Customer Reviews

Africa O-Ye!: A Celebration of African Music (Da Capo Paperback)

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After many decades on the fringes of western popular music, contemporary African music has by now firmly established its own identity on the international stage in a diverse profusion of styles from Soukous (rumba) of the Congos to Rai of Algeria and Morocco, Makossa of Cameroun, Mbaqanga of South Africa, Mbalax of Senegal, Taarab of Kenya and many others. Africa O-Ye surveys all of these vibrant styles in the context of traditional culture and illumines the 2-way traffic between African and Western music from the early days in the 1970s up to today's dancefloor fusions. All the major stars are covered (Oum Kulthoum, Youssou N'Dour, Taby Ley, King SunnyAde, Franco, Mbilia Bel, Ebenezer Obey, Alpha Blondie, Salif Keita, Manu Dibango, Zaiko Langa Lnga, Fela kuti, Lucky Dube etc.) and over 200 colour and black & white pics reveal the places and faces behind the sounds of Africa. The musics and cultures of Africa are discussed region by region, starting with the Arabic North through the Sahel, West Africa, Central Africa, Ethiopia and the Horn, the Swahili area in the East and down to the South. Focusing primarily on crossover styles, the manner in which African musicians have fused Western dance, jazz, pop & rock elements with traditional music last century, the book makes fascination reading and serves as an exhaustive reference. There is an excellent bibliography, detailed index and a selective discography for those who want to investigate further.

Slightly outdated now, this book is nevertheless a good introduction to the musics of Africa. Unlike the academic or ethnomusicological approaches to the subject by many other titles, "Africa O-Ye" has a more popular approach.

The book is well laid out and well organised - with plenty colour and black and white photographs and illustrations. Yet it is more than a biography or "dictionary" of musicians. It covers the history and context of music in Africa, and then it covers the entire continent, region by region. Within every region, all major popular musical forms are covered, and in these sub-sections, the musicians practising that style are covered. Finally, the book is rounded off with a discography, again organised by region, followed by a bibliography and an index.