10 tunes that carry again reminiscences of my travels: Jo Frost’s playlist

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Zorba’s Dance by Mikis Theodorakis

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Cape Verde accordionist Victor Tavares, recognized as Bitori, on stage with bass player Danilo Tavares.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of spouse and children vacations to Greece. These times Zorba’s Dance is undeniably a little 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 soon after drunken dinners and start off dancing the sirtaki. I viewed Zorba the Greek for the 1st time through lockdown previous calendar year when I arrived throughout it in my dad’s DVD selection. I was astonished by how significantly it afflicted me, creating me pine for Greece – and for my dad, who I realise appeared remarkably like Zorba (performed by Anthony Quinn).

Vuoi Vuoi Me by Mari Boine

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

Womad has been the source of so lots of of my musical introductions: it was there, in 2007, that I first saw Mari Boine – the unofficial ambassador of Sámi music – conduct are living. It started a fascination with Sámi culture and joik, the distinct guttural track design and style of the indigenous individuals of northern Scandinavia. A number of yrs later on I was invited to Kautokeino, way up earlier the Arctic Circle near Boine’s property of Karasjok, for the Sámi Easter pageant. It felt like a crash system in all issues to do with joik and reindeer, but it also gave me an priceless insight into Sámi history and the people’s relationship with those who colonised their land. These times the Sámi have their have parliament, flag and nationwide working day (6 February).

That is It! by the Preservation Corridor Jazz Band

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Jazz at Preservation Corridor, New Orleans. Photograph: Alamy

Like numerous many others, I saw most of my vacation designs scuppered very last yr, which include a road trip from Nashville to New Orleans to coincide with the New Orleans jazz fest. The impetus for the journey experienced mostly arrive about although binge-watching the HBO series Treme. We’d compiled a playlist for our journey via Tennessee and Louisiana, but when it grew to become crystal clear that our aspiration of checking out venues this kind of as Preservation Hall in New Orleans wasn’t going to occur, we’d participate in it at household. This monitor by the Preservation Corridor Jazz Band always lifts my spirits, will get me dancing and makes me useless established on rebooking our vacation as quickly as it’s secure 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 selection of Cesária tracks, but when I visited Santiago – greatest of the Cape Verde islands – it was funaná that became the soundtrack of my vacation, blaring out of the packed alugueres (minibus taxis), market stalls and bars. Funaná was banned by the Portuguese up right up until 1975 as they feared the music in Creole were being subversive and its frenetic dance rhythms immoral. Septuagenarian accordion player Victor Tavares, AKA Bitori, is the genre’s unlikely star, mostly thanks to singer Chando Graciosa who persuaded him to report this in 1997, and to Samy Ben Redjeb of Analog Africa, who rereleased it in 2016.

Prepare Song by Sakar Khan

One of the most atmospheric festival places I’ve visited is the Mehrangarh Fort, property of Riff – the Rajasthan Worldwide Folks Festival, held each Oct during the harvest moon in Jodhpur. This colossal purple sandstone edifice reverberates with the seem of Rajasthani folk musicians this sort of as Manganiyar legends Lakha Khan and the late Sakar Khan, masters of conventional bowed, stringed devices the sindhi sarangi and the kamayacha. Riff is a whole-on immersive expertise and to do it justice, a certain stage of stamina is expected as concert events get started at dawn, have on via the warmth of the day, then continue on lengthy into the night. Whenever I hear the rasping sounds of these ancient devices, I’m right away transported back to Jodhpur.

St Thomas by Sonny Rollins

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The Jazz a Vienne pageant, France. Photograph: Alamy

One particular of the gains of learning French and German (in all those delighted EU times) was remaining equipped to spend a year as an English language assistant in a school in Vienne, just south of Lyon. Following my stint instructing, I volunteered at Jazz à Vienne, a amazing two-7 days jazz pageant held in the town’s Roman amphitheatre. I returned just about every summertime throughout the early 1990s, making lifelong mates and finding a crash study course in jazz in the course of action. In excess of the several years I observed remarkable artists, which include Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, and Sonny Rollins, who continues to be 1 of my favorite sax players. The encounter became the foundation for my love of music from all-around the earth and my do the job now.

The Plateau by Jenny Sturgeon

I’ve often observed consolation in walking, and past calendar year it took on even greater value. So between lockdowns, my associate and I headed up to the Cairngorms to do some climbing. Just ahead of our journey I been given Jenny Sturgeon’s musical tribute to Nan Shepherd’s ebook about the Cairngorms, The Dwelling Mountain. Every hike we embarked on would reveal distinctive landscapes – and just about every variety of weather imaginable. Back again in London, listening to Jenny’s album brings back again memories of people mountains, specially hearing the fowl music on this opening track, as Jenny sings: “Step on move, foot by foot, we stroll that is how we know, through the heather and the mud, the plateau ringing through our blood.”

Rely Your Blessings by the Como Mamas

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Porto Covo seaside, Alentejo. Photograph: Alamy

One of my European pageant highlights in recent decades was FMM Sines, held on Portugal’s wild and relatively untouristy Alentejo coastline, in the cities of Porto Covo and Sines. A really relaxed, pleasant vibe permeated the opening weekend in the seaside resort of Porto Covo, where a combination viewers of locals and travellers congregated in the key sq.. The Como Mamas, from Mississippi, were unfamiliar to me, but turned out to be a revelation. As the 3 singers took to the phase, the ambiance reworked into something resembling a devoted congregation at a gospel accumulating. Because then, Count Your Blessings has become a mantra, notably past 12 months.

Pothole in the Sky by Lisa O’Neill

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

A single of the issues I sorely miss out on in the course of these socially distanced occasions is individuals random discussions you strike up with comprehensive strangers above a pint. There is nowhere better to do this than in Dublin, specially in a person of the city’s quite a few songs pubs, this kind of as The Cobblestone or O’Donoghue’s. I have not been lucky sufficient to see the Irish singer Lisa O’Neill at a session, while she was evidently a normal in pre-Covid times. The combination of chat, beer and new music is fantastic and I can’t wait to revisit.

La Grande Folie by San Salvador

Most of the travelling I do as editor of Songlines is to festivals about the entire world, and a person of the things I most love about them is the communal listening encounter. There is a thing visceral about listening to music currently being executed reside with other men and women all over you. For me, San Salvador flawlessly encapsulate this emotion. A sextet from Saint-Salvadour in south-west France, they sing in Occitan. There is a real physicality to their tunes and a thing incredibly highly effective about the mix of voice and percussion. They constantly finish their sets with La Grande Folie – a track that resonates with these outrageous situations.

• San Salvador are due to accomplish at Songlines Encounters Festival at Kings Position in Could (Covid allowing)