Calabash Music’s feature artist of April is Thomas Mapfumo who has two new releases both of which are only available to download from their website. The first is "Rise Up" and the second his Afropop performance of 1991 which is re-released. Mapfumo has released "Rise Up" as a "digital download" making him the first artist to release an entire world music album in digital format only.
Banning Eyre of Afropop Worldwide has a review of Rise Up and Mapfumo’s work entitled The Lion in Winter meaning Mapfumo in New York. The album is likely to be banned in Zimbabwe an experience familiar to Mapfumo from the Rhodesian period. It is ironical that he his music will now be banned by those who fought for independence and freedom in the 1970s.
Kuvarira Mukati," means, roughly, "suffering in silence," and its weary sweetness belies a tough message. "Somebody is holding onto the power," Mapfumo told me, speaking over the music. "He has been there for over twenty-five years now, clinging to power. And we are saying, ‘Do you want this guy to destroy the country, or do you want to do something about it?’" High women’s voices join in the refrain, tempering the song’s hymn-like solemnity with a clipped pop swing. "It is up to you, mothers," said Mapfumo, translating now, "up to you, fathers; up to you, boys and girls, to stand up and say something." The song is a call to arms completely devoid of anger, its mournful militancy delivered by a man intimate with the human cost of war.
You can also download a selection of other albums by Mapfumo from the site for 99cents a track or 20 tracks for $14.99. In fact Calabash Music is the best site for World Music downloads I have found. You can also download to free tracks from independent artists on Tuesdays and Fridays. Back to Mapfumo – I saw him play in Harare in 1991 at I think it was Queens – an open air club in Harare and I would say it was one of the 5 most memorable music experiences of my life.
Speaking of music I bought loads of cassettes in Morocco from Fatih’s music shop in Zagora at just over 1 € a cassette. I love shopping here as it is a relaxed and happy place – an old style music shop where you can sit and chat listen to music all day. The latest craze in Morocco are video CDs – all pirates, the kind where everything is out of sync but no one seems to care. In Morocco when you ask for a audio CD you have might have the choice of buying the original of having a copy made for half the price or you might just have to buy a copy as the shop owner will not sell his original disk. Interesting as some time ago Malian musicans held a demonstration against pirate cassette sales in Bamako so African artists are beginning to fight back over copyright.
Moroccan Music falls in to four broad categories – Popular, Berber, Classic (Gnaoua and Folk) and Rai which I believe originally came from Algeria. In June there is an annual music festival of Gnaoua music held in Essaouira on the Southern Atlantic coast. Gnaoua is a special kind of music performed by Black Africans whose ancestors were brought to Morocco either as slaves or traders from West Africa. They formed "Brotherhoods" of musicians, healers and story tellers possibly as a way of keeping their cultures and memories of home alive. Artists from across the world are also invited to perform (one of the most popular is Ali Farka Toure of Mali whose music is heard constantly in Essaouira) and there is much improvisation and informal gatherings of musicians on the road side, the beach, in the market and just about anywhere across the town. 
Photos by P E Rastoin
On a final note – Malian Divas have released an album (I am not sure of the date) where all the proceeds go to the "Stop Excision" campaign. 
100% of all procedes from the sale of these downloads goes to the Stop
Excision organization. "We can’t avoid lots of bad things," sings
Kandia Kouyate in Bambara (at right in photo), "But we can avoid a lot
of pain if we stop excising our daughters." Stop Excision is a
recording of Malian artists singing anti-excision and pro-women’s
rights songs. Eight of the twelve songs address the question of
excision directly, and the message is clear and strong: "Excision isn’t
an obligationÂ� Let’s not do it," sings Ami Koita in her famously
blustering alto. "We didn’t used to know, but now we do. Excision is
bad,"
Again you can download all the songs from Calabash music
