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Afropop Radio
Afropop Worldwide with Georges Collinet From PRI Public Radio International ®
The Prehistory of New Orleans: Treasures from the Hogan
This program tells the story of how jazz emerged in the context of all the other African American musics that proliferated in late 19th and early 20th century New Orleans: blues, ragtime, Mardi Gras Indian music, vaudeville and minstrelsy, spiritual church music, and more. With our guides Bruce Boyd Raeburn and Lynn Abbott, we'll comb through a vast world of interviews, recorded music, photographs, ephemera, and curatorial knowledge at one of the great American music collections, the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University.
Music and the Story of Haiti From Vodou to Compas to Racine to Rara and Beyond
Haiti became the first black-ruled republic in the Americas in 1804, and music has mirrored, and at times shaped, the twists and turns of Haiti's politics and culture ever since. A primary source of Haitian culture is Dahomey, the birthplace of vodou--the most commonly held world view among Haitian people today. We explore how each of Haiti's rulers has championed his own preferred music. The Duvalier dictators favored compas dance music, and suppressed the most African-identified cultural expressions. When Baby Doc was run out of the country in 1986, African-derived racine, or roots, music exploded. Elizabeth McAlister, professor of religion at Wesleyan University, and Holly Nicolas--interweave music and history to tell a dynamic, and at times heart-breaking story. Included in the mix we'll hear the sweet sound of troubadour balladeers, as well as the exuberant tones of rara bands, the call and response of a capela kombit songs of work parties, impassioned choral music of evangelical churches, and the sophisticated, improvisational rhythms used in vodou rituals.
Beneath the Music: An African History of Bass
This week, Afropop celebrates one of the true unsung heroes of African music: the bass. Join us as we slap, pop, and thump our way across the African Diaspora with our ears tuned to those fat sounds beneath the music and the funky men who make them. Our tour of the global low-end will bring us to some of Africa's bassiest nations - Cameroon, Congo, Zimbabwe and South Africa - as we look at how local bass innovators combined international and traditional influences to forge new ways of looking at the role of the bass and taking the instrument to new frontiers. We also look at the bass in the Diaspora, with a stop by Detroit to hear how Motown's James Jamerson forever changed bass history, as well as a visit to Cuba find out how bassist Israel "Cachao" Lopez invented mambo with the well-placed pluck of a finger. Special guests include former Bass Player Magazine editor Jim Roberts, Congolese bass guru Ngouma Lokito, latin-jazz bass legend Ruben Rodriguez, and Bakithi Kumalo, one of Africa's premier bassists and the man behind the groove on Paul Simon's Graceland.
