Popular music arranged for the bagpipes and recorded live in concert by the African Skye Pipe Band along with Celtic rockers, Ceol G'Brae, and the combined choirs of Jeppe High School for Girls and King Edward VII school. Traditional tunes like Danny Boy sit alongside great screen themes like that from Star Wars. Pink Floyd's great psychedelic hit from the seventies, Wish You Were Here, and Johnny Clegg's Africa are just two more great songs in this interesting collection.

MORE VINTAGE!, volume 22 in the brilliant ETHIOPIQUES series, collects recordings from Ethiopian pop superstar Alemayehu Eshete made during the early 1970s. In addition to showcasing Alemayehu, this set shines a light on one of the key behind-the-scenes figures in Ethiopian pop, organist and arranger Girma Beyene. Something of Booker T. to Alemayehu's Otis Redding, it's Girma who provides the tight-as-a-drum funk and jazz grooves over which Alemayehu lets his stunning vocals glide. Although this is text-book Ethiopian pop from the golden era, listeners will hear the obvious influences of American soul and R&B, making for a riveting and illuminating lesson in the depths of the African musical diaspora.

The second entry in Buda Musique's overview of the Tanzanian-centered music scene covers seven popular acts who recorded for the Mzuri label, run by M.J. Shah, who also recorded the bands in a simple but clear and effective one-microphone set-up in a warehouse behind the shop he owned in the major port of Mombasa. As the subtitle indicates, the range covers about ten years of time, with focus on a style called taarab, explained in detailed fashion in the liner notes, noting its origins as a mix of African vocal and rhythmic styles mixed with instruments from many locations, as well as other influences that notably include Indian movie musicals. Another Indian stringed instrument has a beautiful, key role on many of the songs -- the tashkota -- first known in Japan before gaining popularity in the subcontinent, then carried to Mombasa from there. Shah claimed to have electrified the tashkota when recording groups to better capture the haunting, delicate tones it produces, and on many songs throughout it has a well-deserved lead role, somewhere between a high-pitched sitar and a balalaika. Taarab songs have a slow, almost seductive feeling to them, and the elegant singing of such figures as Matano Juma and Ali Mkali (the latter's "Masikini Macho Yengu," or "My Poor Eyes," has a particularly sad beauty to it, appropriate to the lovelorn lyrics) match the music very well. Arrangements can be busy but are rarely high-speed or hyperactive; if anything, this feels like an equivalent of bossa nova for another coast, delicate and reflective rather than party-up songs. Accordion is another prominent instrument on many songs and, mixed with the distinctly Bollywood stylings audible throughout, the disc results in a captivating collage that well deserves a wide listen. ~ Ned Raggett