Monday 28 January 2013

Live at the BBC

I had a great time talking about music, instruments and the Artists' International Development Fund with Antonia Brickell on BBC Radio Cambridge last night.
 
 
Myself and Chris Peckham played two songs, `Orodara Sidiki' as taught to us by Moussa Diabaté, and `Jaliya/Apollo' for kamele n'goni, a song I learnt from Mougnini Dembélé. 


 
Presenter Antonia Brickell was very excited to learn about the instruments and talk about the role of music in West Africa.
 
 
You can listen again to the show for a limited period here
 
 
 
Photos by Shameela Beeloo
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sunday 20 January 2013

Voices United For Mali

Last year during Baaba Maal's Africa Utopia festival at the Southbank Centre, Oumou Sangaré  spoke eloquently between songs of the deepening crisis in Mali.  She affirmed her belief in the duty of the musician to fight with the microphone, to promote unity, tolerance, and peace. 

It is nothing new for musicians in West Africa to act as arbiters, counsellors and diplomats.  As early as the 14th Century, itinerant griot musicians travelled through the Sahel helping settle disputes through their powers of oratory, and their knowledge of history and families.  The nomadic lifestyle of a griot musician also meant they were often fluent in several languages, a useful skill in a vast country such as Mali where many languages are spoken.

So continuing in this tradition some of Mali's most prominent musicians have recorded and released a song this week calling for peace in the country. 

Voices United For Mali features musicians from across Mali including; Fatoumata Diawara, Afel Bocoum, Habib Koité, Oumou Sangaré and Vieux Farka Touré.


 

Monday 14 January 2013

The orchestras of Independence

In just over a month myself and Moussa will go into the studio in Bobo Dioulasso to record the album. Twelve original compositions have been chosen to record with a lineup including two pentatonic balafon, Guinéenne balafon, the gourd rattle called yabara, and the distinctive calabash drum bara dunun.  I'm hoping to add some drum kit to a song or two, but otherwise the recording will be completely folkloric, deeply rooted in the regional traditions of Burkina.

Having played drums since the age of 10 and trained as a big band jazz drummer, I remember when I first encountered African drum kit playing.  The syncopation and intonation made the familiar jazz drum set sound like a completely new instrument, and I resolved to learn this style of playing.  With guidance from Makhou N'diaye who has taught me about Senegalese mbalax, and Rise Kagona who has taught me about jit and chimurenga music from Zimbabwe, I have learnt a new musical language and vocabulary to express myself with behind the drums.

In West Africa, traditional instruments such as the balafon have been influencing the playing style of imported instruments such as the electric guitar since the early 1950's.  West African musicians began transposing and imitating sounds and the scales of instruments such as the kora and jeli n'goni onto the electric guitar, whilst rhythms traditionally played on the djembe, dunun and yabara were transposed onto the newly arrived drum kit.  A distinct West African style thus began to evolve pioneered by musicians belonging to the new state dance bands created at the dawn of independence.

The new groups were the result of  policies of `authenticité'  favoured by politicians in the newly independent Francophone countries, and encouraged the creation of state sponsored groups known as orchestreGroups such as Bembeya Jazz performed and adapted a repertoire which drew on the rich cultural heritage of jeliya and the music of the griot, whilst fusing it with Cuban music many had learnt to play from listening to radio.

The style of guitar playing which evolved in Guinea was influenced by the highly ornamented style of playing the diatonic balafon.  Guitarists imitate the runs and trills of the Guinéenne balafon as can be heard on this recording of Bembeya Jazz.



In contrast a guitar style evolved in Mali and Burkina Faso influenced by the pentatonic balafon,  characterised more by repeated riffs and ostinato, as can be heard in the 2nd part of this film of Mali's `Super Biton De Segou'.


                                                             Super Biton De Segou

Note: the driving rhythm played by the drummer on the hi-hat which imitates the yabara gourd shaker