10 music that bring back again recollections of my travels: Jo Frost’s playlist



a person standing on a stage holding a guitar: Photograph: Alamy


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Photograph: Alamy

Zorba’s Dance by Mikis Theodorakis



a person sitting on a stage: Cape Verde accordionist Victor Tavares, known as Bitori, on stage with bass player Danilo Tavares.


© Photograph: Alamy
Cape Verde accordionist Victor Tavares, recognised as Bitori, on phase with bass participant Danilo Tavares.

Some of my fondest childhood recollections are of family members holiday seasons to Greece. These times Zorba’s Dance is undeniably a bit of a cliche, but when I listen to that slow bouzouki intro, I’m reminded of my dad, who would set this LP on just after drunken dinners and begin dancing the sirtaki. I watched Zorba the Greek for the first time in the course of lockdown past 12 months when I arrived throughout it in my dad’s DVD selection. I was surprised by how much it afflicted me, building me pine for Greece – and for my father, who I realise looked remarkably like Zorba (played by Anthony Quinn).

Vuoi Vuoi Me by Mari Boine



Mari Boine holding a microphone: Sami musician Mari Boine on stage in Norway. Photograph: Gonzales Photo/Alamy


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Sami musician Mari Boine on phase in Norway. Photograph: Gonzales Photograph/Alamy

Womad has been the resource of so quite a few of my musical introductions: it was there, in 2007, that I first observed Mari Boine – the unofficial ambassador of Sámi audio – execute reside. It started out a fascination with Sámi lifestyle and joik, the exclusive guttural song design and style of the indigenous people today of northern Scandinavia. Numerous years afterwards I was invited to Kautokeino, way up earlier the Arctic Circle around Boine’s dwelling of Karasjok, for the Sámi Easter pageant. It felt like a crash system in all factors to do with joik and reindeer, but it also gave me an priceless perception into Sámi record and the people’s romance with those people who colonised their land. These times the Sámi have their very own parliament, flag and national day (6 February).

That’s It! by the Preservation Corridor Jazz Band



a group of people sitting in front of a crowd: Jazz at Preservation Hall, New Orleans. Photograph: Alamy


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Jazz at Preservation Hall, New Orleans. Photograph: Alamy

Like many many others, I observed most of my vacation plans scuppered previous year, together with a road vacation from Nashville to New Orleans to coincide with the New Orleans jazz fest. The impetus for the trip experienced largely come about even though binge-viewing the HBO sequence Treme. We’d compiled a playlist for our journey by Tennessee and Louisiana, but when it turned crystal clear that our dream of checking out venues these as Preservation Hall in New Orleans wasn’t going to happen, we’d enjoy it at house. This monitor by the Preservation Corridor Jazz Band often lifts my spirits, receives me dancing and can make me lifeless established on rebooking our vacation as shortly as it is safe to do so.

Bitori Nha Bibinha by Bitori

The most internationally celebrated artist from Cape Verde is the late Cesária Évora, the doyenne of morna music, steeped in saudade (nostalgia or longing). I could have picked any range of Cesária tunes, but when I frequented Santiago – biggest of the Cape Verde islands – it was funaná that turned the soundtrack of my excursion, blaring out of the packed alugueres (minibus taxis), marketplace stalls and bars. Funaná was banned by the Portuguese up right up until 1975 as they feared the tracks in Creole had been subversive and its frenetic dance rhythms immoral. Septuagenarian accordion player Victor Tavares, AKA Bitori, is the genre’s not likely star, largely thanks to singer Chando Graciosa who persuaded him to history this in 1997, and to Samy Ben Redjeb of Analog Africa, who rereleased it in 2016.

Practice Song by Sakar Khan

A single of the most atmospheric festival destinations I’ve frequented is the Mehrangarh Fort, dwelling of Riff – the Rajasthan Intercontinental Folks Festival, held each individual October all through the harvest moon in Jodhpur. This colossal red sandstone edifice reverberates with the sound of Rajasthani folks musicians these as Manganiyar legends Lakha Khan and the late Sakar Khan, masters of conventional bowed, stringed instruments the sindhi sarangi and the kamayacha. Riff is a total-on immersive encounter and to do it justice, a specific degree of endurance is required as live shows get started at dawn, carry on via the heat of the day, then go on extended into the night. Whenever I hear the rasping seems of these historic devices, I’m instantaneously transported back again to Jodhpur.

St Thomas by Sonny Rollins



a large city landscape: The Jazz a Vienne festival, France. Photograph: Alamy


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The Jazz a Vienne festival, France. Photograph: Alamy

Just one of the advantages of learning French and German (in all those pleased EU times) was becoming equipped to invest a 12 months as an English language assistant in a faculty in Vienne, just south of Lyon. Right after my stint teaching, I volunteered at Jazz à Vienne, a wonderful two-week jazz pageant held in the town’s Roman amphitheatre. I returned each and every summer time throughout the early 1990s, earning lifelong good friends and receiving a crash program in jazz in the approach. Over the yrs I noticed extraordinary artists, which includes Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, and Sonny Rollins, who continues to be one particular of my favourite sax gamers. The expertise grew to become the foundation for my appreciate of tunes from around the world and my function right now.

The Plateau by Jenny Sturgeon

I’ve constantly observed convenience in walking, and past yr it took on even larger worth. So between lockdowns, my associate and I headed up to the Cairngorms to do some climbing. Just before our excursion I acquired Jenny Sturgeon’s musical tribute to Nan Shepherd’s reserve about the Cairngorms, The Living Mountain. Each individual hike we embarked on would reveal distinct landscapes – and each and every type of weather possible. Back again in London, listening to Jenny’s album delivers again reminiscences of those people mountains, especially hearing the bird music on this opening track, as Jenny sings: “Step on action, foot by foot, we stroll that is how we know, through the heather and the mud, the plateau ringing by our blood.

Count Your Blessings by the Como Mamas



a rocky beach next to the ocean: Porto Covo beach, Alentejo. Photograph: Alamy


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Porto Covo beach front, Alentejo. Photograph: Alamy

1 of my European festival highlights in recent many years was FMM Sines, held on Portugal’s wild and somewhat untouristy Alentejo coastline, in the cities of Porto Covo and Sines. A seriously relaxed, friendly vibe permeated the opening weekend in the seaside resort of Porto Covo, in which a combination audience of locals and travellers congregated in the principal sq.. The Como Mamas, from Mississippi, were not known to me, but turned out to be a revelation. As the 3 singers took to the stage, the ambiance reworked into something resembling a devoted congregation at a gospel gathering. Given that then, Count Your Blessings has come to be a mantra, specially last yr.

Pothole in the Sky by Lisa O’Neill



a group of people sitting at a table in a restaurant: Irish musicians at O’Donoghue’s pub, Dublin. Photograph: Hugh Reynolds/Alamy


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Irish musicians at O’Donoghue’s pub, Dublin. Photograph: Hugh Reynolds/Alamy

Just one of the issues I sorely miss in the course of these socially distanced moments is those random discussions you strike up with comprehensive strangers over a pint. There’s nowhere much better to do this than in Dublin, especially in a single of the city’s several music pubs, this kind of as The Cobblestone or O’Donoghue’s. I haven’t been blessed enough to see the Irish singer Lisa O’Neill at a session, though she was seemingly a standard in pre-Covid instances. The combination of chat, beer and audio is best and I cannot hold out to revisit.

La Grande Folie by San Salvador

Most of the travelling I do as editor of Songlines is to festivals close to the entire world, and 1 of the things I most get pleasure from about them is the communal listening practical experience. There’s a thing visceral about hearing songs becoming carried out live with other persons all-around you. For me, San Salvador correctly encapsulate this experience. A sextet from Saint-Salvadour in south-west France, they sing in Occitan. There is a serious physicality to their music and some thing incredibly impressive about the combination of voice and percussion. They constantly finish their sets with La Grande Folie – a song that resonates with these mad moments.

San Salvador are because of to complete at Songlines Encounters Pageant at Kings Spot in Could (Covid allowing)