PUTUMAYO WORLD MUSIC CD COMPILATIONS

Putumayo CD compilations offer the world music enthusiast the opportunity to travel the globe and discover the vibrance of other cultures through their music. Music selections are well-chosen and the package includes excellent liner notes detailing artist and performance information as well as cultural backgrounds. These CDs make excellent gifts for anyone who loves music.

All CD collections are value priced at $20 each.

Cajun
Putumayo journeys to bayous of southwest Louisiana for this joyous collection of Cajun party music.

Italian Music Odyssey
An exquisite selection of songs from today's thriving Italian folk music revival scene. Italian Musical Odyssey will take you on a journey through Italy from Sicily in the south to Venice in the north.

In general, Italian music can be divided into four different broad regions. In the north, including the provinces of Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, and Emilia Romagna, Celtic influences can be heard and the popular ballads are often in a narrative style. In the south, including Naples, Sicily, Calabria and Puglia, Greek and Arabic influences have contributed to the instrumentation, rhythms and melodies of the region. In Central Italy, the folk music reflects a blend of northern and southern styles although there are many song forms that are unique to the area. The island of Sardinia is a fourth main region, and its separation and isolation from the mainland has resulted in music traditions that are very distinct from the rest of Italy.

A Celebration of Christmas Around the World
Some of the songs on A Putumayo World Christmas will sound familiar. Others are original or traditional songs that will sound totally new. Yet every song on this collection reflects the spirit of generosity and sharing, appreciation of friends and family and hope for a bright future that makes Christmas such a popular celebration in so many parts of the globe.

Tea Lands
A soothing, inspirational brew of exotic music steeped in the traditions of Asia's tea lands. The music of the tea lands is as rich and diverse as the cultures where tea is produced. Like the few tea leaves that fluttered into Shen Nung's boiling water so many years ago, we hope that these selections will give you a taste of Asian music and open your senses to an exciting world. We suggest you brew a pot while listening, as Japanese proverb warns "If a man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty."

Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba is one of the world's musical treasures, having gained international renown as a recording and performing artist and an important figure in the human rights movements in Africa and beyond. She was forced to spend most of her career away from her homeland after an impassioned anti-apartheid speech before the United Nations in 1963.

Makeba was one of the biggest stars of South African jazz in the 1950s. Swing, rhythm and blues and big band jazz had taken South Africa by storm, resulting in a powerful jazz movement that served as the foundation for much of South Africa's popular music. In their attempts to interpret the music they heard on records from America, township musicians incorporated their own influences, resulting in a bouncy, original style that came to be known as Marabi.

South African Legends
South Africian Legends a tribute to a country whose social and political history has taught all of us the importance of perseverance and the ultimate triumph of social justice. It also celebrates a land where the joy and power of music has served as inspiration and relief for millions struggling for a better life.

Dominican Republic
The music style most often associated with the Dominican Republic is merengue, an energetic dance rhythm that is popular throughout the Americas. As with most music in the Americas, merengue is a blend of African and European elements with barely detectable traces of a long-extinct indigenous culture. The true origins of merengue are lost to history, but the earliest written mention of the genre occured in the mid-1800s, just after 20 years of Haitian occupation and the establishment of a republic independent from Spain.

Louisiana Gumbo
This collection is called Louisiana Gumbo because Creole food serves as a perfect metaphor for the spicy stew that is music in Louisiana. Just as French cuisine meets African and Caribbean soul food in the cooking of the Pelican State, Acadian waltzes and two-steps are stirred up with African-American blues, soul and funk to create a unique musical amalgam.

The primary ingredient in this southern casserole is the blues, a form that permeates local musical expression and serves as the foundation for all Louisiana musical expressions, including gospel, Dixieland, jazz, R&B, rock, funk, and soul. Louisiana's Creole music has left an indelible mark on the entire American soundscape. The birthplace or breeding ground of jazz, zydeco, blues, and funk, American music, indeed the world's music, would not be the same without it. If only Napoleon had known what he was giving away, he might at least have asked for a percentage of future royalties!

New World Party
Nowhere is global culture more apparent than in music, an expression that lends itself perfectly to fusion and adaptation. Musicians have always been among the most open to outside influences, using new instruments, styles and rhythms to express themselves. Most of today's popular music forms are themselves the result of cultural fusions. Rock, salsa, blues, Afropop, räi, samba, bhangra…all sprang from the melding of multiple worlds.

Cape Verdean
Brazilian and Cape Verdean music share a common Portuguese heritage. And since these rocky isolated islands are located 300 miles off the coast of Senegal in West Africa, the African influence is also very strong. I think you’ll find that Cape Verde offers a musical bounty similar in feel to the Brasileiro collection, but with something mysterious and evocative that can only be traced to the romance of these remote and exotic islands.

World Playground: A Musical Adventure for Kids
Music is very powerful. Not only can it make you feel good, but It can help you learn about other cultures. People from other countries have rich experiences and musical traditions that are different from our own. Yet, they also have some remarkable similarities. Through music, we can see the incredible diversity of human experience and begin to understand the value of difference.

Rhythms, melodies and instruments have travelled across oceans and combined with local musical traditions to create new and exciting music. Music captures the soul of a people, and when one hears music of other lands, they are connected to the heartbeat of that culture. Music rocks! Now let's all get up and dance!!

Brazilia
While the range and diversity of Brazilian music rival that of any country in the world, the best known styles internationally are samba, bossa nova and a difficult to define genre known as MPB (música popular brasileira). These and many other forms have had a tremendous impact on international music. Brazil rivals the United States and Cuba as one of the countries that have most influenced popular music around the world. From the maxixe in the 1920s, samba in the 1940s, bossa nova in the 1960s and the lambada in the 1980s, Brazilian music has been the source of many international fads that have left their mark on the global music scene.

The music on this CD offers just a taste of the Brazilian musical feast. Some of the artists are huge stars in Brazil. Others are little known. The title of this collection, Brasileiro, means simply "Brazilian." It is a tribute to a people whose musical passion and creativity are unsurpassed.

Africa
One cannot overstate the influence Africa has had on music of the world. Jazz, blues, rock and roll, gospel, salsa, samba, funk, hip-hop, reggae, zydeco, zouk–the list of genres which have roots in African music is endless. Africa is home to a myriad of styles, and it remains one of the most creative places for music on the planet.

Tradition still plays an important role in today’s African music, yet increasingly influences from around the world are making themselves heard. Ironically, many of the foreign music styles that have been most influential on today’s African music have African origins. They are merely long lost relatives returning home. You will hear echoes of jazz, reggae, hip-hop, funk and salsa in the songs included on this collection.

Cuba
Most of the songs on this collection are a style called son, (lit. "sound") one of the most popular and influential Cuban musical forms. Son developed around the turn of the century in Oriente, a region in eastern Cuba. Migrating musicians brought son west to Havana in the 1920s, where it exploded in popularity. The fundamental element of the son is a rhythmic pattern called clave (lit. "key"). Played on two wooden sticks, called claves, this repetative beat is the foundation upon which all of the other musical elements are structured. It gives son the propulsive swing that has endeared it to people around the world. Most contemporary salsa is based on son.

Mediterranean Odyssey
The Mediterranean is one of the most culturally diverse regions on the planet. Each of the four countries featured on this collection have unique histories, distinct cultures and languages, individual styles of art, food, literature, and, of course, music. Yet, for all the differences, there are many common threads that link the music of the northern Mediterranean. Influences from the Arab world, both historical and contemporary can be felt in every corner of the region. The echoes of Jewish culture have left their mark, from the Sephardic melodies of Spain to the Eastern European clarinet riffs that resonate in Greek tradition. Tinges of an ancient Celtic world can be heard in the music of nearly every country. And the wandering Gypsy minstrels passed through all corners of the Mediterranean, leaving an indelible mark on the style, instrumentation and attitude of music from Athens to Andalucía.

Mali to Memphis
Mali to Memphis is a journey from the heart of an ancient West African kingdom to a city where American black music came into its own, from the sandy banks of the Niger River to the levees of the Mississippi. These songs do not unlock the secrets of Delta blues or Malian spirit music. But there is a kinship between these musicians, and their art reveals that fact in loud, living, present-tense terms, even as it invites us to contemplate the unsolvable riddles of the past.

Celtic Tides
The history of the Celts would, at first blush, seem to contain no clues to the popularity of the music to which they have lent their name, until you delve a little deeper.

It is unlikely that one would go flitting back to pre-history to get to the roots of rock’n’roll, but that is precisely the destination one must travel to if there is to be any understanding of the survival of Celtic music through the ages and its current widespread appeal. The stereotypical image of the Celts would seem to rule out any connection between couth and culture. History has long painted the picture of the Celts as a race of tall, fearless warriors with big hair and walrus mustaches who would charge naked and howling into battle, beating rhythmically on their shields. This spectacle obviously had a remarkable effect on the enemy. Even the mighty Romans fled in panic at the sight of this crazed Celtic hoard, who subsequently marched unchallenged into Rome where the terrified citizens had fled at news of their approach.

Cairo to Cassablanca
North Africa has always been a source of fascination to people from other parts of the world, yet it remains one of the most misunderstood regions. Everyone from Emperors (Napoleon) to rock stars (The Rolling Stones & Led Zeppelin) have traveled to North Africa to explore and, in many cases, exploit the cultural and physical riches of this diverse and prolific region. While the terrain from Egypt to Morocco is arid and often barren, it supports one of the most musically fertile regions of the world. A rich classical tradition is joined by unique and surprisingly vibrant modern music evolving from traditional and folk expressions. From the bubbling funk of Algerian rai to the entrancing polyrhythms of the Moroccan Gnawa, sophisticated Egyptian pop to rootsy Nubian soul, the music of North Africa has much to offer.

Reggae Around the World
From Jamaica to Australia, Rio to Timbuktu, reggae has become one of the most popular musical genres of our time. Reggae Around the World proves music has no borders. Featuring many rare and unreleased tracks, Reggae Around the World will have you jammin’ the summer away.

Afro Latino
In the 1940's and 1950's, Afro-Cuban sounds reached Africa on records and the radio. From the sextetos and septetos of Oriente to the charanga sounds of the Orquestas Aragón, Broadway and Sensación (with its popular vocalist Abelardo Barroso), to the sounds of La Sonora Matancera, Cuban music became the rage from the Ivory Coast to Benin, Senegal to the Congo. Local bands covered Cuban songs, often with phonetic attempts at the Spanish lyrics, transpositions of the original violin riffs and flute solos moved to the guitar. Caribbean sailors and merchant marines brought the guitar to Africa, where it was adored and adopted. In fact, the dominant popular music of Africa is guitar-driven Congolese soukous which also has strong Cuban roots as it was derived from the experiments of Congolese bands like Kallé, Dr. Nico and Franco who played Cuban music. The 'why' is easy. Africa heard something familiar in the music of Cuba. It heard a part of itself mixed with the Caribbean and, in some cases, the guitar and rumba of Spain.

Women of spirit
Women of Spirit is a convergence of extraordinary musical muses from around the world. Each of these women has pioneered and persevered. By defying long-standing musical and cultural categorizations, they are redefining contemporary music and connecting the past with the present through song. These thirteen women remind us that spirit and music are so thoroughly intertwined, it's sometimes tough to distinguish between the two.

Coffee Lands
Coffee has always had romantic resonances. Cowboys and vaqueros crouched by campfires on tiptoe, squinting into the smoke and cradling a tin cup of range brew. Humphrey Bogart 's droopy eyes peering over a steaming cup of Java in Casablanca. Sensationalistic photos of beatniks in dark basements, dressed in black reading poetry, listening to jazz and sipping tiny cups of espresso. The smell of your grandma's kitchen on a Saturday morning, the air heavy with the smell of bacon, pancakes and coffee. Coffee has always been there in the background, like a dark liquid melody, perfuming the air with the scent of lands far away and unlimited possibilities. So sit back, enjoy the music, and sip away

Islands
It's a word that conjures up images of verdant, sunsplashed hideaways. Maui. Tahiti. Tortola. We think about escape, relaxation, and regeneration on palm-lined, white sandy beaches running into turquoise seas. Islands are stages for love, romance and passion.

Since you can't always get to them, we're taking you on a sonic world cruise, from the more familiar Puerto Rico and Hawaii to the mysterious Cape Verde and Madagascar and ports in between. For what defines a land more than its music - full of local colors, rhythms and language?

Most of the music throughout the Americas, the Caribbean and the islands off the African coast grew from the seeds of West African chants and drum-based tribal dance music. It arrived in the ``New World'' in the hearts and minds of African slaves who used it as their own escape and hideaway. It mingled with Spanish, English, and Portuguese music - the music of the colonial powers.

Carribbean Party
Take a Carribbean cruise with Putumayo to Martinique, Guadeloupe, Barbado, Jamaica, Monserrat and Haiti, and experience the infectious, hip-shaking rhythms of zouk, soca, compas and reggae. Join local legends and international stars, Arrow, Tabou Combo, Krosfyah, Coalishun, Bunny Wailer, Ralph Thamar, Kali, Mystic Revealers, Eric Virgal, Bago and Patsy Geremy as they show us how to have fun in the sun.

One World
Shakespeare calls music the food of love, and like love, music can stir our blood and inspire us, filling our spirits with a fire that burns away the ego and lets us feel the unity of all living things. The artists featured on this compilation are as well known in the international community, as they are in the country of origin, for their universal outlook. They all have built their careers on a strong foundation of traditional music, from the Celtic roots of the British isles, to the multi-rhythmic styles of Cape Verde, and most of them incorporate the universal pop language of rock, funk, and R&B, rhythmic tongues that were born in West Africa and went on to influence most of the music being made today. The pioneers on this collection have produced a body of work that has captivated listeners worldwide, while demolishing many of the barriers that allegedly keep us apart, be they geographical, political, rhythmic, or linguistic. The implicit message they bring us is that we're all one human family, living together on one small round green ball, and as Bob Marley told us many years ago, we all share "One love, one heart, so let's get together and feel all right."

Kotoja The Super Sawale Collection
Featuring the best Juju-based songs from this 10 member multicultural band often referred to as an "African Santana." "A celebration from start to finish. There's no band that captures the spirit of joyousness found in Afropop better than Kotoja.

World Instrumental Collection
It has been said many times that music is the universal language,
and the album you hold in your hands is positive proof of that maxim. These eleven tracks are from artists mostly based in North America and Europe, although they composed tunes that blend cultures and cross borders without regard for the imaginary geographical and political boundaries that are supposed to keep us apart from one another.

Laura Love
Seattle's Laura Love combines Celtic and African music influences with American blues, soul and jazz to create a unique and exhilarating style she calls "Afro-Celtic." All over the country, the Laura Love Band's live performances and albums have been receiving rave reviews. From the NARM convention, where she excited record executives, to the recent Newport Folk Festival, when she roused a groggy 11 A.M. crowd to a standing ovation, Laura Love continues to thrill crowds everywhere she plays

World Dance Party
Our World Dance Party compilation features songs from African, Latin, Reggae and French Caribbean (Zouk) musical traditions. In these cultures, music helps people rise above their daily problems. In a similar way, we hope that this music will both add to your life and introduce you to other worlds.

In the beginning there was dance. Perhaps the earliest and still most common reason for making music in cultures around the globe has been for dancing. People dance for every imaginable reason; to commemorate passages from birth through death, to heal and to worship, or simply to celebrate life and delight in rhythm and movement with others as the music plays on.

For this collection of dance music, the emphasis is on the celebratory. Musical selections from the Caribbean, Africa and the South Pacific have been chosen with one common quality in mind, danceability. The artists represented sing of different topics in different languages, but even if you don't understand their words, the beats and melodies will get their messages across. So when you play this Putumayo compilation, you'll be hearing the music that moves dancers all over the world. And just try to keep your own feet still!

Best of World Music

Putumayo World Music will donate a portion of our proceeds from the sale of this CD to Cultural Survival, a non-profit organization committed to helping traditional cultures develop sustainable economies.

Shelter
A two volume set featuring great songs by 28 artists including Mary Chapin Carpenter, Sarah McLachlan, Nanci Griffith, Shawn Colvin, Freedy Johnston, David Wilcox, Rory Block, Kristen Hall, Dougie MacLean, Laura Love and others.

$2 from the sale of each CD set and $1 from each cassette set will go to the (National Coalition for the Homeless).