Putumayo Presents: African Beat

Liner Note Author: Jacob Edgar.
A continent as huge as Africa (the distance from Tangier, Morocco to Johannesburg, South Africa is more than 4700 miles) is bound to have a variety of musical styles. So when the New York City-based Putumayo World Music label assembles an African pop compilation (which is something they have done on more than one occasion), there is certainly much to choose from. Putumayo could have looked to Arabic North Africa, Southern Africa, or Eastern Africa when it put together the compilation Putumayo Presents: African Beat; instead, the main focus of this 2011 release is modern pop from different parts of West Africa and Central Africa. African Beat takes listeners to Mali with Donso's "Mogoya," Adama Yalomba's "Africa," and Issa Bagayoo's "Kalan Nege," the Ivory Coast with Yodé & Siro's "Quel Est Mon Pays?," Nigeria with Gice's "Alapomeji Anthem," and Senegal with Lex Sén's "Rebel Blues." Afro-Fiesta (heard on "Baweli") have both a Congo connection and a South Africa connection, while Les Barons (heard on the infectious "Lagos Sound System") has a France/U.K. connection. But even "Baweli" and "Lagos Sound System" favor a Central African/West African type of sound. So even though African Beat has some diversity, it maintains a certain stylistic focus, and it also maintains an outlook of funkiness. The modern African pop sounds heard on this 42-minute CD get a lot of inspiration from the United States; R&B is an influence on many of the songs, and the influence of hip-hop isn't hard to find, either. Jamaican reggae, which owes a lot to African R&B, is also an influence at times. Putumayo has released its share of enjoyable African pop compilations along the way, and African Beat is yet another pleasing Afro-pop collection from the world music-oriented company. ~ Alex Henderson