Balimaya – Balimaya (Buda Musique, 2019)
Balimaya is the title of the album from Balimaya, a project that brought together musicians from Europe and West Africa who use percussion as their common ground.
“In the Manding languages of West Africa, Balimaya means “kinship”, “fraternity”.This is the idea that I wanted to express in this CD — of family in the broad sense, of friendship, of solidarity — a “family” brought together around my percussion duo with Ibrahima Diabaté, mixing jembe, dundun and drums. Our collaboration started in 1994 in Bamako and continued in Paris. It enabled us to develop an “anything goes” way of combining playing styles, ranging from the formal structure of traditional ceremonies to the freest improvisation. “
This is a new direction, inspired by my way of playing jazz and improvising. The album Balimaya feeds on Mandinka dance rhythms. They are not reproduced in their original format but, all the same, they remain a source of inspiration to create a music where voices intertwine. Bass, saxophone, vibraphone and marimba join this family in compositions conceived like games, varying grooves, colors, dynamics, opening the way to improvisation“, says Julien André.
The lineup includes Julien André on jembe, drums; Ibrahima Diabaté on dundun, ngoni, tama; Boris Blanchet on saxophones; Vincent Limouzin on vibraphone, marimba; and Felipe Cabrera on bass.
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Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.