Mali music reviews

Habib Koite is a modern guitar and vocal virtuoso who uses a mixture of traditional African (Mali) styles of playing and languages to deliver beautiful, moving and pure music. It is a must-buy for any lover of World Beat Music. I saw his music video on Link-TV and had to have much more.

I've worn out my first copy. Language need not be a barrier to anyone. I use this music with my special education pre-school class; it inspires instant bliss, which is preferable to a time out any day. Gorgeous layers of sound and lyrics. See them in concert if you can.

J'ecris egalement pour le moment en Francais, mais, ecoutez mois quand je dit tres emphatiquement qu'il y a beaucoup des gens qui parlent Anglais et qui aiment cette musique vraiment ! bien sur !

Anyway, for you English speakers, I was just saying that, to answer a bit what the previous reviewer said in French (that not many English-speaking readers would be interested in this music). NOT SO ! This music is fantastic !! Why, it even manages to *gasp* cross language barriers ! Imagine that !

Seriously, folks, this is is great stuff -- a real find. I listen to music from all over the world all the time, and when this artist rolled around on my random 400-shuffle CD carousel I said "Wow ! What is THAT ?" and proceeded to take it OUT of the carousel player so that I could enjoy it repeatedly in my car.

Est-ce que cela suffit pour l'evidence de l'appreciation de cette musique d'Afrique selon les "anglophones", mon ami ? ;-)

Traore's recordings are usually about as minimal as can be: an acoustic guitar and a voice, both supplied by him. He's got a unique, distinctive style: his songs tend to be slow, his playing style crisp, and his voice plaintive. It makes for good listening on an occasional basis, but I find I can't listen to it very often. One song sounds very much like the next (does he even change keys?); he overindulges in sentimentality. Still, Traore's music is worth listening to, particularly for fans of Malian music. Look for the song "Santa Maria," which I have yet to find on a CD in the States, and also look for his life story as related to Lieve Joris in her travel memoir "Mali Blues." After I read about his life, I understood why his music is so sad.

Kar Kar is an amazing musician. I speak about three words of Bamana ("Mousso," "Dounia," and "Jali"), but Kar Kar has me singing along on these great tunes.

Kar Kar's music is very different than Bambara and Mandinko jali (griot) music. He is not a jali, so while his lyrics may cover similar themes and his melodies and rhythms are definately African, he is freer to compose material in a different style and mood with a different goal in mind. If you go see Kar Kar perform, you will not see him praising noble members of his audience (there comes a point in every jali performance when members of the audience give money to the jalis in response to praises.) In this respect he is similar to Ali Farka Toure, who is also not of the griot class. But Toure is from a different part of Mali and a member of a different ethnic group (the Songhai). While both play music that can be called African blues, they have a completely different feel to them. Kar Kar's music is perhaps more subtle.

Kar Kar's guitar playing is stunning on all his albums. "Sa Golo" is no different. Listening to songs like "Dounia" (a variant of the Bambara love song "Diarabi")one can't help but wonder what influenced what: Does Kar Kar's music have a Spanish influence or is what we think of as Spanish actually African in origin? More likely, though, it that it is all a big interlocking tangle of influence-- African music and Arabic music influenced Spanish music, African music meshed with Spanish music to become the Caribean "Latin" sound which in turn became very popular in West Africa. All of these no doubt contribute to Kar Kar's music, but his guitar playing, with its crisp treble flourishes, solid bass rhythms, and clean melodic echoing of the vocals, is unique. Baba Drame's playing of the calabash perfectly accentuates Kar Kar's rhythms, making it quite danceable.

Even through the language barrier, one can sense that Kar Kar's music is about love -- love for his deceased wife, love for his dead brother, love for his country and his culture. The latter introduces a strong theme on this album with the songs "Sa Golo" and "Mouso Teke Soma Ye." Both of these deal with the exclusion of women from certain ceremonies. Kar Kar loves his country and his culture, but love can really hurt sometimes. Especially when part of what you love you don't agree with. You can hear in his voice how it pains him that his beautiful culture can be so unfair to women. "Mouso Teke Soma Ye" is a challenge to the traditional healers of his people, asking why women cannot be admitted to the secret societies when they give birth to the men who can.

Love also gives Kar Kar a wonderful feel for the blues. The two bluesiest songs on this album are "Ntaara Diagnamogo Fe" and "Je Chanterai Pour Toi" -- the latter sung in French. The first is one of the oldest blues stories around -- a man goes to see his girl but her papa chases him away. The second means "I will sing for you," and in it Kar Kar croons in his wonderful smoky voice, that if she knew how much he loved her, she would have to love him too. "Hold me in your arms," he sings, "I will sing for you."

Take one double bass player(Danny Thompson ex Pentangle no less)one Kora player(Toumani Diabate)and a Flamenco group(the wonderful Ketama)and put them all in one room and you will have something very special. It was sad indeed to find no reviews of this fabulous recording so I will TRY and do it some justice .So many attempts at mixing different types of "world " music end up in a hodge podge of sounds and styles that satisfy no one and merely dilute the source, but this is the real deal.The overiding feeling of this disc is PLEASURE...the musicians involved are obviously swimming in the delights of the music they are creating,the discoveries they are making about themselves and their music.

This disparate band somehow produces a seamless and invigorating stream of music that will take you to places even they never dreamed of.
Buy it.....

"SYA" may be the first recording to pair the kamalengoni, the signature harp used in Malian Wasulu music, with electronic dance rhythms. It's a magical combination, and the trance-like repetitive riffs that characterize the Wasulu sound lend themselves well to techno stylings. Not bad, considering that it's coming from a guy who was driving a Bamako minibus when this album came out.

The title track has one of the best hooks you'll hear in recent Malian pop music--just four unforgettable beats. In a radical break from typical Malian pop, Bagayogo's French producer/arranger puts all kinds of ambient sounds (birds chirping, a woman sighing) in the mix. It's languid, lovely, and hard to get out of your head, which is a very good thing.

My only criticism of "SYA" is that it's just a little uneven. There are some memorable tracks like the title cut, and then there are others that are ho-hum. But overall I think this album merits a listen, whether you are an aficianado of Malian music or a techno-phile searching for new offshoots of the genre (and perhaps disappointed with Six Degrees' "Frikyiwa" discs). Wherever you are, Mr. Bagayogo, I hope you've quit your day job and moved into making this kind of music full-time.

While browsing the cd racks at Borders, I just happened to sample this cd on a whim. I was immidiately struck by the gutsy purity of the rock sound with such subtle undertones of african, jazz, and celtic flavors - it was like a great cup of coffee. I have no idea what the lyrics say, I just know the sound is hot, with catchy rifts and complex rhythms. I recommend it highly to those who like rock and world beat. I played a cut at an art festival concert and got rave reviews. I'm looking forward to hearing more from Amadou et Miriam

This album was supposed to take the traditional music of Mali and meld it with DJ Culture. Unfortunatly, it sounds canned - as if the producers who made these tracks simply laid down a couple of beats and basslines and layered samples or vocal chants over them. Much of the tribal percussion isn't worked into the heart and soul of the song, and it comes off sounding generic. A couple of exceptions are Llorca's remix of Abdulaye Diabate's "Foronto", which I just can't stop listening to, Frederic Galliano (the founder of frikyiwa)'s remix of Neba Solo's "Noumou Foly" and German Masters of Minimalism Pole's remix of Labi Traore's "Sayo". The rest of the album just isn't worth it..if you're looking for good integration of African Rhythms and deep house music, check out Afronaught, or some of the mix CDs Nightgrooves has been releasing.
Or go straight to the roots, and listen to some Fela Kuti.

This is a good idea but the African percussion is drowned out. Needs more balance. Don't just remix these African songs into techno drown-outs. The idea is to blend traditional African instruments and rhythms with modern technology and make folks dance. I think I'm going to do it myself...

The 2nd Frikyiwa collection is a beautiful marriage of African vocals and chants set against French house beats. The only problem with the CD is that it is more house than world music. The final product is heavily layered and complicated, but still oriented within a house focus. So, all in all, it's a good buy that's billed incorrectly. Buy this album as an African influenced house album, not as Africanized techno. The closest comparison I can think of would be Talvin Singh's "OK" album; great drum beats and house rhythms driven by an Asian influence.

i like the song of salif that why i look for one of his like les ambassadeurs international with salif keita

This album is five tracks from a mid-70's big band in Mali, West Africa. Salif Keita fronts the band on four of the five tracks. Great vocals, great horns. Unfortunately, the recording isn't great, but it doesn't hide the brilliant music. These guys were great. I think they played in a renovated train station in Bamako, Mali during the seventies. Would have been so cool to have seen them. I've had this disc for two years and I still listen to it all the time. Can't understand a word that they're saying, but it's too cool. One of my favorite discs. It's tough to find Les Ambassadeurs music. This disc has got some of their best stuff. You'll love it.

The West African nation of Mali is home to dozens of singers whose vocal stylings appeal to listeners all over the world. Unfortunately, Tata Bambo Kouyate is not one of them. While her songs and arrangements are attractive examples of mainstream "jeli" music, of the same type sung by Ami Koita and Kandia Kouyate, Tata Bambo's crossover potential in broad American and European markets is limited by her jarring voice. I'm not kidding you, it's about as subtle as an air horn. In Mali they call her Jelimuso Fato, or "crazy griot woman," because she sings as though she were possessed by demons. And not very sonorous ones either.

This album has some great personnel on it, like Keletigui Diabate on balafon, and some great songwriting. It's just a bit hard to notice them over all the throaty screeching. If you're into Malian music, why not try recordings by other artists like Habib Koite, Oumou Sangare, or Rokia Traore? Sorry, Tata, you do not continue into the next round.

First of all I'd like to correct some errors in Christina Roden's Amazon.com editorial review. The main one concerns the ethnic origins of her music. Roden says that Doumbia's membership in the "Fula tribe" frees her from griot conventions. It's true that Doumbia's sound owes little to that of Malian djeli singers like Ami Koita. But even if there were a single distinct Fula group, Nahawa Doumbia would no more belong to it than I would, and I'm 100 percent German Catholic.

Doumbia's music, just like that of the great singer Oumou Sangare, comes from the Wassoulou region. Neither she nor it have anything to do with the Fula peoples: she doesn't sing in any of their language dialects, she doesn't sing in their styles, and she certainly doesn't belong to their "tribe." So if anyone was expecting "Yaala" to sound like Fula/Pulaar music from Senegal or Fula/Fulfulde music from Mali or Niger, be disabused of that notion. It sounds more like Oumou Sangare.

Finally, the term "Yaala" refers not to work but travel. Malians, particularly the menfolk, have an established tradition of migrating here and there temporarily in search of wage labor. "Yaala" generally denotes this migration. Perhaps Roden was misled by the liner notes here? (Okay, none of this might help potential buyers judge the CD any better, but I didn't want to let the reviewer's mistakes pass unnoticed.)

As for the recording itself, it seems a bit of a stylistic departure from her previous efforts (notably with the inclusion of guitare and flute). But as I have said elsewhere, there's plenty of better material if you're looking for groovy African music.

This is probably the worst trance CD I've ever heard.

The only thing this CD has going for it is a strong continuous (if not mind numbingly boring) beat.

I borrowed this cd from a friend and I just wanted to warn those who were thinking of bying this CD, Don't! I can name plenty of CD's for the same price that you will listen to more than once or twice. Tranceport, Psychotrance 2000, United dj's of america vol. 10 Taylor just to name a few. Also click on my reviews to find some more. Spend your money on quality, not this.

I purchased this CD about a month ago, and I personally think that this is a very good compilation. I admire DJ Phenix also, because most of the tracks flow together seamlessly. I would definitely recommend this CD to anyone who is interested in trance.