Sit back and be transported to the rainforest...  Today's selection is meant to elicit sun in a time when many of us are under a foot of snow :)

The Baka are an ethnic group inhabiting the southeastern rain forests of Cameroon, northern Congo, northern Gabon, and southwestern Central African Republic. The Baka's exact numbers are difficult to determine, but estimates range from 5,000 to 28,000 individuals. A hunter-gatherer people, the Baka are amongst the oldest inhabitants of Cameroon and the neighbouring countries. Their semi-nomadic lifestyle has persisted largely unchanged for thousands of years.

Exploitation of the Baka is a grave reality, especially since they are still largely unaccustomed to cash-based economy. Given their small numbers and struggle against the modernizing world that surrounds them, it is predicted that they will soon be gone. As the forests disappear, the animals and plants upon which they rely will vanish.

In 1988, british guitarist Martin Cradick saw a documentary about the Baka. Fascinated by the rhythms and melodies of their culture's music, Cradick spent the next fourteen years making frequent visits to the small village of Banana in Cameroon, collaborating with musicians there and incorporating their sound into his own band back home.

In 2004, using a solar panel and Mac laptop, Cradick captured live recordings of the Baka's music deep within the rain forest of the Congo Basin. The result is "Gati Bongo," performed by a group of twenty singers and musicians - a stunningly upbeat sound you may find foreign to your ears (yet somehow familiar).  Every time I listen, it brings the sun beating down in sound, and fills me with a primal happiness that shoves me from my chair and do a little jig in my office...

Consider buying their album.  Proceeds go directly to the Baka Pygmies, and could help this beautiful culture survive a little bit longer.

http://tinyurl.com/2eug3z