Ballake Sissoko - Berekoy
album 'Tomora' Indigo 2005

Ballake Sissoko - Berekoy

Laidu-Rokia Traore

Samba Touré - Ago Djamba. 
From the album ALBALA. Glitterbeat Records 2013

Samba Touré - Ago Djamba

Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze - Sira

3-track edit taster: Balaké / Kambelé Ba / Fanta

Artist:Amadou Balaké
Title: In Conclusion
Label: Sterns Africa 
Album release: July 20th, 2015

After a career that spanned a half-century in which he became the most famous musician from Burkina Faso and a legend of African popular music, Amadou Balaké died last year at the age of 70. This album contains his final recordings.

Born Amadou Traoré in Burkina Faso when it was still the French West African colony of Upper Volta, he was given the name Balaké by Guinean fans who especially liked the way he sang the Mande classic of that title. By that time (the late 1960s) he had been performing as an itinerant singer, guitarist and percussionist all around West Africa. On returning to his homeland in 1970, Amadou Balaké sang with a succession of groups in the capital, Ouagadougou. Building on widely popular Afro-Cuban and funk styles as well as the Mande repertoire modernized by such bands as Guinea’s Bembeya Jazz and Mali’s Rail Band, he incorporated local warba dance rhythms into his music and sang primarily in the Mossi language of Burkina Faso, establishing a distinct Burkinabé sound.

It was a sound that traveled well as Balaké resumed his roving. He recorded his first album in Accra, Ghana, in 1976; his second in Lagos, Nigeria; the next two in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and then his classic salsa album, Amadou Balaké à New York, in that city with some of its top Latin sidemen in 1979. He was based in Paris for most of the ‘80s but eventually settled in Ouagadougou. In 2000 Ibrahima Sylla, the pre-eminent African record producer, invited Balaké to join the international salsa supergroup Africando — a match made in Spanish Harlem, one might say, considering that Balaké preceded Africando in working with Latin musicians in New York. With Africando Balaké recorded four albums and toured far and wide.

He was still giving weekly shows in Ouagadougou when the French music journalist Florent Mazzoleni met him there in 2013 and produced the recordings that would prove to be the old master’s last testament. Accompanied by young local musicians, he revisited some of his favorite songs, including his namesake, “Balaké”, which he had never previously recorded. Captured mostly in one take with few overdubs, these tracks present a performer seasoned by decades of experience and in full command of his art.

Tracklist: 
1. Kambélé Ba 
2. Bar Konon Mousso (Musicien c'est pas quelqu'un) 
3. Lamizana
4. Naaba 
5. Massa Kamba 
6. Kèlè Bila 
7. Fanta 
8. Wayi Queligi Yéllé 
9. Balaké 
10. Oyé Ka Bara Kignan
11. Yélle

Personnel:
Vocal: Amadou Balaké Guitar: Michel Diansoro 'Haute Tension' Ngoni, percussion: Boubacar Djiga 'Papa' Balafon, percussion: Sanou Dara Bass, bass ngoni: Luc Kyendrebeogo Drums: Jean Sorogo 'Bosco' Trumpet: Georges Théodore Vindou 'Alpha' Saxophone: Yizih Organ: Father Ben Backing vocals: Sanou Dara, Moustapha Maïga, Aïda
Produced by: Florent Mazzoleni

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Amadou Balaké: In Conclusion (album release July 20th 2015): free download 3-track taster

Müb Miezo 18/6 and KT Strat > HX Stomp, RC-3
2i2, Logic Pro X (Studio B, main)

A Temporal Pincer Maneuver (Wheeler and Ives) - 8_26_25, 08.04

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

Congo Mboka Kitoko

Voix Juslin Likaka et Patricia Mvumbi Bakezy
Guitares: Alexandre Bellando
Percu: Thibaud Rancoeur / Antoine Villette

Enregistrement/Arrangement Antoine Villette 

Red Room Records / Baklawa music 2016

Congo Mboka Kitoko

FREE DOWNLOAD at http://store.toureraichel.com

The Tel Aviv Session

Bamba

The Touré-Raichel Collective - Bamba

This song "Maliko" is making its world premiere on PRI's The World's Soundcloud account. It was written, performed and recorded in the capital Bamako by some of Mali's best known musicians. "Maliko" is their plea for peace in Mali, and for the emancipation of women there. It features Fatoumata Diawara, Habib Koite, Djelimady Tounkara, Toumani Diabate, Oumou Sangare, and many others. If you like what you hear and the mission of these artists, feel free to share.

Samba Touré - Ago Djamba

Mali Gems

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