World Music
Music is the Weapon
This month, the Ultimate Ears Artists to Watch program is honored to feature BBC World music winner Mayra Andrade from Cape Verde. Her soulful island sounds are complimented by ALBINO!'s inspired Afrobeat. And Grammy Nominated Groove Collective rounds out the African theme by fusing tribal rhythms with New York funk. We also offer a sneak peak into Chad VanGaalen’s new album Soft Airplane. It is truly a great month for music.
Afrobeat is a genre of music pioneered by the late Fela Kuti. It is protest music at its finest. To quote an article from The Observer: “In his songs [Fela] went much further than the usual round-up of protest singers such as Bob Dylan, James Brown or Bob Marley. Fela's songs not only protested against various forms of injustice but often fiercely attacked specific agencies and members of the Nigerian government” You could make a case for 1976's most revolutionary record being not 'Anarchy In The UK' but this second, perfectly conceived slice of pop subversion, with its killer groove sounding like no one else, thunderous brass with wonderful trumpet from Lester Bowie and lyrics in pidgin English attacking the mindlessness of the Nigerian military ('Zombie no go turn unless you tell am to turn/Zombie no go think unless you tell to think ...').”
Personally, I think that it is impossible to separate music from politics. Music is the collective voice of a culture. Music is all emotions and passions captured in tones. Please take a few quite minutes to really listen to ALBINO! And then go and listen to the source – to Fela himself. Music is the Weapon.
This month, the Ultimate Ears Artists to Watch program is honored to feature BBC World music winner Mayra Andrade from Cape Verde. Her soulful island sounds are complimented by ALBINO!'s inspired Afrobeat. And Grammy Nominated Groove Collective rounds out the African theme by fusing tribal rhythms with New York funk. We also offer a sneak peak into Chad VanGaalen’s new album Soft Airplane. It is truly a great month for music.
Afrobeat is a genre of music pioneered by the late Fela Kuti. It is protest music at its finest. To quote an article from The Observer: “In his songs [Fela] went much further than the usual round-up of protest singers such as Bob Dylan, James Brown or Bob Marley. Fela's songs not only protested against various forms of injustice but often fiercely attacked specific agencies and members of the Nigerian government” You could make a case for 1976's most revolutionary record being not 'Anarchy In The UK' but this second, perfectly conceived slice of pop subversion, with its killer groove sounding like no one else, thunderous brass with wonderful trumpet from Lester Bowie and lyrics in pidgin English attacking the mindlessness of the Nigerian military ('Zombie no go turn unless you tell am to turn/Zombie no go think unless you tell to think ...').”
Personally, I think that it is impossible to separate music from politics. Music is the collective voice of a culture. Music is all emotions and passions captured in tones. Please take a few quite minutes to really listen to ALBINO! And then go and listen to the source – to Fela himself. Music is the Weapon.
Change Location
