Hugh Tracey has stood as one of the major figures of modern musicology, in spite of the fact that he himself started as an amateur, not an academic. He became the noted expert he is known as today by traveling, listening to and recording the music of sub-Saharan Africa for almost 40 years, spurred on by a personal fascination with the music and a self-proclaimed passion for the cultures that created it. The organization his work embodies, the International Library of African Music, and The Sounds Of Africa, the recorded series of his field work, made him one of the most important non-artists (and non-Africans) to work in African music. While the huge collection as been on LP for a long time, it was rare to find these recordings anywhere outside of academia.
The Court of the Mwami, Rwanda 1952 also records a now historical kingdom ended with the establishment of the Republic of Rwanda in 1961. Recorded here are Tutsi, Twa and Hutu music. Ceremonial performances include tracks by seven royal drummers. There are a number of different praise songs, the most gorgeous of which are pieces performed by women of the Mwami court.
