Djeli Moussa Kouyate & Ousmane Kouyate

LISTEN: (Look at "Listen Tracks")


The guitar reached the African coasts with Portuguese ships, centuries ago, when the slave commerce had not yet even started. The sailors would play it to calm down the melancholy of their long trips.

African music already had its own instruments; the harp, the lire, the lute and the guitar. All of them found their own place in the native music only when Africa was colonized. It was at that time that Europeans would establish actual communities residing not only where they worked but also where they would set up their hobbies.

As from the mid 800’s and beginning 900’s in the urban settlements that were growing close to the mines in the south and in the port cities of the coast - Dakar, Conakry, Freetown, Monrovia, Accra, Porto Novo, Lagos, Brazzaville, Luanda, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Maputo, Harare - while mixed white and black orchestras would play valzer, polka and beguine at the colonies parties, in palm-wine bars, in the streets black minstrels would tune in their poplar motives and their miserable stories, accompanying themselves with simple arpeggios to that new magic exotic instruments.


When the guitar arrived without mediation into the hands of local musicians, they used their music to play, reproducing the tunings, the melodies and mostly the typical rhythm of the traditional instruments it was replacing, like the xylophone, the lute and the harp. Infact in Zimbabwe the guitar was played like a mbira, in Congo like a sanza, in the Mandengue Africa like a balafon and kora or a n'goni.

Today the mandengue guitar represents one of the artistic marvel of the African contemporary music. The names of the big guitar players in this subject are too many to be named here, it is enough to remember Djelimady Tounkara (Rail Band), Zani Diabate (Super Djata) and Bouba Sacko del Mali, Papa Diabate, Sekou Bembeya Diabate (Bembeya Jazz), Sekou le Docteurs Diabate (Balladins) and Manfila Kante (Ambassadeurs du Motel) from Guinea.

I will stop here because my intention is not to write exclusively of the African guitar but about two records released during the past few months from two Guinean guitar players - Djeli Moussa Kouyate and Ousmane Kouyate - who during their long carrier, together they created many master pieces of the mandengue music, giving their sophisticated final touch.

Djeli Moussa Kouyate was the rhythmic guitar of the Rail Band together with Djeli Mady Tounkara on first guitar and with Mory Kante. Ousmane Kouyate played with the Ambassadeurs du Motel, rival orchestra of the Rail Band headed by the albino prince Salif Keita and by the first guitar of Manfila Kante. Both have accompanied the majority of Africa mandengue big stars, firstly Salif Keita who has deeply influenced them. But we can not name them all, hundreds of recordings where National Badema, Bembeya Jazz, Sekouba Bambino Diabate, Kandia Kouyate, Toumani Diabate and Cheick Tidiane Seck participated


Djeli Moussa Kouyate comes from Siguiri, a village in Guinea famous for the oral heritage of it's griots. He does not like the role of protagonist, also in Le Temps, his second solo album, his delicate arpeggios and his solid groove represent the bones that uphold the music, but rarely do they play over the other musicians. Maybe for this reason, as a lot of liberty is left to the guests, Le Temps is the delicate and fascinating music, it's atmospheres varies and it's roots are ancient. Salif Keita, Abdoulaye Diabate, Amadou Sodia, his sister Mamani Keita interchange on vocals together with other big griot who are a little less known. They form a collage made up of timbers and sounds. Djeli Moussa's guitar is accompanied, not only by French musicians, but also by some big musicians of contemporary mandengue music, like the guitar of Ibrahima Soumano, Ousmane Kouyate and Manifla Kante, forever companions, Adama Conde on balafon, Kemo Kouyate on the sikou and kora, Moriba Koita on n'goni and Mare Sanogo on djembe.

The voices of the singers carry the songs from bambara-funk to a distressing ballades, to the jeli’s solemnity that creates stories and glorifications, accompanied by traditional ensembles. In the rare moments where the voices are silent, then the music becomes intimate and it cuddles around memories and stories without words, like in Kenani Foli - dedicated to an Ivorian griot friend of Babadjan Kaba - a dream that floats around the strings of the guitars.


Ousmane Kouyate comes from Dabola, in the heart of Guinea, it is also the village that entitles his new album. Guiatarist, composer and singer with a beautiful voice, his music is full of life and whoever loves dancing can not resist and he is always the central character. The album is maybe less variegated compared to Le Temps, but more solar and festive. The songs go from traditional Guinean sonorities, to Mande dance, to jazz and afro-Cuban atmospheres.

As opposed to Djeli Moussa, he plays mainly rhythmic guitar with short solos and minimal variations. Ousmane is also a cultured and sophisticated virtuoso and his beautiful solos flutter over the tradition and enrich the songs. He plays relaxed both in the balafon style and in the kora style and builds up brave harmonies that taste like jazz. In addition to the usual French musicians close to Ousmane we find the guitars of Djeli Moussa Kouyate, of Fantamady Kouyate, of Ibrahima Soumano and Manfila Kante, the piano of Abdoulaye Diabate, Guinean kora of Djeli Moussa Diawara and of Djeli Moussa Conde, the flute of Ali Wague, the balafon of Kaba Kouyate, and the bolon of Amadou Sodia.

Le Temps and Dabola are both records that risk being unfairly ignored. Djeli Moussa Kouyate and Ousmane Kouyate are not known names, they don't tour and the publicity they get is almost null - on no magazines, not even on the specialized ones took notice of them - and their music doesn't explode immediately but one can enjoy it slowly thanks to it's nuances. It is the result of a long and extraordinary artistic carrier, which allowed both to mature a vast and deep experience. Thanks to this, their personal styles can not be catalogued.

We will point these out because in some way they represent a different way of creating music, not around a star that overrules all the others but like a true assemblage within which each one plays his role with passion and art


Listen Tracks:
1. Kenani Foli (from Le Temps)
2. Iden - vocal: Abdoulaye Diabate (from Le Temps)
3. Na Kankou - vocal: Salif Keita (from Le Temps)
4. Dabola (from Dabola)
5. Yarabi (from Dabola)
6. Nana (from Dabola)

****************************

Author: Djeli Moussa Kouyate
Title: Le Temps
Year: 2008
Label: Emarcy

Tracks:
1. Iden
2. Je Sais
3. Na Kankou
4. Ketow
5. Tugna
6. Siguiri
7. Na Fonié
8. Kenani Foli
9. Le Temps
10. Na Toma
11. Doukouren Mousso
12. Siya

***************************

Author: Ousmane Kouyate
Title: Dabola
Year: 2009
Label: Universal

Tracks:
1. Dabola
2. Diamanake
3. Djeliya
4. Nana
5. Tenter
6. Super Kefimba
7. Yarabi
8. Molagna
9. Mansaba
10. Fediya