Wagogo a go-go
Leah and Pendo Zawose have been making Wagogo music in Tanzania all their lives. But always in the background — women’s jobs in Wagogo music has always been drumming and harmony singing, not songwriting or lead singing or playing the crucial tuned instruments illimba (thumb piano), chizeze (spike fiddle) and marimba (same as in English).
With the release of Maisha by the Zawose Queens, Wagogo women are finally out in front of the band. Leah and Pendo’s eleven original songs, backed by traditional instruments and unusually sensitive electronics and production from Englishmen Tom Excell and Oli Barton-Wood, are going to turn a lot of people on to a sound they’ve never heard before. You’ll hear three of them this week on Global A Go-Go.
Also this week (Sunday June 16, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site): Classic zouk béton from the French Antilles in the 80s; LA LOM takes on Peruvian chicha; the original sound of cumbia from Colombia’s Los Gaiteros De San Jacinto, who will be performing in Richmond on July 19; the latest from Austin’s Superfónicos; and two sets of Colombian champeta featuring a new track from Meridian Brothers and some unlikely covers.
Podcast: radio4all.net/program/118124
All the podcasts: radio4all.net/series/Global%20A%20Go-Go
Show archive
Playlist
-
-
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros, “Global a Go-Go”
from Global A Go-Go
BMG Rights Management (US) LLC - 2001
England UK
-
-
Zouk Time, “Guetho À Liso (feat. Kanda Bongo Man)”
from Guetho À Liso
Liso Music Production - 1987
Guadeloupe France
-
Jacob Desvarieux, Kassav' & Georges Decimus, “Zouk-la sé sel médikaman nou ni”
from Yélélé
Heavenly Sweetness - 2024
Guadeloupe France, 1984
-
The Zawose Queens, “Lulelule (feat. Ndahani Bwani Zawose)”
from Maisha
Real World Records - 2024
Tanzania-England UK
-
-
-
-
Los Blue Kings de Ñaña, “El rey loco”
from Éxitos
Fta bajo Licencia Exclusiva para Play Music Perú - 2022
Perú, 1973
-
-
Los Gaiteros De San Jacinto, “El Octubre Que Venía”
from Orgullo Colombiano
OM Producciones / Bad Vibes Good Friends - 2024
Colombia
-
-
-
Grupo Abharca, “Schallcarri”
from El Maravilloso Mundo de Abelardo Carbono
Vampisoul - 2013
Colombia, 1978
-
Viviano Torres & Ane Swing, “Happy Embarrased”
from Joyas Champetuas De Todos Los Tiempos
Palenque - 2022
Colombia, 1980s
-
The Bongo Hop, “Ventana (feat. Nidia Gongora)”
from Satingarona, Vol. 1
TheUnderdogRecords - 2024
France-Colombia, 2016
-
Luis Towers, “Mamá Africa”
from Champeta Criolla, Vol. 2 Visionary Black Music From Underground Colombiafrica
Palenque Records - Rey - 2012
Colombia, 2003
-
