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



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


© Furnished by The Guardian
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, identified as Bitori, on stage with bass player Danilo Tavares.

Some of my fondest childhood reminiscences are of relatives vacations to Greece. These days 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 place this LP on just after drunken dinners and start off dancing the sirtaki. I viewed Zorba the Greek for the very first time in the course of lockdown very last calendar year when I arrived throughout it in my dad’s DVD collection. I was stunned by how much it afflicted me, making me pine for Greece – and for my father, who I realise seemed 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


© Provided by The Guardian
Sami musician Mari Boine on stage in Norway. Photograph: Gonzales Photo/Alamy

Womad has been the resource of so numerous of my musical introductions: it was there, in 2007, that I 1st observed Mari Boine – the unofficial ambassador of Sámi new music – carry out live. It started a fascination with Sámi lifestyle and joik, the exclusive guttural song design and style of the indigenous persons of northern Scandinavia. Several decades later on I was invited to Kautokeino, way up past the Arctic Circle in close proximity to Boine’s household of Karasjok, for the Sámi Easter festival. It felt like a crash training course in all points to do with joik and reindeer, but it also gave me an priceless insight into Sámi historical past and the people’s marriage with individuals who colonised their land. These days the Sámi have their own parliament, flag and national day (6 February).

That’s It! by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band



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


© Delivered by The Guardian
Jazz at Preservation Corridor, New Orleans. Photograph: Alamy

Like several other folks, I observed most of my journey plans scuppered last yr, including a highway journey from Nashville to New Orleans to coincide with the New Orleans jazz fest. The impetus for the excursion experienced mainly come about though binge-observing the HBO series Treme. We’d compiled a playlist for our journey through Tennessee and Louisiana, but when it became clear that our desire of going to venues such as Preservation Corridor in New Orleans was not going to transpire, we’d play it at dwelling. This keep track of by the Preservation Corridor Jazz Band usually lifts my spirits, receives me dancing and will make me dead established on rebooking our excursion as soon 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 audio, steeped in saudade (nostalgia or longing). I could have picked any quantity of Cesária music, but when I visited Santiago – greatest 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 until 1975 as they feared the tunes in Creole ended up subversive and its frenetic dance rhythms immoral. Septuagenarian accordion player Victor Tavares, AKA Bitori, is the genre’s not likely star, mostly many 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.

Train Music by Sakar Khan

A person of the most atmospheric pageant locations I have frequented is the Mehrangarh Fort, home of Riff – the Rajasthan International People Festival, held each October throughout the harvest moon in Jodhpur. This colossal crimson sandstone edifice reverberates with the audio of Rajasthani folks musicians these types of as Manganiyar legends Lakha Khan and the late Sakar Khan, masters of traditional bowed, stringed instruments the sindhi sarangi and the kamayacha. Riff is a whole-on immersive encounter and to do it justice, a specific degree of endurance is needed as concert events get started at dawn, carry on by way of the warmth of the day, then go on very long into the night time. Every time I hear the rasping sounds of these historic instruments, I’m right away transported back to Jodhpur.

St Thomas by Sonny Rollins



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


© Furnished by The Guardian
The Jazz a Vienne festival, France. Photograph: Alamy

A single of the added benefits of finding out French and German (in these joyful EU days) was staying able to devote a calendar year 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 superb two-7 days jazz pageant held in the town’s Roman amphitheatre. I returned just about every summer time during the early 1990s, making lifelong close friends and receiving a crash study course in jazz in the approach. More than the several years I saw unbelievable artists, together with Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, and Sonny Rollins, who continues to be a single of my favourite sax gamers. The practical experience became the basis for my like of tunes from all around the earth and my work currently.

The Plateau by Jenny Sturgeon

I’ve constantly discovered ease and comfort in going for walks, and last yr it took on even bigger importance. So in between lockdowns, my associate and I headed up to the Cairngorms to do some climbing. Just before our journey I received Jenny Sturgeon’s musical tribute to Nan Shepherd’s reserve about the Cairngorms, The Residing Mountain. Just about every hike we embarked on would expose distinct landscapes – and every sort of climate conceivable. Back again in London, listening to Jenny’s album provides back reminiscences of people mountains, in particular listening to the bird tune on this opening track, as Jenny sings: “Step on phase, foot by foot, we walk which is how we know, through the heather and the mud, the plateau ringing by way of our blood.

Depend Your Blessings by the Como Mamas



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


© Delivered by The Guardian
Porto Covo beach, Alentejo. Photograph: Alamy

One of my European pageant highlights in current several years was FMM Sines, held on Portugal’s wild and fairly untouristy Alentejo coast, in the cities of Porto Covo and Sines. A actually calm, welcoming vibe permeated the opening weekend in the seaside resort of Porto Covo, in which a combination viewers of locals and travellers congregated in the most important square. The Como Mamas, from Mississippi, have been unidentified to me, but turned out to be a revelation. As the a few singers took to the phase, the atmosphere reworked into anything resembling a devoted congregation at a gospel gathering. Given that then, Depend Your Blessings has turn into a mantra, specially past year.

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


© Supplied by The Guardian
Irish musicians at O’Donoghue’s pub, Dublin. Photograph: Hugh Reynolds/Alamy

Just one of the factors I sorely pass up all through these socially distanced moments is individuals random conversations you strike up with total strangers above a pint. There’s nowhere greater to do this than in Dublin, specifically in a person of the city’s numerous tunes pubs, such as The Cobblestone or O’Donoghue’s. I haven’t been lucky plenty of to see the Irish singer Lisa O’Neill at a session, despite the fact that she was evidently a normal in pre-Covid situations. The mixture of chat, beer and new music is great and I just can’t wait around to revisit.

La Grande Folie by San Salvador

Most of the travelling I do as editor of Songlines is to festivals all over the environment, and one particular of the factors I most get pleasure from about them is the communal listening knowledge. There’s a thing visceral about hearing tunes being done dwell with other people today around you. For me, San Salvador perfectly encapsulate this feeling. A sextet from Saint-Salvadour in south-west France, they sing in Occitan. There’s a real physicality to their music and one thing very impressive about the blend of voice and percussion. They constantly end their sets with La Grande Folie – a song that resonates with these nuts situations.

San Salvador are due to perform at Songlines Encounters Festival at Kings Put in May perhaps (Covid permitting)