SwingDJs

I've developed a theory of why Afro-pop sounds (to me, anyway) so cool, and why it might be fun for swing dancers.

African slaves carried their local rhythms and styles to the Americas, where the music intermingled with the local music. Now, with the help of technology, the new musical styles that developed are being transported back to Africa, where the musicians are finding many similarities - primarily rhythmic ones - to their own music. Naturally, the African musicians are using these similarities to create new sounds.

This theory has led me to look for African jazz that I could play for swing dancers. I've found a little, mostly from western (Ghana, The Gambia, Mali, Cape Verde, etc.) and eastern (Kenya and Tanzania, especially) Africa. Benga music sounds very promising. I haven't found exactly what I want, though.

Has anybody here heard any African jazz that they think could be played for swing dancers? Thanks for any help.

Well, it's not just "now" that western music is travelling back to Africa. I have a really interesting cd called "Township Jazz & Jive" that's a compilation of Sowetan and South African music from the 40s and 50s. American records would get imported to SA and the local bands would try to emulate what they'd heard. See, they had some of the same instruments (bass, guitar, clarinet instead of sax), so they can get pretty close. I'll try to type up the liner notes to that cd for you.

http://members.lycos.nl/Rembrandt/SAMus ... NJive.html

That cd also features, on the inside liner notes, pics of a couple quite obviously doing a swingout.

d.

Seriously cool CD! I had a similar one on my wishlist, but this one sounds more interesting. Many thanks!

Ya some good listening indeed. Thanks for sharing... that oaned.

Township Jazz 'N Jive came in the mail today, and I like it a lot. It sounds very playful and positive. I may speed it up a little bit when I play it, as many of the tracks are a touch slow for my taste. I'll have to experiment with it.

If you don't have this CD, it's definitely something to check out.

Thanks for the suggestion.

you can listen to samples by clicking that link, then "alapage," then checking all the boxes and clicking the french listen link thing

Matthew wrote:Township Jazz 'N Jive came in the mail today, and I like it a lot. It sounds very playful and positive. I may speed it up a little bit when I play it, as many of the tracks are a touch slow for my taste. I'll have to experiment with it.

If you don't have this CD, it's definitely something to check out.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Great, great, GREAT CD.

Kalman

Mwahahaha! Slowly I make everyone I know love that cd - I got it for my dad for Christmas, too.

It was one of those serendipity buys. I was looking for The Indestructible Beat of Soweto, which influenced Paul Simon's Graceland, when I wandered into this microscopic used cd store in Victoria BC. They not only had IBoS (out of print, absolutely mint condition, $10CDN), but they had some other african jazz in the window. I picked up that TJ&J album for 8 bucks or something and I don't think it's been out of heavy rotation since then. I think every time I went into that little store they had something mindbending for me to buy - it's probably a good thing they closed down or I'd be flat broke. And that was BEFORE my swing obsession, too.

There are a couple of swing songs on Mandela, Son of Africa, Father of a Nation: The Essential Music of South Africa. I especially like Sip n' Fly by The African Jazz Pioneers.

Whoa! That's awesome. I think I'll have to buy that...

One year and four months later, I finally did. Haha.

Check out a group call: Cool Crooners

Also an interresting album that contains swing from all over the world:
Putumayo Swing around the world (Great CD)

www.putumayo.com

Pocail wrote:Check out a group call: Cool Crooners

Also an interresting album that contains swing from all over the world:
Putumayo Swing around the world (Great CD)

www.putumayo.com

Is this the group you are referring to:

http://www.sternsmusic.com/disk_info.php?id=502305-2

"The Cool Crooners of Bulawayo".

There are a couple of Lindy-able songs on this album and one Cha-Cha if I remember correctly.

The Cool Crooners of Bulawayo are a great band. I got turned onto them on through Putumayo's Swing Around The World compilation (we talked about it on the August episode of Hey Mister Jesse), and have since picked up both of their albums: Blue Sky (you've referenced the link up above) and Isatilo. I recommend both!

Jesse

Just picked up this thread. There's another Township Jazz CD that I have called -

Township Swing Jazz, Vol. 1
http://tinyurl.co.uk/qwbs

Allmusic/Amazon has one available at the moment. There's also a Vol. 2, not quite as good, and there don't seem to be any available to buy now.