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Chico Enterprise Record , Feature >>
By Phil Reser- The Buzz
Saturday's concert at Chico State University's Laxson Auditorium will give audiences a mesmerizing experience, with robed performers mixing ancient African rhythms and traditional vocals with electric guitar riffs.
The Tamashek people of North Africa are a collection of nomad clans, with Berber (Amazight) roots, who make their home in the ever-expanding vastness of the Sahara desert. Forced from their nomadic life, they became fighters in the Touareg insurgency against the Malian government.
It was in the rebel camp that the members of Tinariwen came together while fighting as soldiers and began forming music relating to not only the rebellion but the struggle of their people to be educated, and to provide for themselves and their families.
In a phone interview, guitarist, singer and songwriter, Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, talked about the development of the 25-year-old group, which is coming to town courtesy of Chico Performances.
Alhousseyni introduced electric guitars and bass to Tinariwen's music. He also brought the musical tapes of Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, John Lennon and Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure's bluesy interpretations of Songhai, Tamascheck and other northern Malian folklore into the group.
"People weren't familiar with electric guitar, or with the guitar at all. Our first instruments we made ourselves out of tin cans. And then, somehow, we got hold of acoustic guitars and after that it was a self-taught thing," said Alhousseyni.
Tinariwen's songs of exile crossed the desert via home recordings made on ghetto blasters and by the end of the decade, the band's reputation for political protest had spread to the point where the Malian government outlawed the possession of any of their musical cassettes.
"Tinariwen is a collective of songwriters," Alhousseyni said. "Each of us writes about what concerns us most and then we bring our songs to the group, and take it from there. The main themes are about nostalgia, friendship, loss, homesickness, education, desertification, love ... all kinds of things. It's true that during the '80s, Tinariwen's songs were often very militant, but they have always been very personal, too. It's just that our personal experience at that time was very militant!"
In 1999, when the French world music group Lo'jo visited Mali, they met members of Tinariwen in the Malian capital, Bamako, and invited the group to perform at a huge festival in France. After the concert, Lo'jo ask Tinariwen if they thought it would be possible to have a music festival in the desert. They told Lo'jo yes, and the result was the first Festival in the Desert, which is now five years old and a world music legend unto itself.
During preparation for the first festival, Justin Adams, Robert Plant's guitarist, brought recording gear to a Kidal radio station, Radio Tisdas, and recorded Tinariwen's first international release, "The Radio Tisdas Sessions."
Tinariwen's most recent album, "Amassakoul," was released in 2004 to widespread critical acclaim. Described as "Fela Kuti meets the Velvet Underground," "desert blues" and "the Rolling Stones of the desert," it earned them the BBC Award for World Music in 2005.
Alhousseyni said, "Tinariwen has always been about education. In the Western world, you learn about everything through TV, the radio, newspapers, the Internet. Well, in the desert, until recently, we had none of those things. So music and the songs of Tinariwen have filled the gap. And in a sense, that job is still going on and it has become global. Instead of just trying to raise awareness amongst desert people about their own lives and their own situation, we're trying to raise awareness throughout the world about what's happening in the desert, and what's happening to Tamashek people and their culture. And of course, we want to entertain people, and make them feel good in some way also, which is the social responsibility of all musicians the world over." 04/13/06 >> go there
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