Afropop Worldwide

The latest music craze to hit South African dance floors is a dark, pulsating and energetic sound called gqom. For the past seven years, a young and technologically skilled generation in Durban, KwaZulu Natal, has created and finessed a sound that has the world hooked and wanting more. It is an entire cultural movement complete with distinctive dance moves and styles. We talk to some of the deejays and young producers of this genre, like DJ Lag, Citizen Boy and Distruction Boyz, as well as Gqom Oh! record label owner Francesco Nan Kolè to understand where gqom originated, how it’s made and where it’s going. We also look at how this rough and raw party music has evolved to accommodate a more commercial market. Produced by Akornefa Akyea APWW #784

Trinidadians call their annual Carnival "the greatest show on earth," and with good reason. The Carnival season brims over with art and music: steelpan, calypso, soca and extravagant masquerade costumes. In this program, we take a look at how these Carnival arts are kept alive in today's Trinidad. At this moment in time, Carnival is in flux. Commercialism is in tension with creativity; global outlooks conflict with local identity. But, through it all, life goes on and excellent music flows. Open your ears to some life-giving music and conversations about Trinidad and its brilliant bacchanal. Produced by Sebastian Bouknight APWW #774

With Mardi Gras Indians straight out of New Orleans, Afro-Futurism coming from Mozambique via Dusseldorf, dub-inflected Colombian cumbia , gritty psychedelic South African punk and a grand Cuban mambo band, New York’s annual celebration of cultural music was back with a vengeance at the Copacabana. Sit down with Gato Preto, Orquesta Akokan and BCUC and stand up to dance with the rest. Produced by Ben Richmond. 799 globalFEST 2019

Afropop returns to Dakar, Senegal to catch up with the latest in that country's dominant music style, the bracing, dynamic genre known as mbalax. We'll hear the latest from Youssou N'Dour, Wally Seck, Pape Diouf and others, and meet lesser known artists working the Dakar scene. We'll also meet a remarkable artist from Senegal's southern Cassamance region, where Mande culture akin to that in Gambia, Mali and Guinea prevails. Noumoucounda Cissoko is a brilliant kora player and singer who now makes his home in Dakar, fusing his Mande roots with sabar drumming, mbalax energy and other influences. We'll speak with him, sample his diverse work and hear him rocking a Dakar street wedding. The thrilling ambiance of this most creative musical city comes alive in this program. Produced by Banning Eyre. APWW #798

The DJ crew Zona Libre take a break from throwing genre-defying parties and producing their own live events and podcasts to team up with Afropop for another edition of Cuts from the Crypt. Frequent Afropop producer Morgan Greenstreet (modrums) and Brooklyn-based Puerto Rican DJ Ricardo Luiggi (tres dos) dig through Afropop's extensive vinyl archives, selecting Afro-diasporic music that defies borders and boundaries and sharing their digging experiences along the way. Zona Libre is a #NoBorders tropical dance party, podcast and cultural movement. dj tres dos and modrums spin dance music from the Caribbean, Latin America, Brazil and across the African continent and diaspora. They currently hold down a monthly residency at Mad Tropical every third Thursday. This month will be February 21st ZL: Carnival en Colombia with many special guests! tres dos and modrums frequently host live podcast/listening sessions in Brooklyn and turn out deep dive mixes all the time: APWW #797

Since at least the 1980s, when this program first aired, Paris has been one of the most important incubators of African music on the planet. That’s why we’ve visited there to take the pulse so often. On this program, we look back on 30 years of adventures with African music in Paris. We’ll hear studio sessions with Congolese guitar ace Diblo Dibala and zouk stars Kassav, interviews, live concerts, and that special ambiance that only Paris can provide. APWW #770

APWW #636 A vast, new world of DJs, record collectors and producers are going to far reaches of the Earth to find forgotten records and new styles of music. Their discoveries are then brought back home, remixed, repackaged and re-released to be heard by an entirely new audience. We speak to some globetrotting DJ and producers Chief Boima and Geko Jones to hear about their experiences, the music they've discovered and how they go about remixing some of these styles in order to create a new and updated sound. [Produced by Saxon Baird. Originally aired March, 29th, 2012 ]

The annual WOMEX gathering is a feast for the eyes and ears. At the 2018 edition in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, over 300 artists performed in 60 official showcases. Afropop Worldwide recorded both intimate exclusive sessions and official showcases. We also interviewed globetrotting artists: Moonlight Benjamin (Haiti/France), Dawda Jobarteh (Gambia/Denmark), Tita Nzebi (Gabon/France) and Serge Ananou (Benin/France). And, we collected a load of new releases from artists you know, like Salif Keita, and some you don’t, but will be happy to discover. This is our second WOMEX 2018 program, a music-filled hour of music and impressions from the world’s greatest gathering of global music movers and shakers. Produced by Banning Eyre.

As the Ottoman Empire waned in the late 19th century, there was scarcity, economic stress, and political oppression in Lebanon. The once lucrative silk industry died. Factories closed. Families in search of better lives emigrated, or sent children abroad. Today, diaspora communities of Lebanese and Lebanese descendants far outnumber the 4-million people who actually live in the country. This program surveys the legacy of Lebanese diaspora in two surprising location: Brazil and Ghana. Brazil, home to Lebanon’s largest diaspora population, became an important center for immigrant literature, music and film from the Eastern Mediterranean. And in Ghana, Lebanese descendants played important roles in the development of Afro-rock and highlife in the 1960s and 70s. This Hip Deep edition of our program tell these stories with a rich array of music, and the insights of three scholars, AJ Racy, Robert Moser, and John Collins. APWW #673

The 2018 edition of the world music exposition WOMEX went down in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands with 300 artists and 2700 delegates from 92 countries. There was a lot to chew on. But one of the hidden wonders of WOMEX is the intimate European Broadcast Union radio studio. That’s where Afropop Worldwide and KEXP, Seattle, hosted four of the showcase acts up close and personal. On this program we hear radio sessions with Bakolo Music International, the oldest Congolese Rumba band alive; the Garifuna Collective, the band created by Garifuna music legend Andy Palacio; and Harouna Samake with Kamele Blues, a brand new band from a veteran Malian instrumentalist. Plus one or two surprises. This is the first of Afropop’s two-part coverage of the musical extravaganza that is WOMEX. Produced by Banning Eyre. [APWW #795]