I find traces and hard evidence of West African muscial influence pretty much everywhere I travel. Tiken Jah cocktail bars in Palestine, Serere taxi drivers in Argentina, Wolof hiphop fans and Burundian dance parties in Canada, not to forget the frequent concerts, cultural events and random encounters in my current home, France.

I mentioned in my last post that there are a lot of similarities between Paranda, an African-Carib-Spanish fusion music played by the Garifuna-speaking people in Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras, and the music of many contemporary West African musicians, notably those in the acoustic mbalax scene in Senegal.

When I first listened to Aurelio Martinez I immediately thought, “Pape & Cheikh”. Acoustic mbalax musicians such as these guys, Cheikh Lô and others from Senegal and nearby West African countries, use “latin” guitar techniques fused with local rhytms played on West African traditional drums such as djembe and tama. Their singing style is similar to Paranda, too. Something about Garifuna – most likely its West African language roots – gives it a rough-edged quality similar to Wolof that makes it sound great to my ear when sung.

Anyway, I’m not going to dive into a big study of musical and linguistical crossovers, mostly because I know little about them. What I do know is that Aurelio Martinez’s 2004 album, Garifuna Soul, is a must-have if you’re into this sound, whether you’re hearing it in Dakar or Punta Rosa. His album and many other great Belize releases can be found over at Stonetree records. You can also buy it and much of the other music you hear at this site over at Calabash.

Aurelio Martinez appears on that Paranda album I posted last time. He represents the younger generation of Parandero musicians. He still lives and records in his native Honduras where a good-sized community of Garifuna continue to live, speak their language and play their cool music.

I’ve posted a couple contemporary Senegalese acoustic mbalax tunes from Cheikh Lô and Pape et Cheikh to give you an idea of why Paranda strikes me as “so Dakar”.

Aurelio Martinez – Nuwerun
Pape & Cheikh – Kamalemba
Aurelio Martinez – Nirau Hagabu
Cheikh Lô – Dokandeme

I just spent a wonderful week in Belize. What a great place. Good diving, warm sun and friendly people. They also have great music: I picked up a couple Paranda albums while I was there.

Paranda. The story goes that centuries ago a slave ship crashed off the caribbean island of St. Vincent. The survivers escaped and joined other escaped slaves from nearby islands to form small villages in present-day Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The black African slaves’ languages and blood mixed over time with the local Arawak Indians and Carib. This produced a community of people in the region who speak Garifuna, a mix of several African tongues and Carib. It’s the only language spoken by people of African descent in the Americas that is not derived from European languages.

The Garifuna community is still alive and well today, particularly in southern Belize. This is perhaps best expressed by their unique brand of music. The slaves’ musical heritage mixed with that of their neighbours and colonizers to produce the Paranda sound played by local Paranderos. You’ll hear african drumming, vocals in Garifuna and a light latin/spanish influence.

Stonetree Records in Belize has recorded and released a series of great Paranda albums. In 2000 they released a great compilation of Paranda artists, who include Paul Nabor, 72 years old at the time of recording. He is the local buyei, or religious leader, of his community, and the last living Parandero in Punta Gorda in southern Belize. The comp also features some music by Gabaga Williams. He was one of the greatest Paranda composers of all time and is now too arthritic to play his guitar. Luckily his compositions are played and preserved by guitarist/admirer Dale Guzman of Belize City.

Music from all these guys is featured in today’s post.

West African acoustic mbalax and other forms have a lot in common with Paranda. We’ll explore this a little more later this week with music from Aurelio Martinez. For now, enjoy some classic Paranda courtesy of Stonetree.

Paul Nabor – Naguya nei
Dale Guzman & Gabaga Williams – Tuagu bigidaran

I mentioned in my last post that I’d seen a Julia Sarr and Patrice Larose concert recently. In continuing with my promotion of the excellent No Format releases I’ll post some music from their album today.

Julia Sarr used to be a backup singer for Youssou N’Dour and is now embarking on a solo career. She lives in Paris with her teenaged son who she, very cutely, describes as being in his “yo yo” phase.. but she still loves him.

I admit to not knowing her music before I saw the show. My friend, Olivier, invited me to the Satellit café for the show. Since I had been so impressed with Mamani Keita on the No Format sampler I immediately agreed to come. I finally got to meet Laurent there, the No Format label creator. Nice guy.

Right from the start Julia Sarr put on an excellent show. She was relaxed on stage, cracking jokes between songs and acting generally cute overall. Her voice is what really did me in, though. Not only is her Wolof slowly and smoothly spoken (so I can understand bits!) but I find her tone sounds just right to my ears. Beautiful stuff.

You can hear it for yourself. I’ve included two tracks: my favourite, Yitte, and another that better features Sarr’s stunning voice. I also love the references in the second to Dakar neighbourhoods.. la nostalgie, tu vois.

All No Format albums can be bought online on their website: http://www.noformat.net/

Patrice Larose & Julia Sarr – Na mana
Patrice Larose & Julia Sarr feat Leity M’Baye – Yitte

I’ve been seeing some great African music concerts in Paris lately. Aside from upcoming Ethiopiques and Kekele shows I’ve been all over town seeing things these last couple weeks.

This is largely thanks to the work of Laurent who runs the No Format label pretty much single-handedly. He’s been actively promoting his new albums that include, among others, Mamani Keita, Toto Bona Lokua and Julia Sarr and Patrice Larose.

Today I’ll feature some music from Toto Bona Lokua. The group name stands for Gerald Toto, Richard Bona and Lokua Kanza. Many of you probably already know Richard Bona – he’s huge in France, anyway – but the others are relatively well-known and talented musicians as well.

Their No Format release is one of the more creative African albums to come out of the huge Paris African music scene in a while. Combining modern and traditional instruments with great harmony.. and an overall impression that they’re just having a lot of fun in the studio.. makes for a truly original work.

Make sure to listen to the end of today’s track for the little bonus. And thanks, Laurent, for continuing to release great stuff. I’ll see you at the next show..

Toto Bona Lokua – Lisanga

Quick guest post and a request today by Benn loxo listener, Patrick:

“Today’s track was released on an album called Savoir Faire Plein Gaz Productions and compiled by DJ Spider & Philgood who are well known DJs in France. The credits for the original recording is N’Dogo. I have searched high and low for the original but to no avail. I think East African Cosmos was a direct response to West African Cosmos. I have attached the track in full. The same compilation features Miriam Makeba’s “Samba” as well. Compilation released in 1998. Interested in getting hold of the track “Wuye Wuye” by East African Cosmos if you can help.”

East African Cosmos – M’Raude

Ali Farka Touré, one of the most internationally acclaimed artists in West African music, has died today after a long illness. He was 67.

You can read the many obits floating around the web for yourself, but personally his music had a huge influence on me. Way, way before I ever even thought of moving to West Africa – or even out of Canada – I was into Touré’s albums Talking Timbuktu, Radio Mali and Niafunké. They were a gateway into the rich world of contemporary African rock and blues, and ultimately helped shape my musical taste for the region.

Talking Timbuktu, Niafunke and In The Heart of the Moon remain some of the best West African albums in my collection. Red/Green, The River, The Source and Radio Mali are also on that shelf and get routine play on the African shuffle.

If you can believe it I was still in high school when Talking Timbuktu hit Toronto record shops in 1995. At the time I would’ve been rocking to whatever hiphop, pop, etc was cool in the mid-nineties. I’d always been into music a bit out of the norm, but Ali Farka Touré really helped me break-out of the North American sound and explore folk, blues and rock from other countries, notably Mali, Brazil, Senegal and South Africa.

I can thank Touré’s albums along with some Nigerian funk compilations I picked-up in the late-nineties for what is now nearly a 10-year obsession with world music, African in particular.

Rest in peace, grand Touré.

Ali Farka Toure – Allah Uya
Ry Cooder & Ali Farka Toure – Gomni