African Tuesday: Something New From the Aretha of Africa
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I'm trying to remember when I saw Oumou Sangare at SOBs in New York. Mid-Eighties? My friend Robin said, "She's gotta be the Aretha of Africa." I am usually a little annoyed by those (person) of (placename) comparisons, but there may have been some justice in that one. She commanded a stage like few I've ever witnessed. And she sure didn't need that microphone. Of all the great Malian singers (for incontrovertible proof of this, seek out a CD called "The Wassoulou Sound" that came out on Stern's Records a while back), she is the standard bearer, with the rich, direct, piercing, authoritative tone of royalty.
I must confess to not having everything in her discography - especially in recent years, the big names in African music have put out some dismayingly generic, Westerner-friendly, proto-light jazz stuff that sometimes seems like the sonic equivalent of a tourist trap. When Mrs. Ivylander brought back the latest issue of The Word magazine from her business trip to London, and the cover mount CD sampler had an Oumou Sangare cut from her new opus on it, I was...suspicious. After 30 seconds or so, the jury was still out - I still have my doubts about that drummer. But then the background singers and the cross-rhythms and the deceptively not-entirely-simple song structure and that voice all fully took hold. Sold.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (9)
Dunno what it is about African music, but everything I hear grabs me.
What capndad said. This slides down the ears nice and smooth and ends way too soon. Wouldn't you like to hear her standing in a club in Bamako?
capndad - There is some African dreck out there, but the ratio of good stuff to dross is remarkably high....
Jonh - A club in Bamako, or that Malian music festival in Essakane that is one of the three or four things I really have to do before I die....
More sweetness from the continent. Well-picked, as usual, ivy.
Thanks, Mike. I was looking for a shoe song, but I don't know the Wasulu term for "penny loafer."
All the pieces were perfectly in place for this strong sweet song. Besotted.
Spike, if you loved this record, you really must see her live....
If you hear that she is touring the USA, please let me know.
She has come over fairly regularly. She's in Europe during April and May...