Reading more praise of Baba Commandant
Saw 1 negative take on Fatoumata Diawara that seemed to blame Blur guy D Albarn for direction Still haven’t listened yet but intend to
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 18 May 2023 23:47 (one year ago) link
x-post - Listening to the new Fatoumata Diawara album and am reminded of how great her voice is. Even if all the tracks don't work .
― curmudgeon, Monday, 22 May 2023 04:40 (one year ago) link
I think you're going to love this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSc3CiyZHYI
Nakibembe Embaire Group - Omukazi Iwe Ongeyengula Nguli Zna Ntyo Bwenkola
The embaire is a large wooden xylophone performed by up to eight musicians simultaneously, who weave together polyrhythmic short melodic phrases. Ensemble members may also sing in unison or in call and response, playing with other percussive instruments to keep the tempo. The results are ecstatic compositions that flow endlessly, creating waves of coalescing grooves.
https://nyegenyegetapes.bandcamp.com/album/nakibembe-embaire-group?from=embed
― corrs unplugged, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 07:54 (one year ago) link
Yes I do. I think I just saw the other night an IG story with a video of that embaire being played. Wow
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 19:46 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHse1OFLco4
― curmudgeon, Friday, 26 May 2023 22:03 (one year ago) link
Baba Commandant & Mandingo band live for an hour at Kennedy Center
― curmudgeon, Friday, 26 May 2023 22:04 (one year ago) link
<3
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, 26 May 2023 22:12 (one year ago) link
I loved certain Baba C songs last night in Baltimore live, and via the YouTube Friday at Kennedy Center. I liked the ones that were fairly straightforward Fela inspired dance music. I was less into ones where guitarist went for Santana like solos
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 28 May 2023 18:01 (one year ago) link
New Tinariwen album out is mentioned on their own thread
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 30 May 2023 04:44 (one year ago) link
more of the same and it's excellent
there probably is a thread for bands that make the same album over and over (but do it well)
― corrs unplugged, Tuesday, 30 May 2023 08:33 (one year ago) link
Saw Kaleta and Super Yamba band do a free show yesterday. Leon “Kaleta” Ligan-Majek has performed in Nigerian bands led by both juju giant King Sunny Adé and Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. His band is Brooklyn based . Some nice old school grooves at times but Kaleta’s voice didn’t wow me
― curmudgeon, Monday, 5 June 2023 21:31 (one year ago) link
News from Billboard:
YOASOBI’s “Idol” soars to No. 1, from No. 6, on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. survey (dated June 10). The song, originally sung in Japanese, hit the top 10 six weeks earlier and now becomes the duo’s first leader on the list following the May 26 release of its English-language version.
“Idol” is also the first song originally performed in Japanese to top the Global Excl. U.S. chart.
Meanwhile, Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma’s “Ella Baila Sola” rebounds to No. 1, from No. 2, on the Billboard Global 200 chart. It reigns for a fourth total week, having become the chart’s first leader for the regional Mexican genre.
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 7 June 2023 14:27 (one year ago) link
France-based Cameroonian singer/guitarist Blick Bassy is back with a new album and is going to be touring Europe and North America in July and August. He got some attention here back in 2019 I think for his 1958 album
Bandcamp bio -
singer and composer Blick Bassy is back with a fifth album, again sung in the Baasa language of Cameroon. Madíbá brings together twelve songs in the form of fables, dedicated to the theme of water, in which his high and angelic voice dominates, carried by delicate guitar, synthesizer melodies, and sober brass arrangements. The cuts are diaphanous and nevertheless, modernist songs, which testify to a contemporary and poetic Africanity at the crossroads of soul, folk, and electro.creditsreleased May 26, 2023
https://blickbassy.bandcamp.com/album/m-dib
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 8 June 2023 23:41 (one year ago) link
trying to decide if I should buy tickets for the Montreal date or not. I liked 1958 a lot but found the new one a little shapeless, though I don't think I got too far into it
― rob, Friday, 9 June 2023 12:22 (one year ago) link
Despite the shapelessness, I like his voice and guitar sound and may go see the Washington DC date anyway. I don't hear that type of old-school rooted but modern afropop live very often
― curmudgeon, Friday, 9 June 2023 17:17 (one year ago) link
yeah it does feel like a rare opportunity here too, I should probably go on principle
― rob, Friday, 9 June 2023 17:39 (one year ago) link
Was impressed with Instagram story video clips I saw of NY based band Habbina Habbina who were playing some sort of Middle Eastern surf music
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 22 June 2023 14:33 (one year ago) link
Fatoumata Diawara is touring Europe all summer and then doing a few US dates in September in support of her Damon Albarn produced album. Plus I am getting pr emails about remixes of individual songs . I still need to listen to it more
― curmudgeon, Friday, 23 June 2023 14:08 (one year ago) link
Tamikrest, North African desert band is doing a July 19 Kennedy Center gig that will also be streamed. Jupiter and Okwess doing the same on July 27
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 16:36 (one year ago) link
recommendations after catching some good stuff at Roskilde Festival
Siti Muharam, taarab tunes from Zanzibar, on a small Europe tour atm, album is from 2020 thoughhttps://sitimuharam.bandcamp.com/album/siti-of-unguja-romance-revolution-on-zanzibar
dal:um, Korean duo playing traditional (somewhat harplike but more wood-y) string instruments gayageum and geomungo in a contemporary style, 2023 single called "dot"https://dalum.bandcamp.com/track/dot
also had a chance to see Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek mentioned upthread and they are playing very well, great singer too, and Tinariwen too, always a joy
― corrs unplugged, Sunday, 2 July 2023 20:46 (one year ago) link
tabou combo are playing a free show at long island's eisenhower park tonight.
― Thus Sang Freud, Monday, 3 July 2023 15:24 (one year ago) link
Wow, Tabou Combo still at it . They were great when I saw them live many years ago. I like their old-school Haitian konpa sound better than the more polished and more American r’n’b influenced current Haitian music I have heard ( says old guy me!)
― curmudgeon, Monday, 3 July 2023 20:13 (one year ago) link
they were good! it was listed in the brochure just as "creole-american night," without any band name, so i'm glad i looked into it further. 55 years in the biz, so they said.
― Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, 4 July 2023 02:42 (one year ago) link
Cool you saw them and they still sound good; sad how it was marketed
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 5 July 2023 20:13 (one year ago) link
A Tamikrest 6 to 7 pm US eastern time gig will be streaming live tonight Wednesday July 19 from 6 to 7 pm on the Kennedy Center Youtube and Facebook pages. It will also be archived on the Youttube page. The band has North and West African musicians plus French ones.
https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/millennium-stage/2023/07-july/tamikrest/
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 19 July 2023 20:42 (one year ago) link
They sound pretty good there, except for some Western style solos
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 23 July 2023 04:07 (one year ago) link
Jupiter and Okwess live at Kennedy Center on YouTube and Facebook now
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 27 July 2023 22:34 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uO0FlR5wdY
Jupiter & Okwess 1 hour Kennedy Center gig archived
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 27 July 2023 23:02 (one year ago) link
I'm listening to the King Ayisoba album that came out in Feb and it's awesome: https://ayisoba.bandcamp.com/album/work-hard
― rob, Friday, 28 July 2023 14:47 (one year ago) link
this mix of Senegalese street soul music from the 80s and 90s is truly excellenthttps://www.nts.live/shows/total-stasis/episodes/total-stasis-11th-july-2023
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Saturday, 29 July 2023 01:15 (one year ago) link
oooh ty
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 31 July 2023 09:16 (one year ago) link
This past week’s military takeover in the West African nation of Niger toppled the final domino in a band across the girth of Africa, from Guinea in the west to Sudan in the east, now controlled by juntas that came to power in a coup — all but one in the past two years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/29/world/africa/africa-coups-niger.html
Not good for musicians or anyone
― curmudgeon, Monday, 31 July 2023 17:45 (one year ago) link
Keyboardist Jantra, unknown in Khartoum, doesn't even know his album is out. Without a telephone, he continues his search for inspiration in Sudan, combining traditional music and celestial melodies. The latest craziness from the Ostinato label. https://t.co/SzQ7nCuacn— Pan African Music (@panafricanmusic) August 1, 2023
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 1 August 2023 18:18 (one year ago) link
the wording of that tweet made me think this was going to be a bad story about a non-African label ripping people off, but it's not! https://pan-african-music.com/en/synthesized-sudan-jantra/
also this album is amazing based on the first full track
― rob, Tuesday, 1 August 2023 18:27 (one year ago) link
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-mdou-moctar-while-they-cannot-return-home
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 3 August 2023 16:03 (one year ago) link
Was just coming here to post that Mdou Moctar go fund me re their inability to get back to Niger due to the coup
― curmudgeon, Friday, 4 August 2023 13:39 (one year ago) link
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2023/08/07/bobi-wine-the-peoples-president-movie-review/
A review of movie doc “Bobi Wine: the People’s President “ which is about a reggae singer who ran for president in Uganda in 2021
I haven’t seen it yet
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 16 August 2023 01:24 (one year ago) link
Listening to Rophnan now. A young Ethiopian guy who sold out 2,500 capacity Echostage in DC last night. They usually have Anglo techno there. Rophnan melds some old school Ethiopian sounds with electro and hiphop.
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 20 August 2023 14:23 (one year ago) link
Senegalese singer Baaba Maal has a new album out called Being
― curmudgeon, Monday, 21 August 2023 15:33 (one year ago) link
and Afro-funky Zimbabwe band Mokoomba out a new album out a month agohttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/01/mokoomba-tusona-tracings-in-the-sand-review-stirring-pan-african-sounds-flowing-from-the-zambezi
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 24 August 2023 01:49 (one year ago) link
Also a good reissue on Bandcamp. A guitarist from Cameroon’s Les Tet Brûlées, who were together in late 80s pays tribute to the band’s late leader Zanzibar
https://gibraltardrakus.bandcamp.com/album/hommage-a-zanzibar
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 24 August 2023 01:59 (one year ago) link
I am kinda liking all of the last 4 efforts I posted about -- by Rophnan, Baaba Maal, Mokoomba, Gibraltar Drakus
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 24 August 2023 15:16 (one year ago) link
Listened again to Mokoomba last night. Strong rhythms , and powerful lead vocals and harmonies. Some might hear it as retro but hopefully afrobeats and amapiano listeners might still like it
― curmudgeon, Friday, 25 August 2023 15:09 (one year ago) link
Liked a song I just heard on WfMU from Roger Bekono who is from Cameroon and has a reissue out via Awesome Tapes from Africa
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 26 August 2023 23:49 (one year ago) link
hey curmudgeon have u heard new blick bassy? not as jaw-dropping as 1958 maybe in part for not being as thematically focused? but quite beautiful and imo still one of the major vocal talents recording today.
― Mordy, Sunday, 27 August 2023 18:04 (one year ago) link
No, will have to give a listen
― curmudgeon, Monday, 28 August 2023 16:32 (one year ago) link
Like Blick Bassy's voice on new one which feels like it is melding a bit of an indie rock & pop electronic feel to his tuneful Cameroonian one. Just saw an article about him that says he's been listening to James Blake and Bon Iver lately and I can hear that a little
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 30 August 2023 05:17 (one year ago) link
Big Senegalese African Ball event in NYC tonight and I think Brooklyn Carnival this weekend. But I am in DC
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 2 September 2023 19:01 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJMugtcTVvw
Ethiocolor music and dance troupe fromAddis, Ethiopia at Kennedy Center last night Sometimes traditional and folkloric sometimes pop
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 7 September 2023 20:48 (one year ago) link
https://unicornriot.ninja/2023/makeba-a-viral-tiktok-trend-pays-homage-to-mama-africa/
Long long article/ post about M Makeba and a tiktok trend
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 12 September 2023 23:06 (one year ago) link