Last week the good people at Rock Paper Scissors introduced me to Chieck Hamala Diabate’s upcoming release, Ake Doni Ani.

I always approach new-world/old-world West African albums with care, but on this one things come together nicely. The opening track that we’ll hear today, Den Woulou Lalou, features Corey Harris‘ slide guitar blending well with the n’goni and a riddim feel riding well with the Malian griot sound. The results are very listenable and make a great start to my mid-week morning.

Cheick Hamala Diabate lives in Washington DC but has some big-time musical genes cred: he’s Toumani Diabate’s first cousin and Djelimady Tounkara’s nephew. On this release he teamed up with Corey Harris, some members of Chopteeth and others to produce a distinctly Malian-sounding album with tasteful hints of other influences.

I haven’t been back to Mali since that amazing road trip several years ago and I haven’t been back to DC in even longer.. but hey, I’ll play it like Diabate and stick to what I like from a distance for now.

Speaking of which, many upcoming shows and trips in the mix. August is pretty dead in Paris (in a good way if you ask me) but July and September are chock-a-block with great live African music concerts. Let me know if you’re around for any of these:

Staff Benda Bilili, Konomo No.1 and the Kasai All-Stars on July 15th; Seun Kuti & Fela’s Egypt 80, Amadou & Mariam and Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou on September 1st; Hank Jones & Cheick Tidiane Seck, Mahmoud Ahmed and Alémayèhu Eshèté on September 12th.

And if you know anything about the music scenes in Australia or Borneo…

Cheick Hamala Diabate’s latest release, Ake Doni Doni (Take It Slow) will be out on August 11th, 2009, on Grigri Discs.

Cheick Hamala Diabate – Den Woulou Lalou

I feel compelled to write again about Mariem Hassan. She’s really amazing.

I posted her song, La Tumchi Anni, when I featured the Rough Guide to African Blues a little while back. I’ve since bought her 2002 release, Mariem Hassan con Leyoad.

She’s one of the principal musical voices of the Sahrwai people from Western Sahara, or the Saharawi Democratic Arab Republic, as they and 76 other nations call/recognize it.

When she’s not belting out tunes, Hassan works as a nurse in the “occupied Sahara”.

This quote from World Music Central sort of sums things up: “Before the war, we did songs of love and beautiful things but the war and the lack of our land made us talk of more important thingsabout the kids, the martyrs, the war.”

You can learn more and buy this album at Calabash, National Geographic and Stern’s. There’s even a fan blog about her here.

Mariem Hassan – ID Chab

I’m continually impressed by the Rough Guide African music compilations. One of their latest, The Rough Guide to African Blues, is another example of their well researched and wide-ranging musical surveys.

I’ll feature two tracks today off this compilation: the first from a “country” I’ve never featured on Benn loxo, Western Sahara. (If you’re unsure why I put quotation marks around the word “country” you better do some reading.)

Mariem Hassan’s voice is beautiful. She is a Saharawi, a Western Sarahan people who live in exile in neighbouring Algeria, born into a griot (igawen) family. Her brother plus two other musicians from the Tinduf refugee camp accompany her on the track, La Tumchi Anni, which translates to “don’t desert me.”

Our second track is by Ayaléw Mèsfin & Black Lion band who are from, as you probably already guessed if you’re listening to the track now, Ethiopia. He lives in the US now, but apparently his record shop back in Addis is still top for classic golden era Ethiopia rock and soul. We love that kind of thing here, you know.

Mariem Hassan – La Tumchi Anni
Ayaléw Mèsfin and Black Lion Band – Feqer Aydelem Wey

Bob Brozman released a great album a few months ago called Lumière.

Every piece is based on an improvisation – he starts with a simple melody and builds on the idea, adding layer upon layer of various forms of stringed instrument. Styles range from classic American blues to calypso to music from the far east.

Normally I wouldn’t like such an ambitious fusion of styles, but he pulls it off on this record. He’s an amazing guitar player for starters, and if you’re at all into instruments the album is a great showcase of a variety of stringed sounds.

As we know here at Benn loxo, no “world music” tour of guitar music would be complete without a nod to Malian blues. I’m left wondering, however, why soukous was left off the list. I guess Bob is too laid back for that arpeggio wall of sound of Congolese electric guitar!

Bob Brozman Orchestra – Bamako Blues

Ali Farka Touré, one of the most internationally acclaimed artists in West African music, has died today after a long illness. He was 67.

You can read the many obits floating around the web for yourself, but personally his music had a huge influence on me. Way, way before I ever even thought of moving to West Africa – or even out of Canada – I was into Touré’s albums Talking Timbuktu, Radio Mali and Niafunké. They were a gateway into the rich world of contemporary African rock and blues, and ultimately helped shape my musical taste for the region.

Talking Timbuktu, Niafunke and In The Heart of the Moon remain some of the best West African albums in my collection. Red/Green, The River, The Source and Radio Mali are also on that shelf and get routine play on the African shuffle.

If you can believe it I was still in high school when Talking Timbuktu hit Toronto record shops in 1995. At the time I would’ve been rocking to whatever hiphop, pop, etc was cool in the mid-nineties. I’d always been into music a bit out of the norm, but Ali Farka Touré really helped me break-out of the North American sound and explore folk, blues and rock from other countries, notably Mali, Brazil, Senegal and South Africa.

I can thank Touré’s albums along with some Nigerian funk compilations I picked-up in the late-nineties for what is now nearly a 10-year obsession with world music, African in particular.

Rest in peace, grand Touré.

Ali Farka Toure – Allah Uya
Ry Cooder & Ali Farka Toure – Gomni

When I was younger I played jazz trombone. This musical hobby was dropped quickly after I started college and moved into a series of horn-unfriendly apartments, but I still have a soft spot for the sound. I was happy, then, when Benn loxo listener Scott passed me a copy of Toumani Diabate and Roswell Rudd’s album, Malicool.

Malicool features Rudd on trombone, Diabate on kora plus others on balafon, ngoni, djembe and guitar. While the trombone meets Mali sound may not always click, there are some serious high points on the album and it makes for, at the very least, an interesting listen.

Malicool was released by Sunny Side records in 2003 and is available in most good music shops.

Toumani Diabate & Roswell Rudd – Rosmani

If I spend more than five minutes on this post I’m going to miss my train to Bruxelles. I wanted to do a Canada-Africa theme post, but no time.. Oh well. Here’s a good track, and let me quote from Epitonic for a description:

In 1999, Birdman flew percussionists from a drum troupe in Senegal, Africa to Senatobia, Mississippi to join Turner and his band. The result is Otha Turner and the Afrossippi Allstars: From Senegal to Senatobia, eight entrancing pieces that combine Turner’s masterful fife playing with the varied polyrhythms of traditional African music. Both “Station Blues” and “Senegal to Senatobia” come from that album. Listen, close your eyes, and imagine dancing in the rain.

The title of this track is perfect for a Friday afternoon. It’s almost the weekend, and I plan spend my whole weekend doing just that, dancing in the rain at Couleur Café.

Bon weekend, and Happy Canada Day.

Otha Turner – Glory, Glory Hallelujah

We’ve been laying it on heavy with the funk lately but I have a lot of cooking to do tonight so I need to chill-out a bit this morning. Time for some Jamaican guitar meets Senegalese vocals and talking drumming.

During the 1970s notable Jamaican guitar player Ernest Ranglin went on tour with Jimmy Cliff to West Africa. He apparently liked what he saw and heard here as much as I do, but it took him 20 years to get back and make a record with some local musicians.

Never one to slack, Ranglin didn’t just find any old griots to join him on the album. We have Baaba Maal and his band Daande Lenol, Mansour Seck at the mic, plus some great upstarts (who are new to me, too): Alioune Mbaye Nder and Cisse Diamba Kanoute, a 14-year old Senegalese singer. Much of the composing is done by Maal and Seck but it all fuses nicely with Ranglin’s bluesy guitar.

The results are amazing. This is one my favourite West Africa fusion albums, right up there with Talking Timbuktu and Mississippi to Mali. These guys would be great to see live.

Ernest Ranglin – Ala Walee
Ernest Ranglin – Anna