Afropop Worldwide Folgen

The guitar music of Africa is eternal! Despite the rise of Afrobeats, Afro-house, hip-hop and techno, the continent still turns out inventive and thrilling string pickers. This music-rich program features shredding desert-rock axemen and filigree griot guitarists from Niger and Mali, as well as new sounds from the Congo, Zimbabwe and Madagascar. We’ll also travel to rural Botswana to meet itinerant guitarists who have gained a worldwide following through eye- and ear-popping YouTube videos. Some of their new music is now out on a unique compilation called I’m Not Here to Hunt Rabbits. We’ll hear the sweet, raw sounds and their surprising stories, and discover a whole new way of playing the world’s most versatile string instrument.

This spring, Afropop returned to Fes, Morocco, for the 23rd annual World Sacred Music Festival, a sumptuous spread of music from across the globe that blurs the boundaries of what is sacred. Interwoven with Morocco’s ornate history and fertile fabric of daily life is a mosaic of many musics: Gnawa, Arabic pop, Amazigh ahwach, classical Andalusian, Issaoua, raï, rap, chaabi, jazz, metal and so much more. At the World Sacred Music Festival, we heard many of these sounds, as well as those of international artists from China to Mali to Kuwait. Join us as we revisit these concerts—the late night music of Sufi brotherhoods, Moroccan fusion with Taziri and Inouraz, traditional Kuwaiti pearl diving music with Salman El Ammari, a stunning bit of Mali-Spain fusion with Toumani Diabate and Ketama, and more. Beyond the festival, we sit in with a respected Gnawa mâalem in Rabat and sample the array of tunes heard in cars, shops and CD stores around Fes.

Vinyl is back! But there’s a difference between the world of glossy reissues and the format’s golden age. Skippy White’s record store in Boston has been selling records since 1961, and he’s seen it all—er, heard it all, maybe. Brian Coleman and Noah Schaffer produced this check in with a music lifer.