Recent Album Reviews

Bacilos - Sin Vergüenza class=

Bacilos - Sin Vergüenza

Los Delinqüentes - Recuerdos Garrapateros de la Flama y el Carril

Los Delinqüentes - "Recuerdos Garrapateros de la Flama y el Carril"

Ali Farka Touré - Savane

Ali Farka Touré - "Savane"

Macaco - Ingravitto

Macaco - "Ingravitto"

Various artists - Nigeria 70

Various artists - "Nigeria 70"

Amadou and Mariam - Dimanche a Bamako

Amadou & Mariam - "Dimanche a Bamako"

Ali Farka Touré - "Savane"

Saturday, 30 December 2006

Ali Farka Touré (1939-2006) was one of ten sons born into the noble Sorhai family around Northern Mali and the only to survive past infancy. His nickname given by his parents, “Farka,” means donkey—an animal revered for its stubborness and determination.

“Let me make one thing clear. I’m the donkey that nobody climbs on!”

Picking up the guitar at age 10, he also learned how to play the gurkel and njarka, instruments included in many of his subsequent recordings. In the late 1960s, many American artists including John Lee Hooker toured Mali. Ali initially thought Hooker was playing Malinian music, little did he realize that American Blues was so deeply rooted in Malian music. Many Western reporters actually gave Ali the nickname “The John Lee Hooker of Mali,” which Ali didn’t like at all, despite his great respect for Hooker.

This was one of the most interesting things for me to discover on “Savane” as well as his other recordings—to grow up knowing blues, not having a clue about music from Mali, then discovering that one style preceeds the other. Much of Ali’s music reminds me of the American Blues I’m used to, a lot of the same rhythms, feelings. It’s relaxed, slow, driving, explosive, pensive, etc. I love hearing a lot of the underproduced clicks and pops of the stringed instruments, it’s real gritty.

Ali Farka Touré - Savane Artist: Ali Farka Touré
Album: Savane
Label: World Circuit
Released: 2006

Buy this album from Amazon.com

  1. Erdi
  2. Yer Bounda Fara
  3. Beto
  4. Savane
  5. Soya
  6. Penda Yoro
  7. Machengoidi
  8. Ledi Coumbe
  9. Hanana
  10. Soko
  11. Gambari
  12. Banga
  13. Njarou

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Amadou & Mariam - "Dimanche a Bamako"

Sunday, 12 March 2006

I serendipitously came across this album a few months ago and it’s been in red-hot rotation ever since. The first few things you’ll read about Amadou Bagayoko & Miriam Doumbia is that they are both blind, married to each other, and have been making music together since the early 1980s (Amadou previously played guitar for the Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako since the late-1960s). They met at the Institute for Young Blind People in Bamako, Mali. Years later, the husband and wife duo travelled to the Ivory Coast to make a few cassette tapes with Nigerian producer Aliyu Maikano Adamu. I imagine since then, their soulful music has spread from Western Africa all the way to my tiny New York apartment in the blink of an eye.

Manu Chao, the multilingual, globe-trotting singer extraordinaire wrote and sang on a few songs as well as producing the album. Initially, it seemed confusing to have Chao’s signature police siren soundbites peppered throughout the album, but the more I listened to it the less it bothered me. What blew me away early on was Amadou’s guitar, which is stirring, skillful, and smooth. Many of the songs have a multi-layered sound (especially the rhythmn section), but never getting too far away from the integrity of their troubador-like lyricism.

Dimanche a Bamako (Sunday in Bamako) starts of with a little boy greeting the couple, as if on the street: “Mariam and Amadou, hello. Are things going well? How are you?” (my amateur French translation). Mariam seems to sweetly answer his call. The next track, M’Bife Balafon, is a signature Manu Chao instrumental that serves as a nice interlude between the initial lazy and sweet beginning and Amadou’s blues-blazing guitar in Coulibaly. La réalité sounds like a tour song or an anthem to a road trip of a lifetime.

Amadou & Miriam - Dimanche a Bamako Artist: Amadou & Mariam
Album: Dimanche a Bamako
Label: Nonesuch
Released: 2005

Buy this album from Amazon.com

  1. M’Bife
  2. M’Bife Balafon
  3. Coulibaly
  4. La Realite
  5. Senegal Fast Food
  6. Artistiya
  7. La Fete au Village
  8. Camions Sauvages
  9. Beaux Dimanches
  10. La Paix
  11. Djanfa
  12. Taxi Bamako
  13. Politic Amagni
  14. Gnidjougouya
  15. M’Bife Blues

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