The Best in Drumming CD's (plus some top picks in books and video)

African Drumming CDs with African Drum Masters, and other Selected Alternative Music CD's including Funk, Fusion and Jazz.

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African/Latin Drumming, traditional and modern

• Abdul Kabirr and Soto Koto Band, Gumbay Dance! -- hot high life
• Afro-Brasil -- compilation covering everything from carnaval to trance
• Alpha Yaya Diallo, The Message -- Juno award winner features highlife guitar master
• Babatunde Olatunji, Drums of Passion: The Beat -- C. Santana sits in
• Bakongo: Drumming Music for Dancers -- It's party time, straight from the roots
• Bomba, lo que bomba te dá -- world-class salsa from top Edmonton band
• Cascabulho, Hunger Gives You a Headache-- great non-stop dance energy from Brazil
• Cheikh Lo, ne la thiass -- Cuban-influenced singer-guitarist in soul-lyrical groove
• Cheikh Lo, Bombay Gueej -- a more energetic mix from protege of Youssou N'Dour
• David Thiaw, African Skies -- upbeat bright and high-life sound
• Edwina Lee Tyler, Drum Drama -- virtuoso African woman on djembe
• Fatala, Gongoma Times -- all star band plays hot, features Alpha Yaya Diallo electric
• Gabrielle Roth and the Mirrors, Initiation -- Five universal rhythm-moods
• Kanda Bongo Man, Amour Fou (Crazy Love) -- highlife classic by Congolese band
• King Sunny Ade, E Dide/Get Up -- cool groovin' by the master of highlife
• Mamadou Ly, Mandinka drum master -- with ultratight trio
• Mamady Keita, Hamanah -- a dozen variations on Dununba
• Mamady Keita, Nankama -- everything by this master is great
• Mamady Keita, Wassolon -- the djembefola par excellence
• Nii Tettey Tetteh -- gentle and original mastery of traditional music from Ghana
• Salif Keita, Folon -- soulful vocals fill out master's mellow grooves
• The Best Best of Fela Kuti -- A hot mix of "The Black President's" powerful hits
• The Best of Tito Puente -- classics by the Cuban salsa king: "El Rey del Timbal"
• Thione Diop -- Know Your Culture -- hottest young Senegalese djembe star
• Youssou N'Dour, The Lion -- early, full-mood classic from the Senegalese star

Funk, Fusion and Jazz

• African Travels -- dance hall compilation layering tribal beats with electric funk
• Arabian Travels -- middle-east grooves with funky bass mixes for dance
• Brent Lewis/Peter Wood, Thunder Down Under -- natural/aboriginal-style rhythm textures
• Celso Machado -- hot lounge jazz guitar in Amazonian jungle
• Dr. John, Creole Moon -- The wizard of the bayou is at it again with world-funk gumbo
• Eric Dolphy,Out to Lunch -- rhythm slow and unique, in the moment
• Herbie Hancock, Dis is Da Drum -- 90's jazz/drum/funk
• Herbie Hancock, Head Hunters -- jazz fusion classic
• Incognito, 100 Degrees and Rising -- British soul funk dance
• Jack DeJohnette, Parallel Realities -- eclectic compositions from the great jazz drummer
• James Brown, 20 All-time Greatest Hits -- still great
• James Brown, Live at the Apollo 1995 -- keep it funky, JB
• Joe Zawinul, My People -- ex-Weather Report-man with world groove
• Latin Travels -- another six degrees classic roots-funk-fusion for dance
• Leon Parker, Awakening -- clean, movable jazz with great roots foundation
• Michael Franti & Spearhead, Stay Human -- get-down funk with conscious rap
• Pharoah Sanders, Message from Home -- 90's release, African roots
• Red Hot and Cool, Stolen Moments -- acid jazz and rap, compilation, vets and new kids
• Santana, Sacred Fire -- Live in South America
• The Brand New Heavies -- vocal and funk grooves

Special Video Pick Hits!

Stomp Out Loud
Smash Off-Broadway percussion show takes to the streets with brooms, basketballs, bungie cords, sewer pipes, kitchen knives, playing cards...anything that will make a rhythmic texture. In one joyful hour this group will make you aware of the rhythm pervasive in every act of living.

Tap Dogs
Possibly even more inspiring than Stomp Out Loud! These Aussie foot-stompers cross all the boundaries while pounding out tight percussive polyrhythms on every variety of surface. Backed at times by frenzied kit drummers, these unstoppable dancers will have you climbing the walls with them: in time.

Drum Book Picks:

Mande Music--Eric Charry
A definitive and scholarly study of West African music--its origins, its instruments, its language and technique.

Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within--Kenny Werner
Weber is an accomplished jazz musician but speaks as the friend and mentor of the musical beginner or performer alike. Take it easy, he says. Relax. Get in touch with what this magic called music is really about. Listen. Get out of the way, enough to hear what the music wants to say, where it wants to go. If you can do this--feeling your musical "I" to be as large as time itself--then you can say with confidence, "I am a master."

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The Best Music of the Century