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

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.

Rendez-vous à Bobo May 2014 by Rendez-Vous À Bobo on Mixcloud

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

Rendez-vous à Bobo April 2014 by Rendez-Vous À Bobo on Mixcloud

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

Rendez-vous à Bobo March 2014 by Rendez-Vous À Bobo on Mixcloud

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

Rendez-vous à Bobo February 2014 by Rendez-Vous À Bobo on Mixcloud

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

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.

Rendez-vous à Bobo January 2014 by Rendez-Vous À Bobo on Mixcloud

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