Monday, December 13, 2010

African Music Today

This compilation cd, which collects thirteen tracks of previously unreleased African music, is terrific.

It has a nice blend of instrumental and sung pieces.  Unlike most of the African music collections I've been buying, with their thick booklets and encyclopedic approach to examining the minutiae of the artists' lives, this cd comes with no information at all.

The back cover of the album tells us that it is 'Featuring: Bama & The Family, Jojo Quo & His Challengers, The Original Brothers and more!', without ever explaining where these people are from, when they recorded, or anything else.  Inside the packaging, we the track listing and artists' names, but that's it.

One would assume, with a title like African Music Today, that they would be listening to contemporary artists, but I think this is more of an archival project.  Regardless, this is a great collection, and I love listening to it.

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