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After The Quake: Music, Politics, and Spirituality in Haiti

For this exclusive Afropop Worldwide Hip Deep report, producer Ned Sublette travels to Port-au-Prince, where he checks in with bandleader Richard Morse of RAM, and with Lolo and Manzé Beaubrun of Boukman Eksperyans, both of whom produced hotly controversial carnival songs … Read more »

Blog »

contest Win a trip for two to NYC to celebrate Afropop’s 25th anniversary at SummerStage–Central Park
interview Summerstage! Afropop Producer Sean Barlow Talks with Erika Elliott, Artistic Director of Summerstage about their 2013 season
Blog Join the Afropop Street Team!
Blog The Afropop Summer 2013 North American Festival Guide
video Accra Journal: Men Cheers Brass Band
Blog David Rodigan reggae mix from FACT Mag

Reviews »

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    Dur-Dur Band, Vol. 5- Awesome Tapes From Africa

    This album, recorded in 1987, is the fifth digital-age re-release of the masterful Dur-Dur Band, who were big stars in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, in the 1980s. This re-release, from Awesome Tapes From Africa, is true to the (internet) label’s name: the audio is … Read more »

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    Mali Meets Latin America: Remix EP

    Last year we reviewed Amadou & Mariam’s seventh studio album, Folila, and our feelings were a little mixed- we loved the sound, but we also couldn’t help ourselves from thinking that we heard it before. The album was chock full … Read more »

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    Didjak Munya- “Oxygène”

    Didjak Munya, of Kinshasa, has been a widely respected member of the city’s Hip-Hop community for over 15 years. With Oxygène, his second solo album and first international release, Didjak acts as both performer and producer, and on the album, … Read more »

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    Ghost Town

    The first time that DJ Spoko’s music got serious international attention, it wasn’t under his name. It was 2008, and DJ Mujava’s indelibly raw “Township Funk” was a trans-global revelation, a stripped down groove made out of the barest of … Read more »

Dur-Dur Band, Vol. 5- Awesome Tapes From Africa

This album, recorded in 1987, is the fifth digital-age re-release of the masterful Dur-Dur Band, who were big stars in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, in the 1980s. This re-release, from Awesome Tapes From Africa, is true to the (internet) label’s name: the audio is … Read more »

NYC Events »

  • Fri May 24

    Location: BAMcafé Peter Jay Sharp Building (Google Maps)

    Time: 10:00 pm to 11:00 pm

    A key developer of the mbalax style of Senegalese dance music, multi-instrumentalist Abdou Mboup is a longtime ambassador of Senegal’s musical tradition. Having collaborated with the likes of Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Afrika Bambaataa, Mboup, who performs with his new band Waakaw, marries jazz with a virtuosic mastery of the West African kora.

  • Tue May 28

    Location: Shrine MAFRIKA Festival, Marcus Garvey Park (Google Maps)

    Time: 12:00 am to 12:00 am

    This is amazing Afro-Jazz from Benin: Jah Baba blends horns and traditional songs and percussion to bring you a thrilling musical experience straight from Benin! Free as part of Shrine NYC's MAFRIKA festival in Marcus Garvey Park. http://www.jahbabagroup.com/

  • Wed May 29

    Location: Barbes (Google Maps)

    Time: 10:00 pm to 11:00 pm

    THE MANDINGO AMBASSADORS. Every Wednesday
    In the 1960's and 1970's, the government of Guinea engaged in a campaign known as Authenticité. It was a drive to create a new musical movement that would be specifically Guinean, but would include the modern wonders that were the electric guitar, the electric bass and the drumset. Musicians were given instruments and orchestras were formed. Surprisingly, the results proved mesmerizing and a myriad new bands were born. Many of them would go on to have a profound and lasting impact on African music. Mamady Kouyate was one of those pioneers. He played in various bands - his own band, Les Ambassadeurs du Mandingue, being one of them - but is probably best known as the guitarist in the the classic Bembeya Jazz National. Kouyate, who now lives in NY, has reformed the Mandingo Ambassadors, updating the sound of his youth, but keeping it very close to the standard of Authenticité. The new All-Star band includ es Ismael Kouyate - vocals; Mamady Kourouma - guitar; Oran Etkin - tenor sax & clarinets; Sylvain Leroux - flute, tambin and alto sax; Andy Algire - drums; Nick Cudahy - bass and Mamady Kouyate - guitar. “dazzling vocal and guitar patterns over a rhythm section that is like a perfect system” Ben Ratliff, NY Times.

  • Sat Jun 1

    Location: Alwan for the Arts 16 Beaver Street (between Broad and Broadway), 4th floor, New York, NY 10004 (646) 732-3261 (Google Maps)

    Time: 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm

    About Javier Ruibal

    Born in Cadiz, Andalusia, the heterodox and self-trained Javier Ruibal began his career in 1987 and since then has given numerous concerts in and outside Spain, both solo and with such music greats as Pablo Milanes, Joaquin Sabina, Carmen París and Carlos Cano.

    His songs reference Spanish poetry, especially the poets of the Generation of 27, such as Rafael Alberti and Federico Garcia Lorca. He has also composed for other artists, including Ana Belén, Martirio, Javier Krahe, Pasión Vega and Mónica Molina, and has created music for film and for different audiovisual productions. His contribution to the arts earned him the prestigious Medal of Arts from the Andalusian Regional Government.

    "Ruibal sings, above all, to carnal love, but like a modern King Midas, everything he touches turns to beauty."- El Païs

    "Singing songwriting's best-kept secret. Genuine, popular, intelligent and seductive."- La Razón

    "To call his songs love songs is to deny their originality."- The Independent

    "Javier Ruibal possesses an exquisite and rigorous desire to integrate with the social history alongside which he lives. His songs are at once beautiful and responsible, intimate and participatory, personal and universal. I believe that his enduring power of conviction depends, above all, on this dual sensibility, human and artistic, which is, in the end, an unforgettable lesson." - José Manuel Caballero Bonald, Spanish novelist, lecturer and poet

  • Wed Jun 5

    Location: SOBs (Google Maps)

    Time: 8:00 pm to 10:30 pm

    One of the hottest timba bands in Cuba spends two nights at SOBs. Don't miss it!
    http://sobs.com/?q=events/latin/cuba-alexander-abreu-havana-d-primera