Inspiring Music From The Youth

I've been thinking recently how inspiring it is to hear really good music from the youth.  There is feeling of innocence and beauty, but it's also so inspiring because it gives you hope for our future generations.  Even though these albums I'm discussing were released over forty years ago, I still think it pertains to this topic.   Both of these albums shown above (Har-You Percussion Group and their 1967 released album Har-You Percussion Group, and Les Troubadours Du Roi Baudouin and their 1963 released album Missa Luba) are probably among my twenty favorite albums of all-time.  Both have a beauty to them, in their own unique way.

The Har-You Percussion Group was formed in the 1960's by what was called the Harlem Youth Act, a music outreach program that grouped together young boys aged 16-19 from Harlem in hopes that by getting them together and teaching them how to create music, it would inspire other youths from the inner city to break free from the streets and further their education.  The director of this project was Montego Joe, a percussionist who definitely influenced the young musicians to produce a Afro-Cuban sound that is absolutely amazing and inspiring to listen to.  And these the teenagers wrote all of the pieces and played every instrument on this album.  Sure, if you were to nitpick, the musicians aren't always perfectly in sync on parts of a few tracks, but it's fairly easy to look past that when you listen to some of the percussion, and horn solos by these youngsters.  It's truly a once in a lifetime album, and "Santa Cruz" is probably my favorite track off the album.   

 
 The Missa Luba was sang by a choir of 45 young Congolese boys, and is an extremely spiritual and joyful experience to listen it all the way through.  A Belgium Priest named Uudo Haazen came to the Congo in the 1950's, and gathered these Congolese boys and wanted them to sing the Missa Luba "in the manner of your people, not my people".  Raw, and touching, the overall result is one of the most beautiful pieces ever to be put on wax.  "Sanctus" is just one movement of the Missa Luba, and probably my favorite part overall.