I had the privilege to write a column about African music in The Beat magazine for eight years, from 1995 to 2003, until life’s exigencies prevented me from writing. The Beat was the world-class magazine covering “world music” for 28 years. As time allows, I will place that column’s archive on this site, improving on its original published format to include more pictures and even sound samples. Eventually I hope this becomes a testament to the enormous quantity of fantastic African music published during those fecund years, when “world music” flourished on the world market.

This effort will take some time, and there are no promises when I will finish. Hopefully it will provide interesting reading for some of you! To get to the articles in the archive, either click on the link in the upper right column of this page, or click here for direct access. Enjoy!