Masekela ha conseguido su propio estilo fusionando la música sudafricana y los estilos de folk, pop, jazz, R & B, y el blues. Se ha añadido a la mezcla de la invención rítmica de urban soul y hip-hop.
Following a three-decade-long exile, Miriam Makeba's return to South Africa was celebrated as though a queen was restoring her monarchy. The response was fitting as Makeba remains the most important female vocalist to emerge out of South Africa. Hailed as the Empress of African Song and Mama Africa, Makeba helped bring African music to a global audience in the 1960s. Nearly five decades after her debut with the Manhattan Brothers, she continues to play an important role in the growth of African music.
Esta artista es una de las representantes más exitosas del pop de Sudáfrica cantado en lengua xhosa. Se la ha aclamado como la "nueva Miriam Makeba". Con este álbum consiguió el "Best Newcomer" en 2005, con la canción One Love
This album is a compendium of the history of urban township music as I developed in South Africa. Every major genre is illustrated with original long unavailable recordings of the most famous artists. Treat it as a mini-encyclopaedia and read the notes, or just sit back, listen and enjoy.
Las alianzas entre músicos occidentales y titanes del ethio-jazz siguen dando buenas cosechas. Hace tres años años los holandeses The Ex departían con el saxofonista Getatchew Mekuria, uno de los muchos protagonistas del swinging Addis. En Moa Ambesa daban vida a un excelente álbum que navegaba entre el art-punk de filiación noise y las embestidas de alma free proferidas por el septuagenario soplador abisinio.
Seckou Keita, a young UK-based Senegalese artist and virtuoso of the kora, is back with an extraordinary four-piece band that brings together the best in Afro-Mandinka soul music. Performing with Egyptian violinist, Sammy Bishai, Italian double bassist, Davide Mantovani, and Gambian percussionist, Surahata Susso, the foursome have created something new and truly exciting.
Born in Addis Ababa, Mahmoud shined shoes in that city before becoming a handyman at the Arizona Club, where he first sang professionally in the early 1960s. He sang for the Imperial Body Guard Band until 1974, and recorded with other bands for the Amha and Kaifa record labels throughout the 1970s. He opened his own music store in Addis Ababa's Piazza district during the 1980s while he continued his singing career.
The Éthiopiques series is not only the most thorough and informative source of Ethiopian music available, but it is one of the most spectacular bodies of recordings in the annals of African pop. Volume 19 of an expected 30 volumes returns to a central figure in the development of Ethiopian groove, the fabulous crooner Mahmoud Ahmed. A natural singer, Ahmed left school to become a shoe-shine boy in Addis in the early 60s. He was discovered while working as a handy man at a bar.
Is a Guinean jazz group that gained fame in the 1960s for their infectious Afropop rhythms. They are considered one of the most significant bands in Guinean music. Many of their recordings are based on traditional folk music in the country and have been fused with jazz and Afropop style. Featuring guitarist Sekou 'Diamond Fingers' Diabate, who grew up in a traditional griot musical family, the band won over fans in Conakry, Guinea's capital city, during the heady days of that country's newfound independence.
Mamadou Barry belongs to a generation of musicians who grew up in a country where culture was wielded as a political instrument in post-independence days. Music played a significant role in forging national pride and the Guinean government financed the setting up of a national label, Syliphone, to record the growing band of national and federal orchestras. Interestingly enough, musicians were also financed by the state in those days, drawing regular salaries like other civil servants.