Afropop Worldwide

Africa in Matanzas, Cuba: El Almacén is Walking Matanzas, Cuba has long been regarded as the source (la fuente) of many rich Afro-Cuban folkloric traditions. These ceremonial and secular Afro-Cuban musics are, for the most part, alive and well, and being documented for the first time by Matanceros themselves, rather than exclusively by Havana-based or non-Cuban imprints. The Matanzas record label and artist collective, Sendero Music/El Almacén, faces several challenges: oversight from the state, limited access to resources, curating which groups to record while paradoxically convincing the folkloric community of the value of their endeavors, and the conundrum of establishing meaningful connections outside of Cuba to disseminate the city’s music to the world. #726 Airdate: 10/13/2016 Producer: Harris Eisenstadt

The music of Mali is a powerful force in the international music market. It has been critically shaped by the changing role of the griot class in Malian society and Mali's politics in general. Columbia University historian Gregory Mann shares insights into Malian politics—from the French colonial era to the present— providing fascinating context for musical developments from traditional griot songs to the latest hip-hop. Produced and hosted by Banning Eyre. [Distributed 10/11/2016]

Show # 723 Airdate: 10/06/2016 Produced by Saxon Baird and David Katz Music is a powerful means of expression in Jamaica--a platform for fierce commentary, and a bellwether for the social and political climate on the island. In Jamaica, when local newspapers, broadcast media and elected representatives don’t tell the whole story, you've got to listen to the music! With the help of scholars and artists like Max Romeo and King Jammy, this program delves into the way that Jamaican popular music has always sharply commented on partisan politics in Jamaica while also revealing that Jamaican politicians have often attempted to co-opt and subvert reggae’s liberating messages for their own purposes. Particular attention is paid to the turbulent Cold War era of the mid-1970s, when foreign influence led to what was basically an undeclared civil war and reggae’s popularity was at its highest.

Every September, millions of people celebrate Carnival in Brooklyn. From the pre-dawn J'ouvert bacchanal in the streets, to the intense Panorama steel pan competition, to the massive Labor Day Parade on Eastern Parkway, Central Brooklyn is transformed into a Caribbean cultural haven. But before the fun comes months of preparation and centuries of history. We follow Caribbean steel pan groups, masquerade bands and Haitian rara groups through their preparations and celebrations and we hear how members of these Caribbean communities keep their cultural activities alive and thriving despite facing considerable challenges: violence and political backlash associated with Carnival, and soaring rents and cultural changes in Brooklyn due to gentrification. Produced by Morgan Greenstreet, Saxon Baird, & Sebastian Bouknight [APWW #739] [Air date: 9/29/2016]

All over the world, the music business as we know it is crumbling. But in the Democratic Republic of Congo, musicians have found a new (and very old) method of survival. Through a system of shout-outs called libanga, Congolese pop musicians call on rich people to sponsor their music. Singers use the metaphoric language of love to discuss power, politics and money in one of the world's poorest countries. Produced and hosted by Morgan Greenstreet in conversation with John Nimis, linguist and scholar of Congolese popular music.

[APWW #570] [Originally aired 2009] In the music of the French Antilles—the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe—you can hear influences that range from the traditional béle and gwo ka drumming of the islands’ rural communities, to European additions like polka and French chanson. But when these islands produced a pop genre that took much of the Caribbean and African world by storm—the smooth and sexy dance music known as zouk, which exploded in the 1980s—it was an entirely new blend that uniquely reflected the complex layers of identity in these Caribbean communities that are, administratively, a full-fledged part of France. Still colonies? Many think so. Either way the Antilles have long produced artists and thinkers with deep sensitivity to the gradations of race, class, migration, and relationship to a powerful, distant metropolis. Now, musicians in Guadeloupe and Martinique are re-exploring their roots, celebrating rhythms that go back to slavery days without pulling back from the cosmopolitanism of rece

Cuban master musician Pedrito Martínez talks about his career playing jazz, pop, original music and sacred Regla De Ocha ceremonies in New York City. Produced and hosted by Ned Sublette with Kenneth Schweitzer [Distributed 9/13/2016] Listen to Part One here: http://bit.ly/2bQXRFT

Show #722 Producer: Sam Backer Distributed Sept. 8 2016: Hip Deep: Afro-Lisbon and the Lusophone Atlantic: Dancing Toward The Future In the last few years, a small network of DJs in the suburbs of Lisbon, Portugal has been consistently producing some of the world’s best dance music. The children of African immigrants, these young musicians have combined a hemisphere of musical influences and distilled them down into a single astonishing style. But how did Lisbon start to make such great African music? And what does that say about the identity of the city, or the country, or the continent? On this special Hip Deep edition, we take a journey to Lisbon, a city facing both the sea and 600 years of its own history. We’ll go to African club nights, hang out with obsessive record collectors, learn how to dance kizomba, and visit the projects that have produced a musical revolution. And through it all, we will try to answer a seemingly simple question: Just where did this music come from?

Martínez, the superstar New York-based percussionist and vocalist, talks with Ned Sublette and drum scholar Kenneth Schweitzer about how he got started in sacred and popular music in Havana, Cuba. Produced and hosted by Ned Sublette [Distributed 9/06/2016] Listen to Part Two here: http://bit.ly/2cTjtma (photo by Petra Richterova)

[APWW #712] [Originally aired in 2015] At Afropop, we have gone far and wide, from Brazil to England to Madagascar to Egypt, tracking down incredible music to bring back home to our headquarters in Brooklyn. For this program, “Sounds Like Brooklyn,” we stay closer to home, tracing a hidden music economy of CD vendors in bodegas, copy shops and food markets around the five New York boroughs. Accompanying us on our travels is poet and “Bodega Pop” WFMU radio host Gary Sullivan. Along the way, we check out a Caribbean gospel rap performance in Bed-Stuy’s Restoration Plaza, dust off some cassettes at VP Records in Jamaica, and chat with DJ Wow at his African CD store in Harlem. New York is a city of immigrants and we salute the creativity they bring with them from all corners of the world!

[APWW # 737] Two Lions: Bunny Wailer and Hakim On this program we survey the careers of two legends and giants within their genres. Bunny Wailer is the last surviving member of the original Bob Marley and the Wailers. Right up to his 2016 tour, where we met him, this architect of reggae music has continued to carry the banner with new concerts and recordings. And he tells his story with bracing poetic candor. Meanwhile in Egypt, the lion of shaabi music, Hakim, remains a superstar and a player in that country’s turbulent pop scene. On a rare visit to New York, Hakim gives us a tour through his post-revolution songs, and offers personal insights into Egypt’s equally turbulent politics.

Grime, the hard-edged, M.C.-led U.K. dance style that flourished in the early 2000s, seemed long gone. Its best rappers had moved on, and its fans increasingly abandoned hope. But then… something astounding happened: 2016 became grime’s biggest year ever. Produced and hosted by Sam Backer. [Distributed 8/23/2016]

New York City is home to a diverse community of Colombian musicians and groups who create in a wide range of traditional, popular and experimental music styles for diasporic communities and beyond. Colombia in NYC takes us from independence day celebrations in a chic Manhattan club with accordion virtuoso Gregorio Uribe, to vallenato parties and outdoor festivals. We'll hear from experimental groups Combo Chimbita and Delsonido; traditional Afro-Colombian bullerengue group Bulla En El Barrio; salsero, folklorist and educator Pablo Mayor; innovative dance bands MAKU Soundsystem and Grupo Rebolú, harp virtuoso Edmar Castañeda and many more amazing musicians. Along the way, musicians weave in stories about nationalism, identity, place and diaspora, and discuss the challenges and opportunities New York City offers for Colombian musicians. Producer: Morgan Greenstreet APWW #736 Air Date 08/17/2016

Jorge Ben Jor first began to experiment with fusions of samba, bossa nova, rhythm ‘n’ blues and soul in the early 1960s. Together with Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, he participated in the watershed cultural movement, Tropicália, in the late 1960s. In the 1970s, he further explored Afro-Brazilian history and culture in a series of popular albums that have since become key points of reference for a contemporary neo-soul movement. Jorge Benjor continues to be an active presence in Brazilian popular music. He grants us a rare interview to tell his story. The program is produced by Sean Barlow and co-produced with Christopher Dunn, author of Brutality Garden: Tropicália and the Emergence of a Brazilian Counterculture (University of North Carolina Press, 2001) as part of Afropop Worldwide’s “Hip Deep” series

On one stretch of Nostrand Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn, there’s a Haitian radio station on every block—Radio Soleil, Radyo Panou, Radio Triomphe—each broadcasting the sounds of Kreyol conversations and konpa music. Haitian immigrants have brought a deep love of radio from their native land, where a strong oral culture, high illiteracy rates, and poor infrastructure have made radio the media of the masses—even in diaspora. Produced and hosted by Ian Coss. [Distributed 8/9/2016]

In part one of our 2012 Hip Deep Brazil series, we travel back in time to Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century to explore the birth of Brazil’s most iconic sound: samba. Beginning with the arrival of poor nordestinos in the city after the end of slavery in 1888, we follow the exploits of the early sambistas as they forged the genre that would come to represent the nation. Brazilian scholar Carlos Sandroni shows us how Afro-Brazilian religious music and popular styles like modinha transformed into the syncopated samba beat. Then, media scholar Bryan McCann guides us through the glamor and political intrigue of 1930s Rio as samba explodes as the popular music of choice throughout the country. We speak with samba greats from the old guard to the young bloods, including Dona Yvone Lara, Heitorzinho dos Prazeres, Paulão 7-Cordas and Luciana Rabelo. In closing, we find out how samba, an ambitious radio station and a populist dictatorship worked together to shape Brazilians’ ideas about race, society and the Bra

We meet 21-year-old Gigi Lamayne of South Africa, a singer/rapper who finds herself at the center of her country’s most important debate and social movement in decades: the #FeesMustFall movement. The day she graduated from university, Gigi dropped a protest song about rising education costs that effectively bar the majority of black South Africans from access to higher education: A new cause for a new time. Produced by Simon Rentner and hosted by Sarah Geledi.

show number #438 Airdate: July 18th 2016 We travel to Zanzibar to enjoy highlights from the Sauti za Busara Festival, focused on Swahili sounds from coastal East Africa, then north to the Fes Festival of Sacred World Music in Morocco, where we hear the ecstatic sounds of Sufi artists performing late into the night. We go to Dakar, Senegal for the Coca-Cola Ebony Festival to enjoy Afropop headliners, and wind up in Mali for rousing performances at the Festival Sur le Niger this past winter.

We meet 21-year-old Gigi Lamayne of South Africa, a singer/rapper who finds herself at the center of her country’s most important debate and social movement in decades: the #FeesMustFall movement. The day she graduated from university, Gigi dropped a protest song about rising education costs that effectively bar the majority of black South Africans from access to higher education: A new cause for a new time. Produced by Simon Rentner and hosted by Sarah Geledi.

Airdate: 7/21/2016 Producer: Banning Eyre Show # 735 Our recent Hip Deep in Mali series explored fascinating stories of art and life in post-crisis Mali. On this program, it's just the music. We hear new sounds from veteran maestros Djelimady Tounkara and Cheikh Tidiane Seck, Wassoulou music star Nahawa Doumbia, mesmerizing Songhai songs from Baba Salah and Samba Toure, and balafon pyrotechnics from Bassidi Kone. We also meet some new ensembles: the Afrojazz of Mamadou Barry, and the bracing roots-pop of Bamba Wassoulou Groove, and sample the latest in Malian rap.