Afropop Worldwide Folgen

Producer Morgan Greenstreet follows the trail of West African Vaudou spiritual music to a very unlikely place–Utrecht, Netherlands–for the first edition of the Voodoo To Go Festival. The three-day festival, pioneered by Togolese entrepreneur Leopold Ekué Messan, set out to demystify Vaudou/Vodun/Voodoo spiritual practices by featuring music and dance from Togo, Benin, Haiti, Cuba and Suriname and bringing people together for films, food and a panel discussion about “Good and Evil in Voodoo.” From the opening ceremony, to the climactic final moments of the festival, the music at Voodoo To Go was filled with the spirit: Trance-inducing traditional music from Togolese/Beninois diaspora group Djogbé; heavy, retro Vaudou funk from Togolese musician Peter Solo and Vaudou Game, based in Lyon, France; Surinamese Kawina music from Rotterdam-based dance band Dray-ston; Late-night Haitian Vaudou-jazz from Erol Josué; and, finally an intense collaboration between Cuban jazz maestro Omar Sosa and Togolese musician and dancer Ayaovi Kokoussé. Alongside the excellent music, we hear from various participants in the festival discussing what Voodoo means to them: a Winti priestess; fascinated Dutch music fans; and, of course, the musicians who make music inspired by the spirit. [APWW # 717] [Originally aired in 2014]

Competition between communities of Indian and African descent has been a mainstay of politics and culture in the former British colonies of Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana. This rivalry plays out in institutions from the University of the West Indies to the West Indies cricket team, and of course, popular music. At the time of Trinidad's Independence, the Afro-Caribbean political elite of the day sought to enshrine calypso as the country's national music, but new genres have emerged, from the steel-pan jazz and calypso of the 1960s to soca and its successor, chutney-soca, which for the first time in the 1980s fully integrated Indian and African influences in a local popular music. This Hip Deep edition explores all of these styles, and also the music of diaspora communities in the U.S. and the U.K.. Ethnomusicologist Peter Manuel of the City University of New York shares his ground-breaking research on Indo-Caribbean music in all of its geographic and social contexts. His music and insights reveal a fascinating, overlooked story of hybrid Caribbean culture. Produced by Siddhartha Mitter. [APWW #556] [Originally Aired 2008]

This guitar-focused program presents a series of mostly acoustic sessions with Garifuna star Aurelio Martinez, griot guitar master Aboubacar "Badian" Diabate, Malagasy tsapika phenom Damily, and Abdramane Toure, the 17-year-old guitarist for Khaira Arby of Timbuktu. These four uniquely talented players talk about their careers, their learning process, and their highly personal guitar styles. Along the way we catch up with a rich selection of beautifully guitar-filigreed music, from Honduran soul to Sahara desert blues and the uniquely boogieing funerals of southern Madagascar. Produced by Banning Eyre in 2011. [APWW #608]