These two songs feature Malian artists, which I wanted to highlight, as there seems to be less amazing music coming from West Africa these last few years.. or maybe it’s that the excitement that comes with discovery has waned and interest has shifted to lesser known shores (lots of new and interesting projects coming from Ethiopia for example). And then African music in general has become more mainstream with US/European – African collaborative projects appearing all over the place.
This first song is from a recently released collaborative album, The Tel Aviv Session by pianist and composer Idan Raichel, who works with the multiplicity of musical traditions that exist in Israel today, and Vieux Farka Toure, Malian guitarist and son of the late, pioneering Malian blues guitarist Ali Farka Toure. The beautiful singer on this song is Cabra Casal, an Ethiopian living in Israel who allegedly wants to sing more R&B and pop (not traditional Ethiopian). This album was released by Cumbancha records, a great indie world music label.
The second song is by the rising star Fatoumata Diawara from Mali. She is definitely the most exciting female vocalists that I know of from Mali since Rokia Traore, and has already worked with a huge roster of international stars. Unusually, she also writes her own songs. Her album Fatou, is rooted in the traditional South Malian Wassalou style with more contemporary influences, and was also released this year on World Circuit Records.
