Africa music reviews

The first song combines an American field holler with a Senegaleze field song - showing remarkable similiraties. This more or less sums up the contents of this CD - the roots of the blues are in Africa.
Song 6 is in the rarely recorded Fife and Drum tradition - a Mississippi tradition that is purely African. Song 7 is another Fife piece - this time with accompanying vocal hollers, very similar to the style associated with Sonny Terry.
The recordings by the Pratcher brothers are great - this kind of southern black dance music is just so joyful !
Mississippi Fred Mcdowell contributes some of his best songs here, rhythmically attractive as always.
The prisoner songs and the Church pieces add up to make this a valuable part of any blues / folk collection.

The first song combines an American field holler with a Senegaleze field song - showing remarkable similiraties. This more or less sums up the contents of this CD - the roots of the blues are in Africa.
Song 6 is in the rarely recorded Fife and Drum tradition - a Mississippi tradition that is purely African. Song 7 is another Fife piece - this time with accompanying vocal hollers, very similar to the style associated with Sonny Terry.
The recordings by the Pratcher brothers are great - this kind of southern black dance music is just so joyful !
Mississippi Fred Mcdowell contributes some of his best songs here, rhythmically attractive as always.
The prisoner songs and the Church pieces make this a valuable part of any blues / folk collector.

The Rough Guide Music Sampler offers the listener an inexpensive, superbly recorded survey of music and musicians from around the world. The selections include Habibi (4:19); Buka Tiende (5:00); Udlame (4:12); Likuta Bibi (3:52); Descarga En Faux (5:37); Mulata Coqueta (5:51); Tchori Tchori (3:29); el Hacha (5:25); Caminito (2:37); Venta Zoraida (3:46); Luck Break (4:40); Colm Cille Na Feile (4:48); Mairead nan Cuiread (4:39); Balfa Waltz (3:46); Fisherman (6:02); Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out (2:58). Total Time 71:38

The Rough Guide series is wonderful. Almost every compilation they have released is a wonderful slice of a given culture or country's musical traditions. I cannot recommend these CDs highly enough. Therefore, this boxed set, focusing on the music of Africa, is a wonderful addition to any world music fan's collection. It contains four CDs, three of which were released seperately originally.
The first of these CDs focuses on the traditions of Sene-Gambian pop music, with such great names as Baobob Orchestra, Baaba Maal, Cheikh Lo and Youssou N'Dour. The music is lively and melodious, and uniquely west African.
The next CD focuses on Soukous, a dance tradition based on Rumba, which originated in the Congo, and rapidly spread across the African continent. Featuring such great names as Papa Wemba, Franco, Same Mangwana, Kanda Bongo Man and Koffi Olomide. After hearing their lively performances, you'll understand the popularity, even if you can't speak Lingala.
Rounding this out, is a CD featuring the musical styles of South Africa, which is of added interest given the recent popularity that South African artists are enjoying in the west. A number of near legendary performers, ranging from Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Mariam Makeba to the Soul Brothers, Boyoyo Boys and Lucky Dube, and everything in between, appear on this CD.
These three CDs, which do a pretty good job giving an overview of music from across the African contient, would be worth buying the Boxed Set for alone. However, there is a fourth CD, a Rough Guide sampler, included in the boxed set. Included on the sampler is a song from Mozambique, and a sample of South African Jazz. However, it also features two tracks already in the Boxed Set, but thats not much of a problem.
This Boxed Set is an excellent collection of African music, and is definately well worth the price. You won't get three excellent CDs for a better price. I love mine, and listen to it frequently (in fact, I'm listening to it right now). You will definately appreciate this CD.

Every song is a gem! This compilation has contagious melodies coming from the earlypioneers of marrabenta to the more comtemporary artists. Ialready have CD's of Ghorwane,Eyuphuro,and Orchestra MarrabentaStar which the Rough Guide pickedfine examples of their music.Of all the songs present, I especially loved the soulfulvoice of Wazimbo's "Xigevengu".This CD is a "must have" in appreciating the music of Mozambique.

I've had this disk for 2 years, and it's loveliness never fades.
The honest talent of the artists, and the optimism and humanity of their music continues to appeal, and make me happy, when so many other disks are forgotten.
How is it that one little windswept archipeligo, has produced so much music that has impressed the world? (Both here in Israel, and in Europe Cape Verdean music is often heard on mainstream radio!)
I only wish theat there were translations of the lyrics!

if you're a blues fan, a soulful late night lounge fan, or lucky for you, a fan of great african music....don't miss this! i bought it because i really love the senegal/gambia collection by rough guide... this region of africa is incredibly distinct, and the cape verde sound is unlike anything else. music so rich you can run your fingers through it. a definite must.

As a longtime lover of jazz, blues and western classical music I thought I was also pretty knowledgable about African and Middle Eastern music until I bought this book. This has introduced me to many artists and musics that I would not have looked at before. This is not just an amazing book to help you choose which albums to buy (and I have yet to seriously disagree with any of its recommendations)but it is also a wonderful general read about the history, background and politics of the music as well. Put this on your shelf and dip into it whenever you feel depressed about world politics - it will renew your faith in human creativity.

A perfect overview of the band that brought Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour into the international spotlight. There's a wide variety of styles, ranging from more acoustic and traditional-sounding material, to expansive, hypnotic electric guitar tunes that are closer to the lushly produced, lavish pop that N'Dour makes nowadays. Anyone interested in African pop owes it to themselves to check this disc out; it may open up a whole new world of sound for you!

and it is still one of my favorites. i would have to say that the music of west africa tends to move me the most, but this is one excellent compilation. every single song is a masterpiece. it is as varied as africa, and represents areas that most people never give a second thought to. this is not your paul simon discovery, these are the real artists. they move, they groove, and they croon with passion.

An absolutely delightful set of tunes by one of the best Congolese bands of the 1960s. True to the album title, this features plenty of tunes directly influenced by Cuban dance music, yet with a sweet African guitar twist. The first half dozen tracks on here are almost pure Cuban son, with chiming, hypnotic electric guitars and a dash of calypso thrown in for good measure. Things get funk with a cool French-language "twist" tune (Bill Haley-flavored rocknroll, that would have made Johnny Hallyday proud...), and then coasts into a pleasant set of more mature, mellow dance tunes. Great record... highly recommended!

Here are the groovy guitar riffs, the low groan of singers like Mahlatini to the high tremolo warble of Joseph Shambala leader of Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
�South Africa is justly famous for its vocals, especially its group singing: ROUGH GUIDE TO SOUTH AFRICAN GOSPEL shows why and how.

I'm not, personally, a huge fan of the South African gospel/group vocal style... (Living in Berkeley in the 1980s, I kind of got overexposed to the secular version, exemplified by groups such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, et al...) Still, I can recognize a class act when I see one, and this collection of harmonically rich, dense, soulful religious songs, sung primarily in Zulu and Sotho, is an excellent introduction to the genre. Drawing on the archives of several record labels, this concentrates mainly on recordings made in the 1980s and '90s, but also dips lightly into the '60s and '70s, when the music was going through a period of intense development and modernization. If you like the style, or you're just curious what it's all about, this is a fine disc to try out.