Good heavens. I love African music, and I would heartily endorse many of the ones already mentioned. Here's a list of some of my absolute faves: Various - The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto, Volume One Already mentioned, this is a classic album in any genre. More punk than any punk rock. Various - Guitar Paradise Of East Africa In addition to the Soweto series, the Earthworks label released several great African compilations. Various - Kenya Dance Mania Another great Earthworks comp. Thomas Mapfumo - Shumba (Vital Hits Of Zimbabwe) This is a killer Mapfumo compilation, also on Earthworks. Ali Farka Toure* - Radio Mali A compilation of tracks Toure recorded for Radio Mali in the 70s and 80s. Sublime. Mbongwana Star - From Kinshasa This one barely makes the cut. The songs and arrangements are amazing, very "modern" and in no way traditional. I think French producer Liam Farrell ultimately threatens to derail this with production that tries too hard to be "hip." Baaba Maal - Missing You (Mi Yeewnii) My favorite Baaba Maal album. More acoustic and less Euro-dance oriented than the previous release "Nomad Soul." While many of these were recorded in Europe and some have heavier western influences, there are a number of great African releases on Peter Gabriel's Realworld label: Geoffrey Oryema - Exile Oryema's first album for Realworld, produced by Brian Eno. Not strictly "African," but gorgeous. Chimurenga: African Spirit Music - Thomas Mapfumo | Release Info | AllMusic More Mapfumo, live studio recordings. Maryam Mursal - The Journey One of my favorite albums ever, pure Afropop recorded in Denmark by a Somali refugee. Waaberi - New Dawn The more traditional counterpart to The Journey, this is Mursal's band recording many of the same songs in a live acoustic setting. Hukwe Zawose - Chibite The late Zawose and his nephew (also sadly departed) performing electrifying songs on handmade Tanzanian instruments. Zawose's voice is astonishing. Ayub Ogada - En Mana Kuoyo This album is so warm and intimate. There are some western influences but the end result is jazzy and soulful. I put this on when my soul needs soothing. Youssou N'Dour Et Le Super Etoile De Dakar - Live - Fatteliku This is the live set Youssou and company performed when they opened for Peter Gabriel in 1986. Remmy Ongala & Orchestre Super Matimila - Songs For The Poor Man Love this one, it edges out Ongala's other release for Realworld, "Mambo." Remmy Ongala & Orchestre Super Matimila - Sema Live tracks recorded at radio sessions in both Tanzania and Europe. I could go on and on...
Oh my, what a wonderful thread. I’ve always wondered where to start. I must admit, I was ALSO afraid to go down another musical rabbit hole. $$$
the shed sessions - BHUNDU BOYS (Sadza) 2CD 29 tracks, recorded between 1982 - 1986 spread over 2CDs and issued in cardboard slipcase. There's a 20 page booklet included. I haven't heard these bouncing sounds in many years and if anything they sound just as good now as they did when released - maybe even more so. This is uplifting music that just oozes positive vibes. Music that never grows old/or sounds dated! *from wiki> The Bhundu Boys were a Zimbabwean band that played a mixture of chimurenga music with American rock and roll, disco, country, and pop influences. Their style became known as jit, and is quite popular across Africa, with some international success, and has influenced later groups like Nehoreka and Mokoomba
Caught the band Jupiter & Okwess from the Congo this weekend at New Orleans JazzFest.....Amazing live band. DO NOT MISS THEM if they come to your town. Here is a youtube i found of a song from their set last year at fest:
really , please believe me, this is an oooh so nice album... Albarn Damon / Bocoum Afel / Diabate Toumani it is absolutely NOT a disc of Albarn.... It's a disc of Mali Music... It is NOT a record of BLUR Music, it's a disc with Mali Musician. I like it a lot. I mentioned it a few posts ago, but yesetrday I listened (again) to this nice record, so I say, once again, that it is worth to be listened too... Take a listen to it. If you like "African Music" (and probably... you do, reading/writing in this thread), I think you'l be captured by this kind of Musical Art.
alright chaps. there is already a recent thread covering the same ground - The Beat of Africa - listening to the music of Africa and conversation mods - is there any way we can merge these two threads? seems a bit daft having two!
& it was from that band taht Yes picked up Roger Dean wasn't it. Do like the early material by them. A bit like an African Santana with guitar pretty heavily featured. & the version of the rahsaan Roland Kirk song Spirits Up Above is really tasty as are most of the tracks across thse 1st 2. Phallus C on th efirst lp starts off sounding like The Doors. BGO has a nice sounding 2fer of the 1st 2 too. Also reading linernotes on a lot of the reissues of Sub-Saharan lps from the 70s psych scene shows they were p-retty influential on a lotof the bands down there. I don't really have a picture of how music was distributed across the continent at the time or who got to hear what when and waht immediate influence it had. But does seem like these were able to show how to operate. Influence of outside bands at weird points can be very interesting. The Peace lp Black Power really sounds like some of them were listening to mid 60s Jefferson Airplane which would be 8 or 9 years earlier than their lp.
I've been listening through some of the episodes of this podcast recently. They may predate actual podcasts but are very interesting. A number of shows recorded in the late 90s and early 00ies Afropop Worldwide | Home or at least the episodes I've been listening to have been. Was reminded by the ment8ion of Franco above. There are a couple of shows on him on there.
Masika - Mbaraka Mwinshehe & Orchestra Super Volcano (Buda Musique) CD Recorded 1972-1974. CD issued in 2015 as part of the 9 CD ZanziBara series. 28 page booklet included. "A fresh breeze from Tanzanie" Oh yeah!
