Africa music reviews

I heard Big Voice Jack play live in South Africa, and I went to buy the CD the next day. The album is almost as good as Jack is live. All that's missing is the man himself. But his charm comes through his music. It's light, soothing and joyful. I'm just sorry more of his music is not available, I'd buy it all.

This CD is awesome! After buying it, my husband and I listened to it over and over again throughout a weekend. Big Voice Jack plays the pennywhistle -- sometimes two or three of them at a time! He is a talented, versatile musician. The music on this CD is full of joy and completely danceable. There are many instrumental-only tracks, but one or two voice tracks as well. We woke up with the music playing in our heads. It was wonderful. Treat yourself and buy this one!

This might be Mukanya's best ever album - and this comes from someone with almost all his albums. No filler, all killer here.
1. Moyo Wangu - my favourite deep chimurenga song, Jonah Sithole shows why he was without peers onlead, Mapfumo is on his moaning, groaning, growling finest!
2. Varombo Kuvarombo - fast but plaintive jit
3. Shebeen - slow but rugged, enough to make a drunkard shed a drunken tear. Zim's finest drummer, the late great Jethro Shasha guests.
4. Corruption - a dozen years before Zim's problems became worldwide fodder, Mukanya was singing it.
5. Muchadura - deep chimurenga, vintage Mapfumo, vintage Jonah Sithole
6. Handina Munyama - more jit, catchy horns
7. Kupera Kwevanhu - gallping beat, keyboard driven lament to Mozambique's civil war victims
8. Chigwindiri - more great rhythms and guitar licks when both Mapfumo and Jonah Sithole were at their peak.

Many people say that this is Thomas' most reggaefied album. This album even garnered a mention in "Rough Guide to Reggae". I'm sorry, but I don't hear it. Nothing on this magical album sounds like reggae to me. What it does sound like is Mapfumo's complex, hypnotic and sweet chimurenga. And you can't top that. Not five stars but a million!

The longevity of Thomas Mapfumo as an artist is illustrated by his ability to address everyday issues in song. This is true of Corruption; a single that was banned from the airwaves in Zimbabwe because it hit too close to home in the days of the Willowgate scandal. This magician blends African rhythms with reggae very successfully.

Beautiful, hypnotic electric guitar music from the African country of Guinea in the early '70s. This series is one of the best "world music" artifacts you'll ever come across... as the person who turned me on to them said to me, snap these puppies up while you can!

From the onset, it's important to clarify one thing: this series is the heritage of the "revolution". References to its leader and its greatness are common place through the series. As for the music , it's simply sublime, from "Waraba" by Bembeya Jazz to Demba Camara's (RIP) "Exhumation Folklorique", you are invited to take a waltz with Keletigui ( "Cocktail", "Nadia"), Balla ("Kaira" and the superb "Moi je suis decourage") and finally when the Virtuoses Diabate ( Brothers Papa & Sekou) start the guitar riffs, it's time to savour the talent on display. Excellent sound quality by the folks at Syllart, One would just hope that the authors of these timeless pieces are receiving some of their dues!

Beautiful, hypnotic electric guitar music from the African country of Guinea in the early '70s. This series is one of the best "world music" artifacts you'll ever come across... as the person who turned me on to them said to me, snap these puppies up while you can!

The best album of the series! Demba and Bembeya are at their best in the incredibly beautiful "Super Tentemba" and "Mami Wata", Horoya Band's "Were were" is a classic and the Super Boiro Band's "Darinole" and Keletigui's "Miri Magni" along with Myriam Makeba's "MALOUYAME" makes this the best work by SYLLART! Congrats.

SONGLIST:
1.Whispers on the wind (spoken)
2.circle of life
3.mother's blessing
4.searching heart
5.the earth is my blanket
6.we shall remember always
7.night vision
8.spring wind (spoken)
9.dream catcher
10.my eyes fill with wind
11.a women's farewell
12.medicine of the medowlark
13.secrets of the village
14.forest song
15.waterfall mainden (spoken)

Dream Cather is a smoothing CD. I listen to it when I go to bed and I really enjoy it! If you love Classical Music By Dream Catcher! I tried It and loved it!

This is for lovers of the real thing, for those who appreciate the Native American flute and chanting. Each cut is rewarding to listen to, and I would like to point out those I consider especially interesting: "Circle of Life" which may be the first Native American flute song; "The Earth is My Blanket", Tatanka Iyotake's (known better to most of us as Chief Sitting Bull) farewell song (The famed Chief was an honored composer and singer), and "Medicine of the Meadowlark", a dialog between flute and meadowlark. All cuts include nature sounds along with the flute and chanting.

Produced by avant garde saxophonist, John Zorn, this is a masterfully selected & recorded document of recent performances of traditional & modern recreational musical forms in Ghana, West Africa! It is unclear whether the performances were truely authentic village recordings, or (more likely) played by "Ballet" or modern performance ensembles, but in either case, the playing is flawless, and the sound impeccable!

The selections include (mislabeled on the CD- shame on you, John): Kpanlogo (a Ga recreational dance music invented by Otu Lincoln in the mid 1960's based upon older traditional Oge rhythms mixed with popular Highlife musics- lead drum = twinchin),Akom (an Ashanti [Akan] rhythm family to accompany healing & worship through possession & trance. Lead drum = Obreten), Adowa (the Ashanti antelope dance traditionally used as funeral music, but increasingly employed for diverse ritual occasions. Lead drums = 2 Atumpan), & Tokwe (a Ga/Ewe dance that young girl's go through to prepare for womanhood. lead drums: Ga= Ampah, Ewe= Atsimevu).

The sound quality is among the best I've heard for field recording & quite esthetically pleasing! The drums sound natural, clear, blended, balanced, and present (like you're in the midst of the drummers). The drums have a very attractive slightly distorted sound. Most field recordings sound tinny & distant- NOT this CD! This is the only recording of Ghanian drumming I know of that accurately reproduces the energy and excitement of experiencing a live performance! The notes are scant, unclear, & misleading, but the photos are beautiful & of interest. If you like this also check out: Mustapha Tettey Addy "Master Drummer from Ghana" & "Royal Drums of Ghana"; "Ghana: Rhythms of the People", "Rhythms of Life: Songs of Wisdom", "Akom: The Art of Possession", & Alan Eder, "Reggae Passover" (has great Ewe drumming mixed with Hebrew Passover music).

This CD is comprised entirely of African percussion music. It is used in Voodoo funeral ceremonies, not for mourning purposes but as a celebration for the dearly departed moving on to the next world. The rhythms are fairly complex with a liberal use of bells. Somewhat different from Caribbean sounds.

Micky Hart is exposing a lot of people to what was once called field recordings. I am down with that! And he is fortunate to have the conduit that enables him to carry on his passion.

I was able to go to Africa on several mission projects and believe me, I know the excitment he is enjoying by bringing the listener into the root of percussion.

Drumming is akin to exploration... it never ends, the deeper one gets into it, the deeper it gets. Think of the concept of folding space or wurm holes. It is a profound mental and physical experience.

But as my nom de plume suggests... I'm a bassist. As a percussionist with a string to pluck, my study into percussion has enabled me to become a much better bassist. For that I am deeply indebted to the drum, and will remain an ardent searcher into the realm of the monophone. Thanks Mickey! Your research and network is expanding the vocabulary of many. We are listening.

This CD features Babatunde Olatunji at his best. Some people may be familar with Olatunji and his style, but this CD is very different from the music he usually performs. It is more primordial, spiritual and emotionally charged. The music on here is an invocation to the Orshas, the Yoruba Gods, who were trnspoted across the Atlantic where their followers formed the religions of Santeria, Candomble and the like. I found the invocation to Sango (Shango in the Carribean), the masculine Orisha of warfare, storms and fire, to be particularly moving. The emotion with which Olatunji performs on this CD is amazing. I am impressed with this CD. It is very moving, but I also must remind you that the music on this CD does hold considerable religious significance to the Yoruba people, and as such deserves a good deal of respect.

The greatest thing about the music of Babatunde Olatunji is that it moves you. Not only do you want to get up and dance but you also feel good while and after you take a listen. If you have listened to Olatunji's other albums like Drums of Passion (the original or The Beat) or Love Drum Talk then you know that an Olatunji studio album is irresistable. But with Invocation, the music carries an entirely different tone. As the title dictates, the music is an invocation, but I can't figure out to what. All I do know is that this is true music that means something. Olatunji's drumming orchestra and choir transport you to another land. I can't recommend this title enough.

At first listen, this music is intriguing, interesting, quietly exciting. But the more you listen, as the songs become familiar, the better it gets. The quiet, gentle, good-natured, understated voices; the intricate pulsing drum and guitar rhythms; the memorable melody fragments, sometimes in the voices, sometimes in the drums, sometimes in the guitars -- this is great stuff. I've played this in my car hundreds of times by now, and I'm not the least bit tired of it. It keeps its freshness. Instead of thinking of it as a string of songs, I regard it as a kind of exotic jazz symphony, though more original than practically any jazz I've ever heard.

This Cd is great from start to finish. Highly energetic and good composition. Couple with good drums and strings.

I am a groupie of raina rai...RAINA RAI IS THE ONLY REAL SELF DESTRUCTIVE RAI MASTER>> I LOVE HIM

Raina rai are the only subsaharian modernists who really master
the rai thru a high tech tune.Raina rai music is a tremendously
mix of voice,tones,instruments and mostly lirics.I belong to all
generations of music and listen to folk,jazz and blues.Of my tongue you can hear four languages .I love music and it's my only
companion in life.Thru ages raina rai remain the best for me.

I agree with the others -- at first, it sounds unfamiliar, but after listening a couple times through I was hooked. This music doesn't grow stale after repeated listenings -- instead it grows more interesting and engaging. I just wish I could find more music by this anazing performer.

I just want to second the two other eloquent reviewers. I am amazed that as late as Vol. 14 there is still so much exquisite music to be found in the archives of Ethiopian Pop. And to think I was ready to stop with Vol. 10! Sometimes this music is hallucinatory. And the organ sounds! Indispensable.

I was very pleased to receive this CD a couple of days ago. Initially I gave it a cursory listen and thought, well, no big deal. The next morning, early, in semi-darkness and fog at the beach, I was kicking back in my van and really started to listen. At that point I began to find this music having all kinds of hidden qualities and that Getatchew Merkurya is a phenomenal musician. What he is doing on the tenor sax is very subtle and very complex. The sound is all over the spectrum. The more I listen the more I hear. This is pretty deep stuff. He must have practiced a ton to get to where he could produce these sounds. Now I realize that he is also on alot of other CDs in this series and is a major force in this type of music. Most people would find this whole branch of music very obscure, but to me it's become an important part of how I connect to music and the role it plays in my life.