http://www.Globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/ African Legends on Globalrhythm.net en-us Copyright 2013, Globalrhythm.net. All Rights Reserved info@ecomsolutions.net info@ecomsolutions.net http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/FelaKuti11.cfm Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, Nigeria, on October 15, 1938. He died as Fela Anikulapo Kuti on August 2, 1997 in Lagos of many complications arising from Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome.” Tom Terrell http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/MichaelBaird.cfm With the series up to 21 discs, Zambian-born percussionist Michael Baird has turned more people on to Africa’s music than anyone save perhaps Hugh Tracey himself could ever do. Bruce Miller http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/SuperEagles.cfm As far back as the late ’60s, the Super Eagles stormed Banjul, Gambia stages, decked out in cheap military garb turned Sgt. Pepper-hip, cranking what was essentially Western rock. Bruce Miller http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/SuperRailBand.cfm Originally calling themselves the Rail Band, Super Rail Band became Mali’s premier dance band, rooting their music in kora -like guitar-driven grooves. Bruce Miller http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/TabuLeyRochereau.cfm It’s been more than half a century since Tabu Ley Rochereau first graced a stage, and to this day there is no more prominent figure in Congolese music. Jeff Tamarkin http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/Tarika.cfm Madagascar’s Tarika, led by Hanitra Rasoanaivo, has since the mid-1990s introduced the lively rhythms, vocal harmonies and unique instruments of Madagascar to the larger world. Jan Fairley http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/RemmyOngala.cfm Remmy Ongala is one of East Africa’s true superstars. He and his band Super Matimila blend elements of Congolese soukous with Kenya’s guitar-heavy benga music into heady brew he calls ubongo . Tom Pryor http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/ThioneSeck.cfm Thione Ballago Seck descends from a famous line of griots , the traditional praise singers of the Wolof people of Senegal. Simply put, he has one of the most beautiful voices in all of Africa. Tom Pryor http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/ToumaniDiabat.cfm Several gifted musicians are associated with the West African kora harp Mory Kante and Foday Musa Suso among them, but Toumani Diabaté is arguably the reigning master. Jeff Tamarkin http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/ToureKunda.cfm The Casamance region of Senegal is the area from which the brothers that comprise Toure Kunda hail. Ismael, Sixu and Amadou Toure took a keen interest in melding traditional Senegalese rhythms with farther-reaching elements like reggae and jazz. Tom Orr http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/UmmKulthum.cfm When Umm Kulthum also sometimes spelled Oum, Um or any of a number of other variations died, four million people lined the streets of Cairo for her funeral. She was the greatest Arabic singer of the 20th century. Chris Nickson http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/YoussouNDour.cfm Youssou N’Dour’s journey began in 1959, in Dakar, Senegal. Although his mother was a praise singer from the gawlo griot caste of the Tukulor people, N’Dour’s parents urged him to become a civil servant. Dan Rosenberg http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/ZaikoLankaLanga.cfm In 1969, a Kinshasa-based percussionist, D.V. Muanda a minority tenders this honor to drummer Bakunde Ilo Pablo, started a band called Zaïko Langa Langa, part of the early wave of ‘60s Independence-era guitar bands. Christina Roden http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/PapaWemba.cfm Papa Wemba has always been a larger-than-life figure, both in his music and his personality. Jeff Tamarkin http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/OumouSangare.cfm Arguably the best female singer to emerge from Mali, Oumou Sangare showed on her 1990 debut album Moussolou just how much raw power the traditional music of her country could pack. Tom Orr http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/MoryKant.cfm Mory Kanté is a living bridge between hundreds of years of West African Mande griot tradition wordsmiths who pass along history orally through poetry and song and the modern world. Jeff Tamarkin http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/TheMasterMusiciansofJajouka.cfm It’s difficult to imagine today, just how shocking an album Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka was when it was released in 1971. Jeff Tamarkin http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/MahlathiniandtheMahotellaQueens.cfm Though they were stars in South Africa since the mid-1960s, Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens became an international sensation 20 years later as part of the first wave of world music to hit the States. Marty Lipp http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/Mabulu.cfm The Mozambican band Mabulu unites up-and-coming young rappers and singers with master musicians from the golden age of marrabenta , Mozambique’s classic pop sound of the ’60s and ’70s. Tom Pryor http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/BembeyaJazz.cfm During their heyday in the early ’70s, Bembeya Jazz was Guinea’s, and perhaps Africa’s, hottest band. Bruce Miller http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/TheJazzEpistles.cfm The Jazz Epistles, whose core consisted of Abdullah Ibrahim , Kippie Moeketsi, Jonas Gwangwa and Hugh Masekela, made the first South African recording by black musicians, Jazz Epistle: Verse 1 , in 1959. Nils Jacobson http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/IsmaelL.cfm Ismael Lô is one of Senegal’s great voices, a powerful and versatile performer who came of age alongside Youssou N’Dour and others during the m balax explosion of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Tom Pryor http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/IKDairo.cfm King Sunny Adé may well forever remain the biggest name in Nigerian juju music, but Isaiah Kehinde Dairo will always have a place as one of its leading lights as well. Tom Orr http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/HukweZawose.cfm By the time of his death in December 2003, Dr. Hukwe Zawose had single-handedly revitalized the ancient traditional music of Tanzania’s Wagogo people. Jeff Tamarkin http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/Africando.cfm In the autumn of 1992, the influential Senegalese producer Ibrahima Sylla arrived in New York City accompanied by Boncana Maïga, a much-revered Malian flautist/arranger. Their upcoming project would develop into Africando . Christina Roden http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/CultureMusicalClub.cfm East Africa’s distinctive taarab music is unique to the Swahili coast. But the music and culture’s true homeland is the island of Zanzibar, and taraab’s best-known practitioners are the elegant and accomplished members of the great Culture Musical Club. Tom Pryor http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/HamzaElDin.cfm Hamza El Din was the first to compose for the oud as a solo instrument, and became the “father of Nubian music. Stacy Meyn http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/Ghorwane.cfm If any band is the personification of tenacity, it has to be Ghorwane, the dance band from Mozambique. Afi-Odelia E. Scruggs http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/Franco.cfm Franco re-Africanized the Cuban-based rumba Congolaise and pioneered the genre now known as soukous by including local religious and folk rhythms. Al Angeloro http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/FodayMusaSuso.cfm The 21-string harp known as the kora has become a familiar sight and sound to African music lovers worldwide, thanks in no small measure to Foday Musa Suso. Tom Orr http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/DollyRathebe.cfm Dolly Rathebe was one of the most influential singers in South Africa’s booming jazz scene of the ’40s and ’50s, singing in the hip clubs of Joburg’s mixed Sophiatown neighborhood. Tom Pryor http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/Csariavora.cfm Césaria Évora’s art is a personal distillation of a wealth of elements, and the highest expression of the sensibility of the Cape Verdean people, inventors of what we’ve come to call Creole culture. Morton Marks http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/Bonga.cfm Over his 30-year career, and an equal number of albums, Angola’s Bonga has traced the arc of his country’s recent history, from the Portuguese colonial experience to Angola’s struggle for independence and the scars of its recently-ended civil war. Eliseo Cardona http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/BoubacarTraor.cfm The attention paid to the droning Malian blues guitar resurrected the career of Boubacar Traoré, a veteran singer/guitarist who’d been a star on Malian radio at the dawn of its early 1960s independence. Bruce Miller http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/BiKidude.cfm Zanzibar’s legendary Bi Kidude is one of a kind: a 90-something performer, storyteller and musical repository who’s also a living link back to the roots of contemporary Swahili pop music and the great taarab singer Siti Binti Saad. Tom Pryor http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/BrendaFassie.cfm Dubbed “The Madonna of the Townships” by Time Magazine, South African singer Brenda Fassie was one of the most beloved, controversial and ultimately tragic figures of contemporary South Africa. Tom Pryor http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/SalifKeita.cfm Salif Keita is one of the most recognized voices in Afropop music. No doubt the “African Caruso” would add, “But I am the greatest,” and few would deign to disagree. Tom Terrell http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/Khaled.cfm Raï began as a rural Algerian folk music that moved to the city and got streetwise. In Khaled’s hands in the 1980s, it was modernized and soon went on an international journey. Banning Eyre http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/MiriamMakeba.cfm In 1967, Miriam Makeba became the first African to have a U.S. hit single, when “Pata Pata” which she’d recorded in 1959 shot up the charts. Chris Nickson http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/ManuDibango.cfm For over 30 years Manu Dibango’s music has sounded as powerful and appealing to Americans as it does in Europe or Africa. Chris Nickson http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/OliverMtukudzi.cfm Oliver Mtukudzi, or “Tuku,” uses music as a vehicle for expressing his message, singing in his native Shona language or English, setting it to a blend of Southern African mbira, mbaqanga, Korekore and jit. Craig Harris http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/OrchestraBaobab.cfm Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab—formed in 1970 and officially disbanded in 1987—has been riding again since 2001, having recorded their first new album in more than 20 years. Banning Eyre http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/LadysmithBlackMambazo.cfm By the time this Zulu a cappella group first went international, appearing on Paul Simon’s Graceland album and tour in 1986, they were already veteran hitmakers at home. Chris Nickson http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/ThomasMapfumo.cfm Mapfumo has endured the wrath of colonial powers and his country s current leader, Robert Mugabe. His music supported the revolutionaries who brought independence, and challenges its present despot. Chris Nickson http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/AsterAweke.cfm This Ethiopian beauty s Aster and Kabu albums show why she’s sometimes been dubbed the “African Aretha Franklin.” Jeff Tamarkin http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/HughMasekela.cfm This South African trumpeter scored a massive worldwide hit with Grazin In The Grass, becoming one of the biggest names in African music in the process. Chris Nickson http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/FelaKuti.cfm The founder and king of Afro-beat, Fela’s legend continues to grow long after his death from AIDS-related complications in 1997. Tom Pryor http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/KingSunnyAd.cfm Adé started off playing percussion in church, then dropped out of school and made his way to Lagos, where he began playing guitar in highlife bands, soon becoming the king of highlife music. Chris Nickson http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/BabatundeOlatunji.cfm The importance of Babatunde Olatunji is incalculable. At a time when Westerners were exposed to almost nothing of African culture, Olatunji entered the mass consciousness with Drums Of Passion. Jeff Tamarkin http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/BaabaMaal.cfm If Senegalese master vocalist Baaba Maal had stayed with the family business fishing or stuck to his studies law instead of taking up singing and guitar, we would be experiencing a tremendous artistic loss. Stacy Meyn http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/AngeliqueKidjo.cfm A diminutive woman from a small country, Angélique Kidjo has had a big impact in world music. Born in Benin, Kidjo had initially intended to be a civil rights attorney. Marty Lipp http://www.globalrhythm.net/AfricanLegends/AliFarkaToure.cfm Even though he is no longer with us, Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure s legend is cemented. Descended from noble ancestors, Toure’s early interest in music was actively discouraged by his family. Nils Jacobson