Afropop Worldwide

Latest Episodes:

WOMEX - The Women Rule Mar 23, 2023

Show notes

The 2022 global music exposition, WOMEX, went down in Lisbon, Portugal. For the second year running, most of the African-related showcases featured bands led by women. In this episode we meet Selma Uamusse from Mozambique and Portugal, Djazia Satour from Algeria and France, Pilani Bubu from South Africa, and hear 78-year-old Lia de Itamaracá, Brazil, positively blow away this tough-to-please crowd. And we’ll hear from some guys as well, Fra! with highlife funk from Ghana and Aywa fusing Moroccan, French and Spanish grooves. Produced by Banning Eyre.

871 Saving The Malawi Tapes Mar 16, 2023

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The Malawi Broadcasting Corporation recorded a goldmine of local music in the 1960s and 70s, but the tapes were neglected and close to ruined when broadcaster Waliko Makhala raised the alarm. With help from the Norwegian Embassy and Norwegian broadcaster Sigbjorn Nedland, digitization got underway. In this program, we sample the results guided by Waliko, Sigbjorn and Martin White, curator of AfricanPoems, a website dedicated to preserving poetry from around the continent. Produced by Martin White.

AfroRoots Fest 2022 with Dayme Arocena and Sinkane Mar 10, 2023

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The Afro-Roots Fest is Florida’s state-wide celebration of Africa’s global musical heritage. The 2022 edition featured a diva of Afro-Cuban jazz, Daymé Arocena, Sudanese American indie rock band Sinkane, Miami’s own Latin music champions Cortadito celebrating their tenth anniversary, and more. We’ll hear live highlights and interviews with the principles. Produced by Banning Eyre and Sean Barlow.

Afropop Cover Songs Mar 02, 2023

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In today’s pop music, everybody is a composer. But what about the classics? The songs that last? In this program we survey African musicians reinterpreting each other’s songs, as well as songs from far outside their traditions. And we hear foreign takes on African diaspora music. From Louis Armstrong’s “Skokiaan” to Alpha Blondy’s “Whole Lotta Love,” it’s a journey of discovery and rediscovery. Produced by Banning Eyre. APWW #854

Cheikha Rimitti, Rebel Queen of Algerian Music Feb 23, 2023

Show notes

Cheikha Rimitti was certainly a queen. For some, she was the queen of raï (pronounced RYE), which means “opinion" in Arabic. For others, she was the queen of freedom, an Algerian Statue of Liberty wielding the fire of independence, as she sang daringly and frankly about love, sexuality, poverty, drinking and oppression. She defied taboos and her music was often banned. She used to say that "misfortune was her teacher” but she became an international star who died at 86, two days after a sold-out show! However, it might be too simple to portray Rimitti only in this iconic role. She was even more than a musical and cultural queen, and she still lives on in many hearts. Rimitti would have been 100 in 2023 - and yet the Algerian diva is still praised and remixed by a young new generation of artists. In this episode, we’ll journey through Rimitti’s rocky life and we’ll meet her musical progeny. Produced by Elodie Maillot APWW #870

The Prehistory of New Orleans Music - Treasures from the Hogan Feb 16, 2023

Show notes

In 2010, to mark the 5th anniversary of the Katrina disaster, we went way way back to honor New Orleans as the unique American treasure it is. This program tells the story of how jazz emerged in the context of all the other African American musics that proliferated in late 19th and early 20th century New Orleans: blues, ragtime, Mardi Gras Indian music, vaudeville and minstrelsy, spiritual church music, and more. With our guides Bruce Boyd Raeburn and Lynn Abbott, we'll comb through a vast world of interviews, recorded music, photographs, ephemera, and curatorial knowledge at one of the great American music collections, the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University. Produced by Ned Sublette.

Bangkok After Dark: The Story of Maurice Rocco Feb 09, 2023

Show notes

Jazz pianist Maurice Rocco was a star of American nightclubs and Hollywood films in the 1930s-40s, playing in an ecstatic, stand-up style that left a deep impression on rock and roll. But in the 1950s Rocco fell out of fashion. Hoping to reverse his fortune, he went abroad in 1959. Rocco landed in Bangkok, Thailand, where he lived and played in relative privilege, away from American racism and homophobia, in an elite tier of Vietnam War-era nightlife. His murder in 1976 by two young sex workers was a tragic end to a fascinating American life. Produced by Benjamin Tausig.

The African American String Music Tradition Feb 02, 2023

Show notes

There’s been a lot of speculation about the chain of musical events that link the blues back to Africa. Most of that chain is unrecorded and shrouded in mystery. But there is one chapter, just before the blues, that we do know something about. And that’s the history of African-American string bands. This program explores that history, with music and memories from a special guest, the late string maestro Howard Armstrong. Along the way, we hear music from Canray Fontenot, Blind James Campbell, Hobard Smith and other legends of this little known chapter of Americana. Originally produced in 2000 by Banning Eyre. APWW #326

Béco’s Brazil: New Sounds for 2023 Jan 26, 2023

Show notes

Brazilian broadcaster, producer and music aficionado Béco Dranoff returns to Afropop Worldwide with a set of great new music from South America’s music cauldron. We’ll hear current sounds from Bahia, Sao Paulo, Rio and Belo Horizonte, including Caetano Veloso, Afrocidade, Lucas Santtana, Ze Manoel, Da Cruz, Jadsa and more. Produced by Béco Dranoff and Sean Barlow.

Afro-Tech: Stories of Synths in African Music Jan 19, 2023

Show notes

Technology is one of the great drivers of musical change, and often one of its least understood. In this episode, we explore the synthesizer, looking closely at the history of this ubiquitous (and often debated) piece of musical technology, and investigating how and why it was first used in a variety of African musics. Enabled by groundbreaking record reissues by synth pioneers like William Onyeabor (Nigeria) and Hailu Mergia (Ethiopia), disco stars like Kris Okotie, and South African superstar Brenda Fassie, we take you back to the ’70s and ’80s, listening to the birth of a distinctly African electronic sound. Produced by Sam Backer. APWW #676

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