Around the World - Show Notes

The first hour —— The second hour

This week on Around the World

All of Part 2 of this week’s show is a report on the Brno Music Marathon which took place in the Czech city between 6 and 9 August.

Music in the report by: Colmeia, Džambo Aguševi Orchestra, Fanfare Ciocărlia, Júlia Kozáková, Marjari, Nguyên Lê, Paolo Fresu & Omar Sosa, Saiyuki Trio, Stefano Saletti, and Xanthoula Dakovanou.

Music in Part 1: Dropkick Murphys, GAOUSSOU ‘SOBRA’ KOUYATE, Girma Woldemichael, L’Alba, Minyo Crusaders, Officina Zoe, Pérez Prado, Saso Popovski, Sekvoya, Seu Jorge & Marisa Monte, and Shye Ben-Tzur, Jonny Greenwood & The Rajasthan Express.

This week’s Featured Album: América! by Orquesta Akokán

The golden age of Cuban mambo is not just reflected in the music of Orquesta Akokán as some sort of nostalgic trip, it is a genuine attempt to incorporate and further develop the genre for the 21^st century.

Orquesta Akokán formed in the mid-2010s by three people. Jacob Plasse - a New York producer and multi-instrumentalist, Michael Eckroth – an arranger and pianist with a PhD focusing on 1940s Cuban piano styles, and José “Pepito” Gómez - a Cuban vocalist who had previously sung with Cuban groups including Pupy y Los Que Son, Son and Maravilla de Florida.

The project emerged from a shared obsession with the sound of 1950s Havana, a big‑band brass sound with tightly coiled percussion, and the confident flourish of the great orchestras that once filled Havana’s ballrooms.

After finding that initial recording sessions with New York musicians lacked the authentic energy of golden-era Cuban big bands, Plasse and Eckroth travelled to Havana in late 2017. With assistance from saxophonist César López they assembled a lineup of top-tier Cuban musicians to record their first album. They swapped New York studios for Havana’s historic Areito Studios. The band employed live takes, analogue recording, and arrangements in the style Pérez Prado, Beny Moré, Machito, and Arsenio Rodríguez.

The eponymous debut was released by Daptone Records in 2018. It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Tropical Latin Album. Follow‑up releases, 16 Rayos (2021) and Caracoles (2024) expanded on their original ideas while keeping the rhythms of Cuban traditions.

This week’s featured album América! pushes further. The band introduce new vocalists and reaffirming their commitment to recording “from the heart”—the meaning of akokán in Yoruba.

Sources: Daptone Records; Smithsonian Folkways; Grammy.com; Bandcamp artist notes.

Friday:
Akaroa World Radio New Zealand - 2:00 pm local time
NAR-GROUP Germany – 2:00 pm local time
Mosel Radio Germany – 2:00 pm local time
NAR-Alf Germany – 2:00 pm local time
Waterwaves Radio England - 9:00 pm local time
Essential Radio Scotland - 10:00 - midnight

Saturday:
Best City Radio Belfast, Northern Ireland - 6:00 am local time
Power 101FM Malawi - 11:00 local time
Flirt FM (Galway’s Community of Interest & Student Station) 101.3 - 10:45 am local time Ireland
Stirling Community Radio - 2:00 pm local time Scotland
RCFM (Radio City FM) Duisburg, Germany - 3:00 local time
World FM New Zealand - 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time

Sunday:
Power 101FM Malawi - 12:00 local time
NFRS Osaka Japan - 12:00 noon local time
973FM in Singapore - 11:00 pm local time
Circl8 Chester England - 12:00 noon local time
DCRFM (Dover Community Radio England - 7:00pm local time
Prodigal Sun Radio - 8:00 pm local time
Slice Audio Northern Ireland - 10:00 pm local time
Holywood Radio - Northern Ireland - Various times

Monday:
Armagh City Radio - 12:00 midnight local time (01:00 pm CET)
SparkFlame Radio - 00:00 am GMT (01:00 CET)
Circl8 Chester England - 12:00 noon local time
Stirling Community Radio Scotland - 10:00 pm local time
Waterwaves Radio England - 9:00 pm local time
BR2 Pure Gold Radio – Costa Blanca, Spain - 10:00 pm local time
World FM New Zealand - 10:00 am local time
Akaroa World Radio New Zealand - 10:00 pm local time

Tuesday:
Waterwaves Radio England - 9:00 pm local time

Wednesday:
World FM New Zealand - 4:00 am local time
Slice Audio Northern Ireland - 4:00 am local time
Pender Radio Pender Island BC, Canada - 3:00 Pacific Time
Best City Radio Northern Ireland - 10:00 pm local time
Radio Skye Scotland - 10:00 pm local time

Thursday:
Waterwaves Radio England - 9:00 pm local time

Also on the show in Part 1

Dropkick Murphys are leading figures of the Celtic punk movement who formed in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1996.

Girma Woldemichael is an Ethiopian saxophonist and bandleader known for shaping modern Ethio‑jazz through his work with the Imperial Bodyguard Band and the Ethio‑Stars.

Officina Zoè is a pioneering ensemble from Salento celebrated for revitalising pizzica traditions with trance‑driven rhythms and deep regional storytelling.

Orquesta Akokán is a Cuban–New York big band devoted to the classic 1950s Havana mambo sound, recorded with vintage techniques and steeped in Afro‑Cuban tradition.

Gaoussou “Sobra” Kouyaté is a Malian guitarist and composer whose fluid, percussive style bridges Mandé heritage with contemporary West African electric music.

Seu Jorge & Marisa Monte are two leading Brazilian artists whose collaborations blend samba, MPB, and Afro‑Brazilian influences into elegant, modern popular song.

Minyo Crusaders are a Tokyo collective who reimagine traditional minyō folk songs through global grooves drawn from Afrobeat, cumbia, and Caribbean rhythms.

Saya Asakura is a Japanese singer celebrated for revitalising regional folk styles with a bright, contemporary vocal approach rooted in traditional minyō phrasing.

Sekvoya is a Serbian world-music and psychedelic rock band spearheaded by Ivan Krstić—a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Novi Sad, Serbia. They blend contemporary folk, atmospheric pop, and regional acoustic traditions into spacious, modern songwriting.

Shye Ben‑Tzur, Jonny Greenwood & The Rajasthan Express are a cross‑cultural project fusing Hebrew and Sufi devotional music with Indian brass‑band energy and expansive, guitar‑driven arrangements.

Pérez Prado was a Cuban bandleader and composer whose explosive brass arrangements and rhythmic innovations earned him the title “King of Mambo.”

L’Alba is a Corsican group known for combining polyphonic vocal traditions with Mediterranean folk instrumentation to create a modern, island‑rooted sound.

Sašo Popovski is a prominent jazz guitarist, composer, and teacher from Bitola, North Macedonia who is widely recognized for blending contemporary jazz with Balkan rhythms, Eastern melodic traditions, and oriental motifs.

In Part 2 - Brno Music Marathon

Marjari is one of the most distinctive voices of the young Czech alternative music scene who moves between singer-songwriter music and alternative pop, with two albums, Hey Girl, and her new album Setting This Place On Fire.

Nguyên Lê - the festival artist in residence, is a French‑Vietnamese guitarist and composer acclaimed for fusing jazz improvisation with Vietnamese traditional music and global avant‑folk textures.

Paolo Fresu is an Itralian trumpeter whose lyrical tone and understated phrasing anchor a wide‑ranging career across European jazz and Mediterranean chamber projects.

Omar Sosa is a Cuban pianist and composer celebrated for blending Afro‑Cuban traditions with jazz, electronics, and pan‑African spiritual sensibilities.

Džambo Aguševi Orchestra is a Macedonian brass ensemble known for virtuosic Romani trumpet playing and high‑energy Balkan fusion shaped by modern pop influences.

Fanfare Ciocărlia is a Romanian Romani brass band famed for their breakneck tempos and explosive horn arrangements rooted in Moldavian village traditions.

Colmeia is a Swedish seven‑piece whose electric, genre‑crossing sound blends Scandinavian melodies with West African rhythms, Congolese soukous. They have two albums, Big Bird Loud Tweets and Cheap Souvenirs.

Júlia Kozáková is a Slovak singer revitalising Romani and Central European folk repertoires through intimate, historically informed vocal interpretations.

Stefano Saletti is an Italian multi‑instrumentalist and bandleader exploring Mediterranean diasporic music through modal traditions, polyglot lyrics, and collaborative ensemble work.

Xanthoula Dakovanou is a Greek vocalist and researcher who bridges Aegean folk traditions with contemporary arrangements shaped by modal improvisation.

Saiyuki Trio are a cross‑cultural jazz group uniting Nguyên Lê, Mieko Miyazaki, and Prabhu Edouard in a dialogue between Asian string traditions, Indian rhythm, and modern improvisation.