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Maybe I'm out of line here...

Listening to that first clip on poor laptop speakers with no bass was really confusing! I couldn't get my head around the groove AT ALL. Now listening on proper speakers with bass and it all makes sense. The bass REALLY carries the groove in that song! A proper talkbass song!:D

Lovely music! I'm sure there are significant regional differences that my untrained ears won't catch but it reminds me of music I've listened to from other parts of southern (mainland) Africa.

Thanks for posting this! A bit of sunshine to my morning coffee on an otherwise dark&rainy day.
 
Great music ! Thanks for sharing. The first one reminds me some carribean music i was bathed in during my youth: 80's zouk. I was far for even play music. But this music has tattooed my soul for ever.


Kassav' is one of my favourite groups and I've been lucky enough to see them four times. I have a weekly gig at a restaurant in a high-traffic (touristy) part of Montreal and I will often sing "Zouk-La...". One night after we finished our set (during which we played "Zouk-La...") a young man came over and thanked me for doing the song - especially since his uncle had died not very long ago. Turns out his uncle was Jacob Desvarieux (co-founder of Kassav').
 
Um dude, I love all of this!

It's great music! Please do not let TB or the general opinion sway your thoughts on world music (I don't even like the term world music because all music has a genre name but guess it's an umbrella term...!)
Please keep sharing
African music is something I been into, a very recent listen, my world music has been mostly South-East Asia, Latin America (Salsa mostly, but everything). I started with and love West African pop, Afro-Beat, and of course the amazing new sound out of Northern Africa that is this unique form of Sahara folk and indie hybrided. One of my favorite record labels is "Awesome tapes from Africa"





I know so much more... and hope you share more because I love listening to lots of more music from all over of all genres. It's early for me and I'm tired so I can't think right now, but thank you for sharing! I have a lot of new music to listen to.
 
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I applaud your willingness and openness to listen to and embrace music from around the world! Thanks for posting these tracks. There is far more to music than over played, overproduced American Rock, Pop and Rap. IME, great music can come from anywhere these days as I have discovered with my ever-growing playlist of international artists. I don't know the names, lyrics or even song titles of most of the stuff I actually listen to for enjoyment as it comes from a variety of cultures and countries in all different languages.
One of my favorite African-influenced songs (Cape Verde mixed with Portuguese, technically) is Vazulina ny Lura. It has such crazy rhythms going on and the more I listen, the more impressed I am with how it all comes together. YMMV..
 
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Kassav' is one of my favourite groups and I've been lucky enough to see them four times. I have a weekly gig at a restaurant in a high-traffic (touristy) part of Montreal and I will often sing "Zouk-La...". One night after we finished our set (during which we played "Zouk-La...") a young man came over and thanked me for doing the song - especially since his uncle had died not very long ago. Turns out his uncle was Jacob Desvarieux (co-founder of Kassav').

Awesome !!! This group has been my soundtrack during years when i was living in French Guyana between 81' and 86' . At this time i was not very fan, but this music has became one of my internal vibes, and this zouk rythm part of my DNA.. Jacob Devarieux was a great guitarist and singer, with this very particular voice. If you mind and have vids of you playing this song, would be great to post it in the dedicated topic for vids .. :cool:
 
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Back in the early 90s the team of Henry Kaiser and David Lindley did 3 albums in Madagascar, A World Out Of Time vol 1-3 and one in Norway (The Sweet Sunny North, wonderful). It was 30 years ago, but something was obviously "going on" in Madagascar!
 
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Awesome !!! This group has been my soundtrack during years when i was living in French Guyana between 81' and 86' . At this time i was not very fan, but this music has became one of my internal vibes, and this zouk rythm part of my DNA.. Jacob Devarieux was a great guitarist and singer, with this very particular voice. If you mind and have vids of you playing this song, would be great to post it in the dedicated topic for vids .. :cool:
No video footage that I'm aware of (probably not a bad thing given that it's not exactly a zouk band that I'm performing with :laugh:). I only discovered Kassav' around '93 courtesy of a local soca band who would also play the odd zouk or compa song. At the time Kassav' albums were not something you were likely to find at your average local record store, making the search part of the fun.

But yes, I love Jacob's voice and his playing. Sad that he wasn't with us for longer (especially since the band was still sounding fantastic).
 
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Awesome stuff! Thanks for exposing me to some really cool new rhythms.

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:

And thanks to bass12 for the seggae reference! As a long-time reggae player, it's cool to hear a new (to me) hybrid.
 
On the subject of African music, this album offers a nice taste of various styles:

Jean-Luc Ponty - Tchokola (Full Album) - YouTube

I'm personally not a huge fan of the violin in this context but the band (with Guy N'Sangue on bass) is killer.

You can see a brief description of each track here:

Ny04MTcwLmpwZWc.jpeg
 
This brings back a bunch of fun memories of playing in an Afro highlife, soukous, afrobeat group I had the fortune of playing in for a few years out of Santa Cruz. Changed my feel for music and played some wonderful gigs around the Bay Area. Not a single American except for our guitar player. He was always introduced as our brother Peter Fuji from Japan. One time on stage he turned to me and said, "Man, I'm from f***ing Detroit". Laughed my ass off
 
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Really cool to hear stuff so new to me. Do the lyrics have a common thread? The music sounds up, wondering if the lyrics tend to be too.

The lyrics...I wish I spoke French, it would help.
As for the ones in Malagasy, whew, that would be tough.
Over the years, I've found two phrase books: one aimed at missionaries, and one in reprint from just after the French colonial era. As far as I can tell, it might be taught at one university in the U.S., again by a former missionary.

It's a huge country, but other than some tourism, mostly in the north, it seems to stay pretty removed from widespread interest.

There is sometimes a discernable pattern, at least as far as you can tell from storyline-style videos: relationship troubles (as found in popular music the world over), and in Madagascar, some concern with drinking too much.

A fair number also seem continuations of the ceremonial, trance ritual roots. (I'll link one of the old style ones at the bottom). Again, it's as if Charlie Patton and Atlanta trap were happening at the same time, or maybe like in the 60s, gospel to soul, Aretha and the Staples, Sam Cooke, Al Green, church to popular.
Such an amazing place.
But damn, so far, airfare...unlikely to ever happen for me...going there.

The first two, early Wawa.



Maybe part of the reason, Wawa is Muslim. :0)


Halfway between the trance ritual and popular style:


Old style, trance ritual, they go on all night.
 
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