Afropop Stars Habib Koité, Vusi Mahlasela, and Dobet Gnahoré
Inducted Into the Afropop Hall of Fame
Habib Koité |
Last week in New York, Public Radio International's Afropop Worldwide inducted Habib Koité from Mali, Vusi Mahlasela from South Africa, and Dobet Gnahoré from the Ivory Coast into the Afropop Hall of Fame. They join the ranks of past inductees including Baaba Maal, Youssou N'Dour, Mahotella Queens, and Thomas Mapfumo. All are honored for their artistic excellence and their significant success in connecting Americans with Africa.
The 2006 Afropop Hall of Fame took place last Tuesday before a rapturous, sold-out crowd at B.B. King Blues Club in New York City as part of the hugely successful "Putumayo Presents: Acoustic Africa" nationwide tour. Unlike a typical three-set presentation, Koité, Mahlasela, and Gnahoré all performed on each other's songs, and interchanged musicians in constantly shifting lineups that added new textures and vocal power to familiar songs, and broke new ground as well. This novel way of presenting mixed sets was the brainchild of Michel de Bock, head of the Belgian record label Contre Jour which was the first company to release internationally the work of Habib Koité and Dobet Gnahoré.
Afropop Worldwide Executive Producer Sean Barlow said, "For nearly twenty years, we have had the honor of introducing American listeners and more recently the global on-line community (www.afropop.org) to the music and stories of Africa and the African Diaspora. We created the Afropop Hall of Fame in order to give under-recognized artists the respect and celebration they so richly deserve. They have lifted souls of the ever-widening circle of Afropop fans and we want to give something back to them."
|
