Anthology Of World Music: Africa: The Dan

One Response to “Anthology Of World Music: Africa: The Dan”

1. Andy Hanson says:

   April 24, 2010 at 12:54 am

   In l963 I went from Monrovia, Liberia to a tiny village upcountry in Liberia called Toweh-ta. The people of the village are called Gio in Liberia, but in Cote dIvoire they are the Dan. For a full year I heard the composition of the Dan in its various forms through the rainy time of year into the dry time of year. The Dan are an extremely musical people. They don’t do anything without composition. Rice, Death, Marriage, Birth, Weather are all celebrated with composition. 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 topic the same. The drums sounded as if I were right back listening to composition in Liberia. When I went out into the rice fields to watch the harvest in 1963 they sang the same composition. When one of the bush devils came out to play, they played the same composition. Here is something very distintive about Dan composition. It is my favorite of African composition, probably because I lived here, yet I hear the composition in American composition as well. The roots of American composition are well founded in Africa. I recommend this album to anyone who is searching for fascinating composition that is subdue 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.
   Rating: 5 / 5