Customer Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic
Comment: Wow! This is it right here. Let me start off by saying that I hate packaged world music compilations. You know the type, The Best of Africa, crap like that. This is raw and where it's at. A bunch of field recordings from street musicians. It doesn't get any better. There is nothing slick or produced, just as it would sound if you found a bunch of guys sitting on the corner playing and singing away or if you came across an entire village in the middle of a night time healing ritual.
Having spent time in Africa with some serious musicians i can say first hand that if you want the real thing then this is it. Buy it, don't delay
Customer Rating:
Summary: Can't live without this one
Comment: This excellent remaster/reissue is essential. I don't have the entire Explorer African series yet, but of the ones I have, this one and Burkina Faso - Rhythms of the Grasslands are the two absolutely must-haves, although I just got the Burkina Faso disc a few days ago. I have had Drum, Chant & Instrumental Music for about a year. Not that there aren't other great discs in this series (there are!), but if I could only keep two out of the ones I have, these would be the two I would choose.This one gives us field-recordings from the late 1960s or early '70s of music from the Hausa, Djerma, Tuareg, Lodagaa, and Songhay peoples. On this disc you get vocal music, drum groups, and some outstanding string and horn players. If you have any sort of interest in the banjo (and even if you don't) then you need this disc for track #8 alone. The kouco being one of the West African instruments that led to what became known as the banjo in the United States. If you're unfamiliar with the sound of pre-Mastertone banjo's, don't worry. This music will not strike you as twangy bluegrass music (in case that is not your thing). Most people are surprised at how rich and full the old gourd-resonator "banjos" sound. This track is incredible. I wish I knew of whole discs focusing on the African family (and indigenous styles) of drone-and-melody stringed instruments.
Let's also not forget the drum ensembles. So much of this cd just feels like going home, to me. Heavenly thunder is the best way I can describe these drum ensembles. Remember, all the music on this disc is of indigenous styles. Not your run-of-the-mill bass-and-keyboard Afro-pop. Indigenous musics are where it's at, and this is as good as it gets.
You really cannot go wrong with this cd. If you're the type of person to be looking for this sort of music to begin with, you will most certainly love this disc. I've had it since mid-late 2002 and it just keeps getting better.
