Shredding in the Desert: Tinariwen @ Cats Cradle 3.20.14

"Welcome to the desert," said Tinariwen's Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, the singer in palest blue robes who orchestrated our clapping with his elegant gestures and spacious dance moves. The Carrboro, North Carolina audience swarmed in unison as if to say, "Yes please. Take me to your campfire."

Frontman and founder Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, he of the trademark loose mane, was missing, as on other recent U.S. tours. I heard it said it's due to visa problems. Fear not, though, filling his lead guitar and vocalist shoes is Sadam Iyar Imarhan, who sounds and even looks eerily like a younger version of Ibrahim. Sadam doesn't speak much English, but a Mauritanian friend helped me to understand he's been with the group for just one month, and is a cousin of bandmember Hassan (not currently on the tour). All the rest of Tinariwen are long-time members.

 

There was exciting chemistry between Sadam and bassist Eyadou Ag Leche. Roostering about with their axes, they played off each other and even broke into occasional smiles, causing slight ruptures in Tinariwen's usual onstage demeanor--a powderkeg of reserve, ecstatic awareness rippling beneath a calm surface.

"Desert Blues" is at once perfectly evocative, and yet somehow a woefully inadequate label to describe the the Tuareg sound. The analogy makes historic and visceral sense but only gets you part way there. There's call and response singing, and what seems (to this unstudied observer) to be quite elaborate polyrhythmic and formal structures. Above all, the poetic trancey vibe is unlike anything else, and highly addictive. But as trancey as it gets, it always feels like the songs follow ancient forms. Nonetheless, there's plenty of room in there for ecstatic transport, and a quality of being fully in the moment.

This kind of jibes with something Eyadou told me after the set. Still looking incredibly youthful after 15 years with the band, he told me Tuaregs think differently about age and time.

"In the desert, we don't [celebrate] birthdays. I am living today. Every day is my happy birthday." 

--Tinariwen bassist Eyadou Ag Leche

For the encore set, Abdallah took up guitars and lead vocal for some acoustic and electric stuff. Here's a few moments featuring bass and guitar solos from Eyadou and Abdallah:



The new album is called Emmaar; the vinyl edition with free CD inside sold for $25 at the merch table.

LINKS:

Tinariwen band webpage

The Great Peace: KAIRABA releases 2nd CD at Cats Cradle, 3/14

Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba had the audience it deserved Friday night:  a Cradle full of people who know the band, and passionately share in its music. This CD release party for its eponymous second CD, which translates “Kaira Ba” as The Great Peace, turned out more of a euphoric frenzy. Fully in command, the 6-piece plus special guests enjoyed the richly deserved moment, three years since their inaugural show at the Nightlight in February 2011.

The throbbing pulse of Orquesta GarDel had only recently faded, and salsa dancers ebbed from the floor, as we waited for Kaira Ba to set up and go on. GarDel played a strong opening set, with its out-of-town members Brevan Hampden (timbales) and Andy Kleindienst (trombone), both on sabbatical to attend grad school, in the house and representing. Some of these faces—conguero Atiba Rorie, saxophonist Tim Smith—would stick around to lend an assist later.

Two koras with their gourd shells ornamented, one with a beautiful painting of Africa, the other studded with the name KAIRABA, leaned in repose at a place of honor center stage. Corralled around them:  a panoply of hand drums of different sizes and origins—sabar, thiol, djembes, congas, dundun, calabash. Amps, guitars, drumset and upright bass set the stage to ready mode. Grabbing prime spots near the edge of the stage, Kaira Ba’s international fanbase came ready to party in looks that ranged from jeans and beards, to palazzo pants and sequined halter tops, tweed hats and hand dyed finery.

The members of the band came onstage drumming, also sporting diverse attire from skinny ties, pearl-button shirts and Converse to bare feet and vibrant patchwork garments. The same Senegalese patchwork fabric provided the cover art for the album, and probably speaks to the band’s grown together, hybrid Carolina-African roots.

Running tunes from the new album took us to Senegal right away, starting with the upbeat “Fallou” and “Bamba Wotena.” Some Americans pogo’ed, while a few Wolof speakers in the crowd got Cissokho’s references to people and places back home and sang along. For the third tune, Cissokho’s wife Hilary emerged to sing soprano backup and maintained that role. Cissokho’s kora and John Westmoreland’s guitar conversed back and forth, and the percussion powerhouse of Austin McCall, Will Ridenour, and at times even bassist Jonathan Henderson, was shored up by the group’s newest member, Mame Cheikh Njigal Dieng. Dieng, a professional musician from Senegal, recently moved to Durham and recorded on The Great Peace.

“We had the music written by the time Cheikh came in, but there were a few songs where we had hit some walls,” said Ridenour, post-show, about the Fidelitorium sessions. “He said, ‘why don’t you try this?’ Suddenly there were no walls anymore.”

Gabriele Pelli recreated his role as a guest on the session at the CD release party, adding haunting fiddle motifs to the spiritual tour de force “Alanole” (“No One Can Know God.”) Cissokho paused then to say his thank yous, while Ridenour retuned his kora for another intense slowburner, “Mere Khadi.” A horn set followed, with trumpeter Zack Rider, trombonist Quran Karriem, and saxophonist Tim Smith elevating the soul revue aspect of tunes like “Al Hadji” and “Mbolo.” If anything, this move was even more successful live than on the album, and one can hope to hear more brass in Kaira Ba’s future.

An encore set began with “Sida” (“AIDS”), an understated reverie featuring kora, guitar and Pelli’s violin, before taking a turn for the rambunctious. The band pumped a carnaval-like backbeat as a shirtless Cissokho bathed his face and body in a pile of broken glass, jumping and rolling around in a fearsome display. The celebratory night closed with “Jabu,” a rouser from the first CD Resonance, which ties Cissokho’s love for his family in Senegal to the love he feels for, and from, U.S. audiences.

The post-show love fest included not only friends, but total strangers offering the band members their thanks, pressing the flesh and getting CDs signed. A lot of bands say they are going to take their sophomore album to the next level; Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba worked hard to actually do that, and it shows.

LINKS:

Listen to the CDs at Kaira Ba Music

The Brand New Life Plays Durty Durham

The Brand New Life headlined Friday (5/3) at Durty Durham's Pinhook fundraiser. (For supporting band The Black Experience, see yesterday's blog post.)

The Brand New Life at The Pinhook

Greensboro is some kind of strange rhythm nexus, attracting more than your average share of griots, drum classes, and African and Brazilian percussion specialists. In fact, all across the state, from Asheville's Toubab Krewe, to Greensboro's Africa Unplugged, and Carrboro's Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba, Africa/North Carolina hybrids are springing up like a cottage industry.

The Brand New Life belongs to Greensboro's gems. "Impossible to pigeonhole" has become a popular moniker for out-of-the-way bands, but:  "Does several things very well that don't traditionally go together," better describes The Brand New Life. As the set started out Friday, they showed their  free jazz, skronk funk side. "Just wait," I told some friends at the bar. Sure enough, they pulled out their heavy West African grooves next. In its history, the group has worked closely with musicians from Senegal, and musicians on the autism spectrum, both of whom released special synergies in the collective.

Sean Smith and Evan Frierson

Walter Fancourt and Seth Barden

Getting up to date with BNL's personnel changes during the past year:   Tama drummer Mamadou Mbengue just left the area in March for Chicago, but percussionist and co-founder Evan Frierson has taken on the instrument, also called a talking drum. Scott Johnson plays congas since September, 2012, and electric guitarist Will Darity is a full-time member since June 2012, around the time of saxophonist and co-founder Casey Cranbrook's departure. Trumpeter Sean Smith (2006-2010 member of Asheville's Afromotive) holds up the horn harmonies now with tenor saxophonist and co-founder Walter Fancourt. Two more original members remain intact: Seth Barden (electric and upright bass), and Daniel Yount (trapset drums).


Will Darity


Daniel Yount

My video clip from Friday night shows Frierson ascending the stage for a talking drum cameo, followed by smoking horn solos from Fancourt and Smith, on an Afrobeat tune entitled "Everybody Like You, Boy."

It's an original tune, based on a traditional Senegalese tama/sabar rhythm. Made more Afrobeat by The Brand New Life.   (--BNL trapset drummer Daniel Yount)

Evan Frierson

Seth Barden and Will Darity

Links:

The Brand New Life, artist website

Bon Voyage, Kairaba: Last Show of 2011 THIS FRIDAY (11/18)

Diali Cissokho & Kairaba's show at Tallula's tonight, 9:30 pm - midnight, is noteworthy for a couple of reasons:

A.
This hot West African dance band, based in Carrboro, has been in the studio recently recording its FIRST CD. Door proceeds tonight ($5) go directly toward production costs to release it in early 2012.

B.
In a few weeks, the entire band heads to Senegal and Mali, where they will spend the next couple of months touring, studying, and generally getting in touch with the Motherland. So, this will be their LAST NORTH CAROLINA SHOW of 2011.

C.
Talulla's, with it's warm wood interior, is a SWEET VENUE for grooving, acoustic music. Located at 456 W. Franklin, next to the Carolina Brewery.



LINKS:

Facebook event page: Kairaba at Talulla's Friday (11/18), 9:30 pm - midnight, $5

Desert Blues: TINARIWEN This Sunday (11/13)

Tinariwen means "deserts" in Tomashek, the language of the Tuareg, a nomadic people who inhabit the Sahel regions of Northern and West Africa. It's also the name of a Tuareg band from Mali that makes hypnotic, guitar-driven "desert blues" their calling card. They play this Sunday (11/13) at The Cat's Cradle; intoxicating, Swiss singer/songwriter Sophie Hunger opens the 8 pm show.


Tinariwen on tour last month in Los Angeles. Photo (c) Timothy Norris.

Formed originally in 1979, Tinariwen broke out as an international touring band ten years ago, and has since produced five albums. Their latest, Tassili, takes its name from an Algerian region of spare beauty where they recorded outdoors and an impromptu tent studio. As that method suggests, they are returning to acoustic roots on this album. Here's a documentary about the process:



A bit more plugged in, here's a nice little rocker from their last album Imidiwan: Companions (2008):



Sit around the virtual campfire this Sunday (11/13) at Cat's Cradle; advance tix $22, day of show $25.

LINKS:

Cat's Cradle, Sunday, November 13, 8 pm TINARIWEN
Tinariwen artist website
Sophie Hunger artist myspace (opener)

Ivory Coast's Dobet Gnahore FRIDAY (11/4)

Dobet Gnahore. Photo (c) Michel De Bock courtesy of Rock Paper Scissors.

Seriously...have I just never noticed before, or is the Triangle awash in opportunities to hear African music right now?

NEXT on the roster: Ivory Coasts's Dobet Gnahore. She's strikingly gorgeous, an experienced professional dancer, singer and musician, and she speaks French (so therefore, local interviews and press coverage have been limited). Music style is contemporary, with influences from Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ghana, Congo, etc. She's the daughter of Ivorian percussionist Boni Gnahore, and has three solo albums to her credit. Musically and personally, she has paired up with French guitarist Colin Laroche de Félin.

ARTIST WEBSITE in English HERE




WHEN/WHERE: This FRIDAY (11/4) at Stewart Theater, 8 pm.

Indypick blurb here.

EVENT LINK: http://www.ncsu.edu/centerstage/currentseason/dobet.html

Tickets run $24-28 at Stewart Theater (NCSU still has the lowest precios populares among the area's elite arts series). Discounts apply if you are faculty, staff, or student at NCSU.

PARKING NOTE: because of some construction/campus street closings, Cates Ave. is blocked for about one block between Talley Student Center and the parking deck, but do not be deterred. You can access the usual FREE parking deck via PULLEN ROAD.


Coming soon: Touareg desert bluesmen, Tinariwen, at the Cat's Cradle, Sunday, Nov.13.

Lost and Found: Sudanese Rapper Emmanuel Jal @ Duke TODAY

Emmanuel Jal. Photo (c) Mike Tsang.

Some of you may have heard in the news recently that the United States has sent 100 military advisors to Uganda to take on the Lord's Resistance Army, a notorious group that has massacred thousands and displaced millions in Eastern and Central Africa since the 1980s. Forcing children to commit heinous crimes as 'child soldiers' is among the LRA's most warped, and well-known atrocities.

Emmanuel Jal, one of these former "Lost Boys" of Southern Sudan, escaped the LRA and is now a musician/activist spreading a message of peace to the world. The rapper and spoken word artist will participate in a FREE performance and discussion today at Duke, in the Reynolds Theater in the Bryan Center: Tuesday, Nov. 1, 7:30-9:30 pm. Doors open at 6:30; free parking and dessert reception. This event is free and open to the public.

Jal has released ten hip hop albums, with tracks in Arabic, English, Swahili, Dinka and Nuer languages. Here's the video single from his upcoming See Me Mama album, introduced by Alicia Keyes:



The event is part of a Kenan Institute for Ethics series entitled, "Uprooted, Rerouted: Stories of African Refugees Losing and Finding Home."

LINKS:

Event page at Duke
Facebook event page
Emmanuel Jal artist myspace

Halloween Treat: West African/Jazz FREE SHOW TONIGHT (10/31) by The Brand New Life

The Brand New Life is blend of jazz improvisation and West African mbalax and Afrobeat. For a Halloween treat, the Greensboro band plays a FREE SHOW TONIGHT (10/31) at 11 pm at The Station in Carrboro.

To learn more about how this band got together, read my profile in The Independent earlier this year. The last time I saw them, at Shakori Hills in October, they were seriously on fire, with heavy mbalax grooves by their Senegalese talking drummer, Mamadou Mbengue, following on the heels of jazz tunes with crazy meters. Mamadou takes a solo at the end of this clip of the BNL live at 2011 Floydfest:



LINKS:

Facebook event page: Halloween (10/31) with The Brand New Life
Venue calendar: The Station in Carrboro

Regina Carter in Raleigh TONIGHT (10/22)

Is there any Triangle stage that features black women artists more regularly, and in greater proportion to their overall programming, than Arts NC State? In recent memory, they've presented Buika, Esperanza Spalding and Emeline Michel; already this season, they introduced me to the exquisite blueswoman Ruthie Foster. Yet to come in November: Ivorienne singer/dancer Dobet Gnahore (11/4), and local cellist/singer Shana Tucker (11/11).

TONIGHT (10/22): Jazz violinist and MacArthur "Genius" grant winner Regina Carter performs at Stewart Theatre. Her latest album, Reverse Thread, integrates African folk tunes with jazz, in a band featuring kora and accordion. Tickets run $28-32 for general public, with NCSU staff and student discounts available.

Our good friend John Brown, director of Duke's jazz program, leads a pre-show discussion at 7 pm. The discussion is free and open to the public in the Walnut Room, in Talley Student Center.



LINKS:

Saturday, October 22, 8 pm: Regina Carter @ Stewart Theatre
Regina Carter artist website

Africa Calling: Angelique Kidjo SUNDAY (10/16)

Afropop Amazon: Angelique Kidjo (photo: Andrzej Pilarczyk)

There's been such a wealth of great African music in town this month. Although I had to miss Bassekou Kouyate at Duke this Friday, I did this preview for dP's blog The Thread.

I did get a chance to see most of the Mau a Malawi: Stories of AIDS project at UNC that same evening. What a dedicated group of musicians, student actors, and volunteers. To mention only some is to slight all, but the vocalists in particular are so wonderful; I'm now a huge Lizzy Ross fan. To read more about the Mau a Malawi concept album, see my Indy story about it here. To visit the Stories of AIDS webpage, go here, where you can download the album for a donation to the arts-based charity Talents of the Malawian Child. It's for a good cause, yes; but just as importantly, it's great original music that deserves to be widely heard.

As a preview to that evening, Peter Mawanga, the Malawian co-producer of Mau of Malawi, gave a sweet, free show at The Station on Wednesday prior. Some of the guys from Kairaba backed him up, as well as others from the show. I got to get a good look and listen to Peter's "Jozi," his custom-made South African guitar. He and Mau a Malawi collaborator Andrew Finn Magill are still actively songwriting, and they played one song that they had written only 2 days before, dedicated to "those women who go through so much," in Peter's words, "before being forced to sell their bodies on the streets in a country that is ravaged by HIV and AIDS. This song is for those ladies." How rare and moving it was to hear a man speak about sex workers with such compassion; I felt like I was understanding the song, although the lyrics were in Chichewa. That IS the univeral power of music to communicate beyond language, a gift Peter has in great measure.

Kairaba played an opening set, intense as usual; one hears them growing in confidence, as they are about to head into the studio this week to record a first album. Kairaba's spiritual head, Diali Cissokho, always wins a crowd. His euphoric moment in the show this time came when he (somehow) balanced his kora upside down, and still managed to played it. I didn't have the stamina to take in Kairaba and Toubab Krewe out at Shakori Hills last weekend, but from what I hear, Diali did a surprise, walk-on vocal with one of Toubab Krewe's songs--the instrumental just happened to be a song he knew from Senegal. I wish I could have been there to see THAT. Lesson learned--always expect the unexpected from this charismatic griot of Carrboro.

The African music streak ain't over. Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo hits UNC's Memorial Hall this Sunday (10/16). Here's my Indy pick writeup about her. I saw Kidjo a few years back, touring with Santana at Walnut Creek. The global pop diva still commands respect as a strong voice from, and for, Africa. I was really stunned by this bare, unplugged duo performance that shows just how strong that voice is:



LINK:

Angelique Kidjo @ UNC Memorial Hall, Sunday (10/16) at 7: 30 pm; tickets $10 (student) to $39 price range.

MORE INFORMATION ON AFRICAN MUSIC:

Listen to Bonjour Africa, Sundays 4-6 PM on WNCU 90.7 FM with host Bouna Ndiaye

Kairaba @ Haw River Ballroom (9/14)

Kairaba's September 14 show at Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw was a benefit for women's farm coops in the Central African Republic. If you're looking for backstory, my feature about Diali Cissokho & Kairaba appeared in the Indy recently.


Diali Cissokho and Austin McCall



It was a great show and event, with other presentations by artists and community organizers. This was one of my favorite moments, when Diali and John Westmoreland exchanged musical dialogue between the kora and guitar:




Jonathan Henderson and Will Ridenour

Here's a montage of two more song clips from the concert:



It's great to see this band continue to thrive, I can't even keep up with all their gigs lately. Good news: they plan to visit Diali's home in Senegal and play some shows there in December.

Kairaba @ Talullas; World Beat Fest TONIGHT (5/27)

Diali Cissokho & Kairaba @ Shakori Hills in April

The sensation I am recommending to everyone these days is Kairaba, a newly formed African band from the 'boros--Pittsboro, Carrboro, and Mbouror, Senegal. Diali Keba Cissokho is the griot to watch on the local music scene, having assembled a soulful trailblazer in Kairaba.

Kora, vocal, electric guitar, bass, drumset, djembe, dun dun and talking drum form the basis of this experimental sextet, whose members include Diali's nephew Sidya Cissokho, Midtown Dickens' Jonathan Henderson, jazz guitarist John Westmoreland, and longtime students of African rhythm Austin McCall and Will Ridenour.

The band name means "peace and love," a powerful, one-word concept in Manding. Will dissected it grammatically for me Thursday night:

Kaira = peace
-ba = a suffix meaning "big, great," therefore,
Kairaba = the big peace, or "peace to every living thing on earth."

Whoa.

The no-cover show was Kairaba's second at Talulla's, an event slated to repeat itself, for the time being, every other Thursday at 10 pm.

Andrew Magill, a fiddle player and former member of Charanga Carolina, joined the band last night for a few numbers. Here's audio capture of Andrew sitting on the last tune of the evening:



Catch KAIRABA again TONIGHT, Friday (5/27) at The Cat's Cradle's World Beat Fest, opening at 9:15 pm for DIFFERENT DRUM and DUB ADDIS.

Shakori Hills Festival OPENS TODAY

The biannual grassroots fest at Shakori Hills near Pittsboro, NC, gets underway today, running Thursday through Sunday, April 21-24.

FULL SCHEDULE and TICKET INFO: Shakori Hills Website


Diali Cissokho & Kairaba performing at Nightlight in February


The beauty of Shakori is there is music going on on four stages all the time, so there's always something to do. Performers include The Lizzy Ross Band, Mount Moriah, Birds and Arrows, Greg Humphreys, John Howie Jr, Dave McCracken, Pura Fe, Deer Clan Singers, Kooley High, Big Fat Gap, The Travelin' McCourys, Tift Merritt, Midtown Dickens, The Beast and Dark Water Rising. With that wealth of entertainment in mind, here's a targeted selection of my personal picks:

THURSDAY: Cool John Ferguson and Arrested Development this evening. 7:30 - on...

FRIDAY: Umalali, the Garifuna women's collective from Central America. Meadow Stage, 10 pm. Repeats again on SATURDAY.

SATURDAY: Diali Cissokho and Kairaba. My strongest recommendation for a must-see new band on the rise. Led by Pittsboro-resident Cissokho, a Jimi Hendrix of the kora, with his nephew talking drummer Sidya Cissokho, plus an American-style backing band of drumset, congas, bass and electric guitar. The West African harp-lute may be dreamy and poetic solo, but Cissokho uses it to stoke a bluelight basement party in Kairaba, a word which means "love and peace" in Manding. Diali's natural charisma as a vocal performer may come from his centuries-old griot heritage, but he will also put you in mind of Marvin Gaye, James Brown, and other griots of New World soul. Dance Tent, 4:15-5:30.

ALSO SATURDAY: Orquesta GarDel promises special guests and '80s nostalgia during their salsa set at the dance tent, starting just after midnight.

SUNDAY: Shake it all out with zydeco guru Preston Frank in the Dance Tent, 4:15-6:15. An earlier dance with Frank's band happens FRIDAY around 3 pm.

But don't take it from me. Mix and match your own agenda at www.shakorihills.org.

BAMP Fundraiser Tonight (4/16)

The Bonjour Africa Malaria Project annual fundraiser takes place tonight, Saturday (4/16) at the Freelon Group in Durham. $25 admission for the dinner dance and silent auction; proceeds go to purchase mosquito nets to prevent malaria in Senegal.

Can't attend? Make an online donation at the Bonjour Africa website.

The project is spearheaded by WNCU deejay Bouna Ndiaye, host of the weekly African music show "Bonjour Africa," Sundays 4-6 pm on WNCU 90.7 FM-Durham.

BAMP African Dinner Dance Malaria Benefit SATURDAY (4/25)

The most fun you can have while doing good: Bonjour Africa's 6th annual African Dinner Dance to benefit malaria prevention in Africa. Your tax-deductible $30 at the door ($25 in advance) gets you a home-cooked dinner of Senegalese food, music by WNCU deejay Bouna Ndiaye, dance performances by Paso and others, and a silent auction. All proceeds go to purchase and distribute effective malaria interventions through a locally based healthcare network in Linguere, Senegal.

WHAT: Bonjour Africa Malaria Project - African Dinner Dance
WHEN: Saturday (4/25), 7pm - 12 midnight
WHERE: Durham Armory, 220 Foster St, downtown Durham
Cost: $30 door (advance $25) minimum tax-deductible donation

MORE INFO: contact Bouna Ndiaye at bonjourafrica@hotmail.com or (919) 215-4765.

Bouna is the host of WNCU's Bonjour Africa which airs Sundays 4-6 pm.

Here is a great story in the News & Observer last year on the BAMP African Dinner Dance.