Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen and ngoni master Bassekou Kouyate will be the guests on today's episode of NPR's World Cafe. Allen made his World Circuit / Nonesuch debut with the release of Secret Agent earlier this year. Kouyate performs on the album AfroCubism, due out this Tuesday. The latter album is featured on AOL Spinner, which that traces its roots back to the recording sessions that launched Buena Vista Social Club.
Legendary drummer Tony Allen and ngoni master Bassekou Kouyate will be the guests on today's episode of NPR's World Cafe. Allen, the Afrobeat pioneer, and Kouyate, a member of Toumani Diabaté's Symmetric Orchestra and a featured artist on the new album AfroCubism, talk with host David Dye and perform in the studio. For more information on the show and to listen online later today, visit npr.org.
---
AfroCubism, which is due out in North America on Nonesuch this Tuesday, is the subject of a feature article on AOL Spinner. The article traces the roots of the new pairing of Malian and Cuban musicians back to the recording sessions that produced the hit album Buena Vista Social Club 14 years ago. Spinner's Steve Hochman spoke about the new project with guitarist Eliades Ochoa, a member of both the Buena Vista Social Club and the new band, and with Nick Gold, the head of World Circuit Records and the album's producer. You can read the article at spinner.com.
The album is also featured in the Boston Phoenix, whose music critic Jon Garelick writes: "Throughout AfroCubism, there's the ping of Ochoa's steel-strung acoustic guitar, the languid cyclical patterns of [electric-guitarist Djelimady] Tounkara's electric, the latticework of kora and ngoni, the balafon's lilt, and, of course, those varied, bass-driven tumbao patterns—every groove different, all to die for." Read more at thephoenix.com.
AfroCubism is still available for preorder in the Nonesuch Store with the exclusive bonus track "Keme Bourama." That track and the complete album are included as high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s starting release day.
Kouyate, Ochoa, Diabaté, and the rest of the AfroCubism band head to North America next week for a three-night tour, with stops in Montreal, Boston, and New York City. For more information, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
---
Upon the release of Allen's recent World Circuit / Nonesuch debut album, Secret Agent, Dye's NPR colleague Robin Hilton said Allen "is easily one of the most gifted and influential percussionists of all time." You can pick up a copy of Secret Agent in the Nonesuch Store now, with 320 kbps MP3s of the complete album included at checkout.
Allen and his band perform live at the All Weather Music festival in Masseik, Belgium, this Saturday, and launches a tour of Africa next month, with stops in Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Senegal, Gabon, and Congo. For more information on the upcoming tour, visit worldcircuit.co.uk.
- Log in to post comments
