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The African Music Thread

rod said:
Currently listening to the wonderful sounds of Orchestre Africa Fiesta - Les Merveilles du Passe, thanks to Duncan. That Congolese rumba / soukous thang that just makes you want to get up and dance.
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It is remarkably great music, and like a lot of the very best modern music (Blue Note, dub) was produced almost anonymously behind the Big Name labels and headliners, on a vast, industrial scale over a long period of time.
Classic rumba from the sixties and early seventies from the likes of Tabu Ley, Franco and Dr Nico is highly collectable now. Fortunately, Sterns to the rescue with a few excellent compis

Tabu Ley Rochereau

Franco This is what I'd get first, speaking as a big Franco fan.

Rumba on the River

I'll get into soukouss, which is the stripped down, tougher offspring of Rumba another time.

Some pygmy music
There are many more (and better) recordings, but this is a good place to start.
 
"I am a football fan I am a soccer fan. I want to see Lineker v the rest of the world"..

or something.. does anyone know which song its from?
 
Good to see you back on here Joel. I wish you a full and speedy recovery.

I shall take your advice with the Franco collection, as I had not got around to dipping the toe in there.
 
Even if this doesn't totally count as African music, it's well worth getting hold of:

The link takes you to the Amazon page with demo tracks:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Further-Afro-Celt-Sound-System/dp/B00005ASHF/ref=sr_1_3/026-4330007-9799666?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1192653483&sr=8-3

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rod said:
Lost Cap'n?

:)
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usually quite lost yes.. it is though a lilting African song (sounds west coast like Mali or Senegal sound) & the themetune to radio5live's world football prog. Anyone any ideas as to which band?

'I want to see Maradonna.. hmm ha hmm ha he' (I forget this bit) :)
 
I was listening to the clips from the Tabu Ley Rochereau compliation Joel recommended yesterday, thinking how great it sounded. As if by magic, it arrived in the post today! I had heard Charlie Gillett play a track on the BBC world service in a moment of insomnia and had ordered it straight away. Of course I had completely forgotten this the following morning and until it arrived, two weeks later!

Strongly recommended.

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I must have linked to this Ben Loxo before, but here it is again as it is a great resource for discovering old and interesting African pop - especially the stuff that never makes it onto anglo radars (which is the vast, overwhelming majority of the music).
http://bennloxo.com/
Check out the 3rd birthday thread a little way down with a bunch of vintage makossa from the Cameroon. Some great stuff in there, even if the guy desperately needs a vacuum record cleaner!
 
how can you neglect the music of fela kuti...a political lion...would write protest songs against the Nigerian gov't get beat up and thrown in jail...even burning his club down to shut him up....only to come out and keep singing songs of protest...a combination of funk, james brown and poly rhythms...in an orchastra call and response stew...most of his vinyl albums have only 2 songs one on each side but lasting 17-20 minutes apiece...epic in scope without over dubs and many of his classic albums can be found on cd including a 2 cd set "best of"...released 2 yrs ago...now sadly deceased from AIDS
 
Another mention for the Nigeria Special I mentioned a couple of posts ago. This is a SPECTACULARLY great album. There's a fair bit of hype developing in the "community", in this case it's fully justified.
I knew there's a lot more to Nigerian music than Fela or Fuji, but this pulls and pushes in a superb and often unexpected ways.
 
joel said:
Another mention for the Nigeria Special I mentioned a couple of posts ago. This is a SPECTACULARLY great album. There's a fair bit of hype developing in the "community", in this case it's fully justified.
I knew there's a lot more to Nigerian music than Fela or Fuji, but this pulls and pushes in a superb and often unexpected ways.
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Jings! I missed your previous post on this, Joel. I have just ordered this after listening to the samples on the site. The groove on The Don Isaac Ezekiel Combination track is superb. Even The Nigerian Police Force Band have got it going on :)

Thoroughly looking forward to giving this some volume when it arrives. Summer is just around the corner...
 
Joel, thanks for the nudge. I have these and have not had a chance to put needle to record. The samples sounded great...
 
A few years ago Channel 4 did some programmes on Madagascar. The soundtrack is 'Island of Ghosts' by Rossy on the World Record label. Amazon has it, & there are samples of each of the tracks. Track 11 which is introduced with lemur cries is quite haunting.

I would summarise it as 'joyful' music, 'easy listening African' if you like; it may not be to everyones taste, but if you're in the mood it's not bad.
 
Congotronics is awesome as is the Ethiopiques stuff. An earlier recomendation from Joel that I like is 'Egypte: Les Musiciens du Nil' which shows more of an arabic influence.
 
Regarding Madagascar: There's a series of three CDs called "A World Out of Time" which arose out of a "musical journey" of David Lindley's with some other bloke to Madagascar. Each disc is a fabulous mix of different types of Madagassy music ranging from very traditional to modern/popular -- although this description might make it sound like a hodge-bodge affair it's really not the case. Uplifting music!
 
All good stuff. For those who like Congotronics, traditional Congolese music in all its diversity should prove irresistible.
Madagascar, the Seychelles and Zanzibar all possess rich and very well documented musical cultures. I recommend the newish Zanzibara series on Buda as a good place to start.
From Madagascar, Rajery may be a good point of departure. While it may sound rather too light and airy, even jazz-fusiony at first, this is music that melds numerous subtle influences, most notably South African and Congolese (Rumba and Soukouss) bur also traditional Malagash, which itself is very much fusion music (of Africa, Arabia, India and the Royal Navy!).
 
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