Showing posts with label African Music II. Show all posts
Showing posts with label African Music II. Show all posts
Monday, 29 August 2011
Afric Simone: "Hafanana" (1975)
Afric Simone (born 17 July 1956) is a singer, musician and entertainer from Mozambique. He entered the European charts with his first hit "Ramaya" in 1975, which was followed by another well-known song "Hafanana" (1975). He was very popular during 1975 - 1980 on both sides of the iron curtain. Simone toured the USSR, Poland, the GDR, and Czechoslovakia in the Eastern Bloc.
- Lyrics:
Durudu Tcha Tcha !
Durudu Ah Ah !
Turudu Woumba !
Durudu Ah Ah !
La la la la laï la la
La la la la la la la
La la la la laï la la
La la la la la
Bunu Buni Bunadi - Hafanana !
Amara Kukarella - Shalalala !
Bunu Buni Bunadi - Hafanana !
Amara Kukarella - Shalalala !
Hey ! Votki Yuda Yuda
Bununu - Hafanana !
Votki Yudi, Votki Yuda Yuda
Buna Buna Nauena !
Hey ! Votki Yuda Yuda
Bununu - Hafanana !
Votki Yudi, Votki Yuda Yuda
Buna Buna Nauena !
Bunu Buni Bunadi - Hafanana !
Amara Kukarella - Shalalala !
Bunu Buni Bunadi - Hafanana !
Amara Kukarella - Shalalala !
Bunu Buni Bunadi - Hafanana !
Amara Kukarella - Shalalala !
Bunu Buni Bunadi - Hafanana !
Amara Kukarella - Shalalala !
Hey ! Votki Yuda Yuda
Bununu - Hafanana !
Votki Yudi, Votki Yuda Yuda
Buna Buna Nauena !
Hey ! Votki Yuda Yuda
Bununu - Hafanana !
Votki Yudi, Votki Yuda Yuda
Buna Buna Nauena !
La la la la la laï la la
la la la la la la
ad lib…
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Khadja Nin: "Sambolera mayi son" (1996)
Khadja Nin (born June 27, 1959) is a Burundian singer and musician. She was born in Burundi as the youngest of a family of eight. Her father was a diplomat. She studied music at an early age like most of her brothers and sisters. With her exceptional singing voice, at the age of 7 she became one of the lead vocalists in the Bujumbura choir and performed in the local cathedral.
Khadja left Burundi for Zaire in 1975 and got married in 1978. In 1980 she emigrated to Belgium with her two-year-old son. In 1985 she met musician Nicolas Fiszman, who helped her get a contract with BMG. Her second album, a 1994 release entitled Ya Pili, was critically acclaimed. Her breakthrough, however, came in 1996 with her widely popular album Sambolera, which was sung in Swahili, Kirundi, and French. In 1997 she performed the song Sailing in a duet with Montserrat Caballé on the album Friends For Life. Khadja Nin successfully used a blend between African rhythms and modern pop to create her own unique brand of music. One of her most popular songs is Sina Mali, Sina Deni, a translated cover version of Stevie Wonder's song Free.
- Lyrics:
Duniya ile Sambolera
Oh ! wanayijifondeya
Duniya yetu Sambolera
Mbona wazimu... mayi
Watu wa duniya Sambolera
Oh ! wanajisondeka
Siyo wa mungu Sambolera
Oh ! ni watu... mayi
Watu wabaya Sambolera
Oh ! hawana uluma
Wanasema ji sema Sambolera
Duniya ni yao... mayi
Mungu akipenda Sambolera
Oh ! watagukumbuka
Wakupe njiya Sambolera
Oh ! ujaribu
Mbele ya mungu Sambolera
Oh ! watajibu aje ?
Watasema ju ya au ya mungu
Wameuwa corazon
Oh ! guerre ya mungu gani ?
Oh ! guerre ya rangi gani ?
Oh ! guerre rangi ya damu
Rangi ya damu
Rangi ni moja
Damu ni mingi Sambolera
Oh ! wanatesa watu
Ju mutu umoja Sambolera
Oh ! akitaka... mayi
Ni vita... son
Waca waseme Sambolera
Oh ! mayisha yako mbele
Watasema waseme Sambolera
Alakini corazon
Usitubiye
Ngoyela... son
Mayele
Oh ! Oh ! Oh !
Iye ! Iye ! Iye !
Ule wazimu usi wuogope...son
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Oliver Mtukudzi
* First Video:
* Second Video:
* Third Video:
Mtukudzi began performing in 1977 when he joined the Wagon Wheels, a band which also featured Thomas Mapfumo. Their single, "Dzandimomotera," went gold and Tuku's first album followed, which was also a major success. Mtukudzi is also a contributor to Mahube, Southern Africa's 'supergroup'.
With his husky voice, he has become the most recognized voice to emerge from Zimbabwe and onto the international scene and he has earned a devoted following across Africa and beyond. A member of Zimbabwe's KoreKore tribe,Nzou Samanyanga as his totem, he sings in the nation's dominant Shona language along with Ndebele and English. He also incorporates elements of different musical traditions, giving his music a distinctive style, known to fans as "Tuku Music". Mtukudzi has had a number of tours around the world. He has been on several tours in the UK, USA and Canada to perform for large audiences.
Unlike Mapfumo, Mtukudzi has refrained from directly criticizing the repressive government of President Robert Mugabe, perhaps because he still lives in the country. However, some of his most emotive hits prodded the aging authoritarian ruler, including "Ndakuvara," which bemoans the political violence engineered by Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and "Wasakara (You Are Getting Old)," which most Zimbabweans took as a direct plea for Mugabe to retire.
He is the father of five children and has two grandchildren, two of whom are also musicians. His son Sam Mtukudzi, a successful musician in his own right, died in a car accident in March 2010. Mtukudzi also has four sisters, and one brother, who died. He enjoys swimming in his guitar-shaped swimming pool, has released more than 40 albums and cannot remember the number of awards he has won.
* Second Video:
* Third Video:
Mtukudzi began performing in 1977 when he joined the Wagon Wheels, a band which also featured Thomas Mapfumo. Their single, "Dzandimomotera," went gold and Tuku's first album followed, which was also a major success. Mtukudzi is also a contributor to Mahube, Southern Africa's 'supergroup'.
With his husky voice, he has become the most recognized voice to emerge from Zimbabwe and onto the international scene and he has earned a devoted following across Africa and beyond. A member of Zimbabwe's KoreKore tribe,Nzou Samanyanga as his totem, he sings in the nation's dominant Shona language along with Ndebele and English. He also incorporates elements of different musical traditions, giving his music a distinctive style, known to fans as "Tuku Music". Mtukudzi has had a number of tours around the world. He has been on several tours in the UK, USA and Canada to perform for large audiences.
Unlike Mapfumo, Mtukudzi has refrained from directly criticizing the repressive government of President Robert Mugabe, perhaps because he still lives in the country. However, some of his most emotive hits prodded the aging authoritarian ruler, including "Ndakuvara," which bemoans the political violence engineered by Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and "Wasakara (You Are Getting Old)," which most Zimbabweans took as a direct plea for Mugabe to retire.
He is the father of five children and has two grandchildren, two of whom are also musicians. His son Sam Mtukudzi, a successful musician in his own right, died in a car accident in March 2010. Mtukudzi also has four sisters, and one brother, who died. He enjoys swimming in his guitar-shaped swimming pool, has released more than 40 albums and cannot remember the number of awards he has won.
Fela Kuti in Concert
* Part One:
* Second Part:
Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria into a middle-class family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a feminist activist in the anti-colonial movement and his father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a Protestant minister and school principal, was the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers. His brothers, Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, are well known in Nigeria. Fela was a first cousin to the African writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first African to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.
Fela was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a fusion of jazz and highlife. In 1960, Fela married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he would have three children (Femi, Yeni, and Sola). In 1963, Fela moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation.
He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All Stars. In 1967, he went to Ghana to think up a new musical direction. That was when Kuti first called his music Afrobeat. In 1969, Fela took the band to the United States. While there, Fela discovered the Black Power movement through Sandra Smith (now Izsadore)—a partisan of the Black Panther Party—which would heavily influence his music and political views and renamed the band Nigeria '70. Soon, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was tipped off by a promoter that Fela and his band were in the U.S. without work permits. The band then performed a quick recording session in Los Angeles that would later be released as The '69 Los Angeles Sessions.
After Fela and his band returned to Nigeria, the band was renamed to Africa '70 and the lyrical themes changed from love to social issues. He then formed the Kalakuta Republic, a commune, a recording studio, and a home for many connected to the band that he later declared independent from the Nigerian state. Fela set up a nightclub in the Empire Hotel, named the Afro-Spot and then the Afrika Shrine, where he performed regularly. Fela also changed his middle name to Anikulapo (meaning "he who carries death in his pouch"), stating that his original middle name of Ransome was a slave name.
The recordings continued, and the music became more politically motivated.[citation needed] Fela's music became very popular among the Nigerian public and Africans in general. In fact, he made the decision to sing in Pidgin English so that his music could be enjoyed by individuals all over Africa, where the local languages spoken are very diverse and numerous. As popular as Fela's music had become in Nigeria and elsewhere, it was also very unpopular with the ruling government, and raids on the Kalakuta Republic were frequent. During 1972 Ginger Baker recorded Stratavarious with Fela appearing alongside Bobby Gass. Around this time, Kuti was becoming more involved in Yoruba religion.
In 1977 Fela and the Afrika '70 released the hit album Zombie, a scathing attack on Nigerian soldiers using the zombie metaphor to describe the methods of the Nigerian military. The album was a smash hit with the people and infuriated the government, setting off a vicious attack against the Kalakuta Republic, during which one thousand soldiers attacked the commune. Fela was severely beaten, and his elderly mother was thrown from a window, causing fatal injuries. The Kalakuta Republic was burned, and Fela's studio, instruments, and master tapes were destroyed. Fela claimed that he would have been killed if it was not for the intervention of a commanding officer as he was being beaten. Fela's response to the attack was to deliver his mother's coffin to the Dodan Barracks in Lagos, General Olusegun Obasanjo's residence, and to write two songs, "Coffin for Head of State" and "Unknown Soldier", referencing the official inquiry that claimed the commune had been destroyed by an unknown soldier..
More informations on here (Copy & Paste):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fela_Kuti
* Second Part:
Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria into a middle-class family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a feminist activist in the anti-colonial movement and his father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a Protestant minister and school principal, was the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers. His brothers, Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, are well known in Nigeria. Fela was a first cousin to the African writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first African to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.
Fela was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a fusion of jazz and highlife. In 1960, Fela married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he would have three children (Femi, Yeni, and Sola). In 1963, Fela moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation.
He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All Stars. In 1967, he went to Ghana to think up a new musical direction. That was when Kuti first called his music Afrobeat. In 1969, Fela took the band to the United States. While there, Fela discovered the Black Power movement through Sandra Smith (now Izsadore)—a partisan of the Black Panther Party—which would heavily influence his music and political views and renamed the band Nigeria '70. Soon, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was tipped off by a promoter that Fela and his band were in the U.S. without work permits. The band then performed a quick recording session in Los Angeles that would later be released as The '69 Los Angeles Sessions.
After Fela and his band returned to Nigeria, the band was renamed to Africa '70 and the lyrical themes changed from love to social issues. He then formed the Kalakuta Republic, a commune, a recording studio, and a home for many connected to the band that he later declared independent from the Nigerian state. Fela set up a nightclub in the Empire Hotel, named the Afro-Spot and then the Afrika Shrine, where he performed regularly. Fela also changed his middle name to Anikulapo (meaning "he who carries death in his pouch"), stating that his original middle name of Ransome was a slave name.
The recordings continued, and the music became more politically motivated.[citation needed] Fela's music became very popular among the Nigerian public and Africans in general. In fact, he made the decision to sing in Pidgin English so that his music could be enjoyed by individuals all over Africa, where the local languages spoken are very diverse and numerous. As popular as Fela's music had become in Nigeria and elsewhere, it was also very unpopular with the ruling government, and raids on the Kalakuta Republic were frequent. During 1972 Ginger Baker recorded Stratavarious with Fela appearing alongside Bobby Gass. Around this time, Kuti was becoming more involved in Yoruba religion.
In 1977 Fela and the Afrika '70 released the hit album Zombie, a scathing attack on Nigerian soldiers using the zombie metaphor to describe the methods of the Nigerian military. The album was a smash hit with the people and infuriated the government, setting off a vicious attack against the Kalakuta Republic, during which one thousand soldiers attacked the commune. Fela was severely beaten, and his elderly mother was thrown from a window, causing fatal injuries. The Kalakuta Republic was burned, and Fela's studio, instruments, and master tapes were destroyed. Fela claimed that he would have been killed if it was not for the intervention of a commanding officer as he was being beaten. Fela's response to the attack was to deliver his mother's coffin to the Dodan Barracks in Lagos, General Olusegun Obasanjo's residence, and to write two songs, "Coffin for Head of State" and "Unknown Soldier", referencing the official inquiry that claimed the commune had been destroyed by an unknown soldier..
More informations on here (Copy & Paste):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fela_Kuti
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Ali Farka Touré: The Eternal Conservative-Innovator (RIP)
Ali Ibrahim “Farka” Touré (October 31, 1939 – March 7, 2006) was a Malian singer and guitarist, and one of the African continent’s most internationally renowned musicians. His music is widely regarded as representing a point of intersection of traditional Malian music and its North American cousin, the blues.
The belief that the latter is historically derived from the former is reflected in Martin Scorsese’s often quoted characterization of Touré’s tradition as constituting "the DNA of the blues". Touré was ranked number 76 on Rolling Stone’s list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.
- Discography (Source: Wikipedia):
* 1976 - Ali Touré Farka (Sonafric 50016-LP)
* 1976 - Spécial « Biennale du Mali » (Sonafric 50020-LP)
* 1978 - Biennale (Sonafric 50032-LP)
* 1979 - Ali Touré Farka (Sonafric 50060-LP)
* 1980 - Ali Touré dit Farka (Sonafric 50085-LP)
* 1984 - Ali Farka Touré (Red) (Sonodisc/Esperance 5558)
* 1988 - Ali Farka Touré (Green) (Sonodisc/Esperance 8448)
* 1988 - Ali Farka Touré (World Circuit WCD007 / Mango 9826)
* 1990 - African Blues (Shanachie 65002)
* 1990 - The River (World Circuit WCD017 / Mango 9897)
* 1993 - The Source (World Circuit WCD030 / Hannibal 1375) with Taj Mahal
* 1994 - Talking Timbuktu (World Circuit WCD040 / Hannibal 1381) (with Ry Cooder)
* 1996 - Radio Mali (World Circuit WCD044 / Nonesuch 79569) (remastered selections of original albums from 1975 through 1980)
* 1999 - Niafunké (World Circuit WCD054 / Hannibal 1443)
* 2002 - Mississippi to Mali (Rounder B0000DJZA1)(with Corey Harris)
* 2004 - Red&Green (World Circuit WCD070 / Nonesuch 79882) (remastered original albums from 1984 and 1988)
* 2005 - In the Heart of the Moon (World Circuit WCD072 / Nonesuch 79920) (with Toumani Diabaté and Ry Cooder)
* 2006 - Savane (World Circuit WCD075 / Nonesuch 79965)
* 2010 - Ali and Toumani - (World Circuit/Nonesuch Records) with Toumani Diabaté
Monday, 22 March 2010
Salif KEITA: The African Bluesman
Salif Keita's voice is one other mortals can only aspire to. A searing tenor that somehow sounds gritty and glorious all at once, it's a complicated instrument that transcends language barriers, and with its subtle shadings offers solace and succor, joy and even redemption. It's not for nothing that Keita is known as the golden voice of Mali.
Given Salif Keita's incredible talent, it was inevitable that one day music would take him back to his homeland, despite the hardships he once faced there. Recently, that inevitability came to pass. With a 35-year career behind him, Keita returned home to record his latest release, M'Bemba, in Bamako in the studio he had built by the River Niger. As an albino, Keita once was disowned by his own father; as a musician, he was rejected by the aristocracy of his own caste; and as a man with ambition, he had no choice but to leave a country that offered no professional perspectives.
Keita's career has led him on a wandering path, through Abidjan, New York and Paris. But his strength, talent and clairvoyance enabled him to find fame and fortune on that path, allowing for his symbolic and triumphant return to Mali. Salif Keita mixes both Islam and Africa together to form beautiful songs such as "Tomorrow" and "Papa".
Learn More:
salifkeita.artistes.universalmusic.fr/
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