Afropop Worldwide

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!

Take note: Soca's not just for Carnival anymore. Though this mix from New York-based DJ Chibuikem weaves together the highlights of this year's Carnival in Trinidad, it's fit for any kind of festive occasion. Soca's a genre that's firmly rooted in a time (Carnival) and a place (Trinidad) but this year, it seems poised to make an international breakout.

Lucas Silva, the man behind the always amazing Palenque Records, dropped this dynamite mix of Colombian favorites new, old, and in-between. Dig in! And be sure to check out our interview with Lucas here ==> http://bit.ly/Lucas-Silva-Mix

This special feature is a supplement to the Afropop Worldwide program, “Lebanon 1: Fairuz, A Woman for All Seasons.” The feature introduces two important contemporaries of Fairuz and the Rahbani brothers, namely composer Zaki Nassif and legendary singer Sabah. Want a deeper delve into Lebanese music? This one's for you.

In the early 1990s, mangueboys and manguegirls stimulated fertility in the veins of Recife, Brazil. They were interested in hip-hop, the collapse of modernity, chaos and marine predator attacks (mainly sharks). Armed with boundless creativity, they turned one of the world's most poverty-stricken cities into one of Brazil's greatest centers of culture. Mangue artists mixed hip-hop, Jamaican ragamuffin and punk rock with styles from Brazil's northeast like maracatu and embolada. In this program, we explore the legacy of the mangue bit movement and its biggest star, Chico Science of Nação Zumbi. We also take a look at a new generation of adventurous musicians in Recife. Join us as we connect the good vibrations of the mangue with the world network of pop! Produced by Jesse Brent [APWW PGM #704].

[APWW PGM #671] [Originally aired in 2013] Fairuz is the most popular living singer throughout the Arabic-speaking world and an artist with no real counterpart in Europe or the Americas. Since the ‘50s, she has appealed across boundaries of age, gender, class, religion, nationality, regional dialect, and political persuasion. Creating music as serious and engaged as it is popular, Fairuz—along with her collaborators from the Rahbani family of composer poets—has achieved near-universal appeal during a time of unprecedented division and social strife. This program explores Fairuz’s remarkable biography guided by her biographer Kenneth Habib, and Ghady Rahbani, among others. The deepest understanding of Fairuz’s success carries a message that harmony among the Abrahamic faiths is not a lofty illusion, but something lost in the near past, that can be regained.

When we talk about the influence of American performers on African music, we usually think about a few obvious examples, legends like Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix or James Brown. In this episode, we go beyond these stars to explore the legacy of some lesser-known inspirations. We’ll learn how the fluid guitar playing of '70s rock band Dire Straits became massively popular in the Sahel, influencing Tuareg rockers like Tinariwen and Tamikrest. We’ll hear about the American country superstar Jim Reeves' African career, and the unlikely story of how the pedal steel made it from Hawaii to Lagos. Finally, we’ll travel to Angola with the help of director Jeremy Xido, to explore that nation’s death metal scene. And along the way, we will try to understand just how to account for taste. Produced by Sam Backer [APWW PGM #703].

[APWW PGM #552] [Originally aired in 2008] While Sierra Leone is currently in the news for the horrific outbreak of Ebola that has devastated the nation in recent months, the country is no stranger to tragedy. This also means that it has deep reserves of resilience, an ability to come together and overcome great obstacles embedded in its culture. To provide the kind of history that is all too often overlooked when reporting on current events on the African continent, we are encoring this episode of Hip Deep episode, which explores the nation’s past. When Sierra Leone gained independence in 1961, Freetown swayed to the beguiling, breezy lilt of palm wine guitar and danced to the funky pop of Geraldo Pino and the Heartbeats. Once a center of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Sierra Leone became an improbable amalgamation of indigenous peoples and repatriated Africans freed from slavery. Thirty years of political and economic disintegration led to a horrific civil war that claimed tens of thousands of victims

[APWW PGM #452] [Originally aired in 2005] Escaping the Delta is the title of a provocative book by award-winning author Elijah Wald that explores how a mythology of the blues grew around the figure of Robert Johnson. On this episode of Hip Deep, Wald talks with producer Ned Sublette, and plays lesser-known recordings by Peetie Wheatstraw, Lonnie Johnson, Leroy Carr and others, who provided source material for some of Johnson's now more famous tunes. Produced by Ned Sublette.

A playlist of fantastic new tracks from the Brazilian underground, courtesy of Marcelo de Carvalho Monteiro, a Rio-based journalist who writes for Amplificador. Read our interview (and dig into his list of fantastic new bands) here ==> http://bit.ly/Brazilpop Track List: 1. Logun – Metá Metá 2. Gaiola da Saudade – Jam da Silva 3. Dino Vs. Dino – Far From Alaska 4. Lucifernandis – Boogarins 5. Summertime – Luziluzia 6. Sertão Urbano – Carne Doce 7. Você não vai Passar – Ava Rocha 8. Damião – Juçara Marçal 9. Cervejas Populares – Ive Seixas 10. Só sei dançar com você – Tulipa Ruiz 11. Lúcifer Colômbia – Burro Morto 12. Retirantes – Bixiga 70 13. Afro – The Baggios 14. Last Chance Trip – Muddy Brother 15. Essa é pra Tocar no Rádio – BNegão 16. No Shit – Abayomy 17. Faria Lima Pra Cá – Passo Torto 18. Avante – Siba 19. A Melhor Hora – Nação Zumbi 20. Desdenha – Graveola e o Lixo Polifônico 21. Cartão de Visita – Criolo 22. Zumbi – André Sampaio e os Afromandinga 23. Solar – Iconili 24. Paraquedas – Russo Passap

[APWW PGM #226] [Originally aired in 1996] The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s was an astounding explosion of African-American cultural innovation, producing art, literature, poetry, and of course, fantastic music. In honor of Black History month, we are encoring our tribute to this magnificent period. We’ll hear from stars like Mamie Smith, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington, as we use their music to explore the often fraught history of Manhattan’s heights. Produced by Ned Sublette.

[APWW #702] In many communities throughout Africa and the diaspora, music and spiritual life are deeply connected through the experience of trance: ritual possession by ancestors, spirits, deities, or simply the trance of communal dancing—usually accompanied by hypnotic melodies and rhythms. In this program, we explore the phenomenon of trance through a survey of musical and spiritual traditions. We'll discover how different cultural and spiritual ideas are expressed musically, and how innovations from behavioral psychology and neurology give insight into how trance works in the brain.

[APWW PGM #135] [Originally aired in 1993] We take you back in time with this deliciously retro episode. When cassette tapes hit Africa, they hit hard, offering a whole spectrum of musicians access to recording for the first time. And they really took advantage of it! In this show, Georges Collinet shares some of the finest of these sounds, mixing smoking South African pop, astounding mbalax, and much, much more.