Recorded in the field by Paul Newman, Eric Davidson, and Lyn Davidson, Music from the Villages of Northeastern Nigeria explores the music of five distinct ethnic groups: the Bura, Ga’anda, Bolewa, Tangale, and Tera. Published as part of the Asch Mankind Series in 1971, the collection’s thirty-one tracks tour the variety of musical traditions practiced in a region of marked cultural and linguistic diversity. In his review of the record, Nigerian musicologist Aken Euba wrote that these tracks “provide a good cross-section of the music of five African ethnic groups and is, from this point of view, useful for the general student of African Culture.” Liner notes include ethnographic profiles of the five groups, a map of their geographical distribution, a diagram of their linguistic classification, photographs, and annotations of each track which include partial translations.

Sources:

Euba, Akin. 1973. “Record Review: Music from the Villages of Northeastern Nigeria.” Ethnomusicology 17(1):148–149.

Track Listing