Customer Reviews

Anthology Of World Music: Africa - Music From Rwanda

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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The recording quality is not consistent from one track to another but because of content I have given this CD five stars. The recordings on this CD are reproduced from recordings made in 1954 to 1955 and are remarkable given the recording technology of the period. The CD gives a musical sampling from the three largest cultures in Rwanda during the time period in which the recordings were made, those of the Twa, Tutsi, and Hutu. The CD comes with a booklet that provides some information about each track including a brief history or societal purpose/relevance of the music presented.

The booklet also includes a section called "Music of Rwanda" which presents some ideas that have been challenged within the last ten years so take that section of the booklet with a large grain of salt and do some research of your own instead of taking what the author wrote in the 1950's as gospel.

Overall this is a vivid musical portrait painting the diversity of music within Rwanda in the 1950's. A few of the tracks may challenge western ears but I believe this is a CD that could be listened to not just for academic purposes but for enjoyment as well. I also want to make note that musical recordings from Rwanda can be difficult to find and this is hands down the best collection I have found.

These recordings were made 'in the field', mic in hand, by Unesco in the 1950's and are an absolutely unique report of a world forever lost, before being butchered by the atrocities of the Rwanda genocide, while 'civilization' looked the other way.

Music qualities range from intense drumming, which will sent any rock/jazz afficianado straight to heaven, to the tenderest of singing by for instance a young girl, recorded with the wind sizzling audibly around her in the bushes, and a blind singer evoking from a one-string instrument a gamut of inflexions and feelings.

I still have the LP I once purchased in the late 1970's and was overjoyed to find this unique material re-recorded on this cd.

If you wanna travel the river upstream to find one of the main sources of our musical history, here is where to begin.