Serious world grooves
By Beth Peerless
The excited talk flying around about this band of Tuareg rebels called Tinariwen is getting me all jack-o-'lanterned up for Halloween night Sunday.

Mystical figures in robes and turbans outfitted with Fender Strats, hallowed eyes of the ages peering from between the cloth that envelops their faces, and music that speaks of their disenchantment with life as nomads in the Saharan desert following drought and rebellion in their Mali homeland.

Rolling Stone magazine reviews their new album "Amassakoul," and holds thug rappers up to the light to compare gunshot wounds.

"Members of the group fought in a civil war that wracked Mali in the 1980s and 1990s; singer-guitarist Ibrahim Ag Alhabib has 19 bullet wounds as souvenirs (that's 10 more than 50 Cent)."

The seven-person group (six men, one woman) rock and rap, but in a Malian way, and deliver traditional desert-inspired trance music rolled into a sparse, basic blues arrangement that effectively hits home, no matter where you call home.

The now-famous Festival in the Desert, where ex-Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant journeyed 30 hours through the desert in a jeep to arrive at last year, was co-founded by this seriously grooving band that Rolling Stone further describes as such:

"On 'Amassakoul,' their second worldwide release, Tinariwen capture the poetry and hardships of nomadic life and exile in hypnotic, modal vocals and a tangle of sidewinding riffs that sound like a mirage come true: Keith Richards, Ry Cooder, and Ali Farka Toure picking side by side under an unforgiving sun."

Besides the phalanx of Strats, five all told I've heard, but used sensibly as only a Tuareg can, there is the ancient sound of wooden flute, hand-clapping and simple percussion instruments.

Also, the mesmerizing tone of contemporary Malian voices tinged with sadness and longing for a life that no longer exists for the nomadic tribes of the Saharan desert.

This is a unique and very hip way to spend Halloween. Costumes are encouraged and there will be great prizes awarded, according to promoter Maya Barsaq of Zook Beat.

All ages are welcome for the 8 p.m. show at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center. Tickets are $17 advance, $21 at the door.  Once the word gets out, it's easy to imagine this concert to be a sell-out.