I've been turning my back to a lot of hip-hop, R&B and Haitian popular music...I've invested most of my music exploration and research into Brazilian, West African, and Congolese music instead. I don't regret doing it, especially because I discovered so much amazing music that, though different, sounds familiar...(Thank you, slave trade and colonialism? The only good thing to come out of it was the propagation of African music that has revolutionized the world). Thanks to devoting the last several months to West Africa, Brazil, and the Congo, I discovered Franco, OK Jazz, Fela Kuti (well, rediscovered), Cardinal Rex Lawson, and E.T. Mensah, African Jazz, Cesaria Evora, Jorge Ben, various samba and bossa nova groups, and Miriam Makeba, from South Africa. Moreover, the African artists are playing music profoundly shaped by the African diaspora across the Atlantic, thereby furthering the Black Atlantic world forged by the slave trade, colonialism, immigration, pan-Africanism, and the vicissitudes of being a member of a marginalized group across the Americas. Black solidarity and nationalism, though limited, are in effect when Congolese artists play music based on Cuban son and beguine of Martinique. Likewise, Nigerian and Ghanaian highlife of the 1930s-1960s, influenced by American jazz, Cuban music, and Caribbean calypso, strengthens the pre-existing bonds between the Caribbean and West Africa. Of course, one could never forget James Brown and American funk's essential role in the formation of afrobeat and Fela Kuti's sound.
However, I must make some attempt to return to the music of my African-American and Haitian peoples, especially jazz, R&B, and hip-hop. Shockingly, I still need to listen to the entirety of Frank Ocean's Voodoo, and I'm woefully behind on current trends in hip-hop. Likewise, my jazz exploration has been suspended during my foray into West and Central Africa. I henceforth dedicate myself to continue discovering great jazz, reconnecting with Haitian music, and catching up with R&B. Wish me luck...If I'm lucky, I can make additional youtube playlists for your enjoyment!
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