Episode 120: Tropical Oldies 2

Last week I kicked off seasonal Tropicology programming with an episode devoted to Tropical oldies of the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s. Today I am filling out part 2 of that oldies theme with my second set of old-timey music from Africa, Brazil, and Latin America. The goal is to give you listeners a feeling for the true roots of the music that would later become rumba, samba, forro, mambo, and modern African popular music. There were so many big changes in the global music scene in the 10 years between 1955 and 1965; electrified instruments went from novelty to normal, sound engineering became exponentially more sophisticated, and artists were given much more time in the studio. Songwriting moved away from formulaic romance and heartbreak, becoming much more individualistic and political. The songs on today’s show are a throwback to that earlier era of songwriting and studio production, the tropical equivalents for popular music of the prewar and early postwar era, the tropical answer to Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and the Grand Ole Opry.