Surprise is the one reaction you don’t anticipate from an Eliades Ochoa album. Admiration, yes. But you don’t expect the unexpected. If anything the master of the Cuban country son usually errs on the ...

The passing of celebrated Malian flautist, composer and arranger Boncana Maïga at the age of 77 truly marks the end of an era in the music of west Africa. He was a charismatic performer and bandleader ...

In 1996, two musicians from the African nation of Mali were expected to arrive in Havana for a recording session that never happened. The relatively unknown Malians were scheduled to work on an ...

Yesterday one of Africa’s greatest and most dynamic singers and bandleaders, Amadou “Balaké” Traore, died in Ouagadougou, the capital of his native Burkina Faso, at the age of 70. In recent years he ...

A flurry of dancers in bright dresses, pointed shoes and a plumage of confidence, effortlessly glide across a crowded yet synchronised dance floor at Watsons, a pub in T Nagar. It is 9 pm on a rainy ...