Buscar:mahalia

Sinéad O’Connor marks a long-awaited return with a stunning version
of ‘Trouble Of The World’, a traditional song made famous by exalted gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, available as a 7” single backed with an a cappella version on Heavenly Recordings.

It follows somewhat belatedly the-ever-more pertinent ‘Trouble Soon Be Over’, her contribution to 2015’s ‘Tribute To Blind Willie Johnson’ compilation and once more exudes the heart and soul of this extraordinary performer.

Sympathetic to its origins, the heartfelt, evocative tones propel this impassioned rendition to the present its poignancy highlighted by a remarkable artist who leaves her own indelible mark on this topical realisation whilst realigning with a positive viewpoint.

In her own words, she explains; “for me the song isn’t about death or dying. More akin, a message of certainty that the human race is on a journey toward making this world paradise and that we will get there.”

The inspirational lyrical narrative that underpins ‘Trouble Of The World’ bears more relevance than ever today in the context of the death of George Floyd and the highlighting of the persistent racist undercurrents that trouble mixed societies across the globe.

The song sees Sinead joining forces with renowned producer David Holmes and, recorded in Belfast, Northern Ireland at the easing of the lockdown, it shares an uncanny albeit eerie symmetry with our new trouble of the world backdrop and once again Sinéad awakes our souls to the ironies and similarities of our collective past and present. The pair have created a sonic tonic and shout out to the powers that be as a voice of the people still questioning all-toofrequent events such as witnessed over the past few months that ensue decades since the nascent birth of the civil rights movement in the United States.

Embodying a voice with beauty and innocence, a spirit part punk, part mystic with a combined fearlessness and gentle authenticity - unique, uncompromising, a pioneer, a visionary, just some of the descriptions that perhaps merely touch the surface of Sinéad O’Connor.

You take a trio of the fnest traditonal griot musicians from Mali and put them in a studio with Western music's most revolutonary string quartet - and the resultng album is one of the most richly rewarding musical collaboratons you are likely to encounter.
Together the Kronos Quartet and Trio Da Kali have created an album that is rich in texture, hauntngly melodic and strikingly inventve as violins, viola and cello combine with balafon, ngoni and the powerful female voice of Hawa 'Kassé Mady'
Diabaté in transcendental style. David Harrington, who founded the Kronos Quartet in 1973, describes the album as one of the most beautful Kronos has done in forty years.' All three Da Kali members come from hereditary musical families, Balafon
player and musical director Lassana Diabaté was a long-tme member of Toumani Diabaté's Symmetric Orchestra and has recorded with Salif Keita, Taj Mahal and many others. A musician of great subtlety and inventon he has honed a virtuoso
two-balafon technique to perfecton. Bass ngoni player Mamadou Kouyaté is the eldest son of the instrument's greatest exponent, Bassekou Kouyaté and he holds down the groove in his father's band 'Ngoni Ba'. Singer Hawa 'Kassé Mady' Diabaté
is the daughter of Mali's greatest traditonal singer, Kassé Mady Diabaté, and the power, range and phrasing of her voice led David Harrington to compare her to the late queen of American gospel, Mahalia Jackson.
Kronos Quartet have earned an enviable reputaton collaboratng with contemporary composers such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Terry Riley and Laurie Anderson and with world music icons from Argentnian tango hero Astor Piazzola to Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle.