Cape Verdean batuque, a genre indigenous to the islands that is believed to be a precursor of samba. Batuque is characterized by its quick 6/8 or 3/4 time signatures and two distinct “movements,” the first being composed of improvised call-and-response proverbs accompanied by polytrhythmic hand claps, the second in which all the vocalists sing the same verse in union. (See this webpage comparing batuque dancing and the Brazilian samba de roda.)
]
[Information about qawwali coming soon.]
[Information about Desert blues coming soon.]
Salegy is a popular genre of Malagasy music that starts with traditional acoustic folk from the northwestern coastal areas of the island and steps it up with electric instruments. Salegy is fast and funky, full of intertwining rhtyhms, melodic accordion lines and lilting high-life guitar. It almost always features aninstrumental middle section called the folaka (“broken”) during which the band leads the audience in an energetic burst of intricate and engaging polyrhtyhmic hand-claps.
Found primarily in Morocco, Gnawa is a passionate, devotional fusion of Sufi/Berber/sub-Saharan musics in which musicians, often appearing as if in a trance, engage in intense, lengthy (up to hours-long) descriptions of the spirits. Gnawa compositions consist of a single phrase or just a few lines that musicians repeat over and over. The rhythms are complicated and the time signatures shift readily between 2/4, 6/8 and 12/8. Watch gnawa superstar Hassan Hakmoun rock out on the sintir.
About Gnawa music:
Wikipedia’s Gnawa overview | Hassan Hakmoun demonstrating the multi-tempo Gnawa footdance
