Kasse Mady Diabate - Mande Djeli Kan

LISTEN Sinanon Saran & Manden Mandinkadenou


Mande Djeli Kan is Kasse Mady Diabate’s new album just recently released. This is the first big musical event of 2009 into which we have bumped into, and it is with enormous joy and fondness that we present it to those who will be able to appreciate.

Today Kasse Mady Diabate incorporates more than anyone else the ancient cultural heritage of Kela, a village in the Koulikoro region. Kela together with Kita shares the supremacy of the mandengue jaliya. For this reason we will start talking about Kela and about a night spent around the fire, when without realizing we are transported into a world of sounds, gestures and words ancient and noble.

Djeli in Kela
LISTEN Kela Djeliya - Keme Burama (Wallai 001)


(Awa Diabate) – "The jaliya is God’s creation.
I thank God, creator of all.
An homage to whom gives us the strength to act,
To God I ask to be guided on the right path.

Now I will talk as jali,
Although I am not a good jali (makusa jali ala).
Good evening to the jali of Kela,
to those present and mostly to those missing.
Good evening to all whose blood runs in my veins,
because thanks to you I am what I am.
And it is thanks to you that the jaliya is respected.
The wellbeing that really counts starts within oneself,
but if you kill a big dog surely one day you will be bit by a smaller dog
(ndt: before talking it is good to thank God and the ancestors for what we are).
Jali of Kela who are here, good evening.
We all share the weight of jaliya”



Kela

Kela is the magical world of jali, a village of three hundred and sixty people a few kilometres from Kangaba, the ancient capital of the Malinke Empire, on the red dusty road that from Mali brings to Guinea. A bunch of gray huts made of clay with the roof made of straw, a few hundred meters from the big river Niger, that is here called Joliba meaning river of blood.

In European languages the word jali is translated into french griot, he who shouts, a suggestion that comes from the powerful singing of the jali. But the real meaning of jali has nothing to do with the singing. Jali is the same word of joli within Djoliba and it means blood, within which the oral tradition runs, the tradition of ancient secrets, of a big civilization that is passed on from father to son. For this reason Amadou Hampaté Bah said that a jali who dies is like a library burning down.



Kasse Mady Diabate & Amara Diabate

Kasse Mady Diabate was born in Kela, son of Jali Moussa Diabate and Djontan Kouyate, his voice they say, is the same of his uncle’s Bintou Fama Diabate. “Bintou Fama’s death coincided with my birth, for this reason we can say I came to replace him”. Within the malinkes, Bintou Fama, just like her daughter Siramori, were considered great gnará, the highest within the jali’s, and it is narrated that those who have been honoured by such a name posses the power to make the listeners cry and fall down on the floor, and to break branches of big baobabs with the magic of their voice. Gnará were also Sory Kandia Kouyate from Guinea, Sidiki Diabate from Gambia, Bazoumana Sissoko from Segou and Kandia Kouyate from Kita, just to nominate those that are famous to us.

It happened in January, thanks to the deep friendship between Kristina and Kasse Mady that the whole of Kela was waiting for us. Upon our arrival in the village we have been greeted by the old men’s blessings and by the sound of the djembe. Kasse Mady, his brother Lafia, his daughter Awa and his nephew Amara, our friends Idrissa Mariko, Cheick Coulibaly and Robert from France were with us. That same night the jali of Kela have set up a sumu, music to celebrate someone. The whole village was dressed up and sat around the fire, and when over the sound of the guitars, of the ngoni, of the tama and of the karignan the jali began singing and claiming their stories, we all drowned into another dimension in the heart of the jaliya.



Kela: Mamadi, Lafia, Sidiki & Kuma Diabate

(Awa) - “ This is Kela.
In the past Kela had an extraordinary reputation all over the mandengue land,
but today to talk about Kela does not make all that noise.
In the past Kela occupied an important role,
but today the jali of the time are disappearing.

The jali say: “what ever power you have, one day this will lay aside”.
The great jali of the past have disappeared.
Seghemadi Diabate, Balaba Diabate, Siramori Diabate, Sanghoi Jula di Touba (Sanghoi Jula Tubaka) were great,
but death kills people and their actions, and time cancels the past.
What I am talking about I have learnt from the oral tradition.
It is not death that is sad but separation deriving from it.
Today the land of Mandengue is no longer supported from the strength it once had.





Men, jali who are here with us, good evening.
Madi son of Jatena, descendent of the griots of Touba, good evening.
Here with us is the jeliya, which is respect.
In Kela the jaliya survived.
Old men, bless the young jali and pray for them”.

(Old men) - “May God give you the strength.”

(Amara) – “May God bless your mouth.
Jeli of Kela, if you fill your mouth with tobacco and if you stop speaking you have
betrayed your traditional task.
Kasse Mady believe me, the real jali are in Kela, even if some say Bamako is full if jali.
Here in Kela a lot of kings passed by and they never returned to thank and honour the sacred places.
Kasse Mady, you know the story of Bintu Fama, Bintu Sine and Fele Kabadjan.
But amongst all our ancestors the ones who deserve most respect are Balaba Diabate and Nassaya Mulu.
And I also want to thank – oh God! - the son of Banku, Mota Bamba, the crocodile who brings men on its back, may God maintain their last condition unmarked.
Those people have done nothing against the jaliya, they just made it great.
But I will stop here not to bore you”.





(Awa) - (She shouts to get the attention)
“Listen, we are talking about jaliya, inheritance of our ancestors.
We are not jali for interest, but because this is our inheritance.
Kaladawula Diabate, look at your people, numerous.
You, who descend from the blood of jali, good evening.

It is not easy to be a jali.
What is jaliya?
Since I was born in the jaliya of Kela, and believe me it is not long,
if a wedding would fall apart, a jeli from Kela was called to solve the outcome.
I remember as a child, I have seen all this.
When a conflict began wherever, the jali of Kela would go to stop it.





This is jaliya and nothing else.
Jaliya is a social function and not an occupation to earn money.

A wedding is not sweet without a jali from Kela,
fraternity can not be maintained without a jali of Kela
and the same applies for cohabitation.
It is here in Kela that you find jaliya and respect.
Today many describe themselves as jali without having been initiated,
although they are few who know what it really means to be a jali.
But in Kela jaliya has maintained its reputation high”.



Kela: djeliya scenes around the fire

Kasse Mady today represents in the world the ancient tradition of the jali of Kela, where he is loved and respected. They say about him that although he lives in Bamako, and despite his success, he has never forgotten his village, and also since he was born he never possessed money for himself, but no one carries on his shoulders the weight he does.

Despite his fame, Kasse Mady is a pure man, generous and kind as no one, to the extent of being considered naïve by those who consider themselves smart. But it is due to his integrity and kindness, because he does not make distinctions between who is important and who is not, because he sings for friendship and not for money and because he never talks badly about anyone, that he attracts everybody’s love, therefore much honour to his ingenuity. More than once we have seen him distribute money to the musicians who accompany him during the shows, and this is not very common amongst the jali. There is therefore no doubt that most of the money he earns from his albums will reach Kela, just like the money earned by Ali Farka Toure have changed Niafunke’s destiny.



people from Kela

Mande Djeli Kan is his new album and also his best album, a release of someone who has donated his life to music, to jaliya, to his people and to his land. In this album recorded in the Bogolan studio of Bamako in November 2007 and produced by Jean Lamoot and Cheick Tidiane Seck, play many great musicians of malinke music the koras of Toumani and of Mamadou Diabate, the guitar of Djelimady Tounkara, of Fantamady Kouyate and of the guinean Ousmane Kouyate, the n'goni of Moriba Koita and of Ganda Tounkara and the balafon of Lassana Diabate and of Lansine Kouyate. A hand full of songs that go from the malinke tradition to the bambara tradition to the mande-rock that remind us the best songs by Salif Keita.

Mande Djeli Kan is a work that all those who are moved by Kasse Mady’s voice were waiting for, for many years. Finally, an album that reflects the level of his art and the deepness of his knowledge. A really well played album and beautifully sang, that walks hand in hand together with master pieces of Malian music, like a Big String Theory of his brother Lafia Diabate, of Djelimady Tounkara and Bouba Sacko, and of Kita Kan by Kandia Kouyate, the divine gnará from Kita.



Kasse Mady Diabate

But there is no need for other words to describe the musical world of a great jali and master of word, there is the need to listen. Wallai.



Old men from Kela


Author: Kasse Mady Diabate
Title: Mande Djeli Kan
Year: 2009
Label: Universal

Tracks:

1. Bandja
2. Kalou Man Kene
3. Kaninba
4. Allah Doundé
5. Kia Ko Djougou
6. Douga Djabira
7. Maliba
8. Nankoumandjian
9. Sinanon Saran
10. Manden Mandinkadenou
11. Sansan

-----------------------------------

Author: Kela Djeliya
Title: -------------
Year: 2009
Label: Wallai Record

Tracks:

1. Keme Burama
2. Djeliya


DRAWINGS BY MAURIZIO RIBICHINI

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Mali '09 - Court Yard Life

the Sambou's court yard

Listen Mali music (see Track list)


"You have come from afar, leaving your homes and all that is dear to you,
and now the hospitality is all for you.
The world did not begin today, and will not end today.
May God bless you with a long life.
You are like the rain, always welcome.
You are looking for an adventure which I hope you will find.
You have left for a battle and you will return winners.
You have been sent by Suoundjata,
a friendship that will stay for eternity.
You are Kings, therefore I will play for you"



breakfast

The morning following our arrival in Bamako, the excitement pushes us up from bed early. We are staying at the maison de la kora, the house of Toumani Diabate's second wife in Ntomikorobougou. We find Sambou and Tene waiting for us. A glance, a smile and we recognize each other. Breakfast, tea, nescafe, baguette, furu-furu fried mil and hard frozen butter waits for us at Sambou's home.



from Ntomikorobougou to Badialan

Time to wash and put on some clean clothes and off we are heading to Badialan 3, few minutes walk beyond the rail. The harmattan, wind coming form Sahara, blows thin dust in the cold air, the sky is white, our skin dries and the africans cover up with jackets, scarves, hats and also gloves.



Tene and her friend

Tene Sinaba is Ibu's third wife. Ibu is the Gambian friend I met in Bamako three years ago. It will be Tene cooking for us during our stay in Mali. Sambou Diebate is Madya's big brother and with Binta, his wife, left Casamance for Bamako six years ago, in search of luck and waiting for an opportunity to come to Europe. Like Madya, he also plays the kora and Toumani has found him a job in the elegant Hotel Salaam, down town, where he plays three times per week for wealthy tourists and local important people. The salary is not that great, but he manages also by assembling and selling koras.



Sambou putting strings to a kora

Sambou lives in a yellow and sunny court yard together with other four families. As you walk in, on the left is the common toilet, a small stinky space with the sky as roof and a whole, directly connected to the drain that runs all around the house, at the centre of the pavement. No water nor electricity after sunset when the toilet becomes bugs’ and other insects terrain.



Amin's house

Immediately on the right is Amin Dembele's house. She is the daughter of one of Toumani's big brothers. She welcomes us smiling with the ritual greeting is bambara to which we slowly get used to answering correctly and naturally. Over her smile, her look is penetrating and intense, and soon we discover her tough and strong character, her motherly severity and how much she is respected by all the inhabitants of the court yard, including the men. In the veranda Amin has placed a black board, where Djakassa, the eldest daughter who is 17 who goes to school, writes with chalk every day things to do and other information. Mr. Dembele, husband of Amin is a military and we meet him only when he returns home at night.



Yaya

The first house on the left immediately after the toilet is without veranda, and on it's yellow clay walls are lizards that are heating up under the sun that shines on this wall all day. Here live Bela, Sunje, mother of little Sane tighted to her mothers back and two old women, Aminata and Fatoumata. On the wall in front of the entrance to the court yard are the apartments of Mahkounta, sister of Toumani and Yaya Doumbia, a marabout who shared many nights with us. Together with Sambou he is the only adult man that spends the whole day in the court yard and maybe for this reason and due to his openness and intelligence, we have known him more deeply than others. He reads the future in shells, wears little leather bags containing fetish and he has a small alter for his ritual sacrifices



Binta and Sunje in the kitchen

At the center of the court yard is the well and a tree that creates a little shade where the old Fatoumata places her chair and cleans her teeth with a stick of kungue and plays with little Sane sitting on her laps. Sambou's two room apartment is in front of the tree. On the walls are hung calabash and kora at their different stages of construction. Immediately out of the veranda, the aluminium stock pots on the coal stoves. Here is where Binta and Sunje cook.



Fatoumata and Sane

Among the five families only Sambou has no children, but together with them lives Tulai, a little girl with hair like antenna's, she is the daughter of his big brother. Here in Africa it is normal to offer a child to a brother or sister who can not have children. Here children represent a resource an indispensible richness. Tulai is eight and when she is not in school she already helps Binta in the kitchen.



Tulai

The court yard is however full of children of all ages, more or less smiley, shy or open, brave or mistrustful. Together with Tulai and Sane are Marietou, Bakuruni, Fait, Fatoumata, Fantasi, Mama, Ibrahim, Adama, Sanata, Kadi, Fanta . . . and they are not all . . . During our stay, in the court yard, but also in the streets and in other houses, we have never seen children fighting or complaining. For this reason when we heard Adama crying, when he fell behind the wooden bench and Sane crying, while her mother was washing her with soap and scrubbing her face with a sponge, we were really surprised.



children in the court yard

We still do not understand why African children seem happier and less spoiled than ours. It could be due to the quantity of time they spend with their mothers and to being together with many brothers and sisters and friends in the court yard or maybe their integrated lives within the family establishes roles and things to do or . . . . maybe simply the strict education, anyway children in Africa don't represent a problem for mothers but joy and help. Also for this reason they have many children.



Fantasi

In the court yard we have always seen women working hard with their back bend over. Cooking, washing clothes, cleaning the floor that is always continuously dirty, breastfeeding the babies, doing and undoing hair. . . . Rarely in Africa you can see tables. Normally the work is carried out on the ground and when women bend over to reach the ground their movements are moulded by an antique science. Their back always stays straight and the legs half bended, their feet are stable on the ground and their elbows work on their knees, to allow the weight to be well distributed.



washing clothes in the court yard

The water is pulled up from the well by hand for 6 or 7 meters and is precious and is not to be wasted. This passes from one container to another, and also when it is dirty it is appropriately used. There are many different types of dirty water, and some are always good and useful for something. The clothes travel from soaped water to subsequent washbowls that are arranged in a chain, within which the water is always cleaner. Close to the tree are the typical recycled plastic striped tea jars containing water to wash oneself in the toilet.



Wasa and Djeneba

Wasa and Djeneba work more than all the others in the court yard. Both are less than twenty and their story began in a village. Their families entrusted them to Amin and Mahkounta who pay their work with food, clothes and a house and maybe also hope. When the evening arrives women can finally rest, Wasa and Djeneba have no more energy and remain on their chairs. Sometimes they fall asleep sitting on the chair and before going to bed they wait for all the other member of the family to go to bed.



Sambou plays in the court yard

Every night, after dinner, Sambou takes his kora and starts playing. In the veranda, around the small table, we sit together with Yaya, Mariko, Cheick, Sissoko and Keita while Binta and Tene and other friends who often pass by, like Madame Camara, sitting on the little small chairs outside of the veranda. Sambou plays the cora in Casamance style and sings songs, one after the other Kelefaba, Mofola Terrya, Kedo. His voice is sweet and gentle and each song contains words of praise and gratitude for us who have come from afar and for the others who are there. Kora be kuma lema, it is the kora that is speaking. One by one Sambou talks about us calling us with our mandengue names: Djeneba Diabate, Moussa Kouyate, Moriba Cisse, Mario Keita. When it is time to go to bed, the court yard becomes silent and as we leave every body leaves with us.



pencils and notebooks for everybody

Maurizio had with him some notebooks and drawing albums and colours to give. So we decided to give them to the children of the court yard. One Saturday after breakfast, Sambou places all the children at the corner of the veranda and joy explodes just before the distribution begins. All the court yard including young and old women came close to look and the children who until then have been looking at us curiously and shy from behind their mothers' dresses, have mixed up with us. Smiles, voices, words and Maurizio . . . . at the centre of attention. He will become even more the centre of attention when he starts drawing the children taking portraits of them with the pencil and his magic brush. Some disappear inside their house with the precious treasure. A tiny little baby returns accompanied by the hand of Bakuruni, to show Maurizio his first drawing. The same will happen in the following days.



in Mariko's court yard

While the days go by, the harmattan is only a souvenir and the temperature becomes hot. The stringed plastic chairs in the court yard seem to eat us alive and they don't want to let us go and during the hours that run between breakfast and lunch until the dawn, when the air seems fresher the court yard swallows us. Today is the washing day. Yesterday Amin returned from Bobo Dioulasso with materials, pots and other objects to sell in the quartier. In front of us every day life carries on and the faces and names and voices of the children and of the adults become more familiar. In our fantasies the court yard becomes also ours and we also belong to it. Here is how the expected sadness of the separation appears in our thoughts and in our conversations among us. Mariko is the first one to talk about it, ten days before our departure. “Beacoup de nostalgie”.



Sinaba's court yard

The night of our departure life in the court yard ran in the typical way, but the women, even those with whom we have only smiled and exchanged greetings seemed all very elegantly dressed. They continue taking care of their usual every day work, but there is an atmosphere of sadness. When the time comes and we stand up for the last time, the whole court yard stops doing what ever it was they were doing and they all look at us. Good byes, sad smiles. The children surround us, they take our hands and they take us to the car. Sambou, Binta and Tene get on Cheick's car together with us. It is the first time we see Binta outside of the court yard. Tene cries endlessly finishing all the paper tissues and we are also giving up to tears trying to control at least the sobs. Along the way we pick up Cheick's beautiful fiancé and Kasse Mady who has been waiting for two hours already at the Wassoulou hotel on the road to the airport. It is them who want to stay together with us until the last moment, when the doors to the terminal separate us. More hugs and more tears



Binta

The court yard where we have spent many of our African hours is a world that we had forgotten. It is a family structure, a micro society, an ancestral community. It is the place of exchange and of encounter that merges the private houses to the streets. The space where hosts can come, merchants and beggars, everyone will find somebody in the court yard who will listen to them.



Djakassa

The court yard is where children learn love, respect, the cohabitation and the mutual solidarity and the work. It is the place where the family extends towards the other, where they welcome people and where they are welcomed by people. It is the space where conversations are shared, games and things that belong to someone but never in a private and exclusive way are shared. It is the place where the old live together with their sons and daughter and their nephews, telling their old stories, where they can rest when they need and die when the time comes. It is there where they meet friends and where they meet new friends.



Bakuruni, Adama, Fati

Close to the one that became our court yard, there is another court yard that opens to us, and then another. The roads without asphalt of Badialan and of the other quartier of Bamako are a series of similar court yards, each with their community made by families, each in communication with the near courtyard, to form an interconnected society in continuous exchanged. It is the weft of a social weaving that maybe once was also ours' but today is lost and that for us represents and new and genius discovery, a solution, to the extent that we start dreaming of buying a courtyard where to build a precious shelter among the African families.



Fantasi again

The African society has it's problems and for sure we do not want to idealize. But the sensation is that of a living society, where one finds common values and shared values, while egoism, individualism and arrogance are recognized by everyone as something not good. Maybe we are unable to say it but the simple life in the court yard has been for us like finding a lost dimension, like a jump in the ocean. For this we have left all Bamako taking away with us nostalgia of the court yard that has become so dear to us with its relations and the desire to return as soon as possible.


Track List

1) Mah Kouyate n. 2 - Soso (from Sumu vol. 1)
2) Mah Kouyate n. 2 - Mali Sadjo (from Sumu vol. 1)
3) Sambou Diabate - Mofola Teria (from Wallai 005)


DRAWINGS BY MAURIZIO RIBICHINI

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Naija Living Abroad

WOMEN VOICES OF NIGERIAN DIASPORA

LISTEN: (Look at "Tracks List")


With almost 200 million people, Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa . To those, millions of emigrants are to be added, those who during the years have established numerous communities especially in the suburbs of big European and American cities. The community called "naija" is a closed society, that uses it's language and merges to the cultural traditional habits. It's essence is a mix of African, ghetto expression, sensuality, slang, rhythm and ethnic pride. One of the most natural ways to express for the naija is through music.

The first singer with Nigerian blood who captured the world’s attention was Helen Folasade Adu, Sade, Nigerian father and English mother. Her first album, Diamond Life, of 1984, released on the market, became famous mostly thanks to the single Smooth Operator. Her whispering voice and her sweet melodies became a classical of new cool. It was a signal.

Other 20 years have gone by since then, and much water flowed beneath the bridges. Amongst the daughters of the great diaspora, singers and performers of Nigerian origin became numerous and aggressive. Some of them express a musical language; naija more radically, a mix of physicity, sex, rap, soul, disco, electro and terrific rhythms deriving from fuji music. Other than Lagos, the naija sound scene is alive especially in the "Bronx" of cosmopolitan cities like London and New York, but also Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.

Sola Idowu, known as Weird MC "the Rappateiner" is a hard rapper, and does not fear confrontation with her male colleagues of the naija hip hop like D'Banji, 2Face Idibia, Modenine and Ade Bantu. Born in London but mainly lived in Lagos , she played with Tony Allen, Femi Kuti and Lagbaja, stars of contemporary afro beat. Her music - appearing on compilations like Lagos Stori Plenti, includes the wild ljoya, or World 2003, the yearly compilation of Chalres Gillet of BBC, contains Palava and What are you waiting for - it is devastating hip hop, that moves from electro rhythms to Yoruba talking drums.

Ibiwunmi Omotayo Olufunke Olaiya, known as Wunmi, is the nephew of Sir Victor Olaiya, “the evil genius of highlife”, born in London from Nigerian parents, but grew up in Lagos. Wummi is known in the ambient underground dance of New York and London. Her first appearance on scene dates to 1989, the year she participated in a video of Back to Life of the famous dance group Soul II Soul.

But her debut album A.L.A. - African Leaving Abroad, was released only in 2007. Her style is a blend of electro dance, afro beat and dance music but the lyrics touch social issues, accusation and complaint.

The use of heavy lyrics amongst the young Nigerian Naija sound artists is not rare, and it is really worth mentioning. In Africa music is
traditionally a vehicle of information, an education tool and is culture, but the young naija artists, most of whom quote Fela Kuti as their main inspiration source, don't write simply texts because it is required by the tradition, but because they suffer and they are angry for the condition of their people, and because they have something to say. But - Lagbaja explains - "notwithstanding the serious circumstances as nation, we limit ourselves only to singing about serious issues and to launching the message. Our music has more dimensions than these. As always, through our work we pass from seriousness to fun . . . . life goes on".

In Nigeria the actress and singer Yinka Davies, whose real name is Elfeda Oluwabukola Olayinka Davies, is a star. Yinka becomes famous in Nigeria as vocalist of Color Band of Lagbaja. Considered similar to Nigerian Erikah Badu, her presence is fragile and it transpires a sophisticated charm, her voice is splendid and her power is not common. Notwithstanding this, in 2007 although she won the prestigious Nigerian award called " the decade's voice", success is late to arrive for her. Yinka sings in compilations Afro Night of Ekostar (together with Sikriu Ayinde Barrister) and is guest on the last "serious" work of Tony Allen - Lagos no Shaking. Look out for her on YouTube. With her extraordinary voice she can interpret almost all genres, from jazz to soul to funky to fuji music. Her albums are unfortunately only distributed in Nigeria .

Following Sade’s footsteps, two Nigerian singers, Ayo and Asa, have recently managed during the last years to go beyond the ghetto and beyond the ethnic barriers and to obtain international success. Ayo, whose real name is Joy Olasunmibo Ogunmakin, was born in Koln, Germany, from Nigerian father and Rumanian, rom mother. Her musical background is influenced by her pilgrimage between Paris, New York and Lagos.

Her debut album in 2006, Joyful is simple and enchanting. Acoustic melodies with some soul, blues, folk and reggae flavour, include melancholic melodies and lyrics, original and very sweet, accompanied by the guitars, Hammond , by the accordion and the mandolin. An unbelievable quality for being such a young singer - born in 1980 - also a great success with the single Down on my Knees, that placed itself in the pop international hit parade. Only a few weeks from the release of her second album, Gravity at Last and certainly we will not miss it and will talk about it in the annex of this post.

Asa was born in Paris from Nigerian parents, but when she was only two, her family returned home. So she grew up and found her musical inspiration in the urban reality of Lagos, in Fela Kuti's afro beat and Labia and in juju of King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey, but also in voices like Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Bob Marley, the bigs of black music whose sound is homely wherever there is a black community. Her music does not sound naija, no talking drum, no impurity in her powerful voice, intense and full of soul elements. Asa is more like a Tracy Chapman or an African Joan Armatrading

Her debut album, simply called Asa of 2007, was well and happily received by the international critics. It really is nice, touchy, mature and sophisticated. Ballades, rock, reggae and soul, sung in English, pidgin and also Yoruba. Also here lyrics are full of social effort, against unfairness, and indifference.

Nneka has not yet been so lucky like Ayo and Asa, not until now. This year No Longer at Ease was released, her second CD, and her debut album of 2005, Victim of Truth was compared by the Sunday Times to Miseducation of Laurin Hill. Nneka is also very young, born in London from Nigerian father and English mother. Her music is a mix of naija, rap, funky and reggae, and her voice, sharp and metallic, reminds us of the queens of contemporary soul, Erikah Badu and Laurin Hill.

Nneka's groove is dark and electro, it uses electronics, from scratch to dub echoes to changes of rhythm and of rarefied atmospheres and hectic urban. Both the music and lyrics of their songs - in English, pidgin and joruba - are more angry and serious than those of Ayo and also of Asa, and reflect a choice of making of social issues a central intention in her work.

It is not a coincidence that her last album is explicitly thanking Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Chinua Achebe, the great nigerian writer, for the inspiration. Nneka is less inclined in searching for easy melodies to conquer the market, and this is a merit, even if the road that she is taking is harder.

Proud of their origins, the young stars of the Nigerian Diaspora about whom we have talked about are only the tip of the iceberg of a musical scene and a young lively movement lacking monotony and nihilism which seems to affect many young rich and wealthy apathetic Europeans. Nigerians define their country "the lion of Africa " and this indicates that they have a clear perception of their potential, of their resistance, of their number and their presence in the world. We will continue exploring the naija music, sure to find new surprises in the future.






Discografia

Sade: "Diamond Life" (1984)
Wunmi: "A.L.A." (2007)
Ayo: "Joyfull" (2006) e Gravity at Last" (2008)
Asa: "Asa" (2007)
Nneka: "Victim of Truth" (2005) e "No Longer at Ease" (2008)
Tony Allen: "Lagos no Shake" (2006) - with Yinka Davies
AAVV: Lagos Stori Plenti (2006) - Ijoya of Weird MC and other stars of naija sound


Track List

1. Wunmi - Africa Living Abroad (da A.L.A.)
2. Tony Allen & Yinka Davies - Morose (da Lagos no Shaking
3. Weird M.C. - Ijoya (da Lagos Stori Plenti)
4. Asa - Peace (da Asa)
5. Nneka - Africans (da Victim of Truth)
6. Nneka - Confession (da Victim of Truth)
7. Ayo - Without You (da Joyfull)

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