Website For Kemet Music Radio Under Construction

Please bear with us as we make improvements to our business infrastructure. The construction of a our website is also a part of this, and is expected to be launched sometime in late September ' 07.

In the meantime, there have been some new drum tracks that have been added to our 'Spiritual Drums' play lists. There will be new songs added to the other main play lists sometime later this week.

Thanks for listening to Kemet Music Radio

Asnaqètch Wèrqu: Krar player and poet

Asnaqetch Werqu was born an orphan who went on to become the first actress to appear on the Ethiopian stage. However, her musical talent garnered her attention that outshone her acting career in the National Theatre. Reportedly, she initially worked as an actress and dancer in the Haile Sellassie I theatre troupe and was actually the first woman to be part of this troupe. At an early age Asnaqetch taught herself to play the krar and eventually went on to become famous as a master of the krar (lyre) and a singer who was considered to be the last great storyteller to engage in the tradition of poetic jousting, following in the traditions of the Azmaris or artist caste.


A five (sometimes six) stringed lyre with a gut resonator, the krar was an ancient Ethiopian instrument frequently used by the Azmari or musician class. It has been said the the Japanese koto has a sound similar to that the krar. Azmari, can be male or female, and are skilled at singing spontaneous verses while playing the krar or masenqo (one-stringed fiddle). They play in drinking establishments known as 'tejbeit' that serve 'tej' (honey mead). They are also often invited to perform at private parties where they would improvise lyrics based on a theme suggested by the host. This poetic jousting not only relies improvisation but the art of poignant verses, wit, imagery and sarcastic puns.


Following Haile Selaissie's removal from office by the Derg in 1974, artists in Ethiopia were often forced underground to perform or had to attempt to create their music in a very hostile environment. This repressive regime slaughtered hundreds of thousands and fuelled subsequent unrest. Nevertheless a brief period of artistic freedom existed in the 70's between Selaissie's imperial rule and the military junta of the Derg.


The French label Buda Musique, was able to select 22 songs to compile an album for Volume 16 of the acclaimed Ethiopiques series - named The Lady With The Krar. These songs were chosen from two LPs recorded in 1974 and 1976. Buda Musique acquired them from their previously-acquired Kaifa Records archive (1973-77). Apparently, the first 12 songs on this album were released during the beginning of the revolutionary disorder and were banned almost immediately afterwards, as many records were simply taken off of store shelves. It didn't help that the krar was often regarded as a 'devil's instrument' by certain segments of the population.


Werqu's verses evoke epic tales and her love ballads are tinged with longing and melancholy. Surprisingly, during her time as an musician and actress, artists in general were frowned upon, and this was especially true for female ones. This contributed to many hardships and suffering in Werqu's life, which she often expressed in her music, as she recorded her struggles against the conventions of established society. Ironically enough, it is from the depths of this emotional angst that we see the emergence of a profound spiritual beauty that resonates with her
'serenely-emotional' vocals as they meld with the hypnotic melodies of the krar.

Tune in to Kemet Music Radio to listen to Asnaqetch Werqu and many other original African artists

Selected Discography:

Album: Ethiopiques 16: Asnaqetch Werqu : The Lady With the Krar

Label: Buda Musique

Year: 2004

Mahmoud Fadl: Nubian Master Drummer

Quote
"A few years ago, at the Love Parade in Berlin, it took a very special form-a drum & DJ project called UNITED NUBIANS that spread the message of the "Black Pharaohs" to the club circuit. The project survived the occasion and today, on the dark stage, I sometimes travel home on a tribal house beat to the rhythms of my childhood. "
Mahmoud Fadl

Mahmoud Fadl, the celebrated Nubian Master Drummer was born in 1955. He was raised in the cities of Assuan and Cairo in Egypt, and his Nubian background is rooted in the Griot culture of the "Battikol" people. Mahmoud started out as a musician at Nubian and Arabic wedding events as well as a limbo dancer. He soon became a much sought after commodity, playing with the likes of Ahmed Adawia and Nubian legend Ali Hassan Kuban. After a number of international tours, Mahmoud Fadl secured a place for his music in Europe and started to develop an international portfolio.

The Nubian people's legacy extends far into antiquity, predating Egyptian civilization. Some recent finds by French archaeologists have suggested that Nubia pre-dated Egypt by as much as 3,000 years and is, in all likelihood, the source of Egyptian civilization. The flooding of the Aswan dam, forced Mahmoud Fadl and thousands of Nubians to leave their homeland in Nubia, which is located today in Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt and drowned old Nubia and countless Nubian monuments and historical sites.

As a musical director, Mahmoud Fadl contributed to a four album project called "Salamat", released on Piranha records, which focussed on the music of the legendary and suppressed Nubian culture. He has four albums released under his own name and on one of them pays a Nubian homage to deceased pan-Arabian diva Umm Kalthoum, showcasing the voice of Salwa Abou Greisha from the famous Greisha family of Nubian musicians, with accompaniment from the Cairo Opera. Mahmoud's album "Drummers of the Nile", features ancient music from along the nile, and he collaborates with fellow drummers Gaafar Hargal and Hamdi Matoul, Nubian wedding diva Salma and many more musicians. He has also collaborated with The Klezmatics (New York), Orientalist piano player Maurice El Medioni (Marseille/Oran) and the famous gypsy saxophone player Ferus Mustafov (Skopje). Mahmoud also introduced western audiences to the distinguished grandmaster of oriental trumpet, Samy El Bably, on an alluring album called "Love Letters from King Tut-Ank Amen."

Today, Mahmoud travels between Cairo and Berlin working on various projects. His current tribal house project entitled "United Nubians" has earned him much international acclaim in the vibrant Berlin club scene. In addition to his work as a musician, film actor and fashion designer, Mahmoud Fadl frequently performs with the West-African Griot Ensemble, "Saf-Sap" on oriental wedding and musical workshops.

You can listen to Mahmoud Fadl and many more African musicians at Kemet Music Radio.

Selected Discography:


Album: Drummers of The Nile In Town
Label: Piranha
Year: 2003

Album: Drummers of The Nile Go South
Label: Piranha
Year: 2001

Album: Umm Kalthoum 7000
Label: Piranha
Year: 2000

Album: Love Letters From King Tut-Ank Amen
Label: Piranha
Year: 1998

Album: Ezzayakoum
Label: Piranha
Year: 1998

Album: Drummers of the Nile
Label: Piranha
Year: 1997

Album: Nubiana
Label: Piranha
Year: 1996

Album: Salam Delta
Label: Piranha
Year: 1995

Album: Mambo El Soudani
Label: Piranha
Year: 1994

Another Hot, New Music Review

We've done it again!


More incredibly sizzling music has been added to our active playlists. As promised there is some Afro-Brazilian berimbau music for Capoeira by masters like Mestre Bimba, Candomble and Samba drumming as well as a little battucada.

Other new music includes Gnawa music from Morocco from Mustapha Baqbou, and we will be adding more Gnawa music in the not too distant future. More tracks include: Kalimba (thumb piano) & Kalimbu (berimbau) music from Zambia, Shona Mbira music from Zimbabwe, music from the Nguni people of South Africa with the Uhadi (gourd bow/fiddle) and flutes, Malian artists Sissokho Yakhouba & Lansine Kouyate on the Kora and Balafon.

More superb M'balax tunes from the likes of Fatou Guewel & Groupe Sope Noreyni, and Mbaye Dieye Faye, as well as unique South African Marimba music and fanatastic drums from Mamadi Bagayogo of the Ivory Coast, Nyanyo Addo of Ghana, Mamoudou Kante of Mali and much more...

Please tune in toKemet Music Radioand enjoy...

Stella Chisweshe and the Musical Spirituality of the Mbira Dzavadzimu

Stella Rambisai Chiweshe was born in Mujumi Village in Mhondoro, Zimbabwe in 1946 and is the great grand daughter of Munaka, a resistance fighter who was eventually hung by the British. She is an internationally known musician, well respected for her singing and playing of the mbira dzavadzimu (or mbira 'of the ancestors').

Stella learned to play the mbira between 1966 and 1969 at a time when females who played the mbira was practically unheard of. When she announced her decision to play the mbira, an instrument played exclusively by males, she met with as much resistance from the women as the men. In fact, due to the fact that she was often in the presence of men in order to learn how to play the mbira, the women in her village would look down upon her as being a promiscuous woman. Despite these obstacles, Stella Chiweshe persevered in her unwavering determination to follow her dreams and in doing so, opened the doors for many female musicians in Zimbabwe.

The mbira dzavadzimu is a traditional instrument of the Shona peoples of Zimbabwe that has been used for thousands of years going back to back to time of Chaminuka, who were the Mhondoro or Great Spirit Mediums. There are variations of the mbira in parts of South, Central, West and East Africa as well as Caribbean countries like Cuba, Puerto Rico and Haiti. The mbira is by known other names in other parts of Africa and the Caribbean, for example Kalimba, Mbila, Likembe, and Marimbola. The traditional mbira has 22 iron keys, but can have anywhere from 22-28 keys. Stella refers to her mbira's 23 keys as 23 voices. The keys are mounted on a hardwood soundboard and placed inside a gourd which acts as a resonator. Sometimes shells or other objects are placed on the soundboard of the mbira to create a buzzing noise that's said to attract the ancestor spirits.

The mbira has a very comforting sound, and at times can be reminiscent of running water. It is considered a sacred instrument and traditionally has been played at religious ceremonies (bira) and at social events (mapira) as well as within the royal Shona Courts. It is often used to communicate with ancestor spirits as well as for healing, guidance and success in battle. In the 'bira' ceremonies, the mbira is combined with the hosho (gourd rattles), singing and sometimes with the ngona (drum). Before the independence of Zimbabwe, Stella would attend these 'secret' ceremonies at night in colonial Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) and go to work as a maid during the day.

In the liner notes to "Talking Mbira", Chiweshe recalls incidences where individuals who experienced the sound of the mbira would suddenly lose pain that had afflicted them for years. The comforting sound of the mbira gives it a comforting sound, and the liner notes describe audience members have been moved to tears at hearing its rich, melodic tones, but felt as if the their tears were coming from another source within. "People do not truly understand the strength of this power. It can take you completely by surprise." Stella believes in the spiritual power of the mbira and its ability to help one overcome the daily aches and worries of everyday life, after having witnessed its spiritual potency at traditional ceremonies in Zimbabwe.

She recorded her first single named "Kasahwa" in 1974 with a borrowed mbira, and the song was a popular success. This was followed by a string of successful singles over the next 6 years that established her reputation on the international stage. She joined the National Dance Company in 1981 and began to travel to other countries to perform. Stella Chiweshe directs the Mother Earth Trust - Network of Female Artists in Zimbabwe and had an active role in the formation of the Zimbabwe Musicians Union.

In 1989 she acted in the Godwin Mawuru film "I Am the Future", which was about a young woman fleeing to the big city in order to escape Zimbabwe's independence war in the rural areas. Stella has performed in Germany on several occasions and was also a participant in the WOMAD festival (1994 in the United States and 1995 in Australia). Stella performs as a solo artist and with the Stella Chiseshe Mbira Trio and the Earthquake Band. In 2004 she toured England with her daughter, Virginia Mukwesha who has also established a career playing the mbira. You can listen to Stella Rambisai Chiweshe at Kemet Music Radio. Thank you for tuning in.

Discography:

Album: Double Check
Label: Piranha
Year: 2006

Album: Talking Mbira
Label: Piranha
Year: 2002

Album: The Healing Tree
Label: Shanachie
Year: 1998

Album: Ndizvozvo
Label: ??
Year: 1996

Album: Shungu
Label: Piranha
Year: 1994

Album: Kumusha
Label: Pirahna
Year: 1991

Album: Chisi
Label: (Shanachie 1990 / Piranha 1994)
Year: 1990

Album: Ambuya?
Label: (Globestyle 1987 / Piranha 1988)
Year: 1987

Faytinga: Independent Spirit With Ethereal Voice

Faytinga, one of Eritrea's best known singers, is a member of the Kunama tribe. Her mother was of Blen descent (a Cushitic speaking people) from the highlands, while her father was a member of the Semitic speaking Tigrinya peoples. She was born in 1964, and was involved in Eiretrea's struggle for independence from Ethiopia since she was 14 years of age. Faytinga's father, Faïïd Tinga, was a war hero and was already a part Eritrea's 30 year liberation struggle at Faytinga's birth.


As a young child, she was often surrounded by music and wished to become a singer. This first started to happen when she began to perform for the soldiers on the frontlines. Faytinga draws upon the musical traditions of Eritrea for her inspiration, using the Krar (a form of lyre, used also in Ethiopia), the bass Krar, the Wata (a traditional one stringed violin/fiddle of which there are many varieties all over Africa) and Bengala (a Kunama Eritrean stringed instrument). While she bases her music on traditional Kunama music, she also uses contemporary instruments, incorporates the guitar and modern percussion in her music.


In 1990, Faytinga took part of an American tour and Europe as a member of an Eritrean musical group and didn't tour as a solo artist until 1995 when she recorded her first album on cassette. After an appearance at the Africolor festival in 1999 she recorded her first CD in 2000. In addition to being a singer, she is also known to be an elegant dancer and represents a source an inspiration to many Eritreans. She sings in Kanama, a Nilo-Saharan language that is over 8,000 years old, and among the oldest languages used in the Horn of Africa. The ancient Meroitic language of Cush (Nubia region of the Nile Valley) has often been classified as a Nilo-Saharan language by many scholars, due in part to the Sudanese origins of some Nilo-Saharan languages such as the Luo family of related ethnic groups (tribes).


Faytinga incorporates the verses of Eritrean poets like Agostino Egidio and Arodi Tulli in her music and has used traditional Kunama songs to remain true to her roots. Her clear, ethereal voice virtually transports you to another world, and her music - drawing upon the musical traditions of her people - creates a uniquely Eritrean East African sound that has established her as one of the shining lights in African music.

Listen to Faytinga on Kemet Music Radio


Discography:

Album: Numey
Label: Africolor/Cobalt
Year: 2000


Album: Faytinga
Label: Africolor/Cobalt
Year: 2003

More New Music @ Kemet Music Radio

Allright, we've got quite a selection of new music compositions that should be up and running on our active playlists by the beginning of next week (...or a little sooner).

What's New:

As promised, we're adding some Afro-Brazilian Batucada and Batucada Capoeira music with some very intense drumming, as well as Samba and Condomble ceremonial drumming from the Brazilian descendants of the Yoruba people of West Africa. I've also added some uplifting ceremonial drumming from Nigeria, Mali, Guinea, etc...

Also included, is Capoeira music, including the 'Angola' style, played with the Brazilian Berimbau by artists like Mestre Bimba, and Mestrando Charm.

There's much more traditional African music on the way as well: featuring musicians from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Mali, Tanzania, South Africa playing the Mbira, Agidigbo, Kora, Marimba, and Uhadi respectively - to name a few examples.

Also on the way are some modern tracks featuring African musicians who use instruments like these, and you can hear them all on Kemet Music Radio

Keep checking our blog for more upcoming artist reviews. Thanks for tuning in...


Pianki
pianki@kemetmusicradio.com