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

If you can understand French you’ll get a little history lesson from today’s track. Regardless, you have to appreciate the amazing list of Mande musicians who appear on this recording:

Bako Dagnon, Kemo Conde, Kemo Kouyate, Alkaly Camara, Djelimady Tounkara, Lafia Diabate, Kasse Mady Diabate, Kandia Kouyate, Mama Sissoko, Sekouba ‘Bambino’ Diabate, Kerfala Kante, Djessou Mory Kante, Mamadou Diabate, Baissa Kone, and many more.

Kora, balafon, guitar and wonderful Mande singing by many of the best musicians currently alive in West Africa. Buy the album here.

Mande All Stars - Nare Maghan

Well, I’m in the Paris CDG departure lounge at the moment. I’m wildly bored since I’ve been traveling and/or arguing with airport officials for about 1.5 days. Before boarding my final flight to the 3rd continent of my journey I thought I’d do a quick post.

I’m on airport wi-fi and without much music at the moment, but I noticed I left a Kante Manfila track on my laptop drive. This song is nicely soothing for my tired ears. Good for a Sunday, too. (It is Sunday, right?)

In short, Kante Manfila is a Mandingo from Guinea who strums a nice acoustic guitar. He used to play in Les Ambasadeurs with Mory Kanté and Salif Keita. Buy his music here.

ps- the picture on today’s post is one I took while flying an ultralight over sand dunes in Namibia. Anyone have any Namibian music they’d like to share?

Kante Manfila - Agne Anko

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

Sekouba “Bambino” Diabate got his name because he started singing with the famous Guinean group, Bembeya Jazz National, at the tender age of 17. This was a group of old guys by the mid-1970s and he was the nouveau talent, ie the little brat that the old-school members would make fun of. 30 years have passed and he’s still known as the baby/Bambino.

His last album, Sinikan, got a lot of attention, both in Africa and abroad. Well produced thanks to the studio work of some of Salif Keita’s team and well advertised/distributed, Sinikan was seen as an album that could finally get Guinean music on the map in Western markets. I’m not actually sure how well it sold abroad but regardless Sekouba is now well-known and seems set to rise in popularity.

He has that new-sound West Africa meets traditional and yet he stays true to his Mandingo/Guinean musical roots. While he’s a little heavy on the synth drums and casio sounds at times, his voice, the great chanting backup vocals and wonderful percussion more than save the music.

Here’s my favourite track off Sinikan (and no, it’s not “Fatou”) plus another tune from an earlier album that caught my ear on the Guinea Vibrations compilation.

And hey, since we now have some bandwidth to spare I’ll throw up another track off that compilation: some catchy Guinean dance music by another good traditional mandingo + pop fusion musician, Baba Djan. It’s Hallowe’en and I get the day-off tomorrow so may as well have something to move to tonight.

Sekouba Bambino - Gnangnini
Sekouba Bambino - Acanadia
Baba Djan - Kankan

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