Who is Ben Mandelson?
You've seen him touring as one of Billy Bragg's Blokes. The unassuming man in the yellow shirt and the dark suit, with the Badge of Mustapha on his lapel. The one coaxing ringing notes from the bouzouk and seamless slides from the bügeleiser. Or an instrument of his own invention, the 8-string barizouki.Or perhaps you're more familiar with his work in world music. As the consultant/director of London-based GlobeStyle Records (a label on Ace Records, established in 1985), he has opened new frontiers for globe-spanning music, with a roster that includes Laver Bariu, Ferus Mustafov, Ofra Haza, Shoukichi Kina, Kadri Gopalnath, Rakoto Frah, and Orquesta Ritmo Oriental. (GlobeStyle Irish has released a series on traditional Irish music that includes selections from Dan Sullivan's Shamrock Band, Hugh Gillespie, and Margaret Barry.) To date, he has worked on at least 99 albums for GlobeStyle.
In the early 1990s, he compiled for GlobeStyle Golden Voices from the Silver Screen, collections of Bollywood music. He has also been involved with the post-production of the compilation, Bosnian Breakdown: The Unpronounceable Beat of Sarajevo (Yugoslavia). In 1992, his production credits included Francisco Ulloa's Ultramerengue.
He has also produced works for numerous international artists, including a recent album by Madagaskar group Tiharea. He and Ian Anderson recorded and mixed Jaojoby's Salegy! album, and is credited for "invaluable assistance" on Freddy De Majunga's Tsinjaka.
In the last few years, he has produced an album by The Uyghur Musicians from Xinjiang. A recent project was the mastering of Malagasy recordings for the all-star Vakoka Project. His work with Malagasy music has also included producing Introducing Shiyani Ngcobo. Also, he produced Yat-Kha's album Re-Covers. Recently, he produced accordionist Chango Spasiuk's Tarefero de mis Pagos, and was lauded by BBC World for displaying "no telltale sign of calculating producer. Ben Mandelson, the man in charge, has no trademark stamp that makes his work instantly recognizeable. Rather, he is the embodiment of the producer as Invisible Man, happiest if you cannot tell that he was even there." For this album, he was nominated for a Latin Grammy in the Producer of the Year category. In 2005, he also produced Czechomor's album, What Happened Next.
He's written the liner notes to albums including Eduardo Durao's Timbila, Bajourou's Big String Theory, and the compilation Mozambique Two.
For a number of years, he was also the director of the annual WOMEX conference on world, roots, folk, ethnic, traditional, and local music. Now he regularly makes presentations at WOMEX and is the award curator. More recently, he has been an "advisor" for the Modal (formerly known as musicalliance) conference. He is also on the jury for the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music, and was part of their 2005 awards-related roundtable on world music. In addition, he is part of the British Council's Music Advisory Network. In 2005, he served on the jury of the Sayan Ring Festival.
In Christoph Wagner's book on music, Ear and Eye, he contributed the essay "Skiing in Madagascar - Experiences of a Record Producer." This book also includes pieces by Lol Coxhill, Terry Riley, Jah Wobble, and Colin Bass.
Ben's involvement in the world music arena has led to his participation in a number of other events. In October of 1997, he was part of a press conference (organized by Global Music Centre and Star of Africa Association) entitled Music Business and Culture in Developing Countries. He was asked to give "an overview on the music industry in developing countries," and delivered an insightful fifteen-point outline of recording "studio needs" in developing countries.
A summary of an interview On Wor[l]d Music, in which he participated, along with László Távolodó Marton (Magyar Narancs) and musicians Tamás Kobzos Kis, Tamás Szarka (Ghymes) and Jeno Zsigó (Ando Drom), can be found here.
Asked by On to give a "list of albums, EPs, tracks, ideas, overviews, predictions..." here's what he offered.
Ian Anderson of Folk Roots magazine documents Ben's role in the development of "world music." In the March 2001 issue of fRoots, he also conducts an excellent interview of Ben detailing his musical career to date. In July 2003, there is a Root Salad followup in which Ben is asked twelve questions on various topics.
At late folk legend Bob Copper's 85th birthday party was spotted a "well known wearer of the Fez and able assistant to one William Bragg..."
A brief
(and inaccurate) bio by Craig Harris can be found in the AMG's
All-Music Guide.
In 1997, he and Michael Morris devised Now You Squeeze It: Accordion Heaven on the South Bank.
The violin.
The guitar, the hawaiian guitar, mandolin, melodeon, dobro-bass, the banjo,
and the harmonica. The bügeleiser. Turkish and Greek instruments
such as the 