Posted on 08/04/2021 12:56:44 PM PDT by dmam2011
The story of popular music in the late 20th century is never complete without an account of the explosive psychedelic rock, funk and Afrobeat styles that proliferated on the African continent and across Latin American and the Caribbean in the 1960s and 70s. It’s only lately, that large audiences are discovering how much pioneering music came out of Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and other postcolonial countries, thanks to UK labels like Strut and Soundway.
Germany’s Analogue Africa, a label that reissues classic albums from the era, puts it this way: “the future of music happened decades ago.” Only most Western audiences weren’t paying attention—with notable exceptions, of course: superstar drummer Ginger Baker apprenticed himself to Fela Kuti and became an evangelist for African drumming; Brian Eno and Talking Heads’ David Byrne (who also introduced thousands to “world music”) imported the sound of African rock to New Wave in the 80s, as did post-punk bands like Orange Juice and others in Britain, where music from Africa generally had a bigger impact. The fusion of African polyrhythms with rock instruments and song structures had been done, and done incredibly well, already by dozens of bands, including several in the East African country of Zambia, which had been British-controlled Northern Rhodesia until its independence in 1964. In the decade after, bands formed around the country to create a unique form of music known as “Zamrock,” as it came to be called, “forged by a particular set of national circumstances,” writes Calum MacNaughton at Music in Africa.
It's interesting to find Zamrock bands were influenced by James Brown, Hendrix, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, The Who, and Cream—the same music everyone else was listening to.
(Excerpt) Read more at clarksvillian.com ...
I was greatly impressed by bands that dared behind the iron curtain. cutting records on old xrays just to smuggle the samizdat from one to another.
Rockin' Behind the Iron Curtain--Bobby Marchan & the Clowns (1959)
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