Afrocubism

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ALI FARKA TOURE & TOUMANI DIABATE - Ali & Toumani (World Circuit)

Mindful perhaps of the Mali-fatigue that seems to be affecting some parts of the world/roots community, this sedate and beautifully textured release arrives to somewhat less of a fanfare than its highly praised predecessor, In the Heart of the Moon. However, Ali and Toumani is at least as worthy of our attention given the timeless and empathetic approach these two master musicians have to their craft - or had in the case of Ali Farka, of course, this album having been recorded in London in 2005 against the backdrop of pain and illness that the cancer-stricken Touré endured at the time.

It’s difficult not to read some of that setting into the serenity that marks this far more measured and spacious release. The guitarist is no more or less mellow than he was on the earlier album – or indeed his last solo album, Savane – but there is a deference in Toumani’s playing that suggests some attempt to eschew much of kora player’s improvisational abilities in favour of a musical resolution between the Peul and Mandé traditions of the two musicians. The virtuosity is never too far from the surface though, Ali’s hypnotic circular melodies acting once again as a base for kora notes that spiral, shimmer and fall with studied grace. Ali punctuates those moments with moves into the instrumental spotlight that are more considered but no less effective, with regular traces popping up of some of his favourite melodic motifs from the past (once more for that heart-stopping Kadi Kadi riff) occasionally buttressed by his gruffly welcoming voice.

Ali and Toumani is an exercise in note-perfect, expressive restraint, anchored at times by the silky bass – at once lithe and darkly melancholic – of the (now also sadly deceased) Cuban Orlando “Cachaito” Lopez, and burnished with some subtle finishing touches by Vieux Farka Touré and his band. Fully deserves as many plaudits as its garlanded predecessor.

www.worldcircuit.co.uk

Ali & Toumani - Kala Djula

TOUMANI DIABATE - King of the Kora: An Introduction (Nascente)

If you are only aware of Toumani Diabate’s kora playing through his recent World Circuit albums, Boulevard de L’Independence and Mande Variations, journalist Nigel Williamson has compiled this handy, well-sequenced and -presented introduction to the peerless output of possibly the greatest individual musician of our generation.

The double-CD selection is split evenly between the two sides of Diabaté. CD one showcases the relatively unadorned, traditional Toumani (as solo or as part of a duet or trio), and the second CD finds him in ensemble mode, pushing the range of his instrument into previously unchartered territory.

To that first CD first, which has two tracks from the young Toumani’s debut release in 1988, Kaira, on which the twenty-three year old prodigy took the kora into solo mode for the first time with a one-take work weaving patterns of timeless, intricately-threaded genius. Ten years later came New Ancient Strings, Toumani and Ballaké Sissoko’s echoing, empathetic update of their fathers’ collaborations (there’s also the shimmering beauty of Kanou from a more recent collaboration between the two). Between those two releases came the oft-overlooked Djelika, an album of stunning, playful inter-locking Mande rhythms by a Malian super-group (before we even realised all of them were super) comprising Toumani, ngoni player Bassekou Kouyaté and Keletigui Diabaté on balafon.

Aside from a sparkling, spacey duet with guitarist Vieux Farka Touré - a more than adequate surrogate for that other landmark World Circuit release, the collaboration with Vieux’s father Ali, In the Heart of the Moon - the second CD is split between two collaborations. Kulanjan – on which Toumani provided sweetly expressive support to the cast of Malian greats that leavened Taj Mahal’s gruff-and-ready blues – is well-represented by the range of four tracks chosen. The first of the Songhai albums with flamenco group Ketama and double-bassist Danny Thompson was a surprisingly natural, fluid fit, Diabaté probably as melodically sinuous on the three tracks chosen here as anywhere else in the collection. However, the slightly less successful second Songhai album feels slightly over-represented with its three tracks, although this double-CD package is designed to balance the great man’s full range of output, and the careful way Williamson has sequenced the tunes makes that a minor quibble. There surely won’t be a better individual artist collection this year than the one put together here.

This review first appeared in fRoots magazine

VIEUX FARKA TOURE - Fondo (Six Degrees)

Vieux Farka Touré’s debut album took as a starting point his late father Ali’s marriage of traditional Malian music and blues, lacing it with the electric blues guitar and reggae that Vieux himself so clearly loves. He promised at the time that the follow-up would be “more Vieux”, and a clue as to what that meant was given by subsequent concert performances where a tight four-piece set-up centred on Vieux’s beefy uncoiling lead guitar runs, with plugged-in ngoni and kit drum driving the sound towards blues-rock territory. That template is very much to the fore on much of Fondo, with Vieux utilising spacious arrangements to frame tunes that draw as much on American electric blues as that of his father or desert blues contemporaries such as Tinariwen. He’s such an accomplished musician that he can impress merely by virtuosity alone, and on tracks such as Souba Souba – where he weaves crackling rhythms around Yossi Fine’s crunchy ngoni fills – his development as a musician (and vocalist: his soulful voice evidence of increased confidence and control) is bold and impressive. However, a few of the songs clang and clank but don’t quite convince, coming across as slightly directionless blues jams that have emerged from the same VFT-by-numbers wellspring of noodling fretwork (one such is even entitled Slow Jam). Despite that, there remains the sense of a musician who knows how to mix and match influences in an engaging manner, again employing hints of reggae (the skanking Diaraby Magni is impressively dubbed-up) and acoustic music in the return of guests Afel Bocoum (vocalist/guitarist on three songs) and Toumani Diabaté on kora on the instrumental Paradise. Overall, Vieux Farka Touré’s second album finds the young Malian taking another step away from the traditional to the modern with confidence and no shortage of skill. If Fondo stutters in places, it’s as a result of his increasing belief in his own song-writing ability (all but one track is self-composed) and eagerness to forge his own musical path.

www.vieuxfarkatoure.com

TOUMANI DIABATE - The Mandé Variations (World Circuit )

Twenty years - and many fascinating diversions - after a cherubic twenty-something Toumani Diabaté stunned us all with his sparkling debut solo kora album Kaira, comes the long-awaited follow-up.
If you've seen or heard the man before, you'll know what to expect - a mastery of his instrument that's darned near unrivalled in roots music, a flowing, breathless lyricism to his playing, and a rhythmic sophistication that leaves the listener doubting the sleeve-notes' claims about the album having been recorded without overdubs.
But as the title suggests, there's a strong improvisational flavour to The Mandé Variations, traditional melodies are often briefly flirted with (at least two Kaira tunes are revisited) before Toumani embarks on one of his rippling melodic runs, or (as often as not) brings a subtle, introspective mood to proceedings.
There is no concession to time here, the shortest track clocking in at just under six minutes, and it takes opener Si Naani ten and a half to unfold, shower the listener in delicate, pulsing waves of notes and counter-rhythm, before resolving itself into a tender 'solo' finish.
In contrast, El Nabiyouna is all extemporisation, a Diabaté duet where he pulls out a sequence of fluid descending lines in answer to his own sombre, reflective prompts.
Elsewhere, Ismael Drame is more familiar in style, a straight, rolling blues that takes a neat diversion into the Mandé standard Miniyamba; and Ali Farka Touré is reminiscent of Diabaté‘s mellow duets with the great Malian guitarist.
Aside from a playful extract from the theme from The Good, the Bad and The Ugly that opens final track Cantelowes, this is a serious, almost classical recording that constantly brings to mind adjectives such as “magisterial” and “stately“, with the potential detachment of artist from listener that could be implied by those words. And it is the case that The Mandé Variations requires the undivided attention of the listener (it doesn’t creep up and seduce in the way that In The Heart of the Moon did, for example) - it's mood music, albeit of the very highest order.

World Circuit

This review first appeared in fRoots magazine.