The Whole Music Experience

Dobet Gnahore Na Afriki Cumbancha/Koch At the age of 12, vocalist-composer-dancer-percussionist Dobet Gnahorè told her father that she would not be attending school any longer, but instead would pursue a career in music. At the time of her declamation Gnahorè lived in an arts cooperative-village co-founded by her musician father in the capitol city of the Ivory Coast. And now at the age of 24, Gnahorè appears to be taking the musical world by storm. She draws comparisons to Zap Mama's Marie Daulne for instance--another trailblazer. Her pan-African-multidisciplinary approach, which includes dynamo drumming, turbulent dancing, and vocals that set souls on fire, certainly places her on the same pedestal as Angelique Kidjo and Miriam Makeba, two other performers in which Gnahorè draws comparisons. Her second recording, Na Afriki (not to be confused with Habib Koite's Afriki , out later this month), hops and skips around the African continent. Sometimes, she drops down...