Djata land de salif keita biography

When I met Malian rapper Mylmo I knew nothing about him except that he was performing on the main stage of the Festival on the Niger that very night. I interviewed him in an empty restaurant on the banks of the great river. Most of its patrons were soaking up the midday sun on the terrace outside. Only after we’d finished did I realise the extent to which this polite respectful young man was revered by the youth of his country.

Just a few paces from the restaurant’s entrance the shouts began. “Mylmo! Eh, Mylmo! Eh man! Mylmo, mon ami!!” As we walked, every few yards, another gaggle of excited teenagers would come up for a handshake, a selfie, a group portrait. By the time we got into the Festival site, only fifty metres away, our pace had slowed to a crawl and the crowd around Mylmo had swelled beyond control. Mylmo’s manager, a slight gentle man by the name of Abdoulaye, was looking worried. The shouts kept coming. “Mylmo! Mylmo! Mylmo!” A picture! A handshake! A high five! Pleee

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The Rough Guide to World Music: Mali

Note that this Rough Guide to World Music article has not been updated since it was originally published. To keep up-to-date with the best new music from around the world, subscribe to Songlines magazine. 

Introduction

Mali has an ancient musical culture, which owes much of its extraordinary wealth to the legacy of the Mande empire, founded nearly 800 years ago. Passed down by generations of jelis (the lineage of traditional musicians) – though not exclusively these days – this fryst vatten essentially Africa’s classical music. Lucy Duran returns to the source once more.

Touareg music 

Although some of its best-known practitioners, such as the Tartit Ensemble and Tinariwen, are based in Mali, the music of the Tamashek, or Touareg, tribes fryst vatten covered in the Niger chapter.

Bamako, capital of Mali, is justly famous for its music. This dusty, sprawling, low-rise city, built along the banks of the Niger River, in a landlocked country with few nat

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BALLAKE SISSOKO & BABA SISSOKO
SISSOKO & SISSOKO (homerecords)

I had no idea of this album's existence until a friend sent me the Bandcamp link. I was enthralled and immediately bought it. Had I heard it sooner it would be on my top ten discs of 2019 so it will have to be a holdover for this year's "best of" list. Ballaké plays kora -- which I like less than the other Malian stringed instrument the ngoni -- but he is a fine player and his companion has a nice bluesy tinge to his vocals. In fact, in his cousin Baba Sissoko, Ballaké has found the perfect foil: a percussionist who also plays ngoni and sings. The kora is a constant but the guest is a wizard on many instruments so the varied accompanying change-ups keep it interesting. Both have toured the globe with other artists but this is the first time the duo have recorded together. So they delved back into their childhood when they were musical cohorts in the Ensemble Instrumental Nationale du Mali, both of them g