Voices of Africa (3 CDs for $100 donation)

Three CDs of music from African artists you may not have heard of anywhere else but on WPKN.

Hope Masike (Zimbabwe), Alhaji Waziri Oshomah (Nigeria), and Dieuf-Dieul De Thiès (Senegal)

All three albums are our gift to you for a donation of $100.00

Dieuf-Dieul De Thiès: Mbalax rhythms underpin split-second horn blasts, hypnotic, stoned discharges of Seck’s fuzz-drenched lead guitar, and Sarr’s deep, soaring vocals on the long awaited return of Senegambian band Dieuf-Dieul De Thiès. Recorded on analog equipment brought to St. Louis, Senegal from France, with the rhythm section recorded live while vocals and horns were tracked in separate booths, the music percolates, complimenting their earlier work without feeling forced or antiquated.

Alhaji Waziri Oshomah: The music on this collection- recorded during the 1970s and early 1980s, arguably Nigeria’s most musically fertile and innovative period- is highlife getting a makeover. Like the bigger names from eastern Igboland such as Celestine Ukwu, Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe, or Ali Chukwuma, Alhaji Waziri Oshomah and his bands de-emphasized the jazzy swing and large horn sections of highlife’s outdated past, and instead, brought local rhythms to the foreground, allowing electric guitars and keyboards to drive languorous, unhurried melodies for extended grooves.

Hope Masike is a pioneering singer from Zimbabwe who plays the historically male-dominated mbira (thumb piano). On The Exorcism Of A Spinster, her debut solo international release, she speaks from the heart about the country that she loves and the changing roles of women in the culture. She follows the path taken in the last century by women like Chiwoniso Maraire and Stella Chiweshe, who both defied tradition by taking on the mbira and the ritual music it represented. She also owes a debt to Thomas Mapfumo, who pioneered the instruments use in contemporary music and social action. The Exorcism Of A Spinster is a 21st century expression of the ideals of her mentors and predecessors, dealing with contemporary themes and incorporating modern sounds.

All three albums are our gift to you for a donation of $100.00