CD Review: Youssou N’Dour, Dakar-Kingston

Youssou N’Dour: Dakar-Kingston
[Universal/Emarcy, 2011]

Senegal’s Youssou N’Dour, one of the greatest voices in African music (or any sort of music, for that matter), has made a reggae album. Actually, I had read a lukewarm review of Dakar-Kingston in the U.K. press last year and wondered two things: whether it was really as unexceptional as the reviewer opined, and whether the album was going to be available over here in America.  Read more... (341 words + 2 images)

CD Review: Rusty Zinn, Manifestation

Rusty, Manifestation [Nine Above Records, 2011]  Read more... (331 words + 2 images)

Slideshow: Vieux Farka Toure in San Francisco

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Vieux Farka Toure, son of the late master guitarist Ali Farka Toure, put on an amazing show at The Independent in San Francisco on May 15, 2011. The singer from Mali combined his trademark blues-meets-Malian-meets-jazz sound. Photos by Lee Abel.  Read more... (84 words + 18 images)

Documentary: Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest

Starring A Tribe Called Quest

A Tribe Called Quest

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
Directed by Michael Rapaport

A hip-hop purist’s dream come through, Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest has the depth that reggae fans enjoyed from a film about the life story on the iconic Bob Marley, such as Caribbean Nights: A BBC Documentary on the life of Bob Marley.  Read more... (616 words + 2 images)

CD Review: Lobi Traore, Bwati Kono

Kanaga System Krush, 2010
www.systemkrush.com

By now anyone who’s interested knows of the intimate connection between the blues and the traditional music of West Africa. For me and likely many others, the link was first exemplified on American bluesman Johnny Copeland’s 1985 effort “Bringing It All Back Home,” recorded in Ivory Coast with local musicians.  (That album, by the way, has aged extremely well, as I discovered recently when I listened to my old cassette version.)  Read more... (340 words + 2 images)