Essential West African Albums
For many people, African music is world music. Other than reggae, it was the first non-American or Western music to truly seep into the public consciousness, thanks in part to Island Records trying to make an international star of Nigeria's King Sunny Ade and Peter Gabriel's championing of Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour. Certainly West Africa - an area stretching from the Democratic Republic of Congo north to Senegal has proved to be one of music's most fertile regions, with a quality and variety that far exceeds its population and wealth. From the Congolese rumba of the 1950s, played and sung by the likes of Franco and Tabu Ley Rochereau, through the '70s Afrobeat pioneering of the late Fela Kuti, the exquisite high voice of Mali's Salif Keita or the guitar work of Ali Farka Toure who connects the dots between African music and the blues from his home on the edge of the Sahara desert, the music of West Africa has a history and a richness that runs deep.
The relaxed palm-wine styling of the late S. E. Rogie from Sierra Leone conjure up lazy afternoons of entertainment, while Toumani Diabate's exquisite delicacy on the kora, a 21-string harp, takes music to a distant past. Youssou N'Dour might be the biggest star the most recognizable among the names, and his talent remains undeniable, more than 20 years after he began working with Etoile de Dakar. But Baaba Maal, also from Senegal, can affect as much with his singing. These records capture the essence of the artists, and also of the region. It's a place of tradition, where the griot - oral historian, adviser, and seer all in one person - still wields power and gets respect. This music is as fresh and vital today as when it was released, still exciting, an insight into the countries, their histories, their present, and their futures.
The Music in My Head, Various Artists (Stern's Africa) Compiled to accompany the novel of the same name, this is as close to a perfect sampler of West African music as you're likely to find. Drawn mostly from the late '70s and '80s, it has a young Youssou N'Dour wailing away as if his life depended on it, Franco showing his guitar magic with L'Orchestre TP OK Jazz, and Omar Pene showing how Cuban and African music could mix. Best of all, however is Mali's Etoile 2000 and "Boubou N'Gary," which sounds as if someone had transported the Yardbirds to Senegal and put a dub reggae producer behind the board. Breakaways from N'Dour's group, they hardly recorded anything, but this remains a true African psychedelic classic, from the unearthly wail of El Hadji Faye's voice to the screaming garage fuzz of the guitar.
The Mansa of Mali...A Retrospective, Salif Keita (Mango) Salif Keita shouldn't have been a singer. He was born to a Malian royal family, and under the caste system, that meant singing wasn't allowed. And he was born albino, making him a shunned person. However, the music was in him, and he was a founder of the seminal Super Rail Band, before leaving to form Les Ambassadeurs, and then enjoying a solo career that's brough him international acclaim and success. With his high, eerie voice, he seems to commune with spirits more than be of the earth. This album looks back to his splendid early work, with "Mandjou," recorded with Les Ambassadeurs in 1978, still a highlight among his catalogue for his swooping vocals and the fluid guitar work.
Omona Wapi, Franco & Rocherau (Shanachie) Franco, the Sorcerer of the Guitar as he was known, and singer Tabu Ley Rochereau both began their careers in the Congolese rumba scene of the mid-1950s. Both went on to become massive stars at home, with glowing international reputations, Franco as the leader of O.K. Jazz, and Rochereau with Africa Jazz, then fronting a number of bands. As the rumba speeded up and turned to soukous, both learned to adapt. Omona Wapi, recorded in 1983, was a rare pairing of two giants. The could have gone on auto-pilot, but "Lisanga Ya Ba Nganga" is glorious rumba-obenda, free of the Paris production gloss, with the give and take of voices stunning, and Franco's fretwork at a peak. And there's even a lovely glance backward to the classic rumba with "Kabassele In Memoriam," a tribute to a fallen musical colleague, Joseph Kabasele.
The Best Best of Fela Kuti, Fela Kuti (MCA) Fela Kuti was the father of Afrobeat, the music that blended the rhythms of West Africa with the funk and groove of American soul. Influenced by James Brown, his band locked into a groove and hung on to it like pit bulls, while Kuti sang his extremely political lyrics and played sax on top. Often beaten, arrested, and imprisoned by the Nigerian authorities, he never gave up until hjis death from AIDS in 1997, releasing album after album of powerful music. While there's good stuff on every disc, the 2-CD compilation cherry-picks a lot of the highlights, such as "Zombie," the song which led to the burning of the Kuti compound by the Nigerian military in February 1977. The legacy of Fela Kuti burns on in his son, Femi Kuti.
JuJu Music, King Sunny Ade and His African Beats (Mango) After the death of Bob Marley in 1981, Island Records looked from another Third World superstar, and in Nigeria's King Sunny Ade they thought they'd found him. It never worked out the way they hoped, but JuJu Music launched an international career that's still going strong. His juju music, which grew out of the traditional highlife sound, was melodic and infectious, the percussion linking long swathes of playing, with a pedal steel guitar, the trademark of Ade's band, cutting through it all to offer smooth comments on the action. While he's recorded many albums, the looseness and unforced charm of this international debut made tracks like "Ma Jaiye Oni" irresistible, and marked Ade as the major musical force he's since become.
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