Customer Reviews

Songs of West Africa: A Collection of over 80 Traditional West African Folk Songs and Chants in 6 Languages with Translations, Annotations

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I wasn't sure what to expect when I bought this, but this book turned out to be really fun to read! Part storytelling, part anthropology, part language lessons, the book introduces not just songs from six different tribal groups but a sense of how they see the world. The songs are translated, plus the pronounciations written out, and you can play the CD and read along with it - a great help if you want to try singing or drumming the music.

I have studied in Ghana and continue to study and teach this music here in Philadelphia, and this book has enough substance to feed a small country of song hungry drummers. Also, it seems the Author also sings and plays the support drums, lead vocal and chorus (overdubbed); which is really incredible because the CD sounds so Ewe~! A must have for anyone who values beauty and hard work!
Shawn Hennessey, Leana Song.

If you are interested in the subject you will want this book - it is that simple. The drum patterns are notated and discussed in detail, and the phonetic transliterations of the texts are to be found no where else, along with both literal and idiomatic translations. No, as the only negative reviewer pointed out, the melodies are not notated, but any "musically literate" person with an acquaintance with the pentatonic scale (the simplest and most universal of melodic building blocks) can notate the tunes if he or she desires. The author and crew on the included CD do sing all of the songs in lower keys than any field recordings I have heard, but they sing and play with great energy and clarity. Highly recommended!!!

I recently purchased this after having it on my list for a while - wish I'd done so earlier. Dan put a lot of time and thought into the collection, with a diverse representation of various traditions in West Africa. Personally, I bought this to learn more Ewe (Ghanaian) songs for some of the music my students are playing - the songs were ones I'd never heard, and the recordings made it easy to loop/learn by listening. A pronunciation guide for the various languages is within every section, along with contextual information about the people and the music the songs accompany.

Highly recommended, especially for those like me who have a grasp of the music already and are looking to further their repertoire of songs - nice job Dan!

As a student of West African music and dance I highly recommend this book and cd. The book in itself is a valuable resource regarding Ewe music. It goes into depth in its description of the social environment from which this music comes. The recordings are of very good quality and include some of the drum music that accompanies the songs. The fact that C.K. Ladzekpo was consulted in the writing of the book indicates that the information is accurate.

If you want to enjoy listening to Ewe songs and especially if you want to learn to sing them yourself please order this book immediately.

While some interesting history and a CD, I would not call this a songbook as there are no written melodies, chord symbols or anything that would be found in something called a songbook. I had hoped to use this with my students, but I teach my students to be musically literate.