Issa Bagayogo's fantastic new remix project, Issa Remixed,  is filled with great mixes from the likes of Shrift, Tal M. Klein, Adham Shaikh, Tapan Raj, Rise Ashen and many others.

Issa Bagayogo - Poye

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

i hate whenever you leave me by myself

MIGHT

Star Band de Dakar - Thiely

Become a fan of Rio Mira:

www.facebook.com/RioMiraMarimba/

Co-produced by Grammy nominee Ivis Flies and Grammy winner Ivan Benavides, Rio Mira is a marimba supergroup with Afro-Pacific binational heritage consisting of some of the most in-demand and respected musicians from Colombia and Ecuador. Their music is the sonic rejoining of the region known as El Pacífico Sur, one connected by history, ecology and culture and divided by the national borders of Ecuador and Colombia.

The people throughout this area have similar music, food, speech, fashion, and background, and it is no coincidence that the band takes its name from the Mira River that flows across these borders, connecting rather than dividing people and cultures. This area is home to a great many people of African descent and the rhythms of Africa have become entwined with the lilt and grooves of Colombia and Ecuador. Marimba music has become firmly established, a sound so sacred it was added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2015.

Marimba Del Pacifico is a beguiling showcase of this protected sound, a celebration of a unique cultural heritage found nowhere else on the planet, by a band of young musicians keeping this strong tradition alive.

Rio Mira - Guarapo

Cover d'une chanson de Victor Démé, "Djon Maya", sur l'album éponyme sorti en 2008

Djon maya (Victor Deme cover)

Sona Jobarteh Jarabi

Victor Démé - Teban Siyala

VISIONS OF SELAM
Arat Kilo / Mamani Keïta / Mike Ladd

02 - Arat Kilo - Dou Coula

A dancefloor freindly edit of theBalafon master aly Keita, Enjoy!

Aly Keita (Timbuktu Rework)

Hi, I am a musician from Montréal, Canada. I'm always looking for new collaborations (Movie, videogames soundtrack, etc...), so do not hesitate to contact me!

Cheers

Rogue Squirrel