African Music

[seeline]

I'd suggest browsing through the Ethiopiques collection and getting some individual discs...

[blajay]

Great thread, thanks! I have a lot to listen to. I have been listening to Kulanjan by Toumani Diabate and Taj Mahal for years now--interesting pairing, speaking of the use of "blues" in marketing African music. I think I'll check out the other Toumani Diabate albums posted on this thread, to start.

EDIT: I'd appreciate any other recommendations based on my enjoyment of this album

Edited August 21, 2008 by zanonesdelpueblo

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Just found an interesting blog about African music. Some samples of recordings - mostly out of print. Good to explore.

Here 'tis

http://likembe.blogspot.com/

MG

[seeline]

Just found an interesting blog about African music. Some samples of recordings - mostly out of print. Good to explore.

Here 'tis

http://likembe.blogspot.com/

MG

Ahem.

* I also like World Service (African and Latin), and the VOA's African Music Treasures, which has some truly amazing recordings (posted legally, no less!) MG, you'd love the W. African Sufi music posted there, I'm sure...

Edited November 16, 2008 by seeline

[Stefan Wood]

This is mandatory for any world music lover:

Simply great, GREAT music! It has a bit of the Komono acid thumb piano sound, but its a lot more spiritual and the music packs a sonic whallop. Highly recommended; it would go on my personal "best of 2008" list.

Edited November 23, 2008 by Stefan Wood

[jimi089]

Greetings all - I was hoping someone could make some recommendations for some good South African music - stuff with emphasis on vocals and harmonies. A friend made me a copy of an old LP entitled Sotho Vocal Jive that's absolutely fantastic and I want more in that vein. Any guidance is greatly appreciated!

-D.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Greetings all - I was hoping someone could make some recommendations for some good South African music - stuff with emphasis on vocals and harmonies. A friend made me a copy of an old LP entitled Sotho Vocal Jive that's absolutely fantastic and I want more in that vein. Any guidance is greatly appreciated!

-D.

probably mentioned already but this is a good start - via e-music samples.

Indestructable Beat of Soweto

... and then Volume 2: Thunder Before Dawn

Edited December 11, 2008 by Man with the Golden Arm

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

There should be plenty of stuff around by Mahlathini, the African Queens, or Mahlathini and the African Queens.

This is a decent place to get South African music. This page is the index to their South African music catalogue.

http://kalahari.net/music/southafrican/default.aspx

Postage is high from SA to the US, BUT it's charged on a per parcel basis, so the more CDs you get, the postage remains the same and the unit cost goes down. I've bought a few times from them. And the prices of many CDs are very low indeed!

Oh, I think the keyword search takes you to funny places; use the search at the top to look for specific artists. (Or maybe it's the other way round.)

MG

[jimi089]

Thanks for the suggestions! I will investigate and report back....

[ejp626]

Probably could put this on the radio topic, but here is ok too.

There is one more day to listen to an Amadou & Mariam concert on BBC's World Routes

World Routes

Then the upcoming WR program is a special on Miriam Makeba. Good stuff.

[seeline]

Just for fun, Nigerian-American blogger With Comb and Razor's Nigerian Christmas records post...

And here's his "When Naija Meets Nashville" Nigerian C&W mix.

I have to smile at the "back to Africa" purists who think that nobody in the Motherland listens to anything like the latter, let alone plays it....

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Just for fun, Nigerian-American blogger With Comb and Razor's Nigerian Christmas records post...

And here's his "When Naija Meets Nashville" Nigerian C&W mix.

I have to smile at the "back to Africa" purists who think that nobody in the Motherland listens to anything like the latter, let alone plays it....

Yes, makes me smile, too. I have a lovely S E Rogie LP of his sixties stuff produced on his own label Rogiphone (issued in UK on Cooking Vinyl) and including the wonderful song "I wish I was a cowboy".

And everyone listens to American music over there (not all the time though). On bush taxis and buses in Senegal you'll see cut out photos of Cheikh Amadou Bamba, founder of the Islamic brotherhood of the Mourids, next to cutouts of Madonna or Posh Spice, all under a painted frieze reading, "there is no god but Allah and Mohammad is his prophet". And nobody is ripping the revealing photos away from the bus windows. A very civilised place, West Africa.

MG

[seeline]

I think you know that I ran into problems with some people who have a limited view of African music on another board... this stuff would send them into conniptions!

More seriously, now that I'm studying Malinke percussion (mostly Guinea and Mali styles), I'm finding that there seem to be two camps: the inclusive one (a lot of people who've been to W. Africa fall into this group), and the exclusive one, which categorizes African music in a very limited way.

Sound vaguely familiar?

S.E. Rogie: I love his music!

Edited December 26, 2008 by seeline

[Van Basten II]

Won't win any originality contest but i'm enjoying this quite a lot, very dynamic stuff.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Won't win any originality contest but i'm enjoying this quite a lot, very dynamic stuff.

I haven't heard that. I saw him in St Louis, Senegal in '97 and he was TOTAL DYNAMITE, singing very much more in the style of his first two albums, "Doxandeme" and "Dieufdieull" than in the style of his more recent material for Jololi, which has been issued on CD by World Circuit. A year or so later, I saw him in London, at The Barbican, and it was all like his recent material; very low key stuff. The contrast was so great that I haven't bought any of his albums since then.

If you see the CD "Inedits", this contains his first two K7s from the Audio Video label and is a great coupling.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I've spent the evening listening to all three of my Syliphone CDs by Kouyate Sory Kandia (which are almost everythng he ever recorded). I've loved his music ever since I first bought a pirate tape of his sixteen years ago, but tonight it just sounds special to me.

(All of these are available on e-music.)

I started off with

"Kouyate Sory Kandia"

It's a reissue of SLP12 plus a couple of tracks half-inched from Vogue France. The only unsatisfactory element of this is that there's sufficient space for "PDG", which takes up all of side one of SLP17 ("PDG") to have been included.

Other than that, this is a most incredible album. On the LP's side 1, Sory Kandia is backed by the Ensemble National "Djoliba" - using completely traditional instruments. On side 2, the backing is by Keletigui et ses Tambourinis (I am anxiously awaiting Sterns release of a box set of Keletigui & co, following Bembeya Jazz & Balla & ses Balladins). KSK's style is authentically classical, but he is easily able to work, and work miracles, with the great Mandinke big band of Keletigui. Many of his songs are still well loved in Guinea and an entire LP side of a modern medley of Syliphone hits was devoted to his songs.

All of this CD is great, but there are two utter masterpieces included. One, with the Ensemble, is the famous historical song "Sakhodougou". The other, with Keletigui & co, is "N'na", another well known song praising the mothers of the world. If you've never heard him, Kouyate Sory Kandia has one of the great voices of the 20th Century - a powerful tenor voice with great mobility and capable of projecting great drama and emotion. And these two songs just swept me away this evening.

So much so, that I just had to go on to

"L'epopee du Mandingue"

This is most of a three volume LP set by the same title: SLP36, 37 & 38. KSK is accompanied here only by bala (played by Kouyate Djeli Sory, a member of Keletigui & co), kora (Sidikiba Diabate from Mali - who may be Sidiki Diabate, Toumani's father) and an uncredited player on bolon - one of these:

The material is all historical praise songs, sung with perfect classical poise.

Then I went on to

"Tour Afrique de la chanson"

This was originally issued as SLP20 and now has a couple of extra tracks from KSK when he was a member of Les Ballets Africains, plus the missing track from SLP37; the 18 minute masterpiece "Lamban".

It is only a bit of a tour of Africa. KSK attempts songs from the Cameroun and Zambia as well as Mandinke, Bambara and Peul songs from Guinea, Mali and Senegal; most of this is, therefore, on home ground for him. Still, the other material is well done. All the original tracks from the LP are backed by Keletigui & co.

I really can't recommend these CDs - particularly the first - too highly.

It's expensive to get the CDs - Sterns are flogging them for £12.95, which is a damn sight more than I paid for them in the African music shop in Brussels in 1999! I think, though, that they're a lot cheaper on e-music.

So, now that's finished, what else can I play but

Keletigui & ses Tambourinis' second incarnation (their first was as Orchestre Syli) as Orchestre de la Paillote (where the band still plays).

MG

[jostber]

Won't win any originality contest but i'm enjoying this quite a lot, very dynamic stuff.

I haven't heard that. I saw him in St Louis, Senegal in '97 and he was TOTAL DYNAMITE, singing very much more in the style of his first two albums, "Doxandeme" and "Dieufdieull" than in the style of his more recent material for Jololi, which has been issued on CD by World Circuit. A year or so later, I saw him in London, at The Barbican, and it was all like his recent material; very low key stuff. The contrast was so great that I haven't bought any of his albums since then.

If you see the CD "Inedits", this contains his first two K7s from the Audio Video label and is a great coupling.

MG

This one is a classic! Love Cheikh's sound and groove here.

[Van Basten II]

Not sure if i saw a recommendation in this thread anyway picked up this last week

It's the musical equivalent of taking a nice hot shower after a long hard day of work

Apologies for the poor quality of the picture, could not find any good ones. here's the whole title New Ancient Strings (Nouvelle Cordes Anciennes)

Toumani Diabate/Ballake Sissoko

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Not sure if i saw a recommendation in this thread anyway picked up this last week

It's the musical equivalent of taking a nice hot shower after a long hard day of work

Apologies for the poor quality of the picture, could not find any good ones. here's the whole title New Ancient Strings (Nouvelle Cordes Anciennes)

Toumani Diabate/Ballake Sissoko

You're obviously ready for the original, VBII

Here's a piece about it by Banning Eyre - much better than I could put together.

http://www.afropop.org/explore/album_revie...Ancient+Strings

$11.22 at Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Mali-Ancient-Strings...6246&sr=1-2

Cheaper in the UK I think, but you'd have to pay more postage.

or Amazon France for 9.59 euro

http://www.amazon.fr/Mali-Cordes-anciennes...6366&sr=1-1

I was playing both of these a few days ago. Great over breakfast music! Well, great any time music, really.

MG

[Van Basten II]

Will try to dig it up, thanks MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I’ve spent the afternoon listening to Super Biton de Segou, the great Bambara band from Segou, Mali.

Super Biton is one of the great Mande big bands but their music is radically different from the better known music of the great Guinean bands, such as Bembeya Jazz National, Balla & ses Balladins and Keletigui & ses Tambourinis. It’s much hotter and more frantic and the sax and guitar soloists in particular are very much funkier.

I started out with

The band’s first album issued on the Mali Kunkan label in 1977 and now available on Syllart as “Belle époque”

Then went on to

Their second album, released at the same time and reissued on LP by Syllart as

One track of this, the fourteen minute “Nyangaran foli” is included in “Belle époque”.

Then went onto

It has been reissued on CD, with three bonus cuts, as

This one was recorded in 1986, for Bolibana, during a French tour by the band.

There’s another I haven’t heard

“Balandzan”, recorded for Tangent in 1983.

As far as I know, these are the only albums the band has made. It’s not clear to me whether this album, made in 1970, is Super Biton.

The band was certainly still going in the early nineties. However, one of their lead singers, Aboubacar Kissa Cubain de Segou, had left and made a recording for CK7, which I’ve also been playing. This is similar to the Super Biton music, but is a traditional version of their style.

You can get “Belle époque” and “Afro jazz de Mali” as legal downloads from mp3,com and emusic respectively.

“Belle époque” is available on CD from Amazon.fr real cheap

http://www.amazon.fr/Belle-Epoque-Super-Bi...7443&sr=1-2

And at stupid prices from Amazon UK.

If I could only have one of these three albums, it would be “Afro Jazz de Mali”, but they’re all bloomin’ marvellous!

The K7 of Aboubacar Kissa Cubain de Segou (not cheap) and the CD of “Balandzan” (at a silly price, unfortunately, or I’d have it) can be bought here

http://www.natari.com/mali.htm

Do have a listen to some of their stuff.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I’ve got the answer, now, to the relationship between Super Biton de Segou and the Orchestre Regional de Segou.

The Orchestre Regional de Segou was created by the merging of two rival bands – Segou Jazz and The Rennaisance. Super Biton was created by the merging of Orchestre Regional de Segou and Alliance du Jazz.

MG

[Van Basten II]

Ba Cissoko - Sabolan

Given his reputation in Europe and his native Guinea, as well as his pedigree, the debut from kora player Ba Cissoko and his group arrives with plenty to live up to. For once, though, all the hype is more than justified. There's plenty of dance music on hand here; all of it from the Manding tradition, but given a healthy, and sometimes daring edge that makes it contemporary without being deliberately modern. Cissoko himself plays acoustic kora, and his skill is quite breathtaking. But things take a tilt into the unknown when the band's other kora player, Sekou Kouyate amplifies his instrument. While you know it's still a kora, the things he does with it turn it on its head — it's little wonder he's been called the Jimi Hendrix of the instrument. The sound becomes totally new, exciting waterfalls of notes that are palpably thrilling. The rhythm section of bass and percussion anchor it all, and keep the groove going quite effortlessly. This is trail-blazing, purely West African music of a kind not heard in far too long, and completely irresistible

the hendrix of the kora

the hendrix of the kora

the hendrix of the kora

the hendrix of the kora

Don't know about him being the Hendrix of the kora, but just bought the album it is quite good, a nice balance of groove, ryhthm and great melodies

, maybe purists will think of him as a watered down version of the "real stuff" but it is still enjoyable fare that people who don't listen to this kind of music can relate and appreciate wihout being lost.

[jostber]

Just ordered this, thanks for the recommendation, MG!

[Adam]

I’ve spent the afternoon listening to Super Biton de Segou, the great Bambara band from Segou, Mali.

Super Biton is one of the great Mande big bands but their music is radically different from the better known music of the great Guinean bands, such as Bembeya Jazz National, Balla & ses Balladins and Keletigui & ses Tambourinis. It’s much hotter and more frantic and the sax and guitar soloists in particular are very much funkier.

Thanks! that looks like something I need to look into.

Spent last night at Cal State LA at a concert featuring Mulatu Astake in his first appearance in Los Angeles. A pick-up band of high level LA-based jazz musicians mostly, including Bennie Maupin, Phil Ranelin, Azar Lawrence. Some messy transitions and unclear endings, as one might imagine from limited rehearsal, but overall a pretty marvelous concert! They really captured the moods of his music, and had good solos. Mulatu played vibes & occasional timbales, and had a nice vibe solo or two, but it was really about his songwriting & arranging I think.