Guinea music reviews

This is a great live recording, and the sound quality is surprisingly good for an ealrly seventies African recording. Lead singer Aboubacar Camara sounds heavenly and might have been the greatest of the Mande singers had he not died so early. It is also very obvious that lead guitarist Sekou Bembeya Diabate has to be right near the top of Africa's great unsung guitar heroes. I saw him in concert many years after this recording and he still has the showmanship that's only hinted at on this great recording. There's really no highlights here, it's all killer, no filler.

this record is a great representation of traditional african music. although ity leaves out quite a bit of countries in the collection, it caputres the liveliness of african folk music. I love it.

At last! I've been looking for this African music for ages, I had lost hope. It takes me to Africa everytime I listen to it. It's incredible!

Take one double bass player(Danny Thompson ex Pentangle no less)one Kora player(Toumani Diabate)and a Flamenco group(the wonderful Ketama)and put them all in one room and you will have something very special. It was sad indeed to find no reviews of this fabulous recording so I will TRY and do it some justice .So many attempts at mixing different types of "world " music end up in a hodge podge of sounds and styles that satisfy no one and merely dilute the source, but this is the real deal.The overiding feeling of this disc is PLEASURE...the musicians involved are obviously swimming in the delights of the music they are creating,the discoveries they are making about themselves and their music.

This disparate band somehow produces a seamless and invigorating stream of music that will take you to places even they never dreamed of.
Buy it.....

Okay - Amazon's sense of geography has me baffled. Under the category of "Various Artists - International - Africa" one finds this album from New Guinea ... last time I looked at a map Africa didn't extend to South Sea Islands or, if you prefer, Southeast Asia. But once you get past the geography, this 2nd volume of Sacred Flute Music From New Guinea is fascinating. The music is played on two large, transverse, bamboo flutes with percussion. The coordination between the flutes is especially interesting as they frequently alternate rather than play in harmony. The notes accompanying the cd are excellent - detailing the instruments and the cultural context of playing them. My first reaction to the cd was mild boredom as there is comparatively little variation in tempo or pitch ... but my appreciation quickly grew to enjoying the quiet, "natural" and expressive sounds of the instruments.

This disc, which comes in one of those cardboard open-up package formats, is nice-looking, but the buyer should be aware that the music on it is slightly...unusual. I don't mean it's exotic though, on the contrary, it's actually surprisingly familiar. All 20 tracks are ukelele renditions of 50's surf rock era songs. Now, I'm not sure if that's big over in Papua New Guinea, it must be, but it's not what I was looking for. I was hoping for traditional Polynesian music, flutes and zithers and such. If I really wanted what's on this disc, I would have bought Nippers Hits of the 50's or Don Ho's greatest. I did give the disc three stars for the packaging quality and the quality of the recording.

This is a great CD for everyone, but especially for people who were in TPNG during the 1960s and 1970s. All these songs were not only played endlessly over the radio (no TV in those days), but also sung by young people in every village in the land. The music style is called "Stringband" and is still popular in PNG today. I would recommend this CD to anyone who is a little tired of "nose-flutes" and other "authentic" music, but still wants the flavour of exotic Papua New Guinea.

This is one CD of a four volume set. I ordered this CD and recieved volume 2. It has 100 birds from willow grouse to sandgrouse. A large percentage are not what I think of as song birds. Lots of chirps and rattles. (I am not a birder). I assume the other 3 CDS have a similar number of birds. This appears to be a set for the serious birder, and not for someone who is looking for a musical treat.

I'm a little bit mystified by the other review available for this title. It seems that the reviewer was expecting something other than a CD of bird songs. Well, what SHOULD be on a CD called "All the Bird Songs of Britain and Europe?" In any event, this is one CD out of four which, together, cover virtually all the birds you are likely to hear (as well as a few you aren't likely to hear, but are thoughfully included anyway) on the European continent.

If you are familiar with the Stokes bird song guides for North America, this is a similarly formatted production. Jean C. Roche, a veteran French natural sound recordist, has edited this comprehensive guide. One species of bird is given per CD track for easy access to each bird's sounds. Sound quality is as good as it is on the Stokes guides, and the sound samples are generally quite long. Only one caveat: there are no announcements of species' names. I assume that since these discs were produced in France but were to be sold elsewhere as well, the producers simply opted not to include announcements rather than record versions in multiple languages. Thus, if you are listening to the guide all the way through, you will have to follow the liner notes to know which bird you are hearing at a given time.

Aside from this, there isn't much to complain about here. If you are going to go birding in Europe, you will have to have this sooner or later. Get all the volumes for a complete guide to European bird sounds.

This installation in the Discotheque series brings again the heavy weights of 70's guinean Music, Balla("Sakodougou","Moi ca ma fout"), Keletigui ("JRDA","La bicycletta"), Virtuoses Diabate ("Sankaranka"' "Nadiaba"), Bembeya ("Mborin", "Dagna") along with Bafing Jazz of Mamou ( "Toubaka","Sontilla") and the South African megastar Myriam Makeba ("Solo Quintette"). The music is thoroughly enjoyable throughout this great Album!

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 up while you can!

From Jean C. Roche's Sittelle label comes this disc, one of several they have published of dawn choruses of birds in different parts of Europe (chiefly France). Roche made the recordings of birds and a few frogs on this CD himself, and they are loaded with sound...capturing the wonderful cacophony (that's not really the oxymoron it seems, if you like listening to birds) of an early French morning.

If you listen to a lot of CDs from this label (I have), you know that Roche's technical crew produces nature CDs that are very "hot" sounding; that is, the intensity of the sound is very high and the discs have an overall "bright" sound. When done carefully, this kind of mastering is something my ears happen to like; I enjoy hearing high frequency sounds (which most bird songs are) delivered from the speakers with a lot of "punch." But this disc, unfortunately, suffers from overkill on the high frequencies; some of the bird songs lapse into distortion. This somewhat taints my enjoyment of what could have been a great bird disc. I love these Sittelle CDs and try to grab every one I can, but those of you looking for their best efforts can pass this one up. It's not terrible, by any means, but the sound quality just isn't top notch.

While spending time in Mozambique, I heard the beat of the beat of the nation. In clubs, the people rocked to Brazillian artists, music from Portugal and Zaire! They pack clubs like the Mini Golf in Maputo wall to wall and rock until the morning! Unfortunately, commercial local popular Portugese music is absent and what is there is on very poor audio tapes. I heard that the people of distant Guineau Bissau were holding the torch for Lusafone Africa and, this CD proves this theory right. Tabanka Djaz is the Kanda Bongo Man of Portugese Africa. The Portugese language blends with the beat in sysnergystic manner. Justino Delgado is more latin than African. Some of the tunes are "Lounge Liazrd" tunes, (heavy music synthesizers and special effects) but what the hell--that is what you hear in Africa too! That is what the locals think you want to hear. This album is well worth it just for the two artists: Tabanka Djaz and Rui Sangara. I only hope we can get more popular music from Mozambique, Angola and Cape Verde and also more of the individual artists!