The North needs so many things. The people who are causing problems are from the North. Why are they causing problems wrecking their country? There are no roads. The north is underdeveloped. The north needs everything, all the projects that were started to help us progress have been stopped.&#13;
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Album available From iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tamala/id722299420
Bandcamp: http://amiwassidje.bandcamp.com
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FISF1T4
Deezer: http://www.deezer.com/en/album/6986109
eMusic: http://www.emusic.com/album/art-melody/wogdog-blues/13939852/



Aminata Wassidjé Traoré is a rising voice in Mali. Tamala is her debut album, recorded in Bamako between 2000 and 2008. Born in Diré, near the fabled city of Timbuktu, Ami was raised within northern Mali's rich cultural brew. From an Ethnic Songhai family, Ami started singing as a young child. Her music, like the environment that surrounded her growing up in Diré, near Timbuktu, incorporates various cultures and traditions. On Tamala, an album she self produced with the help of artist Mamadou Kelly (http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/index.cfm/fuseaction/current.bio/project_id/721.cfm) and arranger Baba Simaga, she sings in Songhai and Tamasheq.

While northern Mali still suffers the repercussions of religious and ethnic warfare, Tamala sends a message of reconciliation and inclusion. Ami believes people can work together for a solution, she sees the vast potential of Mali's diverse north. Moving to the Southern capital of Bamako not only enabled her to develop as a musician, backing up well known artists like Baba Salah (http://www.npr.org/2013/03/21/174416220/baba-salah-a-malian-musician-speaks-to-his-nations-displaced), Khaira Arby (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UDecjaj4ek) and Afel Bocoum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afel_Bocoum), it also enhanced her vision of a diverse and connected Mali.

Tamala is considered a modern-traditional album in Mali: it is rooted in northern folk musical traditions, but arranged in a contemporary way. it was conceived locally, for a Malian audience, and shines in its subtle simplicity. This album is also the first collaboration between Paul Chandler's Studio Mali (http://www.studiomali.com) and Akwaaba Music.

Paul set up Studio Mali as a label and artist management company, and has worked with legendary musicians such as Afel Bocoum, Vieux Farka (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vieux_Farka_Tour%C3%A9), Baba Salah, Andra Kouyaté (http://www.afropop.org/wp/3319/3319/), Samba Touré (http://www.samba-toure.com/) and most recently on Mamadou Kelly's album Adibar. Paul also founded i4africa.org (http://i4africa.org/), an NGO whose goal is to preserve traditional music, and provide training in the arts to underprivileged and at-risk youth in Mali.

Aminata Wassidjé Traoré - "Takamba"

Toumani Diabate on Kora,Kasse Mady Diabate on vocals and Sidiki Camara on calabash.

Sidiki Camara - Sontala (feat Toumani Diabate Kora and Kasse Mady Diabate vocals).

Africa '99  Marocco / Algeria .. sulla rotta di timtubi in moto

07 - Wassiyé - Habib Koité

In the Heart of the Moon

Learn More

Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté - Kaira, from In the Heart of the Moon (2005)

Mali is a fabled land of musical giants and this Rough Guide features the towering figures of Oumou Sangare, Ali Farka Touré and Basekou Kouyate. However the music of Mali is now under threat as never before. In the words of singer Fatoumata Diawara, ‘music has always brought hope in Mali. Music has always been strong and spiritual.’

For more information, visit http://www.worldmusic.net/store/item/RGNET1311

Before the March 2012 coup d’etat of President Amadou Toumani Touré, very few outside of West Africa knew much about Mali (except for perhaps a group of historians and world music devotees). Much of Mali is encompassed by the Sahara desert, which, despite its often scorching temperatures, has been aptly described as an ‘inland sea’, connecting the Arab and Berber cultures of the north, with the Fulani, Bambara, Mandinka and others in the south. After Muammar Gaddafi fell in the Libyan civil war, huge caches of heavy weapons were left unguarded – many ended up crossing that ‘desert sea’ and arrived in Mali. Fueled by outside groups, Al Qaeda gained a stronghold in northern Mali, installing Sharia law, closing schools, and banning so-called ‘Satan’s music’. Tragically, the region that had long been known for its ancient manuscripts, magnificent mud-architectural mosques, and captivating folk music was engulfed in conflict.

Mali’s musicians have never shied away from mixing politics and song. Vocalist Oumou Sangare (who is also a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador) has been outspoken on issues including women’s rights and polygamy since the 1990s. In 2013, when the conflict made it impossible for Mali to host its renowned Festival in the Desert, Sangare helped to take the show on the road, headlining the Caravan For Peace, performing in Tuareg refugee camps in Burkina Faso. Similarly, Khaira Arby (cousin of legendary guitarist Ali Farka Touré) has taken on issues such as female circumcision in her music. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that when war threatened to engulf Mali, its leading musicians banded together. Fatoumata Diawara gathered the nation’s leading musicians together to produce a video calling for a peaceful end to the conflict, most of whom are featured on this compilation, including Oumou Sangare, Toumani Diabate, Vieux Farka Touré, Nahawa Doumbia and Khaira Arby.

The role of these musicians cannot be underestimated, as it both galvanized the Malian public, and the international community into action, leading to military involvement by France as well as United Nations peacekeepers that quickly restored calm to most of Mali. Musically and ethnically, Mali is an incredibly diverse country. This album reflects that diversity, featuring driving Tuareg grooves rooted in a nomadic Saharan past, generations-old ‘social advice’ songs, Wassoulou music from the south, and of course there are a host of songs from Mali’s next generation of stars.

Samba Touré: Koye Ma (taken from the Rough Guide To Mali)

As part of the Pan African Space Station program in 2009, Toumani Diabate appears live in concert for his first run of South African performances in Cape Town. The king of the kora offers an incredible solo set in the equally beautiful setting of St. Georges Catherdral. 

Recorded live at St. Georges Cathedral, Cape Town, RSA on the 2nd October 2009. 

Toumani Diabate - kora

www.toumani-diabate.com

Toumani Diabate - St. Georges Cathedral, Cape Town, 2nd October 2009

Five Great Guitars - African Blues Tour
Live recording 2011

Special guest: Habib Koité
Zoumana Diarra: guitar, kora, balafon, n'goni
Mousse Pathe M'Baye: percussion
Dramane Diarra: percussion

Sound: Neil Denholm

Five Great Guitars - Wassiye

Mali Denhou

Buy on iTunes Store

Boubacar Traoré - Mali Denhou

Get the album here: http://glitterbeat.com/glitterbeat_store/

Recorded at Studio Mali in Bamako, in the autumn of 2012, Samba is joined by
his regular band members Djimé Sissoko (n’goni ) and Madou Sanogo (congas,
djembe) and guests such as the legendary, master of the soku (a one-stringed
violin) Zoumana Tereta and the fast-rising Malian neo-traditional singer Aminata
Wassidje Traore. Additionally, Hugo Race (The Bad Seeds, Dirtmusic, Fatalists)
contributes an array of subtle atmospherics on guitar and keyboards.

Samba Toure - Be Ki Don

Bassekou Kouyate with Samba Touré - Amandrai - live 2008 in Niafunké
www.samba-toure.com
www.facebook.com/samba.toure.official
www.glitterbeat.com

Bassekou Kouyate with Samba Touré - Amandrai - live 2008 in Niafunké

Alkibar Jr. La Paix feat. Afel Bocoum

Akwaaba label releases + lots of reposts. Dakar to Maputo is where it's at.

Aminata Wassidjé Traoré - "Takamba"

Akwaaba Music

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