African Legends Now, Then and Now

 

I must admit I’m not fully up on all the latest emerging musical artists out of Africa. I can, however, call your attention to the most recent goings-on regarding three who’ve been at it for a long time, although one of the three has a new release that’s also, well, old.

Tony Allen, Africa’s best drumset player, was the main force that propelled Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat when it was at its peak. He’s done some very fine work under his own name as well, both in the polyrhythmic Afrobeat style and more experimental, minimalist fare. Film of Life (Jazz Village/Harmonia Mundi, 2014) offers both, lacing movers like the relentlessly funky “Afro Kungfu Beat” and “Koko Dance” with chilled modern textures high up in the mix and leaving others, including the self-referential opener “Moving On” to simmer with less assistance.

 

 

Allen has clearly listened to and gleaned from jazz fusion, dub, hip hop and other genres not as easy to peg, and he applies his perpetually percolating drums to the task of always keeping things organic at the core. Those enamored with more traditional Afrobeat will delight in such horn-sweetened tracks as “Ire Omo,” while anyone who appreciates a good groove that’s at once primal and contemporary is going to find even more to dig. An equally invigorating and mind-bending sample of the many sides of Tony Allen, Film of Life is monstrously magnificent.

 

 

He’s famous worldwide nowadays, but back in 1987 Senegal’s Youssou N’Dour was only beginning to become known outside West Africa. Many a live audience got their first real taste of him as Peter Gabriel’s opening act that year, and quickly understood why Gabriel had become a fan of N’Dour’s music and included his wailing Wolof vocals on the hit “In Your Eyes.” Fatteliku- Live in Athens 1987 (Real World, 2015) captures the young N’Dour in the act of starting to fuse the crackling, percussion-driven Senegalese m’balax style with Latin, funk and jazz elements to create an addictive, danceable mashup.

 

 

Accompanied by his Super Etoile de Dakar band, N’Dour tears through a skintight set of tunes that includes early gems like “Immigres” and “Nelson Mandela” and concludes with him joining Gabriel for the latter’s lengthy, stunning “In Your Eyes” encore (which I’m pretty sure is the only song from this recording that’s been previously heard and seen). N’Dour’s voice soars like a griot, a muezzin and an African soul singer rolled into one, the sound is as clean as a studio album, the audience is clearly appreciative, the musicians are spot on and this gem of African music history couldn’t come more highly recommended.

 

 

It’s a bit of a shame that the album reuniting Salif Keita with Les Ambassadeurs is only a four-song EP that runs roughly 20 minutes. But only a bit, because, oh my, what a glorious 20 minutes it is. Along with the Rail Band (with which Keita also sang for a time), Les Ambassadeurs defined post-independence Malian music. On Rebirth (World Village, 2015), everything that made them great remains intact, including the chiming guitars, the modernized rhythms and melodies that still bear the mark of tradition, the Afro-Cuban and soul overtones and the pure celebratory joy of Mali’s musical golden age.

 

 

Keita’s voice has lost none of its spine-tingling suppleness, and he’s ably backed by players that include Ambassadeurs vets like guitarist Ousmane Kouyate and keyboard player Idrissa Soumaoro (who also contributes mighty vocals of his own) and a horn section borrowed from the U.K.’s Soothsayers. The music is superb, and all proceeds from the sale of the disc will help fund the Salif Nantenin Keita Foundation, an organization that assists those who (like Salif and his Paralympic athlete daughter) were born with albinism.

Purchase the albums; Film of Life, Fatteliku – Live In Athens 1987, Rebirth