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Youssou N’Dour
Youssou N’Dour’s journey began in 1959, in Dakar, Senegal. Although his mother was a praise singer from the gawlo (griot) caste of the Tukulor people, N’Dour’s parents urged him to become a civil servant.
By Dan Rosenberg
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Zaiko Lanka Langa
In 1969, a Kinshasa-based percussionist, D.V. Muanda (a minority tenders this honor to drummer Bakunde Ilo Pablo), started a band called Zaïko Langa Langa, part of the early wave of ‘60s Independence-era guitar bands.
By Christina Roden
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Papa Wemba
Papa Wemba has always been a larger-than-life figure, both in his music and his personality.
By Jeff Tamarkin
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Oumou Sangare
Arguably the best female singer to emerge from Mali, Oumou Sangare showed on her 1990 debut album Moussolou just how much raw power the traditional music of her country could pack.
By Tom Orr
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Mory Kanté
Mory Kanté is a living bridge between hundreds of years of West African Mande griot tradition (wordsmiths who pass along history orally through poetry and song) and the modern world.
By Jeff Tamarkin
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The Master Musicians of Jajouka
It’s difficult to imagine today, just how shocking an album Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka was when it was released in 1971.
By Jeff Tamarkin
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Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens
Though they were stars in South Africa since the mid-1960s, Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens became an international sensation 20 years later as part of the first wave of world music to hit the States.
By Marty Lipp
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Mabulu
The Mozambican band Mabulu unites up-and-coming young rappers and singers with master musicians from the golden age of marrabenta, Mozambique’s classic pop sound of the ’60s and ’70s.
By Tom Pryor
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Bembeya Jazz
During their heyday in the early ’70s, Bembeya Jazz was Guinea’s, and perhaps Africa’s, hottest band.
By Bruce Miller
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The Jazz Epistles
The Jazz Epistles, whose core consisted of Abdullah Ibrahim , Kippie Moeketsi, Jonas Gwangwa and Hugh Masekela, made the first South African recording by black musicians, Jazz Epistle: Verse 1, in 1959.
By Nils Jacobson
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Ismael Lô
Ismael Lô is one of Senegal’s great voices, a powerful and versatile performer who came of age alongside Youssou N’Dour and others during the m'balax explosion of the late ’70s and early ’80s.
By Tom Pryor
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