It wasn’t Paul Simon who made World Music safe for Western Civilization, it was the legendary King Sunny Ade and ever since then, the exotica known as world has been in roads though never nearing the ubiquity of reggae –which has been going backwards for decades.
In the past few years rock nyc has written extensively about Ethiopian popular music, among several forms of World Music we’ve heard, mostly through the City Park’s Foundations Summerstage, this year we freaked out to the great Mauritania performer Noura Mint Seymali and recently we’ve been listening to the Malawi Mouse Boys, introduced by our friend John Seroff of Greenhouse Publicity. John wrote: “On October 7th, Live@365 is excited to feature the upcoming NYC premiere of Malawi Mouse Boys, the African street choir discovered by Ian Brennan (Grammy winning producer of Tinariwen) who just celebrated the release of their second album, Dirt Is Good. It’s awfully rare for Malawian musicians to perform in the U.S.”
Malawi, a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, a British mandate for knocking on a century, it is predominantly Christian, non violent, rural and conservative. Musically, they are influenced by (British, African, and American music and the Malawi Mouse Boys play Gospel but not black Gospel, it sounds like African Gospel, though lighter and sweeter: almost folkie, with string instruments added to whistles and toots.
Easily gotten by Western audiences, much easier than Juju is to this day, the songs are very Western pop in construction and performance. Malawi Mouse Boy’s current album, this years Dirt Is Good, is not really an acquired taste, your ears will appreciate the sweet sounds. MMB is Zondiwe Kachingwe (vocals), Alfred Gavana (vocals, guitar), Gerard Haju (drums), Laurence Mpombe (vocals), Austine Banda (guitar), Nelson Muligo (lead guitar, vocals), Jameson Lufeyo (vocals), Patrick Muhondo (bass, vocals).
