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African Blues
African blues is a genre of popular music, primarily from West Africa. The term may also reference a putative journey undertaken by traditional African music from its homeland to the United States and back. Some scholars and ethnomusicologists have speculated that the origins of the blues can be traced to the musical traditions of Africa, as retained by African-Americans during and after slavery. Even though the blues is a key component of American popular music, its rural, African-American origins are largely undocumented, and its stylistic links with African instrumental traditions are somewhat tenuous. One musical influence that can be traced back to African sources is that of the plantation work songs with their call-and-response format, and more especially the relatively free-form field hollers of the later sharecroppers, which seem to have been directly responsible for the characteristic vocal style of the blues. Albums such as '' African Blues'' by Ali Farka Toure ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Of Africa
Given the vastness of the African continent, its music is diverse, with regions and nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres amapiano, Jùjú, Fuji, Afrobeat, Highlife, Makossa, Kizomba, and others. The music and dance of the African diaspora, formed to varying degrees on African musical traditions, include American music like Dixieland jazz, blues, jazz, and many Caribbean genres, such as calypso (see kaiso) and soca. Latin American music genres such as cumbia, conga, rumba, son cubano, salsa music, bomba, samba and zouk were founded on the music of enslaved Africans, and have in turn influenced African popular music. Like the music of Asia, India and the Middle East, it is a highly rhythmic music. The complex rhythmic patterns often involving one rhythm played against another to create a polyrhythm. The most common polyrhythm plays three beats on top of two, like a triplet played against straight notes. Sub-Saharan African mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Origins Of The Blues
Little is known about the exact origin of the music now known as the blues.Southern, p. 332 No specific year can be cited as the origin of the blues, largely because the style evolved over a long period and existed in approaching its modern form before the term ''blues'' was introduced and before the style was thoroughly documented. Ethnomusicologist Gerhard Kubik traces the roots of many of the elements that were to develop into the blues back to the African continent, the "cradle of the blues". One important early mention of something closely resembling the blues comes from 1901, when an archaeologist in Mississippi described the songs of black workers which had lyrical themes and technical elements in common with the blues.Southern, p. 334 African roots There are few characteristics common to all blues, as the genre takes its shape from the distinctive attributes of each individual performance. Some characteristics, however, were present prior to the creation of the modern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Blues (Ali Farka Touré Album)
''African Blues'' is an album by the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, released in 1990. It was originally released by French label Sonodisc. Critical reception ''Trouser Press'' wrote: "The blunt, lonesome vocals echo the plainspoken manner of Delta storytellers, but the forms are less familiar: many of the selections are built on droning single chords that become enchanting through repetition." The ''Chicago Tribune'' stated that "Toure's sound and style are testaments to his love for the Delta bluesmen and the influences he shares with them: the ability to weave a good story with emotional guitar accompaniment." Track listing # "Sidy Gouro" – 3:45 # "Okatagouna" – 4:22 # "Devele Wague" – 5:59 # "N'Timbara" – 3:58 # "Zona" – 7:45 # "Mbaudy" – 8:52 # "Petenere" – 4:50 # "L'Exode" – 5:21 Personnel * Ali Farka Touré (Vocals 1–8, Guitar 1-8) * Hammer Sankare (Vocals 1–4, Calabash 1-4) * Boubacar Hamadoun Farana (Griot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sharecropper
Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range of different situations and types of agreements that have used a form of the system. Some are governed by tradition, and others by law. The Italian ''mezzadria'', the French ''métayage'', the Catalan '' masoveria'', the Castilian ''mediero'', the Slavic ''połowcy'' and ''izdolshchina'', and the Islamic system of ''muzara‘a'' (المزارعة), are examples of legal systems that have supported sharecropping. Overview Sharecropping has benefits and costs for both the owners and the tenant. Under a sharecropping system, the landowner provided a share of land to be worked by the sharecropper, and usually provided other necessities such as housing, tools, seed, or working animals. Local merchants usually provided food and other supplies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Field Hollers
The field holler or field call is mostly a historical type of vocal work song sung by field slaves in the United States (and later by African American forced laborers accused of violating vagrancy laws) to accompany their tasked work, to communicate usefully, or to vent feelings. It differs from the collective work song in that it was sung solo, though early observers noted that a holler, or ‘cry’, might be echoed by other workers. Though commonly associated with cotton cultivation, the field holler was also sung by levee workers, and field hands in rice and sugar plantations. Field hollers are also known as corn-field hollers, water calls, and whoops. An early description is from 1853 and the first recordings are from the 1930s. The holler is closely related to the call and response of work songs and arhoolies. The Afro-American music form ultimately influenced strands of African American music, such as the blues and thereby rhythm and blues, as well as negro spirituals. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Call And Response (music)
In music, call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually written in different parts of the music, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or in response to the first. This can take form as commentary to a statement, an answer to a question or repetition of a phrase following or slightly overlapping the initial speaker(s). It corresponds to the call and response pattern in human communication and is found as a basic element of musical form, such as verse-chorus form, in many traditions. African music In Sub-Saharan African cultures, call and response is a pervasive pattern of democratic participation—in public gatherings in the discussion of civic affairs, in religious rituals, as well as in vocal and instrumental musical expression. African-American music Enslaved Africans brought call and response music with them to the colonized American continents and it has been transmitted over the centuries in various forms of cultural express ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Work Songs
A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a form of work, either sung while conducting a task (usually to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song. Definitions and categories Records of work songs are as old as historical records, and anthropological evidence suggests that most agrarian societies tend to have them. Most modern commentators on work songs have included both songs sung while working as well as songs about work since the two categories are seen as interconnected. Norm Cohen divided collected work songs into domestic, agricultural or pastoral, sea shanties, African-American work songs, songs and chants of direction, and street cries. Ted Gioia further divided agricultural and pastoral songs into hunting, cultivation and herding songs, and highlighted the industrial or proto-industrial songs of cloth workers (see Waulking song), factory workers, seamen, lumberjacks, cowboys and miners. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xalam
Xalam (in Serer, or khalam in Wolof) is a traditional stringed musical instrument from West Africa with 1-5 strings. The xalam is commonly played in Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Niger, Northern Nigeria, Northern Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Western Sahara; it, and its variants, are also known in other languages as bappe, diassare, hoddu (Pulaar), koliko (Gurunsi), kologo ( Frafra), komsa, kontigi, gurmi, garaya (Hausa), koni, konting (Mandinka), molo ( Songhay/ Zarma), ndere, ngoni ( Bambara), and tidinit ( Hassaniyya and Berber). In Wolof, who plays the xalam is called a ''xalamkat'' (a word composed of the verbal form of xalam, meaning "to play the xalam", and the agentive suffix ''-kat'', thus meaning "one who xalams"). In Mande, this is ''ngonifola'' or ''konting fola''. In Hausa, this is ''mai gurmi'' or ''mai kontigi''. Construction and tuning The xalam, in its standard form, is a simple lute chordophone with one to five strings. The wooden body (soundbox) membran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by African Americans in the United States. The banjo is frequently associated with folk, bluegrass and country music, and has also been used in some rock, pop and hip-hop. Several rock bands, such as the Eagles, Led Zeppelin, and the Grateful Dead, have used the five-string banjo in some of their songs. Historically, the banjo occupied a central place in Black American traditional music and the folk culture of rural whites before entering the mainstream via the minstrel shows of the 19th century. Along with the fiddle, the banjo is a mainstay of American styles of music, such as bluegrass and old-time music. It is also very frequently used in Dixieland jazz, as well as in Caribbean genres like biguine, calypso and mento. Histo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Griot
A griot (; ; Manding: jali or jeli (in N'Ko: , ''djeli'' or ''djéli'' in French spelling); Serer: kevel or kewel / okawul; Wolof: gewel) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition and is often seen as a leader due to their position as an advisor to royal personages. As a result of the former of these two functions, they are sometimes called bards. They also act as mediators in disputes. Occurrence and naming Many griots today live in many parts of West Africa and are present among the Mande peoples ( Mandinka or Malinké, Bambara, Soninke etc.), Fulɓe (Fula), Hausa, Songhai, Tukulóor, Wolof, Serer,Unesco. Regional Office for Education in Africa, ''Educafrica, Numéro 11'', (ed. Unesco, Regional Office for Education in Africa, 1984), p. 110Hale, Thomas Albert, ''Griots and Griottes: Masters of Words and Music'', Indiana University Press (1998), p. 176, Mossi, Dagomba, Mauritan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grove Music Online
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theory of music. Earlier editions were published under the titles ''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', and ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians''; the work has gone through several editions since the 19th century and is widely used. In recent years it has been made available as an electronic resource called ''Grove Music Online'', which is now an important part of ''Oxford Music Online''. ''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' ''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' was first published in London by Macmillan and Co. in four volumes (1879, 1880, 1883, 1889) edited by George Grove with an Appendix edited by J. A. Fuller Maitland in the fourth volume. An Index edited by Mrs. E. Wodehouse was issued as a separate volume in 1890. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Popular Music
American popular music has had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, bluegrass, country, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, punk, disco, house, techno, salsa, grunge and hip hop. In addition, the American music industry is quite diverse, supporting a number of regional styles such as zydeco, klezmer and slack-key. Distinctive styles of American popular music emerged early in the 19th century, and in the 20th century the American music industry developed a series of new forms of music, using elements of blues and other genres These popular styles included country, R&B, jazz and rock. The 1960s and 1970s saw a number of important changes in American popular music, including the development of a number of new styles, such as heavy metal, punk, soul, and hip hop. Though these styles were not in the sense of ''mainstream ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
