Best african music according to redditors

my favorite stuff from all over in no particular order:

asa and ayo are female singer/songwriters from africa who sing in english, but are worth a listen.

oliver mtukudzi is from zimbabwe with an incredible timbre to his voice. i love vieux diop, a singer and kora player from mali who's songs i find relaxing and beautiful. vieux farka toureis also from mali, and sometimes he makes you think his guitar is an electric kora.

seconding manu chao, lots of fun.

rodrigo Y gabriela are a guitar duo from mexico city. they do a lot of flamenco type stuff. this is them doing a flamenco stairway to heaven--they also do a couple of metallica songs. willie and lobo are another mexican duo (guitar and violin) that has more of a gypsy feel to their flamenco. they also do some great (wordless) ballads that are excellent for relaxation.

cuba's los van van makes great salsa, but for a really fun latinesque sampler, get this.

zap mama is from belgium, does songs in many languages. I think the older stuff is less "poppy." les nubians is a sister duo that sings french (pop) hip hop. they've worked with erykah badu and the roots.

outback doesn't exist anymore, but it's great didge background music, but if you like the didge, check out this freak. i mean that in a good way.

hamza el din has passed, but his nubian oud music is timeless.

if you like meditating or just zoning out, snatam kaur will take you to another planet--she's the real deal.

celso fonseca, ceu, and bossacucanova are doing contemporary bossa nova. great for lazy afternoons or a romantic dinner.

i really love seu george, but mostly listen to his portuguese bowie covers from 'the life aquatic.'.

you probably know ladysmith black mambazo from putumayo. their songs range from poignant ballads to energetic, makes-you-wanna-jump-around songs. to get a deeper range of the style and their south african contemporaries, check this out. great, great stuff.

i know there's a shit-ton of hawaiian music, but probably someone from there can help you sort out the good from bad. if you want to check out some beautiful tahitian music, emma terangi was one of the best & most beautiful. here she is later in life, but having a good time on a RFO show. looks like a tahitian hee-haw.

lastly, lee everton may be a white guy from switzerland who sings in english, but his reggae fits right in with donavan frankenreiter or jack johnson.

happy listening,

edits: fixed links, formatting, spelling

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|name|James Uhart|
|about artist|British/French pianist and composer born in 1977. James Uhart originally began performing wth bassist Justin Purtill and drummer Julien Augier de Moussac in 1999, at Boston's Berklee College of Music. Since then, they've based themselves in New York City, released three albums, London (2002), Camels' Dance (2003) and Time Away (2005) and performed extensively in Eastern USA and the UK, gaining a reputation as 'New York's rising stars' (Jazz After Dark) James is now based in London. ([more on last.fm](http://www.last.fm/music/James Uhart))|
|album|Light As An Elephant, released May 2011|
|track|Feet That Danced|
|images|album image, artist image|
|links|track on amazon|
|tags|jazz, classical|
|similar|Phil Markowitz, PAPAZELL (BABYBOY), Trio CEG, Boris Netsvetaev, easyjazz|
|found in|r/treemusic, r/listentoobscure, r/listentothis|
|metrics|lastfm listeners: 14,792, lastfm plays: 52,363, soundcloud plays: 221, radd.it score: 2.33|


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> I don't enjoy most of these indie bands that people seem to jizz all over. They sound like they all wanna be Raidohead (who I do like).

agreed, more or less

> However, if anyone can recommend some happy music for a change, I'm game for a listen.

I've been loving this lately: I find it very happy, although if you read up on it I'm not sure it's supposed to be.

Digital album on my Digital list.

First heard of this group when I visited South Africa, years later caught them in concert at Berkeley. The cassette I purchased, in Johannesburg, went missing during a move.

Thanks.