The union between Tony Allen and a group of Haitian musicians resulted in a collaborative album released in 2014.
The Reading List
Dr Satan’s Echo Chamber: In this, the title piece of Chimurenga volumes 12 and 13, Jamaican artist and author Louis Chude-Sokei writes of dub as a creation event and black secret technology. For all the essay’s lyricism, I keep returning to this simple, declamatory line: “This cannot be stressed enough: a black third world country is being celebrated for its technological innovations.” (KS)
Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice: I’ve just started reading this page-turner about an ethnobotanist searching for and learning about medicinal plants from the shamans of the Amazon. The friend who recommended it to me handed it to me with this disclaimer: “Don’t worry, it’s not a white saviour going in to study the natives’’, referring to the relationship between author Mark J Plotkin and the communities he encounters in his searches. (MB)
The Business of Fashion: The fashion news, analysis and business intelligence website had a career counsel article titled The Incalculable Value of Finding a Job You Love by Robert H Frank that came out of The New York Times. It explores what it takes to find a job you love — what you should consider and why money doesn’t really matter in the long run. (SK)
The Play List
Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra: This album is the result of a 2014 collaboration between Afrobeat maestro Tony Allen and several Haitian musicians drawn from groups such as the Racine Mapou de Azor, the Yizra’ El Band and percussionist Sanba Zao’s Lakao Mizik. Allen plays skipper but this set wrestles against control. It is the sound of chains and nooses breaking loose to polyrhythms. (KS)
Dream State: Listening to the Kyle Shepard Trio is akin to being schooled about the art of listening anew. Deaf are my ears since they have been taught to allow music to speak its language beyond audible consciousness and to a nebulous force that ends up depositing the notes in every one of your senses. Sublime. (MB)
Another Round: Buzzfeed staffers Heben Nigatu and Tracy Clayton host this podcast, in which they talk about everything from race and gender politics to pop culture and bad jokes — all with a cocktail in hand. It gives you the feeling of dropping your bag on the bar as you join your girlfriends for after-work drinks. (SK)
The Lists this week were compiled by Friday editor Milisuthando Bongela, senior arts writer Kwanele Sosibo and contributor Sarah Koopman