Search - Various Artists :: Anthology Of World Music: Africa: The Dan

The music of my village in Africa

Andy Hanson | Aspen, Colorado USA | 12/05/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In l963 I moved from Monrovia, Liberia to a small village upcountry in Liberia called Toweh-ta. The people of the village are called Gio in Liberia, however in Cote dIvoire they are the Dan. For a full year I heard the music of the Dan in its various forms through the rainy season into the dry season. The Dan are an extremely musical people. They don't do anything without music. Rice, Death, Marriage, Birth, Weather are all celebrated with music. When I came back from Africa I ran across this album in New York City. When I heard the album I was transported right back to Toweh-ta. The rythmns were the same, the subject matter the same. The drums sounded as if I were right back listening to music in Liberia. When I went out into the rice fields to watch the harvest in 1963 they sang the same music. When one of the bush devils came out to play, they played the same music. There is something very distintive about Dan music. It is my favorite of African music, probably because I lived there, yet I hear the music in American music as well. The roots of American music are well founded in Africa. I recommend this album to anyone who is searching for interesting music that is still sung and played in the villages of Liberia, Guinea and Ivory Coast. It will transform you to a very different way of life, but will show the roots of jazz and rythmn and blues."