Flamenco as we know it was “born” in Spain in the mid-19th century. But for centuries before that, Roma (Gitanos, Gypsies) had been living in Spanish cities, often rubbing shoulders with the descendants of Africans (Moors), who had been there as both citizens and slaves going back to Medieval times and earlier. This overlooked pre-history of flamenco is explored in Miguel Angel Rosales’s groundbreaking film Gurumbé. In this program, we meet Rosales and learn to hear flamenco in a new way. We also meet maverick flamenco artist Raul Rodriguez, inventor and master of the tres flamenco. Rodriquez’s solo concert, sampled in this program, is a tour de force and an anthropology master class, all in one. Produced by Banning Eyre.

APWW #792

Originally broadcast in 2018

Nigeria is today the undisputed powerhouse of African pop music. Call it Naija Pop, Afrobeats, Afropop or what have you. The likes of Burna Boy, Wizkid, Yemi Alade and Tiwa Savage are giants on the scene. In this program we hear the latest from these and others, and sample action on the Afrobeat and Alté scene. We also speak with key artists in Nigeria and the U.S. about the rising social activism among Nigerian artists in the era of the EndSARS movement against police violence. Produced by Banning Eyre.

APWW #825

"Yaa Amponsah" is a song from Africa's earliest guitar tradition, palmwine music. Dating to the late 19th or early 20th century this style developed in port cities across the continent's western coast as Africans traveled to trade goods and music. Yaa Amponsah is also what Ghanaian musicians call a "rhythm"—a blueprint of harmonies, rhythms, and melodies that has informed thousands of songs from its first recording in 1928 through to contemporary music. In this Afropop Closeup, guitarist Nathaniel Braddock takes you inside his journey to dig into the rhythm's roots and influences through conversations with Koo Nimo, Akablay, Kofi Elektrik, and John Collins.

Afropop Closeup Season Six

In 2018, the renowned music journal Fact boldly claimed that “the world’s best electronic music festival is in Uganda.” In only a few years, Nyege Nyege has indeed become one of the hottest artistic hubs in East Africa, birthing two music labels that propelled local scenes, such as Ugandan acholitronix or Tanzanian singeli, across the globe. At the heart of this explosive universe lies a big house, known as “the Villa,” that almost constantly vibrates with sounds as musicians from the region and beyond tirelessly produce, exchange skills, and frenetically party until dawn. Despite reducing the Villa’s bubbling flow, COVID-19 didn’t silence it, and the house kept on nurturing its community of underground musicians. In this episode, producer Basile Koechlin takes us to the Villa to meet current residents and other members of the Nyege Nyege nebula. Through a patchwork of stories, soundscapes, and fresh musical releases, we hear more about this unique and strange place that came to host and generate a seminal part of the avant-garde of electronic music production in East Africa.

Produced by Basie Koechlin

APWW #843

Foutanga Babani Sissoko, known also as Baba Sora, was one of the most generous patrons of Malian musicians, particularly griots, in modern times. His gifts of cash, gold, cars and houses are legendary, and the amount of music he inspired was voluminous. But the source of all those riches turned out to be dubious, to say the least. And when he died in March 2021, he had spent his latter years a poor man. In this episode we hear the man, the music and the remembrances of those whose lives were changed by his extraordinary generosity. Produced by Banning Eyre.

APWW #842

Congolese guitar is one of the pearls of African music. Intricate, joyful and seriously challenging, it’s long been a passion of producer/guitarist Banning Eyre. Through an innovative new online learning website—the World Music Method—he met guitarist Niwel Tsumbu, a brilliant guitarist and teacher, who delves here into Congo guitar history.

Produced by Banning Eyre.

We trace the history of this most American of instruments from its ancestors in West Africa through the Caribbean and American South and into the present, as a new generation of Black women artists reclaim the banjo as their own. Rhiannon Giddens, Bassekou Kouyate, Bela Fleck and more talk claw-hammers, trad jazz, Appalachian folk, African ancestors and the on-going story of American music, which would be woefully incomplete without a Black history of the banjo.

Produced by Ben Richmond

Toronto is Canada’s most cosmopolitan city--“like New York but mellower” in the words of Kofi Akah, son of the Ghanaian highlife legend Jewel Akah. Kofi is one of many superb African artists who have made Toronto their home over the years. That list is long, and it has included highlife star Pat Thomas, South Sudanese rapper Emanuel Jal, rising Congolese star Blandine, Malagasy guitarist Donné Roberts, and a hidden treasure of Ethiopian music, Fantahun Shewankochew. In this program, we take the pulse of Toronto’s African scene through music and interviews with Kofi, Emanuel, Blandine, Fantahun and many more.

Produced by Banning Eyre

APWW #830

In 1985, Sean Barlow made his first trip to Africa to check out musical life there. Afropop Worldwide was still a dream at that point, but the experiences he had on that trip put wind in his sails. One highlight was the afternoon he spent interviewing Luambo Makiadi a.k.a. Franco at the bandleader's home in the Limité neighborhood of Kinshasa. Franco had recently played his first concerts in the United States. Although few outside the African diaspora community had any idea who he was, Franco was by then a legend, a superstar in Africa. In this podcast we hear from the man himself, nestled on a porch swing, his acoustic guitar cradled on his lap, in conversation with a somewhat green American journalist with a bright future.

Produced by Banning Eyre.

Afropop Closeup Season Six

During the last 60 years, Jamaican music has constantly reinvented itself, a handful of innovators pioneering distinct musical genres such as ska, rock steady, reggae and dancehall, as well shorter-lived subgenres.

But Jamaica's musical trendsetters did much more than just shake up the island's music scene. At crucial intervals, their inventiveness has dramatically changed or even spawned a range of popular forms overseas—sewing seeds for rap via the deejay style and stimulating remix culture through dub.

In "The Gorgon, The Originator and The Dub Master," producer David Katz leads a tour of indelible changes brought about by producer Bunny "Striker" Lee, Deejay U Roy and the engineer and sound system owner, King Tubby, to demonstrate how they changed popular music worldwide.

All photos ©David Katz.

Produced by David Katz.

APWW #841