Afropop Worldwide

Jazz pianist Maurice Rocco was a star of American nightclubs and Hollywood films in the 1930s-40s, playing in an ecstatic, stand-up style that left a deep impression on rock and roll. But in the 1950s Rocco fell out of fashion. Hoping to reverse his fortune, he went abroad in 1959. Rocco landed in Bangkok, Thailand, where he lived and played in relative privilege, away from American racism and hom...

There’s been a lot of speculation about the chain of musical events that link the blues back to Africa. Most of that chain is unrecorded and shrouded in mystery. But there is one chapter, just before the blues, that we do know something about. And that’s the history of African-American string bands. This program explores that history, with music and memories from a special guest, the late string m...

Brazilian broadcaster, producer and music aficionado Béco Dranoff returns to Afropop Worldwide with a set of great new music from South America’s music cauldron. We’ll hear current sounds from Bahia, Sao Paulo, Rio and Belo Horizonte, including Caetano Veloso, Afrocidade, Lucas Santtana, Ze Manoel, Da Cruz, Jadsa and more. Produced by Béco Dranoff and Sean Barlow.

Technology is one of the great drivers of musical change, and often one of its least understood. In this episode, we explore the synthesizer, looking closely at the history of this ubiquitous (and often debated) piece of musical technology, and investigating how and why it was first used in a variety of African musics. Enabled by groundbreaking record reissues by synth pioneers like William Onyeab...

South Africa is one of the biggest dance music nations, and now it seems like the whole world is dancing along to its amapiano (piano/yanos) beats, a genre that blends its kwaito roots with house, jazz and its signature log drum. Afropop Worldwide first explored amapiano’s origins and growing popularity in October 2020, since then, the genre has seen explosive growth outside of South Africa. A com...

From Paris to New Orleans and Boston, Haitian musicians are shaking up the music scene. The island’s powerful Africa-rooted culture—from celebratory rara and sensuous kompa to the deep well of vodun songs—has become a global force. In this program, we spend time with racine music veteran Lolo Beaubrun of Boukman Eksperyans, and his rising star son, Paul Beaubrun, both on a swing through New Englan...

Afro-Sweden? Who knew? Over the past 60 years, a number of musicians from Africa and its diaspora have come to base themselves, or have been born, in Sweden. And recently, they have emerged as a collective voice in Swedish society. From the acoustic Mande folk of Sousou and Maher Cissoko, to the kaleidoscopic hip-hop of Timbuktu, and the smooth soul-pop of Swedish-born, Gambian-descended Seinabo S...

This year, we are launching a new tradition: a year-end episode that looks forward rather than back. We’ll ask artists and others to tell us about something new they discovered in African music this year, something that points to the future. The answers range from rising- star artists, to changes in the industry, to revelations about artists and styles that have been around, just not noticed. We’l...

In hard times and boom times, people in Ghana know how to party. In this program, we hear the regional pop and neotraditional music that animates festivals, funerals and community celebrations across the county. We travel to the lush Volta region in the east to hear Ewe borborbor, agbadza and brass band music. In the northern city of Tamale, we hear Dagbani traditional music, hip-hop and pop, and...

DJ Kix returns by taking us on a musical journey across Africa, showcasing some of the continent’s formidable women who are quickly rising in the industry and making their presence known. In this episode we’ll hear from: top Namibian MC, Lioness; Zimbabwean Afro-fusion artist, Gemma Griffiths; as well as Kaleo Sansaa from Zambia with her “sun-drunk” sounds and “solar-based” hip-hop; alongside Hibo...

Foundational for Broadway and the movies, intertwined with jazz, tap dancing is a Great American Art. Strap on your shoes and shuffle along as we trace the history of tap and celebrate the Black artists and innovators who built--and continue to build this art form. From its murky origins melding African percussion and Anglo-Irish step dancing to tap's golden age and its ongoing evolution. Produced...

The 2022 global music exposition, WOMEX, went down in Lisbon, Portugal. For the second year running, most of the African-related showcases featured bands led by women. In this episode we meet Selma Uamusse from Mozambique and Portugal, Djazia Satour from Algeria and France, Pilani Bubu from South Africa, and hear 78-year-old Lia de Itamaracá, Brazil, positively blow away this tough-to-please crowd...

Traditional Manding (Mande) griots living in France sit at the crossroads between Africa and Europe. Historically, their role has been to weave traditional, oral histories, often within music, to promote a united, peaceful society. As they have become part of the modern global community, each griot has their own way of staying true to these historical roles, while also broadening their appeal to m...

Ladama is a collective of four female musicians and activists from Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and the U.S. Drawing on traditions from all these countries and beyond, they create original music with the zest of soul, r&b and pop. In this podcast, the group visits the Afropop studio to perform and deconstruct key songs in their repertoire. Narrated and produced by Zubin Hensler.

Fifty-two years ago, the president of Senegal’s nephew was putting together a band for his new, upscale Dakar nightclub, and he recruited a handful of musicians who are still together today. Bringing together elements from their homes across West Africa to the Afro-Cuban style of the time, the Orchestra Baobab became one of Dakar’s top bands. From the rough recordings made in Club Baobab, to their...

Nigeria is today the undisputed powerhouse of African pop music. Call it Naija Pop, Afrobeats, Afropop or what have you. The likes of Burna Boy, Wizkid, Yemi Alade and Tiwa Savage are giants on the scene. In this program we hear the latest from these and others, and sample action on the Afrobeat and Alté scene. We also speak with key artists in Nigeria and the U.S. about the rising social activism...

Currulao is the traditional music of Colombia’s majority-Black, southern Pacific coastal region. In this episode, professor Michael Birenbaum Quintero describes how this performative practice has been used to grapple with modernization, dramatize Black politics, demonstrate national heritage and generate economic development. Currulao connects the past to an emerging future as the identification a...

They call Sam Mangwana "Le Pigeon Voyageur" - a roaming pigeon. He could also be called a rolling stone because wherever he lays his microphone is his home. In this episode, we behold the amazing return of rumba's living legend - Sam Mangwana. Produced by Georges Collinet. APWW #863

Papa Wemba, one of the greatest singers of the past African century, died on stage at age 66 in 2016. But his body of work, both in advancing Congolese rumba and innovating new African pop sounds, as well as influencing style, fashion and music production throughout Africa, is immense. In this episode we look back on an iconic career, drawing on some 20 years of interviews with the artist, and ins...

Bacardi Beats Of Pretoria by Afropop Worldwide

In 1809, the population of New Orleans doubled almost overnight because of French-speaking refugees from Cuba. You read that right-- French-speaking refugees from Cuba -- part of a wave of music and culture that emigrated from east to west in the wake of the Haitian Revolution. We'll look at the distinct African roots of these three regions, and compare what their musics sound like today. This Hip...

The golden age of vinyl records is long past in Africa, but the market for rare and reissued African vinyl outside the continent has been growing steadily since the early 2000s. DJs and collectors have turned an obsession with rare records and forgotten gems from Cape Town to Tangiers into an international reissue and compilation industry, led by record labels such as Soundway, Strut and Analog Af...

Suso: Gambia's Global Griots by Afropop Worldwide

Toots Hibbert was a titan of Jamaican popular music. With his harmony group the Maytals he indelibly changed the island’s music scene in the early 1960s by infusing ska with gospel and went on to captivate overseas audiences by blending blues and funk with reggae, becoming one of Jamaica’s best-known performers. Never Grow Old: A Salute To Toots And The Maytals is an homage to Toots, whose incredi...

Yes, it’s the age of South African House, Afrobeats, Afro R&B and the likes, but roots music lives on in South Africa. This show updates the Zulu pop music known as maskanda, with a look back at its history and a survey of the current scene--rich musically, but troubled by fan rivalry that can lead to violence and even deaths. We’ll hear nimble ukapika guitar playing, heavy Zulu beats and bracing...