An African Journey: Music From Cairo To Cape Town

This album begins its journey in Egypt, where the music has a distinctly Middle Eastern and Arabic influence, being at the crossroads of Africa and Asia. These influences stretch across much of the Sahara, through Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The call-and-response style, as is found in much of the gnawa music of Morocco, begins to introduce to the listener something more familiar to Western ears. As the album approaches Western Africa we uncover the ancestry of blues music, which became the foundation of most Western popular music. The Western African influences in blues music are unmistakable and are explored enthusiastically by these West African artists. Along the southern coast of Western Africa, and heading into central Africa, a noticeable percussive style takes over. Drumming in these parts of Africa is an ancient, often tribal, tradition that continues to this day. We travel next to Eastern Africa and Sudan, a country with a long and turbulent history that has seen its religion and politics influence its music in many ways. Sudanese music went through something of a renaissance in the early-mid 20th century and the song included here is from that period. Lastly, moving south, we hear guitar music, percussion, and above all vocals taking center stage.