Press Release
Putumayo World Music is pleased to announce the release of its latest compilation, African Café, on Friday, February 23. In Putumayo fashion, listeners are taken on a musical journey through different regions of Africa, guided by a selection of relaxing and uplifting acoustic songs that will inspire and raise their spirits. A Kahawa coffee recipe is also included – a nod to Africa being the home of the origin of coffee.
The album starts out with sounds of Senegal in Yoro Ndiaye’s poignant “Namm Naa Leen,” in which a subtle mbalax influence flows under the heartfelt lyrics of remembering loved ones. The album then transitions to a slower tempo with a warm guitar introduction to Toto Bona Lokua’s “M’aa Kiana.” Cameroon’s Richard Bona, Congo’s Lokua Kanza, and France’s Gerald Toto have been dubbed Africa’s Crosby, Stills & Nash, and this track proves why. Listeners are quickly swept in to a gentle rhythm as the group delivers a moving ballad.
African Café turns up the energy with tracks by longtime cultural icon Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi from Zimbabwe; becomes intimate with Senegal’s sibling group (including the country’s only professional female bassist) Takeifa; and ends by taking listeners on a trip back in time to the 70s with Congolese legend Franco et le T.P.O.K. Jazz.