During all the Kuduro hype started up by Benn loxo contributor, Boima, several people noted that French electro musician and producer Frédéric Galliano has been really active on the Kuduro scene lately. His MySpace page is full of music from his latest project, Kuduro Sound System. (Love that picture of him arm wrestling Dog Murras.)

Galliano’s interest in African music is wide-ranging, and definitely not limited to Kuduro nor Angolan music. He’s traveled and recorded all over the continent and other parts of the globe, including several solid projects with his own label, Frikyiwa, and its mobile studio in Senegal, Guinea and Mali.

This morning I dug-out one of Galliano’s Frikyiwa projects from Senegal, Ali Boulo Santo. This Dakarois musician, son of respected kora player, Soundioulou Cissoko, is part of that new generation of Senegalese musicians sticking to their acoustic, native instruments and then remixing the results.

Ali Boulo Santo - Dame Fall

Taffetas is a project put together by two Swiss-French musicians, Marc Liebeskind and Christophe Erard, and Guinean kora player, Ibrahima Galissa. Recently Galissa was replaced by his cousin, Dakarois kora player turned Swiss native, Chérif Nana Cissokho. Burkinabé singer, Fatoumata Dembélé, also recently joined the group adding a permanent vocalist to the mix. (Francesca Cassio does the vocals on today’s track from their first album.)

The mix of guitar, bass, kora and vocals on both their releases is crisp, smart and never overdone. I’ve been listening to their tunes on repeat lately as I tread water in Februrary paperwork at the office.

Incidentally, the group’s new singer, Dembélé, was discovered in 1998 at a music festival in Bobo-Dioulasso, a surprisingly pretty city in Burkina Faso. It’s the country’s second largest city and generally known as its cultural capital. I spent some time there a few years ago. After a long, hot bus ride through semi-desert, Bobo and its tree-lined avenues springs up out of nowhere. A great place to stop if you’re on your way to Ouaga for FESPACO or the SNC.

I’ll most likely be at one of the Taffetas shows on the 28th or 29th of March at the Sattelit in Paris. Find me at the bar and Benn loxo will buy you a round.

Taffetas - Taffetas

Hey Jozef, thanks for your comment on the last post. You woke me up. It’s been a while since I last wrote - sorry, people. I’ve been busy sorting out a move, working, traveling and fighting back the cold, Parisian rain. If any of you live up around Canal Saint Martin I’m your new neighbour. And hey, if you live in Amsterdam keep an eye out for me this weekend.

I was at a Sarah Harmer and Kelly Joe Phelps show last night. After the show we bumped into Ms. Harmer at the back of the club so I introduced myself and told her the story about how I spent many hours in a car with my Kenyan friend, Aki, listening to her album, I’m A Mountain, on repeat. It was the only disc we had with us at the start of the trip aside from a Kenyan hiphop mix featuring the Xplastaz. I’ll forever associate the tunes on that album with Aki rapping in Swahili, the German autobahn and large crowds of red-faced English and Dutch football fans.

Anyway, all the acoustic guitar put me in the mood for some solid strumming so I dug up a great disc of Malian kora and flamenco, Songhai Vol. 2. The album features the new flamenco stars, Ketama, and Toumani Diabaté. The fusion of guitar, Gypsy-Spanish singing, kora and other Malian elements works wonderfully. I prefer this second volume to the first since I find the recordings much richer.

The disc’s title, Songhai, refers to the Songhai empire. It was one of Africa’s largest and most powerful empires that, at its height in the 16th century, spanned from modern-day Senegal all the way to central Nigeria.

For today’s post I picked my favourite two tracks plus a third, De Jerez à Mali, since it brings back great memories of sipping sherry on a hot day in Jerez this summer with blue and Annie.

…plus a couple bonuses to add some context.

Ketama, Toumani Diabaté & José Soto - De la Noche a la Manana
Ketama, Toumani Diabaté & José Soto - Sute Monebo
Ketama, Toumani Diabaté & José Soto - De Jerez à Mali
X-Plastaz - Msimu kwa msimu
Sarah Harmer - I Am Aglow

Hey, sorry I haven’t been writing lately. May is busy with all the special events at work, visitors to Paris and terasse apéros. That plus a rather depressing computer crash. Didn’t lose any music but my photos took a slight beating. Oh well, I’m over it. And none of this means that I’ve been slacking on concerts or music. Lots of good stuff to share your way in the next few weeks.

I went to the Toumani Diabaté and The Symmetric Orchestra show at Cabaret Sauvage in Paris last night. While it was a touch heavy on the extended Mande shout-out ballads, the show was great overall. I like Cabaret Sauvage as a venue, even if the acoustics aren’t the best. Good crowd, easy access to the bar, enthusiastic performance. I’d never seen Toumani Diabaté live, too, so I was in a great mood.

Toumani Diabaté is the last artist to record with Ali Farka Touré before his death and was at his deathbed three hours before he passed away. He told us last night that the last album Touré ever listened to was the Symmetric Orchestra. That’s some pretty serious praise, West African musical master-wise. That and Diabaté and Touré’s last release, In The Heart of The Moon, was one of my favourite West African releases in the last couple years. Everything this guy touches is gold as far I’m concerned.

Before the release of Boulevard de l’Indépendence, The Symmetric Orchestra had never played outside of Africa as a group. It’s comprised of several well-known solo artists from across West Africa. If you’re ever in Bamako they play every Friday at the Hogon. Was anyone else there?

Two songs today picked by none other than my brother, Ben, who’s visiting Paris this week. Africa Challenge is a Senegalese-Salsa styled “fetish” piece, the second a slow-jam about “accepting death as we do birth.”

Both of today’s tracks are off the recent Symmetric Orchestra album available all over the place.

Toumani Diabaté & The Symmetric Orchestra - Africa Challenge
Toumani Diabaté & The Symmetric Orchestra - Tapha Niang

Can anyone help with these requests by some Benn loxo listeners?

Xalam - Ade
West African Cosmos albums
Wato Sita

Anyway, not much time today to write, but have a listen to some Kandia Kouyaté off her latest album, Biriko. Today’s track features some nice sax by Nicholas Gueret to mix things up a bit.

Mande, Mali, griot, beautiful; you know the deal if you’ve been reading this blog for a while.

Kandia Kouyaté - M’Bensara

Readers of this site will know that I have a soft-spot for afro-cuban salsa (and the sweaty, whisky-tinged nights that I associate with it.) Many a long workday has been made right by an evening of salsa, either on the stereo or the dancefloor.

The rhythm brings back memories of the ever-lovely K in a sundress, Ed striking a culturally shocking breakdance move, and of out of tune bands at Fouquets, Hotel de la Poste and various nightspots in Dieupeul and Castor. Ah, Dakar, tu me manques.

Today I’m yet again working late, watching the sun cheekily set outside my office window. Let’s turn to Djeli Moussa Diawara for salvation, yeah?

Diawara is a Guinean kora player who used to play in the Rail band during the 1970s and later recorded some stuff with Mory Kanté. Does this guy have any solo albums? None that I have/could find, so please educate me in the comments if he does.

I grabbed today’s track off an easy to find (to offset all the recent rather obscure posts) and well put together compilation, Salsa Africa. The album is worth buying, especially if you don’t already have a copy Bantous De La Capitale’s El Coco.

Djeli Moussa Diawara - Salda Hora

Continuing with the Mali theme, today we’ll hear some old Salif Keita and Kante Manfila music. This year they released The Lost Album on the French label, Discovery. It’s an interesting collection of previously hard-to-find tracks recorded in 1980 in the Ivory Coast. Most of the songs were only available on Nigerian vinyl until they were found and polished up by Discovery.

What makes this collection cool is that it pre-dates the traditional music renaissance amongst West African musicians. While the track I posted today isn’t maybe the greatest example of this (even though it’s my favourite), most tracks are kora, balafon and guitar-based tunes with traditional melodies and rhythms. This kind of return-to-your-roots sound wasn’t in fashion in 1980. Instead, reggae, funk and pop dominated West African music. The fact that Keita and Manfila were producing this kind of album at the time further proves their status as true visionaries for the West African world music sound that has emerged in recent years.

Salif Ketia & Kante Manfila - Wara

After the last post’s sounds it’s high time for a kora remix.

Today’s first track comes off Hadja Kouyate and Ali Boulo Santo’s 2003 album, Manding-Ko, recorded at Dakar’s Studio 2000. Hadja Kouyate is the daughter of Guinean griots who, as far as I can tell, most people believe is Malian. Ali Boulo Santo isn’t Malian either - he’s Senegalese, a Dakarois even. Regardless, the album is a collection of nice Mandingo kora music accompanying Kouyate’s beautiful singing. Pan-West African, Malian sounding at times and generally good all ’round.

The remix bit comes off an album on the same label, Frédéric Galliano’s Frikyiwa, called FKW 016: Electronic Experience in African Music. The title sort of describes what the album is all about - definitely worth a listen.

My copies of both albums are courtesy my good friend, Alex. Happy birthday, Alex, and cheers for some great new additions to the collection.

Hadja Kouyate & Ali Boulo Santo - Agne Tolona
Hadja Kouyate & Ali Boulo Santo - Agne Tolona recontructed

I’ve upgraded the software that runs this site to Wordpress 1.5. It seems to be working well, but if you notice any bugs please let me know.

In honour of this mis-a-jour I’m going to post a particularly beautiful kora piece by Toumani Diabate and Ballake Sissoko. We already heard Diabate on this site, but I’m in the mood so let’s just go with it.

This song is off their aptly-named 1999 album, New Ancient Strings. The album’s title is a play on the title of Sidiki Diabate and Djelimadi Sissoko’s classic album, Cordes Anciennes. The elder Diabate and Sissoko were famous for introducing Western music markets to the sound of the kora. This album is an attempt by their sons to keep the Malian kora tradition alive and well.

Toumani Diabate & Ballake Sissoko - Bi Lambam

In honour of the Hallowe’en Hangover I’ll post a track by a group in “disguise”.

The Mandingo Griot Society isn’t actually an African band. It’s a bunch of Americans, Carribeans and West Africans living in the US. Foday Suso, the now well-known bandleader and kora player for the group, is from The Gambia but all of his known recordings have happened elsewhere and with musicians from a variety of backgrounds. Still, there’s something about the kora that will make any music sound eternally Mandingo African.

Today’s track starts as you might expect and eventually builds to a near free-jazz/funk fest by the fifth minute. For some reason I crack-up whenever I listen to this tune.. and then listen more.

Mandingo Griot Society - Jimbasen

There’s this guy at a local restaurant near my old apartment in Dakar who plays Kora like he’s taken 9 hits of crystal meth. If that isn’t annoying enough, he walks from table to table all night asking everyone their names so that he can incorporate them into his high-speed Mandingo madness. While my love/hate relationship with Chez Loutcha and its annoying musician comes to mind whenever I think of the kora, it can be a beautiful thing.

A little tough to play at 21-strings, Toumani Diabaté does it best. Son of the undisputed kora king, Sidiki Diabaté, Toumani has been plucking at koras for as long he can probably remember. Recently he got a name for himself in the Western world by playing on Damon Albarn’s Mali Music. He’s also done some work with Taj Mahal and has a few solo albums. 1991’s Kaira is a great album filled with all kora, all the time. Check-out my favourite below.

This is the last day of Mali week. Next week it’s Senegal.

Toumani Diabaté - Jarabi