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CD Review
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New York Times, CD Review >>
People seeking the birthplace of the blues have
lately been heading for Mali, where the modal vamps of
traditional songs remind American listeners of John Lee
Hooker's one-chord blues boogies. But to my ear Malian
music is still removed from the blues. The fingerpicking
cross-rhythms are there, but music that was originally
plucked on kora (harp) and tapped on balafon (marimba)
doesn't have the bent notes - the blue notes - of American
blues, and West African lyrics tend to speak for a
community's conscience rather than individual travails. So
don't listen to "Foly!" (World Village), the live album by
Habib Koité and his band Bamada, for blues connections.
Enjoy it instead for Mr. Koité's kindly, heartfelt singing,
for the weightless patterns he shares with the band, for an
easy cosmopolitanism that touches on rumba and rapping, and
for songs that are free of studio gimmickry and time
limits. The longer they go, the more mesmerizing they get.
01/11/04
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