Off the Beaten Track in Malawi and Burkina Faso

[APWW #738] [Airs Sept. 22 2016] This program ventures into corners of Africa we hear from rarely, guided by adventurous field recordists and crate diggers. The Zomba Prison Project is a set of recordings by inmates at a maximum security prison in Malawi, currently the poorest nation on earth. The project’s debut CD was nominated for a 2016 Grammy Award. Here, we speak with the producer, Ian Brennan, and hear tracks from a brand new volume of soulful, even heartbreaking, songs from the prison. Then, we go back to the 1970s in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso (then Upper Volta) to sample a gorgeous set of newly revealed recordings by Volta Jazz, Dafra Star, Les Imbattables Leopards and more. The program ends with wild cards from Mozambique and Ethiopia. Produced by Banning Eyre