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For people who know their Senegalese music, Orchestra Baobab's Pirates Choice is the Holy Grail. By the time this music was recorded to four-track in 1982, the immensely popular band had been playing nightly for years at a Dakar club called Baobab. But legendary status in Senegal didn't help th...

Unlike Mar Azul or earlier releases Miss Perfumado and Cesaria Evora, which were largely collections of the Portuguese-influenced song form called morna, Café Atlantico finds Evora singing Cuban and Brazilian traditionals. Evora's voice is as smooth as ever, but it's a little odd to hear her croon ...

These soul-stirring melodies and vibrant grooves from the Garifuna community of Central America unite the musical legacies of Africa and the Caribbean to create a powerful saga of exile, longing, hope and celebration. Years in the making, Watina is infused with contemporary influences, yet firml...

While not yet part of mainstream American music, Middle Eastern music, as evidenced by the rise of Algerian pop star Khaled in France, has sidled up to other club music forms in the hot spots of Paris, London, and elsewhere. To that end, Putumayo's Arabic Groove brings us up to date with their c...

Hailed by Stanley Kubrick as "Absolutely, one of the great films", Lindsay Anderson's stylish, surrealistic, uncompromising and confrontational film IF... encapsulated the revolutionary atmosphere of the sixties; and four decades on has lost none of it's power to astonish and provoke. Malcolm McDow...

Live from Paris and Conakry...

Pieces of Africa...

First there was Cesaria Evora, Then Lura, and now, the Portuguese/Cape Verdean singer/composer/guitarist Sara Tavares. The title of this CD (pronounced bal-on-SAY) refers to the equilibrium necessary for balancing her mixed, Crioulo culture that stretches from Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Bles...

Heart of the Forest...

Cesaria Evora, a Cape Verdean with a rich alto voice, has been described as a cross between Edith Piaf and Billie Holiday. It wasn't until 1988, though, that Evora traveled to Paris to record. Her fourth album, 1992's Miss Perfumado, made her a major star in France and Portugal. Her 1994 album, Cesa...