Sunday 7 December 2014

A final rendez-vous for this year

This month on Rendez-vous radio, music from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Mali and a collective of artists including Amadou and Mariam, Oumou Sangaré and Tiken Jah Fakoly who have recorded a song with words in French, Malinke and Lingala supporting Medecins Sans Frontieres response to Ebola in West Africa.


Thursday 23 October 2014

Rendez-vous radio meets the director of The Cambridge African Film Festival

This month Rendez-vous à Bobo on Cambridge 105 meets the director of The Cambridge African Film Festival to hear about the films, workshops and discussions programmed for the festival's 13th edition. 


                                              CAFF logo by David Gaskin

Plus music from Dakar to Durban, a beginner's guide to Youssou N'Dour, and news of Sophiatown a musical opening at The ADC Theatre on Tuesday 28th October. 



Folignouma (AKA Les Freres Chapalo) will also be playing at the closing party of The Cambridge African Film Festival!

Friday 26 September 2014

Bi Furu (marriage today) An alternative wedding playlist

When my older brother asked me to create a playlist for his wedding reception earlier this month it started me thinking about songs from West Africa on the subject of weddings. So in parallel with his playlist I decided to curate a set of tunes from Mali and Burkina Faso. 

From the joyous and evocative sound of Amadou and Mariam's `Beaux dimanches' to Oumou Sangaré subverting a traditional song to critique patriarchy here is my alternative playlist. 

Also featured are some scorching township tunes by the likes of Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens I was inspired to dig out after guesting on another Cambridge 105 radio show The Kipper the cat (vinyl) show. 


Hear the world premier of a selection from nearly 300 mint condition 78s discovered in an abandoned record shop in Gauteng just outside Johannesburg here

Friday 29 August 2014

Africa utopia

This month on Rendez-vous radio.. News of the Africa Utopia festival at Southbank Centre, a guide to African films screening in the 34th Cambridge Film Festival, and vintage music from Ethiopia chosen from the Ethiopiques series.

Plus music from Alsarah and The Nile Project


Saturday 26 July 2014

Spéciale Francophone

Inspired by Cambridge's hosting of Le Tour De France this month we celebrate music from French speaking Africa. We hear from Amadou et Mariam, Khaled and Mamani Keita



Plus news of an exhibition of painting from Botswana in Cambridge at the MAA, and we speak to Fiston Lusambo of Congolese band Zong Zing All Stars





Friday 27 June 2014

Edition Coupe du monde!

This month on Rendez-vous radio a musical celebration of the African World Cup qualifiers plus we explore music from Portuguese speaking Africa. Plus news of Africa Writes and the Cambridge Buskers Festival




Thursday 22 May 2014

Rendez-vous en Suisse

This month we rendez-vous with Souleymane`Mani' Sanou in Switzerland to speak about Burkina Faso's celebrated group Farafina and another chance to hear my short documentary "We must dare to invent in the future" made on location in Burkina Faso.


Thursday 24 April 2014

Zimbabwe's rising stars

On Rendez-vous radio this month I speak to rising Zimbabwean stars Mokoomba about Tonga music and bring you live tracks recorded at their recent gig at The Junction.

Plus a set of tunes by elders of world music The Bhundu Boys



Thursday 27 March 2014

Fanfare Farafina

From Benin to New Orleans, Chicago to Cameroon, this month Rendez vous à Bobo celebrates the brass band, looking at the musicians who have claimed the tradition as their own. 

We hear from Steve Pretty of The Hackney Colliery Band, a nine piece band from London who bought their inventive mash ups of hip hop & pop to Cambridge on 22.3.14. 



And we take a look at how colonial brass band music in Ghana, Benin and Nigeria gave birth to high life, juju and afrobeat.



The Gangbé Brass Band of Benin


Thursday 27 February 2014

Synths south of the Sahara

Rendez-vous à Bobo is celebrating reinvention and musical magpies this month.

There is music from Afrikan Boy



And I'm telling the story of synths in Africa.

We also take a look at Afrofuturism, an artistic movement offering a reply to the third world stereotype often imposed on Africa.

 
Pumzi a science fiction film from Kenya screened at The Cambridge African Film Festival 2010



Thursday 6 February 2014

Performing at The MAA

A few weeks back I was invited to provide music for an event at The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge. Sing That Thing was the finale of  a term of singing workshops exploring the objects in the museum and the stories behind them.


The museum had a wonderful acoustic and atmosphere





Thursday 23 January 2014

The struggle through song

Opening with the formidable Thandiswa and her rallying "Lahlumlenze" (Shake your leg) This month Rendez-vous à Bobo is celebrating the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela through music and song.

From my own archive I have an interview with Hugh Masekela




There's music from Hot Water from Cape Town



And we remember Nelson Mandela's visit to Cambridge in 2001.




You can read my review of the new biopic Mandela:Long walk To Freedom here