Charts November 20-26, 2023

WRIR World's NACC Top Ten

1 DIEUF-DIEUL DE THIES | Dieuf-Dieul De Thies | Buda

2 SAMORY I | Strength | Overstand Entertainment/Easy Star

3 ERIC AGYEMANG AND HIS KOKROKO BAND | Nananom | BBE

4 AK YEBOAH AND KK'S NO. 2 BAND | Nde Yen Da | BBE

5 DIEPKLOOF UNITED VOICE | Harmonizing Soweto: Golden City Gospel & Kasi Soul | Ostinato

6 IF YOU ASK ME TO: VICTOR AXELROD PRODUCTIONS FOR DAPTONE RECORDS | various artists | Daptone

7 IDRISSA SOUMAORO | Diré | Mieruba

8 BOMBINO | Sahel | Partisan

9 BATSUKH DORJ | Ogbelerim: Music For My Ancestors | Buda

10 LENGAIA SALSA BRAVA | Estetica De Un Rumbero | Lulaworld

One night on earth

Derek Gripper is a guitarist from Cape Town, South Africa who has made a specialty of playing the kora music of West Africa on the classical guitar.  To give you an idea of how good he is at it: Producer Lucy Durán played Gripper's recording of Toumani Diabaté's song "Jarabi" for Toumani (who's probably the world's most famous kora player).   His response, paraphrased: "Did you actually see him play this music on one guitar?"  Yeah, he's that good.

Anyway, Derek Gripper is visiting Richmond this week to play at the Robinson Theater in Church Hill on Thursday.  He calls this concert "Music from the Strings of Mali" and he's joined by Irish guitarist Redmond O'Toole; more details can be found here: concerts.derekgripper.com.  You'll hear Derek Gripper's music this week on Global A Go-Go, and Toumani Diabaté's as well.

Also this week (Sunday November 26, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site): New throat singing from Mongolia by Batsükh Dorj, rocksteady from the mid 60s and the current Jamaican sounds of Samory I and Stephen Marley, after 44 years finally the first studio album by Senegal's Dieuf Dieul de Thiès, and more Ghanaian burger highlife.

Charts November 13-19, 2023

WRIR World's NACC Top Ten

1 DIEPKLOOF UNITED VOICE | Harmonizing Soweto: Golden City Gospel & Kasi Soul | Ostinato

2 SUPER BITON DE SEGOU | Afro Jazz Folk Collection Vol. 2 | Mieruba

3 BOUNALY | Dimanche A Bamako | Sahel Sounds

4 PROTOJE | In Search Of Zion | In.Digg.Nation Collective/RCA

5 NOVALIMA | La Danza, Pt. 2 [EP] | Six Degrees

6 ALPACAS COLLECTIVE | Big Words | Catalpas

7 LONDON AFROBEAT COLLECTIVE | "Topesa Esengo Na Motema" [Single] | Canopy

8 SANTROFI | Deep Into Highlife | Out Here

9 FERRE GOLA | Dynastie 2 Vol. 1 | Sony East Africa

10 MUKAMBO PRESENTS GLOBAL AFROBEAT MOVEMENT VOL. 4 | various artists | NYP

Harmonizing Soweto

Choral singing has long been a major thing in South Africa.

 

For example, Solomon Linda's "Mbube" (also known as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") is an international standard that children around the globe learn in their first music classes.  Urban vocal "hep harmony" groups like the female Skylarks (featuring Miriam Makeba) and the male Manhattan Brothers, and musical theater productions like King Kong and Wait A Minim! brought South African singing to the world in the mid-20th century.  More recently, Ladysmith Black Mambazo's a cappella style called isicathamiya became and remains popular all over the planet.

 

Kasi soul and Diepkloof United Voice (DUV) are South Africa's latest contribution to choral singing.  DUV is a nine-member vocal group from the Diepkloof neighborhood in Johannesburg's Soweto suburb who rehearse in an abandoned elementary school classroom with broken windows.  Their debut album, recorded in their rehearsal room and released on November 10, is one of the most exhilarating pieces of music I've heard all year.

The first hour of Global A Go-Go this week is focused on South African choral music.  You'll hear a set of historic recordings from the 1930s through the 80s, three selections from Diepkloof United Voice and examples of how vocal choirs are used in contemporary South African dance music.

In the second hour this week (Sunday November 19, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site): A previously unreleased recording of one of Mali's greatest post-independence orchestras, Super Biton de Ségou, and new Afrobeat from Eparapo, Alpacas Collective, London Afrobeat Collective and The Blassics.

Charts November 6-12, 2023

WRIR World's NACC Top Ten

1 SUPER BITON DE SEGOU | Afro Jazz Folk Collection Vol. 2 | Mieruba

2 IPHUPHO L'KA BIKO | Azania [EP] | We Are Busy Bodies

3 JEWEL ACKAH | Electric Hi-Life | BBE

4 THOMAS FREMPONG | Anansi Shuffle | BBE

5 HAILU MERGIA | Pioneer Works Swing (Live) | Awesome Tapes From Africa

6 EL CLAN ANTILLANO | El Clan Antillano | Vampisoul

7 CHICOCHICA | "Dame De Ese Amor" [Single] | Negromayo

8 SANTROFI | Deep Into Highlife | Out Here

9 PAT KALLA ET LE SUPER MOJO | Belle Terre | Heavenly Sweetness

10 SUPER DJATA BAND DU MALI | Zani Diabate Et Le Super Djata Band Du Mali, Volume 2 | Numero Group

Biko's dream, Fruko's bands

South Africa jazz musicians have a long tradition of blending improvisation, their own folkloric and popular music, and political expression.  From the Jazz Epistles and the Blue Notes to Abdullah Ibrahim and Hugh Masakela, the best of South African jazz has always been simultaneously cutting edge, deeply in the tradition and politically charged, either implicitly or directly.

 

The band iPhupho L'ka Biko ("Biko's Dream" in Zulu) are following in the footsteps of these artists.  Now in their eighth year, this flexible cooperative centered around founder, composer and bassist Nhlanhla Ngqaqu released their first EP earlier this year.  It is now being internationally distributed so listeners worldwide can hear this exciting, dynamic band.  I'll play you a track from this album, one of my favorite songs of the year in fact, on this week's edition of Global A Go-Go.

Also this week (Sunday November 12, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site): groovy electro-cumbia from Chicochica, Fruko's four salsa bands (and he had some other bands at the same time!), BBE Records' new series of burger highlife reissues, the sound of cadence from Guadeloupe, and the Super Djata Band rocks out.

Charts Oct 30 - Nov 5, 2023

WRIR World's NACC Top Ten

1 SANTROFI | Deep Into Highlife | Out Here

2 DENGUE FEVER | Ting Mong | Tuk Tuk

3 HAILU MERGIA | Pioneer Works Swing (Live) | Awesome Tapes From Africa

4 LO POLOKO | Living La Covida Loca | AudioMaze

5 NANA BUDJEI | Afrikaman | BBE

6 TOOFAN | Stamina | Universal Africa

7 LOS GAITEROS DE SAN JACINTO | Fanny Rosa [EP] | Llorona

8 CHICOCHICA | "Dame De Ese Amor" [Single] | Negromayo

9 DORIAN | "El Temblor En El Liceu De Barcelona" [Single] | Nacional

10 ALPACAS COLLECTIVE | "Movefeze" [Single] | Catalpas

Deep into highlife

If you listen to Global A Go-Go, you may have figured out that there's nothing I like better than a large ensemble.  The interplay between real musicians is one of the things I love most in music, so for me the bigger the band the better.  You don't hear a lot of laptop bands on this program.

 

Unsurprisingly, the new album by Deep Into Highlife by Santrofi, the young band from Accra that's updating Ghanaian highlife music for the 21st century, is right up my alley.  They went on tour in 2021 and 2022 with the 14 piece Berlin group Omniversal Earkestra backing them up, which means they were more than 25 strong when they recorded this live album.  You'll hear two selections from this excellent new recording on this week's show.

Also this week (Sunday November 5, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site): Lo Poloko's tropical big bang, the sound of the Colombian gaita, new rock en español from Barcelona's Dorian, Nusantara Beat's hipster Dutch-Indonesian rock and a slice of creole Afrobeat from Alpacas Collective.