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viewing 1 To 14 of 14 items
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STEW 012CD
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1989 release. A brilliant synthesis of Cameroonian makossa, Congolese soukous, and American disco, Sam Fan Thomas's "African Typic Collection" was an enormous hit all over Africa and in African émigré communities around the world in 1984 and for years after. It remains a dance-party favorite to this day, an enduring phenomenon on the order of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'". African Typic Collection includes two more hits by Thomas, along with tracks by two other stars of the super-makossa style, Charlotte Mbango and Koko Ateba, as well as Tam Tam 2000's popular "Zouk En Avant", which connects the Cape Verdean islands to the Caribbean Islands. African Typic Collection is tropical dance music at its hottest.
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STEW 045CD
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2001 release. Super Mazembe, whose name means "giant earth-movers," was a Congolese band that achieved widespread success outside of the Congo. Its single "Kassongo" (which kicks off this compilation) was a huge hit in Kenya in 1977, and for the next ten years the band produced hit after hit, toured East Africa almost constantly, and filled clubs, theaters, and stadiums wherever it appeared. Mazembe's biggest hit was "Shauri Yako" (written by Nguashi Ntimbo), which gained further popularity in a cover version by Tabu Ley Rochereau and Mbilia Bel. Super Mazembe reciprocated by recording -- and improving on -- Rochereau's "Jiji." Giants of East Africa is a perfect complement to the 2013 Sterns CD Mazembe @ 45RPM (STCD 3063CD).
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STEW 052CD
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2003 release. Although the Brazilian record industry has been centered in Rio de Janeiro and dominated by a few multinational companies since its beginnings in the early 20th century, it's been shaken up quite a bit in the last 25 years as distinct music scenes have formed in cities as far apart as São Paulo, Salvador, and Recife, and independent studios and labels have asserted themselves. Now there's more to Brazilian music than samba, bossa nova, and MPB, though those styles continue to inform new styles, as do funk, punk rock, hip-hop, acid jazz, dub, and EDM. This is the phenomenon presented in Urban Brazil, which features singles, remixes, and previously unreleased tracks by some of the most innovative Brazilian artists of the time, including Chico Science, the originator of mangué beat; his Nação Zumbi bandmate, Otto; the genre-mashing DJ Dolores; BiD; BoTECOeletro; Thaide & DJ Hum; Max de Castro remixed by Rica Amabis; Nery Bauer; Instituto & Sabotage; João Parahyba; Rappin' Hood; Drumagick; Eddie; Mamelo Sound System; Funky Como le Gusta; and Wilson Simoninha.
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STEW 046CD
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2001 release. Beneath the exterior of Lisbon's crumbling grandeur lie many secrets, not least its vibrant African music scene. As the capital of Portugal, Lisbon is the home-away-from-home of people from all the Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa, which are known collectively by the acronym PALOP. Here (if you know where to look) are the studios and clubs where musicians, dancers, and scene-makers from Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé, Angola, and Mozambique meet, mix, and enjoy themselves. Discover the enchanting voices, irresistible melodies, and sensuous rhythms of PALOP Africa, featuring Paulo Flores, Bonga, Africa Negra, Manecas Costa, Biús, Sema Lopi, Nany, G Mario Ntimana, and Don Kikas.
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STEW 049CD
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2003 release. Tulear is a city the remote, hot, and dusty southwest of the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar. At night, when the burning day has cooled a little, tsapiky bands play at wild open-air dances in every neighborhood of the city. Over belting singers and tireless drummers, fearsome guitarists scatter dazzling fractured lines of notes. Crowds of revelers, most of them swigging from bottles of toka (the local rum), dance all night. Nobody sleeps. Tulear never sleeps. The recordings collected in this album were made in Tulear specifically for this Earthworks CD. Includes tracks by Jean Noel, Tsy An-Jaza, Los Bally, Jeff Nhoré, Teta, Rivo Doza, Said-Alexis, Nolave, Zerex, Tsapiky 2000.
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EW 2427CD
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1992 release. For 40 years, ending with his death at age 58 in 1998, West Nkosi was everywhere in South African music. His first instrument was a pennywhistle, which in South Africa is popularly associated with the style called kwela, and he played on many kwela records in the late '50s and early '60s, including some by Spokes Mashiyane & His All-Star Flutes. He also played alto sax with the marabi jazz combo that became the house band at Gallo Records' main studio in Johannesburg. But West Nkosi was never just a sideman; as a composer and arranger, he, more than anyone else, developed the style known as township jive or mbaqanga in the '60s. Over the next three decades he and his great Makgona Tsohle Band provided the jumping beat and vital sound to hit records by the likes of Abafana Baseqhudeni and Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens. As if that weren't enough, West Nkosi also produced the first 22 records by the famous isicathamiya a cappella choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo. For Rhythm of Healing, which turned out to be the last album he made as a player and bandleader, West Nkosi put a together a sextet to record ten of his finest kwela, marabi jazz, and township jive compositions.
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EW 2424CD
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1992 release. Mzwakhe Mbuli is South Africa's biggest political poet and rapper, and not only because he stands nearly seven feet tall. He came to prominence in the early 1980s after reciting two poems at the funeral of an assassinated anti-apartheid activist. Realizing that he could appeal to a larger audience with music, he began fronting a band. The more popular he became, the more he was harassed and detained by apartheid enforcers. He was living underground in 1986 when he recorded and released his first album, which was, of course, banned in South Africa. But by 1992 the momentum toward freedom was unstoppable, and Mbuli's Resistance Is Defence became his best-known record. Most of the songs contain English as well as Zulu or Xhosa verses. The hard-swinging mbaqanga music echoes the lyrics' message of racial harmony, justice, and peace, and needs no translation.
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STEW 047CD
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2002 release. For 50 years or longer, Latin music has been hugely popular in many parts of Africa, not least in Senegal. Senegal's seminal modern dance band, the Star Band de Dakar, was essentially a Latin band with songs sung in Wolof. Among the Star Band's singers in the 1970s were Youssou N'Dour, Laba Sosseh, and Pape Fall -- all of whom went on to enjoy success with their own bands in the '80s and beyond. Fall led Nder de Dakar for five years before teaming up with Ibra Kassé, the Star Band's founder, in Kassé Star. He started African Salsa in 1995. Artisanat is Fall's third album with this band and their first international release. The Observer deemed it "as compulsively danceable as anything from Cuba."
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STEW 037CD
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1997 release. The South African Soul Brothers are, as the BBC DJ Andy Kershaw has said, "the greatest township jive group... ever!" In fact, they and Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens pretty much defined township jive (also called mbaqanga) in the 1970s and '80s, though in contrast to Mahlathini's low, gruff "groan," the Soul Brothers' lead singer, David Masondo, has a distinctive high, tremulous voice, and instead of the Queens' chirpy chorus, the Brothers have terrific saxophonists and, above all, Moses Ngwenya's funky, funky Hammond organ. As the recordings on this CD confirm, the Soul Brothers were as strong as ever in the '90s. Included in this collection are four songs recorded live at the BBC in London in 1995.
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EW 048CD
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Originally released in 2003. Traditional bhangra is the dance music of the harvest festival of the Punjab region of northern India, but modern bhangra has nothing to do with the harvest. It is urban music, a "desi" (immigrant) style, as British as it is Indian. Most contemporary bhangra stars were born and raised in cities such as London, Birmingham, Coventry, and Leeds, and of course the sounds they've grown up with -- punk rock, hip-hop, dancehall reggae, house -- thoroughly infuse the music they make. But the single-string tumbi still twangs through the mix, though it's usually sampled or synthesized, and the deep, resonant beat of the dhol drum still drives the bhangra dance. Includes tracks by Achanak, Panjabi Hit Squad, Munde Kolo, A.DH feat. Singh MC, Rhythm Dhol Bass, Nav Sarao remixed by Hit Squad, Panjabi MC, DJ Stin remixed by O-Ji, Gubi Sandhu feat. MC Coppa, Bally Jagpal, Kuldeep Manak, Tarli Digital, and Major Mehram.
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EW 024CD
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Originally released in 1991. Rocking rumba, butt-kicking benga, and other exuberant sounds of Nairobi in the 1970s and '80s, when that bustling metropolis was the Big Papaya for musicians from all around Central and East Africa, and bands such as the Maroon Commandos, Gabriel Omolo & His Apollo Komesha, and Les Wanyika jam-packed the clubs every night. "Kenya Dance Mania is full of sparkling guitars, lilting melodies, strident horns and homespun wisdom," The Observer observed. "Just try and resist such an irresistible, knock-down-dead groove," CMJ challenged. Includes tracks by Maroon Commandos, Gabriel Omolo & His Apollo Komesha, Les Wanyika, H.O. Kabaselleh, Wanyika Super Les Les, and Daniel Kamau.
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EW 007CD
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Originally released in 1988. Hypnotic rhythms, impassioned voices, and forbidden sentiments: these are the potent ingredients that make rai so alluring to so many people and so alarming to others. Rai Rebels is the Earthworks compilation that first exposed this music to the world beyond Algeria and started the young Cheb Khaled and Chaba Zahouania on their way to international stardom. "A killer compilation," Musician magazine declared, "the best possible entrée to this outlaw genre. Baby, this is rock 'n' roll." Includes tracks by Chaba Fadela, Cheb Sahraoui, Cheb Hamid, Chaba Zahouania, Cheb Khaled, and Houari Benchenet.
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EW 040CD
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Originally released in 1999. While the musical instrument most associated with Zimbabwe is the mbira thumb-piano, and you'll hear it on a couple of tracks in this Zimbabwean compilation, Trevor Herman selected this set with ears attuned to electric guitars and bass guitars, whether frenetic or hypnotic, easy-rocking or over-the-top. Of course there's plenty of singing and drumming, too, but guitarists such as John Chibadura, Frank Sibanda, and Muddy Face are the life of this party. As the British journalist and broadcaster Andy Kershaw put it, "There isn't a guitarist in the West fit to fondle the plectrums of these guys." Includes tracks by John Chibadura & Tembo Brothers, Four Brothers, Muddy Face, Zimbabwe Cha Cha Cha Kings, Max Mapfumo & Dopiro Band, and Knowledge K. Kunenyati.
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EW 014CD
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Originally released in 1985. Before Paul Simon's Graceland, this album, compiled by South African DJ Trevor Herman, turned the world's attention to South Africa's pop music -- vigorous and vital despite the apartheid oppression of the time. New Music Express described it as "the crucial compilation which cuts to the heart of the music" and Robert Christgau called it the most important record of the 1980s. Includes tracks by Udokotela Shange Namajaha, Nelcy Sedibe, Umahlathini Nabo, Amaswazi Emvelo, Mahlathini & the Makgona Tsohle Band, Moses Mchunu, Nganeziyamfisa No Khambalomvaleliso, Johnson Mkhalali, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
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