Afropop Worldwide

[APWW PGM #331] [Originally aired in 2000] Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba

[APWW PGM #14] [Originally aired in 1989] Franco and Tabu Ley: A celebration of the lives and work of the late giants of Congolese music--Franco and Tabu Ley Rochereau. Afropop visits with two giants of Congolese music, Franco Luambo Makiadi and Tabu Ley Rochereau at their palatial homes in Kinshasa

Afropop Worldwide recently won a highly prestigious Peabody Institutional Award honoring the entire 27-year body of our work. And the Peabody Awards threw a big party at Cipriani Wall Street hosted by Saturday Night Live alum Fred Armisen. Hear highlights of the evening from the Red Carpet and from the stage. And we'll enjoy excerpts from some of our favorite programs over the years: Our meeting with Ali Farka Toure, in his hometown Niafounke; visits with two giants of Congolese music, Franco Luambo Makiadi and Tabu Ley Rochereau at their palatial homes in Kinshasa; and an audience with Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba. Also on parade are our Hip Deep programs on samba in Brazil and the musical legacy of Al-Andalus in medieval Spain.

[APWW PGM #697] [Originally aired in 2014] Antananarivo, known as Tana to the locals is the highland capital of Madagascar. Afropop's Senior Producer Banning Eyre took a research trip to the beautiful Indian Ocean nation. Join us as we delve deep into the modern musical landscape of Antananarivo. We start off with the upbeat and fast stylings of Tence Mena to the dance craze sweeping the nation called Kilalaky to Malagasy diva Black Nadia and to the protest rap of Agrad & Skaiz and much more.

Cultures of Soul has been the source of some of our favorite international disco compilations recently, providing much-needed focus on incredible music of the '70s and '80s from places as far ranging as São Paulo, Guadeloupe and Mumbai. We reached out to the label founder and director Jeff Swallow, who made us a mix, featuring some of the hottest tracks from his recent releases. Tracklist: Joanne Wilson - Got to Have You Camille Hidevert - Caribbean People Tim Maia - Verão Carioca 2001 & Beto - Labirinto Emilio Santiago - Bananeira C.S. Crew - Love Is Peace Shadow - Let's Get Together (Whiskey Barons' Rework) Stanton Davis' Ghetto Mysticism - High Jazz Reprise

Join us on a freewheeling musical excursion. We start in Cape Town listening to jazz, rock, and even classical music inspired by the city’s signature sound: goema. Veteran rocker and now composer Mac McKenzie is our charismatic guide. Then on to Namibia where we meet one of the country’s most innovative and soulful singer/songwriter/bandleaders, Elemotho Galelekwe. We end in Cape Verde to hear old and new sounds from the first Portuguese settlement in Africa—from the vintage crooning of Ze Luis, to the new sounds of cola-zouk.

[APWW PGM #332] [Originally aired in 2000] In Las Vegas in the year 2000, two legends of Arabic art music performed an historic concert. Wadi’ Al-Safi was called “the pure voice of Lebanon" because for decades he had brought the folkloric songs of the Lebanese countryside to the Lebanese airwaves and the grandest stages of the world. Sabah Fakhri, then one of the most celebrated and beloved singers of Syria, powerfully channeled the ecstatic Sufi art music of Aleppo in performances that riveted audiences throughout the region. Soon would come 9/11, rearranging American perceptions of the world; Syria, and especially Aleppo, would be devastated by war a decade later; and Al-Safi would die at 91 in 2013. All the more reason why this brilliant concert, under the musical direction of Simon Shaheen, who also performs with his group Qantara, deserves a fresh listen.

[APWW PGM #55] [Originally aired in 1992] In 1991, Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited made their second tour of the United States. It was a fascinating transitional moment in the band’s history. Mapfumo had recently added two musicians playing the metal-pronged, Shona mbira, enriching the band’s lineup of guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, brass and percussion. The band had now evolved into a kind of folk orchestra in which everyone sang, allowing for beautifully layered vocal arrangements. This recording, made by Afropop Worldwide at S.O.B.'s in New York City during that historic tour, is a true gem in the Afropop archive. It captures one of Africa’s most innovative and unusual artists and bandleaders at the height of his powers. One listen to this sublime recording and you will understand why producer Banning Eyre devoted some 15 years to writing the new book Lion Songs: Thomas Mapfumo and the Music That Made Zimbabwe.

Sometimes it's hard to sit still in the Afropop office. The funkiest, most leg-shakingly infectious music blasts from our speakers on a regular basis. Impromptu dance demonstrations have been known to take place. It's our mission to share this wealth of musical excitement with you, our audience. Today, we bring you everything from the latest Chilean electro-pop to the reggae revival that's heating up Jamaica to the psychedelic frontiers of South Africa. Get down with what the future's dancefloors sound like. You're hearing it here first.

[APWW PGM #558] [Originally aired in 2008] The “Black Pacific” is a term coined by our guide, ethnomusicologist Heidi Carolyn Feldman. She describes the circumstance of African descendants displaced not only from their ancestral homes in Africa, but also from the Atlantic coast nations where their enslaved ancestors were originally brought. This Hip Deep edition explores the sonically vibrant realm of Afro-Peruvian music, a young genre identification that has flourished since the 1950s and has produced artists of international renown, such as singer Susana Baca, and the black folkloric company Peru Negro. The music is sensuous and deeply beautiful, and represents a fascinating and little-understood history. We will hear from Juan Morillo, who represents Peru Negro, from Susana Baca, and other artists and community scholars with whom Feldman has worked during her extensive research of this topic.

[APWW PGM #477] [Originally aired in 2013] This Hip Deep edition explores the legendary early career of Thomas Mapfumo, a singer, composer and bandleader whose 1970s music set the stage for the birth of a new nation, Zimbabwe. Using rare, unreleased recordings, and recollections by Mapfumo, key band members, and prominent Zimbabweans who lived through the liberation struggle, this program traces the development of chimurenga music. Central to the program, are research materials gathered by Mapfumo biographer Banning Eyre, and commentary by ethnomusicologist Thomas Turino, author of Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe. One of the great stories of African music’s role in history is told here as never before.

In early 2015, Afropop relocated its archives from a variety of storage units and apartments, and brought it all together in one place. The goal? Sorting, organizing, and preservation. But along the way, we also found more than a few musical gems. Today, join us as we dig through stacks of vinyl, and quite literal mountains of CDs, for the long forgotten, the often overlooked, the totally classic, and the absolutely amazing, as we play some of the albums that we’ve been spinning in our office for the past few months. Spread love, it’s the Brooklyn way. Right?

What's up in Havana besides tourism? Ned Sublette, who recently traveled to Cuba for Billboard magazine, talks with Sean Barlow about the present moment in the fast-changing music capital. Timba from Havana D'Primera, jazz/son by Pancho and Daniel Amat, and a mastermix of reguetón by Chacal y Yakarta, El Micha, and others.

In Benin, a small francophone country in West Africa, traditional style roots music is extremely popular: artists sell thousands of CDs and DVDs of music videos, pack stadiums for concerts and frequently appear on national television. There are many, many styles of roots-pop, but the baseline of dense percussion and intricate vocals is a constant. Producer Morgan Greenstreet focused on these styles for our program Benin Roots Alive. He also made an exclusive Benin Roots Pop Mix from recordings he collected during his trip to Benin in January 2015. Enjoy!

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)

[APWW PGM #666] [Originally aired in 2013] Working closely with Chris Kirkley, the writer and recordist behind the Sahel Sounds Blog and label, we will meet the newest generation of musicians from Mali. With their possibilities transformed by technology and their musical tastes reshaped by an exposure to sounds drawn from across the world, these young musicians are radically rethinking centuries old traditions. Get ready for the fast paced guitar bands of the north, the mp3 markets in which digital music passes from cellphone to cellphone, and the balani show music of Bamako (Produced by Sam Backer)

Encore Mix! In conjunction with our current episode on Christopher Kirkley and his website and label, Sahel Sounds, Afropop offers this exclusive mix from Mr. Kirkley himself. It features some of the most interesting sounds currently coming out of Mali. Enjoy! Tracklist: Alkibar Junior - Homage Le Marchand du Soleil - Laila Je T'aime Mdou Moctar - Nikali Talit Amanar - Alghafiat Lakal Kanaye - Soul Tamashek Yeli Fuzzo - Abande Pheno S. - Souroulouklouk Meleke and MC Waraba - Ado Do Abubakar Sani and Fati Niger - Tofi (Photo By Christopher Kirkley)

[APWW PGM #694] [Originally aired in 2014] While bachata may have originated in the Dominican Republic, its growth in popularity over the past 10 years is not rooted within the shores of the small Caribbean nation but in the outer boroughs of New York City. It was here that the now-legendary bachata group Aventura formed. Aventura would go on to change the sound and style of bachata by mixing the style with the rap and r&b they were hearing on the streets of the Bronx. Christened “urban bachata,” the new style has catapulted the genre to greater international recognition and is starting to make its way into mainstream pop radio. Artists like Romeo Santos have already collaborated with the likes of Drake and Nicki Minaj, sold out numerous shows at Madison Square Garden, Staples Center, Yankee Stadium, and just about every major city in Latin America, while 25-year old New York-based artist Prince Royce already has a slew of chart-topping singles under his belt as well as three albums that have reached number

Salsa, the dance, is more popular than ever in New York City, its birthplace. Yet salsa musicians are having a harder time than ever making a living from playing the music. In "After The Money" we explore why this might be: we hear from some of the masters who lived through the golden years and experienced the decline of live salsa, and meet the young bandleaders and DJs who continue to make salsa the center of their lives, even if it means struggling to make a living.

Afropop's occasional series on African music made in America continues with a focus on three remarkable women. Marie Daulne, founder of the genre bending vocal group Zap Mama, collaborates with New York Afrobeat band Antibalas, and we hear them live in concert. Madagascar-born Razia introduces her new tri-continental CD, Akory. And Somi tells her story from her days as a Midwestern girl with African ancestry, to her musical career in New York, to her adventurous 18-month stay in Lagos, Nigeria, and her new album, The Lagos Music Salon. These stories and more in a music-packed hour of Afro-femininity!