Teranga Beat Unearths Old Senegalese Vinyl Records

By ⋅ March 8, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment
Idrissa Diop (Photo: terangabeat.com)

Idrissa Diop (Photo: terangabeat.com) *

Marco Werman went to Senegal a week ago and for someone who has long admired the music of Senegal, he found it weird to see barely any music going on.

Many of the winter tourists were absent, fearing election-related violence.

A lot of the dance clubs were closed.

So local artists had no venues to gig in.

Radio stations in the capital Dakar were still playing classic Senegalese tunes though.

It was especially when they would spin older, rarer tunes from the 70s and 60s.

Those old tracks can now be found without having to tune in to the radio in Dakar.

That is thanks to Terenga Beat, a new record label based in Dakar.

Its founder is a Greek DJ who fell in love with Sengalese music years ago, especially its 1960s Afro-Cuban iterations.

* A previous version of this post incorrectly stated Idrissa Diop was the founder of Senegalese record label Teranga Beat. Diop is not the founder. The label is run by Adamantios Kafetzis. We regret the error.

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Discussion

3 comments for “Teranga Beat Unearths Old Senegalese Vinyl Records”

  • DoctorDakar

    What on earth is this person talking about? As an ethnomusicologist who’s done work in Senegal for three years, I can assure you that there are dozens of thriving clubs in Dakar every night of the week during this season, especially during this season before the heat of summer, Ramadan and the fall rain. This is just patently incorrect and should be removed from the site

    • steambeer

      Can I find it ironically funny that “DoctorDakar”‘s whining about fact checking has the wrong source for the article in it? NPR? Wrong. Fail. Nice fact check, doc.

  • DoctorDakar

    You’re absolutely right; cancel out two wrongs and you’ve got perfect journalism going on up there.