Odd Question and Random Statement

[seiryu_16]

Folks:

Received a rather odd request from my mom for one of her Christmas presents: "African music." Not that African music itself is odd, but rather my mom requesting such is. It's like she's aiming to get that Rhythm Transplant she's always wanted ::grin:: Anyhow. As she has given me NO bands and NO songs and NO specifics, I'm in the dark

Comments

[malcubed]

Lady Black Mombazo
Amampondo

Those are the only two that I can think of that someone of our parent's generation might associate with African music. For more modern type stuff, there's Juno Reactor, Six Degrees' African Travels collections, one of Melt 2000's comps, Achisa, Issa Bagayogo...

There's other obvious stuff, I'm sure, but none of it is coming to mind at the moment.

[happy_l_devil]

Ladysmith black mambazo is very good. They're a large acapella men's group. You should be able to find them pretty easy. They were featured on Paul Simon's Graceland album.
The only other real source I know is Sowah Mensah's albums. He's the director of the Macalester ensemble and you can order his cds online at http://www.sowahmensah.com/albums.html

Suggestions

[atelierlune]

One.

Two.

les nubians

[trickygrin]

they're french, but have awesome music and direct refs to some big south african artists.

all around they are fucking awesome.

[soigneusement]

I second the Zap Mama. Back in the day, when I had a world music show on the UConn station, I played their "Adventures in Afropea" a bunch. I also adore Miriam Makeba, aka "Mama Africa." Cheb Khaled is a great Algerian Rai artist - get the real Rai and not the European-ized stuff produced by Brian Eno. I remember liking the Ry Cooder/Ali Farka Toure collaboration album - "Talking Timbuktu." And if you just want a sampler or two, If you want to sample some of Real World records (Peter Gabriel's label and a great domestic source for world music) fare, they have an "audio wall" on their website http://www.realworldrecords.com/.

I used to love Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as well as Johnny Clegg and Juluka, two great South African bands. And Fela Kuti is fabulous.

[soigneusement]

Sorry bout the disjointed sentences. I should have proofread....

[soigneusement]

One more thing - two other labels to look for are Shanachie and Putumayo, the latter of which puts out lots of compilations.