Fra Fra Sound in collaboration with:
Djibril Camara (Mali), Keletigui Diabaté (Mali), Toumani Diabaté (Mali), Thomas Dyani (Nigeria/South Africa), Graham Haynes (USA), Vieux Kanté (Mali), Basekou Kouyaté (Mali), Lansiné Kouyaté (Mali), Daniel Moreno (USA), Cheick Tidiane seck (Mali).
With ‘Mali Jazz’, a tribute to Malian music, Vincent Henar, bandleader of Fra Fra Sound, divulges a secret.
Through a cross-fertilization of African, Arabic, European and American influences, Mali has become one of the leading centers of the West African music culture. Particularly Bamako, the capital of Mali, boasts great improvisers who can give voice to long musical stories, based on sparse material and pentatonic melodies of four to five notes. Here the music is not dominated by percussion, but by vocals and melodic instruments such as the violin, kora, kamale n’goni (youth’s harp) and the n’goni lute. Hence it is no surprise that famous vocalists and musicians like Salif Keita, Habib Koité, Oumou Sangaré and Ali Farka Touré are residing here.
Fra Fra Sound’s 1997 tour of West Africa led among other towns to Bamako. After the break of this first concert in Mali, three distinguished instrumentalists - kora player Toumani Diabaté, n’goni player Basekou Kouyaté and Keletigui Diabaté playing the xylophone or balafon - spontaneously joined in. Without a moment’s thought, jazz and Mali, innovation and tradition, modern western an traditional African instruments were soon communicating with one another.
This memorable concert resulted in several joint performances, close friendships and the ‘Mali Jazz’ project: a cd with intriguing imprivisations, spiritually dynamic vocals and a universal kind of swing. Further participants in this project are the three Malian musicians Djibril Camara, Cheikh Tidiane Seck and Lansiné Kouyaté, Graham Haynes an Daniel Moreno from the New York jazz scene, and Thomas Dyani from London.
Ever since the past century African music had had a clear influence on music from Latin America, the Caribbean and the USA. An influence which is not purely of a rhythmic nature. For, the roots of blues, r&b, jazz, calypso, rumba, samba, salsa, soul, fusion, hip hop and drum ‘n bass, also known as jungle, are in West Africa.
The basic power of African music is inherent in the fact that it never loses its specific expressiveness, even when mixed with and influenced by other musical styles. Obviously, Fra Fra Sound has duly realized this, hearing the respectful way in which the orchestra’s jazzy approach supports and gives ample room for improvisations to phenomenal soloists kora player Toumani Diabaté and my great favorite Vieux Kanté, the young blind star who draws endless series of exuberant flageolet tones from his 8-stringed kamele n’goni. Check this out!
Frits Lagerwerff
credits
released June 1, 1999
Fra Fra Sound
Andro Biswane - guitar, except on 6 and 9
Guno Kramer - druns on 1, 2 and 4
Gregory Kranenburg - drums on 3, 7 and 8
Vincent Henar - bass, except on 3, 5, 6 and 9
Mark Milan - piano, keyboards, except on 5, 6 and 9
Efraïm Trujillo - tenor saxophone, except on 3, 5, 6 and 9
Michael Simon - trumpet, except on 3, 5, 6 and 9
Carlo Ulrichi - percussion on 2 and 4
Djibril Camara - bass on 3
Keletigui Diabaté - balafon on 3, 7 and 8
Toumani Diabatè - kora on 3, 7 and 8
Thomas ‘Akuru’ Dyani - percussion on 3, 7, 8
Graham Haynes - cornet on 3, 7 and 8
Moussa ‘Vieux’ Kanté - kamele n’goni on 1, 2, 5 and 6
Basekou Kouyaté - n’goni on 3, 7 and 8
Lansiné. ‘Lasana’ Kouyaté - balafon on 4, 5 and 9
Daniel Moreno - percussion on 3, 7 and 8
Cheick Tidiane Seck - keyboards, percussion, vocals on 4
Arrangements
A. Biswane - Reminiscence Of Bamako, Kanté No Kanto, Sosomali
E. Trujillo - Worship Mother Earth, Ste Story of Salia, Da Monzon
Ch. T. Seck - Da Monzon
Produced by Vincent Henar and Fra Fra Sound
Recorded at Studio Wanda in Bamako, Mali, Friends Recording Studio and Studio Le Roy in Amsterdam, Holland.
Engineer Chris Weeda. Mixed, mastered and edited at Studio Le Roy, Amsterdam.
Design: Leugenachtig Lekker
Photo inlay: Guus Dubbelman
This cd was made with financial support of th cultural cooparation treaty between Mali and The Netherlands.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Salif Keita, Carréfour Des Jeunes - Bamako, Khalil ‘Baifall’ Seck, Habib Koité & Bamada, Mamadou Konte & C. C. Tringa Dakar, Etienne Compaoré & Benda Band, Alex Dayo & Hountey, Farafina & Coulibaly, Djeuf Djeul, Oumou Sangaré, Willem Gompert, Fons Stoelinga, Hinke Nauta, To Tjoelker, Ariane Vellema, Hein Princen, Derk & Wilma v.d. Poel, Chafia Pancreach, The Embassies of the Netherlands in Ouagadougou, Bamako, Dakar, Accra, Abidjan, Herbert Friese & Simone Amagashi, Dick de Graaf, Hans Task, Fonds voor de Podiumkunsten.
Special thanks to all the musicians who have participated in this project for their time, effort, encouragement, inspiration and involvement.
