Senemali In Amsterdam

Memory Lane..

I found this excerpt from a Senemali concert the other day, it was a gift that I was not expecting ever to see. The band, with lead singer Mola Sylla, was created in Senegal, but was later based in the Netherlands. They made two great albums, and Senemali was at the time referred to as a super band, but unfortunately the dream didn't last. 

Enjoy the video!
  

MOH! KOUYATÉ feat. MARIAMA - "Darré" [official video]

Joe Dioubaté or how a talented guy can be invisible on the internet

A few months ago, I have been contacted to see whether I could help a young guy making rap and hip hop and who just released his debut album in Guinea. Not that hip hop is my favourite music, but anyway, I accepted. I listened to the promo CD and after a few spinnings I gradually became convinced of his talents. I was told the guy was called Djo Dioubaté (I later discovered alternative ways of spelling his name, from Djoe to Joe) and started a Google session in order to find some more info on the guy. Google didn't come up with anything at all. I thought that this wasn't possible anymore, in 2007 one would expect a rapper or hip hop artist to be present on Youtube and MySpace at least, even if the artist isn't under contract.

I have learnt to be patient, and tried to find more info a few weeks later. Still not much, but found his name as featuring on songs by Guinean rappers Elie Kamano (who suffered a severe car accident earlier this year, from which he is still recovering), and Anny Kassy, who made a song against female genital mutilation.

So why this long introduction? Well, the guy is talented, he has a great voice and the songs on the album are great. Songs like Conakry (''Conakry, c'est ma capitale, où je vis et je suis sans un capital'') speak of the hopeless situation young Guineans are facing. Other songs address hope for change, give advise to young people to be serious and work for their future. Another song pays hommage to Siradiou Diallo, a well-known journalist (formerly editor with Jeune Afrique) who became politician in the 1990s and died in March 2004 in Paris.
He doesn't miss out the opportunity to express himself on the bloody reaction of the Guinean Government to the public protests in January and February of this year.

- Joe Dioubaté: « Révolution » (cassette), 2007 -

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




Here is a YouTube video clip by Elie Kamano (song « Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom »), Joe Dioubaté is the one with locks, sunglasses and guitar, he sings a few lines from 1:28 on.



In this clip from Anny Kassy (song « Femme ne pleure pas »), Joe sings several parts.

Aly Keita, a young balafola

After some difficulties entering Habib Koité's sold out concert last night in RASA (Utrecht), I was happy to be inside. At 9:15PM, a balafon player entered the stage and started to play a stunning piece. I didn't know the guy and I wondered whether Habib changed of balafon player. He played a second song, and then another one. Starting with a simple two notes, he builds up a song until a moment when you are wondering whether there is not a second balafon playing behind the curtain. This man is fabulous, what a speed and what a power! And his balafon sounded terrific as the gourds attached to the wooden keys were well resonating. This is balafon music as it should be. So it turned out to be a 30-minute mini-concert as a first part of Habib's concert. At the end of the concert, I found out that Contre-Jour, Habib's promotors, released Aly Keita's CD «Akwaba Iniséné» (Contre-Jour CJ016) only last week.

On the album he is backed up by a band, so the whole feel of the album is much different from the solo performance, although the balafon remains important. But the first notes of the first track show a bit how the performances sounded like. Guests on the album are Dobet Gnahoré, Kélétigui Diabaté and many others from the Contre-Jour stable (members from Gangbé Brass Band from Benin). A recommended album though, I spinned it twice this morning and I am still discovering.

Aly is a young guy from Cote d'Ivoire, based in Berlin, Germany.

More info on Aly on his here.