The 1960s and 1970s are often referred to as the "golden years" of African music. As more and more African countries freed themselves from colonialism, a wave of artists emerged who celebrated their ...

One of the positives that emerged from post-colonial Africa was the willingness of some new governments to actively champion ethnocentric artists. Guinea’s Bembeya Jazz — along with Sengal’s Orchestra ...

Banning Eyre has a review of the new record from Bembeya Jazz. The group is back together after 14 years, adding to the roster of reunited African pop bands from the 1960s.

Some time around bebop's coming of age, jazz morphed from a popular music of dance and song into a rarified art form. Critics and historians can debate the details, but the bottom line is that the ...

A couple tracks off the De Dakar a Cuba on Danse La Rumba album, which aims to draw explicit connections between African and Latin music. It's not exactly unexplored territory (I mean, it's called ...