About as good as it gets! 🌎Admired 100%💕

Sabou

FR-9W1-12-16706

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)

Sona Jobareth Kemet

Kaouding Cissoko-Senegal-Mauritanie

Samba Touré: Gandadiko
Release date: January 30th, 2015
Glitterbeat Records
www.glitterbeat.com

His voice is resonant, the rhythms have a relentless groove and his guitar burns with the intensity of the desert sun. But above all, there’s a confidence and gravitas that reinforces the feeling that Samba is a man whose time has come.
**** Review of “Albala”/ Songlines (UK)

Samba Toure’s previous album Albala was recorded during the fear-laden atmosphere of 2012, when northern Mali (including his ancestral village of Diré) had succumbed to sharia law and radical Islamist control and Bamako, his adopted home, still reeled in the chaos of the recent military coup.

Albala received widespread acclaim and was rightfully recognized not only as the best album of Samba’s career but also as an undeniable musical statement about the human toll of war and political crisis. Samba had spent years honing his artistry (including stints playing with Malian blues master Ali Farka Touré and Kora genius Toumani Diabate) and Albala signposted a mature artist, full of sonic imagination and narrative fire.

Gandadiko, the title of Samba’s potent, diverse and ambitious new album, translates from his native language Songhai as: “Land of Drought” or “Burning Land.” The title seems to indicate a return to the dark textures that marked Albala but in fact Gandadiko is a more complex story than that. 

Philippe Sanmiguel, a record producer living in Bamako (Anansy Cissé, Mariam Koné) and Samba’s producer for both albums, provides the details:

“One thing I’m sure of is that we didn’t want to do a second ‘Albala’. For Samba that album was maybe a little too sad and he wanted something closer to who he really is: hopeful. So the challenge was to have something as strong as ‘Albala’, but with more variety in the rhythms and moods and colors. I think the album sounds musically less dark, it’s more danceable and up-tempo, but, sorry Samba, it’s not entirely a joyful album. Tension, troubles and danger are still there in many of the songs. 

The musical moods and textures found on Gandadiko often play against the moralistic, reflective and at times anguished tenor of the lyrics. For example, Touri Idjé Bibi (Black Fruits) breezes along with a straight-ahead, infectious dance groove, punctuated by soaring backing vocals. The hopeful sound that Samba had originally sought seems to have been found. But the final lines of the song are pointed and cautionary:

Oh earth, forgiveness, oh river forgiveness,
Everyday we offend you.

The songs on Gandadiko are framed by a restless eclecticism. 

Samba’s guitar playing has never been so anxious, exploratory and rock and roll and his voice has never been as smooth and relaxed. Samba wants to be many places at once and the accomplishment of Gandadiko is that by successfully navigating these sorts of “contradictions,” Samba’s artistry has reached an even higher level. 

Glitterbeat Records:
Homepage: www.glitterbeat.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Glitterbeat
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/glitterbeattv
Twitter: twitter.com/Glitterbeat_Rec

Samba Touré
Homepage: http://www.samba-toure.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SambaToureMusic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samba.toure.official


Samba Touré - Touri Idjé Bibi

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - Désert Nianafing feat. Amy Sacko, Afel Bocoum & Ahmed ag Kaedi

Overdub instrument at Home Recording - 5/10/2024
Performed on Yamaha DTXtreme III Drum Kit with a Yamaha M12 Percussion Drum Pad

Just How Deep Is Your Love  -  Voca n Drums.wav

The Malian blues singer, Khaira Arby, belts out a classic hit with her rocking band comprised of Dramane Toure, Mahalmandane Abbanassane, Mohamed Ag Mohamed and others.  This track is on the about to be released CD of the same name: "Gossip" on the Clermont Music label.  Recorded mixed and mastered in NY.  Track 10 on Catalog number CLE011 and ISRC code QMPGD1500010.  CD release date: March 31.  

Khaira Arby - gossip

Mali Denhou

Buy on iTunes Store

Boubacar Traoré - Mali Denhou

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

Vieux Farka Touré's beautiful latest album was recorded as an homage to his homeland.  Being that his native Mali has been splintered by territorial fighting between Tuareg and Islamic rebels since January 2012, his new album, Mon Pays, is devoted to reminding the world about the beauty and culture of his homeland.
 
‘For me it is a statement for the world that this land is for the sons and daughters of Mali, not for Al Qaeda or any militants. This land is for peace and beauty, rich culture and tolerance.This is our heritage, what we must always fight to protect in any way that we can. For me, that means making music that reminds the world of who we are.’
 
Translating as ‘My Nation,’ this predominantly acoustic undertaking had been planned before the invasions began. Inspired by his work with Israeli pianist and vocalist Idan Raichel, Touré initially went into a Bamako studio to honor the acoustic blues tradition of Northern and Southern Mali. Since that time, Mon Pays transformed into an artifact of cultural preservation.

Two songs on the project -Future’ and ‘Peace’ feature Sidiki Diabate’s kora leading an emotional charge complemented by Touré’s spectacular guitar work. Both tracks represent an important generational "passing of the torch" as Sidiki’s father, Toumani is considered one of the greatest living kora masters and was a close friend of Vieux’s father Ali. Their two records together, In the Heart of the Moon and Ali and Toumani, were awarded Grammies. At the 2011 ceremonies, Vieux accepted the prestigious award for his father, who had recently passed from bone cancer.

Mon Pays is the most mature and lovely record yet from one of this generation's most exciting artists to come out of Mali and one of world music's true rising stars.


10 Vieux Farka Toure-Ay Bakoy

Glitterbeat is committed to global sounds and artists that don’t necessarily rubber-stamp our pre-conceptions of what regional music sounds like.  We live in a world of ever increasing intersections and the global musical conversation does not operate according to straight, predictable, and easily delineated rules. It is a conversation that is being reinvented and revolutionized each day.

Samba Touré - Touri Idjé Bibi

Glitterbeat Records

Recent comments

Mosab Osman

Younes

azawad free

Stacey-in-Texas

Related tracks