KHAIRA ARBY
TIMBUKTU TARAB (Clermont Music)

The glittering lure of Tombouctou has faded, with tales of Al Quaeda-in-the-dunes kidnapping Western tourists, so we are back to listening to the music and doing some armchair travel, rather than planning to brave sandstorms and spitting camels to get there. Khaira Arby is a traditional Songhai and Berber praise singer from Mali, untouched by the Western ideas that pushed her compatriots Issa Bagayogo and Rokia Traore into the international spotlight. She sings about people, the anguish of women, religious festivals. The Duchess finds it high-pitched and complaining, but when you are relating tales of female excision or exhausted workers returning from the salt mines, it's hard to be light and airy. Arby has surrounded herself with a band of three rock guitars in addition to fiddle and ngoni. Even the calabash is backed by a western drumkit, so the album has drive, to say the least, and it will be demonstrated in person as she is backing her words with actions on a North American tour, hoping to become as familiar (& popular) as Salif Keita, Toumani Diabaté, Vieux Farka Touré, or Tinariwen to the American concert audience. However, it does seem as though she is trying to cram Ali Farka AND Oumou Sangare into the same package. The power rock may be necessary to get attention, but it is the traditional aspect of her music that appeals to me, when its the njarka and backing female chorus trading licks against her strong vocals, with handclaps and calabash creating the rhythm. She moves back and forth between the more traditional praise songs and the rock-inspired outings that should appeal to a broad spectrum of listeners.