San Francisco: Afropop By the Bay
It turns out that the first American city to host a roster of local African bands was not New York, Miami or Chicago, but the San Francisco Bay Area of northern California. Hugh Masekela brought Hedzoleh Soundz from Ghana, and … Read more »
Paul Bowles is a singular, maverick figure whose life and work intertwine music, literature and pop culture in the 20th century. As a young American writer and composer, he first traveled to Morocco with Aaron Copland in 1931. He fell … Read more »
Like a precocious kid at show-and-tell, Awesome Tapes from Africa has once again shown up with something intriguing: This time it’s a record by Awalom Gebremariam, who recorded Desdes in Eritrea’s capital, Asmara, in 2007, before leaving for a refugee … Read more »
Bombino is unique among the Tuareg rock acts so popular on the global tour circuit these days. He’s a singer/songwriter/guitarist from Niger, a man on his own, not part of a collective like Tinariwen, Terakaft, Tamikrest, Imarhan or Amanar—all of … Read more »
Arabic art music shares one key characteristic with American jazz: an emphasis on improvisation, individual expression, but rendered with respect for and knowledge of a composed musical source. The rules and conventions diverge widely, but that common ground has proven … Read more »
Paul Bowles is a singular, maverick figure whose life and work intertwine music, literature and pop culture in the 20th century. As a young American writer and composer, he first traveled to Morocco with Aaron Copland in 1931. He fell … Read more »
The Afropop Worldwide program “San Francisco: Afropop By the Bay” tells the unlikely story of how a quorum of superb African musicians—from Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa—landed in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s and early ‘80s. These … Read more »
Andy Morgan is a journalist and author with deep experience in Mali. He attended the very first Festival in the Desert in 2000 and was involved in the festival for many years after that. Andy managed the Tuareg band Tinariwen … Read more »
Susan Rasmussen is a professor of anthropology at the University of Houston. She has conducted of some 30 years of field work among rural and urban Tuareg communities in Niger and Mali, and more recently, African immigrants in France. She … Read more »
Harris Eisenstadt: Thank you for speaking with me. Could you please introduce yourself and your role in the collective? Liliam Cedeño: My name is Liliam Cedeño and I am the director of everything that entails visual art with El Almacén. … Read more »
The interviews, with Sendero/El Almacén co-principals Luis Bran and Liliam Cedeño, were conducted Jan. 15, 2016, at Luis’ home in Matanzas, Cuba. I spent two and a half weeks there studying Matanzas-style batá drumming with Idalberto (Puchito) Pérez, the musical … Read more »
Wale Oyejide is a Nigerian designer and the creative director of Ikiré Jones, a menswear brand that fuses African aesthetics with classical art from across the globe. Afropop’s Atane Ofiaja spoke with him about his brand, his current fashion collection, and his … Read more »
Although Ghanaian producer/rapper Jayso has been making music for some 15 years now, until recently he had no debut album to show for it. Working mostly behind the scenes with his group, the Skillions, Jayso (born Paul Nuamah Donkor) provided … Read more »
Ladysmith Black Mambazo has put out over 50 records and played all over the world; they’re one of the most famous South African bands, perhaps the best-known African group to American audiences, thanks to their collaboration with Paul Simon on … Read more »
