We start our “between seasons” week in our online class with one of our favorite songs — an all-of-us-working-together-to-build-a-communal-village tune from the East African nation of Mozambique. We enjoy this East African workers’ song so much that the Sand Family band has made it part of our set. Here we are singing “A Hiyeni” in our friends’ backyard in Chicago on our first national tour.
Tag Archives | Africa
Gambian Melody, Malagasy Clapping and the Family Band
Yesterday we learned “Awa Yombei,” a song from The Gambia in West Africa in which we fly around the room like ouf friend Awa Yombei. My kids and I love to perform “Awa Yombei” when we play concerts. Sometimes I keep the guitar and we all get up and dance, but at this performance, captured (roughly) on video at Wesley Enhanced Living Main Line just outside of Philadelphia, we lead the crowd in polyrhythmic hand clapping. Though this is a West African song, we pay homage to the Malagasy tradition of breaking into a song to lead a clapping crowd. Don’t worry about clapping “correctly” — we sure don’t.
Slash it! Singing “Nsa We”
In class this week we’re singing work songs from around the world. Today we go to Uganda where we slash the brush to clear the field, plant the seeds, grow the crops and all harvest them together. The song is “Nsa We,” which means “slash it.”
Work Work Work Work Work Work
This week in our online class for kids we WORK! The very first time the very first ancient African farmer planted the very first ancient seed in the ancient ground one may only imagine he did so while singing a song. Of course by that time hunters had already been singing for millennia, making melodies while they stalked animals through the bush, and gatherers had always sung songs as they gathered . . . . For all time, whenever people performed the rhythmic, repetitive tasks of work, they sang songs to carry them through. And, in class this week, so do we.
Latin America (Africa, Meet Spain. And Portugal. And France….)
This week’s online class takes us to Latin America where people from two continents collide in historic devastation…and we dance. In learning about the origins of of Afro-Latin music we acknowledge the coldness of colonialism and the darkness of the Dark Passage — yes, this is a music program for kids! Be wise in your telling . . . — while at the same time celebrating the creation of new forms of music and dance that merge Spanish storytelling with the African beat. Though we nod to the past, we power on. Let’s go.
Malawi’s Mouse Boys
The Malawi Mouse Boys are for real.
These four Malawian musicians sang in multi-part harmony together for years as they made their living selling mouse kebabs to travelers along a stretch of road in their tiny landlocked country in southern Africa, their beautiful music propelling them through difficult days. With much thanks to visionary producer Ian Brennan, of whom All Around This World is a HUGE fan, we can can now both learn about their struggles and find joy in their songs.
Fawning over Fatoumata
Fatoumata Diawara, born in Ivory Coast to a family from Mali, may have first made her mark as an actress, but has hit her groove on the international scene as a soulful pan-African singer.
An engaging performer, she charms and convinces with her vibrant vocals, inspiring everyone to dance. Enjoy!!!
Jaojoby is a Genius
I love the music of Jaojoby so much. His salegy from Madagascar is lilting and melodic, fierce and funky.
He sings of troubling social and environmental problems like deforestation but is powerful without being preachy. His live performances deliver energizing, euphoric harmonies. (Watch him and his band tear through “Prezida.”) You may not be able to get all the way to Madagascar for a salegy show at “Jao’s Pub,” but if you’re lucky enough for Jaojoby to play a concert to your town, by all means, GO.
