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fROOTS (that's eff-roots, formerly Folk Roots) is one of the primary editorial sources for information not only on the music you love, but the music you don't know you love yet! Their insightful (and often inciteful) articles and reviews leave no stone unturned in their quest for unique, genuine roots music from around the world. These CDs are by some of the artists recently featured in the pages of fROOTS, with quotes from the magazine. If you are ready to really explore the world, you can do no better than to consider subscribing to fROOTS, the magazine that covers Local Music From Out There
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CDs you read about in![]() |
Lila Downs Y La Mysteriosa – En Paris – Live various - Ghana Special various - Gastonia Gallop Franco and TPOK Jazz - Francophonic Karl Skaarup - Musiker Kandia Kouyaté Ngara Ti-Coca & Wanga-Nègès - Haïti Colibri |
D.O. MISIANI & SHIRATI JAZZ
The King Of History: Classic 1970s Benga Beats from Kenya
(Stern's Music)
After the very welcome release of Issa Juma’s World Defeats The Grandfathers, Stern’s follow up with another East African classic anthology, with another cute title – which refers to the respect accorded to the leader of the band, the late Daniel Owino Misiani, founder and central figure of Shirati Jazz. Also known as Mwalimu or ‘teacher’ in Swahili, D.O. was born a Tanzanian in the town of Shirati. He set up a band in his youth and had to leave home because of the trouble his songs were causing. He went to Kenya, where his Luo people are the third-largest part of the population, and again started stirring things up with hypnotic songs of social and political comment. His great achievement was to invent the benga beat. Here in all its down-home majesty is a selection of benga hits and otherwise from the ‘70s, characterised by bold throbbing bass, click-click drums over simple bass beat, long vocal lines sung in harmony, punctuated by circling twin lead guitars and occasionally sax. It sounds quite simple – and the component parts are usually straightforward – but benga is particularly insistent dance music. It may not have the voluptuous complexity of Congolese rumba, nor the euphoric headiness of its Tanzanian relative, but it’s solid, effective and sometimes liable to sweep you up in a passage of pure magic. - Rick Sanders
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