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Maybe I'm out of line here...

But I'm new to all of this.
I mean all: TB, bass learning, playing..
But this seems like the right place to post this.

I like pretty much any music that has some kind of genuine life feeling and expression.
A few styles don't work for me much at all, and the ones that really hit me seem to fall way outside of what most people listen to.

There was a mainstream rawk station in Seattle, early 80s, had a show on Sundays with the great title "Your Mother Won't Like It".
Listeners could come on and play an hour of their favorite music.
The only big station that played anything punkish or what became various forms of indie.

So in the spirit of that I'm gonna call this list, "Pretty Much Ain't Nobody Gonna Like It".
What I've been most excited about for the past 15 years has been coming out of Madagascar. An amazing place, the music reflects the blending of styles of cultural influences, indigenous trance forms, African, Arabic, South Pacific, colonial.
Heavy on the trance, 6/8 rhythms, the tempos, all unique.
The role of the bass varies greatly, from just holding down the rhythm to sharing equally with guitar or whatever instrument is filling the lead role.

So, I proffer here, a little Gasy playlist (and jumping up to the island of Mayotte, just north. Both share Roumbou/Salegy, but Mayotte has more Arabic/Islamic influence).

You won't like it, but it had be done.

All apologies....
Just remember, I coulda done the Azerbaijani one...

Madagascar Music Map.jpg


1) South to North - Toliara to Mayotte

Idea Pictures, - hevitry ny mosare



Djoino Aia olo


Antoinette:


Salegy Joacin Hamo


Jean Cedile - manignianagna


Mayotte - Zily


Mayotte - Junior B


The Big Time - back to Salegy.
Wawa is probably the superstar of the nation. The band is incredible.
Wawa Live Toulouse 2017 - Tiankavangna
 
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Wow, life is full of surprises.
I've been trying to introduce people to salegy and tsapiky for years.
And no one has liked it.
Just too different, I guess.
I think that music is the about best thing that the human critter does (counterweights a lot that ain't so nice).
Good music is like medicine, I think.

I'm really glad that someone else has found it too.
You want to share the joy and all that, if even one person gets that feeling out of it, it's a good thing.
 
Not surprisingly, that stuff reminds me a lot of the style of some songs on Paul Simon's Graceland album. Good stuff!
Yeah, there's lot of influence from South Africa. Particularly on the style called Tsapiky, centered on Toliara in the south part of the island.
I hear a lot of influence from Soukous in the styles up north, especially the guitar lines, in the style called Salegy.

It's a huge island.
Lots of regional styles, each influenced by their respective regional, ceremonial forms.

Madagascar is so large, and diverse and places so remote and poor, that it's kind of as if you have the equivalents of Charlie Patton and Atlanta trap happening at the same time.

I just found a nice podcast from a while back on Tsapiky, from an older radio program, Afropop worldwide.
Afropop Worldwide | Hip Deep in Madagascar: The Tsapiky Story
 
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Wow, life is full of surprises.
I've been trying to introduce people to salegy and tsapiky for years.
And no one has liked it.
Just too different, I guess.
I think that music is the about best thing that the human critter does (counterweights a lot that ain't so nice).
Good music is like medicine, I think.

I'm really glad that someone else has found it too.
You want to share the joy and all that, if even one person gets that feeling out of it, it's a good thing.
I find that weird - Salegy had an instant appeal for me and my girlfriend alike. Then again, we both have a history of listening to music from all over the world - especially Africa and the Caribbean. One of the best shows we ever saw together was Jaojoby and his family. It was an amazing concert and I got to talk to the bassist after the show. There have been many times since then that I’ve wished my girlfriend and I could relive the experience of that night.

Back in 2007 a classmate of mine was writing his thesis on seggae and he introduced me to that (okay, it’s not Madagascan but it’s close). Being a big reggae fan that was quite a revelation. :woot:

Anyway, thanks for all those links - I’ll enjoy checking them out.
 
Good on you for breaking out of the American rut.

I remember spending a week in Portugal for work one time and watching TV in Lisbon there was all this amazing Latin-style music and the only artist I recognized was Santana. "Smooth" was huge at the time.

When I was 18 in 1972 I hitched across Africa and the local popular across the country music was just f**king amazing and some of it became popular later in Europe via France. I saw Salif Keita and the Super Rail Band of the Buffet Hotel de la Gare in Bamako. He moved to France and broke out as an international star in 1987.

High-Life music in Ghana wa another revelation as was Nigerian nightclub dance music at the time.

There is another world out there, it is not all new York, L.A. and Nashville.

I congratulate you!