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02 Jan 07 - 01:06 AM (#1924538) Subject: African Music Links to the American West From: katlaughing In looking for something else on google, I came across African Music Links to the American West.. I have not read all of it, nor followed the links, but it looks interesting and as though it would be a good idea to make note of it, here. kat |
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02 Jan 07 - 03:54 AM (#1924598) Subject: RE: African Music Links to the American West From: Darowyn You might like to hear of some direct evidence from an African perspective. I was giving a lecture on the orgins of the blues in the USA, and I was playing some of the earliest recordings I have, including Robert Johnson. One of the students that year was Noel, from Dakar in Senegal- a djembe player and brilliant all round musician. He arrived a few minutes late, and having missed the intro, did not know exactly what I was playing. I could see that he was looking confused, so I asked him what the problem was. "Why are you playing music from Mali?" he asked, "that was ......." I wish I could remember exactly what he said but it was something like "Al Valous music from Mali". I should say that, at that time, Noel spoke Wolof, Arabic, French and as a poor fourth, English - he was not always easy to understand. Two things strike me- one that even by the early years of the 20th century, blues still was recognisably African, to a native African musician. Secondly- did I just hear the original name of The Blues? Cheers Dave |
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02 Jan 07 - 04:27 AM (#1924604) Subject: RE: African Music Links to the American West From: Paul Burke In these days of pervasive communications, the Blues could just have easily travelled in the reverse direction and become assimilated with other local traditions. I don't know when radio stations available there first broadcast Blues, but I'd like to bet it was a generation or more ago. |