The Case of the No-Congo Afro Latin

We are back to the Motherland again this week with more Afro-Latin sounds of the 60s and 70s.

The twist today is that there will be no music from The Congo on today's show (well... ok, the first song will be from The Congo... but then NO CONGO!). 

As frequent listeners will know, The Congo was among the first African countries to support modern studio and record-pressing facilities, making them an influential country in the African music scene. They were the first country in Africa to embrace Cuban sounds, then their records circulated that sound throughout West Africa. You would search long and hard to find any band in the West African music scene during this period that did not cover at least a bit of Afro-Latin in their set list.

So today we will be hearing Afro Latin of the 60s and 70s as played by bands from Guinea, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Benin... even Madagascar. As is often the case, we will hear primarily 60s sounds in the first hour, 70s sounds in the second hour.