"The scramble for African rare grooves" seems to be a hot topic at the moment. As if on cue, NPR posts a first-person piece about Angolan music from the 60s and 70s, specifically about Angolan funk.

Oh, well, at least, as we noted, this "unearthing" trend is an interesting way for a mass audience to learn about the forerunners of current contemporary urban genres from Africa, what the sounds consist of and how they developed.

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Among other things, the writer notes the shared roots of Angolan funk and Brazilian samba. That probably won't come as a surprise to those who know their African history. Brazilian samba, like its famous carnival, grew partly out of the religions, aesthetics and music West African and Angolan slaves tried to keep alive when they found themselves thousands of miles away from home. Henry Louis Gates Jr. wrote something about it earlier this year in The Root ("Celebrating Candomblé in Bahia"), and there's more about those carnival roots here.



Anyway, check out the NPR piece, and listen to the funk Angolans were digging before the war came along and messed things up good and proper. Still fresh as new. Now who's going to be the first to give these the remix treatment?



Props to Fazuma for the vid