Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!hao!hplabs!sytek!syteka!jtm From: jtm@syteka.UUCP (Jim McCrae) Newsgroups: net.music Subject: Re: NEW MUSIC??? Message-ID: <488@syteka.UUCP> Date: Wed, 10-Oct-84 16:38:53 EDT Article-I.D.: syteka.488 Posted: Wed Oct 10 16:38:53 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 12-Oct-84 06:41:48 EDT References: ames.552 Lines: 26 The most interesting "new" music I've heard lately comes from Africa, particularly Nigeria and Ghana. I've been hearing a lot on KFJC, Los Altos. (where else?) The popular name for the form is JuJu music, although JuJu is actually a subset of a much larger movement in Africa. The dominant sound is similar to Salsa with a little street funk thrown in. The rhythms are extremely infectious; the first time I heard Faela (don't know how it's spelled or the rest of his name), a Nigerian mainstay with a sharp political bite to his songs, I couldn't get the rhythm guitar part out of my head for days. The song was "Colonial Mentality" I believe, and the guitar was doing this incessant 16th note triplet pattern over just a bunch of drums and the continual rapid tension-release cycle was just short of hypnotic. The influence of this stuff is already with us; David Byrne has done probably the best job of bringing the ideas to the attention of modern-electric-music listeners (isn't that better that rock/pop/new-wave/blah-blah?). In the March "Guitar Player"he said that the main difference between African music and Western was that African music is about losing oneself in the community while Western music is about expressing one's individuality and separateness from the community. "Rolling Stone" has a group record review on several imports from Africa this month. I didn't read the article closely - it was at a friends house - but it conveyed the main story and might serve to get anyone interested started on where to find this stuff. ~e oops...this isn't mail is it. Jim McCrae - ...!hplabs!sytek!jtm