Kanvee G. Adams is a very popular liberian gospel pop singer. Listen to her nice piece “Weep no more”:
Category Archives: Jazz, Funk, Soul
Music from Australia – Sia Furler
Sia Furler, or just Sia is a australian pop and jazz singer/songwriter. Listen to ” Breathe Me”.
Music from France – Zaz
Zaz is a french jazz and chanson singer, born in 1980. Listen to her song “On Ira”, from her latest album ‘Recto Verso’:
Music from US – Miles Davis
Jazz, please? ;)
Miles Davis is was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. I hope you enjoy ” Blue in Green”.
Music from Pakistan – Take Five from Sachal Studios
Dave Brubeck´s Take Five – the Pakistani Version
Music from Cape Verde – Luis Morais
The song “Boas Festas” – an end-of-year soundtrack heard everywhere on the radio and in the bars and taverns of Cape Verde – was written by the famous clarinettist Luis Morais, master of an entire generation of Cape Verdean musicians. Wherever you go, whatever you do, either the original or one of the more modern versions of “Boas Festas” will be playing, its joyful yet nostalgic beat plunging listeners into contagious, euphoric sadness. The imminence of the New Year celebrations when all cares are forgotten irresistibly conjures up the image of a friend, brother or loved one, lost forever or gone to seek a better life elsewhere… In Cape Verde, there is always time for tears and memories before laughter and song…
Luis Morais died suddenly at the age of 67 on Wednesday the 25th September 2002 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Luis Morais is a legend in the land of Cesaria Evora. Born on the 10th February 1935 in Mindelo (São Vicente Island, Cape Verde), he spent his youth in Dakar, where he first studied and learnt the rudiments and theory of music, then composition. He began to play his favourite instruments, the clarinet and saxophone (alto and tenor), at Cape Verdean dances, very fashionable in Dakar at the time. Here is the song “Boas Festas”
Music from Mali – Boubacar Traore
Boubacar Traoré (born 1942 in Kayes, Mali) is a renowned singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Traoré also goes by the nickname Kar Kar, “the one who dribbles too much” in Bambara, a reference to his soccer playing: “a nickname I got from playing soccer when I was young. People would yell ‘Kari, Kari’ – dribble, dribble – the name stuck with me”.
Considered as a bluesman in the western countries, Boubacar Traore, is above all someone passionate whose music distils emotions and dreams with simplicity and precision. His powerful and warm voice sings his country’s history, the hope and despair of the Malian people, their love and expectations, the world surrounding them – striking melodies, all inspired from the Kassonke Malian tradition in which he has always bathed in.
His inimitable style warmhearted as well as wistful can be heard on his latest album, “Kongo Magni” released in 2005 by the label Marabi. Boubacar’s fame takes roots in the 1950s. He entertains the Malian post-independence days, when Bamako dances to “Mali Twist” or “Kabeya”. Here is the song “Mariama”
Music from Gabom – Pierre Akendengue
Pierre-Claver Akendengué (born April 25, 1943) is a musician and composer of Gabon. He also serves as a cultural advisor for the government of Gabon.
Born on the island of Awuta, which is located just off the coast from Port-Gentil, Akendengué went to school in Port-Gentil, then studied psychology at the University of Caen in France during the 1960s. While in France, he met singer Mireille, who encouraged his musical interests.
In 1974, Akendengué recorded his first album, Nandipo, consisted of songs of his own composition, sung in French and Nkomi, accompanied by guitar, women choir, bass and the percussion of Nana Vasconcelos. He later set to music poems by P. E. Mondjegou, such as “Le Chant du Coupeur d’Okoumé” (“The Song of the Okoumé Cutter”). Returning to Gabon, he studied solfeggio and plainchant at a Catholic college, and presented spectacles showcasing traditional Gabonese forms in a concert setting.
In 1986, he received a doctorate from the University of Paris for his study of religion and education among the Nkomi. Here is the song “Piroguier – Ogoouée”
Find also Maladité.
Music from Chad – Mounira Mitchala
Mounira Mitchala is singer and song-writer from Chad. Mounira Mitchala ’s watchwords were now determination and pleasure. In spring 2011, she recorded her second album in Paris: Chili Houritki (Take Your Independence).
Backed by the musicians who usually appear with her on stage and bassist Guy N’Sangué, the young woman’s powerful voice and rough, sensual timbre weave their spell around songs based on everyday life in Chad. In that part of the Sahel, which straddles sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, issues of drought, desertification, access to water and malnutrition are compounded by poor governance and endemic corruption. Although she is not a protest singer as such, Mounira observes and condemns. The injustices women are subjected to are among her main concerns. Outraged and determined to fight on, she brings the same talent and conviction to her struggle for dignity as her Malian sister Oumou Sangaré.
Although based on the beats and colours of traditional genres, her melodies are firmly contemporary. In ballads brimming with emotion, Mounira’s voice grows gentler and smoother. Camel Zekri’s arrangements, which focus on acoustic sounds, perfectly showcase this remarkable timbre, this desert folk blues so beautifully expressed by Mounira Mitchala. Here is the song “Choukrane”
Music from the US – Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders, actually Ferrell Sanders, (born 13 October 1940 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is an American jazz musician, tenor saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Sun Ra gave him the stage name Pharoah , with whom he appeared together on stage in New York in the early 1960s .
Here is a smooth Jazz piece “Heart is a melody of time “
