African Rhythms — A Look At The Continent’s Musical Stars
A Major Constituent of Worldbeat, AfroPop Is Awesome
Mother Africa. The well-spring of the human race is a vast land of diversity and contradiction. Regrettably, some of the continents is currently beset with war, famine, pestilence, endemic poverty, and widespread corruption. Ethiopian Tigray tragedies, the ongoing conflict in the DRC, child warriors, blood diamonds, oil exploitation, deforestation, racial and ethnic divides — by now, familiar concepts conjuring up real images. Then, there’s HIV/AIDS — which afflicts enormous numbers of people across the continent. It is long past time the developed world takes note and provides the kind of support necessary to alleviate this human suffering. But that is not the subject of this article.
Out of this cauldron of tragedy and disaster comes some of the best, most engaging, and involving music on the worldbeat scene. I hope to introduce you to some of my personal favorites in this post.
Like many others, I was introduced to African sounds by the likes of Hugh Masekela, Miriam Mkeba and the choral stylizing of South African township choirs.
Since that time I’ve enjoyed exploring the universe of regional African music as well as the world of AfroPop. I owe Ry Cooder for turning me on to a menu of musical styles and ethnic musicians through his many collaborations. Like his milestone work with the late Ali Farka Toure.
From that beginning, I started to listen to the music of Mali, Senegal and the Cote d’ Ivore — Francophone, West Africa. While at the Festival d’ ete in Quebec one summer, I had the opportunity to hear Baba Mal and Amadeau & Miriam. The latter, a blind, married duo from Mali, have a number of music videos and are frequent performers at worldbeat festivals. Both from Griot families, they have a rhythmic, almost trance-like sound to their music. Speaking about Griots…
Francis Bebey writes about the griot in African Music, A People’s Art:
“The West African griot is a troubadour, the counterpart of the medieval European minstrel… The griot knows everything that is going on… He is a living archive of the people’s traditions… The virtuoso talents of the griots command universal admiration. This virtuosity is the culmination of long years of study and hard work under the tuition of a teacher who is often a father or uncle. The profession is by no means a male prerogative. There are many women griots whose talents as singers and musicians are equally remarkable.”
Benin-born diva Angelique Kidjo is a queen of Afropop. Singing in her native Fon, Swahili, French or English, Kidjo has produced more chart-busting discs than any African musician. A recent effort features cameo performances from the likes of Peter Gabriel, Alicia Keyes, Ziggy Marley, Carlos Santana, Joss Stone; and, Amadeau & Miriam. Hot and sweet.
Central Africa is a tapestry of varied musical traditions. From the stylistic pop of Kidjo, to the high-pitched and energetic songs of Congo’s Papa Wemba. The Congo has produced a variety of well-known African musicians, none more influential than Franco Luambo (1938–1989). Known as just “Franco,” he led TPOK Jazz, Africa’s most popular band at the time, for 30 years. His African Rhumba style influenced many other musicians.
As I explored the continent, I found that I enjoyed Afropop — as well as traditional, tribal tunes. Kidjo’s Naima, the gentle voice of Francophone Congo’s Lukua Kanza and Ismael Lo comes to mind. Africa offers a lot of sweet and mellow pop tunes to be sampled, in addition to traditional tribal sounds like the Orchestre Baka Gbine, who were recorded in the Cameroon rainforest chanting traditional Pigmy songs.
From Nigeria, with Africa’s largest population and unsettled history of corruption and military rule, the music of the late Fela Kuti from his “Shrine” in Lagos set a standard for contemporary protest. Kuti, who so angered the military government that he spent a bunch of time behind bars for his musical challenges, gave the world raw, brass-driven jazz that combines influences from James Brown and John Coltrane with traditional Nigerian rhythms and highly charged political messages. Now his two sons continue the tradition. There’s a great documentary about Kuti on LINK TV called “The Shrine.”
originally posted to Flickr by master_xpo at https://flickr.com/photos/99264820@N06/9340227623.
Also from Nigeria, King Sunny Ade, was the king of ‘juju’ music. Ade is pictured on stage in the accompanying image above. I’ve also been listening to young, outspoken Nigerian Hip Hop artist Nneka. She’s dope, pure and simple.
Then there’s the bevy of Congolese Pop Divas, sexy, slinky and beautiful. I’m thinking of Barbara Kanam, Tshala Muana and Meje. Naturally I’m leaving a lot of great talent out of this post, in the interests of readability.
It would be impossible for me to write about African rhythms without mentioning the island of Cape Verde. Formerly a Portuguese colony, Cape Verde, which was uninhabited until the Portuguese settled it in the late 1400’s, is the source of sensual, Iberian-influenced folk music called Morna. Popularized worldwide by the diva Cesaria Evora, Morna is generally performed — as are most of the Island’s tunes — in Cape Verde Creole, not Portuguese.
A shoutout is also in order for Zimbabwe’s Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi and Thomas Mapfumo, two giants of African music. Tuku, Zimbabwe’s most famous cultural icon of all times, was also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
I wanted to conclude this post with a few words about the world’s most successful Reggae artist. And yes, he’s African — not Jamaican. South Africa’s (the late) Lucky Dube sold more Reggae discs than any individual — living or deceased. Not a small accomplishment for an artist that has never achieved a high level of recognition in the U.S. Dube’s sound is highly produced, tight as can be, and fully orchestrated. He often had a choir working with his enormous stage act. Check him out if you love Reggae. This is not roots Reggae, from the streets and raw. No, it is the height of the slick production piece of the genre. Infectious and very danceable nonetheless.
Epilogue: The author would like to acknowledge the influence and tutelage of a dear friend, Warren Sirota, who introduced AfroPop & African tribal tunes to my ears over 20 years ago. He produced one of the first AfroPop CD-ROMs for the US market and opened my mind and ears to a number of new musical explorations.
