The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #119425   Message #2590177
Posted By: Azizi
16-Mar-09 - 12:54 PM
Thread Name: What is a traditional singer?
Subject: RE: What is a traditional singer?
Let me add another point for clarification. I am not saying that all Black singers (with "Black" here meaning of some Blacdk African descent} sing the same.

For instance, I love listening to the drumming and other percussion on (Nigerian) Olatunji's Baba Olatunji & his Drums of Passion- Akiwowo album.

But I don't like the high vocal range he and his singers sometimes use. That high range is found to some extent in this video but is found even more so in other songs from that album. This may be because of a Middle Eastern influence to Nigeria's music, but I know too little about this music to say. And I have had the same reaction to some Ethiopian music and Moroccan music that I've heard. The singers' voices are too high pitched for my aesthetic taste (that aesthetic taste being the result of my socialization).