This event is produced by Musicians for Musicians (MFM) President Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi aka SoSaLa and the round table host will be David Gilden. This MFM event is the first time to bring together musicians who have spent a significant amount of time in Africa to further their artistry. The panel will discuss their experiences in Africa and deep immersion in a foreign culture, experiences that can be realized no other way. The MFM members on the panel will share not only their anecdotes and achievements but talk about the value of learning and experiencing African music at its origin. This is why we should encourage young musicians and academics to travel and gain exposure to African culture, firsthand, and develop lifelong friendships and collaborative partnerships.

David Gilden has been playing the West African kora for four decades since he first heard it at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in 1978. With ten trips to West Africa (including Gambia, Mail and Senegal) to study the kora directly with local Mandinka musicians and a deep proficiency in electronic music Gilden is one the few artists to blend traditional world music traditions with modern electronica.
ZOOM Webinar #13: https://youtu.be/qGLCGe9rRq8 

World Music, and specifically African music, has always faced challenges in gaining a large audience in America. The more we can inspire younger musicians to learn from and collaborate with African artists and to incorporate global elements into their work, the richer their music will be. The awareness of Africa and its individual countries and their local culture needs be recognized and celebrated. After all, Africa lies at the root of many of our popular American genres, from blues to hip-hop. Unfortunately, too few Americans truly understand these profound historical connections. It’s a fact that African music still receives very little coverage in the United States. PRX’s Afropop Worldwide and BBC AMERICA are good sources of African programing, but they reach only a niche audience. After MFM’s successful ZOOM roundtable discussion about Fela Kuti, Sohrab decided to continue ZOOM talk events about Africa especially about its music culture because Music is essential in Africa’s everyday life. Music has the power to speak out for its people. It still can achieve social justice and organize people to stand up for their rights. Good examples of great leadership are Fela Kuti (Nigeria), Thomas Mapfumo (Zimbabwe) and Bobi Wine (Uganda). Surely, Africa will continue to be a strong and growing force in international politics and public affairs. Africans must lead that charge, taking care of their own politics to achieve “real” unity among nations. For African musicians as a workforce, this means establishing functioning unions in their respective countries. Individually, they must achieve and disseminate practical knowledge of the international music business, including the importance of copyright ownership, care for social justice and fair pay, and protocols for collaboration within the international musician community. MFM is lucky to have members who care for African music and its culture. All of them have visited Africa multiple times, stayed and lived in their respective countries, and gotten involved with its local people as music students, music activists (cofounding NPOs), recording studio personnel, writers, interviewers, educators, and more. African music and its instruments lured them there to delve deeply into African cultures. These are the right people to speak about ‘their” Africa experiences and share them with us.

About MFM (https://www.MusiciansForMusicians.org) 

MFM seeks to bring together musicians from all disciplines, styles, traditions, and localities in the cause of their mutual self-betterment. Whether through education, networking, or political action, MFM's goal is to elevate the work of all musicians to the level of a true profession.