Best African Music

The fury stirred up among the Nigerian police and military by Fela’s confrontational Alagbon Close (1974) and Kalakuta Show (1976), and the beatings and harassments Fela and Africa 70 suffered as a consequence, were as nothing compared to the reprisals following 1976’s Zombie. Within months of its release, a brutal army attack left Fela’s Kalakuta Republic compound burnt to the ground and many of its residents, including Fela, assaulted and seriously injured. On the title track, over an urgent, quick-march accompaniment from Afrika 70, Fela and the backup singers ridicule the mindset of men in uniform. Go and quench!” Each phrase is followed by the women singers’ taunting response, “Zombie!” Fela continues: “No brains, no job, no sense joro jara jo; tell am to go kill joro jara jo; tell am to go quench joro jara jo (meaning, “no brains, no job, no sense left right left; tell him to go kill left right left; tell him to go die left right left.”) The army’s response was terrible... On 18 February, 1977, around 1,000 soldiers, most of them armed, swooped on Kalakuta.

Today, its music and its reputation still reach generations of music enthusiasts yet so many are unaware of how pivotal that one album was during the 1980s, how it helped birth the idea of World Music and revived the career of one of America's most important songwriters.

We didn't restrict ourselves to straight rock songs, and we were completely open to new ideas," says singer/guitarist Shaun Morgan. Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces is virtually interchangeable with any previous Seether disc, as well as pretty much anything by the likes of Nickelback, Shinedown, and other "post-grunge" rock bands. Witness the gauche "FMLYHM," which borrows from lyrical ideas that sounded novel when Trent Reznor sang them in "Closer" more than a decade ago but now just sound juvenile and unnecessarily angry.

Lebanese, Egyptian, Moroccan, and Algerian artists such as former Londoner Natacha Atlas (who has been featured with both Transglobal Underground and Jah Wobble) contribute 11 songs which lend themselves to sensual dance, exotic drink, and glamorous gatherings of multicultural hipsters.

This program features traditional and contemporary African music, including Juju, Highlife, Soukous, Taraab, Marabi, Mbanqanqa, and Bikutusi.

Angelique shares the stage with several celebrity musicians including Brandford Marsalis and Alicia Keys("Djin Djin"), Carlos Santana and Josh Groban ("Pearls"), Joss Stone("Gimme Shelter") , Peter Gabriel ("Salala"), Ziggy Marley ("Sedjedo"), and African music legends Amadou and Mariam ("Senamou (C'est L'amour)").

While traveling across Botswana in 1983, ethnomusicologist Elizabeth N. Wood captured music from Tswana-Sotho tribal descendants and Basarwa Bushmen, whose songs cover themes such as war, hunting, farming, school, and religion.

Cesaria Evora did not begin to record in earnest until she was forty-seven, but to hear her sing is to hear the voice of Cape Verde, her people and her history.

Like the luscious drink itself, the tunes come in many intensities and flavors, ranging from a light-as-air ditty from Peru, to the more complex vocal stylings of Colombia's Claudia Gomez , to Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca 's earthy Afro-Cuban Congolese rumba.

Largely the work of formidable musician-arranger Mulatu Astatqe, the 14 instrumentals here were originally issued on two LPs in 1972 and 1974 in Ethiopia, and represent a curious blend of soul-jazz and R&B with just a smattering of Ethiopian roots breaking up the stabbing horn lines, wah-wah guitars, and simmering electric piano. The grooves are long and laconic, the sound reminiscent of Miles Davis's "In a Silent Way" paired with Cannonball Adderly and Roy Ayers.

This program features traditional and contemporary African music, including Juju, Highlife, Soukous, Taraab, Marabi, Mbanqanqa, and Bikutusi.

In the Heart of the Moon is a summit meeting between two world music giants, guitarist Ali Farka Toure and master of the kora-the 21-string gourd harp-toumani Diabate. It is the first newly recorded work from either artist in five years and their first album-length collaboration.

Young and old ears will delight in the magical sounds of mbira, balaphone, kora, a capella vocals, guitar, bamboo flutes, dundun, and talking drum. The lyrics sing of folklore, family, and village life in the traditional languages of the Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, and South Africa. Commencing with the bewitching Zulu harmonies of Ladysmith Black Mambazo , "Thula Mtwana" sets the tone, creating an atmosphere of warmth, safety, and peace, and is followed by a baker's dozen that reflect the gentle rhythms of an abundantly diverse continent.

The Americans' digital butterfly net caught master musicians such as Rakoto Frah, the John Coltrane of the sodina flute; modern salegy musician Roger Georges and his electric "tikita-tikita" rhythms; Voninavoko's prettily harmonized old-timey string music; virtuosos of the many-stringed valiha ; the amazing D'Gary, whose career has been spent translating the music of Madagascar's various stringed instruments to guitar; and many more.

Talking Timbuktu features Guitarist Ali Farka Touré singing in 11 languages and playing acoustic and electric guitar, six-string banjo, njarka, and percussion, while teaming smartly with an all-star cast that includes superstar fusion bassist John Patitucci, session drummer Jim Keltner, longtime roots music great Ry Cooder (who doubled as producer), venerable guitarist Gatemouth Brown, and such African percussionists and musicians as Hamma Sankare on calabash and Oumar Touré on congas.

This program features traditional and contemporary African music, including Juju, Highlife, Soukous, Taraab, Marabi, Mbanqanqa, and Bikutusi.

Additionally, KFR will be giving the first official release to the entire Koola Lobitos catalogue--this was Fela's highlife band which he fronted through the 60's.

Young and old ears will delight in the magical sounds of mbira, balaphone, kora, a capella vocals, guitar, bamboo flutes, dundun, and talking drum. The lyrics sing of folklore, family, and village life in the traditional languages of the Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, and South Africa. Commencing with the bewitching Zulu harmonies of Ladysmith Black Mambazo , "Thula Mtwana" sets the tone, creating an atmosphere of warmth, safety, and peace, and is followed by a baker's dozen that reflect the gentle rhythms of an abundantly diverse continent.

Backed by the great British double bassist Danny Thompson and guitarist Alfred "Kari" Bannerman, Rogie conflates country, blues, and gospel in laid-back, deep-grain tracks such as "Koneh Pelawoe (Please Open Your Heart)," the country ballad "A Time in My Life," "African Gospel," and the dank title track.

Released originally in the late seventies, before juju and fuji became Nigeria's predominant styles, the tracks collected on Aki Special collectively mark one of the most fertile periods of African music--with tribal rhythms and proverb-studded vocals combined with Western pop harmonies to create ecstatic dance music for both the body and, as suggested by "Free Education in Nigeria," the body politic.

We didn't restrict ourselves to straight rock songs, and we were completely open to new ideas," says singer/guitarist Shaun Morgan. Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces is virtually interchangeable with any previous Seether disc, as well as pretty much anything by the likes of Nickelback, Shinedown, and other "post-grunge" rock bands. Witness the gauche "FMLYHM," which borrows from lyrical ideas that sounded novel when Trent Reznor sang them in "Closer" more than a decade ago but now just sound juvenile and unnecessarily angry.

The three tracks that comprise this disc, all lengthy improvisations, showcase El Din's remarkably fluid technique and his Nubian roots, whether on the traditional "Song with Tar" or "I Remember," which was originally performed by Egypt's greatest diva, Om Kalthoum .

This program features traditional and contemporary African music, including Juju, Highlife, Soukous, Taraab, Marabi, Mbanqanqa, and Bikutusi.

Zambian Acapella.

(Vinyl LP) Reissue of classic album from Yusef Lateef (sax, oboe, flute) recorded in 1961.