Home » Search Center » Results: African Jazz

Results for "African Jazz"

901

Article: African Jazz

Tony Allen: Secret Agent

by Chris May
May 25, 2009

Tony Allen Secret Agent World Circuit 2009 It's been a good six months for Afrobeat, the turbulent jazz meets funk meets West African roots music associated with the Nigerian singer Fela Anikulapo Kuti (1938 - 1997) and his bands Afrika 70 and Egypt 80. There have been cracking ...

781

Article: African Jazz

The Rail Band: Belle Epoque Vol. 3 - Dioba

by Chris May
April 9, 2009

Rail BandBelle Epoque Vol. 3 - DiobaSterns Africa2009 With Belle Epoque Vol. 3 - Dioba, the estimable Sterns Africa label has completed another definitive archive project documenting West Africa's post-colonial “belle epoque" of the 1960s and 1970s. The three two-disc volumes in the series present the hits, highlights ...

444

Article: African Jazz

Ba Cissoko / Extra Golden: Coast to Coast

by Chris May
March 5, 2009

Third albums from Guinea's Ba Cissoko and the Kenyan/American collaboration Extra Golden prove, respectively, to be uplifting and just a little disappointing. Ba Cissoko Seno Sterns Africa 2009 Like the kora played by its eponymous leader, the music made by Ba Cissoko is graceful, rooted ...

1,047

Article: African Jazz

Oumou Sangare: A New Masterpiece from Mali

by Chris May
February 28, 2009

Oumou Sangare Seya World Circuit 2009 Before European-derived concepts of career management became widespread among African recording artists, following the emergence of the world music movement in the late 1980s and 1990s, a musician's stature could be measured by the frequency of the albums he (or, less often, ...

1,039

Article: African Jazz

Franco and Le TPOK Jazz: Francophonic - Africa's Greatest - A Retrospective - Vol. 1 1953 - 1980

by Chris May
January 7, 2009

Franco and Le TPOK Jazz Francophonic - Africa's Greatest - A Retrospective - Vol. 1 1953 - 1980 Sterns 2008 During his 35 year recording career, the Congolese guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and bandleader Franco released several hundred singles and around 150 albums. Where does the anthologist begin, and ...

427

Article: African Jazz

Balla et ses Balladins / Issa Bagayogo / Rail Band: electric-roots at their best, and worst

by Chris May
August 3, 2008

Two albums from Mali--the second release in a sparkling Rail Band archive collection, Rail Band 2: Mansa, and Issa Bagayogo's Mali Koura--recorded over thirty years apart, show how electric-roots music should and shouldn't be made. A third album, from neighbouring Guinea--Balla et ses Balladins: The Syliphone Years--documents one of the most creative and accomplished, ...

460

Article: African Jazz

Habib Koite & Bamada: Afriki

by Chris May
December 5, 2007

Habib Koite & Bamada Afriki Cumbancha 2007 With his third album, Baro (Putumayo, 2001), Malian guitarist, singer and songwriter Habib Koite attracted the kind of celebrity endorsements you imagine some press agents might kill for. Joan Baez ranked Koite alongside Jimi Hendrix in the pantheon of guitar greats, while, backstage ...

481

Article: African Jazz

Extra Golden: Hera Ma Nono

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
November 4, 2007

Extra Golden Hera Ma Nono Thrill Jockey 2007 The FM-rock supergroup Foreigner chose its name to reflect the mixed nationality of its members, assorted Brits and Yanks. Wherever they were, they said, someone in the band was a foreigner. Presumably the anomie engendered by this situation lent emotional ...

419

Article: African Jazz

Madilu System, Vieux Farka Toure, Orchestra Baobab

by Chris May
November 4, 2007

Three ripe and fragrant albums taking in the modern and the post-modern, the venerable and the cutting edge. La Bonne Humeur is the last sonic will and testament of Congolese soukous star Madilu System, who passed shortly after recording it. Remixed: UFOs Over Bamako is a re-interpretation of tracks from the 2007 debut album by Malian ...

435

Article: African Jazz

Ethiopia: The Last Days of Ras Tafari & Mali: Salif Keita Launches Wanda Label

by Chris May
September 14, 2007

This month, traditional music from Mali and more recent, jazz and funk cross-pollinated styles from Ethiopia. The Very Best Of Ethiopiques chronicles the work of artists in Addis Ababa during the final, surreal years of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie's rule. Boula and Baba are two roots albums on Malian singer Salif Keita's newly formed label, Wanda ...