Music: Out of Africa

Out of Africa

| There's something about the KRONOS QUARTET that has long made musical purists uneasy. If it's not the musicians' a la mode fashion statements, it's their extravagantly eclectic repertoire: from George Crumb's nightmarish Black Angels to the artless tangos of Astor Piazzolla and Jimi Hendrix's protopsychedelic Purple Haze, their trademark encore. The group's latest Elektra Nonesuch CD, PIECES OF AFRICA, finds the Kronos wandering even farther afield. A potent new brew of folk influences, Minimalism and European forms by eight black, brown and white African composers, the music ranges from the irrepressible Mai Nozipo (Mother Nozipo) of Zimbabwean Dumisani Maraire to...

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