Following a three decade long exile, Miriam Makeba's return to South Africa was celebrated as though a queen was restoring her monarchy. The response was fitting as Makeba remains the most important female vocalist to emerge out of South Africa. Hailed as The Empress Of African Song and Mama Africa, Makeba helped bring African music to a global... [+] Read More

Following a three decade long exile, Miriam Makeba's return to South Africa was celebrated as though a queen was restoring her monarchy. The response was fitting as Makeba remains the most important female vocalist to emerge out of South Africa. Hailed as The Empress Of African Song and Mama Africa, Makeba helped bring African music to a global audience in the 1960s. Nearly five decades after her debut with the Manhattan Brothers, she continues to play an important role in the growth of African music.

Makeba's life has been consistently marked by struggle. As the daughter of a sangoma, a mystical traditional healer of the Xhosa tribe, she spent six months of her birth year in jail with her mother. Gifted with a dynamic vocal tone, Makeba recorded her debut single, "Lakutshona Llange," as a member of the Manhattan Brothers in 1953. Although she left to form an all-female group named the Skylarks in 1958, she reunited with members of the Manhattan Brothers when she accepted the lead female role in a musical version of King Kong, which told the tragic tale of Black African boxer, Ezekiel "King Kong" Dlamani, in 1959. The same year, she began an 18 month tour of South Africa with Alf Herbert's musical extravaganza, African Jazz And Variety, and made an appearance in a documentary film, Come Back Africa. These successes led to invitations to perform in Europe and the United States.

Makeba was embraced by the African-American community. "Pata Pata," Makeba's signature tune was written by Dorothy Masuka and recorded in South Africa in 1956 before eventually becoming a major hit in the U.S. in 1967. In late-1959, she performed for four weeks at the Village Vanguard in New York. She later made a guest appearance during Harry Belafonte's ground-breaking concerts at Carnegie Hall. A double-album of the event, released in 1960, received a Grammy award. Makeba has continued to periodically renew her collaboration with Belafonte, releasing an album in 1972 titled Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte. Makeba then made a special guest appearance at the Harry Belafonte Tribute at Madison Square Garden in 1997.

Makeba's successes as a vocalist were also balanced by her outspoken views about apartheid. In 1960, the government of South Africa revoked her citizenship. For the next thirty years, she was forced to be a 'citizen of the world.' Makeba received the Dag Hammerskjold Peace Prize in 1968. After marrying radical Black activist Stokely Carmichael, many of her concerts were cancelled, and her recording contract with RCA was dropped, resulting in even more problems for the artist. She eventually relocated to Guinea at the invitation of president Sekou Toure and agreed to serve as Guinea's delegate to the United Nations. In 1964 and 1975, she addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations on the horrors of apartheid.

Makeba remained active as a musician over the years. In 1975, she recorded an album, A Promise, with Joe Sample, Stix Hooper, Arthur Adams, and David T. Walker of the Crusaders. Makeba joined Paul Simon and South Africa 's Ladysmith Black Mambazo during their world-wide Graceland tour in 1987 and 1988. Two years later, she joined Odetta and Nina Simone for the One Nation tour.

Makeba published her autobiography, Miriam: My Story, in English in 1988 and had it subsequently translated and published in German, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish and Japanese. Following Nelson Mandela's release from prison, Makeba returned to South Africa in December 1990. She performed her first concert in her homeland in thirty years in April 1991. Makeba appeared in South African award-winning musical, Sarafina, in the role of Sarafina's mother in 1992. Two years later, she reunited with her first husband, trumpeter Hugh Masekela, for the Tour Of Hope tour. In 1995, Makeba formed a charity organization to raise funds to help protect the women of South Africa. The same year, she performed at the Vatican's Nevi Hall during a world-wide broadcasted show, Christmas In The Vatican. Makeba's first studio album in a decade, Homeland, was released in 2000. ~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide [-] Hide

The musical traditions of Kenya were brought to the international stage by guitarist/vocalist Shem Tube and his band Abana Ba Nasery. Led by guitarist/vocalist Tube, the group introduced much of the world to the Kenyan tradition of omutibo, an uplifting music produced by two fingerpicked acoustic guitars and three-part vocal harmonies set to a... [+] Read More

The musical traditions of Kenya were brought to the international stage by guitarist/vocalist Shem Tube and his band Abana Ba Nasery. Led by guitarist/vocalist Tube, the group introduced much of the world to the Kenyan tradition of omutibo, an uplifting music produced by two fingerpicked acoustic guitars and three-part vocal harmonies set to a rhythm played on a Fanta soda bottle. One of Kenya's most successful traditional groups of the 1960s and '70s, Abana Ba Nasery disbanded for more than a decade before reuniting in 1991. The revived band reflected the group members' shifting musical influences -- during the group's hiatus, Tube and guitarist/vocalist Justo Osala had performed with an electric banga band, les Bunyore. Their fascination with contemporary music continued following their re-formation. While their debut album, Classic Acoustic Recordings of Western Kenya, showcased the sound of the original acoustic trio, their second effort, Go Ahead, was much more produced. Recorded while the trio was on tour in Europe, the album introduced bagpipes, slide guitar, banjo, and whistle to their sound. Guests on the album included Chopper and Alan Prosser of Oysterband, Hijaz, and Expen$ive Mustapha of 3 Mustaphas 3 and Ron Kavana. ~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide [-] Hide

One of the most internationally successful West African musicians of the '90s, Ali Farka Toure was described as "the African John Lee Hooker" so many times that it probably began to grate on both Toure's and Hooker's nerves. There is a lot of truth to the comparison, however, and it isn't exactly an insult. The guitarist, who also played other... [+] Read More

One of the most internationally successful West African musicians of the '90s, Ali Farka Toure was described as "the African John Lee Hooker" so many times that it probably began to grate on both Toure's and Hooker's nerves. There is a lot of truth to the comparison, however, and it isn't exactly an insult. The guitarist, who also played other instruments such as calabash and bongos, shared with Hooker (and similar American bluesmen like Lightnin' Hopkins) a predilection for low-pitched vocals and midtempo, foot-stomping rhythms, often playing with minimal accompaniment.

Toure's delivery was less abrasive than Hooker's, and the general tone of his material somewhat sweeter. Widespread success on the order of Hooker was somewhat elusive, though, as Toure sang in several languages, and only occasionally in English. As he once told Option, his are songs "about education, work, love, and society." If he and Hooker sounded quite similar, it's probably not by conscious design, but due to the fact that both drew inspiration from African rhythmic and musical traditions that extend back many generations.

Toure was approaching the age of 50 when he came to the attention of the burgeoning world music community in the West via a self-titled album in the late '80s. In the following years he toured often in North America and Europe, and recorded frequently, sometimes with contributions from Taj Mahal and members of the Chieftains. In 1990, Toure retreated from music entirely to devote himself to his rice farm, but was convinced by his producer to again pick up the guitar to record 1994's Talking Timbuktu, on which he was joined by Ry Cooder. It was his most well-received effort to date, earning him a Grammy for Best World Music Album, but it was also proof that not all Third World-First World collaborations have to dilute their non-Western elements to achieve wide acceptance. However, Toure found the success to be draining and again retreated to tend his farm.

He didn't release a record on American shores for five years afterward; he finally broke the silence in 1999 with Niafunké, which discarded the collaborative approach in favor of a return to his musical roots. Then, once again, Toure stepped away from the limelight. In 2005, perhaps partly to keep his name familiar to music lovers, Nonesuch issued (for the first time on compact disc) Red & Green, two albums Toure recorded in the early '80s, packaged together as a two-disc set. In the Heart of the Moon was also released in 2005. Toure died on March 7, 2006, from the bone cancer that he had been battling for years; however, he was able to complete one last album before passing. His final album, Savane was released posthumously in July 2006. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Griot, composer, and kora master Foday Musa Suso loomed large over the worldbeat landscape both before and after the Graceland groundswell. The solo records of this relentlessly innovative performer and tireless ambassador of African culture remained rooted in the meditative folk traditions of his native Gambia, but he also collaborated with... [+] Read More

Griot, composer, and kora master Foday Musa Suso loomed large over the worldbeat landscape both before and after the Graceland groundswell. The solo records of this relentlessly innovative performer and tireless ambassador of African culture remained rooted in the meditative folk traditions of his native Gambia, but he also collaborated with similarly omnivorous Western musicians including Bill Laswell, Herbie Hancock, and Philip Glass to fuse West African music with classical minimalism, free jazz, and avant funk. Born in 1950 into a family of Mandingo griots -- musicians, historians, and oral storytellers -- dating back about a thousand years, Suso spent his formative years on a peanut farm, studying the kora (the harplike 21-string instrument that dominates West African music) at the feet of his father, Saikou Suso. At the age of ten he was sent to a nearby village to continue his education under the tutelage of an uncle. When Suso was 18, a group of Western tourists funded his airfare to Sweden, and in exchange he spent six months playing solo in bars and restaurants throughout the Scandinavian region. While in Stockholm he befriended a French accordionist, and together they performed across Europe for the next five years, with Suso finally returning to Africa in 1974 to teach kora at the University of Ghana.

While at the university Suso met Chicago-based percussionist Adam Rudolph, and in mid-1977 he relocated to the Windy City, forming the world fusion outfit Mandingo Griot Society with Rudolph, percussionist Hamid Drake, and bassist Joe Thomas. The group's first performance at the Daley Center in downtown Chicago earned significant media exposure and landed Suso a job with the Illinois Arts Council teaching African culture in area schools. Following just their second gig, the Mandingo Griot Society signed with the local Flying Fish label, in 1978 recording their self-titled debut LP with the great Don Cherry on trumpet. A follow-up, Mighty Rhythm, appeared in 1981, but after Rudolph relocated to Los Angeles and Drake began focusing his energies almost exclusively on his burgeoning collaboration with saxophonist Fred Anderson, the unit effectively dissolved, and Suso returned to his solo career. In 1983 he contacted Laswell, inspired by the producer's work on Hancock's groundbreaking Future Shock album, and Laswell invited Suso to contribute to Hancock's follow-up, Sound-System. The legendary keyboardist was so pleased with the end result that he invited Suso to join his band for a Japanese tour that yielded the live LP Village Life.

Suso signed to the Celluloid label to release his 1984 solo debut, Watto Sitta, recorded with the core Mandingo Griot Society lineup with contributions from Hancock and djembe master Manu Washington. After he and Hancock jointly headlined a 1986 live record entitled Jazz Africa, Suso returned to West Africa for a month in the company of composer Philip Glass, then preparing his score for filmmaker Godfrey Reggio's Powaqqatsi, and upon coming back to the U.S. they agreed to collaborate, ultimately scoring Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater's 1989 production of The Screens, Jean Genet's stage drama about Algeria's struggle for independence from France. Glass' influence profoundly affected the minimalist aesthetic dominant on Suso's 1990 LP, Dreamtime. Glass also introduced Suso to Kronos Quartet violinist David Harrington, and in 1992 he played kora on the avant classical group's Pieces of Africa. In 1995 the original Mandingo Griot Society lineup reunited to perform at the African Festival of the Arts, and the following year Suso's contributions to the Jali Kunda: Griots of West Africa and Beyond collection earned widespread attention from the mainstream media. In the years to follow he collaborated with jazz legends Pharoah Sanders and Jack DeJohnette, and in June 2004 he and Glass traveled to Athens, Greece, to perform Orion, a new piece commissioned in honor of the Summer Olympic Games. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

In 1990, Wassoulou singer Sangare became a superstar in West Africa with Moussolou, which sold an astonishing 250,000 copies (many more were likely pirated). She received much of her attention for writing and singing lyrics that specifically addressed concerns of women in modern West African society, such as the conflict between marriage and... [+] Read More

In 1990, Wassoulou singer Sangare became a superstar in West Africa with Moussolou, which sold an astonishing 250,000 copies (many more were likely pirated). She received much of her attention for writing and singing lyrics that specifically addressed concerns of women in modern West African society, such as the conflict between marriage and personal freedom; not a shocking subject in the Western world, perhaps, but a pioneering one for the popular music of the region. Western listeners who can't understand the lyrics will be drawn in by her mellifluous vocals and smooth, circular compositions, which use full arrangements without sounding over-produced. Both traditional instruments and electric guitars/basses are prominently used (without getting in each other's way) on her 1993 release Ko Sira, her most widely available recording in the U.S. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Toumani Diabate, like Foday Musa Suso, is regarded as one of the greatest living virtuosos on the kora, the 21-string West African harp-lute. Coming from a prominent musical family in the country of Mali, Diabate showcases his reputation as an inventive and lyrical performer on Kaira, his first solo album. The five pieces represent some of the... [+] Read More

Toumani Diabate, like Foday Musa Suso, is regarded as one of the greatest living virtuosos on the kora, the 21-string West African harp-lute. Coming from a prominent musical family in the country of Mali, Diabate showcases his reputation as an inventive and lyrical performer on Kaira, his first solo album. The five pieces represent some of the classic kora works, and, at five to ten minutes in length, they allow Diabate plenty of time to stretch out and reveal his dazzling virtuosity. The tunes are all built around a solid bassline and a basic melodic theme around which Diabate improvises, producing a richly ornamented sound that is lively, fluid and engaging. ~ Backroads Music/Heartbeats, All Music Guide [-] Hide

The African kora, which is like a cross between a lute and a harp, is one of the world's most beautiful instruments. It isn't as sweet as a harp and, with some of the quick action of a lute or guitar, it is as much a "classical" instrument as it is a "folk" one. On Djelika, Diabate is accompanied by Keletigui Diabate on balafon, an instrument... [+] Read More

The African kora, which is like a cross between a lute and a harp, is one of the world's most beautiful instruments. It isn't as sweet as a harp and, with some of the quick action of a lute or guitar, it is as much a "classical" instrument as it is a "folk" one. On Djelika, Diabate is accompanied by Keletigui Diabate on balafon, an instrument like the xylophone which usually acts as a rhythm section, and Basekou Kouyate on the ngoni, a small instrument thought to be the ancestor of the banjo whose sharp timbre provides a contrast with the kora. The songs are simply beautiful. The title cut is a jazzy piece that slyly quotes the soundtrack "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Keletogui sits out on "Cheick Oumar Bah," a traditional song in honor of one of Mali's spiritual leaders. It is thoughtful and dignified. "Kandjoura," on the other hand, is just fun, fast, and whimsical. It sounds like it's based on an Afro-pop song. The three musicians, each a virtuoso on his instrument, do a wonderful job providing sonic variety to keep the ear intrigued. Djelika is true African art music and should be sought out not only by fans of "world music," but also by aficionados of jazz and Western classical music. ~ Kurt Keefner, All Music Guide [-] Hide

The packaging gurus at the normally canny Ellipsis Arts were half asleep when they concocted this boxed set containing a lone CD swimming in cardboard plus a National Geographic-size accompanying soft-cover book. Too bad, because the material clearly warrants two discs, one of traditional material, one of experimental, as Mandingo Griot... [+] Read More

The packaging gurus at the normally canny Ellipsis Arts were half asleep when they concocted this boxed set containing a lone CD swimming in cardboard plus a National Geographic-size accompanying soft-cover book. Too bad, because the material clearly warrants two discs, one of traditional material, one of experimental, as Mandingo Griot Society-founder Foday Musa Suso traces his roots in Senegambia. The tracks with Suso's family members performing traditional pieces are amazingly strong. But the collaborations with Pharoah Sanders, Bill Laswell, and other westerners seem tentative and out of place. Only "Spring Waterfall" stands on its own as Phillip Glass' trademark repetitive piano figures achieve a hypnotic force almost equal to that of the West African jalis. ~ Bob Tarte, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Ali Farka Toure's Radio Mali features Malian radio appearances from 1970 to 1978, which were among the first performances to bring the West African guitarist/singer's work to the attention of his countrymen. Though it was available for a time as an import CD, Rykodisc's release of Radio Mali marks its debut as a domestically available title.... [+] Read More

Ali Farka Toure's Radio Mali features Malian radio appearances from 1970 to 1978, which were among the first performances to bring the West African guitarist/singer's work to the attention of his countrymen. Though it was available for a time as an import CD, Rykodisc's release of Radio Mali marks its debut as a domestically available title. Tracks like "Njarka," "Samarya," and "Biennial" provide insight into Toure's talent from before he was discovered by the world music community at large. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Toumani Diabate is one of the finest contemporary kora players. Diabate teams with Ballake Sissoko for New Ancient Strings, a collection of African harp duets. Recorded in one take in Diabate's native Mali, New Ancient Strings is at once ethereal and earthy. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide

Toumani Diabate is one of the finest contemporary kora players. Diabate teams with Ballake Sissoko for New Ancient Strings, a collection of African harp duets. Recorded in one take in Diabate's native Mali, New Ancient Strings is at once ethereal and earthy. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide [-] Hide