w0w, how beautiful! I would love to know what the lyrics mean... they sound wonderful <3

Habib Koite Sirata

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

Habib Koite   Sinama Denw (Mali)

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

Official bio :

Mamadou Diabate was born in 1975 in Kita, a Malian city long known as a center for the arts and culture of the Manding people of West Africa. As the name Diabate indicates, Mamadou comes from a family of griots, or jelis as they are known among the Manding. Jelis are more than just traditional musicians. They use music and sometimes oratory to preserve and sustain people's consciousness of the past, a past that stretches back to the 13th century when the Manding king Sunjata Keita consolidated the vast Empire of Mali, covering much of West Africa. The stories of these glory days and the times since remain important touchstones for people today, not only for the Manding, but for many citizens of Mali, Guinea, Gambia, and Senegal. So to be born to a distinguished jeli family in Kita is already an auspicious beginning.

Mamadou's father Djelimory played the kora, the jeli's venerable 21-string harp. He was widely known as N'fa Diabate, performing in the Instrumental Ensemble of Mali and recording on the National Radio of Mali. At the age of four, Mamadou went to live with his father in Bamako, where the Ensemble was based. When it came time for him to return to Kita and go to school, Mamadou knew that the kora was his destiny. His father had taught him how to play the instrument, and from there he listened and watched and devoted himself to practicing the kora, to the point that his mother worried that he was not concentrating enough on school. When she took it away, it only reduced his interest in studying, and he quickly resorted to making his own kora so he could continue.

Before long, Mamadou left school and began playing kora for local jeli singers, and traveling throughout the region to play at the ceremonies where modern jelis ply their trade, mostly weddings and baptisms. When he was fifteen, Mamadou won first prize for his kora playing in a regional competition and instantly became something of a local celebrity. The next year, he went to Bamako, and under the tutelage of his famous kora playing cousin, Toumani Diabate, he worked the jeli circuit, backing singers at neighborhood weddings and baptisms and entertaining the powerful at the city's posh Amitié Hotel. Toumani gave his cousin the nickname "Djelika Djan" meaning "Tall Griot," a reference to Mamadou's impressive physical stature. The name has stuck.

In 1996, a touring group from the Instrumental Ensemble of Mali offered Mamadou the chance to travel to the United States with a group of Manding musicians and cultural authorities. Following a successful tour, Mamadou decided to continue his work in the United States and, since then, he's made his home in and around New York. Mamadou gets frequent invitations to perform with visiting Malian stars including Ami Koita, Tata Bambo Kouyate, Kandia Kouyate, and Babani Koné. He has performed at the United Nations, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum, and at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. In addition, he's delved into uncharted waters, jamming with all manner of expert musicians, including jazz luminaries Donald Byrd and Randy Weston, Zimbabwean legend Thomas Mapfumo, and blues masters Eric Bibb and Guy Davis. Mamadou's recording credits have expanded as he has laid tracks with artists ranging from Irish soloist Susan McKeown, jazz bassist Ben Allison, and Benin's celebrated Angélique Kidjo.

Mamadou says that his father advised him to listen to all the best kora players and to learn from each one. The kora itself came to Mali from Gabu, the region centered between Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea Bissau, and the Malian kora tradition has always put a premium on holding onto the old ways while constantly innovating and developing the art.



Mamadou Diabate - Yaka Yaka

Sona Jobarteh - GAMBIA

Habib Koite & Bamada - Kanawa

Dorygui-Ba

On the road between Memphis & Bamako. The musical merger of Habib Koité and Eric Bibb brings together two soulful histories into a never-before heard guitar sound that is passionate and ebullient. Growing up in Mali, West Africa, Koité is heir to an ancestral knowledge set to song that places him among the most influential voices of contemporary Africa, while Bibb’s lineage in the traditional blues sound has produced an earthy mix of folk and gospel dating back to the work songs of the deep south. Forging a bridge across the Atlantic, Bibb and Koité are two talents too exhilarating to ignore.

This tune is taken from the album: Brothers In Bamako.

Habib Koite & Bamada - Kanawa

Ali Boyman

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