Toumani Diabaté, Ketama & Danny Thompson - Songhai 1988

Toumani Diabaté, Ketama & Danny Thompson - Songhai 1988
Label: Hannibal

Blues

A chance meeting at a London house party led to this melodious collaboration between Mali kora virtuoso Diabate and the young, flamenco-based Spanish group Ketama. While Diabate's dazzling runs often give the impression of several instruments being played at once, Ketama is a group with the focus of a single mind. Together, their music drifts up and down the African continent, ranging from the relatively relaxed, repetitious groove-oriented music of West Africa to the occasionally blistering, speed-clapping, and Islam-tinged sound of Iberia. British double bassist Danny Thompson is a model of understated support throughout. Mali vocalists join the group on the anthemic "Mani Mani Kuru" and the quiet "Africa," while Ketama becomes downright sentimental for "A Mia Tia Maria."
By Richard Gehr. AMG.
**
Take one double bass player(Danny Thompson ex Pentangle no less)one Kora player(Toumani Diabate)and a Flamenco group(the wonderful Ketama)and put them all in one room and you will have something very special. It was sad indeed to find no reviews of this fabulous recording so I will TRY and do it some justice .So many attempts at mixing different types of "world " music end up in a hodge podge of sounds and styles that satisfy no one and merely dilute the source, but this is the real deal.The overiding feeling of this disc is PLEASURE...the musicians involved are obviously swimming in the delights of the music they are creating,the discoveries they are making about themselves and their music.
This disparate band somehow produces a seamless and invigorating stream of music that will take you to places even they never dreamed of.
BUY IT.
By William Wood.
**
Songhai was a musical collaboration between the Spanish flamenco group Ketama, Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté, and English bass player Danny Thompson. They released two albums, Songhai (1988) and Songhai 2 (1994), both co-produced by Joe Boyd.
In October 1987, Ketama played five concerts in London, where they met Toumani Diabaté and musicologist and record producer Lucy Duran, who encouraged them to work together. After the group jammed with Diabaté, they performed together at a London club and agreed to record an album for Boyd's Hannibal label.[1] The album was recorded in Madrid in April 1988, with a core line-up consisting of Diabaté, the four members of Ketama - Juan Carmona (guitar), José Soto (vocals, guitar), Antonio Carmona (percussion, vocals), and José Miguel Carmona (percussion, vocals) - and Danny Thompson (bass), with additional backing vocals by Diaw Kouyate and Djanka Diabate of Mory Kanté's band.
The album was well received as a successful fusion of different but related styles of music, but a follow-up was delayed for six years. The core line-up which reunited for Songhai 2 in 1994 was essentially the same as for the first album, although by that time Soto was working as a solo artist rather than as a member of Ketama, and Thompson only featured on three of the tracks. The album also featured bassist Javier Colina, and Malian musicians Kassemady (vocals), Keletigui Diabate (balafon), and Basekou Kouyate (ngoni).
From Wikipedia.
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01. Jarabi 3:40
02. Mani Mani Kuru 5:29
03. Caramelo 4:18
04. A Toumani 3:28
05. Vente pa Madrid 4:34
06. Africa" 5:23
07. A mi tía Marina 3:36
08. Ne Ne Koitaa 3:17
**
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