Monday, June 27, 2011
More Spanish Tinge and Interesting Songs
Here are some additional interesting songs that I forgot to include. Have fun!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
The Spanish Tinge in American Music
So I've realized that my earlier post about Latin/Spanish-influenced American music is incomplete. Very incomplete. American music has always been influenced by Caribbean and Latin American music. New Orleans, a cosmopolitan city in the 19th century that was more Caribbean and Creole than Anglo-American, had always been exchanging people, language, religion, and music with Haiti, Cuba, Spain, and other Caribbean cities. That's why New Orleans music tends to sound very similar to Caribbean music: very melodic, polyrhythmic, syncopated, light-hearted, dance music. However, Caribbean music is obviously not monochromatic; Spanish, French, English, indigenous and African influences combined to form unique rhythms and musical styles that continue to separate various forms of Caribbean music in spite of a common African origin for most music of the region. Thus, Jamaican mento or reggae is clearly distinct from Cuban son or mambo, just as Haitian rara is different from Dominican merengue or Trinidadian calypso.
However, their common African substratum and incessant cross-cultural exchanges between the Islands and New Orleans have led to a lot of commonalities that abound today in New Orleans jazz, ragtime, some blues, and even R&B and rock. Indeed, I was quite surprised after attending a Haitian rara concert by how similar the music is to New Orleans dixieland and jazz. Anywho, here is an interesting article about the similarities that exist between Caribbean and New Orleans jazz. It provides several examples of Caribbean influences in New Orleans jazz and explains how referring to the Caribbean connection as "Spanish" is quite far from the truth. While the habanero and other Afro-Cuban rhythms influenced a lot of early jazz, including W.C. Handy's St. Louis Blues, other Caribbean islands such as Haiti and the French Caribbean influenced Cuba's rhythmic diversity and New Orleans.
http://www.prjc.org/roots/nojazzandcarribe.html
Anywho, another oft-overlooked American classical composer of the 19th century, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, of Louisiana origin, also drew from African-American and Caribbean music and rhythms for his own compositions. His music, along with some early ragtime, laid the foundation for more Caribbean influences in American music beyond classical (of course other composers, including black composers of the 19th century, were aware of Caribbean music and wrote compositions based on it, along with the numerous dance bands that shifted between New Orleans and the Caribbean).
So here's what y'all have been waiting for, a list of several songs that exemplify what Jelly Roll Morton referred to as the Spanish Tinge, or influences from Afro-Caribbean music. Indeed, Morton once stated that the Spanish tinge was necessary to make jazz.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk has several compositions with Afro-Caribbean themes, including Bamboula, Souvenir de Cuba and Souvenir de Porto Rico. Le Banjo is another interesting composition that refers to the American banjo, which was historically associated with African-Americans because of the instrument's African provenance. I will post multiple youtube links to some of his Caribbean-themed compositons that sought to capture the sound and spirit of the Caribbean.
Now Scott Joplin, the master ragtime pianist best known for composing "The Entertainer," was also influenced by Latin/Caribbean music. One of his pieces, Solace, endeavors to sound "Latin."
Of course there are several examples of New Orleans jazz music which uses habanera rhythms as well as other forms of Caribbean music. Here are examples from the 1920s-1940s:
Of course future jazz songs took more from latin music. Dizzy Gillespie stands out in that regard...
Bill Evans' Nardis takes more from Spanish music than Latin or Caribbean.
However, their common African substratum and incessant cross-cultural exchanges between the Islands and New Orleans have led to a lot of commonalities that abound today in New Orleans jazz, ragtime, some blues, and even R&B and rock. Indeed, I was quite surprised after attending a Haitian rara concert by how similar the music is to New Orleans dixieland and jazz. Anywho, here is an interesting article about the similarities that exist between Caribbean and New Orleans jazz. It provides several examples of Caribbean influences in New Orleans jazz and explains how referring to the Caribbean connection as "Spanish" is quite far from the truth. While the habanero and other Afro-Cuban rhythms influenced a lot of early jazz, including W.C. Handy's St. Louis Blues, other Caribbean islands such as Haiti and the French Caribbean influenced Cuba's rhythmic diversity and New Orleans.
http://www.prjc.org/roots/nojazzandcarribe.html
Anywho, another oft-overlooked American classical composer of the 19th century, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, of Louisiana origin, also drew from African-American and Caribbean music and rhythms for his own compositions. His music, along with some early ragtime, laid the foundation for more Caribbean influences in American music beyond classical (of course other composers, including black composers of the 19th century, were aware of Caribbean music and wrote compositions based on it, along with the numerous dance bands that shifted between New Orleans and the Caribbean).
So here's what y'all have been waiting for, a list of several songs that exemplify what Jelly Roll Morton referred to as the Spanish Tinge, or influences from Afro-Caribbean music. Indeed, Morton once stated that the Spanish tinge was necessary to make jazz.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk has several compositions with Afro-Caribbean themes, including Bamboula, Souvenir de Cuba and Souvenir de Porto Rico. Le Banjo is another interesting composition that refers to the American banjo, which was historically associated with African-Americans because of the instrument's African provenance. I will post multiple youtube links to some of his Caribbean-themed compositons that sought to capture the sound and spirit of the Caribbean.
Now Scott Joplin, the master ragtime pianist best known for composing "The Entertainer," was also influenced by Latin/Caribbean music. One of his pieces, Solace, endeavors to sound "Latin."
Of course there are several examples of New Orleans jazz music which uses habanera rhythms as well as other forms of Caribbean music. Here are examples from the 1920s-1940s:
Of course future jazz songs took more from latin music. Dizzy Gillespie stands out in that regard...
Bill Evans' Nardis takes more from Spanish music than Latin or Caribbean.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Songs Inspired by or in Tribute to Africa
So I'll start off with D'Angelo's acoustic piano and normal versions of Africa, which was on his hit album, Voodoo. Written for his son and as a tribute to the Motherland, the song is a beautiful piece of music. Questlove's simple drumming and the beautiful keys make this song for me. D'angelo's piano playing on the acoustic version of the song is also beautiful and reminiscent of John Legend's Ordinary people, even though Africa was recorded years before John Legend's Ordinary People.
Lee Morgan's Afreaka is characteristic of his pop-oriented 1960s compositions. Like boogaloo music, Afreaka, Cornbread, Sidewinder and several other compositions of Morgan were bluesy and had Latin-influenced rhythms. Of course the widespread success of The Sidewinder among R&B aficionados (that is, mostly African-Americans) made Lee Morgan quite popular for the soul-jazz and funk-oriented style. Blue Note Records pressured Morgan to keep releasing songs like The Sidewinder in a vain attempt to capitalize on records sales again, but the formula failed. Morgan's post-Sidewinder songs were just that: deliberate commercial attempts to reach the R&B market. Of course Lee Morgan released records that weren't just obvious attempts at commercial success but representations of the pursuit of art for art's sake. Afreaka is sort of a funky soul-jazz number with Latin-influenced percussion.
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers' 'The Egyptian' is another Africa-inspired piece, featuring the legendary tenor saxman John Gilmore, mostly known for his work in Sun Ra's Arkestra. This piece is an interesting song that doesn't sound very Egyptian, but has dark themes and at times sounds Latin. The exchanges between the horns and Gilmore's solo often reminds me of animal-like voices, such as elephants. After the following live rendition, listen to the studio recording below it. John Gilmore's tenor sax on the live rendition really highlights his skills as a player and the influence of John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and Eric Dolphy on Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. This song is leaning toward the avant-garde modal jazz movements...although Lee Morgan's playing seems more rooted in hard bop than it should be for this composition. Of course Blakey's drumming is amazing.
Duke Ellington's "Fleurette Africaine" featuring Max Roach and Charles Mingus is the highlight of his Money Jungle LP. A dark, brooding piece, I can only visualize a single flower deep in the heart of an African rainforest. Duke's piano playing is brilliant and Mingus's floating bassline is a constant delight. This song is hauntingly beautiful.
Fat's Waller's African Ripples is an old favorite. A great example of his proficiency in the stride school of piano and although it doesn't sound exactly "African," it's an interesting example of a complex song. The tempo changes and the song shifts in mood from light to dark, and bluesy elements are prevalent.
Max Roach's Tears for Johannesburg is an obvious tribute to those South Africans who lost their lives for resisting apartheid. The congas, Roach's drumming, the ostinato bassline, and Julian Priester's trombone (Priester had played with Sun Ra, who composed several songs dedicated to Africa or influenced by African music) capture feelings of melancholy.
K'Naan's 'The African Way' is an intersting example of a hip-hop beat built solely on African percussion. He also raps with a Kenyan rapper, an expression of Pan-African solidarity (at least that's what I think).
Alice Coltrane's 'Ptah the El Daoud' is an interesting mix of Eastern and African influences. Like her husband, John Coltrane, she was profoundly influenced by the spirituality and musical scales associated with Eastern and African cultures. Ptah, a god from Egyptian mythology, sounds like an ancient Egyptian chant. Her other composition on the same album, 'Blue Nile,' features her harp playing and is an obvious reference to the Blue Nile, which flows from Ethiopia to the Sudan, where it joins the White Nile before flowing north to the Egyptian Nile Valley.
Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia" is an obvious homage to Africa, or specifically, the North African nation of Tunisia (which, was the "Africa" to the Romans and Arabs, hence the Arabic name for Tunisia, Ifriqiya, or Africa). I really like Art Blakey's versions of the song in addition to Bud Powell's.
Art Blakey's album, The African Beat, is a collection of recordings inspired by African folk music. They Mystery of Love features Yusef Lateef playing in a North African-inspired way alongside hard African rhythms from Blakey and African percussionists. Ayiko, Ayiko is another song from the album worth listening to as well.
Horace Silver's African Queen is a tribute to his father's Cape Verdean origins. Strong drumming.
Nas and Damian Marley's Africa Must Wake Up is a stirring tribute to the African past and the necessity for immediate change in the horrible living conditions for the current peoples of the African continent and Diaspora. Nice drumming and guitar playing.
Pharaoh Sanders' Upper and Lower Egypt' begins as a dark, free jazz song before turning into something quite different in the second half. For some reason I really like this song despite how terrifying the first half is, which sounds like someone breaking into a pharaoh's tomb and fleeing before the dead arise. The second half, Lower Egypt, has a repetitive theme and what sounds like a marimba to me, very African.
Bob Marley's 400 Years is written in honor of the past centuries of slave trading and slavery that resulted in the creation of the African Diaspora. Marley relates the terrible past to the still-terrible present for people of African descent. It's a call for militancy to improve our lives and become truly free.
John Coltrane's "Africa" is an epic tribute to the African continent. Inspired by his research in African music as well as other non-Western music traditions, Coltrane assembles a big band to accompany his quartet for his song. The haunting dual basses and the plethora of horns capture the majesty of the African continent.
Coltrane's saxophone is a call to freedom and through Eric Dolphy's arrangements for the larger orchestra, creates something one must experience. Despite the length of the song, every minute is worth it. This is where A Love Supreme began. Where My Favorite Things started. Epic, noble, extended recordings that mix African and Eastern spirituality and music to forge something quite different. Sheets of sound. Elvin Jones' drum solo is also a treat. Coltrane's Afro Blue and Tunji (referring to Coltrane's friend, Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji) also represent tributes to Africa, his spiritual, cultural, and biological homeland.
Mongo Santamaria's Afro Blue can't be excluded here either. Drawing on Afro-Cuban religious rhythms and instrumentation, this beautiful song praises the African heritage of Cuba.
Karl Hector and the Malcoun's Sahara Swing is another interesting example of mixing African and African-American music. Drawing on American funk and African Afrobeat and folk music, Sahara Swing is both a fascinating song and album
Ali Hassan Kuban is a famous Nubian singer. Just had to include an example of his music. Very upbeat example of contemporary Nubian music.
Jingo Lo Ba, a song by Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji, is usually associated with Carlos Santana's cover version. I prefer the more authentic Olatunji version which is entirely drums and chants.
Big Daddy Kane's Word to the Mother (Land) is quite Afrocentric and needs no further explanation upon hearing the lyrics. Young, Gifted and Black is another no-brainer. The title refers to Nina Simone's Civil Rights-era anthem for black youth.
Gil Scott-Heron's anti-apartheid song, Johannesburg, is one of my favorites. Rivers from My Fathers is a jazzy tribute to our forefathers and Langston Hughes poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers. The Nile, Niger, Congo, Senegal, Zambezi and various other rivers that have supported life in the African continent.
The Heliocentrics and Mulatu Astatke have composed and collaborated on music dedicated to Ethiopia and Africa. The song, Blue Nile, is one obvious example. Not as funky as one would expect for an avant-garde funk band, The Heliocentrics. Anglo Ethio Suite is more jazzy and exotic, fusing Jazz and Ethopian music in a fully jazzy manner.
Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man from his critically-acclaimed Headhunters album features in the introduction, a member of the band blowing onto a bottle. This was meant to emulate a similar practice among some African ethnic group. Thus, the beginning of the song sounds interesting and quite distinct from most jazz and funk music.
The J.B.'s Blessed Blackness is more about African-American racial pride, like Brown's Say it Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud). A very jazzy number dedicated to racial pride, it's still inspired by African-American transnational nationalism and solidarity with the rest of the African diaspora.
Drummer Joe Chambers has two songs dedicated to Africa, The Almoravid and Gazelle Suite.
John Coltrane's Dakar refers to the capitol of the West African nation of Senegal. Rhythms are quite Latin-infused. The bluesy Dahomey Dance also refers to West Africa, this time the ancient kingdom of Dahomey.
Julius Hemphill's avant-garde acoustic funk number, Dogon A.D. refers to the Malian ethnic group, Dogon.
K'naan's Hoobale is sung in Somali and features the oud, an ancient Middle Eastern instrument.
Blues for the Horn obviously refers to the Horn of Africa and Somalia, his homeland.
Kanye West's Diamonds from Sierra Leone really isn't about Africa. He raps the contradictory message that he'll keep on buying blood diamonds even though he knows they fuel conflicts within Sierra Leone and other African nations. Still, it spread the message of the horrors of the diamond industry.
K'naan's Somalia
K'naan's Fire in Freetown refers to Sierra Leone
Lee Morgan's Mr. Kenyatta is a tribute to the anti-colonial freedom fighter of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta.
Louis Armstrong's King of the Zulus is sort of a racist song that earned a lot of criticism from the black community. This is part of the reason later generations of African-Americans began to see Louis Armstrong as an Uncle Tom who would do anything to entertain whites...
McCoy Tyner's epic Sahara is also worth checking out.
Michael Jackson's Liberian Girl
Michael Jackson's Remember the Time stands out for its portrayal of black Egypt in the music video
Miles Davis Pharaoh's Dance
Nas's One Love for the sample of an mbira
Heath Brothers who werei sampled for the mbira and bassline by Q-Tip for Nas's One Love
Peter Gabriel's tribute to Steven Biko
Peter Gabriel's Shaking the Tree
Salif Keita's Mandjou and Ignadjidje are two of my favorites from the Malian master. I love koras and other West African instruments
Santogold, MIA, Radioclit. Gotta love the drums and chants on this
Sun Ra has several Africa-inspired songs. Nubia, Africa, Ancient Aethiopia, Watusa, Tiny Pyramids, Moon Dance, Adventure-Equation, The Beginning, etc.
The Philadelphia Experiment's Ile Ife refers to the Yoruba ancient city of Ife in the modern nation of Nigeria.
Questlove on drums! Unfortunately the only video I could fine has some fool tap dancing...
Catalyst, the band whose song Ile Ife was covered by the above group, has a complete version of their song on youtube.
TV on the Radio has a few Afrobeat influenced songs, such as Red Dress. Very funky!
Vampire Weekend's Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa is clearly influenced by Congolese music.
Azouke Legba, Haitian Vodou song I love
Wayne Shorter's Juju. Juju was the word used by Europeans to describe ritual objects in African religions.It also has short, hypnotic phrases that are repeated throughout that highlight its African theme.
The Cowboy Bebop soundtrack song, The Egg and I, is a great example of African-inspired music. The drumming sounds Caribbean...But the rest of the song sounds bluesy or like zydeco
Lee Morgan's Afreaka is characteristic of his pop-oriented 1960s compositions. Like boogaloo music, Afreaka, Cornbread, Sidewinder and several other compositions of Morgan were bluesy and had Latin-influenced rhythms. Of course the widespread success of The Sidewinder among R&B aficionados (that is, mostly African-Americans) made Lee Morgan quite popular for the soul-jazz and funk-oriented style. Blue Note Records pressured Morgan to keep releasing songs like The Sidewinder in a vain attempt to capitalize on records sales again, but the formula failed. Morgan's post-Sidewinder songs were just that: deliberate commercial attempts to reach the R&B market. Of course Lee Morgan released records that weren't just obvious attempts at commercial success but representations of the pursuit of art for art's sake. Afreaka is sort of a funky soul-jazz number with Latin-influenced percussion.
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers' 'The Egyptian' is another Africa-inspired piece, featuring the legendary tenor saxman John Gilmore, mostly known for his work in Sun Ra's Arkestra. This piece is an interesting song that doesn't sound very Egyptian, but has dark themes and at times sounds Latin. The exchanges between the horns and Gilmore's solo often reminds me of animal-like voices, such as elephants. After the following live rendition, listen to the studio recording below it. John Gilmore's tenor sax on the live rendition really highlights his skills as a player and the influence of John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and Eric Dolphy on Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. This song is leaning toward the avant-garde modal jazz movements...although Lee Morgan's playing seems more rooted in hard bop than it should be for this composition. Of course Blakey's drumming is amazing.
Duke Ellington's "Fleurette Africaine" featuring Max Roach and Charles Mingus is the highlight of his Money Jungle LP. A dark, brooding piece, I can only visualize a single flower deep in the heart of an African rainforest. Duke's piano playing is brilliant and Mingus's floating bassline is a constant delight. This song is hauntingly beautiful.
Fat's Waller's African Ripples is an old favorite. A great example of his proficiency in the stride school of piano and although it doesn't sound exactly "African," it's an interesting example of a complex song. The tempo changes and the song shifts in mood from light to dark, and bluesy elements are prevalent.
Max Roach's Tears for Johannesburg is an obvious tribute to those South Africans who lost their lives for resisting apartheid. The congas, Roach's drumming, the ostinato bassline, and Julian Priester's trombone (Priester had played with Sun Ra, who composed several songs dedicated to Africa or influenced by African music) capture feelings of melancholy.
K'Naan's 'The African Way' is an intersting example of a hip-hop beat built solely on African percussion. He also raps with a Kenyan rapper, an expression of Pan-African solidarity (at least that's what I think).
Alice Coltrane's 'Ptah the El Daoud' is an interesting mix of Eastern and African influences. Like her husband, John Coltrane, she was profoundly influenced by the spirituality and musical scales associated with Eastern and African cultures. Ptah, a god from Egyptian mythology, sounds like an ancient Egyptian chant. Her other composition on the same album, 'Blue Nile,' features her harp playing and is an obvious reference to the Blue Nile, which flows from Ethiopia to the Sudan, where it joins the White Nile before flowing north to the Egyptian Nile Valley.
Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia" is an obvious homage to Africa, or specifically, the North African nation of Tunisia (which, was the "Africa" to the Romans and Arabs, hence the Arabic name for Tunisia, Ifriqiya, or Africa). I really like Art Blakey's versions of the song in addition to Bud Powell's.
Art Blakey's album, The African Beat, is a collection of recordings inspired by African folk music. They Mystery of Love features Yusef Lateef playing in a North African-inspired way alongside hard African rhythms from Blakey and African percussionists. Ayiko, Ayiko is another song from the album worth listening to as well.
Horace Silver's African Queen is a tribute to his father's Cape Verdean origins. Strong drumming.
Nas and Damian Marley's Africa Must Wake Up is a stirring tribute to the African past and the necessity for immediate change in the horrible living conditions for the current peoples of the African continent and Diaspora. Nice drumming and guitar playing.
Pharaoh Sanders' Upper and Lower Egypt' begins as a dark, free jazz song before turning into something quite different in the second half. For some reason I really like this song despite how terrifying the first half is, which sounds like someone breaking into a pharaoh's tomb and fleeing before the dead arise. The second half, Lower Egypt, has a repetitive theme and what sounds like a marimba to me, very African.
Bob Marley's 400 Years is written in honor of the past centuries of slave trading and slavery that resulted in the creation of the African Diaspora. Marley relates the terrible past to the still-terrible present for people of African descent. It's a call for militancy to improve our lives and become truly free.
John Coltrane's "Africa" is an epic tribute to the African continent. Inspired by his research in African music as well as other non-Western music traditions, Coltrane assembles a big band to accompany his quartet for his song. The haunting dual basses and the plethora of horns capture the majesty of the African continent.
Coltrane's saxophone is a call to freedom and through Eric Dolphy's arrangements for the larger orchestra, creates something one must experience. Despite the length of the song, every minute is worth it. This is where A Love Supreme began. Where My Favorite Things started. Epic, noble, extended recordings that mix African and Eastern spirituality and music to forge something quite different. Sheets of sound. Elvin Jones' drum solo is also a treat. Coltrane's Afro Blue and Tunji (referring to Coltrane's friend, Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji) also represent tributes to Africa, his spiritual, cultural, and biological homeland.
Mongo Santamaria's Afro Blue can't be excluded here either. Drawing on Afro-Cuban religious rhythms and instrumentation, this beautiful song praises the African heritage of Cuba.
Karl Hector and the Malcoun's Sahara Swing is another interesting example of mixing African and African-American music. Drawing on American funk and African Afrobeat and folk music, Sahara Swing is both a fascinating song and album
Ali Hassan Kuban is a famous Nubian singer. Just had to include an example of his music. Very upbeat example of contemporary Nubian music.
Jingo Lo Ba, a song by Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji, is usually associated with Carlos Santana's cover version. I prefer the more authentic Olatunji version which is entirely drums and chants.
Big Daddy Kane's Word to the Mother (Land) is quite Afrocentric and needs no further explanation upon hearing the lyrics. Young, Gifted and Black is another no-brainer. The title refers to Nina Simone's Civil Rights-era anthem for black youth.
Gil Scott-Heron's anti-apartheid song, Johannesburg, is one of my favorites. Rivers from My Fathers is a jazzy tribute to our forefathers and Langston Hughes poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers. The Nile, Niger, Congo, Senegal, Zambezi and various other rivers that have supported life in the African continent.
The Heliocentrics and Mulatu Astatke have composed and collaborated on music dedicated to Ethiopia and Africa. The song, Blue Nile, is one obvious example. Not as funky as one would expect for an avant-garde funk band, The Heliocentrics. Anglo Ethio Suite is more jazzy and exotic, fusing Jazz and Ethopian music in a fully jazzy manner.
Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man from his critically-acclaimed Headhunters album features in the introduction, a member of the band blowing onto a bottle. This was meant to emulate a similar practice among some African ethnic group. Thus, the beginning of the song sounds interesting and quite distinct from most jazz and funk music.
The J.B.'s Blessed Blackness is more about African-American racial pride, like Brown's Say it Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud). A very jazzy number dedicated to racial pride, it's still inspired by African-American transnational nationalism and solidarity with the rest of the African diaspora.
Drummer Joe Chambers has two songs dedicated to Africa, The Almoravid and Gazelle Suite.
John Coltrane's Dakar refers to the capitol of the West African nation of Senegal. Rhythms are quite Latin-infused. The bluesy Dahomey Dance also refers to West Africa, this time the ancient kingdom of Dahomey.
Julius Hemphill's avant-garde acoustic funk number, Dogon A.D. refers to the Malian ethnic group, Dogon.
K'naan's Hoobale is sung in Somali and features the oud, an ancient Middle Eastern instrument.
Blues for the Horn obviously refers to the Horn of Africa and Somalia, his homeland.
Kanye West's Diamonds from Sierra Leone really isn't about Africa. He raps the contradictory message that he'll keep on buying blood diamonds even though he knows they fuel conflicts within Sierra Leone and other African nations. Still, it spread the message of the horrors of the diamond industry.
K'naan's Somalia
K'naan's Fire in Freetown refers to Sierra Leone
Lee Morgan's Mr. Kenyatta is a tribute to the anti-colonial freedom fighter of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta.
Louis Armstrong's King of the Zulus is sort of a racist song that earned a lot of criticism from the black community. This is part of the reason later generations of African-Americans began to see Louis Armstrong as an Uncle Tom who would do anything to entertain whites...
McCoy Tyner's epic Sahara is also worth checking out.
Michael Jackson's Liberian Girl
Michael Jackson's Remember the Time stands out for its portrayal of black Egypt in the music video
Miles Davis Pharaoh's Dance
Nas's One Love for the sample of an mbira
Heath Brothers who werei sampled for the mbira and bassline by Q-Tip for Nas's One Love
Peter Gabriel's tribute to Steven Biko
Peter Gabriel's Shaking the Tree
Salif Keita's Mandjou and Ignadjidje are two of my favorites from the Malian master. I love koras and other West African instruments
Santogold, MIA, Radioclit. Gotta love the drums and chants on this
Sun Ra has several Africa-inspired songs. Nubia, Africa, Ancient Aethiopia, Watusa, Tiny Pyramids, Moon Dance, Adventure-Equation, The Beginning, etc.
The Philadelphia Experiment's Ile Ife refers to the Yoruba ancient city of Ife in the modern nation of Nigeria.
Questlove on drums! Unfortunately the only video I could fine has some fool tap dancing...
Catalyst, the band whose song Ile Ife was covered by the above group, has a complete version of their song on youtube.
TV on the Radio has a few Afrobeat influenced songs, such as Red Dress. Very funky!
Vampire Weekend's Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa is clearly influenced by Congolese music.
Azouke Legba, Haitian Vodou song I love
Wayne Shorter's Juju. Juju was the word used by Europeans to describe ritual objects in African religions.It also has short, hypnotic phrases that are repeated throughout that highlight its African theme.
The Cowboy Bebop soundtrack song, The Egg and I, is a great example of African-inspired music. The drumming sounds Caribbean...But the rest of the song sounds bluesy or like zydeco
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