Africa music reviews

The Zulu a cappella ensemble Ladysmith Black Mambazo, named for their hometown and for the Zulu word for "axe," was "discovered" by Paul Simon, who recorded them on his landmark 1986 album Graceland. By 1990 Mambazo had recorded three more albums for Warner Bros.--the Grammy-nominated Shaka Zulu, Journey of Dreams, and Two Worlds, One Heart--and solidified their reputation as one of the endearing and enduring world-music groups. This 17-track collection compiles their greatest hits from the label. With the bulk of the music composed by leader-composer Joseph Shabala, this CD captures the ensemble's ebullient mix of African American gospel harmonies, Kwa Zulu/English lyrics, and percussive sounds. From the choral-beat box splendor of "Homeless" and "Amazing Grace" with Paul Simon to the Caribbean-tinged "Township Jive" and the gospel-like "Leaning on the Everlasting Arm" with the Winans, Ladysmith Black Mambazo give us a stirring soundtrack for the new South Africa. --Eugene Holley Jr.

The 12-minute title track, a mid-'70s Fela classic, finds the Afrobeat star at his most charismatically insolent, chanting down Nigeria's military with Pidgin English insults ("Zombie no go think unless you tell am to think") over funky chicken-scratch guitar, minimalist electric piano lines, call-and-response vocals, and complex percussive fury. As for the remainder of this shortish 1976 album: "Monkey Banana" is a slower but no less vehement castigation of white-collar zombies. In "Everything Scatter" Fela ponders why he's so unpopular with the powers that be. Could it be because he's an amugbo (hemp smoker) who has declared his compound an independent republic? --Richard Gehr

Zap Mama's third album moves a long way from the group's 1993 self-titled debut and 1994 Sabsylma follow-up, a cappella records in which five mostly European women tweaked Central African pygmy songs into sounds the rest of us could understand. This set--featuring a new lineup except for founder-leader Marie Daulne--insinuates into Mama's trademark choral yin the yang of male voices and drum & bass-anchored instrumentations (blues, jazz, reggae, Zairean soukous, rap, R&B, Zulu-based mbaqanga, jungle, P-funk, and minor-key wails from North Africa's nomadic Turaqs). Highlights include Fatima Wallett's trippy desert ululations in "Jogging a Tombouctou," as well as Daulne's own newly minted muzzein's call to the faithful (alternating with her French rap) in "Baba Hooker," a praise song both to the blues savant and to the African roots she and John Lee share. There are the requisite pygmy-influenced tracks, "Illioi," featuring 4-year-old Kesia Daulne's baby French dissolving into melodic gurglings, and "Eie Buma," based on those tropical forest sounds that Kesia's mom learned at her own mother's knee; the sounds were adapted as Zap Mama's starting point, and the group has taken them into deeper and deeper musical explorations. --Elena Oumano

Zap Mama's third album moves a long way from the group's 1993 self-titled debut and 1994 Sabsylma follow-up, a cappella records in which five mostly European women tweaked Central African pygmy songs into sounds the rest of us could understand. This set--featuring a new lineup except for founder-leader Marie Daulne--insinuates into Mama's trademark choral yin the yang of male voices and drum & bass-anchored instrumentations (blues, jazz, reggae, Zairean soukous, rap, R&B, Zulu-based mbaqanga, jungle, P-funk, and minor-key wails from North Africa's nomadic Turaqs). Highlights include Fatima Wallett's trippy desert ululations in "Jogging a Tombouctou," as well as Daulne's own newly minted muzzein's call to the faithful (alternating with her French rap) in "Baba Hooker," a praise song both to the blues savant and to the African roots she and John Lee share. There are the requisite pygmy-influenced tracks, "Illioi," featuring 4-year-old Kesia Daulne's baby French dissolving into melodic gurglings, and "Eie Buma," based on those tropical forest sounds that Kesia's mom learned at her own mother's knee; the sounds were adapted as Zap Mama's starting point, and the group has taken them into deeper and deeper musical explorations. --Elena Oumano

"If you forget your mother, you have lost your life," croons Nigeria highlife star Nico Mbarga in one of African music's biggest hits, the classic 10-minute midtempo dance rave "Sweet Mother." Mbarga was the most successful translator of West African horn-driven rumba to a guitar band. Mbarga's Rocafil Jazz group may lack bop syncopation, but its six members nonetheless swing together with sweet, machinelike precision. Released originally in the late seventies, before juju and fuji became Nigeria's predominant styles, the tracks collected on Aki Special collectively mark one of the most fertile periods of African music--with tribal rhythms and proverb-studded vocals combined with Western pop harmonies to create ecstatic dance music for both the body and, as suggested by "Free Education in Nigeria," the body politic. --Richard Gehr

This is a classic in the West African popular music genre, perhaps because of its defiance of "pop." Baaba Maal has become famous as one of the great popularizers of Senegalese music, with big productions and illustrious stars peppering his records. But Baayo was a major change, as he dug deep into the roots of the music and came out with a deeply moving, sonically gorgeous acoustic recording. The interplay of the guitar between Maal and longtime compatriot Mansour Seck is rich and clear. Other acoustic strings and percussion lend it warmth and depth, and a very light touch on the synthesizers enhances a few tracks by remaining almost unnoticeable. Not since the now historic Djam Leelii (a set of guitar duets with Mansour Seck in the early '80s) had Maal reached as deep into the well of time for inspiration. For the traditionalist this is Maal's essential album; for his longtime fans, this is the revelation of the music's long history. --Louis Gibson