Resources on Bands featured in "Africa in America 2008"

Check out Banning Eyre’s Africa in America feature on the NPR Music Site for additional coverage of the bands featured here on our site!

Zili Misik (Massachusetts)
With captivating sounds that evoke the African continent, Zili retraces routes of forced exile and cultural resistance through diasporic rhythm and song. Powerful Haitian, Brazilian and West African rhythms infuse Zili’s original creations and traditional folksongs, while Zili inspires its audiences to dance and even teaches them how. All female, Zili takes its name from Haitian spiritual entity, Zili, who is envisaged as mother, lover, and warrior.

Visit the official home page of Zili Misik

Watch a Zili Misik Video on Youtube!

Visit Zili Misik's myspace page

Listen to samples of current music by Zili Misik

Aphrodesia (California)
Aphrodesia's new album "Lagos By Bus" is finally here!! Featuring many songs written during and after the band's landmark 2006 trip to Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria, Aphrodesia's third studio album packs a delicious punch from start to finish. Order your copy today!

Visit the official homepage of Aphrodesia

Watch a music video of Aphrodesia on Youtube!

Visit Aphrodesia's myspace page

                                                              To Purchase CD

Occidental Brothers Dance Band International (Illinois)
Chicago’s Occidental Brothers Dance Band Int’l plays classic Central and West African dance music—specializing in Highlife, Rumba, Dry Guitar, and other delights from the great continent. The multi-racial band mixes their backgrounds in traditional African music, jazz, and underground rock to bring these classic sounds to life.

Visit the official home page of the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International

Visit the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International myspace page

To Purchase CD

Markus James (California)
Of late, a handful of American artists have explored the connection between West African music and American blues, but Markus James has lived this connection for the past seven years (and four albums). Snakeskin Violin continues his profound world blues passage. Working, as usual, with several Malian players, including Hassi Sare (njarka violin), Mamadou Sidibe (calabash, vocals), Vieux Farka Toure (cadence guitar) and Mama Sissoko (n'goni), James laid down tracks in Mali, California and Mississippi (Philip Van Vleck, Billboard Magazine).

Visit the official home page of Markus James

Watch a Markus James music video on Youtube!

Visit Markus James' myspace page

To Purchase CD

Leni Stern (New York)
Born in Munich, Germany, Leni started playing piano at the age of six and guitar at eleven. At seventeen, she formed her own acting company, and her radical productions sold out houses across Europe. Critics have said her music incorporates “intelligent lyrics and beautifully drawn vignettes” (Washington Post), “crystalline, jazz-meets-blues guitar lines” (Guitar Player), and “thoughtful structure, evocative moods, attention to groove” (San Francisco Bay Guardian). A “Fleet and Lyrical guitarist”, (The New Yorker). “A Gifted Singer-Songwriter with a Wide-Ranging Sensibility and Sophisticated Guitar and Harmonic Chops” (The Boston Globe).

Watch a Leni Stern music video on Youtube!

Visit Leni Stern's myspace page

To Purchase CD

Burkina Electric (New York)
Burkina Electric was founded in 2004 by Mai Lingani (vocals), Lukas Ligeti (drums & electronics), Pyrolator (electronics & visuals) and Burkinabè guitarist Wende K. Blass. The group's objective is to bring new concepts to both Burkinabè music and Western club electronica by infusing computer-based performance with rhythms and other elements of Burkinabè traditions.
Visit the official homepage of Burkina Electric

Visit Burkina Electric's myspace page

To Purchase CD

Extra Golden (Kenya/America)
Hera Ma Nono is the exhilarating sophomore effort from Kenyan and American cooperative Extra Golden. Kenyan benga music and American rock first met with a friendly handshake on the group’s 2006 debut, Ok-Oyot System, and are now fully integrated in a union that represents the vanguard of both styles and transcends the very notion of authenticity. Extra Golden's new album, Hera Ma Nono, is out now on Thrill Jockey.

Visit the official homepage of Extra Golden

Watch an Extra Golden music video on Youtube!

Visit Extra Golden's myspace page

To Purchase CD

Cheik Hamala Diabate and Bob Carlin (Mali/America)
Two master music makers -- one from Mali in West Africa, the other from the United States -- join together in a cross-cultural program that creates a musical dialogue between two traditions. From Mali to America blends the musical traditions of West Africa and America. Since the American banjo grew from Western African roots, this exploration should come as no surprise. What is surprising is that it has taken this long for the ngoni and banjo to join together to explore and illuminate this obscure corner of American musical history. This collaboration by masters from two musical cultures features a dialogue that blends seamlessly and demonstrates the common roots of their music and instruments.

Visit the official homepage of Cheik Hamala Diabate

Visit the official homepage of Bob Carlin

Watch a music video of Cheik Hamala Diabate and Bob Carlin on Youtube!

To Purchase CD

Vampire Weekend (New York)
Describing their sound as "Upper West Side Soweto," New York City's Vampire Weekend mixes preppy, well-read indie rock with joyful, Afro-pop-inspired melodies and rhythms. Ezra Koenig, Chris Baio, Rostam Batmanglij, and Chris Tomson formed the band early in 2006, when they were finishing up their studies at Columbia University.

Visit the official page of Vampire Weekend

Watch a Vampire Weekend music video on Youtube!

Visit Vampire Weekend's myspace page!

To Purchase CD

Timbila (New York)
Timbila’s music is hip, afrodelic, trance grooves with thrumming thumb piano, wildly buzzing xylophone, giddy guitar, and heavenly, sassy vocals. The players have studied spiritually-charged mbira (shona thumb piano) music in Zimbabwe, and also the wildly rhythmic xylophone music of Mozambique—Timbila! group members included Nora Balaban (veteran of mbira and timbila, and a longtime rock ‘n’ roll singer/songwriter), Banning Eyre (author, Afropop Worldwide radio producer, and authority on african guitar styles), Dirck Westervelt on bass, (who along with Eyre has played and recorded with Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited and other afropop bands), Louisa Bradshaw on vocals, and Ed Klinger on drums (also a veteran of Blacks Unlimited sessions.) Rujeko Chenzira a master of shona music, and dance, who along with fellow dancer Shea Berry completes Tmbila’s exuberant stage show.

Watch a music video of Timbila on Youtube!

Watch a Tibila video on myspace video channel

Wagogo Banda (New Mexico)
Wagogo, born, raised and loved in Albuquerque, NM, is an eclectic group of musicians that make a rhythmic cocktail out of their Chicano influences, Northern Mexico folk songs, warm calypso island grooves, and the captivating spirit music of Zimbabwe. Their lyrics possess an equally enriching quality, being composed mostly by lead singer Armando Ortega, in a blend of Spanish, English, and the Shona language of Zimbabwe. With such a diverse repertoire, Wagogo inspires a multigenerational crowd to dance and sing, and even gets the old folks weeping with its dedication to preserving the traditional roots of music, in addition to exploring new sounds.

Visit the official homepage of the Wagogo Band

To Purchase CD

Oran Etkin, Kelenia (New York)
Over the past decade, Oran Etkin has collaborated with numerous West African musicians in the US and Africa. Oran's upcoming CD features traditional Malian Griot musicians alongside notable jazz musicians. His duo with Malian guitarist/vocalist Abdoulaye Diabate, in which Oran's bass clarinet is prominently featured, offers a more intimate context to explore acoustic African music.

   Visit the official home page of Oran Etkin

                                                                   Visit Oran Etkin's myspace page

                                                                   Listen to album samplers

Jamshied Sharifi (New York)
Jamshied Sharifi crosses global traditions, mixing instruments from Mexico, Africa and the Middle East in percussively melodic arrangements with his keyboards and electronic wind instrument. Coming April 8, 2008 - the release of One, Jamshied Sharifi’s second solo recording. Featuring the voices of Paula Cole, Sussan Deyhim, Abdoulaye Diabaté, Hassan Hakmoun, Yungchen Lhamo, and Vishal Vaid, and an outstanding group of instrumentalists.

Visit the official homepage of Jamshied Sharifi

Visit Jamshield Sharifi's myspace page

                                                               To Purchase CD

Sean Noonan Brewed by Noon (New York)
The drummer and composer Sean Noonan approaches postmodern jazz and world music from the same angle of self-discovery. On his new album, "Stories to Tell" (Songlines), Mr. Noonan, attempts to braid together the Celtic balladry of his ancestors with the various traditions of West African griots, Southern bluesmen and downtown-scene alchemists.

Visit the official homepage of Sean Noonan and Brewed by Noon

Watch a music video of Sean Noonan and brewed by Noon at Youtube!

                                                              Visit Sean Noonan and Brewed by Noon's myspace page

                                                              To Purchase CD

Source (New York)
Source has been delighting audiences at Soho’s Zinc Bar for more than three years, holding down the first-of-the-month slot in this cool hot-spot’s long-running series, African Fridays. ith “Tonight’s African Jazz Band” the vehicle, Source W/ Abdoulaye Diabate delivers a message of human spirit, of individual and collective creativity, demonstrating how different cultures can meet and communicate through their personal relationship to music.

Visit the official homepage of Source

Watch a music video of Source on Youtube!

                                                               Visit Source's myspace page

                                                               To Purchase CD

Kakande (Guinea/New York)
Griot vocalist and balafon player extraordinaire, Famoro Dioubate is the latest star talent to emerge from the New York Mande milieu. What comes through most on Dununya is the freshness and esprit de corps of this band. Kakande performed plenty before going into the studio, so the arrangements feel organic and natural.

Visit the official homepage of Kakande

Watch a music video of Kakande on Youtube!

Visit Kakande's myspace page

                                                                 To Purchase CD

Akoya Afrobeat (New York)
With a furious storm of thundering congas and the deep boom of the KALETA drum, the Akoya Afrobeat Ensemble takes the stage with an explosion of dance rhythms. 14 pieces make up this fully fledged funk factory. With a three year history of refining our groove, Akoya released the debut album Introducing the Akoya Afrobeat Ensemble.

Visit the official homepage of Akoya Afrobeat

Watch a music video of Akoya Afrobeat on Youtube!

Visit Akoya Afrobeat's myspace page

To Purchase CD

Zivanai Masango( Zimbabwe)

Zivanai Masango of Zimbabwe is a fine young singer/songwriter/guitarist/bandleader, featured on an earlier Africa in America program.

Visit the official homepage of Zivanai Masango

Watch a music video of Zivanai Mansango on Youtube!

To Purchase CD


Classic Afrobeat: (Though not featured in this particular edition of our "Africa in America show" the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra has made a tremendous impact on the Afropop community in New York).

Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra (New York)
Antibalas is a culturally diverse Afrobeat ensemble based in the heart of Brooklyn, New York. Judging by their complex percussive approach, the band's fourteen-plus members -- including Latinos, whites, African-Americans, Africans, and Asian-Americans -- are chiefly inspired by the Reverend Fela Kuti, though they are also unquestionably indebted to '70s funk troupe War and Nigerian rhythm doctor Tony Allen. Founded in '98, this collection of talented multi-instrumentalists includes members of two influential New York-based percussive funk groups, Soul Providers and Daktaris. Collectively they run Africalia, a club that provides a forum for up-and-coming dub, cumbia, and batucada bands (Luke Magnuson).

Visit the official homepage of Antibalas

Visit Antibalas' myspace page

Watch a music video of Antibals Afrobeat Orchestra on Youtube!

To Purchase CD

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First published: Compiled and Edited by RaShonda Reeves