Nahawa Doumbia - Vol. 2 - VINYL LP

Dembo Konte - Gambian Griot Kora Duets [COMPACT DISCS] date 05/30/2012

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

Another side of modern Malian praise songs an intimate, stripped down, acoustic session from Namian Sidibé. From a rising generation of young Malian divas leveraging social media, Namian has built a following, publishing videos and dedications in song, accompanied by her cousin Jules Diabaté on acoustic guitar. Recorded at her home, with powerful yet restrained vocals that drift over melancholy acoustic guitar, Namian explores epic generational songs and poetry, brought into the Tik Tok age.