Mali music reviews

It is fundamental of a typical african praise song and highly inspiring. The messages are akin to modern day life in good communities. The lyrics in MOUSSOLOU leaves me firm in thought as our ancestors intended.

A real pleasure to listen,one of my favorite african cd,combines western elements with rich traditional african influence. a good start for first time expireance with african music.

As a longtime lover of jazz, blues and western classical music I thought I was also pretty knowledgable about African and Middle Eastern music until I bought this book. This has introduced me to many artists and musics that I would not have looked at before. This is not just an amazing book to help you choose which albums to buy (and I have yet to seriously disagree with any of its recommendations)but it is also a wonderful general read about the history, background and politics of the music as well. Put this on your shelf and dip into it whenever you feel depressed about world politics - it will renew your faith in human creativity.

and it is still one of my favorites. i would have to say that the music of west africa tends to move me the most, but this is one excellent compilation. every single song is a masterpiece. it is as varied as africa, and represents areas that most people never give a second thought to. this is not your paul simon discovery, these are the real artists. they move, they groove, and they croon with passion.

This CD is without a doubt a great North American debut for Amadou & Mariam. They may not be able to see but you should hear this amazing mix of pop, blues and spectacular musicianship. A must for anyone who wants to include the cutting edge of the blues and it is from Africa. DO NOT MISS THIS ONE. Have played this on my weekly radio show of African Music. As well as their follow up CD Tje Ni Mousso.

This CD is a really interesting work! The sound of this talented duo stays true to its African origin so much that (with few exceptions) it cannot aptly be described as a "fusion". Rather, this is the sound of modern African music...true to its own rhythm and style.

There is even a deference to African languages with only a few songs sung in French, the rest performed in their native tongue--a bold move for a group hoping to appeal to an audience outside Mali. Even so, it works! This CD is a must-have for lovers of African music or for those with an ear for the exotic.

This opulent album opens with Dede Priscilla by Lea Lignanzi from Central Africa Republic, a most rhythmic and hypnotic lilting number with French exhortations to dance scattered in between the lovely sounds of the African language. The next number is by Mensy from Cameroun, somewhat more subdued than the previous, but equally hypnotic and engaging in its rhythmic textures.

Bolingo Mobesu by Vonga Aye from Zaire is a real sizzler with its soulful female vocal, male backing vocals and pulsating beats. Absolutely brilliant and ideal for the dancefloor. The next country is Mali, whence comes Menebo Nden by Moussa Doumbia. This one opens with wailing a capella vocals before the buoyant rhythms come in. It also contains the most beautiful instrumental flourishes and has an overall Middle Eastern flavour, especially in the vocal patterns.

The melodious Madeleina by Pablo Lubadika Porthos from Zaire is next, a flowing love ballad with a bittersweet feel. Then comes Jeff Louna from Congo with Paulina Mineure, a mid-tempo number that sounds the closest to a Western pop ballad. The album concludes with Yoyoyo by Asi Kapela from Zaire. Halfway through there is an interesting rhythmic break before all the instruments return in full force.

Every track on this gorgeous compilation is a pleasure to listen to. The songs are tuneful and most are highly uplifting and joyful. Please also investigate Volume I of Sounds d'Afrique, although I personally like this album more. Together these two albums demonstrate the richness and variety of African pop music in the early 1980s.

I am so glad to find this again. My vinyl version got broken in a move. This is wonderful upbeat music that will make you feel good to be alive. I love it when I find a lost treasure like this.

This album, and its companion album Sound D'Afrique vol.1, are great compilations of early African pop - mostly, but not exclusively, Soukous. Originally put out by Island records in the early 80's, this infectious dance music has vocals of great expressive feeling along with snappy horn sections and churning rhythms (as well as the intertwinning guitar parts we have come to expect from this music. Dare ya not to dance!

This is another collection of Verdi arias interpreted by the illustrious and vestaile Placido Domingo and released on the first-class RCA Gold Seal. These operatic tenor roles, more than any other, established Placido Domingo as a bright star in the opera firmament. He himself claimed that Verdi's operas did more for his career than any other composer's repertory. The album begins with two arias from Verdi's Trovatore. Manrico's "Di Quella Pira" is exquisitely sung and dramatically gratifying. Domingo's Manrico does not possess the heft and volume of Mario Del Monaco's portrayal. But Domingo was on a class of his own, a tenor who did not seek to be the loudest tenor in history. He focused on beauty and purity of voice as well as dramatic and emotional impact. His greatest Manrico on record is found on the RCA 1970 recording with Leontyne Price, Sherill Milnes and Fiorenza Cossotto. Manrico is a role that more than any other tenor except Franco Corelli who please me the most. Domingo singing Alfredo's aria "De Mie Bollenti Spiriti" from La Traviata is pure gold. His Alfredo is far by the sexiest and most elegant while at the same time being passionate and masculine. Verdi's less famous operas Luisa Miller and Simon Boccanegra contain lush tenor arias that Domingo delivers with nuance and colorful musical intelligence. His tenor aria from Un Ballo is simply gorgeous. "La Vita E Inferno" sung by Don Alvaro in La Forza Del Destino is yet another masterpiece of tenor reperotire and Domingo is captivating. You can find Domingo's full-length Forza on RCA Red Seal from the mid 70's starring Leontyne Price, Sherill Milnes and Fiorenza Cossotto once again. It is still said that Domingo's greatest Italian role was that of Otello. This is absolutely true. He sang Otello several times beginning in the late 70's. This is the one role that our versatile, irrepressible tenor feared! But he sang the role with a Shakespearean approach and his vocal technique was dark and dangerous, full of passion and intensity. Just listen to this when he sings "Ah! Mile Vite Gli Donasse Iddio!" and "Dio Mi Potevi Scagliar". Unlike other Otello's, like Del Monaco's, he does not rush into jealous madness right away and instead cooly and intellectually slips into a jealous obscession with convincing credibility. A lot depends on the interaction between the baritone singing Iago and the tenor singing Otello, fortunately Domingo was always paired with superb Iagos, notably those of Sherill Milnes and Justino Diaz. Yet another glorious Verdi role for Domingo was Don Carlo. He sang it both in its origianl French version and in the more popular Italian version. His Don Carlos is a true revelation. A perfect balance of lyrical and spinto ability and dramatic thrust. This is Domingo singing roles that are considered his best and every fan of Domingo must own this. Enough said.

Little can be said about one of the world's greatest tenors with a singing technique SO good, that allows him to tackle so many diverse and difficult roles even at an advanced age.

This is a compilation of moments mainly taken from his numerous Verdi studio recordings. It's quite representative of his strong and stylish singing considering that, in my opinion at least, his voice was made for the later Verdi tenor roles rather than the earlier, lyrical ones. He's a natural Radames, Don Carlo, Don Alvaro, Manrico, Rodolfo and a defenite Otello. The solo scenes heard here are taken from his first - and least dramatic - recording. The later recorded duet with Ricciarelli's deeply moving Desdemona is by far the best track of this cd! A ligter voice like Bergonzi's or Pavarotti's moves me more in Traviata, Rigoletto, Ballo and Vespri but Domingo sings nevertheless wonderfully.

Besides the fact that Domingo is a rare singer I've also heard many times that he's a pleasant, warm and modest person which not only makes him a great singer but also a great artist!

I only know one song from this album, it is called Haidara and is available on the Rough Guide to Mali & Senegal album, which in itself is as good a guide to the music of the region as one can get in my opinion.

Haidara is one of the best songs I've ever heard.

and I've heard plenty. I second everything the other reviewer says. Sadly, this CD has been out of print for years. As I type this, the only used copy of the CD listed on amazon goes for $87.39.

I'm astonished that this CD has no reviews. It is easily my favorite recording of African music of any kind (followed closely only by some Ethiopian dance instrumentals from the 1970's), and the song 'Haidara' is one of my top ten favorite recordings in the world since I first heard it 14 years ago.

Guinean kora player and vocalist Jawara essembled an absolutely perfect group for this all too brief recording. Along with the two guitars, balafon (a hand-made marimba-like percussion instrument) and two female backup singers, Jawara's kora bursts from their unified sound with shimmering confidence like rain whipping on ocean waves. His honeyed voice glides just over the surface, answered by a bright, distant chorus. Unlike the steady beat of South African pop, Manding music is propelled by a rolling pulse that can induce the feeling of floating bodily among intersecting, organic currents.

This is no scratchy field recording, but the all-acoustic songs are rooted in deep traditions from the urban music of both Guinea and Mali. It suffers from none of the banal Western influences that can occasionally saturate less traditional African pop. The album was recorded in Ivory Coast, first released in France in 1985 and reprinted in the US by Hannibal Records (Polygram) in 1990. Also check out Jawara's earlier album with the same instrumentation, 'Soubindoor'. As rich as 'Yasimika', but with a less perfectly balanced mix by the recording engineer.

Whether or not you need this 2-disc set all depends on the status of your Oumou Sangare collection. It must have been quite a shock and disappointment for people who wanted, but did not yet have all 3 of her previous albums, to see them all go out-of-print. If you do not own any or all of Woroton, Moussoulou, or Ko Sira, you need to buy this. Period. If you already own all 3, this is not an essential purchase for you. That could be considered the end of my review, for all intents and purposes.

I have all 3 and when I saw the release of this disc, I have to admit I was disappointed. In a perfect world, the 3 previous albums would have stayed in print, and this would have been a 2 or 3-disc set made up of live material as well as the new (to those of us not in Africa) studio tracks included here that are from the Africa-only cassette release, Laban. This would have been my first choice because that way we all would have gotten much more new material. Let's face it, anyone who has heard Oumou in concert knows that she is phenomenal. I can't imagine anyone who has been to her concerts not thinking it was one of the best concerts they have ever been to. She is truly a gift to us all. Chicago '99 is the performance that proves this to me.

Even though I was disappointed to see that the vast majority of this set is previously-released material I already owned, I still had to buy it. I had heard OF the Laban cassette in the past couple years but never heard it, and it kinda drove me nuts knowing there was new Oumou out there that I couldn't get my hands on. Now that I have heard the new stuff, it turns out that (at least in my opinion) none of the new tracks are at the level of the older stuff. It's not that I don't like the songs, though. It's the fact that the new stuff is more electronic. I prefer stripped-down Oumou. For me, she could do an album with nothing more than herself, her female back-up singers, a ngoni and a calabash player and *POOF*, magical album. The new tracks are the exact opposite of that. Keyboards, programming, smoother production, etc... Actually I don't mind the drum programming on a couple tracks, but some of the keyboard stuff is just way too smooothie-pop layering for me.

Having said all this, for what it is... a Best Of album with some new tracks... it is excellent. It truly does have all her best songs from the first 3 albums. In order, I have always ranked her albums (favorite to least) as Ko Sira, Moussoulou, and then Worotan. Ko Sira and Moussoulou both being fantastic almost from beginning to end, and Worotan being okay overall with some bright spots.

So, 5 stars because the stuff from the previous albums is still fantastic, but I take away a couple stars for the production style of the new tracks, but then I give a star back because like I said, now that the first 3 albums are gone, this is the perfect digest of those albums. This is jam-packed with her best songs... and her voice!

If you don't have the other 3 albums, do not hesitate to buy this. You will continue to miss out on some great stuff if you don't.

OUMOU is a two-cd set tribute to the range of her skills: Oumou has been described as the 'songbird of Wassoulou', and is Mali's diva.
�Her roots lie in the musical traditions of Southern Mali, and her songs comment on social problems in women's lives as well as more universal metaphors of heroism and the human condition.

I have explored African music pretty seriously in the past few years. Oumou Sangare is quickly becoming my favorite African artist. A great blend of traditional instruments, confident lead vocals, and wonderful backing vocals. I have not heard the original 3 albums separately from this collection, but there are NO songs to be missed on this set. I suspect that holds for all her recordings. If you like any African music at all, you must check out Oumou.

I bought this cd specifically to use in my Mali-Burkina Faso slide show based on a recent trip. However, since there is something in the cd that prevents the slide show from playing the music on the cd. (??copy block software), I am unable to use it for this purpose. I have used other music cds in the past to enhance my slide shows without problems. This limitation should be made clear BEFORE the purchase is made since open cds are not returnable.

I was browsing the international section at the local book store, and I just bought niafunke only after hearing the first three songs. I then bought In the Heart of the Moon, which I have to say is equal to or better than niafunke, because of tumani. I have never wanted to try to emulate an artists sound when I make my own music, but after listening to Ali's music I have tried to capture his sound mixed with my own and have created my first song that has been majorly influenced by one artist. i highly recommend diverse international music. Ali Farka Toure is one you need to have.

Ali's throwback to traditional Malian style was a good idea. This guy's guitar style is really cool and perfetly accompanies his tired sounding, yet energetic chanting. Standout tracks are 1,4,5,7, and 10.