garth cartwright

When Jim Carroll died in September 2009 at age 60, it went largely unnoticed by the rock culture which had once embraced him, and spoken about this New York poet-turned-singer in the same breath as Patti Smith and Lou Reed. Carroll's rock career was admittedly short -- a few albums in the early Eighties and little else -- but his literary...
> fromthevaults/2855/jim-carroll-people-who-died-1980/

Okay, definitely not for every taste but here is clubland, rocked up Gypsy music from Bucharest driven by a brassy horn section and hefty backbeats, and fronted by singer/composer/violinist Ionita Aurel. At times it sounds as much mad Mexican as Balkan and when guest voclaists Jony Iliev and Tato Garcia come in on Solo Part Ti there is an...
> music/3019/mahala-rai-banda-ghetto-blasters-asphalt-tango-southbound/

The interest in good time "gypsy" music continues after the success of the Benka Borodovsky Bordello Band (with whose style I had some problem). This outfit from Wellington -- sax, trumpet, trombone, sousaphone, accordion and percussion -- work similar oompa/mad dancing/immediately familiar folk-framed tunes and by not having a...
> music/2856/niko-ne-zna-niko-ne-zna-ep-monkey/

When this out-of-the-blue single raced around the globe at the height of Beatlemania it sounded like a typically gimmicky hit of the period (the band name, Sam wearing a turban and the group dressed like Arabs didn't exactly deny it) and you might have expected them to disappear immediately. But they didn't. They came back with a slightly...
> fromthevaults/2796/sam-the-sham-and-the-pharoahs-wooly-bully-1964/

Writing about music is a sedentary affair today: CDs are reviewed, and artists are interviewed by phone, in a comfortable hotel or their record company office. Latterly, to my regret, it has been like that for me -- but not so for Cartwright whose previous book Princes Amongst Men saw him on the road in some bad and strange parts of Eastern...
> writingelsewhere/2786/more-miles-than-money-journeys-through-american-music-by-garth-cartwright/

Although the blues can be a sophisticated music, there's something more earthy, vibrant and appealing about it when it is played from somewhere further south than the cerebral cortext. Hound Dog Taylor played from a point somewhere between the heart, the gut and the groin -- and made the most thrilling music to come out of the Chicago blues...
> essentialelsewhere/2791/hound-dog-taylor-and-the-houserockers-hound-dog-taylor-and-the-houserockers-1971/

Surprisingly, this French multi-instrumentalist (oud, guitar, anything with strings) hasn't previously appeared at Elsewhere, largely because his albums are in woefully short supply in New Zealand. Pity, he's huge in Europe for his inclusive approach which means he brings together North African styles with gypsy music, flamenco with Middle...
> music/2542/titi-robin-kali-sultana-filter-shock/

The electro-ska Balkan/Russian sound seems to be taking off, what with internationally successful bands like Russkaja, Shukar Collective and Balkan Beat Box, and on the homefront too with the popularity of the Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band, and even The Mamaku Project who have assimilated just a smidgen of gypsy-rock into their sound....
> music/1991/various-artists-ost-klub-kapitel-2-chat-chapeau/