12 Songs: Postcards from Africa
We’ve entered that sneaky magical time of year between winter and summer — better known as spring — but around here, there’s an even more magical moment post spring showers, pre-May gray, where the air is crispy, dry and as warm as a morning stretch. This playlist curated by the brilliant and talented Rivers Sheehan, channels this micro climate perfectly with her “Postcards from Africa” 12 Songs playlist. Say farewell to winter and warm those bones.
Here’s what Rivers had to say about the playlist:
The other day, the opening lines of Francis Bebey’s New Track danced back into my head, “I want a banana, some water and dance on the new track…” I had gone several years without thinking about his 1975 record African Electronic Music, but as soon as I hit play on the record, the wonders of the Cameroonian artist’s first foray into synthesizers came flooding back all at once. The mix took shape as I dug into Bobo Dioulasso, the afro Cuban jazz that took upper Volta, now known as Burkina Faso, by a storm around the same time that Bebey would have mixed his first dance tracks. From there I travelled to Mali to listen to the great Ali Farka Touré, the husband and wife duo Amadou & Mariam, and the record these musicians inspired Damian Albarn to make with a group of legendary Malian players in 2002. You’ll also find postcards from Nigeria from Steve Monite and the Lijadu Sisters, Cote D’Ivoire’s Magic System, Ethiopian jazz from Mulatu Astatke, and finally some laid back house tracks from South Africa.—Rivers Sheehan
