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AFRO-LATIN AMERICAN MUSIC
KEY POINTS:
• Characteristics
• Vocal Music
• Instruments
• Dance Forms
Characteristics of African Music:
• emphasis on rhythmic and metric
complexity expressed throughout the
musical system;
• use of extended syncopation, or off- beat
phrasing of melodic accents, as a
melodic device;
• the antiphonal call and response
Importance of African Music:
1. Part of daily life of African people in all
ceremonies
2. Singing, dancing and clapping are
essentials to African music
3. African music is important to religious
and political events
African Vocal Music:
Afrobeat-is a term used to describe the fusion of West
African with black American music.
Apala (Akpala)-is a musical genre from Nigeria in the
Yoruba tribal style, used to wake up the worshippers
after fasting during the Muslim holy feast of Ramadan.
Axe-is a popular musical genre from Salvador, Bahia,
and Brazil. It fuses the Afro-Caribbean styles of the
march, reggae, and calypso, and is played by carnival
bands.
Jit - is a hard and fast percussive Zimbabwean dance
music played on drums with guitar accompaniment,
influenced by mbira-based guitar styles.
Jive - is a popular form of South African music
featuring a lively and uninhibited variation of the
jitterbug, a form of swing dance.
Juju - is a popular music style from Nigeria that relies
on the traditional Yoruba rhythms, where the
instruments are more Western in origin.
Kwasa kwasa - is a dance style begun in Zaire in the
1980s, popularized by Kanda Bongo Man. In this dance
style, the hips move back and forth while the arms
follow the hip movements.
Marabi is a South African three-chord township music
of the 1930s-1960s which evolved into-African jazz.
Latin American Music Influenced by African Music:
Reggae - is a Jamaican musical style that was strongly
influenced by the island’s traditional mento music, the
distinctive qualities is its offbeat rhythm and staccato
chords.
Salsa -is a Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Colombian dance
music.
Samba -is a Brazilian musical genre and dance style.
Soca -is also known as the “soul of calypso.”
Were - is Muslim music often performed as a wake-up
call for early breakfast and prayers during Ramadan
celebrations.
Zouk - is fast, carnival-like rhythmic music, from the
Creole slang word for “party.” It originated in the
Caribbean Islands of Guadalupe and Martinique and
was popularized in the 1980s.
Were - is Muslim music often performed as a wake-up
call for early breakfast and prayers during Ramadan
celebrations.
Zouk - is fast, carnival-like rhythmic music, from the
Creole slang word for “party.” It originated in the
Caribbean Islands of Guadalupe and Martinique and
was popularized in the 1980s.
Vocal Forms of African Music:
Maracatu - combines the strong rhythms of African
percussion instruments with Portuguese melodies.
Blues- may be a musical sort of the late 19th century
that has had deep roots in African-American
communities.
Soul-music was a well-liked musical genre of the 1950s
and 1960s. It originated in the US. It combines elements
of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues,
and sometimes jazz.
Vocal Forms of African Music:
Spiritual music - refers to a song form, known as the
“Negro spiritual” sung by African slaves in America
who became enslaved by its white communities.
Call and Response is a method of succession of two
distinct musical phrases usually rendered by different
musicians, where the second phrase acts as a direct
commentary on or response to the first.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF AFRIC A
A. Idiophones - percussion instruments that era either
struck with a mallet or against one another.
Balafon- is a West African xylophone, a pitched percussion
instrument
with bars made from logs or bamboo.
