DJ Raf
My first exposure to popular Aftican music was as a teen on the east coast hearing Miriam Makeba’s “Pata Pata” and then Hugh Masekela’s “Grazing In The Grass” which hit #1 in 1968. With all the new rock and soul music emerging during that time competition was fierce, but these stood out as very dance-able and curiously infectious – I just couldn’t get these tunes out of my head.
I arrived in Santa Cruz in 1976 as a free-spirited, open-minded visual artist with no plans or agenda other than enjoying the summer vacation. I parked my van up Mission hill and thought I’d check out this little town. I walked down the hill to a clock tower. Next to it was a sidewalk cafe called the Good Fruit Company where I noticed some people who obviously weren’t local wearing traditional African dashikis and toting fender guitars, congas and saxophones. They were setting up for a show so I decided to stick around to listen. By dusk they were jamming what’s called “Highlife” music and gathered a crowd who danced on the sidewalk outside the cafe. By dark the crowed swelled and spilled out into the street, still dancing. I was wondering if the police would show up because it got kind of loud and people were blocking the road. None showed. Instead, whenever a car pulled up to the crowd it gently backed up and drove the other way. I thought to myself, “Wow, where am I? This is great!” It was Santa Cruz in the 70’s and Hedzoleh Soundz was playing for free. I decided to stick around.
About a year later while working in my art studio late at night, I heard the local community radio station KUSP announce they were looking for late-night programmers. No prior radio experience necessary, but you need to submit a playlist. Being a night owl and an eclectic music enthusiast, I thought I’d give it a try. Back east I listened to Pacifica (WBAI) and other college stations which influenced me a great deal. They turned me on to music I could never hear anywhere else. The play list I sent to KUSP included Astor Piazzola and Django Reinhardt and I’m pretty sure that got me in the door. In February of ‘77 I did my very first radio show, Saturday morning from 3:00 to 7:00 am. I called it Ante Meridiem Antics. It was free-form jazz and spoken word. From Ken Nordine, Firesign Theater, Scoop Nisker to Bitch’s Brew to Rahsaan Roland Kirk…great fun.
After a couple-a-three years or so the show moved to a better time slot, midnight to 3:00 am. Now it followed the most popular show at the time, Roots, Rock, Reggae with Lance Linares (who happen to be the station manager). He always left me with some intense “dub” and I found it hard to find a segue from that unbelievable Jamaican sound. One day Laura (Lance’s wife, also a programmer) pulled out a Fela Kuti record for me and I played a track from Zombie. Wow! It had the power, rhythm, lyrics, plus it made a fitting segue from the reggae show. I started seeking more music like this and discovered artists like Dudu Pukwana, Johnny Dyani, Manu Dibango, Abdullah Ibrahim and even my old favorite Hugh Masekela. Whenever I would visit my family in New York I’d go to the the African Record Center in Brooklyn to collect some LP’s. By 1980 there was enough material to change my musical format to eature only music from Africa. I decided to change the name of the show to The Vinyl Jungle.
The 80’s saw an explosion of music from Africa. Acts like King Sunny Ade sold out stadiums like the Greek Theater in Berkley. KUSP began categorizing African music in geographic regions. Now the variety featured Soukous, Juju, Highlife, Mbaqanga – some styles even got mainstream recognition like Paul Simon’s Graceland and Michael Jackson’s Wanna Be Startin’ Somthin’ (taken directly from Manu Dibango’s Makosa. After ten years of a weekly radio shift of midnight to 2:00 am, and moving 40 miles away to Monterey, I decided to give up my “air chair” to Mikey Kanner. He was already doing another world music program, so he co-hosted with Brenda Bryant. They did an outstanding job, and even kept the original show name.
Cut to ten years later (got married, had kids, bought a house in Silicon Valley, etc. etc.), I meet up with an old ‘pataphysician pal Dale Owen at a party. He said the station was looking for a programmer for my old show. I was living in Campbell (which was a lot closer then Carmel), so I was very excited to be accepted back into the KUSP fold in 2000. The biggest change was that digital CD’s were now the primary music format rather than vinyl records, so the old name he Vinyl Jungle had to be retired. After many wild replacement suggestions from other programmers (my favorite was “The Polycarbonate Rain Forest”), Rhythm Afrique was chosen.
Another change for me was a new time slot, 8:00 to 10:00 pm on Fridays. Without a doubt this helped gain more listeners (and helped me get more sleep). And now through the internet we can have this blog to include play lists, local concert listings, information about the artists, and maybe if we’re lucky…streaming shows and podcasts!
I absolutely love African music and think it’s some of the best in the world. I’d personally like to thank each and every one of you for listening and supporting Central Coast Public Radio KUSP. It’s a privilege to be hosting this program and sharing the rich music from Africa. I hope to keep doing this for many years to come.
Keep the Beat,
Rafael DeSoto