Music From Benin and West Africa

Angelique is my favorite Beninese singer. She has an incredible voice and is an outstanding performer! She has two websites:

OYAYA

To know more about it, go to
www.kidjo.com . There are lyrics to the songs on the site as well as her new tour schedule.

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Angélique Kidjo's previous albums have been decidedly patchy affairs, with tracks ranging from the sublime to the abysmal. With Black Ivory Soul, however, Kidjo strikes a lovely and generally consistent note. Exploring the connections between her native Benin and Brazil's Bahia region, she makes beautiful music flavored by two continents on songs such as "Tumba," with its crisp but subtle percussion driving a lilting melody, or "Afrika," where the cascading notes of the kora help bridge the Atlantic. Co-writing with talents like Carlinhos Brown and Vinícius Cantuária has helped; they've toned down the R&B influence than ran through Oremi and replaced it with something more individual. Kidjo sounds strongest when she's very rootsy, as on her cover of Gilberto Gil's "Refavela," which stands in stark contrast to the bland "Iwoya," a duet with Dave Matthews that sounds like nothing more than a calculated shot at radio airplay. Even the odd track out, a version of "Ces Petits Riens" by Serge Gainsbourg, works because of its spare delight. In following her muse and her history, Kidjo has produced her best work to date. --Chris Nickson

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Benin-born Afropop star Angelique Kidjo will rock you, but her music is ultimately a wave of higher consciousness. Oremi ("Friends"), her fifth album, makes the first stop of a projected trilogy in the U.S. and creates a coalition between the sounds and spirits of Africa and R&B. The set jumps off with a soul-to-soul gesture--Kidjo's powerhouse take on "Voodoo Child," Jimi Hendrix's prescient nod to his origins. Collaborations with Robbie Neville, Cassandra Wilson, Branford Marsalis, and Kelly Price range from stunning to intoxicating, as in Price and Kidjo's "Open Your Eyes" duet. Kidjo scores as strongly solo and never stoops to preach. "Babalao" is this African sage's moving plea for the world's youth, while "Yaki" is her impish cackle at pretension taking a well-deserved pratfall. The album also contains Kidjo's single from the Lion King II soundtrack, "We Are One." --Elena Oumano

I really love this album. It is a wonderful mixture of Zairois, Jazz, Rock, and traditional Beninese music. Enyo din! - Chris

Album Description
this album is a fusion of african/euro and pop rock elements with a sweet blend of r&b and jimmy hendrix type of firing guitar riffs.This is an album that combines africa with the west.

About the Artist
Drumming is an integral aspect of kaleta music.in fact the name kaleta in his native tongue refers to a masked musician who intertains the public during chistmas period and in return receives hand outs and money for this effort. kaleta ,real name leon ligan-majek is from the republic of benin but lived in lagos where he toured worldwide and recorded numerous albums with fela kuti and king sunny ade...to mention but a few. kaleta is a singer/guitarist/percussionist and producer who now lives in newyork..he can be reach by email kaleta@newyork.com or kaleta@usa.com

Rhythms & Songs for the Vodun
Various Artists
Price: $19.98 Usually ships within 4 days
Audio CD (July 19, 1993) Original Release Date: July 19, 1993
Number of Discs: 1 Gallo; ASIN: B00005YOT4

Track Listings

1. Polyrythmie pour Hevioso
2. Rythme d'attente
3. Chants et rythmes aprés la (sortie)
4. Orchestre de Fâ
5. Légendes et chants sur Fâ
6. Rythme ternaire (3 séquences)
7. Polyrythmie
8. Rythme nago/yoruba
9. Chant (gbigbo wiwe)
10. Chant (Histoire de Bonou)
11. Cortége et trompes
12. Chants sur Adjahuto
13. Motifs rythmiques pour Sakpata

From the names of the track listings, it looks like there is a very good variety authentic Vodun drumming music for different gods and different types of ceremonies.

From the titles of the tracks, it sounds like all the drumming is for Vodun ceremonies such as for the gods Shango, Oro, Egun Gun etc.

Amazon.com
Ali Farka Toure's first album since his 1994 collaboration with Ry-Cooder, Talking Timbuktu, makes a convincing argument for the adage that home is where the art is. Recorded in an abandoned brick edifice located between Toure's extensive rice fields and the Sahara-bordering village of Niafunké, Mali, this is the guitarist's most purely African album yet. Local percussionists, a sensuous village chorus, and a lonely one-stringed njarka violin accompany Toure here, replacing the Western guests who've tended to stilt his prior records. More relaxed and less gratuitously ornamental than before (especially when he plays acoustically), Toure digs deeply into spare, loping pentatonic grooves that extend beyond the usual John Lee Hooker blues comparisons into territory older, richer, and more folkloric (and Islamic) than earlier records have approached. --Richard Gehr

Amazon.com
Talking Timbuktu is a groundbreaking record that vividly illustrates the Africa-Blues connection in real time. Ali Farka Toure, one of Mali's leading singer-guitarists, has a trance-like, bluesy style that, although deeply rooted in Malian tradition, bears astonishing similarity to that of John Lee Hooker or even Canned Heat. It's a mono-chordal vamp, with repetitive song lines cut with shards of blistering solo runs that shimmer like a desert mirage. Toure may be conversant with some blues artists, but it is unlikely that artists like Hooker or Robert Pete Williams ever heard these Malian roots, which makes the connection so uncanny. Ry Cooder, well versed in domestic and world guitar styles, is the perfect counterpoint in these extended songs/jams, his sinewy slide guitar intertwining with his partner's in a super world summit without barriers or borders. --Derek Rath

Amazon.com
Previously available as a 1996 import on the World Circuit label, this nearly 72-minute collection of
recordings were originally made for radio broadcast between 1970 and 1978. As a single
collection, this is the finest yet of Toure's slow-burning music, characterized by nimble, expressive
guitar playing and strong, expressive singing. Lyrically, the songs are mostly devotionals, praising a
loved one, Allah, and various government initiatives (including Radio Mali itself). Half the tunes
feature Toure alone on guitar and vocals; elsewhere he is backed by the ngoni's beautiful rattle-buzz,
a full choir, a smattering of percussion, and a violin player whose sliding, high-pitched notes echo the
fiddle playing of Appalachia. Throughout, Toure's singing has a wider range than you'd expect
(considering that he's known as the "African John Lee Hooker") and his bluesy guitar playing is
always melodic, modal, and meditative. Toure repeats musical phrases over and over again, subtly
changing them. But he never gets fancy for its own sake--his style (which adapts Sonrai, Peul, and
Tamascheq techniques) sounds as natural as a babbling brook. Strands of sing-songy, seemingly
simplistic melodies wrap around each other, coming together and unwinding like strands of RNA.
This is some mind-blowing stuff. --Mike McGonigal

Amazon.com
Mali's Salif Keita might possess one of Africa's great voices, but in the past there have been times when his material hasn't done him real justice. That's not the case here--Papa is as close to brilliance as he's likely to get, with enough of a real roots feel to bring out his emotive qualities. For once, the Western studio overlays (done in New York and Paris) don't overwhelm everything else. In fact, the only time they really intrude is when coproducer Vernon Reid (ex-Living Colour) takes a wild guitar solo at the end of the record, and that's an ideal fit. The title track is Keita at his very best, as his voice cracks and soars. This time he's hit it perfectly. --Chris Nickson

Amazon.com
The Mali superstar has kept a low profile since Amen (1991), his Joe Zawinul-produced bid for crossover stardom, and a new generation of Afro pop marvels led by Baaba Maal have stepped into the vacuum. Returning to Paris and working with producer/keyboardist Wally Badarou (ex-Level 42), Keita is in exquisite voice although he too often takes a back seat to the extended, horn-driven funk jams typified by Sumun and Mandjou. --Jeff Bateman

Amazon.com
Born in the city formerly known as Leopoldville back when the former Zaire was known as the
Belgian Congo, Papa Wemba was on the leading edge of soukous music in the 1970s. He was a
pivotal member of the trailblazing Zaiko Langa Langa and later formed Viva La Musica and his own
ensembles. In 1993, Wemba renamed his band Molokai, and that name and band make this newest
Papa Wemba CD both an aggregation of his past and a new exploration. Wemba delves into an a
cappella tune, placing his soaring vocals at the immediate heart of the CD. But then the music churns
in, veering between hip, urban dance styles that mesh European pop elements, Wemba's acrobatic
vocal techniques and soukous' rumba-fueled rhythms. Molokai also throws truly rock- powered
hooks and textures, too, newly energizing Wemba's music without taking away from the layered
rhythms. --Andrew Bartlett