Tropicology - Episode 139: Lounge the Casbah

Today is one of those episodes where I am blending music from all the musical markets I serve; we will hear from Africa, Brazil, and Latin America today, including the French West Indies as well. Normally I describe my musical theme first, and then I tell you my show title… but today I’m going to tell you the title first and work backwards. The title of today’s show is Lounge the Casbah… my inspiration today is soundtracks from movies in the 50s and 60s. It was a common trope in movies of that era to have the protagonist walk into a nightclub where the camera would linger on a musical performance for a few minutes.  Occasionally the plot of the film would call for the protagonist to walk into a nightclub in an exotic locale, where the musical entertainment might feature a performance by Carmem Miranda or Yma Sumac. That is the vibe I’m going for today… tropical tunes from a nightclub scene in an old film noir matinee. Some of my trivia strong listeners may be quick to point out that a casbah doesn’t have anything to do with the common Tropicology musical markets… a casbah is a fortified tower in North African architecture, perhaps in a place like Morocco or Algeria. But US audiences in the 50s and 60s were not so discerning… I watched plenty of old films and TV shows where protagonists ambled into a casbah club. For that audience, casbah was just another buzzword for something exotic and non-white, a place for rum drinks in hollowed coconuts, interchangeable with copacabana, casablanca, or cafe creole. Today’s playlist is the kind of music they may have heard in that cliched fictional watering hole. We’re not rocking the casbah in this episode… but we will lounge the casbah on today’s Tropicology.