Even though I listened to a great deal of music all my life – I tend to believe that it was something more than the average – I still discover some excellent pieces of musical art in music from all over the world. This is probably why this blog contains posts about Hawaian music, African Jazz, Cuba’s most treasured band (twice), Gypsy Music and more.  

Considering this, is easy to imagine the excitement I found when discovering this guide to world music published by The Independent. It features an excellent selection of some of the most beautiful pieces of world music which will help anyone discover something new to enjoy.

In briefing, the featured albums are:

Americas
- ’40 Temas Originales’ by Carlos Gardel – Argentina
- ‘Beleza Tropical’, compiled by David Byrne in 1987 – Brazil
- ‘The Buena Vista Social Club’ – Cuba
- ‘The Mighty Sparrow and Lord Kitchener’ – Carribean
- ‘Grandes Exitos by Juan Luis Guerra’ – Dominican Republic

African Music
- ‘The History of Township Music’ – South Africa
- ‘Golden Afrique, Volume II’ – Congo
- ‘Golden Afrique, Volume I’ – West Africa
- ‘Immigrés’, by Youssou N’Dour – Senegal
- ‘Moffou’, by Salif Keita

Europe
- ‘Rumba Argelina’ by Radio Tarifa – Spain
- ‘Clandestino’, by Manu Chao
- ‘Musique des Tziganes de Roumanie’, by Taraf de Haïdouks – Romanian. The description of the album is impressive: “This record shook us all. These Gypsy guys from the Balkans are a group with a fiddle, a cimbalom, and lots of other stuff – they play at an unbelievable speed, and change gear at the same time. Exhilarating.”
- ‘Napoli Mediterranea’, by Pietra Montecorvino – Italy
- ‘The Art of Amalia’, Amalia Rodrigues – Portugal

Asia and Pacific
- ‘Musst Musst’, by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Pakistan
- ‘Lata Mangeshkar: The Legend’
- ‘The Very Best of the Far East’ – China
- ‘The Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band’ – Hawaii
- ‘The Rough Guide to the Music of Thailand’ – Thailand

Middle East
- ‘Khaled, Khaled’ – Algeria
- ‘Fairuz: The Lady and the Legend’ – Liban
- ‘Ilham al Madfai’ – Iraq
- ‘Yemenite Songs’ – Israel
- ‘Tea in Marrakesh’ – North Africa

A nice sample of the music played by Taraful Haiducilor can be found in this live performance video.

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