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Thomas Mapfumo Live in NYC at SOB's
In 1991, Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited made their second tour of the United States. It was a fascinating transitional moment in the band’s …
5 years, 4 months ago
Afropop Closeup: Pana-Soul Crooner Ralph Weeks’s Enduring Classic “Something Deep Inside”
Soul singer and multi-instrumentalist Ralph Weeks left Panama for Brooklyn, New York, when he was 17. Today he's a hearty 77, and still takes the sta…
5 years, 4 months ago
818 Lockdown Serenade
For all those stuck at home or stressed out during these uncertain times, here’s an hour of uplifting music from Mali, Cuba and South Africa. Vusi Ma…
5 years, 4 months ago
Afropop Closeup: Everything Transforms
Two new bands, one from Morocco and one from Tunisia, are mixing jazz, funk, and rock with centuries-old ritual music with roots in the trans-Saharan…
5 years, 4 months ago
Ancient Text Messages - Batá Drums In A Changing World
In Africa, drums don't only play rhythms, they send messages. “Ancient Text Messages: Batá Drums in a Changing World” explores an endangered traditio…
5 years, 5 months ago
Borderless Sounds - The New North Africa
North African music receives very little coverage in the United States. There are no high-profile mixes of recent Tunisian underground dance music fr…
5 years, 5 months ago
Closeup: Art Is Freedom - A Conversation With Criolo
One of the most important performing artists to emerge on the Brazilian music scene in the new millennium, Criolo has crafted a diverse and eclectic …
5 years, 5 months ago
817 The Story Of Gumbe
The square gumbe frame drum was created centuries ago by enslaved Africans in Jamaica. It traveled to Sierra Leone with freed Maroons from Jamaica’s …
5 years, 5 months ago
816 Bomba, Plena And Puerto Rican Protest Music
On this program, we look at Puerto Rican protest songs over the past two centuries, including Paracumbé's subversive bomba dances from the time of sl…
5 years, 5 months ago
Johnny And Sipho: A Friendship Made On Earth
Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu formed the South African crossover band Juluka in the mid-1970s. But by then, the two had been palling around apartheid…
5 years, 5 months ago