Afrizo Choir from Kenya to Perform in Minnestoa

Tickets are on sale for a benefit concert featuring Daystar University’s African gospel style musical group, Afrizo, on their first concert in the United States this year. The concert will be held at the Miracle Empowerment Center 5801 John Martin Drive in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on Saturday August 29.

The group which sings music from South, Central, and East Africa, drawing on rich African traditions will visit eleven states with Minnesota being their first stop. The university draws students from all over Africa and as far as Asia and North America.

The Mshale sponsored concert on August 29 is part of the choir’s annual U.S. tour which raises funds for scholarships for needy students to attend the university in Nairobi. The goal this year is to raise $350,000.

Daystar-US, a non-profit organization based in Minnesota, is the primary fundraising arm for Nairobi’s Daystar University in the United States and has been working with Mshale in the past year to put the concert together.

Minnesota based artists Carole Mungai, alum of Daystar and Marceline Djobokou will be the opening acts during the kickoff concert. Doors open 6:00 pm and showtime is 7:00 pm.

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Tickets cost $20 and can be purchased at the following locations (cash only):

Brooklyn Park/Brooklyn Center:
African Food Market
3050 Brookdale Drive, Brooklyn Park
Corner of Xerxes and Brookdale Drive
(763)-561-1961

BCS African Wholesale Foods
7340 Brooklyn Blvd, Brooklyn Park
(Behind Coco Beauty Supply)
763-561-1597

T & J Auto Repair
3551 85th Ave. N, Brooklyn Park
(next to Sahara Towing)
(612)-205-3379 or (763)-315-1179

Food Market
7641 Zane Avenue, Brooklyn Park
(Corner of Brooklyn Blvd. & Zane Ave.)
(763)-561-0199

Minneapolis:
Tempo Afric
1315 East Lake Street
(612) 729-0176

Electric Fetus
2000 4th Ave. S
(612)-870-9300

Saint Paul:
Christos Dollar Store
506 North Snelling Ave.
(On Sherbune and Snelling Ave.)
(651)-647-0790
(651)-642-1413

Bloomington:
Agape African Market
8940 Lyndale Ave.S
(952)-881-6035

For credit card purchases call Daystar-US at 952-848-4208.

Papa Wemba Keeps on Ticking

One of the most beloved singers in Congo music, Papa Wemba was born Shungu Jules Wembadio in Kasai, in the lower part of Congo’s massive and remote interior. A self-proclaimed singer from birth and an avid participant in that region’s traditional life, Wemba inherited his father’s role as “chief of customs.” But city life beckoned, and he headed north to Kinshasa, where in 1969 he helped to found Zaiko Langa Langa, Zaire’s most popular youth band Congo music had ever seen.

For their irreverence, and the sensation they caused, Zaiko have been compared to the Rolling Stones, whom they admired. But these sons of the rich turned “rumba rude boys” proved not so much an institution as a movement. Members split off to form their own bands that spawned yet other bands: Langa Langa Stars, Grand Zaiko Wa Wa, Chock (as in shock) Stars, and, among many others, Papa Wemba’s Viva La Musica.

Wemba was one of the first to split off, and he did so in a way that ensured him a special place in the rabble of Zaire’s competing stars. In the era of President Mobutu’s “authenticity” edict, which demanded affirmation of African heritage, Wemba worked the traditional log drum or lokole into his music, and appeared on stage in raffia skirt and cowrie shell hat, things urbanites had once dismissed as shameful trappings of the bush. But after relocating in Paris, Wemba returned with a new look, which he called “Ungaru.” Raffia gave way to Gianfranco Ferre, Pierre Cardin, and a host of trendy European designs.

Wemba gets credit for launching the Zaiko clan’s trademark use of high fashion as a form of social rebellion. Wemba’s dashing self-styled look-a 1930s throwback featuring baggy, pleated trousers hemmed above shiny brogues and hair clipped close at the sides-soon earned him the title Pope of the Sapeurs: Society of Ambianceurs and Persons of Elegance. The Sapeurs elevate a clothing fetish to a spiritual level to the extent of boasting their own “religion” called Katinda, which means cloth. The wildness of soukous and the excesses of the Sapeurs can be seen as channeled expressions of free spirits in an environment of political oppression and relentless conformity. During three decades of iron-fisted rule, Mobutu stifled all criticism of his government, and even enforced a national dress code for bureaucrats and businessmen.

In 1987, shortly after Afropop first met Papa Wemba in Kinshasa, the singer embarked on a more risky form of rebellion. He created a band in Paris, using European and African musicians, and set about playing music that did not adhere to the core principles of Congo pop. Wemba’s Afropop did not go down well with the home crowd, but it did open doors for him in Europe and America, especially when he and his new group performed in the 1988 traveling spectacle of African traditional performance arts, Africa Oyé.

Since then, Wemba has led parallel lives, performing and recording both with Viva La Musica and with his crossover group. The Viva la Musica releases have been some of the best straight Congo music releases of the late `90s. Meanwhile, Wemba’s work with his own group earned him a place in the 1998 touring festival Africa Fête. In any context, Wemba preserves a shy, roguish demeanor behind his Parisian polish. On stage and on record, his gangling stride, generous smile, and elastic voice–honed and jagged like a spinning saw blade–are irresistible every time.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre
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August Reggae Album Releases

Like most summers, there’s not a whole lot of new reggae music coming out in August. The most noteworthy release is the latest from reggae-pop superstar Sean Paul. Also due to drop albums during the month are Hasidic jew singer Matisyahu, high energy dancehall act T.O.K. and more.

Sean Paul - Imperial Blaze. Release date: Aug. 18, 2009. Label: Atlantic Records. Sean Paul is the most successful Jamaican artist of all time on the US charts, with three No. 1 singles, five Top Ten hits and two multi-platinum albums.

Matisyahu - Light. Release date: Aug. 25, 2009. Label: Sony. Matisyahu, the Hasidic Jewish reggae toaster best known for his 2006 Top 40 hit song “King Without Crown,” covers a large amount of stylistic ground, from hard-edged dancehall (”Smash Lies”) and ska-inflected New Wave (”We Will Walk”) to laidback pop-rock (”So Hi So Lo”) and acoustic folk-soul (”I Will Be the Light”), along with his usual old-school toasting.

Tarrus Riley - Contagious. Release date: Aug. 4, 2009. Label: VP Records. Tarrus’ third album features a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature,” as well as dancehall, gospel, pop and other music elements.

Groundation - Here I Am. Release date: Aug. 18, 2009. Label: Young Tree Records. Groundation’s sixth studio album pcontains 12 new songs featuring such legendary vocalists as Pablo Moses and the original Congos. T.O.K. - Our World. Release date: Aug. 25, 2009. Label: VP Records.

The Reggae News Wire

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