Tinariwen, The Radio Tisdas Sessions
World Village (468010); release date: November 12, 2002
“‘The Radio Tisdas Sessions’ has no bluster in it. The songs sound weathered and deliberate, with somber riffs picked on electric guitars and vocals that sound weary but undaunted.”—Jon Pareles, New York Times
Born in a region plagued by exile, war, and drought, Tinariwen (originally Taghreft Tinariwen, or ‘edification of the lands’) became known for vocalizing the political plight of endangered nomads. Although Tinariwen formed in 1982, they remained underground (Mali and Algeria banned the political lyrics) until the group moved to Bamako in 1999. There they drew on a rebel rock sensibility, openly playing their passionate, trance-like Desert Blues. The players are legendary in the desert. Kheddou is said to have received 17 bullet wounds after leading several raids, armed with a guitar on his back and a Kalashnikov in his hands. Once, he was doused in gasoline, owing his life to a faulty lighter. After witnessing his father’s murder by Malian soldiers, a drought forced Ibrahim to join a training camp in Lybia, where Ghadaffi made false promises to help the Tamashek. In between classes about revolution and guerrilla warfare, Ibrahim smoked cigarettes and played music with Hassan and Intayedan (who has since passed away). Upon hearing the music of Marley, Dylan, and Lennon, they discarded traditional instruments in favor of the electric guitar, but they continued the tradition of Assak, the traditional male skills of poetic composition. In a land void of laptops and TVs, cheap cassettes spread hope and resolve. Sick of the suffering caused by armed rebellion, the music of Tinariwen is the new weapon of choice.
Lo’Jo, Au Cabaret Sauvage
World Village (468007); release date: September 10, 2002
After two US releases and extensive worldwide tours, the French troubadour ‘triban’ Lo’Jo is garnering the attention of international audiences. Led by a man compared to a barefoot and be-hatted Serge Gainsbourg, and with a history colored by circus artists, actors, pyrotechnicians, street performers, painters, acrobats, and cabarets, the band has built an inimitable charisma. Although the band started with traditional Western instruments (piano, bassoon, double bass, violin), West African instruments were introduced in the mid-90s. The stew of international styles simmering in Au Cabaret Sauvage represents a musical junction, where instruments such as the balafon (West African ancestor of the xylophone), imzad (a one-stringed fiddle from the Sahara), kété (a Jamaican drum), and orgue à soufflet (Indian harmonium) stand like signposts, pointing toward Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, North African, West African, English, Gypsy, Caribbean, and French influences. Combined with performances in politically charged landscapes and collaborations with Tinariwen (track 10, Le Japonnais’ Poem, features members of both groups), Lo’Jo’s lyrics continue the universal poetic traditions of the French chanson. Writer Andy Morgan believes the lyrics dive into “who we are, how we came to be and what we lost and found along the way. The big issues, ancestry, identity, brotherhood, nature and creation are just like birdsong on [Péan’s] lips, full of colour and enchantment.”
Justin Adams, Desert Road
World Village (468009); release date: July 9, 2002
“One of the two or three best guitarists in the country, he's made an album which combines the best qualities of J.J.Cale and Ali Farka Toure.” —Charlie Gillett, BBC
Called “Britain’s answer to Ry Cooder,” Justin Adams is one the UK's most original guitarists, lending his talents to such artists as Jah Wobble, Sinead O’Connor, Peter Gabriel, and Brian Eno. A restless musical traveler, Adams’ acclaimed solo debut creates a dub-wise atmospheric soundscape filled with swaying grooves and parched tones that invoke desert landscapes, Arizona or Sahara—an ancient/contemporary Moorish blues with echoes of the call to prayer and African trance. Adams bought a n’goni, a three-stringed African lute, in the capitol of Bamako. This n’goni inspired the creation of Desert Road. Its sound, which reminds Adams of legendary acoustic blues musicians, supports him as he sings of hardship and despair. Its dry, hungry tone beams images of golden sand dunes, wind-blown trails into the listener’s mind. Adams takes a break from his worldwide tour as a member of Robert Plant’s band The Strange Sensations, to make his US debut playing his own material at Joe’s Pub (NYC) on September 24, joined by master percussionist Salah Dawson Miller. In addition to recording this album in his bedroom studio, Adams has produced albums for Tinariwen and Lo’Jo.
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Electric Guitars, Camels, and the World's Stage in the ...
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