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Sample Track 1:
"Robert Plant & Justin Adams - Win My Train Fare Back Home" from Festival in the Desert
Sample Track 2:
"Takamba Super Onze - Super 11" from Festival in the Desert
Sample Track 3:
"Ali Farka Toure - Karaw" from Festival in the Desert
Sample Track 4:
"Oumou Sangare - Wayena" from Festival in the Desert
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Festival in the Desert
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The sound of unity in the Saharan desert

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LA Times, The sound of unity in the Saharan desert >>

By Don Heckman
Special to The Times

October 12 2003

World music doesn't get much more worldly than this: a festival in the southern Sahara, 50 miles northeast of Timbuktu. Reachable only by camel or four-wheel drive vehicle, just such a three-day event took place this year in an area that has seen generations of conflict between the nomadic and the sedentary communities of the Sahara.

In the mid-'90s, the "Flame of Peace" program initiated a reconciliation between these various groups via a symbolic burning of weapons. Linking that quest for peace with the traditional gatherings of the nomadic Tamashek (also known as Tuareg) people, the eventual result was "Festival in the Desert" — a remarkable gathering where hostilities are set aside in favor of jam sessions and camel races.

The recording of this remarkable program, "Festival in the Desert 2003" (World Village), focuses on the internationally known figures who made the trek to a site that had little more than tents and temporary performance platforms: Mali's Oumou Sangaré and Ali Farka Touré, France's Lo'Jo and, amazingly, Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant.

Their performances ring with a spirit and enthusiasm not always evident in their day-to-day efforts. No wonder that Plant — after singing a gutsy, entirely believable rendering of "Win My Train Fare Home" — described the festival as "one of the few honest things I have been a part of for a long, long time."

But the music is revelatory on a much broader basis as well. There are the remarkable chanting, drumming performances of ensembles such as Tartit (established in the Tamashek refugee camps) and Kel Tin Lokiene. There is the pervasive presence of the electric guitar, transformed by Adama Yalomba, Sedoum Ehl Aida and Baba Salah into an authentic African voice.

Perhaps most fascinating of all, there is the almost subliminal presence of roots American blues qualities, even in the most traditional ensembles — a manifestation of continuing musical cross-pollination.
 10/12/03
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