Africa music reviews

This is a great CD. I learned about Cesaria Evora in a television documentary and ordered the CD from Amazon. We are still tapping our feet and swinging to African Samba and ballads!

If you like Samba and a melodious African air, this is for you. Evora's voice is deep and sensous. A new listening experience.

This cd is magnificient. It shows how much Africa has played a part in Latin music today. I especially love track number 3. Hope everyonce checks out this cd.

Evora has a beautifully intense, direct vocal style and an ability to merge with rhythms both slow and fast. In Cafe Atlantico she sings a range of material from slow, lamenting love songs to samba-speed chants, all exciting and absorbing. The sequence and sound quality make this a thoroughly enjoyable compilation, leaving the listener wanting more.

Wow. Fela Kuti. It's amazing that he hasn't become better known; his music is incredible. He blends orchestra, rock, jazz, and Yoruba music effortlessly. Fela Kuti is one of Nigeria's premier musicians and he has paved to road for Afro-pop music.

Songs like Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense and Unknown Soldier really show his political passion and message. If you're into political stuff, get this artist because he is very clear and outspoken about his political views. Fela was (mentally) very involved with Nigerian politics and sung of the corruption and lack of leadership that plague the nation's government even today.

Just as in Nigerian literature, Fela Kuti also sings of the nation's dislike of British colonialism, and the philosophy of the "white man's burden," which is the thought that other races are inferior to whites and that, through colonization and interaction, the whites can "educate" and culture the blacks.

If you aren't into that stuff, you should still get Fela, because he's that good. Now bear in mind, his music gets a little repetitive and "jam band-ish," so don't be surprised if you hear the same riff throughout a song. Songs like "Beasts of No Nation," and "Jingo" are very good and the orchestra's sound plays a large role in this. The accompaniment of horns and trombones and trumpets produces an infectious melody and makes you want to stand up and dance.

It's also very easy to see the roots of Fela's music. The African beat and pulse is what makes his music unique. As said earlier, he blends traditional African music with rock and jazz, concocting a mixture so delightful you will beg for more. His music is upbeat, but calming. It is calm, but urgent. It is arbitrary, but is carefully crafted. If a picture is a thousand words, then Fela Kuti is 9 billion. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not deifying him, because he also has some songs that don't shine so brightly and other songs get repetitive. However, ninety percent of the time, Kuti produces gold.

If you like Fela Kuti you should also check out Fema Kuti, his son. Unlike most movie sequels, this successor does his father, the precedent, justice and is almost as good. Ultimately though, Fela Kuti is the real deal.

Bought this in 2005. Roforofo Fight has to be one of the most intense and tight songs ever recorded. It just doesn't let up! It's like Nigerian King Crimson with Eric Dolphy on alto sax! I like it like that. In some ways, I don't think American people are equipped to handle music like Fela's. We want it melodic and relaxed -- like smooth jazz -- or nonmelodic and intense -- like metal or rap. Fela is melodic and intense. I like Fear and John Coltrane and Blind Lemon Jefferson and Earl Hooker and Black Sabbath and System of a Down and Stevie Wonder and James Brown and Metallica and Ron Carter maybe that's why I like Fela Kuti. The man was a human blast furnace. He could not be tamed. And my girlfriend likes it. So that helps. Fela, in my opinion, was the man who put it all together in the 1970s. Who says 1970s music was bad? Like James Brown, Miles Davis and Led Zeppelin, Fela put out his most out-there, kicking, mindroasting music in 1975. Long live the 25 minute song !!!

Overshadowed by Bob Marley, Fela Kuti is the true non-American Black Musical innovator. Not to take anything away from Tuff Gong's claim to fame, but Fela is a Black Panther/Eldridge Cleaver mixed with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix.

This selection of his music is a good intro (much like the RED HOT & RIOT CD, which contains intreptations of Fela's Afrobeat by the likes of Macy Gray, Maxwell and Sade), but you really need to get the original albums just to see how he was rolling with his album cover art (talk about political art!), the way he dressed and carried on -- like nothing you've ever really seen.

Oh, get the DVD on Fela MUSIC IS A WEAPON to see the man perform live and drop his knowledge and what's up with Nigeria, the West and the world at large!

I recommend Coffin For Head Of State, Zombie, Expensive Sh^t and Original Sufferhead, but others might tell you diffent. To be truthful, you can't really go wrong with a Fela purchase.

This album is incredible. If you read the other reviews, you will understand that the music is phenomenal.
In addition to how wonderful the music is itself, I also love this album because it is so light and uplifting - no heavy Western drum beat (but very beautiful and complex rhythms), a beautiful singing voice, melodies, and an African sound that will take you away to distant lands...
Every track on this album is excellent. I will buy all of his music.

I am new to Habib Koite's music but now I am hooked. From the first times I listened it just made me feel good like sitting in a big oversized comfortable couch. I can't understand the lyrics but the music and his voice carry me off somewhere to another place and time. His voice ripples over the smooth acoustics and laid back rhythms consisting of a blend of blues, jazz and Malian melodies. A Putumayo collaboration, the engineering acoustics on this CD are first rate.

i don't need to say any more. If you enjoy the sounds of Mali, you will love this one.

Cesaria Evora is one of the great stars of world music, and this CD is on many lists as an "essential recording" in this genre. Born in 1941 in Sao Vicente (Cape Verde Islands), Cesaria has known the toughest of times in her youth, and was a mature woman before reaching the recognition she so richly deserved. "Mis Perfumado" was recorded in 1992, and is one of her very finest albums; with her soft, warm honey voice, and a heart well acquainted with the sorrow of lost love, she is undoubtedly the quintessential interpreter of "morna", a style of song reminiscent of the Portuguese fado combined with the rhythms of West Africa.

The songs on this CD are lilting, melodic gems, most with a nice slow swing to them, with a few that are more up-tempo, like tracks # 3, 10, and the fabulous "Angola" (# 6), which is my favorite number on the CD.
Four of the tracks (# 2, 7, 9, 11) were written by Cesaria's prolific uncle Francisco (better known as B. Leza), as well as three by one of Francisco's followers, Manuel de Novas (# 3, 4, 12). The musicianship is marvelous throughout this recording, and a lot of the world-wide success of this CD is owed to the masterful arrangements and piano artistry of Paulino Viera, whose solos add much to the beauty of the music, as does the haunting violin playing by Malaquias Costa featured in the final "Tortura".
A good place to start your Cesaria Evora collection, the sound is quite good and total playing time is 59'29.

From half a dozen of her records I've purchased so far this is one of the best, well, after "Cesaria". She is fenomenal and is adorable as usual, although the accompaniment at times is not quite of the same class.

A voice has never moved me as much as cesaria has. Her voice is so seductive and passionate that it takes your mind to another place. Her other albums are great, but this is the best. a definite must hear and must have for any collection

Cesaria Evora is one of the great stars of world music, and this CD is on many lists as an "essential recording" in this genre. Born in 1941 in Sao Vicente (Cape Verde Islands), Cesaria has known the toughest of times in her youth, and was a mature woman before reaching the recognition she so richly deserved. "Mis Perfumado" was recorded in 1992, and is one of her very finest albums; with her soft, warm honey voice, and a heart well acquainted with the sorrow of lost love, she is undoubtedly the quintessential interpreter of "morna", a style of song reminiscent of the Portuguese fado combined with the rhythms of West Africa.

The songs on this CD are lilting, melodic gems, most with a nice slow swing to them, with a few that are more up-tempo, like tracks # 3, 10, and the fabulous "Angola" (# 6), which is my favorite number on the CD.
Four of the tracks (# 2, 7, 9, 11) were written by Cesaria's prolific uncle Francisco (better known as B. Leza), as well as three by one of Francisco's followers, Manuel de Novas (# 3, 4, 12). The musicianship is marvelous throughout this recording, and a lot of the world-wide success of this CD is owed to the masterful arrangements and piano artistry of Paulino Viera, whose solos add much to the beauty of the music, as does the haunting violin playing by Malaquias Costa featured in the final "Tortura".
A good place to start your Cesaria Evora collection, the sound is quite good and total playing time is 59'29.

From half a dozen of her records I've purchased so far this is one of the best, well, after "Cesaria". She is fenomenal and is adorable as usual, although the accompaniment at times is not quite of the same class.

A voice has never moved me as much as cesaria has. Her voice is so seductive and passionate that it takes your mind to another place. Her other albums are great, but this is the best. a definite must hear and must have for any collection

Cesaria Evora is one of the great stars of world music, and this CD is on many lists as an "essential recording" in this genre. Born in 1941 in Sao Vicente (Cape Verde Islands), Cesaria has known the toughest of times in her youth, and was a mature woman before reaching the recognition she so richly deserved. "Mis Perfumado" was recorded in 1992, and is one of her very finest albums; with her soft, warm honey voice, and a heart well acquainted with the sorrow of lost love, she is undoubtedly the quintessential interpreter of "morna", a style of song reminiscent of the Portuguese fado combined with the rhythms of West Africa.

The songs on this CD are lilting, melodic gems, most with a nice slow swing to them, with a few that are more up-tempo, like tracks # 3, 10, and the fabulous "Angola" (# 6), which is my favorite number on the CD.
Four of the tracks (# 2, 7, 9, 11) were written by Cesaria's prolific uncle Francisco (better known as B. Leza), as well as three by one of Francisco's followers, Manuel de Novas (# 3, 4, 12). The musicianship is marvelous throughout this recording, and a lot of the world-wide success of this CD is owed to the masterful arrangements and piano artistry of Paulino Viera, whose solos add much to the beauty of the music, as does the haunting violin playing by Malaquias Costa featured in the final "Tortura".
A good place to start your Cesaria Evora collection, the sound is quite good and total playing time is 59'29.

From half a dozen of her records I've purchased so far this is one of the best, well, after "Cesaria". She is fenomenal and is adorable as usual, although the accompaniment at times is not quite of the same class.

A voice has never moved me as much as cesaria has. Her voice is so seductive and passionate that it takes your mind to another place. Her other albums are great, but this is the best. a definite must hear and must have for any collection

In my college days,I had an acquaintance from New Orleans who prided himself on his vast Otis Redding collection.In the meantime,I discovered Oliver Mtukudzi,Zimbabwe's Otis Redding.Bonnie Raitt rightly equates liking him with liking chocolate in her intro to this CD--people don't know exactly why.

This CD is filled with powerful songs.It's great to be able to read the lyrics if you're interested.The music is still enchanting&bluesy without knowing what the words are.

Oliver Mtukudzi's singing is earthy,rough,yet comforting.His backup singers are almost a gospel choir.I'm not a big fan of the blues,yet if this counts as blues music,then I'm a fan.This album is PERFECT.I can't name a single track worth skipping."Tuku Music" is a wonderful intro to Oliver Mtukudzi's spectacular music.

This album was so powerful that I went out and purchased everything I could of "Tuku Music" and just loved it. The translated words of all of Mtukudzi's songs are so powerful and so beautiful. It is "message music" with a bluesy theme. Mtukudzi's gruff voice is in the tradition of great blues singers from John Lee Hooker to Leadbelly. There are few records that you can listen to from beginning to end without getting tired. Here's one that you'll do that with, time and time again.

This CD has a calming effect on me whenever I hear it. I feel like I am sitting in Zimbabwe drinking whawha. One or two songs do get a bit repetitive... but on the whole its great. I wish I could understand the lyrics, because apparantly his songs focus on social and economic issues.

But I would especially recommend it as a good soundtrack for the gym. It gets in a moving groove. It's interesting and energizing.

This album truly deserves the 5 stars. Give this as a gift to the seemingly increasing number of people nowadays who have been scared into distrusting all Muslims--let them read this man's lyrics.

The lyrics are of love and redemptions, the music is organic, spiritual and uplifting. No joke, this is one of the best albums I have purchased all year. The Nonesuch label never disapoints.

At the moment this is my favorite cd. The first few times I listened to it, I thought it was ok, but maybe a little bland. However, all I can say now is that it grows on you! I love it so much now that I have found myself wondering why anyone even bothers listening to anything else.
The music is almost mystical, almost trance-inducing. Certainly don't buy this cd if you want rock or dance music, but its intricate rhythms, beautiful singing, and superb guitar and drum playing make it well worth buying for anyone else. The songs have layers: each time you listen to one, you hear new things. The lyrics also have multiple possible meanings. Is the song Set, for example, about cleanliness, as the liner notes claim,... or about man's relationship to god? It's about all three, and probably others, as well.
When I first listened to this cd, I was struck, as was another reviewer, by its Cuban sound. However, since Western popular music, from blues all the way through jazz, gospel, rock, and hip hop, ultimately comes from west Africa, I think it is more appropriate to say that Cuban music sounds like it.
Anyway, its a wonderful cd.

I had this cassette several years ago and wore it out. When the weather got hot this year, I remembered how much I missed listening to this "summer music". I immediately ordered the CD, and when I put it on, it was like listening to an old friend. This music is really a love song to South Africa, with all the sadness of the apartheid days. It is also relevant to any place where people are fighting to be free of oppression. The lyrics are beautiful and the African rhythms guarantee you will be humming the music even when not playing the CD.

Funky, fun and imbued with all the passion of South Africa just prior to the end of apartheid, this album deals with love, hate, parenthood, freedom, marriage and war always with a winning combination of powerful beauty and enthusiasm. "Dela" later became the funky love song everyone recognized from the movie "George of the Jungle". This is simply a stunning work of art.

This was the first album that blew me away on first listen. From the opening tribal chanting of "One (Hu) Man, One Vote" I knew I was in for a musical journey my ears have never heard before. This album perfectly encapsulates the era of its time (the cautious optimism of 1989-1990 when communist regimes were falling in Europe and apartheid was heading in that direction), but manages to relate to current events as well, nearly 15 years later.

The song "Jericho" could very well describe the conditions at Guantanamo Bay, the recent Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and the wall being built in Israel: "standing at the gates/this is Jericho/and the walls reach up to the stars/and outside we were singing psalms/such a strange, strange place/for we are the prisoners of the prisoners we have taken/and the prophets' dreams are now forsaken."

In "One (Hu) Man, One Vote", Johnny sings, "the west is sleeping in a fragile freedom/forgotten is the price that was paid/ten thousand years of marching through a veil of tears/to break a few links in these chains/these things come to us by way of much pain/don't let us slip back into the dark."

Its not all politics, though. His catchy, danceable love song, "Dela" is guaranteed to get your feet and body moving. It was featured in the film "George of the Jungle" and remains one of the best love songs I've ever heard.

My personal favorite song is "Woman Be My Country", for its beautiful melody and lyrics, sweetened by a saxophone. This song is for anyone who feels like a stranger in his own country, an ex-patriot who disagrees with his government as it relates to the world. When we feel powerless to change the cold, impersonal bureaucracy, we seek refuge in the ones nearest and dearest to our hearts: "woman be my country/'till my country can be mine/hide me deep inside your borders/in these dark and troubled times/remember me my innocence/before I drown in a sea of lies/woman be my country/'till my country can be mine."

In short, this album is Johnny's most moving, brilliant, and best work. It is emblematic of an era in history, a soundtrack to the times, that transcends its era to represent relevancy in current situations. It is quite simply, Johnny Clegg's own "Sgt. Pepper" or "Pet Sounds". On top of that, the album cover is also one of the best ones I've seen and perhaps the best one of nearly 25 albums of his. Highly recommended, especially for any fan of world music, anyone who wants to hear a different sound than they hear on the radio, or people interested in the politics of Africa, the developing world, the Cold War, or the remarkable years that 1989-1991 were.

Ali Farka Toure was one of the greatest guitarists to come out of Africa, which is quite an achievement, given all of the talent there. His Mali blues sound was as soulful as any of the American blues masters.

I would disagree with other reviewers who insist that Cooder has somehow watered down the music - there's great interplay between these two, and having seen Toure on a few occasions in the 90s, I'd have to say that the album did capture his sound at that point in time.

Sadly, Ali Farka Toure passed away a few months ago (March 2006). His presence will be missed.

It seems clear while listening to this record that Ry Cooder was trying to get Ali's music more well known around the world, in particular, North America. What results is a record that is often overatted especially in comparison to Ali's other work. Ry Cooder is sometimes subtle in his approach, other times he seems like a guest star, and depending on your preference, this could be a good or a bad thing. For a long time, I disliked this record, after all, Ali wasen't all to happy with it, his next "Niafunke" is what he really wanted to record, and it was actually recorded in Niafunke, Mali, near Timbuktu. "Talking Timbuktu" was recorded in L.A., and while it dosen't loose all of it't other side of the world flavor, it sweetened up alot. Ry's production is far worse than Nick Gold's. Ry puts a semi-glossy reverb that allows, Ali's guitar to get lost in the mix and a contempory touch (obviously meant to draw people afraid of African music in). "Soukora" is probally the strangest track because it sounds carribean, far from the islamic/blues/african sound of Toure's past work at that point. Still Ry's influence infuses "Diaraby" and "Lasidan" with a sound that is unique in Ali's catalouge and at these moments the collaboration works. Ali Farka Toure, a genius guitar player (check out "Red" for an easy example at the hieght of his acoustic powers), Mayor of Niafunke, farmer, farther, ect passed on recently. Do yourself a favor, pick up all his releases, this is the only one that is not worth (IMO) of a 5 star rating.

I've been searching for the tune Diaraby since september. I finally found it here. I heard it on "the World" and I haven't gotten it out of my head since. I really recommend this. Great album. Get it.