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- VIEW POINTS, Page 69MUSICOut of Africa
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- There's something about the KRONOS QUARTET that has long made
- musical purists uneasy. If it's not the musicians' a la mode
- fashion statements, it's their extravagantly eclectic
- repertoire: from George Crumb's nightmarish Black Angels to the
- artless tangos of Astor Piazzolla and Jimi Hendrix's
- protopsychedelic Purple Haze, their trademark encore. The
- group's latest Elektra Nonesuch CD, PIECES OF AFRICA, finds the
- Kronos wandering even farther afield. A potent new brew of folk
- influences, Minimalism and European forms by eight black, brown
- and white African composers, the music ranges from the
- irrepressible Mai Nozipo (Mother Nozipo) of Zimbabwean Dumisani
- Maraire to the brooding White Man Sleeps of South African-born
- Kevin Volans, and resounds with the sound of the tar (a drum),
- the kora (a 21-stringed instrument) and the human voice.
- Highlight: Ghanaian drummer Obo Addy's Wawshishijay (Our
- Beginning). No bloodless Euro-niceties here, just a glorious,
- joyful noise.
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- By Michael Walsh.
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