African Music Concerts Week of Nov 12 - Nov 18

The American Film Institute (AFI) is running their annual Film Festival in Hollywood. This year they are featuring 6 films from African countries as a mini film series program.

Prince Diabaté and his fast flying fingers put on a kora spectacle at the Claremont Colleges. He will be playing music from his latest CD Djerelon. This album was a finalist for the Independent Music Awards for 2006/2007. Since he has moved out of town, local concerts are less frequent so take advantage of the opportunity to see him.

A second event is schedule for Santa Barbara the next night with the full ensemble.

This is an evening of mixed performances from the DJ Sounds of AfroBeat, to live drumming, Arabic fusion and a global stew of sounds. Throughout the night, DJ Nnamdi will be spinning AfroBeat and other flavors of West African Music. Aziz Faye and his band perform the sabar sound of Senegal. They drum while their compatriots dance in a high leaping spectacular style. Then comes MC Raï and his DJ mastery which focuses on the North African sounds of the region around his native Algeria. The evening ends with the globally mixed band called Mili Mili with music in Portuguese, Arabic, Swahili and English.