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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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CD Review

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When this CD first arrived in my mailbox, it was already familiar to these ears. I first heard of the now legendary festival in Mali’s Northern Sahara region when I played a similar festival of Nomadic and popular music in Morocco in July. There were several western musicians in attendance (including yours truly), as well as nomadic groups from Mali, Morocco, Niger and Mauritania. Among these were Mali’s Tartit, whose sublime sounds bewitched and entranced all who heard them. Known by outsiders as Toureg and by the people themselves as Kel Tomashek (speakers of Tomashek), they represent both the modern and the ancient. Though Islamic, they have their own written language and roamed the Sahara centuries before the birth of Prophet Mohammed. Their nomadic paths now amplified by the jet-airplanes, they travel the world to spread their message, their history and timeless culture. The Tomashek of the small settlement if Essakane hosted the event, which could only be reached by 4x4 or camel through an ocean of Saharan sand.

            While in Morocco, I made the acquaintance of Manny Ansar, the Tomashek manager of Tartit and the festivals organizer, who invited me to attend. I had heard of the festival before from the traditional Navajo (dine)/punk rock group Blackfire, with whom I had the pleasure of performing at Nashville’s Ryman auditorium several months earlier. Still, the festival seemed more far-away dream, a magical moment preserved only in hearsay and memory. So when I first heard of the CD, it was a long time coming.

            The handsome packaging and the informative liner notes are a perfect compliments to the excellent sound. Recorded live, on 24 tracks in the dessert, this disc offers a clear window into the sound both alien and familiar. Along with better-known exponents of Toureg and Malian music such as Ali Farka Toure, Afel Boccoum, Oumou Sangare, and Tartit, there are Frances Lo’Jo and the U.K’s Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin fame. This was a truly an international even with a Tomashek flavor. Indeed, each selection fits seamlessly into the whole, what the liner notes call a “mass celebration of blue notes.” If the desert could sing it would sound like this.

            There are many beautiful moments: the haunting voices and the drums of Tartit, the rhythms and guitar virtuosity of Ali Farka Toure’s erstwhile protégé Afel Bocoum, and the cosmic sounds of Mauritania’s master guitarist Sedoum Ehl Aida. Mali’s Tinariwen represent the haunting melodies and unique guitar styles that Tomashek music is known for. The other Tomashek groups, Kel Tin Lokiene, Igbayen, Tidawt, and Tinde, give a generous sampling of the wide world of Tomashek sounds. There is also Aicha Bint Chigaly from Mauritania whose music bears a striking resemblance to the Tomashek styles. Beautiful minor intervals and pentatonic scales abound.

            Perhaps the most remarkable selections are the collaborations between the various non-African participants and African musicians. Italian composer and virtuoso pianist Ludovico Einaudi and Malian kora-player Ballake Sissoko serves up a bluesy, yet sparse, homage to the desert and its camels. The Malian-French fusion of Lo’Jo and Djano demonstrate that harmony I possible between distant cultures. Of the two groups with no African connection, Blackfire melded their traditional chants with a modern punk –rock guitar ethos that had the turbaned Tomashek youth rocking right along with them. Robert Plants rootsey contribution displays an effortless fusion of hard rock, blues, and African intervals. This superstar rocker fits in well with this pan-Tomashek party in the desert. It seems that everyone was infected by the sun, sand and stars of the Malian Sahara. How fortunate we are to have a document of the event


Cory Harris

 01/01/04
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