This is Part 2 of 50 Rhythms of the World, for Part 1 follow the link: 50 Rhythms of the World (Part 1 – A to M)

28 Nongak

Korea

Nongak is the energetic drum-led farmers’ music of Korea which is linked to shamanic ceremonies and traditionally played at celebrations and harvest. It’s been transformed into an exhilarating performance art by Kim Duk Soo. The four percussion instruments involved are the changgo (hourglass drum), puk (barrel drum) and a small and large gong. While playing, the musicians do acrobatic dancing and spin ribbons on their hats.

Recommended album

Samul Nori: Drums & Voices of Korea (WEA, 1983)

Founded in 1978, Samul Nori have become synonymous with nongak farmer’s music. The name means ‘the playing of four things’ – namely the percussion instruments involved. SB

29 POLSKA

Sweden

Not to be confused with the polka (a fast duple-beat dance from Bohemia), the polska is a slow lop-sided waltz from Sweden which can be tricky for newcomers to get their feet around. Rather than accenting the first beat, as in a waltz, the polska accents beats one and three. Once you’ve fallen under its spell, its quirky magic is powerful both in concert and on the dance floor.

Recommended album

Frifot: Sluring (Amigo, 2003)

Frifot, comprising fiddler Per Gudmundson, mandola player Ale Möller and vocalist Lena Willemark, is one of the best traditional bands in Sweden. This compelling set includes a number of haunting polska tunes. SB

30 Raqs Sharki

Middle East

Literally ‘Eastern dance’ but better known as ‘belly dance’, raqs sharki uses a whole range of rhythms from around the Middle Eastern as a backdrop to the sensuous, flowing movements of the performers. The mood of the dance is wholly dictated by these beats, from the most basic maqsoum rhythm – with its immediately recognisable dum-tak tak-dum tak pattern – to the rolling and subtle Turkish çhiftitelli or the quixotic 7/8 Laz. Make no mistake, despite worthy attempts to rehabilitate it as a cosy alternative to Pilates, belly dancing is meant to stir the loins.

Recommended album

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Bellydance (World Music Network, 2002)

As complete and varied an introduction to Middle Eastern dance music as you could wish for. BB

31 Reel

Ireland

The reel is reckoned to have reached Ireland towards the end of the 18th century. This rapid 4/4 dance form subsequently became the king of Ireland’s traditional music which, apart from slow airs, consists almost entirely of dance tunes, all imported from other parts of Europe.

Recommended album

Noel Hill and Tony MacMahon: I gCnoc na Graí (Gael Linn, 1985)

Though you’ll rarely catch dancers at a pub session, there’s nothing more evocative than this glorious set of tunes, consisting largely of reels, provided by the county Clare pairing of Hill and MacMahon, on concertina and accordion respectively. It’s all recorded live in a famed music pub in County Cork and features the stamping and tapping feet of a quartet of dancers. Utterly invigorating! GW

32 Reggae

Caribbean

The rhythms collectively known as ‘reggae’ – ska, rocksteady, reggae proper and ragga – first emerged in the early 60s, when Jamaican musicians started playing R&B boogies and shuffles with an increasing emphasis on the offbeat. Reggae rhythms have been mutating ever since, and provided the raw material for deejay music and dub, the templates for rap and remix culture respectively. And some classic rhythms are endlessly recycled within reggae music itself.

Recommended album

Various Artists: Downbeat The Ruler: Killer Instrumentals From Studio One (Heartbeat, 2006)

Choice selection of late 60s-early 70s rhythms such as ‘Real Rock’ that went on to launch a thousand versions. NF

33 Reggaeton

Puerto Rico

Reggaeton moves to various Latin rhythms and the crucial dembow beat, created by late 90s reggae star, Shabba Ranks, from soca, ragga and hip-hop. In Panama, El General introduced dembow to his Latin-ragga mixes – and unwittingly conceived reggaeton. Influential bomba mixes by the Puerto Rican rapper, Vico C, were formally labelled reggaeton – and PR its capital. From there, Daddy Yankee’s 2004 hit ‘Gasolina’, with catchy girl choruses and bomba beats, propelled it internationally. Today’s electronic merengues and cumbias, ‘real’ instruments, gangsta lyrics, and erotic dances, including perreo (doggy style), have lured Eminem and Usher on board.

Recommended album

Daddy Yankee: Barrio Fino (Mercury, 2005)

The thrilling album which launched ‘Gasolina’, and dispersed reggaeton, includes bachata and salsa remixes. SS

34 Rumba

Cuba

Rumba emerged in the ports of Matanzas and Havana, Cuba in the 19th century among black workers, beating rhythms out on anything to hand from boxes to bottles, clave sticks to spoons, while one of them answered by a chorus sang improvised verses about life. It thrived at the patio fiestas of the communal solares, tenements populated by a family per room. Sailors took it to Cádiz, Spain where it was absorbed into flamenco, and to Barcelona from whence rumba Catalana emerged.

Recommended album

Clave y Guaguancó: Noche de la Rumba (Tumi, 1999)

Nothing beats the energy of Cuba’s street cred rumberos with guest Celeste Mendoza. JF

35 Salegy

Madagascar

Madagascar has a great diversity of music, but the salegy is universally popular across the island. With its fast 6/8 beat, like many of the contemporary African dance rhythms it’s made with a fusion of Western instruments and local styles.

Recommended album

Jaojoby: Malagasy (Discorama, 2004)

Eusébe Jaojoby is probably the most popular singer in Madagascar and has been the king of salegy since the 70s. His band features crooning sax and horns over rippling guitars. The title-track is a salegy urging everyone to participate in the recovery of their country and shows Jaojoby to lead one of the greatest dance bands in Africa. SB

36 Salsa

Cuba

Salsa is a trunk-full of rhythms drawn from the Afro-Cuban traditions, and particularly the fundamental son and its derivatives – brassy guarachas, romantic boleros, guitar-based guajiras, and the African, percussive guaguancos, which remain faithfully authentic, or fully mutated. Fifties mambo orchestras’ arrangements were Americanised by young Latino New Yorkers in the 70s, famously for the Fania label which became synonymous with salsa. But geographical variations include Puerto Rico’s laid-back swing, and Colombia’s tropical brightness.

Recommended album

Fania All Stars: Live at the Red Garter, Vols I & II (Fania, 1968, reissued 2006)

Fania’s 1968 All Stars debut, directed by Johnny Pacheco, and featuring Celia Cruz, Willie Colon, Ray Barretto and Larry Harlow, reveals salsa’s eclectic rhythm mix and magnificent instrumentalists. SS

37 Sama’ai

Middle East

Though the name originally comes from Turkish (saz semai), the development and refinement of this mercurial 10/8 pattern (with strong beats on 1, 3, 6, 8, 9 and 10) is steeped in the Arab classical tradition. The way in which a player interprets this during a taqsim (solo improvisation) is an acid test of musicianship: too heavy an emphasis on the strong beats and the piece becomes leaden; too light a touch and the inner pulse is lost. Try this one at home…

Recommended album

Ahmed Mukhtar: The Road to Baghdad (ARC Music, 2005)

Mukhtar’s own composition ‘Sama’ai Baghdad’ clearly shows how this rhythm works in the hands of really accomplished players. BB

38 Samba

Brazil

Samba was created by Bahian émigrés in Rio de Janeiro at the beginning of the 20th century. Capoeiristas, practitioners of the Afro-Brazilian religion of candomblé and festival troupes all brought their musical styles together. When they fused with Portuguese instruments, samba was born. Like most Brazilian rhythms, samba is in 2/4 and is driven by a deep pounding surdo drum; with an overlaying syncopated ‘rat-a-tat’ from a chorus of timbales. It remains at heart the music of Rio’s Carnaval.

Recommended album

Martinho da Vila: Da Vila Isabel (BMG, 2004)

Martinho was born in the interior of Rio but grew up in Vila Isabel, whose samba school won the carnival this year. He is one of the masters of samba-canção and wrote the carnival anthem ‘Kizomba, Festa da Raça’ for the samba school when they won in 1988. AR

Bonga

39 SEMBA

Angola

In Angola, the word means ‘navel’ so you can guess the kind of sensuous dance step it describes. Angolans will proudly tell you that it’s the beat that gave birth to Brazilian samba and it’s easy to hear how. Characterised by lilting but propulsive rhythms, percolating acoustic guitars, fluid, upper-register bass lines and hypnotic, hand-held percussion, it also has something in common with other musical styles from Portugal’s former colonies, including the morna of Cape Verde.

Recommended album

Bonga: Maorais (Lusafrica, 2005)

His politically-charged debut Africa 72 remains a classic but for a contemporary take on semba, this is a fine introduction. NW

40 Ska

Jamaica

Sixties Jamaican dance music, ska, has a jerky, see-sawing beat and matching ‘skanking’ dance. The underlying shuffling rhythm derives from the mento folk style, and shares calypso’s catchy lilt. Millie Small’s 1964 ska-pop hit ‘My Boy Lollipop’ coincided with the more musically sophisticated former jazz and R&B bands, whose classics were recorded in the Kingston sound system studios. Coxsone Dodd immortalised the magnificent Skatalites. Prince Buster brought ska to London, inspiring the Two-Tone ska of Madness and the Specials.

Recommended album

The Skatalites: Guns of Navarone (Trojan Records, 2001)

The supreme ska band, showcase marvellous solos, irresistible to skankers everywhere! SS

Sierra Maestra

41 SON

Cuba

Son, grandfather of salsa, is Cuba’s national music. A sensual couple dance, its timbric blend of Afro-Cuban and Spanish influences involves multiple layers of percussive polyrhythms held together by the key clave time line 1-2, 1-2-3. Sung verses develop into a second montuno section where the singer improvise lines answered by a band chorus.

Recommended album

Sierra Maestra: Son: Soul of a Nation (World Music Network, 2005)

This glorious tribute to legendary 20th century soneros and orchestras is son at its most sublime: led by serenading voices and wiry tres guitar with güiro scraper, maracas and bongos over syncopated bass with blasts of trumpet. JF

42 Soukous

DR Congo

In the West it is still referred to as soukous but it’s really just modern Congolese music – a hybrid of classic old Congo rumba with sumptuous vocal harmonies and multiple interwoven guitars, and the faster sebene section of the song where the guitars let rip underneath vocal animations that encourage the sexy swivel-hipped movements of the dancers.

Recommended album

Koffi Olomidé: Haut de Gamme – Koweït, Rive Gauche (Tamaris, 1992)

Africa’s biggest-selling contemporary vocalist and bandleader calls his version of soukous ‘Tcha-Tcho’ and it showcases his smooth, romantic baritone and penchant for dramatic musical arrangements. This monumental album has tracks like ‘Papa Bonheur’ that balance studio sophistication with raw dance-floor energy. MS

43 Taiko

Japan

Nobody really knows its true origins, but it is believed taiko has been part of Japanese culture since 600AD. The thunderous drums have been used in temples, traditional theatre, warfare and Japan’s summer matsuri festivals. Traditionally taiko, which vary from handheld tambours to the giant odaiko, were solo instruments. But since the 1950s they have been played in troupes, which has led to musical innovation. The father of modern taiko was a jazz musician, Daihachi Oguchi, who was the first to combine different types of drum and overlapping rhythms to create the exciting modern ensemble style.

Recommended album

Kodo: Best of Kodo, Vol 1 (Sony, 1994)

Kodo are taiko’s greatest ambassadors, wowing audiences with their virtuosity, athleticism and showmanship. This excellent collection mixes traditional rhythms with Kodo’s innovative compositions. TS

44 TANGO

Argentina

The dance groove of Buenos Aires lowlifers was given glamour by Carlos Gardél and virtuosity by bandoneón supremo Aníbal Troilo. But it was bespectacled pianist Osvaldo Pugliese who emphasised the strident beat of the dos por cuatro (or 2/4, as Argentinians call tango). His 60-odd year career bridged the golden age and the evolutionary explorations of Astor Piazzolla. Last year, Buenos Aires’ tangueros dedicated the whole year to Pugliese – who was born in 1905 and died in 1995.

Recommended album

Osvaldo Pugliese: Bailando Tango (EMI Argentina, 2002)

This is a choice instrumental-only collection, featuring dance floor classics ‘Gallo Ciego’ and ‘Ojos Negros’, and the lively milonga ‘Corrales Viejos’. CM

Serbia

The tango may have been born in Buenos Aires, but it very soon found adoptive homes in Paris, Berlin, Russia, Finland and Turkey. It’s the only dance we’ve chosen to feature twice to reflect the extensive tango diaspora.

Recommended album

Boris Kovac & LaDaABa Orchest: The Last Balkan Tango (Piranha, 2001)

With its Georg Grosz-style cover, this disc harks back to 1920s Berlin as portrayed in the musical Cabaret. But its subject is the break-up of Yugoslavia depicted as a tragic but seductive dance of death with dark sax and clarinet-led tangos as Kovac proposes ‘the last dance together in this world’ with ‘La Danza Apocalypsa Balkanica’. SB

45 Tarantella

Italy

Dancers move back and forward while hopping on one foot or perform heel-toe movements across the standing foot: the dynamic steps and the ternary pulse feel of the collective and couple dance are reflected in the lively melodic and rhythmic variations that accompany tarantella, the most popular outdoor musical event across many regions of southern Italy. And when the tarantula bites you, there is no healing but the pizzica pizzica ritual from Salento (Puglia).

Recommended album

Mario Salvi: Taranteria (Finisterre/Felmay, 2004)

Based in Cisternino (Puglia), composer and leading organetto (accordeon) player Mario Salvi and fellow musicians know how to contrast the obsessive rhythms of the tamburello and singing with the melodic variations on the organetto in this selection of different tarantella traditions. AS

46 Teental

North India

It means a 16-beat cycle. That’s 4/4, but there’s nothing square about the flying fingers, ingenious cross-rhythms, competitive exchanges and frantic build-ups that feature in this most popular of North Indian structures. All classical music operates within cycles of various lengths which are easiest to follow in percussion – the tabla being the dominant instrument. Performers often recite their compositions in rapid bursts of syllables before playing them, and traditionally the bowed sarangi accompanies a solo recital.

Recommended album

Ustad Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain: Memorable Tabla Duet (Chhanda Dhara, 1991)

A single brilliant duet in teental by father-and-son masters of their trade features all the tricks plus Zakir’s amazing chromatic basses. RM

47 Township Jive

South Africa

Is it a rhythm, a genre or simply a way of life in downtown Soweto? Whatever the definition, from the pennywhistle of Spokes Mashiyane to the jazz-influenced swing of Hugh Masekela, township jive became the dominant beat of South Africa in the 50s and in a myriad of off-shoots and variations, remained a resilient and uplifting response to adversity throughout the apartheid era.

Recommended album

Hugh Masekela: Hope (Triloka, 1994)

Even though he spent the best years of his life in exile, nobody captured the spirit of township jive better than Masekela. This live album includes a stirring version of perhaps his finest composition of all, ‘Stimela (Coal Train)’. NW

48 Vallenato

Colombia

The accordion Kings of vallenato are crowned annually at Colombia’s Festival of Vallenato Legends in the mountain town of Valledupar, where vallenato was born. The original troubadours were accompanied on gaitas (Indian flutes), guacharacas (bamboo scrapers) and cajas (African drums), playing son and paseo in 2/4, and merengue and puya in 6/8 time. Modern masters like Alfredo Gutierrez and Lisandro Meza race accordion arpeggios against singing basslines and cavorting guacharacas.

Recommended album

Carlos Vives: Clasicos de la Provincia (Polygram, 1993)

The accordion legend Rafael Escalona was honoured in this album by former tele-soap star, Carlos Vives (right), while Miami-Cuban Roberto Torres created charanga-vallenato by adding flute and violins. This brilliant classic includes Egidio Quadrado’s accordion masterpiece, ‘Pedazo de Acordión’. SS

49 Zikr

Syria

Zikr isn’t strictly-speaking a rhythm, but a Sufi rhythmic ritual meaning literally ‘evocation [of God]’ that’s found across the Middle East. After prayers and recitations, the zikr proper begins and participants get to their feet and chant as they sway backwards and forwards to a thundering background of drums which have been primed over hot charcoals often reaching a state of ecstasy.

Recommended album

Ensemble Al Kindi & Sheikh Habboush: Aleppian Sufi Trance (Le Chant du Monde, 2003)

This double CD includes Sufi ritual and sung poetry from city of Aleppo in Syria. The zikr on disc one lasts over 25 minutes and builds to a terrific climax. SB

50 Zouk

Guadeloupe

In French Creole, a ‘zouk’ is both a party and the brightly rhythmic dance music which originated in Martinique and Guadeloupe. Launched in 1978 by Kassav, zouk now includes electro-zouk, zouk-love and Brazilian lambada-zouk. But the Guadeloupian founders (Jacob Desvarieux and Pierre Eduard Decimus) constructed it with compass-style electric guitars, soca horns and earthy gwo ka drums, and graceful cadence rhythms, defined by their debut album, Love and Ka Dance. Imitators included the violin-based Malavoi and electronic Zouk Machine. Today, zouk exists from Cape Verde to Singapore, and new-wave DJs and rappers coexist with veterans like ex-Kassav vocalist, Jocelyne Beroard.

Recommended album

Kassav: Majestik Zouk (Sony, 1989)

Inspiration for many bands and styles, this is a gorgeous old-school party. SS

This is Part 2 of 50 Rhythms of the World, for Part 1 follow the link: 50 Rhythms of the World (Part 1 – A to M)