Africa: 50 Years Of Music

If you wanted a comprehensive survey of African music, you could, I suppose, buy all the individual Rough Guides CDs covering the continent's different territories and regions. But as far as I am aware, nobody has ever attempted anything quite as ambitious as this mammoth and generally impressive 18-disc set, containing 184 tracks from 39 different countries, covering 66 years of recordings – an even more generous time frame than the halfcentury modestly promised on the box. The project is the brainchild of the French label Discograph, but with a number of other partners, including Radio France Internationale, France 24, Stern's and Syllart. The latter is particularly significant for it is the label's founder/producer Ibrahima Sylla who was entrusted with compiling the track-listing for 15 of the discs, the exception being the three North African CDs, which were selected by regional experts Bouziane Daoudi of Libération and Bruno Barre.

There are a few significant quibbles. By my reckoning, there are 15 African countries not covered. The horn of Africa is poorly served, with nothing from Somalia or Eritrea. Burundi, Namibia, Sudan and Zambia are equally surprising omissions. It might also have been interesting to hear something from behind the still largely closed doors of Libya. Oddly, the absent music of most of these countries gets enthusiastic mentions in the accompanying booklet, which suggests the track-listing wasn't finalised until after the text had been written. Indeed, the booklet invites us to sit back and enjoy the veteran Botswanan guitarist Banjo Mosele, yet there's no sign of him on the discs.

Fortunately, omissions aside, it is harder to find fault with the music that's here. The discs are sensibly broken down into six subsets of three, representing North, East, West, southern and central Africa. Plus there's a tasty grouping of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Mozambique under the banner Lusaphone Africa. Within these categories, the selections are presented more or less chronologically (North Africa being the exception), an approach that at times suggests a worthy ethnomusicologist's encyclopaedia but also works as an exercise in charting the development of the music. And there can certainly be no complaints over the breadth of the material, ranging from 1940s Egyptian classics via 1960s independence anthems to up-to-the-minute recordings by the likes of current heroes Staff Benda Bilili. There are some strange imbalances. I'm not sure why tiny Guinea Bissau gets more tracks than Senegal or on what basis Angola is better represented than Egypt. And the musical powerhouse of Nigeria is woefully underrepresented with just three tracks, the same number as tiny Gabon. But the big names that have put Africa on the world music map are mostly all here, although King Sunny Adé, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Brenda Fassie are obvious exceptions. Then there are, of course, the discoveries – always the main delight of such compilations. So Mory Kanté's overfamiliar ‘Yeke Yeke’ is balanced by the more obscure enchantments of Chad's Mounira Moutchala, while Miriam Makeba's ubiquitous ‘Pata Pata’ is offset by the previously unheard (by me, at least) Tumi & The Volume, whose bracing, hip-hop-lite pop makes them sound like a South African equivalent of K'Naan. A little more care and attention in the presentation and packaging would have helped. But there's 15 hours of almost uniformly great music here, working out at around £3.50 per disc – it would be hard for anyone to argue they're being short-changed.