Afropop Worldwide
554 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 days ago - ★★★★★ - 281 ratingsAfropop Worldwide is an internationally syndicated weekly radio series, online guide to African and world music, and an international music archive, that has introduced American listeners to the music cultures of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean since 1988. Our radio program is hosted by Georges Collinet from Cameroon, the radio series is distributed by Public Radio International to 110 stations in the U.S., via XM satellite radio, in Africa via and Europe via Radio Multikulti.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Saving The Malawi Tapes
April 25, 2024 12:00 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBThe Malawi Broadcasting Corporation recorded a goldmine of local music in the 1960s and 70s, but the tapes were neglected and close to ruined when broadcaster Waliko Makhala raised the alarm. With help from the Norwegian embassy and Norwegian broadcaster Sigbjorn Nedland, digitization got underway. In this program, we sample the results guided by Waliko, Sigbjorn and Martin White, curator of African Poems, a website dedicated to preserving poetry from around the continent. Produced by Martin ...
Thomas Mapfumo Live at SOB's in NYC
April 18, 2024 14:00 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBIn 1991, Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited made their second tour of the United States. It was a fascinating transitional moment in the band’s history. Mapfumo had recently added two musicians playing the metal-pronged, Shona mbira, enriching the band’s lineup of guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, brass and percussion. The band had now evolved into a kind of folk orchestra in which everyone sang, allowing for beautifully layered vocal arrangements. This recording, made by Afropop Worldwide...
Planet Afropop - Rachid Taha: African Punk Ghost
April 16, 2024 14:43 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MBIn this episode, producer Elodie Maillot in Paris reviews the career of mercurial Algerian-French singer, composer and activist Rachid Taha, who died in 2018. With remembrances from producers Steve Hillage, Justin Adams and others, the podcast brings to life a singular life and musical career. Taha merged rock and rai music, love poetry and fierce critique, gentle sensitivity and world-weary toughness. Today, his impact continues to grow. And even though the artist is now gone - his musical g...
Thomas Mapfumo - The War Years
April 11, 2024 15:00 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBThis Hip Deep edition explores the legendary early career of Thomas Mapfumo, a singer, composer and bandleader whose 1970s music set the stage for the birth of a new nation, Zimbabwe. Using rare, unreleased recordings, and recollections by Mapfumo, key band members, and prominent Zimbabweans who lived through the liberation struggle, this program traces the development of chimurenga music. Central to the program, are research materials gathered by Mapfumo biographer Banning Eyre, and commenta...
Planet Afropop - ARB: Nigeria’s Alternative Reflective Beats
April 02, 2024 15:17 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MBIn this episode, Planet Afropop’s Lagos correspondent Fay Fay profiles a unique multi-generational band on the Nigerian scene: Alternative Reflective Beats (ARB). True to their name, ARB's music embodies the vibrant rhythms of Afrobeat intertwined with a fusion of other genres. Their mission is to maintain their distinct musical identity while creating songs that appeal to both live audiences and streaming enthusiasts. By staying true to this vision, the band aspires to establish longevity in...
Women's History Month: Umm Kulthum - The Voice of Egypt
March 28, 2024 14:00 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBUmm Kulthum has been called the greatest singer in the Arabic speaking world in the 20th century. Born in 1904 the humble daughter of an Egyptian village imam, she went on to become a glamorous Cairo celebrity in her 20s, and soon after that, a cultural icon whose monthly live radio broadcasts brought much of Egypt to a standstill. She turned high poetry into popular culture. She extended musical forms with her virtuoso, extended vocal improvisations. Combining historical, religious, literary...
Women's History Month: Afropop Women Warriors
March 21, 2024 12:02 - 59 minutes - 135 MBThis program focuses on four female artists whose music is full of challenging messages for a challenged world. Climate change, womens’ empowerment, police brutality, official corruption… All that and more in new work from Angelique Kidjo, Dobet Gnaore, Fatoumata Diaouara and Shungudzo, plus a dive into Octavia Butler’s prescient cautionary tales with Toshi Reagon. Produced by Banning Eyre. APWW #827
Planet Afropop - Singeli Jumps and Rumba Swings in Tanzania!
March 19, 2024 15:00 - 54 minutes - 49.9 MBAfropop Worldwide took 24 adventurous listeners to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, and Zanzibar in February. In this episode, Dar music veteran and aficionado John Kitime takes us through highlights, including the frenetic and risqué singeli music-and-dance craze currently electrifying the country. We also get Kitime's unique insider perspective, and some deep history, on Swahili rumba, still going strong in Dar Es Salaam nightclubs. PA #014
Women's History Month: Four Women of the West
March 14, 2024 17:38 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBIn West Africa, women are on the cutting edge of musical and cultural progress. This program looks at four singer/composers with roots in tradition and unique ideas about how to keep them current in the fast-changing milieu of today’s African music. Mali’s Fatoumata Diawara keeps her focus on messages, mixing traditional sounds and rock idioms to reach young audiences. Senegal’s Aida Samb is finding new avenues for that country’s trademark mbalax sound, including collaborations with Afrobeats...
Women's History Month: Cheikha Rimitti, Rebel Queen of Algerian Music
March 07, 2024 14:00 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBCheikha Rimitti was certainly a queen. For some, she was the queen of raï (pronounced RYE), which means “opinion" in Arabic. For others, she was the queen of freedom, an Algerian Statue of Liberty wielding the fire of independence, as she sang daringly and frankly about love, sexuality, poverty, drinking and oppression. She defied taboos and her music was often banned. She used to say that "misfortune was her teacher” but she became an international star who died at 86, two days after a sold-...
Planet Afropop - South Africa in the Green Room: Bongiziwe and Bakithi
March 05, 2024 18:44 - 44 minutes - 40.8 MBBongiziwe Mabandla is a maverick South African singer-songwriter whose music draws on many of his country’s rich styles, but cannot be reduced to any of them. Along with his Mozambican producer Tiago Correira Paulo, he has developed a unique, keyboard-driven sound with deep, meditative textures. Planet Afropop’s Mukwae Wabei Siyolwe calls it “music you can dance to, pray to, cry to, and celebrate to.” In this episode Mukwae speaks with Bongiziwe and Tiago as they are about to embark on a worl...
Planet Afropop - South Africa in the Green Room: Bongeziwe and Bakithi
March 05, 2024 18:44 - 44 minutes - 40.8 MBBongeziwe Mabandla is a maverick South African singer-songwriter whose music draws on many of his country’s rich styles, but cannot be reduced to any of them. Along with his Mozambican producer Tiago Correira Paulo, he has developed a unique, keyboard-driven sound with deep, meditative textures. Planet Afropop’s Mukwae Wabei Siyolwe calls it “music you can dance to, pray to, cry to, and celebrate to.” In this episode Mukwae speaks with Bongeziwe and Tiago as they are about to embark on a worl...
Women's History Month: Afropop Women of Note
February 29, 2024 15:12 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBTo kick off Women's History Month, DJ Kix returns with Georges Collinet to take us on a musical journey across Africa, showcasing some of the continent’s formidable women who are quickly rising in the industry and making their presence known. In this episode, we’ll hear from: top Namibian MC, Lioness; Zimbabwean Afro-fusion artist, Gemma Griffiths; as well as Kaleo Sansaa from Zambia with her “sun-drunk” sounds and “solar-based” hip-hop; alongside Hibotep’s experimental East African electro v...
Black History Month: The African American String Music Tradition
February 22, 2024 15:48 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBThere’s been a lot of speculation about the chain of musical events that link the blues back to Africa. Most of that chain is unrecorded and shrouded in mystery. But there is one chapter, just before the blues, that we do know quite a lot about. That’s the history of African-American string bands. This program explores the history, with music and memories from a special guest: the late string maestro Howard Armstrong. Along the way, we hear music from Canray Fontenot, Blind James Campbell, Ho...
Planet Afropop - Mas Carnaval in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe
February 20, 2024 16:58 - 45 minutes - 41.8 MBThe season of Carnival (Carnaval), in Guadeloupe brings the unmistakable sounds of music from the local culture clubs to the streets like no other carnival in the world. Every Sunday from the new year to Ash Wednesday, The islanders take turns showing off their cultural traditions. Enslaved Africans, were prohibited from assembling because of Article 16 of the “Code Noir” promulgated by the King of France, Louis XIV, in 1685. After the abolition of slavery on the islands in 1848, They have b...
Black History Month: The Black History of the Banjo
February 15, 2024 16:07 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBThis program traces the history of this most American of instruments from its ancestors in West Africa through the Caribbean and American South and into the present, as a new generation of Black women artists reclaim the banjo as their own. Rhiannon Giddens, Bassekou Kouyate, Bela Fleck and more talk claw-hammers, trad jazz, Appalachian folk, African ancestors and the on-going story of American music, which would be woefully incomplete without a Black history of the banjo. Produced by Ben Ric...
Black History Month: The Black History of Tap Dancing
February 08, 2024 13:00 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBFoundational for Broadway and the movies, intertwined with jazz, tap dancing is a Great American Art. Strap on your shoes and shuffle along as we trace the history of tap and celebrate the Black artists and innovators who built--and continue to build--this art form. From its murky origins melding African percussion and Anglo-Irish step dancing, to tap's golden age and its ongoing evolution. Produced by Ben Richmond.
Planet Afropop - Syli D’Or Winners And Artists For Aid
February 06, 2024 21:56 - 52 minutes - 47.8 MBEvery winter, starting in February, the organizers of the annual Nuits D’Afrique festival put on a battle of the Afropop bands. Bands face off, three a night at Club Balatou, and the audience votes a winner for the night. Eventually, the field comes down to nine finalists, and that’s when we at Afropop are asked to pick the winner of the Afropop prize from those nine acts. So as the festival is about to kick off again this year,we thought it would be great to honor the 2023 winners. The big ...
Black History Month: The Ring and The Shout
February 01, 2024 13:00 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBThis Hip Deep episode presents the stunning radio premiere of "Oh, David," the traditional song of the annual Easter Rock in Winnsboro, Louisiana. The Easter Rock is in fact a surviving ringshout—the oldest known form of African American music—but it's about 600 miles west of the ringshout's heartland in Georgia. It's located across the Mississippi River from Vicksburg in the Louisiana Delta, where they don't call it a "ringshout," but a “rock.” And it totally rocks. Producer Ned Sublette att...
Planet Afropop - Moh! Kouyate: A Conversation with a Global Griot
January 23, 2024 16:38 - 45 minutes - 41.5 MBMoh Kouyate is a Guinean guitarist/singer/songwriter descending from a line of griots (jalis) in West Africa. As listeners heard in the Afropop Worldwide program Global Griots in France, he has lived in Paris since 2006, collaborating with a wide range of artists from genres far outside his traditional art. In this episode, Banning Eyre speaks with Moh about his adventurous life, and particularly, his ground-breaking, new acoustic album, Mokhôya. Also, fellow Guinean artist Natu Camara gives ...
Calypso, Reggae and Jab-Jab Soca: Musical Resistance in Grenada
January 11, 2024 19:57 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBCalypso and reggae have been mainstays of Grenada’s musical culture, until the emergence of the distinctive Carnival-based offshoot known as jab-jab soca, and more recent hybrid forms embraced by a younger generation of musical practitioners. On this program, we explore how the island’s tempestuous history has influenced its dynamic music scene, with testimony from leading Grenadian music figures, including calypso kings Ajamu and Black Wizard, members of the innovative group Moss Internation...
Planet Afropop - A Conversation with Okwy Osadebe
January 09, 2024 15:16 - 58 minutes - 53.2 MBOkwy Osadebe is the son of Nigerian Igbo highlife legend Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe. In this lively conversation with Georges Collinet and Eme Awa, of WOWD Radio in Takoma Park, we learn about the life, music and legacy of Okwy’s late father. We also learn about Okwy’s life in the United States, and his new album Igbo Amaka, and hear tracks from both father and son. It’s a Nigerian highlife extravaganza for the 21st century.
Spiritual Journeys: Randy Weston, A Jazz Life with the African Ancestors
December 28, 2023 16:49 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBJazz legend, Randy Weston, more than any contemporary jazz artist, understood, honored and explored the roots of American music in Africa. He lived there, traveled there often, and spoke of his connections to his African ancestors in every interview during his 92 years. In this program, we revisit our musical conversation with Weston in 1998, and sample some of his late solo piano recordings. Produced by Sean Barlow and Banning Eyre. APWW #789
Planet Afropop - Year End Special
December 27, 2023 16:50 - 45 minutes - 41.2 MBPlanet Afropop closes out 2023 with a focus on celebratory music from the Democratic Republic of Congo. First, Mukwae notes some of the year’s trends in global African pop. Then we go to the streets of Kinshasa with live music from Kin’Gongolo Kinyata, recorded at WOMEX 2023 in Spain. And we end at the 35th Anniversary Dance Party at SOB’s in New York City, with Samba Mapangala and Soukous Stars. It’s a rollicking finale to an eventful year in African music.
Spiritual Journeys: Tarab, The Art of Ecstasy in Arab Music
December 21, 2023 11:00 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBTarab, the ecstatic feeling associated with listening to and playing great music, is a fundamental characteristic in many varieties of Arab music. In this program, we explore tarab with special guest UCLA ethnomusicology professor A.J. Racy. Racy draws on his lifelong study of music and musicians, and also his insights as a virtuoso performer on the nay flute and the buzuq. Racy guides us through the experiences of listeners and players, providing deep insight into many varieties of tarab. We...
Spiritual Journeys: The Soul of Mbira
December 14, 2023 18:42 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBIn 1999, almost 30 years before ethnomusicologist Paul Berliner began his research on Zimbabwean mbira music, he organized a U.S. tour with mbira artists he had worked with over the years. Billed as the Mbira Masters of Zimbabwe, the ensemble presented Shona spiritual music as never before on American stages. Revered vocalists Hakurotwi Mude and Beulah Dyoko fronted an ensemble that also included Cosmas Magaya, Chaka Chawasarira and Berliner himself. Afropop Worldwide documented the tour and ...
Planet Afropop - Three Takes on Burkina Faso
December 12, 2023 17:41 - 49 minutes - 45 MBBurkina Faso in West Africa is a nation on the rise. Amid recent political turmoil, it faces the challenge and opportunity of managing vast mineral wealth, including gold. As promising as these riches are, Georges, Mukwae and Banning focus here on the country’s multicultural musical riches. We hear music from the late Baba Commandant and the Mandingo band, as well as interviews and live music from Dicko Fils and the Sahel punk experimental outfit, Avalanche Kaito. Open your ears to a too-ofte...
Spiritual Journeys: Traveling Spirit Masters, The Gnawa of Morocco
December 07, 2023 11:00 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBGnawa musicians have carved out a unique niche within Moroccan society, as people with revered spiritual power who use music and movement to heal the sick. The Gnawas’ ancestors came to North Africa as slaves. Today they are an elite class of musicians and spiritualists, celebrated in an annual festival that attracts some 400,000 fans, and invited to collaborate with such notable international artists as jazz legend Randy Weston. In this program, originally produced in 2009, author and sch...
Changui!
November 30, 2023 14:36 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBChangüí is a little understood, loose and lively, community-based music of eastern Cuba. In this program we sample recordings from the 2021 box set Changüí: The Sound of Guantánamo, and hear from Gianluca Tramontana, the man who made the recordings. Rooted in Afro-Haitian music, pan-Caribbean styles, Spanish poetic traditions and more, Changüí emerged in the mid 19th century in plantations, not unlike the blues. We also hear from musician and scholar Ben Lapidus, author of the only English la...
Planet Afropop - Mr Eazi Gets Evil
November 28, 2023 11:00 - 52 minutes - 48.3 MBMr. Eazi stands out among today’s Nigerian pop stars in a number of ways. For starters, in a world of musical dreamers and schemers, he never set out to be a musician. Now, the 29-year-old is one of the most innovative and respected artists in the Afrobeats universe. His 2023 album The Evil Genius is an ambitious concept album recorded in a variety of mostly African countries. Each of its 16 tracks has an accompanying artwork by a different African visual artist. And there’s more, as you will...
African Legends: Remembering Tony Allen
November 24, 2023 20:15 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBTony Allen is among the greatest drummers of the past century. His sudden death at 79 in April, 2020, was a shock felt around the world. In addition to his seminal work with the king of Afrobeat Fela Kuti, Allen had a prolific solo career and performed and recorded with artists from Angelique Kidjo, Ray Lema, Ernest Ranglin and Oumou Sangare to Damon Albarn, Brian Eno and Jeff Mills. In this program we salute a towering career in global music, with insights from Michael Veal, co-author of All...
African Legends: Remembering Manu Dibango
November 16, 2023 15:05 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBCameroonian musician and composer Manu Dibango passed away on March 24, 2020 at his home in France, an early victim of Covid 19. This episode is a tribute to the exceptional man who, by chance, as he says, gave us the famous Soul Makossa, a tune that opened the Disco era. In this episode of Afropop Worldwide, Georges Collinet goes back in time to recollect his friendship with his fellow Cameroonian. He explores the many ways their lives paralleled and intersected after they were sent to Fran...
Planet Afropop - Ghana At WOMEX 2023
November 14, 2023 13:00 - 50 minutes - 46 MBOn this episode of Planet Afropop, we focus on Ghana at WOMEX 2023. But first, Mukwae updates us with South African sensation Tyla, and her hit "Water." Banning has a conversation and informal jam session with Ghanain musician Kyekyeku - recorded by the EBU at WOMEX in Spain. And we wrap up with Ghanain singer, Florence. She shares her origin story and we hear her music. Episode #005
African Legends: Remembering Oliver Mtukudzi
November 09, 2023 15:37 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBZimbabwe’s Oliver Mtukudzi, one of the most beloved singer/composer/bandleaders out of Africa in the last century, died in Harare on Jan. 23 2019 after a long battle with diabetes. Tuku, as his fans knew him, composed countless songs that cut to the heart of life in Zimbabwe, from its struggle for freedom in the 1970s through the rocky road of independence ever since. In this program, we look back at our conversations with Tuku going back to our first visit to Zimbabwe in 1988, and hear his w...
African Legends: Remembering Fela
November 02, 2023 13:15 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBFela Anikulapo-Kuti would be 85 years old today had he not died from complications of AIDS in 1997. By the time of his death, Fela was the inventor of the enduring and influential Afrobeat music style, the composer of an enormous body of music, and one of the bravest political voices in 20th century African music. It is fair to say that no African musician before or since has sacrificed more for the principles he believed in. Nigerian history and music have barreled forth during the two decad...
Planet Afropop - Brazil Update, The Indigenous Edition
October 31, 2023 15:53 - 54 minutes - 50 MBIn this edition of Planet Afropop we focus on Brazil - especially with regard the the challenges facing indigenous people within the country. We speak with musical icon and now Minister of Culture, Margareth Menezes. We have a conversation with Brazilian musical legend Carlinhos Brown backstage at Central Park Summer Stage in NYC. We also have a fascinating, free-wheeling conversation with musician, rapper, cultural activist, and deep-thinker, Emicida. Episode #004
Africa Seven -.5db 7.25
October 25, 2023 15:25 - 15 minutes - 14.6 MBAfrica Seven (Steven Maecs) Producer Steven Maëcs speaks with with Rich Elson, the label manager of the fast-growing cult record label Africa Seven. Officially launched in 2015, based in London and Paris and with an outlet in New York. Africa Seven focuses on releasing curated remastered vinyl albums and eclectic painstakingly researched compilations, mixing big and big “ish” hits with thoughtful deep cuts.
Planet Afropop - Bombino And Bobi Wine
October 13, 2023 14:59 - 47 minutes - 43.4 MBBanning, Georges, and Mukwae speak with Tuareg rocker Bombino; and Ugandan musician and politician, Bobi Wine. Episode #003
How the Sound of Saudade Traveled to Ethiopia
October 10, 2023 11:00 - 23 minutes - 21.2 MBSaudade is a key emotion word for Portuguese speakers. The feeling of Saudade is an untranslatable word for the deep presence of absence. In this episode of Closeup, we bridge the gap between Brazil and Ethiopia, through the sound of music. On the surface, when comparing both respective countries few similarities come to mind. But given the cultural richness of each country in regards to the food, history, and art - once you dig deeper beyond the surface you will find the feeling of saudade t...
Planet Afropop - Lagos update with Fay Fay and a conversation with Las Hijas Del Rap
October 03, 2023 17:32 - 40 minutes - 36.9 MBWe get an update on Lagos from Afropop contributor, Fay Fay. And Mukwae has a reunion/conversation with Las Hijas Del Rap. Episode #002
Introducing Planet Afropop
September 18, 2023 20:52 - 58 minutes - 53.7 MBPlanet Afropop is the latest offering from Afropop Worldwide. Every two weeks, this podcast will feature lively conversations among the three hosts--Georges Collinet, Banning Eyre and Mukwae Wabei Siyolwe—as well as interviews, new music, trending African cultural news and much more. This is the maiden voyage for this podcast. It includes an introduction to the hosts, an interview with Afrobeats star Yemi Alade, and a conversation with author and producer Ned Sublette about Afropop’s recognit...
Hispanic Heritage Month 2023: The Story of Bugalu in NYC
September 15, 2023 00:22 - 59 minutes - 54 MBWe honor the late Joe Cuba with this portrait of "Bugalú," produced for Afropop Worldwide by Ned Sublette. Bugalú is the Spanish spelling of boogaloo, and was also known as “Latin soul.” Joe Cuba was one of bugalú’s most popular artists, best known for the major hit “Bang Bang” that his band created on the spot one night at a New York club. Joe was a mesmerizing storyteller, and we’ll hear some of the major bugalú stars tell their stories, including Johnny Colon (“Boogaloo Blues”) and Tony Pa...
Hispanic Heritage Month 2023: Soneros Mayores - Portraits of Beny Moré and Ismael Rivera
September 15, 2023 00:18 - 59 minutes - 54 MBBeny Moré and Ismael Rivera are national heroes in their home countries, Cuba and Puerto Rico respectively. They were soneros of the highest order, masters of the art of improvised singing. We'll hear some of the songs that made them famous and follow their development as artists. Produced by Ned Sublette. APWW #134
Hispanic Heritage Month 2023: Santo Domingo Blues - The Story of Bachata
September 15, 2023 00:17 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBBachata is a music of the people. Recalling the American blues, bachata was infamous as the anthem of the hard-drinking, womanizing, down-on-his-luck man, vilified as the entertainment of the brothels and the cabarets, and worshipped by the down-trodden poor as the deepest expression of their feelings. Today it is an international sensation. Alex Wolfe, director of the film "Santo Domingo Blues: The Story of Bachata" brings us live ambience and stories of bachata stars Luis Vargas, Antony San...
Wagogo Music Heaven
September 13, 2023 03:45 - 18 minutes - 16.6 MBVeteran Afropop producer Banning Eyre visits the Zawose family compound in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, to experience the magic of the hypnotic music of the Gogo people, the Wagogo. Msafiri Zawose, son of the late Tanzanian music legend Hukwe Zawose, describes the music and the emergence of the new Zawose Reunion Band.
Hispanic Heritage Month 2023: The Cumbia Diaspora
September 08, 2023 17:11 - 59 minutes - 54 MBIn this episode, we find out how cumbia left Colombia in the ‘60s and ‘70s and traveled to other countries. Everywhere it went, it transformed itself, adapting to its new environment. In Peru, it mixed with psychedelic guitar effects and Andean sounds to become chicha. In Argentina, it became the expression of a new generation of restless youth in the burgeoning slums of Buenos Aires. And in Mexico, it became so instilled in the local culture that some have forgotten that it came from Colombi...
Congo Music’s Fifth Generation
September 07, 2023 13:13 - 59 minutes - 54 MBIn the early 2000s, Afropop told the story of “Four Generations” in Congolese music—from rumba and rumba-rock to soukous and ndombolo. Now time has marched on, and once again, thrilling new sounds are emerging from Kinshasa and its global diaspora. We’ll hear hyperkinetic roots-rock from Jupiter and Okwess, Fally Ipupa’s embrace of the current Afrobeats trend, experimental innovations from Pierre Kwenders in Montreal, and more. We’ll also speak with Congolese music connoisseur Lubangi Muniani...
A Spiritual Journey To Mbanza Congo
August 31, 2023 11:00 - 59 minutes - 54 MBTo make this unprecedented program, producer Ned Sublette traveled to Mbanza-Kongo, the ancient seat of the Kongo empire located in present-day northern Angola, where he spoke to Dr. Bárbaro Martínez Ruiz, professor of art and art history at Stanford. We’ll learn about the simbi, the spirits that Martínez Ruiz describes as “the multiple power of god”; hear Antonio Madiata play the lungoyi-ngoyi, the two-stringed viola of the Kongo court; attend a session of the lumbu, the traditional tribunal...
Movement: A Conversation with Jesus Diaz
August 29, 2023 16:17 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MBMovement: A Conversation with Jesus Diaz: Meklit Hadero is a singer and composer and the host of a new podcast called Movement, which tells the story of global migrations through music. In this shared episode, Meklit speaks with Cuban-American percussionist Jesus Díaz about his journey from playing homemade drums in Havana to performing on the biggest stages in the world Diaz. Produced by Ian Coss and Meklit Hadero. #cuba #jesusdiaz #meklithadero #iancross #afromusic #storyteller #afropopworl...