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A brief summary of African Popular music

by Piero Scaruffi
excerpted from The History of Popular Music

TM, ®, Copyright © 2002 Piero Scaruffi. All rights reserved.

During the 1980s, the West rediscovered the folk music of Africa. Afro-rock started with
commercial groups based in the west, such as Osibisa.

The cross-pollination took place in both directions: western popular music adopted elements of
African music, while African music adopted elements (particularly the studio techniques) of
western music.

During the 1980s, the styles and genres of the various African countries, such as South Africa's
"mbaqanga", Zimbabwe's "jit", Zaire's "soukous", Nigeria's "juju" and Ghana's "highlife", had
a chance to develop and proliferate around the world.

Congo
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See
African music of the 1950s
African music of the 1970s
Afro-pop of the 1980s

During the 1950s, when they experienced rapid urbanization and a relatively booming
economy, the two French-speaking colonies of the Congo area (capitals in Brazzaville and
Kinshasa) witnessed the birth of an African version of the Cuban rumba played by small
American-style orchestras (called "kasongo", "kirikiri" or "soukous") with a touch of jazz and
of local attitudes: Joseph "Grand Kalle" Kabasselleh's African Jazz (that counted on vocalist
Tabu Ley, guitarist "Docteur" Nico Kasanda, saxophonist Manu Dibango), Jean-Serge Essous'
O.K.Jazz (featuring the young Franco), Orchestre Bella Bella, etc. Each orchestra became
famous for one or more "dances" that they invented. So soukous (as Ley dubbed it in 1966) is
actually a history of dances, rather than one monolithic genre (Ley's definition originally
applied only to a frenzied version of rumba). A guitarist named Jimmy Elenga introduced
"animation": instructions yelled to the crowd in order to direct their dances. Animation
eventually became part of the dance, delivering both the identity of the dance, the (ethnic)
identity of the band and a (more or less subtle) sociopolitical message. As dictators seized
power in both Congos, musicians emigrated to other African countries, to Europe and to the
USA, thus spreading soukous around the world, while in Zaire (Congo Kinshasa) soukous
bands were used for Maoist-style propaganda purposes ("l'animation politique").

A key figure was "Franco" (Francois Luambo Makiadi), the guitarist who in 1958 evolved the
O.K.Jazz into the 20-member T.P.O.K.Jazz (including saxohpnist 'Verkys' Kiamanguana
Mateta) and was largely responsible for the relaxed, sensual, languid version of soukous that
became predominant, before the 1967 arrival of guitarist Mose Fan Fan led to a more lively
sound. His collaboration with Tabu Ley, Omana Wapi (1976), contained only four lengthy
dances. The other star of the TP OK Jazz band, hired by Franco in 1984, was vocalist and
composer Jean "Madilu System" Bialu.

Tabu Pascal (aka Tabu Ley Rochereau) formed African Fiesta in 1963 (initially with Dr Nico,
who co-wrote the classic Afrika Mokili Mobimba) and then renamed it Afrisa in 1970, with
vocalist Sam Mangwana (and later heavenly soprano M'bilia Bel) and guitarist Huit-Kilos
Bimwela Nseka. From the beginning, Ley played the Latin rhythms on the drums of rock
music, thus merging (at least ideally) rumba and rock. His Fiesta also turned the soukous
concert into a happening that was reminiscent of the sexy shows of Parisian cabarets.

The generation of the 1970s included the orchestras of Papa Wemba, whose Viva La Musica
was formed in 1977 (a name inspired by Puertorican star Ray Barreto but the music is equally
inspired by Otis Redding's sweet soul) and is best represented in L'Esclave (1987), Kanda
Bongo Man, with Amour Fou (1984), Dr Nico, Zaiko Langa Langa, plus Orchestra Veve,
founded by Franco's disciple 'Verkys' Kiamanguana Mateta, with Lukani (1975), Orchestre
Virunga.

Congolese keyboardist and musicologist Ray Lema Ansi Nzinga relocated to France, where he
achieved the rumba, rock, funk and reggae fusion of Kinshasa- Washington DC- Paris
(1983). His adult phase was instead devoted to merging African rhythm and western classical
harmony, particularly on introspective albums of piano music such as Tout Partout (1994).

On the contrary, Brazzaville's singer-songwriter Pamelo Mounka, an alumnus of Tabu Ley's


Afrisa, remained faithful to the traditional Congo sound on L'Argent Appelle l'Argent
(1981).

Albums by westernized singers from Congo in the 1980s also included Kanda Bongo's Amour
Fou (1984) and Souzy Kasseya's Le Retour de l'As (1984).

Raised in Europe, fluent in the musical traditions of the Middle East and of African-
Americans, Congolose vocalist Marie Daulne founded Zap Mama (1), an all-female a-cappella
group, to sing tunes inspired by the music of the world, such as on Adventures in Afropea I
(1993).

Ghana
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Ghana, the first African country to win independence from a European colonizer (in 1957) and
the economic miracle of Africa at the end of the century, was the birthplace of highlife music.
Originally the name given by blacks to the music of the white social elite, it evolved from the
fusion of rural "palm-wine" music for guitar, percussion and concertina, church music, Latin
ballroom music, military music and African tribal music. The black bands that used to play at
parties of white people started playing also for black people, and their sound became more and
more Africanized. The guitar-based fusion was mature in the 1930s, when it was interpreted
for the masses by Jacob Sam (his Yaa Amponsah dates from 1928), heavily influenced by the
Cuban orchestras. In the 1950s, especially after independence, highlife bandleaders Emmanuel
Tettah Mensah (leader since 1948 of the twelve-piece orchestra Tempos, the charismatic
archetype of the highlife dance band), King Bruce, Jerry Hansen, Stan Plange, E.K. Nyame,
leader of the most popular guitar-band, drummer Guy Warren, Nigerian trumpeter Victor
Olaiya, Nigerian guitarist Bobby Benson, were influenced by American swing bands. The
Tempos exported highlife to Nigeria in 1951, and Nigeria soon became to rival Ghana for
highlife supremacy.

In the 1960s American soul and rock music prevailed, and in 1971 the "Soul to Soul" festival
helped bridge the worlds of American black popular music and of highlife, thus returning the
supremacy to guitar-based bands: Nana Kwame Ampadu's African Brothers International
Band, that cut Ebi Tie Ye (1967), Okukuseku, Noble Kings, Ashanti Brothers, Nana Ampadu,
City Boys, Hi-Life International. In Nigeria, the most influential highlife bands included: Rex
Lawson's Mayors Dance Band, Celestine Ukwu's Philosophers National, Osita Osadere's
Soundmakers International, Oriental Brothers International Band, Orlando Owoh's Omimah
Band, Oliver Akanite de Coque's Expo '76 Ogene Super Sounds.

The fad of Afro-rock started with a group from Ghana based in London, Osibisa, formed by
Teddy Osei, that struck gold with Music for Gong Gong (1970) and Sunshine Day (1976).
Highlife was then quickly corrupted by rock, reggae and hip-hop. Notable albums of the 1970s
included Party Time With CeeKay (1973) by Charles Kofi Mann and The Kusum Beat
(1976) by Alfred Benjamin Crentsil's Sweet Talks. In Nigeria, Nico Mbarga's Sweet Mother
(1976) was a turning point in the fusion of highlife and makossa.

In the 1980s Ghanian acts George Darko and the Lumba Brothers (Charles "Daddy Lumba"
Fosu and Nana "Lover Boy" Acheampong) who had emigrated to Germany launched a brief
local fad, "burgher highlife".

Ghana's percussionist Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng (1) delivered the imposing intricate and
hypnotic polyrhythmic maelstroms of Awakening (1998).

Nigeria
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Nigeria, the most populous country of the African continent, was always at the vanguard of
world-music.

Nigerian hand drumming virtuoso Babatunde Olatunji (1) shocked the USA with Drums of
Passion (1959), a collection of traditional Nigerian music for percussion and chanting. (He
would continue to pursue his aesthetic of drumming-induced trance with the The Invocation
of 1988 and the 21-minute Cosmic Rhythm Vibrations of 1993).

Nigerian saxophonist, pianist and vocalist Fela Anikulapo Kuti (4) coined a new style of music
(Afro-beat) by combining James Brown's funk music, highlife and jazz. In 1966 he joined the
Highlife Jazz Band. In 1968, after visiting the USA and being influenced by the "black power"
movement, he also added sociopolitical lyrics. Persecuted by the Nigerian government, he
became the voice of the oppressed. At his best, Kuti concocts lengthy improvised jams of
bebop saxophone lines, Frank Zappa-esque horn fanfares, call-and-response vocals, and wild
polyrhythms led by Tony Allen's spectacular drumming. His recordings include: London
Scene (1970), still very derivative of James Brown, Gentleman (1973), one of his most
popular albums, Zombie (1977), Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense (1987), Overtake Don
Overtake Overtake (1990).

Nigeria (particularly the Yoruba region) is also the homeland of juju music, the African
equivalent of American folk-rock: tribal polyrhythm wed to electric guitars. In the 1920s juju
music was born (like the blues) as a music of the rural poor, but in 1958 Isaiah Kehinde Dairo
began to transform it into an urban phenomenon, and in 1960 he introduced accordion into the
ensemble.

Ebenezer Obey (1) further modernized juju by drawing on highlife, and his lengthy jams
(underpinning a spiritual longing) turned it into an exercise in trance, for example on Mo Tun
Gbe De (1973).

On the surface, the intricate dance suites of Nigerian juju vocalist and guitarist "King" Sunny
Ade` (1) simply wed African percussion, call-and-response singing and western-style
arrangements of guitars and synthesizers. But, often, the roles of guitarists and percussionists
were swapped, as the latter drove the melody and the former drove the rhythm. The production
emphasized the techniques of Jamaican dub, and sonic details often harked back to other ethnic
traditions, such as the twang of country music. Ade`'s stylistic mixture reached maturity on
Juju Music (1982).

Later, juju fused with other styles (both African and western) in the work of Dele Abiodun,
who came of age with Beginning Of A New Era (1981), and Segun Adewale's Superstars
International, that reached their best synthesis on Endurance (1982).

The Yoruba region's "fuji" music is closely related to Islam, although its origins are purely
African. It is performed by ensembles of vocalists and percussionists. During the 1970s, the
style was popularized by Sikiru "Barrister" Ayinde, Ayinya Kollington and child prodigy
Salawa Abeni.

South Africa
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South Africa had a melting pot of its own. In the black urban centers where different tribes
met, and met with foreign slaves, a dance style called "marabi" evolved. It was originally a
humble form of music, but it became similar to the jazz music played by swing bands in the
USA when it was adopted by the relatively wealthy and free blacks of Sophiatown, a suburb
that had become a sort of Johannesburg's Harlem. In 1955 it was destroyed by the white racist
government, an event that led to the radicalization of South African jazz music.

The most influential phenomenon in South-African music was the evolution of Zulu township
music, or mbaqanga (originally the name of a soup of the 1950s), a lilting style that relies on
driving rhythm. Early South-African songs include Solomon Linda's Mbube (1939), the base
for The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Much of South-African music of the 1950s was born at the crossroads of jazz and folk music.
In fact, an important moment for the emancipation of the local scene was Todd Matshikiza's
musical King-Kong (1959), that exported a fusion of classical, jazz and African idioms, and
that featured both trumpeter Hugh Masekela and vocalist Miriam Makeba.

Miriam Makeba, an activist in the civil-rights movement of the USA, recorded in a pop-jazz
style, often accompanied by her husband Hugh Masekela.

Trumpet player Hugh Masekela (1) fused the South-African tradition of work and church
songs (the South-African equivalent of the American blues and gospel) and Zulu mbaqanga
rhythms with the structure of jazz and pop-jazz music, on albums such as The Lasting
Impression (1965).

Possibly the greatest of the South-African groaners (sarcastic singers in a


croaking/growling/roaring register), Simon "Mahlathini" Nkabinde (1) created an exuberant
brand of mbaqanga music on albums such as Putting on the Light (1975), backed by female
singers the Mahotella Queens (heirs to the "smodern" tradition, which was a sort of Tamla soul
adapted to Zulu's polyphonic choirs) and boasting the rock instrumental arrangements of
producer, saxophonist and pennywhistle player West Nkosi (leader of the Makgona Tsohle
Band with Marks Mankwane on guitar).

Joseph Shabalala's Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a vocal group that specializes in the a-
cappella harmonies called "mbube" (and its more refined version "isicathamiya") that
originated in the golden mines of South Africa. The early albums, such as Ukusindiswa and
Umthombo Wamanzi (1982), focused on call-and-response structures.

Other significant South-African acts include the mbaqanga combo Soul Brothers, popular in
the second half of the 1970s, and the instrumental combo Boyoyo Boys (whose melodies are
played by saxophones or pennywhistles).

White singer-songwriter Johnny Clegg collaborated with South African black musician Sipho
Mchunu to form Juluka, whose Scatterlings (1983) was South Africa's version of folk-rock,
and then formed Savuka to craft the more cosmopolitan mix of Third World Child (1987).

Ermelo "Lucky" Dube, who had already become a successful singer-songwriter with Lengane
Ngeyetha (1982) and Kukuwe (1984), became the first reggae star of South Africa with
Rastas Never Die (1985), bringing down the house with his third reggae album, Slave (1987).

Madagascar's Tarika (1) is led by female vocalist Hanitra Rasoanaivo who is on a musicologist
as well as sociopolitical mission to rediscover the roots of her land on albums such as the bleak
(but no less rhythmically upbeat) concept Son Egal (1997).
Rai
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At the turn of the century, the port of Oran, or, better, its decadent milieu of sailors, prostitutes
and artists, experienced a boom in music that could rival New Orleans or Kansas City. The
"cheikhs" and "cheikhas" (young male and young female performers) created a new style that
fused Berber, Bedouin and Spanish elements. Conservative clerics disapproved, but Algeria
was a colony of France. In the 1930s that music was called wahrani and had already embraced
political overtones. This time it was the colonial oppressors who disapproved. Cheikha Rimitti
was the first star, the best known of the "shaabi musicians" who became the soundtrack of
Algeria's independence war.

In the 1960s, trumpet player Bellamou Messaoud coined a westernized form of rai, replete
with elements of flamenco, blues, rock, jazz and funk, arranged with guitars, saxophone and
accordion. He replaced wahrani's qasbah flute with the trumpet. He was appropriately
nicknamed Le Pere du Rai (1989).

In 1967 the Algerian government banned rai (as well as alcohol). This sent the music
underground, and producer Rachid Baba Ahmed became its reference point, helping the chebs
and chebas, who took the place of the "cheikhs" and "cheikhas", record cassettes that spread
around the country and Europe despite the official ban.

Cheba Fadela was the first pop-rai queen, enjoying unsurpassed popularity with hits such as
Ana Ma H'Lali Ennoun (1979) and N'Sel Fik (1983), which are fully westernized (even
synthesizers).

A typical French-style maudit and bohemien artist, Cheb Khaled (1) took the sound of the
Algerian revolution and transposed it into the punk era. Rai became the voice of the poor and
the oppressed, and, in the years of the Civil War, the voice of the anti-fundamentalist
westernized youth, as documented by the slick synthesized production of Kutche (1989).

Mali
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1980s
1990s

Mali is the land of the griots (the French word for the native word "jeli"), the bards of the
Sahara who accompany themselves with the kora harp, the balafon xylophone and the ngoni
lute, descendants of a century-old tradition. Mali, or, better, the swamps of the Niger river,
might also be the homeland of the blues. Traditionally musicians come only from some
families: the job of musician is hereditary.

The first major recording of the acoustic music of the "Manding" region (roughly Mali to
Guinea), characterized by sweet singalong melodies, was Yasimika (1983), conceived by
Guinean kora player and vocalist Jali Musa Jawara, accompanied by balafon and guitar.

The first national voice of Mali was Boubacar Traore (1), a vocalist and guitarist who played
an African version of the blues. He didn't record his music until Mariama (1990).

Mali's vocalist Salif Keita (1) was (1969) a co-founder with Tidiane Kone' of the Super Rail
Band and (1972) a member of horn-band Les Ambassadeurs, that cut the epic Mandjou (1979).
His first solo album, the dramatic Soro (1987), incorporated rock arrangements and took
advantage of western studio techniques, while remaining faithful to his African roots.

Kasse` Mady Diabate, the voice of the National Badema orchestra, who moved to Europe in
1983, followed in Keita's footsteps with Fode (1988) but then returned to his roots with Kela
Tradition (1990).

Mali's virtuoso of the kora harp Toumani Diabate (1), son of the Sidiki Diabate who recorded
the first album ever of kora music, Ancient Strings (1970), introduced elements of
minimalism, psychedelia and blues into his solo kora album Kaira (1987).

With the album Ali Farka Toure (1988), Mali's blues guitarist Ali Farka Toure (1) carved a
niche in the territory of Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder, but then returned to his roots with the
elegant Savane (2006).

Guinean kora player Mory Kante, who succeeded Salif Ke‹ta in the Rail Band in 1973, adapted
Mandinka music to the dancefloor and produced Yeke Yeke (1987), the first ever African single
to sell over one million copies.

Maham Konate's percussion ensemble Farafina, from Burkina Faso, delved into African
polyrhythms on Bolomakote (1988).

Mali remained the leading scene of Africa in the 1990s.

Malian guitarist Djelimady (or Jalimadi) Tounkara of the Super Rail Band has developed a
style that evokes the sound of the kora harp, the balafon xylophone and and the ngoni lute.

Habib Koite' (1), who played guitar in the band Bamada (Cigarette A Bana) since 1990, fused
griot philosophy, the trancey folk music of the desert (he plays the guitar like a ngoni lute) and
the blues jamming of the forest on Muso Ko (1995).

Issa Bagayogo updated the traditions of Mali to the age of electronic dance music (house,
techno, hip-hop, dub) on Sya (1998) and Timbuktu (2002).

Powerful vocalist Kandia Kouyate, a sort of Aretha Franklin of Mali, was first immortalized in
the 1980s on Kandia Kouyate & the Ensemble Instrumental. On Kita Kan (1999) she
alternates between the western orchestra, the rock combo and the African folk ensemble,
whereas Biriko (2002) is a traditional, acoustic effort.

Mali's female singer-songwriter Oumou Sangare (1) single-handedly revolutionized African


music with Ko Sira (1993), devoted to feminist issues from the perspective of a young African
woman, sung in a majestic register, and accompanied by danceable music for violin, lute and
percussion.

Lobi Traore' (1) bridged distant ages on Bambara blues (1991) and Bamako (1994) by
harking back to the original feeling of the blues while adopting the burning guitar riffs of hard-
rock and underpinning them with frantic cerimonial percussion.

Rokia Traore' (1) expressed her anguish in a gentle tone on Wanita (2000) over hypnotic
rhythmic patterns based on the kora harp, the ngoni lute and the balafon xylophone, but rather
neutral in terms of ethnic origin.

Originally from Mali but formed in an Algerian refugee camp, Tinariwen, a desert-blues band
of Tuareg nomads with electric guitars, were the main musicians to emerge from the first
"Festival au Desert" that was held in january 2001 at Tin Essako in the Sahara of northeastern
Mali. The Radio Tisdas Sessions (2002), Amassakoul/ Traveller (2004) and Aman Iman/
Water is Life (2007) documented the music they had been playing since the mid 1980s.

Zimbabwe
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Zimbabwe's jit music is a percussive dancefloor style that weds Shona melodies, thumb piano,
and guitar-driven rhythm'n'blues, something halfway between Zaire's soukous, Ghana's
highlife, and South Africa's mbaqanga.

Zimbabwe-Shona minstrel Thomas Mapfumo (2) specialized in the genre of political songs
(chimurenga music) that was in vogue during the civil war. Substituting electric guitar (Jonah
Sithole) and drums for the mbira thumb piano and hosho rattlers, Mapfumo created his own
personal hybrid of African and western music on albums such as Gwindingwi Rine Shumba
(1980), while Chimurenga for Justice (1986) opted for a mellower sounds and introduced a
languid fusion of soul, rock and reggae.

The Bhundu Boys popularized jit in the Britain with the effervescent Shabini (1986).

Zimbabwe's guitarist John Chibadura was the virtuoso of jit. His albums Mudzimo Wangu
(1985), 5000$ Kuroora (1986), and Sara Ugarike (1987) were among the most popular of the
genre. When he went reggae, Chibadura was equally successul with Zuva Refuka Kwangu
(1988). He died in 1999.

Cameroon
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Cameroon saxophonist Manu Dibango (1), who became famous thanks to the proto-disco
groove of Soul Makossa (1972), fused African rhythms and melodies with reggae, notably on
Gone Clear (1979), and funk, notably on Waka Juju (1982).

Dibango also started a vogue for makossa (basically, highlife with a steady rhythm), that from
Cameroon spread to nearby countries. In Ivory Coast, singer-songwriter Tou-Kone Daouda
fused soukous and makossa on Mon Coeur Balance (1978). Rikiatou (1982) and African
Typic Collection (1983), dancefloor makossa numbers by Cameroon's Sam Fan Thomas.

Ivory Coast's singer-songwriter Alpha Blondy (Seydou Kone) became the first African star of
reggae with Jah Glory (1983).

Jean-Marie Ahanda's Les Tetes Brulees took Cameroon's music into the punk age, with a
provocative attitude and a demented and energetic sound. Hot Heads (1991) offered ancient
bikutsi rhythms of the rain forest replacing the balafon xylophone with the electric guitars of
rock music.

Senegal
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Orchestra Baobab (1) was the most famous of the Senegalese combos that mixed Cuban music
and African music, for example on Pirate's Choice (1982).

Senegal vocalist Youssou N'Dour (3) became a teenage sensation with the band Etoile De
Dakar, whose Xalis (1979) established mbalax (Cuban music performed with western
instruments and augmented with African polyrhythms) as a major form of dance music. The
formidable Immigres (1985) proved what kind of force of nature N'Dour's ensemble was,
especially when coupled with the Middle-eastern inflection of his tenor. The stylistic Babel of
Set (1990) was perhaps his most emotional and most intricate statement.

The Senegalese band Toure Kunda (1) pioneered the African invasion of Europe with the
fusion of western-style melodies and Middle-eastern or reggae rhythms performed on
traditional instruments of Freres Griots (1979).

Senegalese vocalist Baaba Maal (1) mixed traditional African instruments with the western
aesthetics on Baayo (1991).

Arabs: Maqam

While widely imitated around the world, the classic "maqam" Islamic style, that basically
modulate a monophonic melodic figure, was rarely heard outside the Arab world. This musical
system, one of the most intricated modal systems in the world, harks back to the heyday of the
Arab empire and was organized during the Ottoman empire. The system (which is not an
equally-tempered intonation system, and based on roughly 17 notes to the octave, with plenty
of regional variations) prescribes a number of maqamat, that can be used either as finished
compositions (typically for solo vocal performances) or as blueprints for composition. The
maqam scale has, of course, an influence on the tuning of instruments. There are five makamat
for the five daily calls to prayer, but there are also dozens of regional maqamat: Turkey's
makam system lists more than 200 distinct modes. It is likely that the Ottomans simply unified
a body of styles that they collected from Greece to Central Asia. Maqam was best represented
by Egyptian girl prodigy Umm Kalthum, who first recorded in 1925, and by Lebanese Nuhad
"Fayrouz" Haddad, who first aired in 1950.

North Africa
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Morocco's gnawa music is a kind of folk music that originated among the Gnawas,
descendants of black slaves. It retains central-African characters such as propulsive syncopated
beats and pentatonic melodies, and employes instruments such as the sintir lute and the
karkabas castanets, besides the human voice. The music usually accompanies ceremonies of
healing based on creating an atmosphere of trance. The cult (which is probably related to the
voodoo of Haiti and the macumba of Brazil) is centered in the city of Essaouira. A
distinguished gnawa musician is Maleem Mahmoud Ghania, who collaborated with jazz giant
Pharoah Sanders on Trance of Seven Colors (1994).

Hassan Hakmoun (1) plays the sintir lute and concocts fusion tracks of trancey gnawa, lilting
rock and American dance music on albums such as Trance (1993).

Maleem Abdelah Ghania, a virtuoso of the Moroccan guimbri guitar, released the trancey
Invocation (2000).

Egyptian-Nubian oud and tar virtuoso Hamza El Din (2) concocted a mesmerizing sound on Al
Oud (1965) and Escalay (1971), that displays the haunting interplay of the oud's gentle
strings, the extended percussive range and overtones of the tar and his subdued vocals.

Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy (1) drew from the rituals of Arabian Bedouin tribes and
from the belly-dance rhythms of the Middle East for Source of Fire (1995).

With Sudaniyat (1997) Sudanese singer-songwriter Rasha (1) concocted a mishmash of jazz,
pop, reggae and American dance music that achieved pan-ethnic pathos in the tracks arranged
with an orchestra of violins, accordion, saxophones, oud and percussion.

The classic "maqam" Islamic style was best represented by Egyptian girl prodigy Om
Kalthum, who first recorded in 1925.

Ethiopian Music
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Ethiopia, one of the world's most ancient nations, was virtually obliterated (both as a people
and as a culture) by the communist dictatorship of Mengitsu between 1974 and 1991. The
Ethiopian music that was recorded between 1969 and 1978 was unknown in the rest of the
world until the late 1990s. Indeed, the Ethiopian scene of the 1960s was one of the most lively
scenes in the world. The country that will later be identified with chronic famine was actually
experienced a moderate boom. The soundtrack of that boom was played by countless swing
bands in countless night clubs. The censorship and persecution of the 1970s scientifically
destroed that scene, and the massive economic collapse that followed Mengitsu's communist
reforms sent the few survivors into exile. In 1978, Mengitsu officially banned all vynil
recordings of music, and Ethiopian music went into hibernation until the 1990s.

Ethiopian virtuoso vocalist Mahmoud Ahmed, accompanied by the jazzy Ibex Band, penned a
form of dance-pop that drew from both African, western and Middle-eastern sources on Ere
Mela Mela (1986), that compiled some of his hits from 1975-78.

Ethiopian vocalist Aster Aweke, who relocated in 1982 to the USA, adapted her extraordinary
voice to a repertory of soul-jazz-rock, at times gritty like Aretha Franklin at her best, and at
times soporific like Sade, on Aster (1990), which actually summarized her eleven Ethiopian
cassettes, and Kabu (1992).

Middle-Eastern Music
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Lebanese oud virtuoso Rabih Abou-Khalil (1) combined jazz improvisation and his Middle-
eastern folk traditions (intricate rhythms, ornate melodies) on albums such as Between Dusk
and Dawn (1987).

Yemeni-Israeli vocalist Ofra Haza became a star by singing traditional Jewish psalms arranged
for the disco by state-of-the-art producers on Yemenite Songs (1987).

Turkish sufi multi-instrumentalist Omar Faruk Tekbilek sold out his traditions to the new-age
crowd on Whirling (1994), Mystical Garden (1996), Crescent Moon (1998) and One Truth
(1999).

African music of the 1950s


African music of the 1970s
African disco music
African music of the 1980s

Other Resources:
 African Roots of Jamaican Music
 Jamaicain Music Travel
 Travel the Carribean
 Hotels in Jamaica
 Dominican Republic Vacation
 "African Music Vacation
Recommended Discography (7/10 and higher)

 Cheb Khaled: Kutche (1989)


 Hossam Ramzy: Source of Fire (1995)
 Hamza El Din: Al Oud (1965)
 Hamza El Din: Escalay (1971)
 Hassan Hakmoun: Trance (1993)
 Manu Dibango: Waka Juju (1982)
 Baaba Maal: Baayo (1991)
 Salif Keita: Soro (1987)
 Rasha: Sudaniyat (1997)
 King Sunny Ade`: Juju Music (1982)
 Thomas Mapfumo: Gwindingwi Rine Shumba (1980)
 Thomas Mapfumo: Chimurenga for Justice (1986)
 Fela Anikulapo Kuti: Gentleman (1973)
 Fela Anikulapo Kuti: Zombie (1977)
 Fela Anikulapo Kuti: Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense (1987)
 Fela Anikulapo Kuti: Overtake Don Overtake Overtake (1990)
 Youssou N'Dour: Xalis (1979)
 Youssou N'Dour: Immigres (1985)
 Youssou N'Dour: Set (1990)
 Toure' Kunda: Freres Griots (1979)
 Orchestra Baobab: Pirate's Choice (1982)
 Jali Musa Jawara: Yasimika (1983)
 Ali Farka Toure: Ali Farka Toure (1988)
 Toumani Diabate: Kaira (1987)
 Babatunde Olatunji: Drums of Passion (1959)
 Ebenezer Obey: Current Affairs (1980)
 Hugh Masekela: The Lasting Impression (1965)
 Mahlathini: Putting on the Light (1975)
 Franco & Tabu Ley: Omana Wapi (1976)
 Zap Mama: Adventures in Afropea I (1993)
 Boubacar Traore: Mariama (1990)
 Oumou Sangare: Ko Sira (1993)
 Rokia Traore': Wanita (2000)
 Habib Koite': Muso Ko (1995)
 Tarika: Son Egal (1997)
 Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng: Awakening (1998)
 Tinariwen: The Radio Tisdas Sessions (2002)

 Rabih Abou-Khalil: Between Dusk and Dawn (1987)

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