Music for the day - Issa Bagayogo

There are many musicians from Mali that have delighted over the years but when it comes to a great voice (male), two men stand out - one is Boubacar Traoré and then among the younger generation, it is undoubtedly Issa Bagayogo.

Here then are two tracks from him; the first one is a recent find.

Issa Bagayogo - Namadjidja, from his album, Mali Koura.


 

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And the second one is one that makes me want to get up and dance every time I hear it! ;-)

Issa Bagayogo - Nogo,  from his album, Timbuktu.

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Music for the day: Dobet Gnahore

I have listened to a lot of music from Mali and other nations of Africa in the last 7 years but am relatively new to Dobet Gnahore, who is a singer from the Côte d'Ivoire but is now settled in France. What a lovely voice!

This track, called Samahani, is from the album: "Djekpa La You".

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And one more bonus video of this great talent from Africa.. this is from the 2009 Afrikafestival Hertme in Netherlands.

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Music for the day: Ali Farka Toure's Savane

Music for this Sunday morning: 

Some day I may be able to gather the words of all that this song and Ali Farka Toure's music means to me but for now, offered without comment is a song that I often listen to when I don't feel too good and one needs something soul-warming. Just that kind of a day ....

Note: Savane is the title song in Malian musician Ali Farka Touré's final solo album, released posthumously.

Music for the day: Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba

I have been a fan of music from Mali for the last half a dozen years or so and so today, presenting one of the great current musicians from Mali. I saw him with his band, Ngoni Ba, live in the Boston area a few years ago and it was a great concert -- hope I'll see him live again some day but until there are videos via youtube to enjoy!

I read that Bassekou Kouyate is celebrating the release of his album, 'Jama ko' with the launch of this brand new video 'Jama ko'. Given the civil war in Mali and related violence and tensions, this video is a "cry for tolerance and peace. Bassekou invited the Christian community, Muslims, Touareg friends like Manny Ansar (head of the Festival Au Desert in Essakane, which I hope to go to some day in my lifetime), the tailor from next door, and many other people to celebrate the open spirit of Mali. Bassekou launched the video on TV in Bamako on Africable and ORTM to spread the message."

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You can find many other videos online for this group but I'll just add one more, one of the songs that gave me the most joy at the aforementioned live show. His wife, Amy Sacko, has such a great voice!

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Mahotella Queens

Mahotella Queens from South Africa

Thoko (1964)


Jabulani Mabungu (1967)


Umculo Kawupheli (1974)


On David Letterman's show (1990)


The Mahotella Queens with Mahlathini and the late, great 'groaner' Simon Mahlathini Nkabinde performing Mbaqanga (1991)


At the Grassroots Festival, New York (2002)


and finally at the WOMAD 2007 in Taranaki New Zealand (2007)

Coupe Decale

Something very different than what I normally listen to but one has to keep an open mind about all kinds of music and explore. I just heard of Coupé-Décalé, which is..

"...a type of popular dance music originating from Côte d'Ivoire and the Ivorian diaspora in Paris, France. Drawing heavily from Zouglou, Zouk, Coupé-Décalé is a very percussive style featuring African samples, deep bass, and repetitive, minimalist arrangements. While Coupé-Décalé is known as Côte d'Ivoire's definitive pop music, it actually began in Paris, created by a group of Ivorian DJs at the Atlantis, an African nightclub in northeast Paris." 

Turns out it is the same as some music I had heard some years back on some radio station -- 10+ minutes of deep bass and dance music mayhem from DJ Caloudji in a song called Sentimental Moko.

Dance on!

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Not quite my style of music but interesting stuff, nonetheless. Quite liked the beat of this track though.... It's by Lady May from Namibia and the track's called Chokola. 

Seckou Keita

I have heard of Salif Keita before but just saw some videos uploaded at youtube featuring the Seckou Keita quartet, playing at Ethnoambient 2007 in Solin, Croatia! Seckou is a kora player from Senegal though (not from Mali.)









The internet has indeed brought us all closer. How else would I have enjoyed this lovely music by an African artist (with some European musicians accompanying him) from a concert played more than a year back in distant Croatia.

Rokia Traore

What an amazing voice the Malian singer Rokia Traore has...







Some day I hope to hear her live!

Update: Just realized I have already posted the above videos earlier - here and here! I suppose each time I hear her, I get so enthralled... I feel the urge to share!!

Ngoni time

The ngoni is a plucked lute-like stringed instrument from West Africa. Hear a beautiful demonstration of the same, as played by Mama Sissoko first.



And next Bassekou Kouyate on the ngoni & his band, Ngoni Ba ("the big ngoni"), which is "a quartet of ngoni players—treble, mid range and bass—augmented by Kouyate's wife, Ami Sacko, on lead vocals, and two percussionists."



Incidentally, Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba won the 2008 Album of the Year (for their debut album - Segu Blue) & African Artist of the Year at the BBC3 Awards for World Music earlier this year. Apparently...

One of the undisputed highlights of this year's rain-sodden Womad festival in Wiltshire was a midnight feast of sound from Mali's Bassekou Kouyate and his group Ngoni ba. Accompanied by two percussionists and his gracefully dancing wife Amy Sacko on vocals, Kouyate led his immaculately attired group on the ngoni, a tiny, delicate-looking instrument that punches above its weight with sharp, scrabbling and plunking notes. The other three musicians also played ngonis of various sizes, trading piquant riffs and booming bass lines with him in a fascinating approximation of lead, rhythm and bass guitar. Even the rain couldn't break the spell they cast.

How I wish I could be at Womad or even the Desert Festival in Mali one of these days!

Leave you with one more live performance by Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba at Rostock on the 7th of Jun.

RIP, Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba (or as she was fondly called, Mama Afrika) is dead (also a video report.)

"Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us" -- Nelson Mandela

A few videos showcasting her amazing voice.







If this voice does not make you hair stand on end....

Take the A Train

Just read about a South African jazz pianist, Bheki Mseleku, who died earlier this month from complications from diabetes . He was only 53.

Here he is playing Duke Ellington's famous tune Take the A Train, with Joe Henderson and others. (I always thought that piece was composed by Ellington. Wiki enlightens that it "is a jazz standard by Billy Strayhorn that was the signature tune of the Duke Ellington orchestra. "

Hear the amazing piano playing by Mseleku around 3:45 to 5 minutes or so. Especially amazing considering it seems he " suffered the lose of the upper joints of two fingers in his right hand from a go- carting accident" during his childhood. RIP, Mseleku.



Love the sound of the bass, as always too.. and there is a great bass solo right after the piano.

Here's Brubeck's quartet playing the same piece



and of course, one of Ellington ...



Awesome, to say the least!