Music Recommendations from Artemis Workshop + Lo ' Jo



Hi Friends - Jen here with an update about MUSIC! This past weekend I attended (along with several other Turkish Rom and Oriental enthusiasts) Artemis Mourat's Houston workshop for Turkish Oriental and Romani dance (focusing on our fave rhythm: 9/8), historical lecture, and sacred dance workshop. BTW: if you've never attended a sacred dance workshop - please do - it's a life enhancing, positive experience.

One thing I love about Artie's workshops: she has the best music!! I bought the following 5 CD's (roughly in order of prefernce).



1. Djoumbash, Featuring Warhol Dervish - Five Stars - LOVE IT - it's my current fave - Please someone do a juicey choreo to #3: Tedirdag Karsilamsi (traditional Thrace), video and send it so we can all enjoy different interpretations. The slower piece of the song is screaming for floorwork (in my opinion) and I love floorwork!
Description from CD Baby:

This is the first album by Montreal's favorite Turkish gypsy music party band. It features a unique collaboration with the Warhol Dervish Chamber Music collective, as well as vocal songs performed by the fabulous Suleyman Ozatilan.

Please don't buy the MP 3 even though it's cheaper - you do NOT want to hear this spectacular music in a compressed format!

2. Jitano and the Desert Prophets - Spanish Gypsy music featuring famed classical and flamenco guitarist Adam Schydlower. This one gets under your skin right away! You'll be stomping and shimmying before you can say "Wow"! I only wish it were longer.

3-4.Elegant Music for Belly Dance Volume I and II by The Fred Elias Ensemble. Both CD's could be used as music for entire shows. This ensemble consists of a group of seasoned, 'don't get any better than these guys' musicians and this set (not sold together) is simply lovely. The title says it all: elegant.

5. Dancer's Odyssey: An exotic Bellydance Journey by Amaya. This collection consists of 'must haves' for ever belly dancer, especially beginners. There were only a few songs on here that I didn't have in other collections, but  this is a nice place to have them all. Have to say: the version of Ya Moustafa on here is not my fave. The songs are grouped together for maximum performance/practice benefit: showtime suite, spicey techno suite, gitano-Arabe suite and Studio Studies.

6. SURPRISE: Lo'Jo: Au Cabaret Sauvage A friend gave me this CD a few years ago and I adore it. It's not like anything I've ever heard so I've taken the description from Amazon:

Lo'Jo are a band with a penchant for the music of wanderers, be they Gypsies, circus performers, or the Tuareg, the nomads that roam the deserts of northern Niger. On their third CD, Au Cabaret Sauvage, Lo'Jo take these peripatetic styles and skillfully blend them with French chanson, West African harmonies, and the occasional electronic rhythm track. Denis Péan, who sings in a dusty, road-weary growl, shares the vocals with Nadia and Yamina Nid El Mourid, a pair of French Algerian sisters who have a way bending notes in harmony that's absolutely thrilling. The instrumentation includes French café favorites, like the accordion and the violin, which is played with a Gypsy's élan by Richard Bourreau; West African instruments, like the kora and balafon; and Indian instruments, like the sarangi and harmonium. From the title track, with its haunting, slightly sinister circus ambience, to the moaning melodies of "Memoire d'Homme," Lo Jo have created a perfect soundtrack for those who wander the world's less-traveled byways. --Michael Simmons

There are so many dance possibilites on this CD! It could lead in various directions. I'd love your feedback on this one - listen to the samples (link provided above) - you can't help but be intrigued!

Happy Listening and Dancing- tell us what worked for you - share your fave music with us!