It's Zimfest time again! Tomorrow is the start of the annual three-day celebration of the music and dance of Zimbabwe. It all takes place at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. So get thee hence! Yes, it's troubled political/social times back in the African nation itself, but all the more reason to celebrate the positive culture from the nation in anticipation of getting things straightened out there. Below is the performance schedule (afternoon shows are free, evening shows are ticketed); Zimfest also has lots of workshops, plus a marketplace and more. For complete details, see www.zimfest.org.

Friday Afternoon Concert Red Square Marketplace, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm Performer Type From Shamwari Marimba Marimba Eugene OR Kamba Marimba Quartet Boulder CO Chigwaya Marimba Youth Marimba Hood River WA Rutendo Marimba Youth Marimba Ashland OR Chenjera Youth Marimba Whidbey Island WA Njiva Marimba Youth Marimba Victoria BC

Friday Evening Concert Eastvoldt Chapel, 7:00 pm – 12:30 am Opening Ceremony with Che oke’ ten & Friends, Zimbabwean Guests, and Russ Landers (Chipendani)

Shumba Marimba Youth Marimba Seattle WA Boka Marimba Marimba Portland OR Njuzu Mbira Portland OR Chinyakare Dance, Mbira, Drums, Marimba Oakland CA Hungwe Mbira Zimbabwe Ande Marimba Marimba Santa Fe NM

Saturday Afternoon Concert Red Square Marketplace, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm Mhuri Marimba Marimba Bellingham WA Tumbuka Marimba Marimba Seattle WA Break for Village Meeting 1:00–2:30

Savara Jena Mbira Santa Cruz CA Kuzanga Marimba Santa Cruz CA Mukana Marimba Olympia WA

Saturday Evening Concert Eastvoldt Chapel, 7:00 pm – 12:30 am Youth Showcase with Shamwari, Tamba! and Vana Vedu Marimba Boulder CO Lora & Sukutai Dance & Drum Seattle WA Sheasby Matiure & the Mbira Queens Mbira Bloomington IN Musasa Marimba Marimba Hawaii & Seattle Vakaranga Venharetare: Women of the Spirits Mbira Berkeley CA & Zimbabwe Chiroto with Tendai Muparutsa Marimba Moscow ID Bongo Love Marimba & Mbira Zimbabwe

Sunday Afternoon Concert Red Square Marketplace, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm Sweet Pumpkin Marimba Bellingham WA Jenaguru Marimba Eugene OR Erica Azim and Isaac Rains Mbira Berkeley CA Singing Wood Marimba Santa Cruz CA Sahlee Mbira Mbira Seattle WA Zambuko Marimba Eugene OR Zambuko Marimba Seattle WA Boka Boys Marimba Portland OR

Sunday Evening Concert Eastvoldt Chapel, 7:00 pm – 12:30 am Mahonyera Mbira Ensemble Mbira Seattle WA Nyamuziwa Marimba Seattle WA Loveness Wesa & Kgotso African Cultural Arts Electric Portland OR Anzanga Marimba Ensemble Marimba Seattle WA Hokoyo Youth Marimba Eugene OR Pachi Pamwe and Vakasara Mbira Portland & Eugene OR Ruzivo & Special Guests Marimba & Mbira Puget Sound WA & Zimbabwetags: worldmusic, zimfest, zimbabwe, africa, mbira, marimba, plu, tacoma, pacific lutheran university

TIME FOR GHANA BUSINESS AND CONSUMERS TO SHINE: GOLDEN AGE OF BUSINESS. LETS TAKE A LOOK AT SALES AND MARKETING IN GHANA BIZ ABROAD AND HOME.LOOK AT GHANA CONSUMERS ABROAD AND HOME.NOW TELL ME DOO Y

It's a long weekend in the America's and Afripop is going offline till Monday, but there two noteworthy Afro-related events in our neck of the woods:

Brooklyn Museum celebrates Africa

Viva Africa! is the theme of this month's Brooklyn's Museum First Saturdays. There'll be music, dance, art and film from the likes of Somi (Ugandan jazz singer) to Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembembe (need we say more). Free. More info here

There's been a lot of buzz on Dobet Gnahoré, the 24-year old singer from Ivory Coast. Catch Dobet this weekend at the 20th annual Afrofest in Toronto, Canada. We're still eagerly anticipating a performance in New York but no word on it yet. More info on Afrofest here

I hate to resort to threats, but it's come to this. SoundRoots has been receiving a record number of hits and downloads. At the end of June, we had to take some content offline because we'd hit our bandwidth ceiling. That pains us, because we're here to help spread the word about global culture, specifically new music that has crept into our hearts. And just reading about the music isn't fun, I know.

That's not the bad part, though. We can always get more bandwidth, or find another way of hosting the files. The bad part is that as hits have skyrocketed, comments have plummeted. Dropped like a wet emu tied to a rock that's duck-taped to an anvil. And that, my friends, is most discouraging. We understand that some visitors may not have time to respond to the offerings on SoundRoots. But others of you, we're sure, really care.

Now you have even more reason to care. Because if we don't start getting comments by the end of the weekend, it's kitten soup for everyone. Really. We're not kidding.*

So take a moment to leave a comment. Tell us what you like, what you don't like, what you'd like to see covered on SoundRoots, or why you think our complete failure to even mention Shakira's name somewhere in our 500+ postings over the years is a travesty of the highest order.

Otherwise, well...I'm cutting up some potatoes and carrots right now.

tags: kitten, cat, soup, worldmusic, comment, blog, soundroots, shakira

*Okay, we are. But only about the soup. And only because we're vegetarian.

So you say you love music, if so, do you know who FELA is?  I don't mean on the general, oh I've heard of him sense.  I mean do you know what he stood for, what his stance was on African Pride. Black African Pride.  Last night I got into a debate with someone over broadening ones musical horizons.  My argument is, don't dismiss or denigrate something because you are unfamiliar with it. 

 How about trying to take a moment and hear it out in it's entirety and then if you still don't care for it, make a VALID point from that. Just don't tell me oh I love all music but when some different stuff comes on you want to put down an entire culture/movement.  That irks me. ICk.

Check out this documentary.  If your not a World Music fan, look at it anyway. It's good for the SOUL. Yes-O!

His name was FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI and he was and still is THE baddest mutha!

Part I

Look for the continuation to this documentary OR ANY documentary on FELA, at your local BlockBuster. It's well worth the trip.

T.

Its turntablism time for SA! The DMC Championships is a global event where DJs from across the world compete against each other to be crowned NO.1 DJ in the world and thereby also earning themselves a golden set of turntables.

The South African heats are upon us and are divided into 4 regional events where DJs play 6 min sets showcasing every conceivable skill whilst using only turntables, mixer and vinyl records. This Friday sees the Joburg leg taking place at Carfax in Newtown, while next weekend will see the Cape Town leg spinning up a whirlwind at Fiction on Long Street. The finals will be at the end of the month at the Assembly in the mother city, and if you like itchy-scratchy DJs of any kind, you really should check it out. Keep your eyes on MIO, because we’ll be covering the going’s on.

Onto DJs of a different kind, I just got back from Sonar two weeks back. The annual electronic festival attracts tens of thousands of people from all corners of the globe who come to see three whirlwind days of the best electronica and dance music in the world. This year the Red Bull Music Academy Lounge hosted T Man of 12 Inch Productions to come and play a set. His African Urban Dance sound got the whole place pumping, Mzansi style. Read about the festival and how SA music made an impact.

Lastly we have an overview of the upcoming CASA (Composers Associate of South Africa) 2008 Annual General Meeting at 10:00 on Wednesday 16 July at SAMRO House, Juta Street Braamfontein and the latest J Joint column which asks the pertinent questions “Has SA lost it’s Jazz Roots?”. That certainly is a question to sleep on if you’re an SA music lover.

The rapid growth of private equity in Africa will be underlined on Tuesday as Kingdom Zephyr, a company that has a policy of investing in mid-sized African companies, announces it has raised $325m for a newly created Pan-African fund.[Financial Times]

Kingdom Zephyr previous involvement in the African private capital market include stakes in:
-Celtel
-United Bank for Africa [ Which is hiring]
-Micro Provident

By Kenny Eaton The Gnawa people hold a unique place in the realm of Africa. Their music possesses medical, spiritual, and transcendent value in their native country of Morroco and has begun to spread to the West. Groups like Gnawa Diffusion have taken this enthralling culture to the masses, inspiring trance and musical possession in previously austere audiences in Europe and North America. I Kenny Eatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515898733551811652noreply@blogger.com

my love of music began when my mother, who was from St. Kitts, played Soca and Reggae on weekends when I was a child. Being American, I often could not understand the words that Bob Marley and the Mighty Sparrow were singing. I first discovered world music in the 1990s at one of Brooklyn's African Street Festivals, where I was mesmerized by the sounds of the Jay-U Experience, an indie "afrobeat/disco/jazz" band blaring out of a sound system with two speakers that were the size of refrigerators.  I bought two of their cassette tapes and played songs such as "Bizi Body" until my tape player went on strike. I found that I really enjoyed the melding of African instruments such as the djembe drums and kalimba with trumpets and other instruments I'd never heard of. Hearing this music piqued my interest, so I was completely "open" when I received a copy of Folon, by the legendary Malian singer/songwriter, Salif Keita whom I recently had the distinct pleasure to hear perform live at Celebrate Brooklyn!, Prospect Park's Summer Concert Series. Although I couldn't understand what he was saying in songs such as "Mandjou" and "Tekere" I had no idea that the tone of his voice he used while he was singing could evoke such emotion inside of me. By the time I'd heard "Nyanyama" I knew I was hooked on World Music. I headed to Tower Records to catch up on his other albums: Soro, Ko-yan and Amen.  And then I discovered Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo...

I've got it, after watching this video of my radio friends up at KEXP doing the island-native backup vocals for Firewater's "Borneo" (about which and for free mp3, see earlier post).



We here at SoundRoots global headquarters want to be backup singers. It's a little dream we have...is it really so much to ask?

tags: worldmusic, borneo, firewater, kaos, kexp, video, youtube

A year ago today, Mr Mocha! and I decided to make it ‘official’ as they (I don’t know who they are, but you know what I mean) put it. Today, our relationship has reached its one year mark and we couldn’t be happier. This past year has had its ups and downs, but I thank God [...]

 

Eedris Abdulkareem is confrontational, very confrontational. He is argumentative, very argumentative. And he’s controversial – absolutely!

 

I first discovered these attributes when I had an opportunity to sit face-to-face with him, during a magazine interview around 2002. Hauling very bold and provocating questions at him, myself and Efe Omorogbe were stunned to realise that Mr Abdulkareem was not one to be intimidated by a bunch of journalists who knew too much for their own good.

 

For every missile we fired, he fired two. He raised his voice, cursed beneath his breath, muttered a few words in Hausa, and almost physically wrestled Omorogbe. Instead of getting upset and intimidated too, we were impressed by the ‘rapper’s’ energy. His passion won me over and, even though I was convinced he was telling a lot of untruths and so many half-truths, it was difficult not to fall in love with the guy.

 

So I discovered that, apart from being confrontational and argumentative, Eedris was a brilliant entertainer who knew what to do at what time; he knew when to rip your skin and get on your nerves; he knew when to bark and make you flee without thinking that he may have no teeth; he knew when act calm, even stupid, in order to make his point. He knew when to be an asshole. He knew when to be a sophist. He knew when to be a fighter. And he knew when to be a darling. He was all these (and more) to me, during the three hour interview, and I told my colleagues that –forget the lies he told us about his collabos with Busta Rhymes and Rita Marley, and which international star is feeling his shit, without their fingers in his anus- this one artiste will go places if he continues to adhere to his formular.

 

The year was 2002. Eedris was big and established. He was the darling of the media, and fans loved him so much that at a show in the north, he jumped into the crowd face down and a chain of hands emerged from nowhere to sustain him. Though criticised by critics and hip hop heads for his questionable rap skills (Eedris was infamous for ‘speaking in tongues’ and constantly rhyming ‘dudu’ and ‘fufu’), Eedris was unperturbed. He’d tell anyone who cared to listen: ‘rap is hip hop, hip hop is Africa, Africa is Nigeria, Nigeria is Lagos, Lagos is Eedris Abdulkareem –If you don’t believe that, eat spaghetti’. He had conquered the local scene. He had his eyes on the international scene, and a Grammy gong. And to show that he was on the right track, he soon got announced as one of the few Nigerians voted to lift the Olympic torch as it passed through Africa for the first time ( he carried out this noble assignment with respected citizens like Pat Utomi and Dora Akunyili).

 

But in 2004, Eedris goofed. He hit his foot on a rock, stumbled, and fell. It was the fourth of December, seven days before his wedding, when he picked up a fight with G-Unit bodyguards aboard an ADC aircraft conveying the performing crew to Port Harcourt for the final leg of Star Megajam 2004. Eedris was occupying a business class seat reserved for 50 Cent. A G-Unit bodyguard demanded he vacate the seat. Eedris refused, maintaining he ‘can’t be treated like a second class citizen’ in his own country. A brouhaha soon followed, leaving Eedris’ bodyguard – a poor guy named Malo- injured, the show cancelled and 50 Cent hurrying back to the US with his crew.

 

Eedris claimed he was ‘fighting’ for the right of the Nigerian artiste who, as a matter of fact was constantly maltreated, underpaid and humiliated anytime their foreign counterparts were visiting. But the backlash that followed showed that no one exactly believed him. The media unanimously asked for his head, fellow artistes condemned his action, and corporate Nigeria blacklisted him. As he was settling down to marriage, he had to get used to the media bashing and dwindling income.

 

Instead of selling more albums and heading for the Grammies, his career was trapped in the doldrums, his image in tatters and his account in red.

 

True, Eedris took the most tragic step of his career in 2004. He made a mistake he should not have made and we all bashed him for it. But now, it’s four years after and I think we may have taken the ‘war against Eedris’ too far. And when I say we, I mean the media, the promoters, corporate sponsors and fans.

 

It’s four years after and Eedris has apologised severally. He has even apologised to 50 Cent in person, and he has stayed out of ‘trouble’ for the better part of the past few years. Yet it doesn’t appear the media have forgiven him. It doesn’t appear the big-budget brands have started considering him again.

 

Eedris did wrong. Yes. But time should have healed all the wounds his action inflicted on us all. The guy has suffered tremendously; he’s been to hell and back. He may be too arrogant to admit it, but we all know he has paid the price of his December 4, 2004 action.

 

Now that he’s making another bold attempt at resuscitating his damaged career; now that he has a new album again, and he’s battling hard to reclaim his lost position, I think we should all remember the biblical story of the prodigal son and embrace Mr Abdulkareem again. I think we should give him another chance!

 

If not for him, let’s do it for his beautiful wife, his ageing mother, and his two lovely kids. And no, you don’t need to send him a donation. We can start by buying a copy of his new album, by showing him love anytime we see him, or by buying tickets to see him anytime he’s in our neighbourhood.

 

I’ve already played my part. How about you?

 

Still struggling under an excessive bandwidth demand... which is a good thing, sort of. I'll address that shortly (in the meantime, visit the Tip Jar!), but for today here's something fabulous direct from Six Degrees Records. They've just released the latest from Niyaz, a group formed in 2005 by the trio of Azam Ali (Vas), Loga Tamin Torkian (Axiom of Choice), and Carmen Rizzo (R-New Mexico. No, just kidding...).

For their ambitious second release, Niyaz has created an enticing double album, with one disc of souped up world electronica, and another called "The Acoustic Sessions" -- with some of the same songs done without electronics, but with nonetheless Niyaz-like lush arrangement.

The whole package is certainly worth checking out for any fan of Middle Eastern, trance, or whatever else you might call their delicious music.

[mp3] Niyaz: Ishq-Love and the Veil
from Nine Heavens

tags: worldmusic, niyaz, azam ali, mp3, cd review, persian

Nairobi-
Smart Youth Investments Ltd wants to
To enhance Kenyan Youth financial management skills

To popularize stock trading at the Nairobi Stock Exchange

To encourage the culture of thrift or saving



Register here [if attending school in Kenya]

Here's a welcome surprise all my Naija homies in NYC will appreciate: celebrated choreographer Bill T. Jones is currently working on the musical based on Afrobeat king Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Choreographed and directed by Jones, Fela! the musical will feature Kuti's music as played by Brooklyn based afrobeat band Antibalas. The production will run off-Broadway from July 29 to Sept. 21. More info here.

Lots of events happening in July including big-name shows by Seun Kuti (son of Fela Kuti) and Awilo Longomba (son of Vicky Longomba). Also, we did a very nice

I am back in business.

Thank you all for being so patient.

First off, the biggest news I have had all year - all from a comment that I fished out of my spam folder not 10 minutes ago.

Tim Clifford has set up a new website with a discography of more than 1200 Kenyan and Tanzanian 45s at kentanzavinyl.com

This is an amazing resource and you can be sure that it will become a favorite haunt of mine going forward for reference or just to find out what I should be looking for.

This is an amazing achievement Tim! Kudos.

Just one quick track super quick before before I call it a day.

This is the title track from Orchestra Kiam’s 1974 release Baya Baya that I was able to pick up this last week. Orchestra Kiam ( Orchestra Kiamuangana Matete ) did not survive the exile of their leader, Verckys Veve from Zaire by Mobutu in the early 70s. By this time though, he had already gone on to start the Editions Veve label - much to the chagrin of Franco who TP OK jazz he was still a member of - that we all love so much so maybe that was a good thing.

Strangely enough, it has proven very difficult to find good material on Orchestra Kiam in spite of the fact that they had more than 14 studio albums. This is probably due to the fact that the some of the members of Orchestra Kiam were simultaneously in other groups at the time.

Orchestra Kiam - Baya Baya

To the friend,brother,sister,husband,son,dad What is life? A chance to be successful, A chance to be known for good, A chance to be ambitious, A chance to achieve. What is life? A chance to be unsuc