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Cameroonian music

Macase reshuffle their act

They’ve performed their Bantu Groove at venues all round the world. Thirteen years after their first album, and despite losing several of the group’s charismatic members, Mascase are back centre stage. The band boasts a new line-up and some brand new tracks, but their desire to blend Bantu music with modern rhythms is unchanged. RFI Musique spoke to Serge Maboma, bass player and founding member of Macase.

Ivoirian music

Meiway the teacher gives some lessons on life

From feminine curves to the scars of civil war in his country, Ivoirian singer Meiway uses his super-danceable zoblazo to convey a whole range of subjects on his new album Professeur. Interview with RFI Musique

Malian music

Ballaké Sissoko, kora guru

Could anyone sing about peace better than the Malian Ballaké Sissoko? His crystalline, refreshing kora playing has just what it takes to bring hope to troubled times. With peace and dignity, Ballaké Sissoko tells his melodic story on At Peace, recorded with a helping hand from friends, including the cellist and producer Vincent Segal.

Malagasy music

Régis Gizavo and the Malagasy Far West

The altruist accordionist and champion of fair trade, Régis Gizavo, won RFI Découvertes back in 1990. With his new album, Ilakake, he proves he’s just as adept at opening Malagasy music up to other influences as he is at slotting into the worlds of the musicians he’s accompanied, like Christophe Maé or the late Mano Solo.

RFI-France 24 Discoveries Award 2012

Vote for your favourite artist

RFI Discoveries Award helped launch many artists who have since reached an international audience: Belo (Haiti), Didier Awadi (Senegal), mikea (Madagascar), Mounira Mitchala (Chad) Rokia Traoré (Mali), Sally Nyolo (Cameroon) Cheka (Cape Verde), Tiken Jah Fakoly (Ivory Coast) ... RFI-France 24 Discoveries Award is organized in partnership with the SACEM, the Institut français and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. 10 finalists were selected and are presented here.

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Congolese music

Staff Benda Bilili get even better

It took a film, a CD and some non-stop touring to establish Staff Benda Bilili on the international scene. Now the Kinshasa street musicians are back with the refreshingly optimistic Bouger le Monde, an album fuelled by their globetrotting adventures.

World music

Cheb Aïssa’s gipsy raï formula

Cheb Aïssa, the Algerian singer, opens up new raï prospects with the album Baraka, joining forces with Chico, an emblematic figure of gipsy music from the era of the Gipsy Kings. A highly energised union.

African music

Zouk or Manding, Sékouba Bambino provides a choice

In this Olympic year, the gold medal for the big musical divide incontestably goes to Sékouba Bambino, whose albums Innovation and Diatiguyw have taken him on a journey of opposites, which is inherently logical given his double stature as a successful pop singer and griot.

Tour

Poly-Rythmo band hits the North American road

For years, Benin harboured hidden treasure and one of the richest record outputs on the continent, yet it wasn’t until 2009 that Poly-Rythmo left Africa for the first time. Back on the road to play twenty dates round the world, the legendary band made their maiden tour of North America (Canada and the United States) from 2 to 22 July. Tales of a tour.

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Event

Saint Louis, Senegal and New Orleans, mirror cities

Saint-Louis du Sénégal, La Nouvelle-Orléans: deux villes en miroir is the title of the symposium organized by EHESS (France), Cheikh Anta Diop University (Senegal) and Tulane University (USA) with RFI, which brought together around thirty historians and anthropologists in Saint Louis, Senegal from 4 to 7 June. Music is central to the culture of both cities and a key expression of their mutual cultural influence, both real and imaginary, and so musicians from Louisiana and Senegal were invited to contribute to the event.