Homework Mix

I'm working from home today (waiting for a cable installation), and when I'm doing that, I like to put a 5 CD mix on the main stereo and run it at full random. The mix doesn't usually have a formal theme - more like a mood grouping - but there's always that mental connection that leads me to group the 5 discs together. Today's mix has a kind of Latin-Caribbean-North African vibe going. Here's the list:

• Chavez Ravine (Ry Cooder) about which I've written a lot. I'm still coming up the learning curve on this one, and each listening has been rewarding.
• Street Signs (Ozomatli). An anonymous commenter linked this LA group with Cooder and Los Lobos and I picked up their latest this week. Wow. Latino, hip-hop, rock, jazz, and - on this one - Algerian/Morrocan dance elements all fused tightly. Great energy, and - on two cuts - Eddie Palmieri.
• The Rough Guide to Rai (Various) is one of many Rough Guide CDs I've accumulated over the last few years. This worldbeat series offers collections of classic, neo-trad, and new artists in all the various manifestations of world music. Rai is Algerian dance-pop, that blends modern instrumentation with North African riffs (no, not Rifs), mastered by musicians like Cheb Mami, Cheb Khaled, and Fadela & Sahraoui. If you're at all interested in this kind of music, this CD is a great intro with the excellent liner notes common to the Rough Guide series.
• Wingless Angels are a Jamaican group characterized by hand drums and unison vocals - an uplifting chanting sound with an African soul. Keith Richards hooked up with the group, and recorded them in his backyard in Ocho Rios. His production is light-handed, and doesn't interfere at all with the grounded authenticity of the sound. Another great wake-up set.
• No Quarter (Jimmy Page & Robert Plant) has the Zeppelin leads reworking songs from their past in a largely unplugged context that includes Morrocan and Egyptian musicians.