http://www.kasiisiproject.org/playlists/AfricaOctober2007.htm

1. Habib Koité (Mali) - Africa - 4:52
Habib Koité and Oliver Mtukudzi are the top two popular musicians in Africa. Habib's earlier songs "I Ka Barra" and "Din Din Wo" are shipped with the Microsoft Vista operating system. His website is in French and English. Here is a fine Wikipedia article.

2. Nino Galissa (Guinée Bissau) - Dunia - 4:36
From the official website: "The songs [on album Mindjer] refer to endless current situations and relationships which deal with the world we life in. The themes aim at highlighting the importance of women in any given society, as well as the problems that women still have to face despite the passing of generations: for being mother and daughter, for talking and remaining silent, for laughing and crying, for being spiritual and practical, for being beautiful, for being enigmatic, for being... a woman."

3. Sénégal Acoustic (Sénégal) - Mamé - 5:13
Acoustic guitar blues downloadable from Calabash. Here is their website.

4. Askia Modibo (Mali) - Les Aigles du Mali - 6:51
Askia Modibo publishes his West African reggae on Stern's music and plays concerts worldwide. Like Habib Koité and many others from West Africa, his music is on the pentatonic scale. Here's an excellent article from Africa Sounds.

5. Ngatu (Namibia) - Telela - 4:35
Lively and bright on the edge of reggae! Here are a testimonial from a German friend of Ngatu's in Namibia and a Wikipedia article about Namibian music.

6. Oliver Mtukudzi (Zimbabwe) - Kuropodza - 6:33
What more can possibly be said about Oliver Mtukudzi? He played at Somverville Theater in the Boston area this month. Many if not most in the audience filled the aisles, dancing with abandon, sometimes seemingly to the bemusement of the musicians on stage, whose dancing and playing overflowed with grace, power and humor. See Oliver if you can. This song exhorts people to listen carefully and learn fully before they speak.

7. Dobet Gnahoré (Ivory Coast) - Mousso Tilou - 3:39
Dobet often appears in concert with Habib Koité. She's a mesmerizing dancer. This song, sung in the Malian language Malinké, is about polygamy: "[These women] are the real heads of household ... [but] they are never queen." Her website, which is apparently built by the same group who did Habib's.

8. Touré Touré (Senegal) - Lemme - 3:03
Daby Touré and his cousin Omar lead this group. Daby is originally from Mauritania. A detailed biography and reviews; from a Billboard review: "...influenced by the sounds coming out of today's Senegal, Mali, Paris and New York ... flavored by the traditional music of his native Mauritania (a nation largely unknown in the West that has a cultural blend spanning from Arab / Moor to several black ethnic groups)".

9. Ismaël Lô (Senegal) - Adou Calpe - 6:26
Visit Ismaël on MySpace: "...strong, complex, percussion-laden mbalax songs that discuss important topics in Senegal". His website and Wikipedia article. Pedro Almodóvar used his haunting song "Tajabone" in the film All About My Mother.

10. Mama Sissoko (Mali) - Hommage á K - 4:16
Mr. Mama Sissoko is a former session guitar player whose music could be characterized as African salsa. Calabash says, "Latin exuberance and the melancholy of griots". Here is a review on RootsWorld.

11. Massukos (Mozambique) - Pangira (Unplugged) - 5:37
Founded and led by Feliciano dos Santos, this group from the impovershed northern part of Mozambique plays in villages throughout the country to deliver social messages about AIDS prevention, clean water, and other life-critical matters. Here is a very detailed biography on Calabash.