I still haven't got my next part of my 100 Aussie albums yet, this is going take a lot longer that I was thinking. Anyway, I think I'll post this now. So this is the Toumani Diabaté debut album and I found this kind-of review a long time ago, it was for when Matt Groening curated ATP festivals which is The Drones' record label and this can be filed under all my other posts about Gareth Liddiard and The Drones but it's more about well,Toumani Diabaté so I'll let Gaz do the talking because he's better at it than me:
So the above photo is Toumani Diabaté with his Kora but I'm not to sure who took this photo so I can't give credit, which I like to do on my blog. The only other things I'd like to include are few details about the recording which Liddiard didn't talk about, if you buy the CD you'll read this yourself but if you just downloaded it you wouldn't be able to read the back and I did Google like Gaz said so here is a few bit and pieces I now know:
This recording was made entirely live and unaccompanied by Toumani Diabate. There is no double tracking and there is no accompaniment by another Kora. Recorded in October 1987, Firehouse Studio, London and was recorded all in one afternoon. Co-produced by Lucy Durán who's a curator at the National Sound Archive, is now a lecturer in African music, BBC's world music programme "World Routes" and Joe Boyd who's other work has been on the debut single from Pink Floyd called Arnold Layne, all three of Nick Drake's albums, a few other classic albums like Vashti Bunyan's Just Another Diamond Day, R.E.M.'s Fables Of The Reconstruction, Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights plus so much more than I can list here. The album Cover design (which is at the top of the page) derived from Mandkinka cotton robe "Liberia" courtesy of the Museum of Mankind. There are only five songs but they are very long. The whole album is about forty minutes long and it's all instrumental, he's not a singer just a kora player.
One last thing on Gareth Liddiard's solo myspace page he lists Margaret Thatcher as Kora player and as the only other band member. It also says, sounds exactly like the Drones, but less of them and his influences as who cares - well, I do and of course Margaret Thatcher did not play kora on his solo album but my guess is this album by Toumani Diabaté was a huge influence on Strange Tourist, his solo album. So here's a little video clip of him I found on vimeo if you wanted a little more.
1. Alla L'aa Ke (7:16)
2. Jarabi (5:06)
3. Kaira (8:09)
4. Konkoba (10:27)
5. Tubaka (9:33)
I really have to get back to my favorite 100 Aussie albums next or it's never going to get done.
Gareth Liddiard on Toumani Diabaté:
Toumani Diabaté is a, and probably the, master of the Kora. The kora has 21 strings, it's very old and it's very difficult to describe. (Google it. Or Bing it. Don't know what Bing is? Google it.) The sound Toumani makes is one of the most beautiful and moving on God's green earth. It really is extraordinary. His first record Kaira was made in the late '80s when he was about 23 and it's one of my personal all time favorite records (along with "Raw Power", oddly enough. Yay to Matt G and ATP.). Toumani's about the 73rd generation of kora player in his family, which is insane. What are you the 73rd generation of that doesn't somehow involve eating or drinking yourself into an early grave? But, he is the first of his ilk to be influenced by folks like Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. This I find really interesting considering that when West African slaves were brought to what is now the centre (not!!! center) of the West they surely left their instruments behind. And you can bet that after being robbed of anything like spare time these new slaves soon forgot the finer points of their musicianship (from the supreme dexterity that comes from playing all day to the studied Moorish overtones that come from living in the African North West). Yet they evidently never lost their love for stringed instruments of the portable, neck bolted onto a hollow wooden body variety. And a direct consequence of that is the existence of folks like Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. It wasn't George Washington who invented playing the fuck out of a guitar and therefore invented most of the West's 20th century popular culture. It was in all probability Toumani's great great great granddad. Toumani's music, although it has modern elements, must somehow be close to what African music was before Colonialism dragged it away, beat it up and dumbed it down into the original, pre Robert Johnson style blues. Thus!!!!!!!!! Toumani's music can give anyone interested a new perspective of where and how things sit in a historical and cultural sense. But most importantly, it will blow your mind.
So the above photo is Toumani Diabaté with his Kora but I'm not to sure who took this photo so I can't give credit, which I like to do on my blog. The only other things I'd like to include are few details about the recording which Liddiard didn't talk about, if you buy the CD you'll read this yourself but if you just downloaded it you wouldn't be able to read the back and I did Google like Gaz said so here is a few bit and pieces I now know:This recording was made entirely live and unaccompanied by Toumani Diabate. There is no double tracking and there is no accompaniment by another Kora. Recorded in October 1987, Firehouse Studio, London and was recorded all in one afternoon. Co-produced by Lucy Durán who's a curator at the National Sound Archive, is now a lecturer in African music, BBC's world music programme "World Routes" and Joe Boyd who's other work has been on the debut single from Pink Floyd called Arnold Layne, all three of Nick Drake's albums, a few other classic albums like Vashti Bunyan's Just Another Diamond Day, R.E.M.'s Fables Of The Reconstruction, Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights plus so much more than I can list here. The album Cover design (which is at the top of the page) derived from Mandkinka cotton robe "Liberia" courtesy of the Museum of Mankind. There are only five songs but they are very long. The whole album is about forty minutes long and it's all instrumental, he's not a singer just a kora player.
One last thing on Gareth Liddiard's solo myspace page he lists Margaret Thatcher as Kora player and as the only other band member. It also says, sounds exactly like the Drones, but less of them and his influences as who cares - well, I do and of course Margaret Thatcher did not play kora on his solo album but my guess is this album by Toumani Diabaté was a huge influence on Strange Tourist, his solo album. So here's a little video clip of him I found on vimeo if you wanted a little more.
TOUMANI DIABATE in series Live At Other Music from Dig For Fire on Vimeo.
Kaira by Toumani Diabaté tracklisting1. Alla L'aa Ke (7:16)
2. Jarabi (5:06)
3. Kaira (8:09)
4. Konkoba (10:27)
5. Tubaka (9:33)
I really have to get back to my favorite 100 Aussie albums next or it's never going to get done.
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