West African and Caribbean Music: A Rhythmic Journey
West African and Caribbean Music
Mami Wata – Kwaa Mensah, Ghana. West African pop, Palmwine – Ghanaian highlife and Nigerian juju music. Two-finger guitar style of Liberian Kru sailors, (mostly Caribbean) and local musical elements. Mami Wata is a water spirit.
Taxi Driver – Bobby Benson (1950s) Nigeria. Classic in West Africa, Golden Age of dance-band highlife in Nigeria. Jazz swing instrumentation and big band Caribbean rhythms (calypso). Benson was a multi-instrumentalist and composer. His Trumpeter, veteran Victor Olaiya, was Fela Kuti’s mentor in highlife.
Viva Nigeria – Fela Kuti (theme of unity). 1969. Nigeria. Highlife-jazz style. U.S. tour and, because of the Biafran civil war in Nigeria, financial support from the Nigerian federal government. After political radicalization, Fela was embarrassed by this song. The song is a repeated two-chord progression.
Superbad – James Brown (1970) USA. Brown’s “funk,” built on jazz, soul, and rhythm n’ blues, influenced Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat style.
Zombie – Fela Kuti and Afrika 70 (1976) Nigeria. Mature Afrobeat style. Best-selling and most popular song to date. It describes Nigerian military like zombies killing and dying for bosses. Fela sings in pidgin-English, a hybrid vernacular speech style in Nigeria.
Keep Your Eyes on the Road – Reggie Rockstone (1998). Ghana. The first true “hiplife” song. It imitates 1970s guitar highlife song, with heavy bass and a hip-hop beat. He raps in English, with references to things that are Ghanaian.
Kwame Nkrumah – Obrafour da Executioner 1999 Ghana. New hiplife with older traditions for inspiration, like poetry of Akan people—prayers and proverbs recited in honor of the ancestors. The rhythm is kpanlogo.
16 Years – Mzbel, feat. Castro 2005. From 16 Years. One of the most popular hiplife tracks of 2005-2006, (old man say yes to free dress code without harassment). Mzbel raps in Akan and pidgin-English.
Bargie – The Jamaican Calypsonians. Classic mento song (often lighthearted), featuring drums, maracas, guitar, banjo, and marimbula. The song emphasizes “4” and “1,” off-beat of the guitar and banjo, counted “1 and-2-and 3 and-4-and.”
Ka-Boo-Da-Ba – The Skatalites 1966. (Instrumental ska) featuring guitar, upright bass, piano, trumpets, trombones, and saxophones. Ska’s shuffle rhythm (downbeats onto the “upbeats”) is a format typical of jazz, in which 1) a “thematic head” is played by horns, 2) improvised “solos” are performed, and 3) the ensemble repeats the head. 007 (Shanty Town) – Desmond Dekker. 1966. Genre: Rocksteady, a “rudeboy” subculture. Similar to ska, but the tempo is slower, and vocals are emphasized. Influenced by agent 007 and Ocean’s 11.
Trenchtown Rock – Bob Marley and the Wailers. 1971/1973. Genre: “roots” reggae. Slower than ska and rock steady, instrumentation is reduced to electric bass, guitar, keyboard, and drumset. Reggae is vocal-oriented and doesn’t feature instrumental improvisation. The song was produced by Lee “Scratch” Perry. Lyrics reference Rastafarianism and the identification of healing effects of music.
King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown – Augustus Pablo and King Tubby 1976. Reggae’s subgenre: dub. It is King Tubby’s remix of Jacob Miller’s “Baby I Love You.” Echo is used to great effect here, stretching out Pablo’s melodic lines. The term “riddim” refers to a unique bass and drum composition.