Kindred spirits: Ali Farka Touré, Can, Mekons
Show: With Miles Seaton on Friday at the 9:30 club. Show starts at 8 p.m. 202-265-0930. http://www.930.com.
An improbable yet exhilarating mix of the pastoral and the urban, Tinariwen's music layers plaintive melodies atop buzzing, jostling electric guitars. The Mali-based group's fourth album, "Imidiwan: Companions," was recorded in open-air Saharan locations rather than in a studio, and has an earthier style. But rollicking highlights such as "Imazeghen N Adagh" suggest a Chicago blues joint more than they do a desert oasis.
The album opens with male and female voices, unaccompanied and in unison, singing what could be an old British folk tune. Guitars soon enter, but that spare introduction sets the album's mood. Forgoing the embellishments of their previous producer, eclectic British guitarist Justin Adams, frontman Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni and his cohorts achieve a starker, more traditional sound. The musicians don't hesitate, however, to meld that style with springy Jamaican rhythms and jangly American guitar tones.
Tinariwen's members are Tamashek (or Tuareg) nomads who speak an ancient Berber dialect. The Tamashek don't accept national borders and have sometimes been at war with Mali and adjacent countries. That's why the mournful "Tenalle Chegret" proclaims, "I'm ready to die, my rifle and I."
But these days the group's principal weapon is the guitar, and the jubilant sound it makes belongs not to one tribe, but to the world.
-- Mark Jenkins
