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CD Review (Dual CD Review)
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All About Jazz, CD Review (Dual CD Review) >>
Malian Strings: Kora & Guitar
-By Nils Jacobson
Two remarkable albums cultivated in the fecund sonic soil of Bamako showcase different West African syntheses of traditional and modern music. Kora player Toumani Diabaté's Boulevard de l'Indépendance, made with his massive, but light on its feet, Symmetric Orchestra, blends Mande acoustic music with contemporary instruments and approaches. The Kel Tamashek band Tinariwen--compared to Diabaté's lineup a "mere" fourteen players strong--finds its own golden section between the old and the new on Aman Iman, in part through the universal language of raw, driving rhythms. Tinariwen Aman Iman (Water Is Life) World Village 2007 Presumably for marketing purposes, Tinariwen has been labeled a "rock" band, and to some ears the group's music may resemble roots rock in its 4/4 structure, bluesy vibe, guitar-driven instrumentation, and raw vocals. But the term is really a misnomer, if only because the group's music is not based on a backbeat, but rather the all-important "one" of funk, often paired with a secondary emphasis half a beat before the "three." The regular asymmetry of the rhythm, not to mention a rigid, fixed harmonic foundation, take Tinariwen two huge steps away from rock'n'roll into uncharted territory.
Also presumably because the word is more familiar (if only from Volkswagen's SUV marketing campaign), Tinariwen has been labeled a "Touareg" band, even using the term in the liner notes to describe the musicians' origins as desert nomads in and around northeastern Mali. But the word "Touareg" derives from an Arabic term meaning "abandoned by God," and I don't think they adopted that name with any particular relish, especially since the term "Kel Tamashek" is much more descriptive--since it refers to their shared written and spoken language, not the assumption that they're all going to hell.
All that said, Aman Iman packs a powerful, visceral punch, combining the "cry" of the blues with a shuffling, propulsive beat that's driven as much by rhythm guitars as handclaps. The "extended family" of fourteen musicians mentioned in the liner notes is mostly led by the striking, Afro-clad Ibrahim Ag AlHabib, who handles lead vocals and lead guitar duties on seven of the twelve tunes. His singing and playing are muscular, bouncy, and unhesitatingly direct, usually driven by riffs that occasionally pause to launch into the aforementioned "cry," which can be far more piercing than the one-trick pony maneuver that made Carlos Santana famous.
Aman Iman was made close to home in Bamako, Mali, and Justin Adams' production preserves the crisp and raw quality of the music, packing exactly the right (ie. generous) amount of punch the music deserves. The layers of guitar, the interlaced handclaps, and the intermittent ululations all fit together into a coherent, flexible whole--as do the individual songs on the record.
The gentle somberness of "Ikyadarh Dim" ("Look At You") and the closing "Izarharh Tenere" ("Death Is Here"), both featuring Alhabib's faltering vocals with acoustic guitar accompaniment, serves as a tender reminder that the rough-edged energy of most of the record is just one side of Tinariwen's musical outlook. Take a look at the poetic lyrics (printed in the liner notes in Tifinar, the Tamashek alphabet, as well as in transliterated and English versions), and you'll have a much better idea of the stark realities of loneliness, struggle, history and family communicated through the vocals.
This record, a worthy successor to Amassakoul (World Village, 2004) and The Radio Tisdas Sessions (World Village, 2001), somehow floats between trance-like meditation and beat-driven grooves, and it's almost impossible to resist. This could be the real breakthrough of "Touareg rock," at least until people get past the double-misnomer. Awesome stuff. 04/04/07 >> go there
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