Africa music reviews

This awesome CD features some of the most popular traditional music of my youth. Djembe fare has produced a classic this time around.Na mari, kebando, di langara are all time classics. Get this and never look back again

So many Americans have no idea who Franco is. WHAT A SICK SHAME. Becuase this man is truly what the freakin' guitar is all about. I can't even see life without him. All the tracts on this CD are my personal favorites. Most of the songs last beyond 15 minutes, many people don't like long songs...but all these songs grow with intensity and a hard driving emotion. I am not a musician so I have no idea what to say as far as technique..but, so many differant sounds with his guitar. And its all pure emotion of life. This music is emotion this music is sex, its life. Its Africa.

For those who love swahili (zililopendwa) music from the 1960's and 70's this CD is a wonderful buy.It transported me back to my childhood growing up with the radio music as an important source of entertainment.Mbaraka Mwinshehe's voice in all the songs is clear. The songs cover different subjects and most offer good advice about life in general.It's bound to put a smile on your face - it did that to mine!

This is probably the best buy I've made in the past couple years. The blend of Gregorian Chant, French chansons, and African rhythms and kora (harp-lute) is mesmerizing. The music is wonderful for meditation, for glimpsing the sacred, or for freeing the imagination to reach other realms. Can't recommend it high enough!

Great Angolan music. If you like this, you might also like music by Bonga and Paulo Flores. Also, check out the Soul of Angola anthology,and perhaps some konpa music from Haiti (try live recordings by Michel Martelly, Tabou Combo, and Gracia Delva, e.g.)

The exquisite quality of Mustapha Tettey Addy's drumming skills is consonant with the richly eclectic traditions of other legendary Ghanaian drummers from the Ga tribe of Accra, Ghana. Others in this rich pantheon of Ga drummers whose skills encompass all the rich percussion traditions of Ghana include the venerable Guy Warren or Kofi Ghanaba and his son Allotey Ghanaba. The extent of Tettey Addy's virtuosity is manifested in the degree of mastery he demonstrates in the equally rich but quite different drumming traditions of the Ashanti, Ewe, Fanti, and northern tribes of Ghana. Equally poignant is the transition from archaic traditional percussion music associated with very serious traditional rituals to the more exciting pieces of popular street music such as the kpanlogo riffs on this album. Tettey Addy's work in this fine album is an obvious must in the collection of any person with an interest in percussion, African, or World music.

FROM THE BACK:
master drummers from the lotlamoreng cultural village near mafikeng (northwest province of south africa) together with dingane lelokoane, mona (paul) mashinini and others play a variety of individually-made zulu bass drums, a variety of bush toms, shakers made of calabashes and seeds, to the djemebe, a drum traditionally used to call over long distances in west africa - guinea, senegal, and ghana.

this is such an amazing, high energy disc that you can't help but want to get up and dance! the beats are high-powered and intricate with tons of layers. although the groups that perform on this cd are from south africa, there are some tracks that sound suspiciously west african. i would reccomend this for anyone who's even vaguely interested in african music. buy this cd!

This was the very first African cd I ever bought. I don't remember what grade I was in but I know I was in highschool so it's probably been about 10 years ago that I bought it. This cd deserves to be reviewed.

The thing that continues to really get me about this album is that if you just give it a lazy listen you will miss what is actually going on with this music. Some of the songs have an overall contour that may seem like constant repetition if you aren't really paying attention. However, if you are actually listening to it (and not just playing it in the background as you do other things) there is a world of overlapping rhythmic complexity changing and turning inside all of these songs. These drums also have very unique tones. This may sound odd but I hope it doesn't... there is almost a rubberyness to some of these drum sounds. A really tight bounce (or something) that I haven't heard coming from other types of drums. Also, it just struck me that all this time I forgot about Volume One! I don't have that one but I'll have to correct that situation soon.

This is really an incredible cd to listen to outside at night. I've listened to it while sitting around a campfire by a river at night before and it was a really beautiful experience. Sitting still would be quite a feat during this cd. This is really a great example of one of the communal dance musics for which West Africa is known. This cd may almost make you wish you knew all your neighbors and could all come together and dance together to some of the many rhythms of life. I really feel lucky that I decided to take a chance on this recording when I stumbled upon it way back when. It really jump-started an entire world of interest in Indigenous African musics for me, and even now that I am much more knowledgeable than I was then it still holds up as a classic recording.

A lot of rai releases by a singer or a band or even compilations by producer tend to be a little same-sounding (to Western ears?) as you get into the 8th or 11th track, which sometimes creates the impression that rai is not very deep as a genre. This collection puts the lie to that particular idea. Covering a wide range of artists and 15-or-so years, these four discs will provide you with musical revelations for months, if not years. You may not like every song on it, but after listening for awhile you will better understand why you like what you do like. A history lesson, rai appreciation course and dance party in one package.

If you tire of the overtly Western-sounding faux rai, or if you're new to rai music, this might be the definitive rai collection. If you can't get enough of the late Rachid Baba's production genius, look no further (he did the first track on disc 2, as an example, and a few others in this set). Despite the horrible opening track on disc 1 by Cheb Mami, which was featured in the film "American Cuisine," there's not a single bummer. The hypnotic, cheap-drum-machine, Casio-esque grooves are intact and as funky as ever. Some of the songs here can be found, rerecorded, on other compilations, but these here are the best versions. Especially good are the tracks by Cheb Khaled (recorded before he sold out), Chaba Zahouania (my favorite rai artist), Bellemou Messaoud, and Cheb Kamel el Oujdi (love that drum programming!). However, some classic rai (before synthesizers) can be found, but those tracks are great as well, especially the second track on the first disc (what songwriting!). Prepare to be amazed.

This brilliant album by one of South Africa's top bands of the 70s and 80s is one huge listening feast. It opens with the hit title track, which is a celebration of this style of music that is also called township pop and is built on pulsating rhythms with exuberant vocals in Zulu. The magic lies in the vocals, with Mahlatini (the Lion of Soweto) roaring in his gravely voice against the uplifting voices of the queens. Jive Motella is another of my favourites with its lilting beat. I also love Josefa, Noluthando and the ode to the township of KwaMakhutha. But all the tracks have something to offer. Together with Thokozile, this is the best album by Mahlatini and the Queens, one that ought to appeal beyond the boundaries of the World Music category. Simon Mahlatini passed away some years ago but his music lives on and this album, the aforementioned Thokozile and the Best Of collection are the places to start investigating these talents that shone so brightly beneath the southern cross.