What made me to make time for posted is the sad news of the death of Khaira Arby on Aug.18 in a hospital in Bamako. As I was very much occupied with a lot of work, the news reached me only a few days ago, but it immediately did me decide to dig into the archive for a special post in remembrance of the "Nightingale of Timbuktu".
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| Khaira Arby 2014 April in Bamako, Mali - photo source: The Independent (photo credit: Sebastien Rieussec/AFP/Getty Images) |
ARBY-KHAIRA-20110702_Afrikafestival Hertme R6
as bonustracks are included some recordings by Andy Kershaw of her, then named Haira Arby, in 1989 in Timbuktu and in 2003 at the Festival au Desert [all done for and broadcasted on BBC Radio]
Other media about Khaira Arby:
- APWW remembers Khaira Arby - Afropop (incl.videos of 2003 Festival in the Desert and 2010 International Tour)
- Obituary 2018.Aug.31 in The Independent
- videos on Afrikafestival Hertme's own youtube channel - from AFH337 till AFH345
- Khaira, as Haira, Arby featured in my post about the 2004 Festival au Desert
- Unreleased Ali Farka Toure & Khaira Arby recordings made mid 1980s, available at VoA (note: posted by Matthew Lavoie currently of Wallahi Le Zein!)
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| Khaira Arby 2011.Jul.02 Afrikafstival Hertme (source: afrikafestival.hertme ) |
Remember Khaira Arby next to Pap Djah
welcome back! I got to know about Khaira's passing through a tweet by Samba Touré and have searched my hard drives for whatever music I have from her, besides her two international releases. Basically what I came up with is what you've put together, In plus I only have three shows recorded from audience. Concerning the 1988 Andy Kershaw recording in the lobby of the hotel, I had a faint memory it was longer than the one you're sharing here, maybe 25 minutes or so, but I can't find it nowhere...I guess my memory is playing tricks.
ReplyDeleteRIP Khaira.
I knew about Khaira Arby's passing when going through the Afropop mails (I hadn't read for quite some time...).
DeleteThe 1988 Kershaw recording is from his special "Now That's What I Call Mali!" broadcasted in 3 parts in 1989 April on BBC Radio 4. Probably he had recorded more that broadcasted in those specials and may be additional recordings were broadcasted in his regular shows at Radio 1 (if anybody has those, I'm very interested...)
PS: making the next post (Tinariwen), I found a better recording of Khaira at the 2003 Festival au Desert (forgot about then, so included as bonus in the download there)
A truly awesome upload, and thanks very much for sharing it with us. It's one of the best you've given us. Merci!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this great music! I just finished reading Joshua Hammer's "Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu" and he briefly mentions performances by Khaira Arby and Ahmed Ag Kaedi/Amanar at the Festival on the Niger in 2014. I hadn't heard of either of these two artists, so I poked around and found your post (and Amanar at bandcamp).
ReplyDeleteMs. Arby's voice is (was) spectacular, and her backing band is killer too. Many thanks for keeping this precious music alive. Folks like you - and those on your blog list - are the bad-ass music librarians of the internet!