Babsy Konate - Tounga - CASSETTES

Nahawa Doumbia's new album Kanawa concisely captures this current moment in Malian history. The singer, whose storied career spans more than four decades, reflects on the immigration crisis from the Malian perspective in the title of her new album Kanawa. Across eight songs recorded in Bamako with a band including traditional and modern instruments, Doumbia merges her early work that relied on a spare expression of her trademark didadi rhythm with the bombastic range of contemporary Malian pop. The beautifully complex musical accompaniment that results is courtesy of the large ensemble she pulled together with producer and arranger (and day one collaborator) N'gou Bagayoko. The band features two highly expressive Malian string instruments, the ngoni and the slightly smaller kamalé ngoni, as well as a variety of percussion, drum programming, karignan (a metal scraper) and acoustic and electric guitars. Doumbia's daughter, a celebrated singer with her own group and busy concert schedule, Doussou Bagayoko sings on InchAdjorobena,Inch a song about patience, tolerance and living in peace. Doumbia weaves together a roadmap of her psyche when it comes to the good and bad life has to offer. She talks about marriage and women leaving home to join another through the metaphor of a tree in the garden; she includes gunshot samples in the song InchFoliwilenInch to honor the bravery of hunters, soldiers and other courageous people; she uses a bird in InchDjougohInch to talk about lazy people; and, in InchNdiagnekoInch she advises people to ignore critics, just do you. Mali has gone through an intense period of regional strife and terrorist incidents over the last ten years and Doumbia roots the album in tragic local concerns with deep global implications. InchThe meaning of Kanawa is so simple. We see our children trying to cross the ocean all the time. I said that many of our chil

Berlin Radio Orchestra / Maazel - Firebird / Romeo & Juliet [COMPACT DISCS] date 11/01/2010

Awesome Tapes From Africa the tag began over 10 years ago with the reissue of Nahawa Doumbia's Vol. 3. The recording kicked off a successful run of classic and new recordings from artists across Africa, being made available for the first time in the international marketplace. ATFA makes it possible for artists to expand their fanbases and revenues streams with legally licensed recordings and a 50/50 profit split. For it's 50th , ATFA presents iconic Malian singer Nahawa Doumbia's beloved Vol. 2. Released on LP in 1982 and Unavailable outside Mali until now, Vol. 2 is an intimate yet powerful document of the early efforts of one of Mali's most enduring voices. Four decades of worldwide acclaim later, Doumbia is still touring the world blowing minds with her achingly emphatic singing backed by her partner guitarist N'gou Bagayoko. Vol. 2 is stark in it's instrumentation-simply featuring voice and acoustic guitar-but massive in it's sonic impact.Painstakingly extracted and remastered from LP by longtime ATFA audio engineer collaborator Jessica Thompson, this is the first time this recording has been cleaned-up for wider . The master recording no longer exists and the original was pressed at relatively inferior quality, heightening the difficulty of presenting Vol. 2 with clarified audio. The historic recording was worth the effort.Doumbia's voice soars above Bagayoko's guitar as she lays out her plaintive approach to expressing relevant topics of the day. The room sound could be considered the third instrument as it's shape and sonic affect is vibrantly apparent throughout. And the simplicity of this recording only enhances the immediacy of these four songs. As a bookend to both Doumbia's long career and ATFA's growing catalog, Vol. 2 is a grand yet unpretentious encapsulation of the energy behind this decade-long collaboration between artist and tag.