AFRISSIPPI is a group featuring GUELEL KUMBA who comes from Senegal, West Africa. The nucleus of AFRISSIPPI was born when Eric Deaton, apprentice of the
late JUNIOR KIMBROUGH, invited Guelel to explore the hill country sound
of North Mississippi.
Eric carried Guelel to the home of bluesman R.L.
BURNSIDE where they discovered the eerie similarities between some of
Guelels Senegalese folk melodies and those of R.L. & JUNIOR, the
patriarchs of the hill country boogie and cottonpatch trance blues.
With R.L.s blessing, Guelel & Eric recruited his son and grandson,
Garry & Cedric Burnside, as rhythm section.
AFRISSIPPI channels ancient boogie music & todays Mississippi hill country groove through the Delta Recording style - Its like the blues trying to be born!
Brazilian composer and singer Dorival Caymmi, who catapulted to fame when Carmen Miranda performed one of his songs in 1938, died Saturday. He was 94.
He died of kidney cancer and multiple organ failure in his Rio de Janeiro home, his granddaughter Stela Caymmi told the Globo TV network.
Caymmi's lyrics were inspired by the beautiful women and folklore of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, where he was born. A deep, velvety voice also helped make him one of the country's most beloved
artists.
When it comes to Ska Cubano, rarely has the expression a match made in heaven been so apropos. Take classic rhythms from two of the worlds most musically influential islands, Jamaica and Cuba, mash them together like mint and sugar, add ample of amounts of intoxicating melodies and a dash of jest; the result is a magical musical cocktail that has been setting dance floors ablaze from London to Tokyo. Check out today's FREE Song:
The idea of creating a Cuban ska band originated with Peter A. Scott, a British entrepreneur and music lover whose business ventures brought him regularly to Jamaica and Cuba. Scott invited Natty Bo, a renowned London ska singer and devotee of all things retro, to travel with him to the city of Santiago de Cuba, often called the cradle of Cuban music because of its influential role in the development of popular Cuban music, to record with some of the best local musicians. Natty Bo, also a popular London DJ, was an avid collector of old Cuban 78s, and suggested bringing other flavors into the mix such as Colombian cumbia, Jamaican mento and Trinidadian calypso.
While in Santiago, Natty Bo heard Cuban crooner Beny Billy, the living reincarnation of the legendary Beny Moré, belting it out in a bar, and knew then and there he had found his vocal counterpart on the project. Back in London, Natty Bo formed a band featuring the leading maestros of Cuban and Jamaican music, and the group set about bringing the irresistible Ska Cubano sound to the concert stage. The rest, as they say, is history, or at least, historical revisionism, as Ska Cubano posits a world where the music of Caribbean cousins Jamaica, Cuba and beyond developed a closer kinship back in the day before reggae and salsa shook the globe.
Former member of Star Band de Dakar and Orchestra Baobab, Thione Seck has been an important figure on Senegal’s music scene since the 1960s. In the late 70s and early 80s Seck was one of the originators of mbalax, which has been Senegal’s most popular sound since then. Check out today's FREE Song:
Seck was always a fan of Egyptian superstars such as Abdel Halim Hafez and Oum Kalsoum as well as Bollywood playback singers Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. These singers have influenced his singing style, sometimes subtly, sometimes in a more obvious way. - An interesting mixture of Africa and Asia, - Senegal and India, among others...
Even though Seck grew up in Senegal, he says that a childhood fascination with Hindu films led him to favor Eastern modes. He told Afropop, "It's like the scales of the Spanish, Hindu, Greek, Arab musicians. Each time I compose a song, I put a few notes from this eastern scale, because that's what I love the most." The contrast between the band's edgy alertness and Seck's air of spiritual intoxication is likely to raise the hair on your spine. Do you agree?
Boubacar Traore (Kar-Kar) has been dodging musical stardom for most of his life. In his youth, Boubacar Traore was known as the Malian Chuck Berry or Elvis Presley. People woke up every day to hear him singing on the radio. His most popular song at that time was "Mali Twist" which he has likened to a national anthem for the newly independent nation of Mali.
Traore is an artist who has affected an entire generation. His is the voice of a nation, its hopes and its fears. He is a storyteller, and his songs deal with daily living, the many facets of love, political conditions and solidarity. Sometimes they are small parables, resonant with meanings we'll never be able to understand, but clear to his friends. Perhaps the final words are best said by one of his peers, Ali Farka Toure: "If the maximum is five, I give ten to Kar Kar".
He insists he's no blues man. "Blues is blues," he says. "It's American. But there is also blues in Europe and blues in Africa. The languages are different, but you can see that all these kinds of blues have the same parents--same father, same mother." Get More Music by Boubacar Traore
Today's FREE Song is by Coco Mbassi, She is Cameroonian, but she is principally based in Paris. Winner of the 1996 Radio France Internationale Decouvertes 'prize in the African music category, she is both an author and a composer.
Coco's songs tell stories often based on personal life experiences that
she recalls. It's these stories and feelings that make her songs what
they are today, and a great deal of these memories are made up of those
old sepia-colored (black and white) photographs from home.
With a postgraduate degree in translation she began singing lead and chorus in the African gospel choir "Les Cherubins" and as a backing vocalist, she collaborated with various artists like Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare, Manu Dibango and Ray Lema.
The words to the songs of her mother tongue, Duala, are often found combined with jazzy, minimalist and classical arrangements, where vocal polyphony and African rhythm continue to play an important role. Coco Mbassi composes her own pieces and writes the words. Although her husband - who teaches as classical double-bassist - exercises a strong influence on her music writing, in her childhood she was permanently exposed at home to a wide variety of Händel, Makossa and jazz bigbands.
French DJ, Frederic Galliano, has been
working the
French groove scene since 1994. He put together his
own label, Frikyiwa, with artists and bands such
as Hadja Kouyaté, Baye Coly, Néba Solo, Ali
Boulo Santo, and others. His latest project,
'Kuduro Sound System', is all about dance and
takes us across the continent of Africa to
Angola.
The Kuduro was born in 1996 in Angola. Created by Tony Amado, the Angolan's Grandmaster Flash. Kuduro is an African electronic production, and Galliano's beats are a savant mix of programming inspired by Angola's carnival. Just check out the moves on the Kuduro Sound System's live video and you'll be a believer!!
On Jan. 31, Derrick Ashong, a 32-year-old musician and leader of the band Soulfege, was carrying a sign for Barak Obama outside the Hollywood theater at the Democratic primary debate taking place that day.
Derrick's sign said “¡Sí, se puede!” (Yes, we can!), and he joined a crowd milling around in the street. Then a guy carrying a
video camera came by and began asking Derrick a
series of very pointed questions about why he supported Barak Obama.
“So why are you for Obama?” he asked. It was clear from his approach
that he expected a shallow answer.
As it turned out, Derrick was glad to be asked, and held forth for almost six minutes — which is a very long time for regular broadcast television. — on universal health care, single-payer approaches
and public-private partnerships.
Now this may seem like what could have been rather dull fare but here’s the cool part: On Feb. 2, the video interview
was posted on a YouTube channel called “The Latest Controversy,” where
supporters of both Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Obama are asked very aggressively to justify their choice
of candidates.
The video blew up, drawing more than 850,000 views. And
after getting such a large response Derrick decided to post his own follow-up video that was posted Feb. 11 and received 300,000 views.
So here is an independent musician, who was looking to (anonymously) show support for a candidate, drawing more than a million views with an
impassioned but reasoned pitch.
Derrick clearly appealed to the youth movement that
is shaking up the 2008 campaign. While his video could have been lost among the YouTube clutter, an editor at
The New York Times heard about it and a Youtube hit was made.
Part
of what happened is that the original video was contrary in format to the 'regular' sound bite news format. Neither the camera guy nor Derrick played by the rules. The
journalist is never seen and is extremely aggressive in asking
questions, while Derrick, does not so much take the
bait as reel in the guy setting it out there. It is a classic viral moment. Derrick was quoted by the New York Times, saying:
“Certain types of discourse are better suited to the Web. There has been so much talk about how this campaign is all about style
and no substance, and this video contradicts that. There are reasons
that we support Obama, and it has to do with the issues. You can’t get
that on CNN right now, you can’t get that on MSNBC right now, and young
people saw it on YouTube and they took it.”
It turns out that three of the dozen most
popular videos on YouTube this month are about Barack Obama, not Paris
or Lindsay or Britney. As noted in the NY Times:
"Many long-held beliefs are taking a beating
during this election, chief among them the idea that if you want to
connect with young people, you’d best keep it short, funny and stupid."
K'naan, “the traveler”, fled war-torn Somalia at the age of thirteen on what turned out to be the very last commercial flight to ever do so, amidst a crumbling society and the end of any form of centralized government. He arrived in Toronto with a very strong sense of purpose, and it is this sense of purpose as well as his amazing lyrical gift, which has made him a beacon for other artists as well as those dedicated to global change.
An elegant ambassador of peace, K'naan rhymes against violence because he never forgot the chance he had to escape death. In 2001, after gaining notoriety as a skilled mc and spoken word poet, K'naan was invited to Geneva to perform a spoken word piece at the 50th anniversary of the UN Commission for Refugees. In front of some of the biggest suits in the world, K'naan brought the house down with his politically charged poem. The audience was so moved by the piece that they gave K'naan a standing ovation. K'naanexplains, "I basically called out the UN for its failed relief mission in Somalia. When my brother heard the song he said that it’s the first song he’d heard of mine that could get me killed.”
K’naan emerged on the International scene with his debut album “The Dusty Foot Philosopher” in 2005. He took home the 2006 Juno Award (Canada’s Grammy) for Best Rap Recording and received newcomer of the year at BBC’s World Music Awards. In the last 2 years he has played over 350 shows touring 5 continents recorded and sharing the stage with Damian Marley, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, M1, Youssou N’Dour, Amadou and Miriam and many more. These artists celebrate the relevance of his political poetry, live performance and purpose-driven mission.
K'naan’s music is truly a vehicle to raise awareness. He is an artist with a message; as such, his music and his actions have placed him in a position to speak out for the voiceless while informing, empowering and inspire the masses.
