptional guitarist, he transposed the traditional music of his native north Mali and single-handedly brought the style known as desert blues to an international audience, he was a giant of African music and will be missed by fans throughout the world. In Autumn of 2006, World Circuit celebrate their 20th anniversary with the release of the 2 x CD collection ‘World Circuit Presents…’ that brings together some favourite tracks alongside some unreleased gems. After 20 years World Circuit remains a truly independent record company producing, packaging, manufacturing, marketing, publicising, all of their albums with a small dedicated team working with a likeminded network of independent distributors and tour agents around the world. In North America World Circuit have a unique relationship with Nonesuch which sums up the reputation that it has established over the past twenty years: "In the 22 years that the current team has been in place at Nonesuch, and possibly for the entire 40+ years of Nonesuch’s existence, there has been only one label whose entire output we have marketed and distributed and that is World Circuit. For a small label such as ours, it is an expression of tremendous faith to do so. But since we first met Nick Gold in January, 1997, we have believed that World Circuit approached making records in a way that we both recognized and revered. Every record is treated with devotion and respect, from the recording to the packaging, and none smacks of novelty or opportunism. They are simply records and artists that Nick loves.” David Bither, Senior Vice President, Nonesuch. By Dave McGuire & Nick Gold

Jerry Boys (interview)

Recording studio owner's view - Jerry Boys

Jerry Boys is co-owner of Livingston Studio, a twin studio complex with SSL 48 track and Amek 24 track rooms, and is a widely respected engineer himself with credits including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Kate Bush and more recently Everything But The Girl, Lisa Stansfield and REM. Choice of studio "One factor is the type of record they are making. Is it a largely MIDI based record or is it a 'musician' based record? In the latter case they would need a decent recording room with proper acoustics and a good selection of microphones. For the former case they might need other technological type facilities. Most of the upmarket studios would try and cover both areas but their main rooms would be leaning towards 'musician' recording. Like ourselves they would all provide a basic computer, software, some sort of sync interface and a few sound modules. Some studios have a separate MIDI room as part of their facility." Rates "In this day and age we try and be competitive. We are not among the cheapest but we offer excellent value for money. We operate in the lower third of the top echelon of studios, price wise. We range between £475 (plus VAT etc) per day in our smaller room and £650 in our bigger room." House engineers "Our house engineers are important, and have become a more important feature in recent years. In the 80s it became the fashion not to use house engineers, but it has sort of come back in fashion. I guess it is because they are often cheaper, and they are often better because they know the studio and how it works, and how it sometimes doesn't work!" The console "The console would be a major factor in a producer's choice, whether he wants SSL or Neve, or something cheaper or different. We have an Amek room and people will choose that if they perhaps don't want to go SSL, but also if they are on a relatively tight budget. Most of the major manufacturers' consoles are OK in terms of sound these days. It's really down to ease of operation and whether they have the facilities you want. The top line consoles like Neve and SSL have sounds of their own, and they have automation systems that people are familiar with." Geography "We find geography is important. People come to us because we are a long way from the record companies! (Livingston is in Wood Green, London, whereas most of the record companies are in the West End) They like to feel they are locked away a bit, from involvement with the A&R department shall we say. On other occasions where the A&R people are having a strong input, we may lose the gig because we are not close to the record company." Vibe "I think the most difficult thing to quantify would be what we call vibe. I think that's the one thing where you can as a studio create your own unique space in the world. Most studios these days are built by competent acousticians and they have equipment from

the same manufacturers. There is not a lot of difference apart from the mixing console and the colour scheme. What you can influence, and where you can carve out a particular character, is the vibe. We try to be very informal and yet efficient at the same time." Recreation "We provide private lounges for both studios. There's a general entertainments area upstairs with a pool table, music, TV, satellite and all that sort of thing. If you have got a band in, a lot of people want to be able to sit somewhere outside of the control room. Wood Green is well endowed with all sorts of restaurants and takeaways: Chinese, Malayan, Greek, Pizza Hut, MacDonalds. There are plenty within ten minutes walk, and many within half that distance. We provide a kitchen here and some people cook for themselves." Maintenance "Maintenance is important in terms of keeping people happy while they are with you, and you hope then for return work. It is an area that is quite expensive and you have to be careful that you provide a proper level without spending too much money. We have a guy who comes in three times a week, and then he's on call the rest of the time. Then there's normally myself or another experienced engineer on site. A lot of faults are not really faults, they are operator errors. Most things in fact get sorted out by someone who's already here. On the odd occasion when we do get a major breakdown the maintenance engineer can be here within half an hour."

Ibrahim Ferrer

Il a des racines chinoises et africaines de par ses grands-parents. En 1940, âgé de 13 ans, il cofonde avec son cousin, le groupe « Los Jóvenes del Son ». Puis il fera partie de Maravilla Beltrán, Conjunto Sorpresa et Chepin Chovén Orchestra (avec qui il chante le célèbre « El platanal de Bartolo »). A partir de 1953, il collaborera avec Pacho Alonso à la Havane. En 1958, il collabore avec Benny Moré. En 1996 il enregistre A Toda Cuba Le Gusta avec les Afro Cuban All Stars, album nominé aux Grammy. En 1997 il enregistre 12 des 14 titres du célèbre CD Buena Vista Social Club, dont le très célèbre boléro « Dos gardenias » en duo avec Omara Portuondo. En 1998 il enregistre pour le label EGREM, Tierra Caliente: Ibrahim Ferrer con Los Bocucos, avec Roberto Correra, fusion de son cubain et de jazz big band.

En 1999, Ry Cooder lui fait enregistrer son premier disque solo, Buena Vista Social Club presents: Ibrahim Ferrer. En 2003, il sort un deuxième album, Buenos Hermanos, Meilleur album de musique tropicale traditionnelle aux Latin Grammy Awards. En 2005 il fait une dernière tournée estivale européenne qui l'emmène notamment à Jazz in Marciac et au Festival des Vieilles Charrues. Il s'éteint quatre jours après, le 6 août 2005, à l'hôpital CIMEQ de La Havane. Discographie • •

[modifier]

Ibrahim Ferrer (World Circuit WCD 055) Buenos Hermanos (World Circuit WCD 065)

Apparitions : • • • • • • • •

Afro-Cuban All Stars - A Toda Cuba le Gusta (World Circuit WCD 047) Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club (World Circuit WCD 050) Afro-Cuban All Stars - Distinto Diferente (World Circuit WCD 058 Omara Portuondo - Omara Portuondo (World Circuit WCD 059) Rubén González - Chanchullo (World Circuit WCD 060) Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez - Cachaito (World Circuit WCD 061) Sierra Maestra - Rumbero Soy (Riverboat TUGCD 1027) Gorillaz - Gorillaz (Parlophone 5344880) (le titre Latin Simone)

Liens externes • •

[modifier]

(en) Page sur l'artiste (fr) Portrait "hommage" à Ibrahim Ferrer