MADAGASCAR • MUSIC OF THE SAKALAVA MENABE

This CD based on field recordings displays the great musical diversity of the ancient kingdom of Sakalava Menabe, one of the richest cultures in Madagascar: possession music, funeral songs, dynastic rituals music, kabosy lute, valiha and marovany zithers, firimby flutes, drums, teenagers' songs, rhymes. Moreover, it presents, as a posthumous tribute, Mama Sana's last recordings. Mama Sana spent fifty years singing and playing valiha zither for one of princely families of the kingdom. She was 95 when these recordings were made but still vigorous.