Elie Kamano feat. Les Espoirs de Coronthie: Dounya

Today I want to show you a clip of a great song from Guinea. It is a song by Elie Kamano, a rapper/ hip hop and reggae star from this West African country, featuring a prominent band of a musical genre which has become very popular in the last years, a genre that could be called « musique tradi-moderne ». The song is called Dounya and is about the fact that life is not smiling to everyone. For me, it is a song I can listen to several time after each other, with this intriguing rhythm led by the gongoma thumb piano, and with these great vocals. Just give it a few listens:



direct URL http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=0s0xZhqskrg&feature=related

On the above picture you see Elie Kamano (or Eli) in the center next to two singers from Les Espoirs de Coronthie.

I will tell you more about both Kamano and Les Espoirs soon.

Bako Dagnon

A great « cantatrice » from Mali released a first international CD album after 30 years of career. This gorgeous album « Titati » I can very much recommend.

Along with great female singers such as Mokontafe Sacko, Sarafing Kouyaté, Wandé Kouyaté and Nantenedié Kamissoko, she helped developing and promoting traditional Malian music within the Ensemble Instrumental du Mali for 10 years (from 1974).


When Ibrahima Sylla of Syllart Productions asked her to join in the recording of the second volume of the « Mandekalou » project, the road was finally open to recording an album of her own. « Titati » was mainly recorded in the Bogolan Studio in Bamako, and arranged in Paris by François Bréant (Salif Keita's « Soro », Bambino's « Sinikan »).

The Musiques d'Afrique web site now features a page about Bako here.

Here is a promotional video on Youtube:

R.I.P. Hamid Chanana

Dangerous traffic conditions in Africa or more specifically in Guinea was never meant to be a Leitmotiv of this blog although it currently looks like it is...
Already on December 23, 2007, Guinean hip hop artist Hamid Chanana (his real name being Hamidou Camara) crossed the road in his Kipé neighborhood of Conakry during the night, when he was hit by a taxi. He was brought to hospital in a coma, he woke up but died shortly after due to several injuries. Hamid, born in Kènèma in Sierra Leone on March 8, 1973, has lived for years in Sierra Leone and Liberia but returned to Guinea in 1986.

He released three cassette over the years, « Sewa » (1997), « Mano River Union » (2001) and « S.O.S. Amour » in 2004.