Various Artists - Diola-Fogny Casamance / Various - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Not surprising, given the proximity of the Wolof homeland to Saharan caravan routes, Wolof music is an intermingling of native West African styles with those of Muslim North Africa. Percussion instruments are featured prominently in Wolof music, as is the halam, believed to be the grandfather of the American banjo. Tracks include songs of praise, wedding songs, and dance rhythms. Liner notes feature photographs of Wolof musicians as well as descriptions of instruments and songs.

How is viola da gamba literature hidden in keyboard music during the reign of Louis XIV in France? Récit, Salomé Gasselin's first album, explores this forgotten practice at a time when the viola da gamba was just becoming a solo instrument in France.

With recordings by anthropologists Betty and W. Gurnee Dyer, Music of Mali presents music from Timbuktu and Sanga, a region inhabited by Mali's Dogon people. The anthropologists were fortunate enough to witness a Dogon funeral, an elaborate ceremony normally restricted to locals, as well as a wedding procession and the music of two Tuareg minstrels in Timbuktu. The liner notes are taken from W. Gurnee Dyer's field notes and provide description of Mali's geography as well as a first-hand account of the Dogon funeral ceremony.