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Article: African Jazz

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: Jama Ko

by Chris May
January 14, 2013

Malian ngoni player Bassekou Kouyate and his band, Ngoni Ba's third album continues the increasingly outward-looking trajectory of its predecessors. The debut, the lovely Segu Blue (Out/Here, 2007), was unadorned roots music. Its follow-up, the more visceral I Speak Fula (Out/Here, 2010), wove amplification into what was still basically an acoustic sound and, on two tracks, ...

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Article: African Jazz

Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab and Guinea’s Authenticite Movement Show Their Roots

by Chris May
February 3, 2012

Sterns Music's lovingly put-together compilations of work by stars of Francophone West African music's “belle époque“--the decade and a half accompanying and immediately following the independence years of the 1960s--are now digging further into history with releases featuring more obscure, but just as entrancing, figures from that era. For different reasons, Senegalese singer ...

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Article: African Jazz

Owiny Sigoma Band: Rising From The East

by Chris May
May 1, 2011

Owiny Sigoma BandOwiny Sigoma BandBrownswood Recordings2011 Along with its close neighbors, Tanzania and Uganda, Kenya--as viewed from Europe or North America--is one of the final frontiers in African music. Indirectly, this is the result of the decades-long, overwhelming impact of Zairean rumba on east Africa, and its ...

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Article: African Jazz

Compilations: Doing The Right Thing

by Chris May
December 5, 2010

Double-albums of classic Congolese and South African recordings demonstrate the right and the wrong ways to go about compilations. Tabu Ley RochereauThe Voice Of Lightness Vol. 2: Congo Classics 1977-1993Sterns2010 From its inception, everything about Sterns' compilation program has been pitch-perfect. Curated by enthusiasts with deep ...

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Article: African Jazz

The Majestic “Return” of King Sunny Ade & His African Beats

by Chris May
September 29, 2010

King Sunny AdeBaba Mo TundeIndigeDisc2010 A leading exponent of Nigerian juju music since the late 1970s, and in 2010 still the most sought after live artist for expatriate Nigerians in Europe and north America, vocalist and guitarist King Sunny Ade once rivalled Afrobeat's Fela Kuti and Zairean rumba's ...

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Article: African Jazz

Senegal's Etoile de Dakar featuring Youssou N'Dour and south London's Yaaba Funk

by Chris May
June 1, 2010

The birth of mbalax in Senegal towards the close of the 1970s, and a 2010 highlife/funk hybrid from south London, show how the embrace of imported styles by African musicians can enrich the continent's music. Etoile de Dakar featuring Youssou N'Dour Once Upon a Time in Senegal: The Birth of Mbalax 1979-1981 ...

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Article: African Jazz

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: I Speak Fula

by Chris May
January 28, 2010

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba I Speak Fula Sub Pop! 2010 Much has been made of the symbiosis between traditional Malian and roots North American musics, of which the “desert blues" of guitarist Ali Farka Toure (1939-2006) provides convincing evidence. Any remaining doubts about west African savannah-belt culture ...

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Article: African Jazz

Franco & Le TPOK Jazz: Francophonic 2: Africa's Greatest: A Retrospective: Vol.2: 1980 - 1989

by Chris May
October 25, 2009

Franco and Le TPOK Jazz Francophonic 2: Africa's Greatest: A Retrospective: Vol.2: 1980 - 1989 Sterns 2009 The Congolese guitarist, singer, bandleader and composer Francois Luambo Makiadi--most commonly known as Franco but with a raft of other nicknames including The Grand Master and The Sorcerer of The Guitar--had ...

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Article: African Jazz

Amadou & Mariam: The Magic Couple

by Chris May
July 29, 2009

Amadou & Mariam The Magic Couple Wrasse Records 2009 For most people outside Mali, and maybe France, Amadou & Mariam came out of nowhere in 2005 with Dimanche a Bamako (Nonesuch). But the duo had released three other, Paris-recorded CDs before their Manu Chao-produced breakthrough, which were themselves ...

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Article: African Jazz

Keletigui et ses Tambourinis: The Syliphone Years: 1968 - 1976

by Chris May
July 18, 2009

Keletigui et ses Tambourinis The Syliphone Years: 1968 - 1976 Sterns 2009 In Memoriam: Keletigui Traore: 26 May 1934 - 11 November 2008 The fourth release in the Sterns label's series anthologising Guinea's tradition-rooted “authenticite" bands of the 1960s and 1970s follows close on the death ...