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It is 2 April, and World Music Network is releasing two new Rough Guides: The Rough Guide To The African Roots Revival and The Rough Guide To The Music Of New Orleans. Both of these new releases are available with the subscription to World Music Network or can be enjoyed as a one-off!
This Rough Guide spotlights the front-runners of an explosive revival of African roots music. The artists featured on this Rough Guide have not simply preserved, but truly reinvented musical genres with outstanding results. Many of the bands, such as the renowned Staff Benda Bilili and the Bedouin Jerry Can Band included here feature innovative homemade instruments built from junk-yard materials such as fuel cans, bicycle wires and oil canisters.
Additionally, the Rough Guide comes with a full-length bonus album from the Kenyan group Kenge Kenge provides an engaging exploration of the acoustic origins of benga and the Luo musical heritage.
The music featured on this Rough Guide popularizes traditional music whilst simultaneously reinventing it. These are the excellently infectious sounds of the past, present and future all at once. It is truly an eclectic mix that infuses traditional sounds with the ultra modern.
Ask any inhabitant of New Orleans, Louisiana and they will tell you that they are part of the ‘New Orleans Nation’ – an anecdote that captures the independent and uniquely creative vibe of the great city. Consider Afro-American, Latino, European Creole and Cajun influences, and then add in the sounds of Mardis Gras Indian music, and you start to get the picture that this city is quite simply like no other.
This Rough Guide portrays the dynamic mix of musics found within the city; soak up the classic piano jazz of Professor Longhair, the thick horn blasts of The Hot 8 Brass Band, or the deep grooves of Papa Grows Funk. For a taste of Mardi Gras, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux's 'Monk's Mardi Gras' will satisfy those musical tastebuds.
The bonus album features Dumpstaphunk, a band who have been described by the New York Times as ‘the best funk band from New Orleans right now’, and they don’t say these things lightly! So put your troubles in the ‘dumpsta’ as it is time to get up, shake your sacroiliac and feel the (Dumpsta)-phunk.
