Hello and welcome to the Blog.
Leo Sarkisian |
Matthew Lavoie |
What is the archive? In short, it is a room in the basement of the Cohen building in downtown Washington DC that is overflowing with audio reels (over 10,000), 45 rpm singles, 33 rpm lps, and cassettes from every country in Africa. Where did all this music come from? The lion’s share is music that over the last fifty years Leo has either recorded himself, been given (by producers, artists and radio stations), or that he received in the mail from listeners. Between the two of us Leo and I have been to every country in Africa and everywhere we’ve gone we’ve brought back music. The archive includes, for example, Leo’s recordings of the Guinean group Beyla Jazz (who became the famous Bembeya Jazz), of Nigerian legends Fela Kuti and Cardinal Rex Lawson (these recordings have never been commercially released), his recordings of traditional music from Niger, Liberia, Sierra Leone, hundreds of Kenyan 45s from the 1970s, and cassettes from Burundi, Mauritania, Malawi.
If you have any requests, particular interests, or questions please let me know.
Enjoy matthew
Henry Koba, Jr. said: Very refreshing article. I really praise your effort in schooling the world on rumba from Central Af... [More]