Mandelakou- The Art And Soul Of The Mande Griots [FLAC] TQMP

Various Artists - Mandelakou: The Art And Soul Of The Mande Griots 2004 Produced by Ibrahima Sylla, this is thought to be a once in a lifetime gathering of West African musicians, a griot supergroup. Although, in the end there was a second reunion. If your curiosity was sparked by AfroCubism and you want to explore some of the Malian roots, look no further. You're in for a treat. This is raw intense expressive music, with plenty of poweful vocals set to a background of traditional acoustic sounds. And the best news? The Frenchie producer who loves to put synth programming next to music greater than his narrow-minded colonialist worldview was left out. I can't thank Mr Sylla enough. And I'd even say, Allahu Akbar! If you're familiar with West African music you will recognise some of these names connected to Maravillas de Mali (later National Badema), Rail Band de Bamako, Les Ambassadeurs, Bembeya Jazz National, and more recently, AfroCubism. Now, I found a little reference in AfroCubism to a song on this album. On track 3 (Karamo) check out the phrases from 2:20 to 2:40. Got it? Now check this album's track 5 (Mouctari) from 3:30 to 3:40 - same phrases in a lower tempo. A subtle hommage? A playful wink? I don't know, but I love this sort of stuff and I have amassed a good collection of them. Anyway, hope you enjoy the music. Finally, I took the trouble of OCR-ing the booklet because there's plenty of interesting info there. Just read below. - pasta. Featuring --- Kasse Mady Diabate (vocals) Djelimady Tounkara (guitar) Bako Dagnon (vocals) Kandia Kouyate (vocals) Sekouba 'Bambino' Diabate (vocals) Kemo Conde (vocals) Kemo Kouyate (guitar) Alkaly Camara (balafon) Lafia Diabate (vocals) Mama Sissoko (ngoni ba) Kerfala Kante (vocals) Djessou Mory Kante (guitar) Mamadou Diabate (kora) Baissa Kone (ngoni) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * THE BACKGROUND * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * At its height, the Mande empire stretched from the Atlantic coast in the west to Niger in the east, from Mauritania in the north to present-day Cote d' I voire in the south. Growing rich on the trade through its immense domains, the courts of Mande were fabled for their opulence, and for the culture and scholarship they attracted. Passing through Cairo on a pilgrimage to Mecca, the emperor Kankan Moussa, Soundiata's grandson, carried with him so much gold that the currency was devalued for decades afterwards. While the empire gradually declined to be replaced by others, the name of Mande remains the apogee of Africa's medieval grandeur. The Mande languages remain the lingua franca, the Mande social system the underpinning of life across this vast region. From Senegal to Burkina Faso, Mande is still regarded as the great cultural source. And in the Mande world jeliya - the role of the griot - is central and fundamental. They are, in the words of Guinean writer Camara Laye, 'guardians of the word' - possessors of the language and the knowledge necessary to summon and extol each person's tradition, going back as many as sixty generations to the time of Soundiata. In the Mande world, everything which in the West is termed 'creativity' is the prerogative of hereditary professional groups: the griots, the blacksmiths, weavers and leatherworkers, who are known collectively as nyamakala - they who work with nyama, the unseen force of spirit latent in all things. While the position of the nyamakala is theoretically a lowly one, they are in reality some of the most influential - and often some of the richest- members of society. With developments in communication and the expansion of the mass media, the griots role as entertainers has become ever more important. Tours by national ensembles and ballet companies, by the great singers and practitioners of the kora and balafon, have established the music of the Mande griots as Africa's strongest classical tradition. It's no accident that the first pan-African music awards, initiated from South Africa, should have been called "the Koras". Yet the music heard on this album does not represent some long-ossified canonical tradition. Listening to the interweaving guitar lines, the sparkling melodies of kora and balafon, you can hear echoes of Cuban rumba and flamenco, jazz, calypso and all the other influences that have fed in and out of this music over the past fifty years. In our own time, the Mande griot tradition has made its biggest impact through popular music. Indeed, in any truly balanced account of popular music in the second half of the twentieth century, Mande music will be up there with such key moments as bebop, the Mersey Sound and classic soul. With rapid urbanisation and accelerating political development in the post-war period, there was a continent-wide renaissance as musicians began to look from imported forms to the riches of their own music. In Guinea, this process had the force of a political imperative, as President Sekou Toure, breaking with the francophone block, ordered all musicians to turn to traditional forms. Whatever else may be said about Toure's reign, has there been a more deliciously unexpected collision of traditional and modern than the transposition of the tumbling cadences of Mande griot music to electric guitars and blaring horns - the soaring of Islamically inflected voices over rippling, endlessly shifting rhythmic patterns? Government sponsorship created a nationwide network of ensembles and dance bands, surmounted by the "national orchestras" - among them the immortal Bembeya Jazz, Balla et ses Balladins and Keletigui et ses Tambourinis. And the process was replicated in Modibo Keita's Mali, where state sponsored combos included the Rail Band, and later 'private' initiatives gave rise to the equally influential Ambassadeurs. As economic conditions deteriorated in the 1980s, there was a mass migration of musicians to the capitals of the West - most importantly Paris. With access to state-of-the-art studios, electronic equipment and digital recording techniques, the music took on new forms. West African stars such as Salif Keita, Youssou N'Dour and Baaba Maal - none of them hereditary griots, but all firmly rooted in the griot tradition - came to dominate the rapidly developing 'world music' scene. And at horne, a new generation of female stars emerged, who combined peerless traditional singing with a very modern flamboyance and glamour. You'll hear elements of every aspect of this development in the music on this album - some present as mere inferences, others thrust to the fore on the great swell of sound. This is the sound of a tradition which has clung to its ancient roots with remarkable integrity, even as it continues to thrive and develop in the modern world. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * THE MUSICIANS * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Bako Dagnon One of Mali's most revered singers, Bako Dagnon served as advisor on this project on all matters of meaning and interpretation. Born in Kita, a town in western Mali famous for its griot traditions, she began singing at a very young age, and was chosen by the elders to receive instruction from the great griots of the town, not least her own mother, Djelifily Diawara. While most of Bako's career has taken place in the traditional griot arena, she has performed with the Ensemble Instrumental du Mali since 1980. Kemo Conde Kerno Conde's extraordinary soaring baritone evokes one of the great eras of modern West African music - the period around independence when Guinea's Keita Fodeba formed the Ballets Africains, the region's first dance company, and Kernos mentor, the great Kouyate Sory Kandia, was proclaimed 'the Voice of Africa'. Inducted into the Ensemble Instrumental Djoliba in 1966, he became lead vocalist on Kouyate's death in 1977. He performed at the Pan-African Cultural Festivals of Algiers (1969) and Lagos (1977) among innumerable festival and concert appearances around the world, before making his international CD debut with "Soumankoi" in 2001. Kemo Kouyate One of West Africa's most versatile musicians, skilled on the kora, balafon and the Western harp as well as the guitar, Guinea's Kemo Kouyate was a pioneer in the transposition of the Mande griot repertoire to electric instruments. Born in Siguiri in Upper Guinea, but brought up in Bamako, Kemo began his career playing balafon and later guitar for various local and national ensembles, before returning to Guinea in 1966. He created the hit 'Sara' for Balla et ses Balladins, and was Miriam Makeba's guitarist during her exile in Guinea from 1968, accompanying the South African diva on several world tours. As well as collaborating with artists as diverse as top Guinean chanteuse Arninata Kamissoko and American jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, Kemo runs his own family ensemble in Conakry. Alkaly Camara Master balafonist Alkaly Camara has been dubbed the King of the Sosso Bala - a reference to the instrument played by Bala Faseke Kouyate in the 13th century, which remains preserved in the Guinean village of Niagissola, a mystic symbol of the cohesion of the Mande people. Since joining the Ballet National Djoliba in 1961, Alkaly has played with every Guinean ensemble of consequence, public or private, most notably Sekouba Bambino's group and the band of veteran sax player Morno Wandel Sournah, which he co-founded in 1993. Djelimady Tounkara The veteran guitarist of the Rail Band is acknowledged as one of the international greats of his instrument. Born in Kita, Djelimady became interested in music through his elder brother, graduating to the guitar via the ngoni, balafon and doundoum drum, while discovering Django Rheinhardt, Chuck Berry and Cuban music through the radio. Moving to Bamako. he joined Missira Jazz in 1963, and later the Orchestra National after winning a citywide guitar competition. He joined the Rail Band with singer Mory Kante in 1974 and has written and arranged much of their best music to date. Unable to travel to Cuba for a proposed session with Ry Cooder and a group of senior Cubans, he missed out on The Buena Vista Social Club but eventually made international headlines with his solo album 'Sigui', which won the African category in BBC Radio 3's first Awards for World Music in 2002. His recent tour with American jazz guitarist Bill Frisell met with acclaim around the world. Lafia Diabate Younger brother of Kasse Mady Diabate and one of Mali's best-loved singers. Lafia was featured vocalist with the Rail Band during the 1980s, and came to international attention in 1993 in the acoustic group Bajourou, with guitarists Djelimady Tounkara and Bouba Sacko. Kasse Mady Diabate Born in Kela, a village populated almost exclusively by griots of the Diabate family, Kasse Mady has been one of Mali's most popular singers since he sprang to fame in the early 1970s with the local regional orchestra, Super-Mande. He was headhunted by the Cuban-trained Maravillas de Mali, later National Badema. But his fame began to spread beyond Mali's border with his 1980s solo albums, the electric 'Fode' and the acoustic 'Kela Tradition", and through his contribution to 1996's 'Kulanjan' with Toumani Diabate and Taj Mahal. His most recent album 'Kassi Kasse', recorded in Kela, was shortlisted in the lnternational Traditional category for the 2004 Grammy Awards. Kandia Kouyate Kandia's magisterial contralto and profound traditional knowledge have made her leader to a generation of women singers who have taken full advantage of the modern media, becomin icons of modern urban Africa, while remaining true to their ancestral heritage. Born in Kita, Kandia made her European debut with the great kora player Sidiki Diabate in 1987. But while many of her peers rushed to make an international splash, she preferred to wait for the right recording context, finally releasing 'Kita Kan' (The Voice of Kita) to great acclaim in 1999 and the superb 'Biriko' in 2002. Mama Sissoko Guitarist, arranger and master of the deep thrumming ngoniba - bass lute - Mama Sissoko began his musical career in Mali's Ensemble National in 1964, serving in both A and B orchestras, before joining Maravillas du Mali in 1973. This Cuban-inspired combo transformed itself into National Badema, becoming one of Mali's great legendary bands. In recent years, Mama has pursued a solo career, serving as arranger and accompanist to artists such as Ali Farika Toure, Mogontafe Sacko, Bako Dagnon and Kasse Mally. Sekouba 'Bambino' Diabate Guinean-born, but Paris-based, Bambino is Salif Keita's heir as the principle moderniser of Mande music, and the leading male griot singer of his generation. The extraordinary range of his silken, keening voice brought him to the attention of president Sekou Toure when he was still a child, and at 16 he left his home in Siguiri to join the greatest of Guinea's national orchestras, Bembeya Jazz. After Bembeya's collapse in the mid-1980s, Bambino moved to Paris, coming to international attention with his solo albums 'Le Destin' and 'Kassa', and becoming one of the featured vocalists with award-winning afro-latin super-group Africando. His most recent CD, the highly acclaimed 'Sinikan', includes an extraordinary Martinka language version of James Brown's 'It's a man's, man's world'. Kerfala Kante Dandy, comedian, possessor of a voice of husky, velvet warmth, Kerfala is one of a generation of younger artists, who are bringing about a renaissance in Guinean Mande music. Born at Koumandikoura near Faranah in Upper Guinea, Kerfala began his career at the age of 15, accompanying himself on guitar at weddings and baptisms, and spending time in two of his country's seminal bands: Tropical Djoli, with whom he had a hit, 'Deni Keleni", when only 21, and Balla et ses Balladins. From the release of his first cassette, 'L'Oiseau de Sankara' in 1992, his recording career has gone from strength to strength, culminating in the release of his CDs, "Senekela' (1999) and 'Que se passe-t-il?' (2002). Djessou Mory Kante One of Guinea's leading younger guitarists, Djessou Mory is brother to the great Kante Manfila of Ambassadeurs fame, and has participated in the recordings of many notable artists, including Salif Keita, Djanka Diabate and Amadou Sodia. Mamadou Diabate et Baissa Kone Having performed in innumerable festivals and with many of Mali's top singers. Mamadou (kora) and Baissa (ngoni) are two of their country's leading traditional musicians. They are both permanent members of Kandia Kouyate's ensemble. Mamadou Diabate is the young brother of Toumani Diabate. -- Booklet info. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Track List 01 - Kandia, Kerfala, Kasse Mady - Malissadio 02 - Bambino, Kemo, Bako - Keme Bourama 03 - Kasse Mady, Bako, Bambino, Kandia - Touramagan 04 - Bambino, Kandia, Kerfala - Anka De 05 - Lafia, Bambino, Kasse Mady - Mouctari 06 - All Stars - Nare Maghan (Soundiata) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Artwork, EAC log and CUE sheet included. Audio format: FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) http://flac.sourceforge.net/index.html Pastafari http://thepiratebay.se/user/pastafari/

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keibafan (2015-08-25)

Thanks once again!