Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Cuban root of West African Highlife and Congo's Rumba

i remember going to clubs in dakar where people danced to salsa. older folk, dressed to the Ts, looking super cool
not rap.
that whole cuban, rhumba, salsa, son thing was just too great for words, and the cape verdians were a big part of that scene.
i don't know it as pablo does, but when i played that link to son that i played before, it brought back all the cameroonian musaic of the 70s that we used to hear there. only later did i learn that the congolese were the big names, and that their music spilled over to cameroon.
ken

On 4/20/15 8:59 PM, Pablo wrote:

Yes, Ogugua,  it does.  "El Manicero" ("The Peanut (groundnut) Vendor) played here is one of the most famous pieces of popular Cuban music (also played by Charlie Parker), which even some of the younger soneros (singers), who do contemporary Cuban music like timba, sing and  even Cuban hip-hop artists sample. BTW,   Manu Dibango has a great version that he plays with  Eliades Ochoa and El Cuarteto Patria (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAsk-FW1vsQ), which gives you an  "authentic"  flavour of the rural form of the son.

Franco and OK jazz, with Tabu Ley,  amongst others, inherited the form from an earlier generation  of rumba artists like Nico; and even more recent  players like Papa Wemba (his most recent album is called Maître d'école Rumba na Rumba, which everyone should listen to), as do even younger singers like Ferre Gola, can put down  a mean rumba  

All of these forms are partly based upon the son (Mario), an Africanized peasant ("folkloric)" music that became  urbanized, and which among many other things, consists of two  opposite parts: the "strophic"-- that is,  each successive stanza or verse  of a song has the same music-- followed by an open refrain section, or montuno, which becomes the basis of improvisation, and the speeding up of the music so beloved of dancers,   but which always retains its basic rhythmic structure. Initially,  it was played with just a guitar, tres (a double three string guitar) bass,  bongoes,  clave,  shekere  (septetos de son). In its urbanized form it became increasingly orchestrated with more percussion, the piano replacing th guitar, with  the addition of horns that would become part of the propulsive and infective rhythms and vamps  of mambo, cha cha cha (independence cha cha cha- one of Mandela favorite songs),  and eventually salsa, amongst others.

Great music and, in its  Congolese forms, more guitars would replace the piano; but the same call and response of the music is there; instead of the piano and the horns taking you out, it was  guitars and the horns, that would  eventuality, with soukous, be the animateur,   someone-- the fact, or  art,  of it sweating you up. Although it is a Mutuashi, not soukous,  listen to Tshala Muana  with Dally Kimoko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwhsBVzi9tU

As Ken and others on this list serve know, Cuban rumba/son was deeply influential in francophone West Africa; but  the music, however  influential, and however rich and complex it is, like El Manicero,  is just sweet.

In times of horrible malaise, it is not a distraction to listen and be enlivened; it is a necessity.

Pablo

On 2015-04-20 10:22 AM, Anunoby, Ogugua wrote:

The 1920 Cuban hit below reminds me of Franco O.K. Jazz, Tabu Ley Rochreau and other giants of Congo's rumba. Does it not you? I am just asking?

Enjoy.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjXW5P7g34c

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mario Fenyo
Sent: Monday, April 20, 2015 7:19 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Cuban root of West African Highlife and Congo's Rumba

 

not sure i understand:   which is the "son form"? 

 

Mario 

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Pablo [pidahosa@yorku.ca]
Sent: Monday, April 20, 2015 7:25 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Cuban root of West African Highlife and Congo's Rumba

Strictly, musicologically speaking, the affinities are more to Calypso in high life, though there are elements of rumba style. To be sure, though, rumba has some of its origins in both what is now Nigeria (Yoruba and Efik) and the Congo, via the son form, and unquestionably forms the basis of modern rumba Congolaise in both the DRC and Congo Republique (Brazzaville).

 

Pablo

Sent from my grandfather's typewriter

On Apr 20, 2015, at 12:05 AM, Anunoby, Ogugua <AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu> wrote:

Enjoy

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QzpKmZPWR0

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