Weekly Music Roundup: Yola, Joan As Police Woman, and Samara Joy

This week, a lost record by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; Yola’s dance music; and Joan As Police Woman’s walk on the west side. Plus, Samara Joy, Etienne Charles, and Crys Matthews with Rhiannon Giddens.

Lost Album By The Rock Star Of Pakistani Sufi Music Resurfaces

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was only 48 when he died in 1997; by that time he had become a global star, bringing the sounds of qawwali, the ecstatic, rhythmic, incredibly florid Sufi music of Pakistan, to millions of listeners around the world. His fans included Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Pete Townsend of The Who, the ill-starred American singer Jeff Buckley, and perhaps most notably, Peter Gabriel, who introduced Nusrat to Western audiences through his Real World record label. Now, that label has released Chain Of Light – an album recorded, apparently, in 1990, stored in the label’s archives, and then forgotten about. (In Real World’s defense, Nusrat did record a lot of music.) Chain Of Light is no collection of outtakes or B-sides, if such a thing exists in qawwali music: the four pieces here, each 10 minutes long, are vintage performances. His band, usually listed as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and His Qawwali Party, are in fine form, with the call-and-response vocals prompting various members of the party (mostly family members) to go soaring over the steady handclaps, tabla, and harmonium that keep this music earthbound – barely. The song “Ya Allah Ya Rehman” shows why many Western listeners mistook the word “Party” to mean this was dance music.  

Yola Gets Electronic On New Single

The powerhouse R&B/country-soul singer Yola has just released her first new song in three years; it’s called “Future Enemies,” and it’s a reminder that the Nashville musician/actress has roots in the electronic (specifically the bruk, or breakbeat) scene in her native England. Her voice is as soulful as ever, but the production behind her owes much to electronic dance music. The song is about sniffing out the fact that a budding relationship might not end well, and cutting it off before things get sour. That sounds pretty ruthless, but Yola sells it – effectively – as a win/win for both parties: why build up a bunch of bad memories when you can just walk away? Or in this case, dance away.

A Walk On The West Side, With Joan As Police Woman

The singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Joan Wasser has been recording for the past twenty years under the name Joan As Police Woman – a fun reference to the 1970s cop show Police Woman that starred Angie Dickinson. She’s also collaborated with a huge range of musicians, from the worlds of rock, funk, folk, and experimental music. Her new album is called Lemons, Limes and Orchids, an album that reeks of late nights in smoky music venues in a bygone New York. The title track is a standout – written in the style of the epic story songs of a Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan, as she told us before playing it in our studio – but with an echo perhaps of Lou Reed’s portrait of that old New York demimonde in “Walk On The Wild Side” as well.  

Samara Joy Rolls Back The Years In New Single

Bronx-born jazz singer Samara Joy is only 24, but her voice somehow sounds like it’s been around since the early 1950s. Torchy, velvety, and flexible, Joy’s singing is reminiscent of bygone artists like Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan, and she really leans into that sound in her records, with lush arrangements that recall the days when a jazz singer could top the charts and the solo everyone wanted to hear was the sax. Speaking of which, kudos go as well to sax player Kendric McCallister, who did this new arrangement of “Autumn Nocturne,” a song originally from 1941… and perhaps still from there. But listen to that voice – almost clarinet-like in her clear upper register and then darkening into French horn territory in her surprisingly deep lower register. More of that is coming on October 11 when Joy releases her next album called Portrait.  

Etienne Charles Teams Up With Formerly Incarcerated Group On New Protest Song

New York-based trumpet player, percussionist, and composer Etienne Charles is from Trinidad, and the sounds of the Caribbean blend easily with his love of American, and especially New Orleans jazz. He’s been drawn to projects that highlight marginalized communities, and his new single is a collaboration with Critical Mas, a group of formerly incarcerated Trinidadian musicians. The song, “Born A Criminal,” was written by a group member named Friday, who was in prison at the time he wrote it. It is a call for prison reform and a plainspoken plea to understand that criminals are not born, but made in an environment of poverty and inequality. The song’s slow dancehall beat and Charles’s plaintive trumpet combine to make this a genuinely musical piece of protest music. 

Rhiannon Giddens and Crys Matthews Team Up To Cover Peggy Seeger

Grammy-winning singer, multi-instrumentalist, and occasional NY Public Radio host Rhiannon Giddens has joined with the activist and folk singer Crys Matthews to cover the song “How I Long For Peace,” written by Peggy Seeger, part of the first family of American folk music, and also a major player in the English folk scene after decamping to Britain in the 1950s. Seeger’s lyrics are, unfortunately, evergreen and it was Matthews who hit on the idea of recording the song to be released for this week’s National Voter Registration Day. In addition to the nonpareil Giddens, the song also features the Resistance Revival Chorus, who add a joyful, communal spirit to this simple but affecting song.