Habib Koité and Bamada, Afriki (Cumbancha, 2007)

Malian singer/guitarist Habib Koité is one of the most respected performers of Western African music. Together with his backing band Bamada, Koité has earned his reputation by combining superior musicianship with a strong sense of melody. While Koité and Bamada have built and maintained a sizable international following over the last few years with steady touring, Afriki is actually their first album in six years.

The best and worst thing that can be said of Afriki is that it's pretty much exactly what anybody familiar with Koité's music would expect it to be. Koité churns out his usual assortment of mellow guitar grooves, set to the traditional rhythms of his homeland. Yes it's a bit predictable, but Koité's playing remains superb, and the music is generally quite pleasant. The one track which deviates from Koité's basic formula is called "Nta Dima," in which Koité takes the concept of a horn section quite literally -- the "horns" used in the song are antelope horns. Their tone doesn't quite match the tone of the guitar, resulting in a slight dissonance that's a bit jarring at first, but after a few listens it became the most compelling track on the album for me.

Fans of Habib Koité and Bamada will find plenty to their liking on Afriki, which ably reinforces Koité's status as an elite guitarist and a solid all-around performer. People who like laid-back guitar music do not need to have a particular affinity for African music to enjoy the quality of this recording as well.

Overall grade: B+

reviewed by Scott

Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars, Living Like A Refugee (Anti-, 2006)

So much music and art has been created by people facing some sort of adversity, and Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars have faced far more than their fair share. Driven out of their country by a brutal civil war, the members of this band found each other among the refugee camps in neighboring Guinea. At first they played together simply because they could, but the musical collaboration has happily outlasted the civil war and the return of the musicians to their homes.

Living Like A Refugee was recorded mostly in studios back in Sierra Leone, but a few of the tracks come from the camps themselves. Despite their roughness, these recordings have a great feel to them, and songs like "Bull to the Weak" and "Kele Mani" are the highlights of the disc. If anything, the lack of production on these recordings brings the group's strong musicianship, particularly from lead guitarists Ashade Pearce and Geassay Jahson Dowu Bull, into focus. While some of the musical arrangements are West African style, most of Living Like A Refugee is pure reggae. In particular, the Refugee All-Stars have opted for an old school, guitar heavy approach, evoking Bob Marley and The Wailers from the Catch A Fire era.

While Living Like A Refugee suffers from a shortage of exceptional tracks, the album does maintain a cool vibe throughout. Fans of the earlier Marley recordings will find plenty to like here. Sure, Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars have no difficulty getting people's sympathy on account of what they've been through, but this album holds up pretty well to close scrutiny.

Overall grade: B+

reviewed by Scott

Hotel Rwanda (2004)

Hotel Rwanda is a powerful historical drama about the civil war in the titled country back in April of 1994. It stars Don Cheadle, Nick Nolte and Sophie Okonedo.

The plot focuses around Cheadle's character, Paul Rusesabagina. Paul is the manager of the Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali, Rwanda catering to the elite of Rwandan society. A civil war breaks out between the Hutu and the Tutsi groups that ultimately results in 800,000 deaths. In the middle of the chaos, Paul's hotel becomes a refuge for over one thousand. They use the hotel's resources, including the cash in the safe, and the liquor stores to bribe military officials into leaving the refugee camp alone. The UN peacekeeping detachment, ably led by Nolte that plays Colonel Oliver is portrayed as ineffective, and only concerned with evacuating citizens of other nations out of Rwanda. This contributed to the mass genocide that occurred.

Hotel Rwanda is inspirational showing one man's courage and persistence to do some good amidst so much tragedy. It is shot well, and has a good pace. My only criticism is that on the DVD there are no subtitles, and at times the African accents are a little difficult to decipher, so they would have helped. If you haven't rented it yet, it's well worth seeking out.

Overall Grade: A-

Reviewed by Jonas

Dobet Gnahoré, Na Afriki (Cumbancha, 2007)

Dobet Gnahoré grew up in an artist colony in Abidjan, the capital of the Ivory Coast. Colin Laroche de Féline was a sixteen-year-old French kid with just a guitar and a backpack when he showed up at the colony in 1996. He and Gnahoré quickly began a musical and romantic partnership that continues today. Although the album Na Afriki is credited specifically to the singer Gnahoré, de Féline co-wrote all the songs and plays guitar on most of them.

The music on Na Afriki covers a fairly broad range of styles, from soft, simple ballads to heavily percussive dance numbers. Gnahoré's deeply emotional voice is flexible enough to handle the different volumes and tempos. She sings in a number of different West African languages and addresses a lot of issues plaguing the African continent today, from war and poverty to incest and polygamy. De Féline's playing clearly owes a debt to the Malian guitarists like Habib Koité and Ali Farka Touré, but he can hold his own in that esteemed company.

The quieter songs worked best for me on the whole, most notably the ballad "Issa." I think I would have preferred a bit more of an edge on at least a few of these tracks, though. I got the overwhelming sense that Gnahoré, de Féline, and their backing band could have cut loose more than they did. Still, Na Afriki is a creditable effort from a very talented young performer who has a lot of good things to say and seems fully capable of taking her music to a higher level in the future.

Overall grade: B

reviewed by Scott

The Last King of Scotland (2006)

If one were to come up with a title for a film that deals with Africa, The Last King of Scotland would seem a quite unlikely choice. After all, Scotland is more than a stone throws away from the dark continent. However, this is not your typical African genre movie.


The film opens with Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), who recently graduated from medical school, being congratulated by his father that he was joining the family medical practice. The scene is priceless, as most sons don't want to do what their father did (most anything but), and the young doctor promptly heads up to his room, spins the globe, and puts his finger down for a destination so far away that he won't be joining his father's practice anytime soon. (While this all seems quite crazy, I can tell you that there was one guy in my medical school class that when he graduated, at the "not so young age to graduate medical school" of forty-six, he decided to run off to Africa and was never heard from again. Then again, he lived in a Volkswagen camper for four years with solar cells on the roof for power, so he was hardly an ordinary guy. I won't mention the TMNT outfit he wore to class one Halloween...)

Getting back to the film at hand, Garrigan next ends up in a missionary medical clinic in Uganda. Clearly the need is great, and there seems to be no limit to the good he can do among this extremely underserved population. He works there with another missionary couple, and the natives come from miles around. Things seem content, and this does keep him from joining his father's medical practice. However, one day, a chance encounter with the country's new leader, military dictator Idi Amin Dada (who went by such modest titles as "His Excellency President for Life"), in an academy award performance by Forest Whitaker, causes him to get involved with this corrupt government.

The Last King of Scotland focuses on the young doctor's role within the government, and his relationship with Amin, this ruthless dictator. On the one hand, he wants to be able to help the Ugandans, on a scale, and in ways that he would never be able as a missionary doctor at a rural clinic. However, along the way, he needs to compromise his morals, and does plenty of looking the other way past the regimes policies and politics. This film is a fascinating character study that shows how absolute power leads to absolute corruption.

I seriously enjoyed this film. The panoramic scenes were shot well. It also presents a realistic view of this dictatorship in Uganda, and the downside of these dictators that live in royal opulence, while their citizens don't even have basic services. This film will frustrate you, entertain you, and finally make you think- all at the same time. If you want over two hours of thought provoking drama, all well acted, than The Last King of Scotland is for you.

Overall Grade: A

--Jonas

PS: There's a chest x-ray that's up backwards in one of the hospital scenes; see if you can spot it.

Vieux Farka Touré (World Village, 2006)

Before his untimely passing last year, Malian singer/guitarist Ali Farka Touré was one of the most widely revered musicians on the African continent. Now his son Vieux Farka Touré is carrying the torch, with the release of his self-titled debut CD. Vieux Farka Touré is a promising work from a young performer who certainly appears capable of making his own mark on the music of his homeland.

The nation of Mali has produced its share of fine guitarists. Habib Koité could hold his own trading licks with any other acoustic guitarist on the planet, and Amadou Bagayoko of Amadou & Mariam possesses a mastery of the electric guitar made all the more remarkable by his blindness. In terms of technical proficiency, the younger Touré is not quite a match for those two. However, he makes up for it with a strong sense of rhythm. On songs like the opener "Sangare" and "Ma Hine Cocore," Touré cranks out some grooves that are hard to resist. He gets some high profile help on his debut as well. His father contributed some guitar on a few tracks, in what turned out to be some of his final recordings. Toumani Diabaté, a mentor to Vieux and a virtuoso on the traditional African instrument called the kora, plays on a pair of instrumental duets, of which "Touré de Niafunké" is particularly good.

Certainly fans of Malian guitar music will want to give Vieux Farka Touré a listen. For those who aren't familiar with the style, there are plenty of performers worth checking out -- I've already mentioned Habib Koité and Amadou & Mariam, and of course there's always Vieux's father -- but Vieux Farka Touré has already earned the right to be mentioned in that group, and seems likely to get better from here.

Overall grade: A-

reviewed by Scott

Catch A Fire (2006)

While the obverse of the DVD box suggested this movie was a thriller, this wasn't exactly what it is. Rather, Catch A Fire is a film that tells the story of a South African folk hero who worked against apartheid. However this guy was no peaceful Nelson Mandela; he was a rebel that planned and helped destroy the oil refinery he worked in, albeit with minimal loss of life.

Unfortunately, us Americans don't really know much South African history. Catch A Fire is set in 1980, but we should have started more present day and worked backwards like in the film Ghandi to provide some context. Instead we have a meandering story that is not clear where we are going with things for the majority of it. Compound in several thick accents, and this is the formula for some serious confusion.

Catch A Fire is an unsatisfying glimpse into a far off place, a quarter century ago. While it tries to relate the rebels to our current day terrorists at Guatanamo Bay being wrongly imprisoned, this is too far of a leap, and it doesn't establish relevancy. This film is simply off the mark for American audiences.

Overall Grade: C-

Johnny Clegg, One Life (Marabi, 2006)

The South African singer Johnny Clegg has had a long and storied career, promoting interracialism and multiculturalism at the height of apartheid as the white half of the legendary duo Juluka and as the leader of Johnny Clegg & Savuka. He has continued to perform regularly, for a stretch as part of a reunited Juluka but primarily as a solo artist, since the last Savuka album Heat Dust and Dreams came out in 1993. He has entered the recording studio less frequently lately, though, and his new album One Life is only his third studio album since Heat Dust and Dreams. Happily, the new CD is on the same level as much of his best work.

With apartheid now in South Africa's past, Clegg's lyrics have reached for broader themes. The album opens with "Daughter of Eden," a tribute to the eternal feminine in its many forms, and follows with "Jongosi," a Zulu song about young athletes/warriors taking a stand together. One Life also addresses many issues facing Africa as a whole. "The Revolution Will Eat Its Children," already on my short list of all-time favorite song titles, deals with the cycle of revolutions and takeovers too often resulting in new leaders who wind up needing to be overthrown themselves. The subtile "Anthem For Uncle Bob" suggests that the song is aimed in particular at Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe. In a similar vein, "Boy Soldier" looks at the common habit throughout Africa of impressing teenage boys into service in armies or revolutionary groups. As usual, Clegg alternates between singing in English and Zulu, often on the same song, but he expands his linguistic horizons on One Life by including songs in Afrikaans ("Thamela - Die Son Drink Water") and French ("Faut Pas Baisser Les Bras").

Musically, other than the Latin feel of "Daughter Of Eden," there aren't any big surprises here. Clegg has always combined Western rock and folk with Zulu traditions and township jive, and he also keeps up with current musical trends. While heavy-duty electronics got in the way a bit on his previous album New World Survivor, One World sounds very fresh and not forced. Almost all the music on One Life is upbeat, and the disc as a whole just simmers with energy. My favorite element of Clegg's sound over the years has been the multi-voiced Zulu choruses. The distinctly African modal harmonies have this power to them that very few vocal traditions on the planet can match. Happily, One Life is full of these choruses, to a significantly greater degree than on most of his post-Juluka work. The chorus of "Jongosi" in particular hits with a force reminiscent of Clegg's best work.

One Life finds Johnny Clegg back in his prime, bounding with vibrant energy while remaining thoughtful and thought-provoking with his lyrics. Clegg has been one of the most important figures in the world of music for close to thirty years, and with his new album he remains as vital as ever.

Overall grade: A

Digg This
Del.icio.us

Thandiswa, Zabalaza (Escondida, 2005)

Thandiswa Maswai spent an eight-year musical apprenticeship as part of a highly regarded South African band called Bongo Maffin. In early 2005, she released her debut solo CD Zabalaza (Xhosa for "rebellion"). Thandiswa combines black musical styles from her homeland and from abroad; on Zabalaza you will hear township jive, kwaito, and traditional Xhosa music interwoven with soul, R&B, gospel, jazz and reggae. In addition, Thandiswa has quite a bit to say with her lyrics, alternately sung in English and Xhosa but always direct and to the point. The opening song "Nizalwa Ngobani (Do You Know Where You Come From)" chastises South African youth for their obsession with material goods and indifference towards their nation's history. The title song laments the poverty and disease still afflicting the South African villages more than a decade after the end of the apartheid regime. "Transkei Moon," the closing song, pays tribute to the home village of Thandiswa's mother.

Musically, Zabalaza consists of ten songs ranging from nearly five to over eight minutes in length, along with three very brief interludes of traditional Xhosa singing recorded during Thandiswa's visit to Transkei. The impact of the songs on me depended a lot on the musical style of the particular song. On one hand, the gospel song "Revelation" and the jazzy "Ntyilo Ntyilo" didn't really distinguish themselves from similar-sounding songs by Western performers. The kwaito style exemplified by the song "Kwanele" is basically a South African take on standard dance club music, and doesn't really interest me all that much. On the other hand, Thandiswa and her musicians do a fine job of turning extended song lengths into an asset rather than a hindrance for most of the album with their steady, insistent grooves. In particular, the songs that feature traditional African vocal harmonies grabbed me right away, especially "Lahl' Umlenze" and "Ndiyahamba (I'm Leaving)."

Thandiswa is a talented singer and lyricist with a lot say about her homeland as it struggles to recover from a troubled past. The diversity of styles on Zabalaza might make it hard for listeners to like every song on it, but conversely there should be something to please everybody on it.


Overall grade: B

Reprinted with permission from The Green Man Review
Copyright 2006 The Green Man Review

Digg This
Del.icio.us

Amadou & Mariam -- Dimanche Á Bamako (Nonesuch, 2004) and Je Pense Á Toi (Universal Music, 2005)

Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia met as students at the Mali Institute for the Young and Blind. Not only did they fall in love and get married -- against the wishes of their parents, who didn't think two blind people marrying was such a good idea -- but they forged a successful musical partnership that carried them from Mali throughout Western Africa and up into France, which they have used as a springboard to healthy CD sales in Europe. Now Amadou and Mariam have set their sights on the American world music market with the release of Dimanche Á Bamako, a collection of new songs, and Je Pense Á Toi, a compilation of the best songs off their three previous French-produced CD's.

Both discs combine lively West African musical traditions with rock influences. Amadou and Mariam take turns singing, while Amadou also plays an excellent lead guitar. Not surprisingly, given that it pulls songs from three albums, Je Pense Á Toi is the more consistently strong of the two. Dimanche Á Bamako also suffers a bit from producer Manu Chao inserting himself too much into the proceedings, instead of just letting Amadou and Mariam do their thing. Still, the song "Coulibaly" is great, groove-oriented African rock, and Dimanche Á Bamako boasts a couple of other worthy tracks as well. These two discs will appeal to anybody interested in African music or good guitar music in general.

Overall grades:
Dimanche Á Bamako B
Je Pense Á Toi A-