Albums That Are as Diverse as the People on Earth

It’s the first day of December, and the holiday season looms ahead--only 24 shopping days until Christmas. Fortunately, if you’re looking for some appealing choices for someone with eclectic musical tastes, there’s a lot from which to choose, especially in the virtually limitless arena of world music.

A glance back over the array of new albums released throughout the year reveals an awesome diversity of choices, from the most rooted traditional music to colorful combinations of crossover pop. So here is a guide--an admittedly subjective overview of some of 2000’s highlight world music CDs. Some are collections, some are reissues, some are solo outings. All make great stocking stuffers.

Habib Koite and Bamada, “Ma Ya” (Putumayo Artists). The Malian-born singer-guitarist and his well-rehearsed, musically charismatic ensemble are on a breakthrough course. His stunning guitar playing is matched by sweet-voiced vocals and a capacity to communicate that transcends barriers of language.

Lila Downs, “Tree of Life” (Narada). Downs, who is Mixtec Indian on her mother’s side, reaches deeply into Mesoamerican culture in this brilliant collection, largely devoted to traditional music. Her remarkably pliable voice is the centerpiece, as she adapts her rich range of timbres to the diverse storytelling demands of each song.

The Gipsy Kings, “The Very Best of the Gipsy Kings” (Nonesuch). Here they are in all their glory, one of the groups--the Chieftains and Ladysmith Black Mambazo are others--that helped create the world music category. The two-disc set is another “best of” set (after a 1995 collection), but its lineup of tunes--from the big hit “Bamboleo” to the offbeat versions of Domenico Modugno’s “Volare” and the Eagles’ “Hotel California”--will make it invaluable to Kings fans. The set also includes two previously unreleased (in the U.S.) tracks.

Daniela Mercury, “Sol Da Liberdade” (BMG). Anyone lucky enough to have seen Mercury at the Hollywood Bowl last summer had the opportunity to experience a potential world superstar. It’s almost impossible to capture her dynamically charismatic qualities within the confines of a CD, but this colorful set of rhythmic excitement comes close. But don’t expect to remain seated for long once Mercury hits her high-powered groove.

Spaccanapoli, “Spaccanapoli” (Real World). Named after a street that bisects the city of Naples, Italy, Spaccanapoli is the musical outgrowth of the workers’ collective, E’Zezi. The energetic, folk-tinged music, rich with tarantella rhythms and traces of Tunisian melodies, takes on local workers’ concerns as well as global worries about pollution, etc.

Cosmic Voices of Bulgaria, “Mechmetio” (Intuition). The ethereal sound of the Bulgarian women’s choirs has been one of world music’s more compelling products for more than a decade. This CD, recorded at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria, reaches beyond traditional songs into more contemporary settings. And the title composition is a particularly remarkable example of the singers’ capacity to handle the most difficult technical demands.

Ghazal, “Moon Rise Over the Silk Road” (Shanachie). This is the third recording from the partnership of sitarist Shujaat Husain Khan and kamancheh (four-string vertical fiddle) player Kayhan Kalhor. Their blending of Persian and Indian music avoids the differences between the two classical traditions and embraces the similarities in performances that are both atmospheric and melodically engaging.

Misia, “Paixoes Diagonais” (WEA/Atlantic). Fado is alive and well in the voice and spirit of Misia. No one can replace the legendary Amalia Rodriguez, but Misia has continued in the same path, true to tradition while adding complementary contemporary touches to her fado interpretations. Imagine a fado that mingles the emotional intensity of Edith Piaf with a slight touch of flamenco rhythms and the poignant timbres of violin and accordion.

Caetano Veloso, “Prenda Minha” (Universal/Blue Thumb). Although this is identified as a live follow-up to Veloso’s “Livro” CD, it actually includes only a pair of tunes from the previous album. What’s also included, however, is stunning, much of it reflecting his seemingly quixotic plan to combine Bahian percussion with Gil Evans-like arrangements (by longtime associate Jacques Morelenbaum). But it all works superbly, and Veloso’s voice--on tunes by Chico Buarque, Gilberto Gil, Antonio Carlos Jobim, as well as his own originals--is as superlative as ever, one of the great sounds in music, anywhere.

Alessandra Belloni, “Tarantata: Dance of the Ancient Spider” (Sounds True). Italian-born singer-dancer-percussionist Belloni digs deeply into the often-overlooked folk music of the Mediterranean, and especially the roots of the ancient “spider dance,” with its mythic connections to the rites of Dionysius. Belloni’s passionate interpretations, underscored by her virtuosic playing of the tambourine, offer an opening into a fascinating musical world. (Anyone interested in playing along with Belloni’s Tarantata rhythms can find her signature tambourines at musical outlets that carry Remo percussion instruments or on her own Web site at https://www.alessandrabelloni.com.)

Various artists, “Music From the Tea Lands” (Putumayo). Here’s a quick snapshot of some less-heard musical areas of the world. The collection features tracks from China, India, Tatarstan, Indonesia, Japan, Turkey and Iran, mostly performed by stringed instruments of every variation. Particularly intriguing--Kamil Alipour’s classical Persian music for the tar (a six-string lute), the Tatar singing of Zulya Kamalova and the rarely heard music of Japan’s Ainu people, performed by Oki Kanu and the five-string tankori.

Alan Stivell, “Back to Breizh” (Dreyfus). Harpist Stivell has always been a bit outside the mainstream--a native of Brittany with deep Celtic roots, a constant supporter of the province’s separatist ambitions. This latest CD underscores his quest (the “Breizh” of the title is the word for “Brittany” in the Breton language) with determined anthems to cultural independence aggressively combining his Celtic harp (occasionally colored with rock-style electronic effects) with scratching DJ sounds, vocalese, etc. Offering yet another slant on global sounds, it is world music as a call to the ramparts.