Fadal al Kareedi

I  loved this tape from Yemen from the first notes,and it only gets better with every next song
I'm  passing  it over for  those of you who will really enjoy it
no  information or track names as usual
just  first rank galloping vocal passion  and superb technique on the oud
comes with many thanks to mushmir for sharing

infakaratuk sadeek

Alhaji Amara Sahone

He is tall and wiry, a quiet man, his face decorated with tribal tattoos,
 his compound small, but in a continuous process of rebuilding, and he has arranged small rooms to rent out, living with one of his wives and their children in a small room  at the corner of the compound.
 He is an excellent musician and has from time to time been part of traveling groups of singers and instrumentalists. He is a Jare, the Serehule word for the West African singer/historian.

*

"A man must be useful and always know his duty. This song
is always played for men who are brave and of use to others,
not for men who can be trifled with.
I am calling for men who can save the lives of other men
whenever there is trouble, when there is hunger
for those who can stand  and fight for their rights.
This song is for those men."  from Nege Sirimang

Alhaji Amara Sahone

reciting and accompanying himself

Bumba-meu-boi de Axixá

it's the same old, boring, wonderful world
and I'm  happy to have a pair of ordinary ears just to be able to live and  listen:

bumba-meu-boi 

photos/thanks

the End is Now Special Party

So it's the end of the world today,I was told some days ago
-a really hilarious idea of the new age merchants !
I'll relax and anticipate for the spectacle as I have nothing  to loose....
for the occasion  at home we are having  a  party with music,food and dance  and at the end of the day , family and  friends  we'll  say  goodbye,it was nice as long as it lasted we love each other  and we have already arranged  a meeting  for tomorrow in the next dimension.
seriously now if not today surely soon there won't be any future for the human race  if we  remain so blind and greedy and don't realize that  living on this magic planet  is a right and a privilege, where every life is precious and all built  on that.
till tomorrow comes,a small  collection of righteous reggae and gospel sounds mostly,for your end of the world party.play it loud and heads up.

Babylon  you are over

for eternity's records:

01-Shalom Youth choir - Countdown
02-Willie Williams-Armagedeon Time
03-Skanky ft. Simplefx-La planète
04- Earl Sixteen-Babylon Walls
05-Bessie Griffin & The Caravans - Let Us Run
06-Soweto Soul Gospel Singers-Nantsi Ngola
07-U-Roy - Babylon burning
08-Anzala, Dolor & Vélo - Ti fi la ou té madam
09-Culture-Revelation Time
10-12 Apostles Church Choir- Izindaba
11-Sizzla-Babylon homework
12-Black label band - Sura mbaya
13-Zojojo I Su Grupo di Tambu- Salvador del munde
14-Yasus Afari-pands of Babylon
15-Daara J.- Babylone
16-Amadodana Ase Wesile - Zingandidakumbisa Na
17-Spiritual Singers Ntsamina-Wey a tsumo ma
18- Marion Williams & The Stars of Faith - When I Lay This Body Down
19-Orchestra Marrabenta Star de Moçambique ft. Mingas- Elisa Gomara Saia
20-Wagëblë-Babylon
21-Rafik Ganja-Babylone 2

Mandekalou

on the image 

Ensemble Gabusi des iles-Les Comores

gabusi from the archives

*****

or

(*

a very brief  story
of a travelling instrument 

Momo Wandel Soumah-Momo le Doyen....original soundtracks

"I wanted to have jazz in my sound, but to associate it with folklore. Because I could hear something of jazz in my musical territory here. Every time I heard a jazz record, I thought that's a rhythm from here. There is the tam tam, the gingou, the little doun-doun.The heart of jazz is found in Guinea, I can only express what I feel in jazz. the source of jazz is here." 
Momo Wandel Soumah

Momo "Wandel" Soumah, alto saxophonist, singer ,composer: born 1926; twice married (10 children)
a true innovator and a living bridge between Africa and Jazz . Member of  Syli Orchestre National  during the first years after Independence:"We were pushed to return to our source, our own folklore. So we would go to the villages, drill and dig deeply in the soil of our home towns and we found gold - beautiful songs that we would arrange and introduce to our orchestras."
Writing and singing in both Susu and Baga - with a vocal style reminiscent of Louis Armstrong - his songs speak of life in the villages.With his Wandel sextet  fused  Jazz  and the roots musics of the Maninka, Fula, Susu and his own Baga people.
Wandel's saxophone (shades of Coltrane, Parker and Coleman) trades off seamlessly with Mamady Mansare's beautiful flute lines, Khali Camara's balaphon and the kora of Sekou Kouyate (the former bandleader for Miriam Makeba). Wandel sings "scat" and is matched note for note by Aboubacar "Fatouababou" Camara on djembe. These, as many of the other fine musicians are members of the National Djoliba Ballet, or the Percussionists of Guinea. Along with the remaining instrumentation - dunduns, krin, and bolon - the music itself is rooted in the flowing, trance-like traditional mode, occasionally departing to celebratory arrangements with strong western jazz sensibilities such as their reading of Afro Blue..
Momo "Wandel" Soumah died in Conakry 16 June 2003

a posthumous release of Momo Wandel Soumah's soundtracks  for the films/documentaries,Circus Baobab,L'enfant noir,Ouatara,Momo le doyen & Voyage au pays.

If I write essential I'm afraid  that I'll
underestimate  the beauty of these recordings...

many of the much loved musics of Momo Wandel Soumah can be found here....

Momo le doyen

participating musicians:

1-Circus Baobab: Le blues du chef de village

Momo Wandel Soumah- vocals,saxophone

Khali Camara - balafon

Kelontan Cissoko  - kora

Laye Camara  - flute

Amadou Camara  - bolon

Alassane Camara  - djembe

Antony Bangoura  - congoma

2-Voyage au pays :Itinerance 

Fanta Camara  - vocals

Sori Dibate- balafon

Sekou Kouyate - kora

Kouyate, Abdulaye - guitar

Laye Camara- flute

Alassane Camara - djembe

Antony Bangoura  - congoma

3 -Circus Baobab: Signoya live 

Momo Wandel Soumah - vocals

Khali Camara - balafon

Kelontan Cissoko - kora

Laye Camara - flute

Alassane Camara- djembe

4-Aoutara: Balade Baga 

Khali Camara- balafon

Camara, Agathe - vocals

Mamady Mansare - flute

Fatou Abou Camara - djembe

Baga Guine - Ensemble

5-L'Enfant Noir: Generique fin 

Khali Camara - balafon

Mamady Mansare- flute

Fatou Abou Camara - djembe

6-L'Enfant Noir: Afro Blue 

Khali Camara - balafon

Mamady Mansare - flute

Fatou Abou Camara- djembe

7 - L'Enfant Noir: Errance a Conakry 

Khali Camara - balafon

Mamady Mansare - flute

Fatou Abou Camara- djembe

8-Felenko metis 

Momo Wandel Soumah - vocals

Sori Dibate - balafon

Sekou Kouyate- kora

Abdulaye Kouyate - guitar

Laurent Chevallier - guitar

Alassane Camara - djembe

Circus Baobab  Ensemble

9 -Elmo Mory Leo 

Sori Dibate- balafon

Sekou Kouyate - kora

Abdulaye Kouyate - guitar

Laurent Chevallier - guitar

Alassane Camara - djembe

Fanta Camara - vocals

Circus Baobab  Ensemble

10-Momo le Doyen: Dernier souffle wandelien 

Momo Wandel Soumah - saxophone

and 

you can watch,and watch again -the entire 97:21-Circus Baobab film of Laurent Chevallier right  here 

Ibrahima Sarr et Danaya

latest obsession (and what else are blogs about,other than our obsessions?)
djembe master Ibrahima Sarr and the amazing Danaya company of singers ,dancers  & percussionists:

about
Ibrahima Sarr 

Ibrahima SARR - Djembé solo, direction
Adama COULIBALY - Chant et donso ngoni
Fatime DIABATE - Chant et danse
Seïba SISSOKO - Djeli ngoni
Moussa DIABATE - Bala
Fassara SACKO dit "Niangri" - Chant et doundoun solo
Gaoussou KOUYATÉ dit "Garçon" - Djembé solo et accompagnement
Ismaïla KOUYATÉ dit "Kenieba” - Djembé, doundoun solo et accompagnement
Brahima Coulibaly - Danse et konkoni

listen

why  I'm  so in love with Fassara Sacko's voice ?

listen to him in the wonderful Nia nia O .

the short film port 386 from Olivier Conrardy about the Danaya company can be viewed here  do your self this favor and don't miss it .

Hamza el Din-Al Oud-Instrumental & Vocal Music of Nubia

> The oud in pictures and words

this is a treasure
I share it with anyone interested
I presume you won't need any introduction to Hamza el Din's (magic) music
just in case


Al Oud

> bonus track Saquit Darius

 my thanks to kokolo


.

Rakoto Frah - Flute Master of Madagascar

The music that Rakoto Frah plays is based in the Merina traditions of the Central Highlands of Madagascar, and in particular two distinct styles; one deriving from the famadihana ('turning the dead') exhumation and reburial ceremonies, and the other from hiragasy(hira = song, gasy = of Madagascar), a theatrical performance by troupes of players, featuring song, music, dance, proverbs, morality tales and so forth.
Famadihana ceremonies feature troupes of sodina and amponga (a European-derived military-style drum) players.
The events are rooted in the immense respect

which the Malagasy people show their ancestors,
manifesting in day or even week long celebrations of the dead.
Far from being sombre or macabre occasions, they are infused with joy and celebration, reflected in the wild, frenetic music that the musicians play for dancing (to please the dead).
The famadihana repertoire featured on this release is virtuosic, brash and energetic.
As this is music for the outdoors, the recording reflects the volume and tone of the instrumental line-up; key to the achieving the exhilarating, high-energy effect.
Ceremonies are competitive; judged by the quantity of musicians in a troupe,
the prolific output of new tunes and the ability to keep the atmosphere going full pelt for the duration.
The events in which this master plays can feature up to 20 flute-players and drummers
and Rakoto Frah had apparently created nearly 800 pieces at the time of this recording!
Here, however, there are just three sodina players: bright-toned and breathy.

Traditionally the flutes, with six finger holes and a thumbhole, were made out of bamboo,but the flutes that Rakoto Frah makes for himself are made out of metal tubing
(ski poles are most favoured!) lending a certain harshness to the tone.
The hiragasy tradition is represented here by some distinctive, close harmony vocals
of Rakoto Frah's two young grand-daughters, singing songs on a variety of themes,
both serious (relira) and light-hearted (zanakira): from commentaries on behaviour to descriptions of places.
The singing is bold and attention-grabbing and again the tempo is upbeat.
The instrumental pieces are also descriptive, inspired by the environment or social concerns and so forth.As well as the vivacious sodina playing, the line-up features kabosy,
a small guitar-like instrument with four to six strings and partial frets,and the rhythm-marking ambio claves.

source

wikifra

rakoto fra 1000 

next, a nice old video with  Rakoto Fra as the guest of  Erick Manana

L'Orchestre Le Bida de la Capitale

chant des pêcheurs Bozo,melodie qui rythme le mouvement des pagaies

piochant l'eau glauque du grand fleuve Niger :

Kenuna 

*

Fantani Touré

In Mali, the voice of Fantani Touré rings out like a shout. Hers is the voice of a woman who has won battles against prejudice, against silence and against discouragement.

Touré is also notable for the fight she has led for several years against the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). In so doing, she has demonstrated how all women in Mali and throughout Africa can contribute a building block to the cause on behalf of women. One of Mali’s best-known artists, she is also the initiator and founder of the international Voices of Bamako Festival (Voix de Bamako), a forum for discussing various topics related to women’s issues. For her myriad efforts, Touré was decorated in January 2011 with the prestigious Chevalier de l’Ordre et de la Valeur by the president of Mali Amadou Toumani Touré. The award was bestowed in recognition of her artistic talent and her activities on behalf of the promotion of women and human rights.
Touré is a descendant of the first inhabitants of Bamako, the grand religious marabouts, who were renowned throughout the country. She comes from a large, extended family which is native to the  popular quarter of Bamako called Bozola. This artist took her first steps in her craft at a very young age, participating in various contests held in her neighborhood. These contests led to inter-community contests, which then led to artistic and cultural biennales of art and music in Mali.

 However, as she grew older, her parents began to discourage and oppose her pursuit of singing as a career. Given her family lineage, according the traditional caste system still firmly in place in Mali, it was unthinkable that a Touré would become a singer - much less one who sang before the masses. So, as Fantani recalls, “They married me off. I was 19 years old. My husband was of course in agreement with them. But this was much stronger than me. I needed to sing.” She continues: “I agreed to sing during a program that was filmed by the national TV in Mali. On the day it aired, my husband chased me away. I was divorced because of singing.”

Fortunately for her, her now ex-husband was not the only person watching the small television screen that day. And so it came about that more than 1,000 people descended upon Bozola, the quarter of the fishermen where the Touré family lived, to convince her father to allow his daughter to sing. They succeeded. Success soon followed. The famous Malian singer Salif Keita had also taken note of the young singer, and he went on to produce her first album, which became the best-selling album of 1997.

N'Tin Naari

Touré’s passion for art and music did not keep her from continuing her education. In 1988 she received her diploma in technical finance from the School of Industry, Commerce and Administration (l’École d’Industrie, de Commerce et d’Administration, or ECICA) of Bamako. But as this learning did not fully satisfy all her desires, she decided to deepen her musical skills and in enrolled in Mali’s Institut National des Arts, where she received her diploma in music in 1992.

Touré launched the international Voices of Bamako Festival in 2008 to celebrate African women and traditional African arts. The festival program encompasses several domains such as theatre, learning pottery, artisanal work and pirogue races and also includes roundtable discussions on topics addressing women’s issues. During this festival women from Mali and other parts of Africa are honored. Touré has also contributed to developing artistic talent in Mali, where she has trained and assisted several artists for more than a decade.

T

Fantani Touré believes that political participation is not a combat against men, but adds that men must understand that to be a woman does not mean that one is a “lesser being” or an “underling.” She believes the complementariness between the two fosters the emergence of a home, a society, a nation.
She maintains that one can respect tradition while also respecting the rights of women. She also notes that the way youth are educated in Mali has changed a lot since when she was growing up. Young women today have more freedom and are able to make decisions concerning their future.

Girls’ education and the fight against female genital mutilation (FGM) are the battles that Touré has led since the start of her singing career. She makes use of her position as an opinion maker to speak out on these topics in the media and during her concerts. She is, in fact, the first Malian singer to write and perform songs that speak out against the practice of FGM. Her combat has not come without a price; several times she has been attacked and threatened by women who are FGM practitioners.

As has been true for many Malian and African artists, Fantani Touré says she has been greatly influenced throughout her career path by the renowned late Malian singer Ali Farka Touré. She said she prays to heaven that she’ll have even more support to continue being able to promote women’s rights for as long as possible. For her, Africa’s future rests in the hands of women.

by Sandra Zerbo 

Pascal Diatta & Sona Mané-Simnadé + 4

some of you might still remember this fine recording from freedomblues and grapewrath. 
it was too good to let it fade away and be forgotten once more 
so I decided to post it here anew,this time accompanied with the writing of the original poster 
esteemed (ex)blogger -musician and friend, Irate Pirate: 

For any of you looking for the African equivalent of Joseph Spence and the Pinder Family, this is it. Like Spence, Pascal Diatta has a style all his own, as inimitable as it is distinctive and fitting to the music. Sudden stops and starts, rhythms that repeat like you wouldn't expect them to, and very hand-crafted harmonies make this album a treat of raw, funky, sparse, delicious music. It is totally devoid of pretension, and totally full of musicality. The guitar playing is so full of syncopation that practically every note and strum occurs when you wouldn't expect it, and is unlike any other African guitar styles, being based neither on the patterns of kora/ngoni nor on those of the mbira thumb piano. And like the Pinders, Sona Mané's vocals come from somewhere in the same dimension as the guitar: untrained, unexpected, unassuming, and fantastic!

On the surface, this music seems very naked, rough, even 'primitive'. And there is a sort of 3rd-world happiness that pervades the tunes which have a quality of celebratory ordinariness. But behind this rough, simple exterior we find a very complex sense of rhythm weaving its way through the guitar lines and a refreshingly honest directness to the singing which conveys the wealth of human experience through the prism of joyful shouts and wails. If you're anything like me, it may take a couple of listens to really 'get' it, but once you do, you won't be able to put it down! The music is totally infectious: it gets inside your skin and makes your heart jump, but without any of the usual tactics of pop production.

listen

Simnadé

or listen  here
alternatively

"Mané's passionate, husky voice stuns and enchants, sending shivers down the spine.

 But it is Diatta's amazing finger-picking stop/start guitar that really takes the breath away,

 providing looping and spiralling patterns over and under the swooping and soaring voices.

 This is utterly extraordinary music"

Alhaji Fabala Kanuteh

*****