Music of Sierra Leone
Encyclopedia
Sierra Leone
's music
is a mixture of native and French
, British, and [Pidgin Krio] influences. Palm wine is representative, and is played by an acoustic guitar with percussion
in countries throughout coastal West Africa
. Palm wine
, the drink, is the source of the name of the music and the clubs where it was both drunk and played.
, especially Trinidad
ian calypso
. Calendar's most popular song was "Double-Decker Bus", which was commissioned by Decca
to promote the launching of a double-decker bus line. Calendar was a skilled instrumentalist who played the guitar
, trumpet
, mandolin
and the cornet
. Calendar eventually moved towards socially and spiritually aware lyrics, while also penning some of the most oft-played songs in Sierra Leonean music in the 1950s and 60s http://www.sierra-leone.org/heroes10.html.
(goombay), a genre more closely associated with the music of West Africa
, has also had a long presence in the form of milo-jazz. Milo-jazz is a distinctly Sierra Leonean style named for a brand of chocolate powder, empty cans of which were filled with stones to form a core percussion instrument
of the genre. Dr.Olo is the most widely-acknowledged innovator of milo-jazz http://www.afropop.org/explore/country_info/ID/19/Sierra%20Leone/.
, funk
and soul
combined to formed a popular kind of Afropop
. Major bands of this era included Sabannoh 75, Orchestra Muyei, Super Combo and the Afro-National. Sierra Leoneans abroad have created their own styles, such as the Spanish Seydu, German Ansoumana Bangura and the Britain Abdul Tee-Jay ,United States of America[Bosca Banks],[Daddy Rahmanu],[Patricia Bakarr],[Sidike Diabate].http://www.afropop.org/explore/country_info/ID/19/Sierra%20Leone/].
, just like much of West Africa
is experiencing a change in its popular music culture. Western style Rap
, Reggae
, Dancehall
, R&B, and Grime (music)
have begun to have an impact on the new music generation of Sierra Leone. The wars and civil conflict throughout West Africa http://www.cryfreetown.org/, have resulted in a decrease in the presence of the traditional music artists.One of the newest celebrities to emerge out of Sierra Leone is new Urban
artist iGniTer (www.myspace.com/frikshan) also known as "Lj". The internet
and spread of western culture has encouraged the youth, of countries like Sierra Leone, to express themselves through new styles of music. Many of these songs have had political and social themes in them and have played a role in informing the populace and checking politicians. The independent film, Sweet Salone, displays many of these artists, fans, and their music http://www.sweetsalone.com.
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
's music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
is a mixture of native and French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, British, and [Pidgin Krio] influences. Palm wine is representative, and is played by an acoustic guitar with percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
in countries throughout coastal West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
. Palm wine
Palm wine
Palm wine also called Palm Toddy also called "Kallu" written in Malayalam and கள்ளு in Tamil or simply Toddy is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm tree such as the palmyra, and coconut palms...
, the drink, is the source of the name of the music and the clubs where it was both drunk and played.
Palm-wine
Sierra Leonean palm wine music is known as maringa, and it was first popularized by Ebenezer Calendar & His Maringar Band, who used styles that came from freed slaves from the CaribbeanCaribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, especially Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
ian calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
. Calendar's most popular song was "Double-Decker Bus", which was commissioned by Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
to promote the launching of a double-decker bus line. Calendar was a skilled instrumentalist who played the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
, mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
and the cornet
Cornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
. Calendar eventually moved towards socially and spiritually aware lyrics, while also penning some of the most oft-played songs in Sierra Leonean music in the 1950s and 60s http://www.sierra-leone.org/heroes10.html.
Gumbe
GumbeGumbe
Gumbe is a style of music from Guinea-Bissau. Gumbe is a specific genre, mostly influenced by zouk music . True gumbe is a fusion of several Bissauan folk traditions. Gumbe is the genre most closely associated with Guinea-Bissauan music worldwide...
(goombay), a genre more closely associated with the music of West Africa
Music of West Africa
West Africa stretches from the Sahara Desert to the Atlantic Ocean. The region's musical heritage includes a variety of popular music styles, especially from the countries of Senegal, Ghana, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Sierra Leone and Nigeria...
, has also had a long presence in the form of milo-jazz. Milo-jazz is a distinctly Sierra Leonean style named for a brand of chocolate powder, empty cans of which were filled with stones to form a core percussion instrument
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
of the genre. Dr.Olo is the most widely-acknowledged innovator of milo-jazz http://www.afropop.org/explore/country_info/ID/19/Sierra%20Leone/.
Afropop
Beginning in the 1970s, rumba, Congolese musicMusic of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Describing the music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is difficult, due to vagaries surrounding the meanings of various terms. The country itself was formerly called Zaire and is now sometimes referred to as Congo-Kinshasa to distinguish it from the Republic of the Congo...
, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
and soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
combined to formed a popular kind of Afropop
Afropop
Afropop or Afro-pop may refer to:*African popular music*Afropop Worldwide, a weekly radio program from Public Radio International...
. Major bands of this era included Sabannoh 75, Orchestra Muyei, Super Combo and the Afro-National. Sierra Leoneans abroad have created their own styles, such as the Spanish Seydu, German Ansoumana Bangura and the Britain Abdul Tee-Jay ,United States of America[Bosca Banks],[Daddy Rahmanu],[Patricia Bakarr],[Sidike Diabate].http://www.afropop.org/explore/country_info/ID/19/Sierra%20Leone/].
New Music of Sierra Leone
Sierra LeoneSierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
, just like much of West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
is experiencing a change in its popular music culture. Western style Rap
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, Reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, Dancehall
Dancehall
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably,...
, R&B, and Grime (music)
Grime (music)
Grime is a style of music that emerged from Bow, East London, England in the early 2000s, primarily as a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop...
have begun to have an impact on the new music generation of Sierra Leone. The wars and civil conflict throughout West Africa http://www.cryfreetown.org/, have resulted in a decrease in the presence of the traditional music artists.One of the newest celebrities to emerge out of Sierra Leone is new Urban
Urban contemporary
Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica such as dubstep and drum and bass and Caribbean music...
artist iGniTer (www.myspace.com/frikshan) also known as "Lj". The internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and spread of western culture has encouraged the youth, of countries like Sierra Leone, to express themselves through new styles of music. Many of these songs have had political and social themes in them and have played a role in informing the populace and checking politicians. The independent film, Sweet Salone, displays many of these artists, fans, and their music http://www.sweetsalone.com.