Africa music reviews

Eee-OOO Ah.
Eee-OOO Ah.
Eee-OOO Aaaaahhhhh.

The sound is just so beautiful. This is the kind of music that is so soothing it could put you right to sleep. But the music is strong and has a message hear of what this family had to go through to survive and what they had lost when their families died when they refused to leave their Nazi Death Chamber. Sad but a must see (and listen)!

Highlights ~ "NOWHERE IN AFRICA", rhythmic percussion interwoven with the string section, wind instruments join the pulse sating journey ~ "LOVE SCENE", piano solo as strings close in with solace and meditation ~ "JOURNEY THROUGH KENYA", opening sounds of a hoe-down and chants blend within each passage and counter drum beats within the percussion section.

Hats off to Higher Octave Music for sharing this wonderful soundtrack with all the "film-score-buffs" who look forward to unique and global world scores ~ this album will sit on my top shelf for continual enjoyment in the next days and weeks forthcoming.

Total Time 56:50 on 22 Tracks ~ Higher Octave 83955 ~ (5/06/2003)

Check out UP TO DANCE (track 4) for modern Soukous Stars pace featuring Daly, or try PENSE A MOI (track 7) for a more retro Afric ambiance with Syran.

Total music: 56 minutes

The result: striking music that lies somewhere between traditional Ghanaian folk music and Western classical music. Do not be mislead: this is not "worldbeat" and this music will undoubtedly not appeal to everyone. Taken on its own terms, though, it is quite appealing.

Many OK Jazz (sometimes called the TPOK Jazz) albums are available on CD, and every "world music" enthusiast should have at least a half dozen. What makes this CD special is its early vintage. These tracks were recorded in the late 1950s and are an extremely interesting foreshadowing of what was to come. It's fascinating to hear African pop music develop before your ears, as the OK Jazz mix African and Latin American rythms and styles. (All the more interesting because Latin American music is itself partly derived from African sources. Latin American records, brough by Europeans and Americans, were very popular in Africa in the middle decades of the 20th century.)

I was amazed to find that this music is available on CD. These are important recordings, documenting a seminal period in the development of modern African popular music. If you want to learn the story of modern African popular music, this is a great place to start.

(One other CD of Congolese popular music of this era is "Ngoma: the early years, 1948-1960", which features recordings of various musicians made for the Ngoma record company of "Leopoldville, Belgian Congo".)

I wish more of Franco's CDs would be re-released in the USA. I'm having a hard time finding any at all. :/