Trio Da Kali - 2017.Sep.14 - Wuppertal, Germany

As written earlier today, now on to the last main dish of 2017 in the Land of Mangos. A concert recording by, the MAKERS of THE ALBUM of the YEAR, Trio Da Kali. In the autumn recorded, on their own, in a church in Wuppertal, Germany.

Trio Da Kali - promo picture

Trio Da Kali were in 2012 brought together as a griot 'super-group' by Lucy Duran, on behalf of the Aga Khan Music Initiative (AKMI).
Virtuoso balafon player Lassana Diabate was a long-time member of Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra and has recorded with Salif Keita, Taj Mahal and many others.
Singer Hawa 'Kasse Mady' Diabate is the daughter of Mali's greatest traditional singer, Kasse Mady Diabate, and the power, range and phrasing of her voice led David Harrington (from Kronos Quartet) to compare her to the late queen of American gospel, Mahalia Jackson. "She even looks like Mahalia," Harrington noted.
Ngoni player Mamadou Kouyate is the eldest son of the instrument's greatest exponent, Bassekou Kouyate and also plays with his father in the band Ngoni Ba.
Long term collaborators, the artists aim to bring to the forefront neglected repertoires and performance styles of the griots, celebrating some of the African continent’s finest, most subtle and sublime music.



TRIO-DA-KALI-20170914_Wuppertal WDR3

setlist*: (intro) / 1. / 2. / (talk and interview) / 3.Kanimba / 4. / 5.Ladilikan / (talk and interview) / 6. / 7. / 8. / (outro)
* no setlist given, only sure titles named (additional titles appreciated)
source: broadcast 2017.Dec.28, Radio WDR3
Line-up: Hawa Kasse Mady Diabate - vocals / Lassana Diabate - musical director, balafon / Mamadou Kouyate - bass ngoni

More about Trio Da Kali:

• Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet - Eh Ya Ye (videoclip) BRILLIANT!! Let's dance, who cares about the mud!!
• interview Fode Lassana Diabate (video) - he plays his balafon effortlessly, like caressing the wooden keys with his mallets, goosebumps!!
• Review Ladilikan - with Kronos Quartet (2017.Sep.14, The Guardian)
• Interview Trio Da Kali (2017.Oct.20 - The Guardian)

Update 2018.Feb:

• Concert 2018.Jan.21 at Musée du Quai Branly (Paris) available at arte.tv (watchable till 2018.Jul.20)

reminder, please don't never ever forget:

"il faut me pardonner - you must forgive me"

Bembeya Jazz National 1987 in London (review by John Peel)

Just came across this marvelous review of BEMBEYA JAZZ live 1987 in LONDON written by JOHN PEEL for the newspaper 'The Observer.' Thought this to be a nice starter before the last main dish of this year later today...

Young, Gifted and Black 

1987 July 26, The Observer, page 21, by JOHN PEEL

There are times - are there not - when the animal passions are so engaged that you cannot understand why the breath heaving from your flaring nostrils fails to set your shirt alight. We are talking here about sex.
I am not myself, I reluctantly admit, much given to or sought after for Hunnish practices - an estate agent attempting to interest clients in my oh-so-subtle charms might write something like 'Rural property in need of modernisation. Delightful views. Some damp.' But the music of Bembeya Jazz National, visiting the Africa Centre in Covent Garden from Guinea-Conakry last week, struck me as being impudently erotic.
You will, without doubt, recollect previous jottings on the subject of African music in these pages, how hardly a year passes in which we are not assured by some authority or other that the aforementioned African music is poised - I think that is the word they use - to make significant inroads into mainstream pop. It never happens, of course, and it never will, but during 1986-87 Zimbabwe's Bhundu Boys, followed by Jonah Moyo and the Devera Mgwena Jazz Band and Real Sound, have, in conjunction with a range of home-grown bands, made the less entrenched British audiences at least aware of the sound of African music by the simple means of playing it often and playing it well.
'African music' is clearly as meaningful or as meaningless as 'European music' or 'Asian music,' but there are common characteristics, principally and obviously a considerable but flexible rhythmic drive and an abundance of free-flowing electric guitar playing. At the Africa Centre, Bembeya demonstrated both of these characteristics marvellously well.
Bembeya Jazz National is, even by local standards, a well-established band. Sekou Diabate, known to admirers as Diamond Fingers, was adjudged Africa's best guitarist in 1977 and the equipe itself, if my translation of the French so recklessly employed on the sleeve of a recent LP is correct, has been at it since 1961.
Fielding two trumpets, a tenor sax, guitar, bass, rhythm guitar, drums and percussion, along with three singers decked out in sporty red-and-white matching outfits, Bembeya played to a disappointingly small crowd in Covent Garden. However, those in attendance were not down-hearted. The Guineans play music which has evolved, I am assured, from West African Mandinka rhythms and is called mbalax, a fact which I derived some obscure pleasure communicating to my radio audience, and as they do it and melody upon melody flows from the guitar of Sekou Diabate, the overall effect, as I shamefacedly suggested above, hits below the belt.
In Bembeya's music, as in all the best music whatever its source, there is a considerable sense of space. Rhythms are implied rather than relentlessly stated and somehow the listener's heartbeat seems to fill these gaps. Yet again the pages of my reporter's notebook remained unsullied as I closed my eyes and cursed my inability to dance. Is hypnotherapy a possible solution here?



Sekou Diabate from Bembeya Jazz playing
1987.Jul.08 in Melkweg, Amsterdam
(source: gettyimages)

More about Bembeya Jazz and John Peel

info from peel.wikia.com/wiki/Bembeya_Jazz_National

John Peel has played at least two tracks by Bembeya Jazz in his radio shows (both just before the publication of above review):

• 1987.Jul.14: Sukabe
• 1987.Jul.22: Koumba Tenin
  both tracks from LP 'Bembeya Jazz National' (1986, Disques Espérance #ESP.8430)

note: recordings of both broadcasts only available at the British Library

Couldn't find exact date of concert, nor any pictures of it, so here a picture from a concert they did 1987.Jul.08 in Melkweg, Amsterdam.

To my knowledge no recordings of above concert made.
And personally still desperately looking for live recordings from Bembeya Jazz made in the 1980s...

The Africa Center in Covent Garden seems still going strong...

reminder, please don't never ever forget:

"il faut me pardonner - you must forgive me"

Atri N'Assouf - 2012.Nov.24 - Rasa Utrecht

Rissa Ag Wanaghli

Now to the country where the tragedy happened described some days ago.; from Niger (and France) here are: Atri N'Assouf

Biography 2009 by Sedryk
translated from tamasheq.net
Rissa Ag Wanaghli, originally from the mining town of Arlit (northern Niger) discovered the guitar in the late 80s, then perfected his apprenticeship with Abdallah Oumbadougou, in Tamanrasset, in 1993.
The following year, he created his first group in Libya, before returning to Niger in 1998 and integrating in Takrist n'Akal, Abdallah's orchestra. It is natural that he joins the Desert Rebel collective in 2006.
Now settled in Paris, Rissa has created the group Atri n'Assouf made up of Tuareg and French musicians, but also Burkinabe and Algerian, fruit of his meeting with the French percussionist Plume. The group's music is inspired by traditional Tamashek melodies and, more generally, by all of West Africa. A first album, "Akal", appeared in 2009, in which the singers of Tartit and Abdallah Ag Alhousseini (Tinariwen) took part.



ATRI-N-ASSOUF-20121124_Rasa Utrecht CZ

setlist: 1.Chagat / 2.Akal / 3.Adidinin / 4.Talgha / 5.Taiman / 6.Ille Ellan / 7.Taranin / 8.Eghaf / 9.Adjar / 10.Imitawan

all tracks: traditional, arrangement by Atri N'Assouf
line-up: Rissa Ag Wanagli - guitar vocals / Mama Walet Amoumine - vocals / Alain Plumeauzille - cajon / Ahmed Cisse - bass guitar / Hama Bilalan - electric guitar
source: radio broadcast 2014.Feb.28 - ConcertZender NL

More information about Atri N'Assouf:

• Interview with Atri N’Assouf (2010.Jul, by Nicolas Roux)
• Review of one and only album 'Akal' (2010.Aug, by Nicolas Roux)
• Tamiditine of the album Akal (2010.Jan, videoclip)

reminder, please don't never ever forget:

"il faut me pardonner - you must forgive me"

Baaba Maal - 1992/2001 Session and Live BBC

Had a lot of other things to do today, so now just before diner, jumped behind the screen. Not many time, so just selected one out of my archive, which strangle I didn't post earlier:

Baaba Maal.

Baaba Maal 2001.Apr.29 at African Freedom Festival, London (source: Getty Images)

There's enough info and discographies to find, so leave that to yourselves to search around. I'm not sure what/where I heard first something from him, might be the 'Africa Never Sleeps' compilation or a track from his international debut 'Djam Leeli'. Anyway after hearing such music, you'll never forget his name and always check out something new coming from him. That has not always been to my taste, but the good ones I really liked a lot!!



MAAL-BAABA-1992-2001_Session and Live BBC

1992.Oct.24 - BBC Kershaw Session [session #3?]
setlist: 1.Hamady Boiro / 2.Ndelorel / 3.Toro / 4.Deliya
source: BBC Radio 3 - 1992.Nov.21 - Andy Kershaw

2001.Apr.23 - The Junction, Cambridge, UK
setlist: a1.Cherie // b1.Yoolelle Maman / b2.Miyaabele / b3.Allah Addu Jam
source: BBC Radio 3 - 2001.Apr.27*/Jun.08 - Andy Kershaw
note: * missing from Apr.27 broadcast the songs a2.Fanta / a3.Tiedo
line-up: El Hadji (Baaba) Maal - lead vocal, guitar / Mansour Seck - vocals, guitar / Kauding Cissoko - kora / El Hadji Niang - acoustic bass / Bahkane Seck - percussion / Barou (Cirre) Sall - hoddu, ngoni / Mami (Cisse) Kanoute - vocals [source: bbc playlist through web.archive.org]

Various Baaba Maal media:

• Jamma Jengii (2001.May.04 - BBC TWO Later... with Jools Holland) - video brilliant!!
  to BBC: really only one song recorded?? WHY??
• Musique Traditionnelle (Balade) - video unknown source 
• Recent 2016.Nov (?) acoustic performance in Nouakchott, Mauritania (pt.1 - pt.2)

reminder, please don't never ever forget:

"il faut me pardonner - you must forgive me"

Nooran Sisters - 2017.Sep.01 - BBC Radio

Now let's fly over to another par of our globe.

The Nooran Sisters from India 2017.Sep at BBC Radio Studios

The Nooran Sisters - Jyoti and Sultana - are a Sufi singing duo from Sham Chaurasia gharana of classical music.
The sisters were trained for 10 years by their father, Ustad Gulshan Mir, a renowned Sufi singer of the 70's. Music was an integral part of their childhood because of their grandmother, Swarn Noora. The family fell on very hard times after Swarn Noora died, it was very difficult to arrange food as well, to survive their father used to give music lessons. Although it took away him from Mir's music, it helped his family to pass the bad times.
When Sultana was seven and Jyoti five, he discovered their talent of singing. "They were playing, and in jest, singing a Bulleh Shah kalam they had heard from their grandmother, Bibi Nooran." As per Mir, they didn't miss any beat and sang professionally with tabla and harmonium.
Iqbal Mahal, a Canadian music promoter, discovered the sisters in 2010. They got the fame from the MTV Talent hunt series in India MTV Sound Trippin, with their song "Tung Tung", and later, MTV unplugged series, Coke Studio.
The sisters opened the evening with the rendition of "Allah Hoo"* and belted out popular Sufi songs, including "Dama Dum Mast Qalandar", "Jugni" and many others. They also sang some of Jagjit Singh's Punjabi songs, including "Long Da Lashkara" and "Mitti Da Bawa". -- summary from wiki

*version of Allah Hoo by Sain Zahoor see Awards for World Music Concert (2006)



NOORAN-SISTERS-20170901_Won3 Session BBC

2017.Sep.01: BBC Radio 3 World on 3 and Asian Network
1.Nooran Sisters - Yaar Di Gali (BBC Live Session)
2.Nooran Sisters - Jee Ve Sohaneya (BBC Live Session)
3.Mahalakshmi Iyer & Udit Narayan - E Ajnabi (from Dil Se... OST, Venus Records India)
4.Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Akhian Noon Chain Na Aawe - Sorrows, Vol. 69 (Star CD)
5.Nooran Sisters - Akhian Noon Chain Nah Awe - NFAK cover (BBC Live Session)
6.Nooran Sisters - Dam Dam Mast Qalander - NFAK cover (BBC Live Session)
note: in between tracks talk by World on 3 and Asian Network DJs, SPECIAL attention to the film Dil Se..., haven't seen it, but really want to and think can only highly recommended...

Multi-media

• Session in this post at BBC Asian Network's youtube channel:
  Yaar Di Gaali / Jee Ve Sohaneya / Akhiyan Nu Chain Na Aave / Dama Dam Mast Qalandar

Discography

2015: Jindriye (digital track, Times Music, India)
2016: Jogan (digital track, Sony Music, India)
2016: Yaar Da Deewana (digital track, T-Series aka. Super Cassettes, India)
2016: Prince Ghuman feat. Nooran Sisters - Mahi (digital track, Saregama, India)

reminder, please don't never ever forget:
"il faut me pardonner - you must forgive me"

"il faut me pardonner - you must forgive me"

words to never ever forget

 

picture from Getty - The Washington Post

translation from article by Bram Vermeulen (Dutch correspondent based in South Africa)
source: https://nos.nl/artikel/2209440-jullie-moeten-me-verontschuldigen-woorden-om-nooit-te-vergeten.html (incl.video report in Dutch, with some French words)

Not the seizure of power in Zimbabwe, even though it took 37 years. Nor the directed end of Jacob Zuma as party leader of the largest party of the largest economy on the African continent. The story of 2017 that stays with me the most was told to us on the floor of one of the ghettos in the caravan city of Agadez in Niger.
Thermo Amadou from Guinea and Diallo Mamdou Djulde told about the day when the Toyota Hilux left them and 23 others in the vast desert near the border between Niger and Libya. The driver had deviated from the route that smugglers have been using for decades between Agadez and the Libyan border.

On that route, since the beginning of the year, roadblocks and policemen had been trained by the European agency Eucap, which settled in Agadez to stop the migration to Europe. The consequence of this pressure from Brussels is that the smugglers now prefer the rough roads through the Sahara.
The driver of Amadou and his travel companion ran after a day of driving out of petrol. In order to get new fuel he would drive back to the official route, but with 25 migrants in the trunk, he would certainly be arrested. So you wait here, he said. "I'll be right back."
Most of them got out of the trunk. Thermo Amadou remained seated. Until Pappi, the muscled Congolese persuaded him to trust the driver. "Otherwise we will all die here." The driver never came back. They waited for him a full day.
Then they started walking. With two jerry cans containing 5 liters of water, connected to a rope that he has wrapped around his neck. Back to Agadez. Following the trails of the Toyota Hilux. On the seventh day the Senegalese Pap Djah broke down. "Leave me here," he begged the others. They had already carried him around on their shoulders for a day. "Il faut me pardonner", he said. "You must forgive me."
Thermo Amadou had never forgotten those words. "Il faut me pardonner". He sat on a stone in Agadez's ghetto, and next to him Diallo with hollow eyes. They were crying. They walked nine days to tell this story. Two others did not survive the walk back. They buried them in the Sahara sand.
While I listened to their story together with colleague and cameraman Sven Torfinn, I promised myself to never forget those words of the Senegalese Pap Djah. Every time migration from Africa to Europe is discussed again by policymakers, angry twitterers, and opinion makers in the talk showrooms far from Agadez. Those apologetic words from the Senegalese Pap Djah minutes before his death: "il faut me pardonner".

nobody never ever to forget the words
"il faut me pardonner - you must forgive me"
and we all try to find humane solutions
for the problems at the roots of above story!

Amadou & Mariam 2001/2005 Live in London

Another one before the end of the year, this music should do it well at each and every New Year's Party!!

Amadou & Mariam, the blind couple from Mali, live recorded in London in 2001 and 2005. Both from BBC Radio 3 broadcasts. Sometimes I have some reservations for them, may be that's why not posted here in the Land of Mangos before, BUT Amadou's guitar playing is always amazing and pulls me over.



AMADOU-MARIAM-2001-2005_Live in London-BBC

2001 November 20 - London, Momo
setlist: 1.Je Pense A Toi / 2.Baara / 3.Lahilala / 4.Poulo
bc: 2002.Jan.18 - Andy Kershaw (on BBC Radio 3)

2005 June 09 - Marquee Club London
setlist: 1.La Fete au Village (6.15) / 2.Fana (5.30) / 3.La Paix (4.50) / 4.Beaux Dimanch-es (3.30) / 5.Coulibaly (4.00) / 6.Kobena (6.00) / 7.Chantez Chantez (6.45) / 8.Toubalakono (7.30) / 9.La Realite (5.30)
bc.2005.Jul.16 - World Routes with Lucy Duran (on BBC Radio 3)
Recorded especially for the programme at the Marquee Club in London's Leicester Square. Was part of the BBC's Africa Lives season (in 2005...).

Discography Missing?

• well just check the one here! enough?
  though I think even that one isn't complete,
  so promise to pull something together in future A&M posts...

Jeri-Jeri & Mbene Diatta Seck - 2014.Jul.23 Festival Krems

Yes Yes, back in Mango Land again, 3rd day in a row, this time with some live music, good to sweat out yesterday's overload...

Info from the original FunkHaus Europa (name changed to Cosmo) broadcast:
Today Senegalese master drummers [mangue: sabar foli?] meet with a German producer: Berlin techno-legend Mark Ernestus presents the Senegalese project Jeri Jeri.
Poly-rhythmic grooves from the Sabar drums, the Tama talking drum and dry beats connect to a rough electronic acoustic trip in the savanne. Since a few years the legendary producer and Hardwax- engages himself with African music and a.o.remixed Konono No.1. In the case of Jeri-Jeri Ernestus doesn't try to beef up the music for an international audience, but to present the essence of the music.

Jeri-Jeri leader Bakane Seck (in 2013): "This project of course comes from Mbalax and Sabar, but we have something new, a lot of changes and ideas come from Mark [Ernestus]. In the beginning he just came to Dakar every few months to find the way how to go about this project. Then in addition to Jeri-Jeri, which is my family - a very big family of sabar drummers - many big musicians are playing in these recordings, but everybody was happy to work with Mark because he is bringing something very new that nobody has done here." -- more at npr-radio



JERI-JERI-20140723_GV Festival Krems FHE

Mark Ernestus presents: Jeri-Jeri & Mbene Diatta Seck
2014.Jul.23 - Glatt&Verkehrt-Festival, Krems, Austria
setlist: 1.Tukki / 2.Mbeuguel Dafa Nekh / 3.Sosseh / 4.Bamba / 5.Tukulor

Some Media:

• Mbeuguel Dafa Nekh (2012, YT-video)
  Mark Ernestus presents JERI-JERI with Mbene Diatta Seck. Filmed in Kaolack, Senegal and Prince Arts studio (former Xippi) in Dakar.
• Clips from releases to listen to at soundcloud

Discography

2012: Mbeuguel Dafa Nekh / Dub Dafa Nekh (12", Ndagga #ND-01)
2012: Xale / Xale Rhythm / Daguagne (12", Ndagga #ND-02)
2013: Casamance / Sama Yaye // versions (12", Ndagga #ND-03)
2013: Bamba / Walo // Bamba Version / Leumbeul? (12", Ndagga #ND-04)
2013: Gawlo / version // Lignou Mome / Ndeye Gueye (12", Ndagga #ND-05)
2013: 800% Ndagga (CD/LP, Ndagga #ND-06) recorded in Dakar, Paris and Berlin
2013: Ndagga Versions (CD/LP, Ndagga #ND-07) remixes/dubs of above album
2015: Yermande in 4 mixes (12", Ndagga #ND-21)
2015: Lamb Ji / Lamb Rhythm (12", Ndagga #ND-22)
2016: Walo Walo Version // Ndiguel Groove / WW Rhythm (12", Ndagga #ND-23)
2016: Yermande  (CD/LP, Ndagga #ND-25)

Manguetic Christmas - Manguetique Noël

Today a special post, no download, just a some musical wishes for you all to enjoy!

 



Manguetic Christmas - Manguetique Noël

 

Houghas Sorowonko - Groovy Christmas
vocals by Pee Pee Dynamite

Houghas Sorowonko - The Soul of Christmas
vocals by B.B.Boogaloo

original 7" issued in Ghana
(source: discogs.com)



audio sourced from (old)
VoodooFunk Blog
[merci, Frank]

Amayenge - Peel Sessions 1988

Hello All, back on the Blog, sorry for the long wait.
Now we're in the festive season, so let me present you some festive music:

AMAYENGE (from Zambia)
Amayenge is a musical group that begun in Choma, Southern Zambia in 1978. They were initially known as the Cross-town Traffic, then The Crossbones before they picked up the name the New Crossbones.
Finally, over the years they came to be known as Amayenge ASOZA (Amayenge Sounds of Zambia). The word "Amayenge‟ is a Lenje name for a coming out dance for female initiation rites which suggest dance and
celebration. Kris Chali was one of the founders of the band and led the band to be the most successful band in Zambian Music history before he died on 2003.May.30. Amayenge is now managed by Frazer Chilembo. The
band continues to play in Zambia, in the region, Africa and beyond.

John Peel seemed to have discovered the band in the late 80's and saw Amayenge do a concert in Oxford with his son. On his show of 1988.Aug.01 Peel described the concert as a wonderful performance:
"Got to see them at the weekend: they were quite wonderful... Saw them playing in the South Park at Oxford, an abbreviated set by all accounts, but I had to leave before the end because our William wasn't feeling terrifically well, and we had a three-hour drive to get home with him in some pain, but he still didn't regret being there for a minute. It was a wonderful performance... Attila The Stockbroker was there, and a great number of other congenial people as well."
Amayenge were one of the few African artists to perform a session twice in one year for Peel's show. Both sessions were recorded while they were on tour in the UK in 1988.



AMAYENGE-1988_Peel Sessions

Session #1: rec.1988.Jul.05, bc.1988.Jul.12; rpt.1988.Jul.27 and 1988.Dec.27.
   1.Filiukotuleya / 2.Free Nelson Mandela / 3.Chibuyubuyu / 4.Munise Munise
   session released on The Peel Sessions (12" EP, 1989, Strange Fruit)
Session #2: rec.1988.Aug.??, bc.1988.Sep.06; rpt.1988.Sep.28
   1.Children Of Africa / 2.Madzela Madzela / 3.Mbikulo


More info at:

• http://www.zambianmusic.net/artist?a=amayenge-band 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amayenge 
• https://books.google.nl/books?id=vlyzAwAAQBAJ
  ZAMBIAN MUSIC LEGENDS - book by Leonard Koloko (2012, Lulu.com, ISBN 1470953358 / 9781470953355, 416 pages)
   ch.20: Chris Chali and Amayenge - Leaders in Zambian Authentic Vibes (pgs.301-307)

Note: strangly it's missing at the BBC pages dedicated to John Peel (hint, hint)

 

-- discography incl.in info file in the download --