David Dalle
Thursday October 23rd, 2025 with David Dalle
Four incredible recent albums by four supreme musicians.

I like weeks like these. Mail is running again and I got four recent albums led by four of the greatest living musicians, three of them African. This makes for an easy show to plan! These four albums are "After The Last Sky" from Anouar Brahem, "Sou Kora" from Ballaké Sissoko, "Mulatu Plays Mulatu" from Mulatu Astatke, and "New Vienna" from Keith Jarrett. We will start with "After The Last Sky". This is Tunisian composer and oud master Anouar Brahem's first album in 8 years. He started composing the music in 2023, but by the time he recorded the album in spring of 2024, Israel's genocide in Gaza was well underway. Brahem, who grew up in Tunis around many Palestinian intellectuals, artists, and musicians, could no longer "perceive the world without the filter of this tragedy" (as any thinking human should). He named the album after a verse from Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish "Where should the birds fly, after the last sky?". He gave titles with Palestinian resonance to all the compositions, but it is an instrumental work full of the exquisite and subtle beauty and sensitivity which are hallmarks of Brahem's music. It is "at once a sanctuary from, and a protest against, a world that has grown uglier, noisier, and more violent". For this album, he invited longtime bassist David Holland with whom he first recorded in 1989, pianist Django Bates with whom he recorded his last album "Blue Maqam", and cellist Anja Lechner, who is very prominent on this album, and the first time he has had cello in his music. This is one of his greatest albums. The second album "Sou Kora" is the second release with the quartet led by Ballaké Sissoko with Vincent Segal on cello, Emile Parisien on soprano sax, and Vincent Periani on accordion. We had the wonderful opportunity to see this unique quartet with my favourite kora player last March in Ottawa and they were surpassingly wonderful. So I was extremely pleased to see them release a new album this year as well. Stunning. The third masterpiece is a new album from 81 year old Mulatu Astatke. He celebrates both his working bands on this album, recorded with his Steps Ahead band in London and his resident musicians from his Jazz Village nightclub in Addis. Featuring 11 of his compositions, it is wonderful and joyous music! Astatke is embarking on his farewell tour in November with four European dates, including Oslo, which my sister has tickets to (and yes, I am dying with envy).