the musical selection of “World Africa” ​​# 44

Each Wednesday, The World Africa presents three musical novelties from or inspired by the continent. This week, we are taking a step aside with artists who, without being from Africa, draw a large part of their influences there, from Cape Verde to Angola via Kenya.

“Lua”, by Gabriel Saglio (feat. Bonga)

His previous album, The Song of the Rowers (2018), was intended to be a meeting between West Africa and French song. In take, published on Friday March 5, Gabriel Saglio turns this time towards the Portuguese-speaking part of the continent, with rhythms from Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau or Angola. On the eponymous title, it is also Bonga, one of the greatest singers of this country, who joins his voice to that of Nantes. Failing to have been able to shoot the clip in his presence – the Covid-19 has been there – Gabriel Saglio called on the Congolese dancer Gervais Tomadiatunga for a performance combining energy and poetry.

«Thuon Mok Loga», d’Omar Sosa (feat. Olith Ratego)

From Madagascar to Sudan, via Mauritius, Zambia, Burundi, Kenya and Ethiopia, it is all of eastern Africa that Omar Sosa, 55, invites in his new album. , An East African Journey, to be released March 19. The adventure began in 2009 with a concert tour of the Cuban pianist on the continent. A decade later, it was time for this prolific composer (more than 25 albums in twenty-five years) to present the fruit of his musical encounters with local artists, including the Kenyan Olith Ratego on the title Thuon Mok Loga. Between jazz and traditional music, the journey is captivating.

«Navigate», by Joao Selva

“Eat cachupa in Cape Verde” and “See the moon of Luanda”. These are the goals sung (in Portuguese) by Joao Selva in the eponymous track from his second album, Surf, scheduled for April 2. To do this, the Brazilian musician living in France takes the invisible but clearly audible paths of the black Atlantic, this transcontinental footbridge inherited from slave ships. From Rio de Janeiro to Praia, from the Northeast to Angola (with a stopover in the Caribbean), the result is a travel diary that resonates like a hymn to Creole and a tribute to the cultural ties that unite the former Portuguese colonies.

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