Music Crossroads - Africa’s largest youth-music program – has launched its first official website. The site is now live and will definitely surprise audiences with the wealth of Southern African musical talent pouring from over 10 years of musical empowerment in Southern Africa.  read more »

This summer Dobet Gnahoré returns to the US and Canada for a tour of select festivals and concert venues. One of today’s most talked-about young African artists, Dobet Gnahoré’s energetic dance moves and powerful vocals have earned her comparisons to African music icons Angelique Kidjo , Zap Mama and Miriam Makeba . On Sunday, July 13th Dobet Gnahoré brings her riveting performance to the 11th Annual Chicago Folk & Roots Festival presented by the Old Town School of Folk Music.   &nbsp ...

Africa Oyé 2008 returns to Sefton Park, Liverpool, Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd June 2008. Africa Oyé is the UK’s largest, free celebration of African music and culture and takes place annually in Liverpool. This year, Oyé promises many delights including the return of Les Freres Guisse from Senegal, who played to much acclaim at Oyé 03, The Jerry Can Band from Egypt, Massokos from Mozambique, Body Mind and Soul from Malawi and Kenge Kenge from Kenya. Also returning by popular demand are the Odemba OK Jazz All Stars, who are one of the best live acts on the circuit, plus many more to be confirmed.  read more »

American disco music has taken over Africa. During the days of Victor Olaiya, the Uhurus, the Ramblers dance-bands there was jazz music from America. Then there was pop music. It never gave us musicians a chance to move out. And you know with Africans, anything that comes out of England is a gas. Then during the time of Victor Uwaifo and Fela there was this soul music.  read more »

Last week , I wrote about 5 on 5, a tv show broadcasted in the Francophonie that "gives a voice" to the honest citizen by letting them ask a question. This method leads a local reporter team to investigate the concerned field to answer their question. In a recent episode, Tour Yay Alhousseini, a painter artist from Niger asked: " Why young nigerians are letting themselves influenced by american rap ?" The investigation shows a Niger rap group called Black Daps, trying to "nigerianise" their sounds by recording with traditionnal instrumentists. That reminded me thaughts and discussion I had about what was happening with kwaito or kuduro. It was also concording with the Fader Africa edition.  read more »

Today marks one year since Likembe first went online on August 9, 2007. One thing I've discovered in a year of blogging is that it's a lot harder than it looks!  read more »

I mentioned to someone recently that with two teenagers headed off to college soon I just can't afford to plop down $17-20 for a CD anymore. Therefore, by necessity, this weblog is devoted mainly to older sounds. That means that I haven't heard African Scream Contest , Nigeria Special , or any of the great new reissues that everybody else in the African music blogosphere has been raving about. In my younger, more carefree days it was a different story. Back in the mid-1980s, when I first discovered Sterns in London, I made several big orders, totaling well over two thousand dollars. A favorable exchange rate didn't hurt either. At one point the Pound Sterling went for $1.03! Even taking postage and import duties into account the cost of a European-pressed LP was roughly equal to what I would pay for an American one. Not, of course, that anything I could get in a U.S. record store could equal anything Sterns had on offer! I generally didn't order specific recordings from the Sterns people (availability of particular titles was iffy anyway). Rather I would request x number of records, with the instructions that they were to select whatever was the latest and best from each particular country. It sure was a kick to go down to the post office, pay the import duty and then rush home to hear what they'd picked out for me!  read more »

Taj Mahal is no purist. His recordings, which cherry-pick influences from Jamaica to India, suggest that Mississippi mud is just one of the blues' many ingredients. And Toumani Diabate, a modern master of the twenty-one-string kora -- Mali's ax of choice -- has expanded the reach of West African music in jam sessions with classical and flamenco virtuosos. So maybe it was only a matter of

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This is possibly one of the most important collections of South African music to be released off the continent.

His name has been familiar for some time to knowledgeable fans of music. No matter whether the musical jack-of-all-trades Karim Ziad, born in Algeria in 1966, is accompanying Cheb Mami or helping out the WDR Big Band, the Zawinul Syndicate, or his friend Nguyn L, his reputation has traveled from Paris to the rest of the world. The exceptional percussionist Karim Ziad is taking the listener on an adventurous journey for his third album under his own name.  read more »