Search - Various Artists :: Oxfam Africa

If you want to take a painless crash course in African music while also doing something for charity, Oxfam Africa--with its enhanced addendum on Oxfam--is the ideal CD for you. Its music is expertly chosen, combining the obvious with the relatively recherché. Youssou N'Dour is here (mercifully in his 1980s guise), as is the seductive music of Sona Diabate and the veteran Mozambican group Eyuphuro. For a touch of top-class jazz we get Abdullah Ibrahim in an expansively dreamy mood, and from Cape Verde--that extraordinary musical outcrop in the Atlantic--comes the irresistible Tito Paris, with his Portuguese textures and rhythms. Reggae king Lucky Dube is here with his crusading "Prisoner," as is the fascinating Malagasy group Tarika, exploring their newfound Indonesian roots. The most unexpected tracks come from the Maghreb: Aisha Kandisha's Jarring Effects, from Morocco (trance, ambience, and house), and from Algeria, rai king Messaoud Bellemou. If you're new to the music of Africa, this CD, with its intelligent notes, will send you off in a dozen new directions. --Michael Church