Guinea music reviews

Beautiful, hypnotic electric guitar music from the African country of Guinea in the early '70s. This series is one of the best "world music" artifacts you'll ever come across... as the person who turned me on to them said to me, snap these puppies up while you can!

The best album of the series! Demba and Bembeya are at their best in the incredibly beautiful "Super Tentemba" and "Mami Wata", Horoya Band's "Were were" is a classic and the Super Boiro Band's "Darinole" and Keletigui's "Miri Magni" along with Myriam Makeba's "MALOUYAME" makes this the best work by SYLLART! Congrats.

...sheer life's energy, so well comunicated, from "THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CONTINENT"! Don't dought Gabriel!

This will make you make you want to dance on the ceiling, the floor just don't do it justice. Fantastic musicianship and crazy grooves....techno will never be this good.

You'll get no argument from me with every last word of the last review. This CD is da bomb! Probably a tad more accessible to non-jembephiles than even Mamady's CDs, Famadou shows why he was the lead drummer with Les Ballets Africains, the most prestigious of Guinea's great dance troupes. This recording is made with artists from Famadou's home region of Hamanah in Upper Guinea. These are the deep roots people of the Manding heartland. And it shows in the music.

This is a beautiful, clean, set of rhythms with funk and swing like a motor-scooter. Beautifully arranged and supported by the greatest set of singers I have heard on any Manding music recording. Check out Sirankurani (track 5) for example. Tracks 9 and 11 are great also but are not available here as downloads. All the tracks on this CD illustrate beautifully the way that singers, drummers and other light percussion (hand claps, iron scrapers etc.) interact in Manding music. The arrangements also have a very intimate "village" kind of feel to them, whereas Mamady's early CDs are much more "concert"-like.

Get this CD. I know a number of master drummers who listen to this CD all the time. If it's good enough for them, who am I to argue?

Famoudou Konate's current cd "Percussions et Chants" is an excellent addition to the audio collection of any lover of traditional Guinean music and the djembe. The recordings are clear which showcase the mastery of his technique. Konate has perhaps some of the cleanest djembe technique as well as an understanding and ability to communicate the meanings and feelings of this traditional music. He forgoes a lot of "showy" tour de force technique (which he is more than capable of) in favor of allowing the music to speak for itself through his masterful technique. Djembe lovers will find enough cuts that are solely djembe and dun dun to make this appealing, yet the cd is balanced with song and other melodic instruments to give the new listener a flavor of a cross-section of traditional Guinean music. I confess that I would like to hear more of him playing some wilder solos as he has some of the clearest tones I've ever heard come from a djembe.But this is a true ensemble performance and a number of other gifted performers are also featured. It is not surprizing that another current grand master, Mamady Keita holds Mr. Konate in such high esteem. If you thought you wouldn't like West African drumming, you must hear this recording, you'll like it.

I really don't know too much about this group, I just caught a catchy version of Papua New Guinea on the Wipeout Fusion soundtrack about two months ago, and couldn't get it out of my head. Soon after I purchased Deluxe Accelerator and Translations, without knowing too much about the overall sound of the group.

It took a couple listens, but Translations has been in my car CD player or home ever since. The original 12" mix is great, but some of the true translations are just amazing.

If you've ever felt bad cause you've bought an album and play one song to death for months, this is the album for you. You can hear papau new guinea influencing each translation, but the melody and core has been warped far beyond a mere remix. Just buy this album and give it a shot. It's got something for everyone.

My personal favorites right now are "the lovers, the big blue, things change..., and requiem."

I must recognize that i was not really expecting CD release of " Le Regard sur le Passe". The CD release gives more weight to the record in that it allows for more watt-blowing than when the record is on tape. As far as the content of Composition of Aboubacar Demba Camara is concerned, it is definitely a piece of lesson of History for young Africans in general and Mandinka people of West Africa who prize such concepts as integrity, honor, and pride. The piece is an important boost for Africans who have been, and are interested in, and intent upon, ridding the continent of any form of domination. It is so since it recounts the story of Almamy Samory Toure who ferociously and unabashedly fought againt French colonialism in West africa. To this date, Samori remains one of the african leaders who resented any rapprochement whatsoever with the imperialist/colonialist. He said NO and his no and certain mannerisms have been emulated by Sekou Toure when the latter was fighting against de Gaulle and others who fought for their independence and freedom from nazi Germany and yet deprecated the liberation struggles undertaken by Africans; to such people, for instance, Sekou Toure said NO and that " he had rather starve and die than be well-fed in slavery." He was echoing the philosophy of Samori and his ancestor Soundiata Keita who established the Mande Empire in West Africa. As far as the Mandinka people are concerned, the record played an important part in their life in that it is a modernized version of the founding story of Mande; it is a story told by a griot in order to boost the warrior, and in our case, it does apply because it help us brood over the feats of our greater grand parents and squeese out of the latter mechanisms and patterns of struggle in a new era and context. The singer sings the Hymn to War of the Wassoulou, which is very extremely the requisite message a depressed, a hopeless, disempowered, and oppressed person needs to hear, single out for reflection, and ultimately use for social practice. i highly recommend it to young Africans as well as those who are inexorably striding towards the night of their life, this momumental work by Demba Camara. Get to listen to the record and you will love it and it will help you for self-confidence, pride and hope!

Bembeya Jazz is one of the greatest of all African bands and this is one of their loveliest CDs. It is actually puffery for the then Guinean Head of State but propaganda has never sounded so beautiful. The band's sound here veers more towards classic "traditional" Mande music than "modern" electric guitar dance music. Fear not, though, it swings and delights.

There are so many compilations out there, and this is one of the best. Regardless of how "important" or "representative" the songs chosen here are, they all sound great! A wonderful addition to any world or African music collection, and great for a beginner in African/world music!

This album is the sixth in a series of introductions to the world's great musical traditions. Each volume is built around a geographical theme and produced by an acknowledged expert in that area.

The African journey commences in Algeria and then heads South, stopping off in Cape Verde, Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Gabon, Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Madagascar, before terminating in South Africa. The 14 tracks are representative but slightly atypical of their regions; most share a semi-acoustic yet modern and edgy esthetic. While a single CD cannot possibly showcase the music of an entire continent, these examples are a good way to get acquainted - or reacquainted - with Africa's stunning musical diversity. The set culminates in a moving rendition of the South African national hymn "Nkosi Sikilele I'Afrika," as performed by the Imilonji Kantu Choral Society, who sang it at former President Nelson Mandela's inauguration.

When I saw Alpha Yaya in concert, I decided I had to buy his CD. I did and I'm very glad with this release. The tracks provide the listener with a pleasing blend of traditional and modern West African melodies. Get ready to hit the replay button on this title.

This is one of the best titles in the Sittelle series of environmental soundscapes. Although the title may suggest that it is a collection of sounds familiar to US and Canadian residents, this is actually sounds from "the Americas," not just North America.

The disc begins with two selections from North America, lengthy soundscapes portraying sounds from marshes and the north woods. Here are songbirds, the bizarre call of the American bittern (a type of heron whose "song" sounds like an old-fashioned pump handle), and a pack of wild wolves, who join in near the end! Then there is a Caribbean segment, featuring the beautiful flutelike song of the Rufous-throated Solitaire, a kind of thrush. Finally, there are five full soundscapes from South America, including the rich cacophony of the Amazon rainforest and sounds one might hear in the Andean foothills, including some nearly deafening choruses of frogs.

For a wide variety of sounds from the New World, this soundscape disc will serve very nicely. As with most Sittelle discs, this is not for relaxation. It is meant for active, engaged listening to the most dramatic of nature's voices.

Otro gran disco de la Bembeya Jazz National. Un disco que nos transporta a esa suave y dulce m�sica que se hac�a en Guinea en los setenta, llena de influencias cubanas, con instrumentos de viento y una voz excepcional.

Decades of playing and teaching have helped 'Dibo' and Miguel find the creme de la creme of students: the proof is in the listening, as good or better a group as we have ever heard.
�An extra delight is the sense of swing found in some tunes which begs the question "is swing actually of African origin?"
�Fore-Fote is only a four-member group, but you'll swear there just has to be more of them.

I am, in my early sixties, learning how to drum. Have really just begun a few months ago. I took a live class with Fore-Fote before I even had struck this kind of hand drum -- and I was flummoxed, couldn't do much at all. BUT, the quality of the sound there in that room, and the very special deeply loving and happy energy that was there in abundance came into me and somehow changed me. I have been taking lessons from local people in the interim and just yesterday had the opportunity to take a second lesson with Fore-Fote. I did better at drumming, for sure -- but the more important thing was the confirmation of my first impression of this music. I bought their CD (Wonbere) and listened to it today at home, and that love and special energy came through. This is soul-stirring stuff, that somehow reminds me of my potential for being happy in an all-connected kind of way that I vaugely remember from somewhere, sometime -- maybe from my childhood, or, maybe from a genetic memory. It really has a special shine, and I feel blessed to have it now to listen to and to drum with.

When the musicians of Fore-Fote and guest artists from Guinea, West Africa got together to create this CD, the booklet tells us, the experience was so uplifting and exhilarating they decided to name it "Wonbere" which means "with joy" in the Susu language. That joy is passed on to the listener in this energizing CD. As an ethnomusicologist and a student of traditional djembe music who has traveled to Guinea to study, I highly recommend "Wonbere" as a 'must-have' for every djembe enthusiast's collection. Not only is the drum work truly representative of the living culture in Guinea today, but the high production quality sets this CD apart from many others that are currently available. Check out M. Lamine "Dibo" Camara's virtuosic drumming on tracks such as "Yole," "Ligueba," and "Soko." For kora (african harp) aficionados, Prince Diabate is awesome on "Sabar," "Sunu," and "Yankadi." Additionally, the booklet, written by Fore-Fote member and Dibo's adopted son Ryan M. Camara, gives valuable information about the instruments used and the history and meaning of the traditional rhythms comprising this inspiring collection.