Reviews
Debademba
Abdoulaye Traoré & Mohamed Diaby
The collaborative spirit is alive and well on Debademba, an album ostensibly created by two 20-something Paris-based West Africans: guitarist...
Reviewed in issue July/2011
Beginners Guide To African Blues
This isn't the place to debate the African origins of the blues. All we really need note is that modern...
Reviewed in issue July/2011
Stambeli: The Legacy of the Black Tunisians
The heavy clacking of the qaraqab (iron castanets) and the hypnotising melodies of the gimbri (three-stringed lute) make it easy...
Reviewed in issue July/2011
In the Mood for the Nouba
For serious students of North African music and aficionados of the rarified and demanding canon of Arab– Andalus poetic tradition,...
Reviewed in issue July/2011
Alabaraka Mussolu
Jali Fily is a griot (praise-singer) from the Casamance region of southern Senegal: one in a long line of prominent...
Reviewed in issue July/2011
Black Voices Revisited
Released in 1999, two years after the death of Fela Kuti, whose band was fired for so long by Allen's...
Reviewed in issue July/2011
Ghana Fenou
Offspring of ultra-famous artists tread a difficult path forging their own musical style: witness sundry mini Marleys and Kutis. This...
Reviewed in issue June/2011
From Africa With Fury: Rise
Last year, Femi Kuti made the finest album of his career with Africa For Africa [reviewed in #73], a back-to-basics...
Reviewed in issue June/2011
Batuque and Finaçon
This collection showcases two of Cape Verde's most traditional and resolutely African musical styles – batuque and finaçon – which...
Reviewed in issue June/2011
Aratan n Azawad
No surprise that Terakaft – the name means ‘caravan’ in Tamasheq – stayed pretty close to the sound of the...
Reviewed in issue June/2011
