Hailing from northern Niger, Bombino are one of the new representatives of a style which I call saharan rock, for lack of any other term. Anticipated by Ali Farka Toure with his fusion of Songhai music and American blues, Saharan Rock first fully emerged with the group Tinariwen, a group of Touareg musicians who traded in their acoustic instruments for electric ones. The Touareg are traditionally a nomadic people of the...
Just getting into African music? In a way, so am I. I started DJing on CJLO a little more than two years ago and at the time I had a taste for West African music (almost all I knew about was music from Mali), but I really knew almost nothing about African music. Over the last two years I have learned a bit from doing this show, and me and DJ Sassafrass have taken on the holy mission of introducing African music to as many people as we can, a task which has not been easy! If you are interested, this is a little blog to get you started.
The African mainland includes 48 countries. Off the mainland there are 13 countries, many of which consist of several islands, that can be considered part of Africa, including Madagascar. In The African Diaspora (North, Central, and South America)...
What were up to: Well! We are currently working on making African mixtapes. Sweet no? Right now were working on a mixtape about the ABCs of African music. Every letter gets at theme, as in A is for Afrobeat and Z is for Zimbabwe. Most of the themes are either artists, styles or countries. Other mixtape possibilities include the ABCs of the African Diaspora, a tape that focuses on funk and soul, and a tape about the history of Jamaican music from mento to dancehall.
What else? We love Cumbia! Our last show was about Cumbia music from Columbia and Panama from the 60s/70s. Its an awesome style that tends to occur in two forms: 1) as a small ensemble with accordeon being the predominant instrument, or 2) with a large jazz band, sounding like moody, yet quick paced Latin swing music...
Hey PAH fans! I just put up new audio today, including a show that DJ Sassafrass and I (DJ Sasparilla) did on Dec 2, just a bit before the new year. This show features songs from a top ten list which we compiled at CJLO's suggestion. The list features compilations which came out between 2000 and 2009 and which feature music from Africa or the African Diaspora, mostly from the 70's. This is definitely one of our better shows and I encourage you to check it out (see above). If you don't have any African music in your collection, or your looking to bring some African music into your collection, these albums are great choices! I list the top ten below as well as honourable mentions which are basically just as wicked. I also encourage you to check out the record...
Hey, welcome to the Pan-African Hour page for 2010! On this show we explore all types of music from Africa, as well as types of music that have developed in the Carribean, Central America and South America that reflect African sources. We have a special penchant for African music from the 1960's and the 1970's, a time before synthesizers, the "world music" market, and econcomic declines throughout Africa affected the many styles of the continent. Right now DJ Sassafrass is off in Ukraine eating kubasa and drinking vodka, so I, DJ Sasparilla, will be hosting some shows alone, but mostly with my good friend Leslie Crusher. We try to be informative on the PAH, but we also are pretty ridiculous alot of the time. Look out for a special series I'm putting together called the Essential Guide...
