Afropop Worldwide

Producer Morgan Greenstreet follows the trail of West African Vaudou spiritual music to a very unlikely place--Utrecht, Netherlands--for the first edition of the Voodoo To Go Festival. The three-day festival, pioneered by Togolese entrepreneur Leopold Ekué Messan, set out to demystify Vaudou/Vodun/Voodoo spiritual practices by featuring music and dance from Togo, Benin, Haiti, Cuba and Suriname and bringing people together for films, food and a panel discussion about "Good and Evil in Voodoo." From the opening ceremony, to the climactic final moments of the festival, the music at Voodoo To Go was filled with the spirit: Trance-inducing traditional music from Togolese/Beninois diaspora group Djogbé; heavy, retro Vaudou funk from Togolese musician Peter Solo and Vaudou Game, based in Lyon, France; Surinamese Kawina music from Rotterdam-based dance band Dray-ston; Late-night Haitian Vaudou-jazz from Erol Josué; and, finally an intense collaboration between Cuban jazz maestro Omar Sosa and Togolese musician and d

[APWW PGM #706] [Originally aired April 2015] In this program, we follow producer Morgan Greenstreet on a musical tour of Benin’s roots-pop music and Afro-jazz, while exploring the deep cultural and spiritual traditions that inspire contemporary musicians. We will visit a midnight album launch party for a star of roots-pop music in Abomey, meet Norberka, an acclaimed singer, drummer and dancer, at the home of her patron, his majesty Hounon Behumbeza, a vodun priest. We’ll visit the rehearsals, studios and homes of some of Cotonou’s most creative Afro-jazz musicians, including Jah Baba, Fifi Finder and Vi-Phint; we’ll visit Ouidah for the recently established Vodun Festival, and Porto Novo to meet a living legend, Sagbohan Danialou. Along the way, we’ll hear original live recordings from Les Freres Guedehoungue, Gangbé Brass Band, and some previously unrecorded groups. (Produced by Morgan Greenstreet)

We profile three African musicians who have created significant careers in the face of daunting challenges in their countries. Paulo Flores, champion of semba and kizomba in Angola, came of age in the midst of that country's long post-independence civil war. He's probably done more for Angola's spiritual health during these difficult decades than anyone alive. Emmanuel Jal faced still worse as a child soldier who escaped Sudan under horrific circumstances to become an internationally acclaimed singer and rapper. Today, he must watch as his homeland--now called South Sudan--descends into another brutal, senseless war. The masked man of Nigerian pop, Lágbájá, has created diverse, socially conscious music through a series of military regimes in his homeland, and has new advice for his countrymen in a fragile democracy. We'll meet all three artists and hear an awesome variety of music.

We're back with another installment in our Afropop exclusive mixtape series! This one comes courtesy of Ricardo Vergara, who put together a mix of some terrific Venezuelan music in styles ranging from the African influenced tambor to the folk styles gaita and llanera. Track List: 0:00 Tambor Urbano - El Hacha 5:17 Los Amigos Invisibles - Loco Por Tu Amor 8:59 VHG - La Voy a Tocar a Pie 12:30 María Rivas - El Manduco 15:36 Oscar D'León - Llorarás 19:21 Las Chicas del Can - El Negro No Puede (Waka Waka) 23:24 Reynaldo Armas - La Muerte del Rucio Moro

Africa Now! Join us for a whirlwind tour to hear the hottest artists in Lagos, Accra, Nairobi, Kinshasa, Jo'burg and Cairo. We'll check out the hits shaking the dance floors for today's youth. And we'll get the inside stories and scandals.

[APWW PGM #317] [Originally aired in 1998] Juju maestro Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey recently made a rare U.S. tour in the summer of 2013 which made us want to hear more! In this program, Chief Obey breaks down his band’s sound instrument by instrument—traditional percussion, horns, guitars–which makes his version of juju all the more enjoyable. And he tells us stories behind some of his hit songs. Also telling stories is the other maestro of Nigerian juju, the legendary King Sunny Ade. Continuing our celebration of Afropop’s 25th anniversary, we pay special tribute to KSA whose celebrated 1982-83 U.S. tour played a huge role in inspiring Afropop producer Sean Barlow to develop Afropop Worldwide.

[APWW PGM #681] [Originally aired in 2014] We unravel the complex history of how Jamaican music in the United Kingdom became a major component in navigating the cultural and racial landscape for many blacks in a post-imperial Britain while pushing the genre into new musical soundscapes.

As work continues on the vast Afropop archive, producer Banning Eyre takes a deep dive and comes up with some gems. On the vinyl front, the focus is on South African and Zimbabwe, where the Afropop team collected a good deal of rare vinyl in the 1980s. Then Banning samples some his favorite field recordings from Zanzibar to Mali. In the age of YouTube, Pandora and Spotify, you might have the impression that all the music ever recorded is there at your finger tips. Here's proof that's not so. You'll hear music on this program you can't find anywhere else.

[APWW PGM #669] [Originally aired in 2014] Hiplife, a fusion of hip-hop and highlife, has come of age, spawning subgenres tilting to roots culture, international rap, and boldly humorous satire, not to mention azonto, a dance craze that has rocketed to global renown in just over a year. But for all that, the biggest-selling music in the country, by far, is gospel. On this whirlwind Hip Deep tour of Accra, we meet stars like Reggie Rockstone, M.anifiest, Efya, Soul Winners, and the genre-bending FOKN Bois. Jesse Weaver Shipley, anthropologist and author of the book Living the Hiplife: Celebrity and Entrepreneurship in Ghanaian Popular Music, helps untangle the complex world of award ceremonies, corporate endorsements, live music in church, and the emergence of women in Ghana’s male-dominated pop world.

[APWW PGM #458] [Originally aired in 2005] Aug. 29, 2015 is the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and the catastrophic failure of the Mississippi River levees that put the city of New Orleans under water. In tribute to the city’s struggles of the last 10 years, we are rebroadcasting our Hip Deep program made in spring 2005, a few short months before life in New Orleans was turned upside down. “Living in New Orleans, Part 1″ takes you to the rambunctious street music scene in the Crescent City around Mardi Gras time. This is one town where kids still pick up tubas, and young brass bands have lots of work, parading along the same funky streets where jazz was born. We’ll get inside the world of the Mardi Gras Indians as Hip Deep producer Ned Sublette, who is spending the year on the ground in New Orleans, talks with musician and educator Big Chief Donald Harrison; Sylvester Francis of the Backstreet Cultural Museum; scholar and former New Orleans resident Joseph Roach of Yale University, author of Cities

[APWW PGM #693] [Originally aired in 2014] Afropop launched a new and improved podcast, making your favorite world-spanning radio show available in a whole new way. To celebrate, we’ve put together a show featuring some of our favorite moments from the podcast. Previously available only online, these segments are airing for the very first time. We’ll share the story of soul man Geraldo Pino, the “African James Brown.” You’ll hear the musical visions of the eccentric Jamaican guitarist Brushy One String. And much more!

Kadongo Kamu, which literally means "one guitar," is a lyrical genre of Ugandan pop music dating back to the 1950s. For this podcast, producer Ian Coss sits down with the Boston-based DJ Paddy to talk about the music's history and learn the significance of some of its classic tracks.

[APWW #713] [Originally aired 2015] It turns out that the first American city to host a roster of local African bands was not New York, Miami, or Chicago, but the San Francisco Bay Area. Hugh Masekela brought Hedzoleh Soundz from Ghana, and the settled in Santa Cruz. Nigerian maestros O.J. Ekemode and Joni Haastrup lived in Oakland in the 1970s. South African musicians from the touring theatre show Ipitombi also settled in the Bay Area and started the band Zulu Spear. By the early ‘80s, the Bay Area “worldbeat” scene was in full swing, and along with it came Kotoja, Mapenzi, Big City, The Nigerian Allstars and more. Join us for a tour through the sounds and stories of the Bay Area’s catalytic African music scene.

The first Brazilian Underground mix was one of our favorites in the Afropop Exclusive Mix Series, so we asked Rio-based journalist Marcelo Monteiro of Amplificador if he could make us one more. We are very excited to be once again featuring some incredible new songs from the new generation of Brazil. Enjoy! Track List: 01. Ava Rocha - Hermética 02. Metá Metá - Atotô 03. Ive Seixas - Praia no Inverno 04. Mohandas - Your Eyes 05. Abayomy - Obatala 06. Bixiga 70 - Mil Vidas 07. Fukai - Soma 08. The Baggios - Esturra Leão 09. Far From Alaska - Mama 10. Boogarins – Doce 11. Cícero - Camomila 12. Graveola - Lembrete 13. Iconili - Nego Preto 14. Siba - Marcha Macia 15. Carne Doce - Preto Negro 16. Bruna Mendez - Pra Ela 17. Quarto Negro - Orlando 18. Maglore - O Sol Chegou 19. O Terno - Ai, Ai, Como Eu Me Iludo 20. Chapa Mamba - Beleléu 21. Câmera - Till Life Do Us Apart 22. Amplexos - Cai pra Dentro 23. Frevotron e Jorge Du Peixe – Travessia 24. Astronauta Marinho - Negord! 25. I.F.Á. Afrobeat - Suffer 26. The Out

[APWW PGM #695] [Originally aired in 2014] The southwest of Madagascar is a land of fishermen, mining prospectors and cattle ranchers—not exactly a homogenous region in terms of lifestyle or ethnicity. But one thing that unites all the people of this region is the giddy, electric guitar-driven boogie music known as tsapiky (pronounced tsa-PEEK). First created in the late 1970s, tsapiky has become the required music at large family ceremonies (circumcisions, weddings, and especially, funerals), where music and partying goes nonstop for three days or more. In this Hip Deep program, we unfold the unique origins of this music, and other traditional styles of southwest Madagascar. And we’ll meet some of tsapiky’s great guitar practitioners: Damily, Teta and Pascal. We’ll hear a song from Damily’s recent public concert in Tulear—his first in 14 years–and sample a variety of beautiful music from this remote and remarkable corner of Madagascar.

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 our newest 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 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 PGM #696] [Originally aired in 2014] New York City is home to the earthshaking Latin dance music known as salsa. From the mid-1960s through the 1980s, Fania Records released many of the landmark albums in the history of the music, creating a salsa boom that reverberated around the world. In 2014, Fania celebrated 50 years in the business; and to celebrate, we dug into the label’s history. We’ll hear from some of the principal players, including Aurora Flores, Nicky Marrero and Larry “El Judeo Maravilloso” Harlow, and tell a few Afropop-centric stories along the way.

Here's another great edition to the Afropop exclusive mix series! This one comes courtesy of DJ Mundi, who put together a fantastic collection of champeta, soundsystem-based music from the Caribbean coast of Colombia, strongly influenced by African styles like makossa and soukous. The cover art for the mix displays picos, hand-crafted and painted soundsystems of champeta. For more info and music check the links --> http://www.afropop.org/23645/afropop-exclusive-mix-dj-mundis-champeta-mixx/ https://vimeo.com/66570670 https://youtu.be/0RzwcBxoiKg?t=6m19s https://soundcloud.com/dj-champeta-man/lucas-silva-champeta-mixdown PALENQUE RECORDS - https://soundcloud.com/palenque-records https://itunes.apple.com/album/champeta-criolla-vol-2-visionary/id864909986 http://palenquerecords.blogspot.com AFRICOLOMBIA BLOG - https://acbia.wordpress.com DJ MUNDI - https://soundcloud.com/djmundi

[APWW PGM #468] [Originally aired in 2005] King Sunny Adé was, in many ways, the inspiration for what would become Afropop Worldwide. And he was by no means only an inspiration to us! Many fans in America first got hooked on Afropop (and African music in general) through the landmark 1982-83 tour by King Sunny Ade and his African Beats: the propulsive polyrhythms of traditional drums mixed with sophisticated guitar arrangements and pedal steel were like nothing they had ever heard. Topped by graceful choreography and the beaming presence of the “Chairman” himself, the effect was totally intoxicating. In this program, we travel to Lagos to talk to people there who help us fill in the picture of King Sunny Ade’s earlier career in the 1960s and '70s. KSA also granted Afropop Worldwide a three-hour interview. We’ll hear his stories and some classic recordings. Featured in the show are highlights from a sublime acoustic concert Ade and the African Beats gave at Joe’s Pub in New York City.

[APWW PGM #316] [Originally aired in 1999] Celebrating Grand Master Franco