Mega Africa

A decent place to start if you want to start exploring African music. 100 songs on 4 CDs. But if you know anything about African music, you'll know that African songs are usually much longer than the average 4-minute pop song. They usually run past the 5 minute mark, sometimes past 10. Do the math and you'll realize that the songs here have been truncated to around 3 minutes, which is frustrating if you were thinking you'd found your favorite songs, in their fully glory, on one CD.The 4-CD set leans heavily on Francophone Africa (Congo, Senegal, Mali, Guinea etc) which is understandable being that the label releasing it is French. The downside is that it's not truly representative of the broader spectrum of African music. And some of the songs, in catering to French "world music" tastes, can be on the syrupy and soppy side.However, it was on this CD that I first heard Bembeya Jazz, Mama Sissoko, Cesaria Evora, my late compatriot Chiwoniso, Djeli Moussa Diawara (Jeli Musa Jawara for the Anglos), and Henri Dikongue, who are now a major part of my CD collection. I also heard some unknown gems from artists I was already familiar with, so this collection, its limitations notwithstanding, went a long way towards broadening my musical horizons.