#4779, Music Rooted in West Africa

Listen to music with roots in West Africa from New Orleans-based trumpeter and instrument creator Chief Adjuah; Moroccan Gnawa musician Moktar Gania; fiddler, singer, banjo player Jake Blount; and the supergroup of musicians and historians called Our Native Daughters: Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Allison Russell and Leyla McCalla.

Listen to new music by multi-instrumentalist, producer, and Chieftain and OBA of the Xodokan Nation of New Orleans, Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah  [formerly Christian Scott]. Much of it based around his West African-inspired instrument creation called Chief Adjuah’s Bow, an electric double-sided N’goni/Kora/Harp, “built to serve as a bridge to the African forefather nations of the blues and its descendants, places like Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria, and Instruments like the Ngoni, Ankoting, and Bolon. But now in a plugged-in, lightning in a VOX and smokin’ pedals kinda way,” (Ropeadope). Hear music from his 2023 release, Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning.

Then, hear some of master guembri and singer Moktar Gania’s album, Gnawa Soul, featuring an ensemble of the same name. Moktar comes from an influential family in the Gnawa tradition, a musical practice from Morocco based around religious rituals. There’s also traditional music from a collaboration between the Splendid Master Gnawa Musicians of Morocco and the late jazz pianist and visionary Randy Weston. 

There’s also music rooted in the American South from fiddler, singer, banjo player, and scholar Jake Blount, who has extensively researched Black and Indigenous mountain music. Listen to a tune from the Georgia Sea Island ring shout tradition, called “Move, Daniel”, from his album Spider Tales, named for Anansi—the great trickster of Akan mythology. Plus, hear music by the supergroup, Our Native Daughters, who are  Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Allison Russell and Leyla McCalla, banjo-players all. As both historians and musicians, these African-American women tell the stories of the dark American institution of slavery and its legacy through the banjo, an instrument whose roots stretch all the way back to West Africa. That, and more. - Caryn Havlik

Program #4779, Music Rooted in West Africa

ARTIST: Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah
WORK: The Shared Stories of Rivals [1:00]
RECORDING: Ancestral Recall
SOURCE: Ropeadope Records
INFO: christianscott.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah
WORK: Blood Calls Blood [7:32]
RECORDING: Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning
SOURCE: Ropeadope Records
INFO: christianscott.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Moktar Gania and Gnawa Soul
WORK: Sassadi Manayou [5:51]
RECORDING: Gnawa Soul
SOURCE: MusjoMusic/Nuits d'Afrique, Universal
INFO:  https://moktargania.com

ARTIST: Randy Weston & Splendid Master Gnawa Musicians of Morocco
WORK: Chalabati [8:31]
RECORDING: Spirit – The Power of Music
SOURCE: Gitanes / Universal Music, France #543 256; Sunnyside/Verve
INFO: randyweston.info

ARTIST: Jake Blount
WORK: Move, Daniel [5:04]
RECORDING: Spider Tales
SOURCE: Free Dirt Records
INFO: https://smarturl.it/spidertales

ARTIST: Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah
WORK: Trouble That Morning [4:36]
RECORDING: Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning
SOURCE: Ropeadope Records
INFO: christianscott.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Various: Alessane Bangoura
WORK: Allah Nan Fa [4:36]
RECORDING: Sembeh Ma Fa Fe - Roots Volume
SOURCE: Stronghold Sound
INFO: strongholdsound.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Our Native Daughters
WORK: Quasheba, Quasheba  [4:43]
RECORDING: Songs of Our Native Daughters
SOURCE: Smithsonian Folkways SFW40232
INFO: folkways.si.edu

ARTIST: Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah
WORK: The Shared Stories of Rivals [3:55]
RECORDING: Ancestral Recall
SOURCE: Ropeadope Records
INFO: christianscott.bandcamp.com