Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Music of West Africa
The international success of these West African elders has paved the way for an apparently
bottomless pot of talent. Desert rebels Tinariwen; dreadlocked Senegalese mystic Cheikh
Lo; and his hotly tipped compatriot, Carlou D. The fresh prince of Côte d'Ivoire, Tiken Jah
Fakoly, and its fresh princess, Dobet Gnahoré. Golden-voiced Mauritanian Daby Touré,
and afrobeating politicos such as Nigeria's Femi and Sean Kuti (in looks, sound and senti-
ment, very much their father's sons). Mayra Andrade from Cape Verde, with her multicul-
tural jazz, and Malians including ethereal songbird Rokia Traore,
kora
maestro Toumani
Diabaté and husband-and-wife team Amadou and Mariam, whose eighth album, 2012's
Fo-
lila
, features such special guests as Santigold and Jake Shears from Scissor Sisters.
Life is Hard, Music is Good
is a feature-length documentary on the music and musicians of Mali. The result of
over five years' worth of research by Kanaga System Krush, an indie label that focuses primarily on West
African music, it mixes interviews with the likes of Toumani Diabaté, Djelimady Tounkara and honorary
Malian Damon Albarn with footage of life across this increasingly strife-torn country.
Mentioning these names is only scratching the surface. Music is everywhere in West
Africa, coming at you in thunderous, drum-fuelled polyrhythms, through the swooping,
soaring voices of
griots
(traditional musicians or minstrels; praise singers) and via socially-
aware reggae, rap and hip-hop. From Afrobeat to pygmy fusion, highlife to
makossa
,
gumbe
to Nigerian gospel, genres are as entrenched as they are evolving, fusing and re-
forming. Little wonder that here - in this vast, diverse region, with its deserts, jungles, sky-
scrapers and urban sprawl - myriad ethnic groups play out their lives to music. Here are
traditional songs that celebrate weddings, offer solace at funerals, keep work rhythms
steady in the fields. Here are songs and rhythms that travelled out on slave ships to Cuba
and Brazil. Songs that retell history and, in doing so, foster inter-clan and inter-religious re-
spect.
In West Africa, too, are the roots of Western music (along with guitars, keyboards, Latin
influences and other legacies of colonialism).
Not for nothing did Senegalese rap crew Daara J title their 2003 international debut
Boomerang
. 'Born in Africa, raised in America', says member Faada Freddy, 'rap has
come full circle'. As has the blues. A host of American blues musicians - Ry Cooder,
Corey Harris, Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt - have found inspiration in West Africa, in Mali in
particular. 'The sound of our blues is dry like the Sahara, but it's the vast open space that
shapes the desert blues,' says Vieux Farka Touré, guitar-toting son of the late great blues-
man Ali Farka Touré. 'For me it will always be the music of openness'. Mali, however, is
