In review--From Senegal to Haiti

-

World/Jazz
Ablaye Cissoko/Volker Goetze
Amanké Dionti
Motema (2012)

The world music duo Ablaye Cissoko, a griot kora player from Senegal and Volker Goetze, a trumpeter originally from Germany returned with another masterful recording, Amanké Dionti.  After the duo’s critically-acclaimed Sira (2008), which married a trumpet’s clear tones with the delicacy of a kora (West African harp) and Cissoko’s Senegalese vocals, transformed both world music and jazz.  Not long after, Sira came into the world, another Euro-African duo, Vincent Segal (France) and Ballaké Sissoko (Mali) wed cello with the kora (this duo has an album out in February 2013).

When I listen to Amanké Dionti I wonder what Miles Davis or John Coltrane would have thought of the musical marriage.  The recording fits easily and comfortably into jazz and world music.  I would even squeeze it into world classical and if a new ager didn’t reflect on the socio-political messages of the modern griot songs, the relaxing tones of the trumpet and the kora would definitely appeal to this group too.  The overall sound exudes tranquility and beauty.  I realize that it’s almost a cliché to call the music here breathtaking, but it is, in the same way that a magical sunset causes us to pause and gape at its beauty.  This is the type of music that fills every cell of the body with health and vitality.

Cissoko’s melancholic vocals float over the kora’s arpeggios and Goetze ghostly trumpet on Kana Maloundi.  In contrast, the titular track sets a different mood, of hope that glimmers with the kora’s shimmery tones and warm honeyed vocals.  Haiti features a muted trumpet playing in tandem with the kora and this track that was originally produced for the film Griot by Volker Goetze is my favorite on this recording.  In fact, Cissoko’s soaring vocals give me chills.

I believe that this CD was actually mailed to me last year, but was lost on route.  Then when I read other journalists’ top ten list on the World Music Central site, I felt like reviewing it.  After all, I was one of those music journalists who fell in love with Sira in 2008.

http://www.motema.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to Peyote Songs & The Native American Church

-
Image
Father Peyote: Songs of the Native American Church Introduction to the Peyote Church Ceremony This is an archival article written in 2003.  It's not updated.  For more recent recordings, go to Canyon Records website, http://www.canyonrecords.com When some people speak of Native American ceremonies, the peyote ceremony or the ingestion of the hallucinogen peyote (contains mescaline) usually surfaces. However, there is too much false information being passed around in the non-native community surrounding peyote meetings. The first thing people need to know about the Native American connection to peyote is that the plant is sacred medicine ingested as a sacrament during healing ceremonies of the Native American Church. The second thing, people need to know is that the Native American Church is not a set structure like the Christian Church. The peyote meeting could take place in a Navajo hogan or a teepee. And finally, since the peyote meeting does in part derive from Nat
Read more

21st Century Musical Healer Series--Heather Hannan

-
Image
 Healing with Sound and Reiki Based in Toronto, Canada, Heather Hannan has proven with her own life healing experiences the enormous power of sound frequencies. She acts as a bridge between the mundane world (real estate) to other spiritual dimensions (past life regressions, quantum physics, Reiki, sound frequencies,  and other cutting edge work). I met Heather through my Linked In group Musical Healers and I'm delighted to include her work and insights on this blog. As you know, raising music and sound consciousness takes a world-size village of folks, just like Heather dedicating their lives to working with the healing power of sound.  Whole Music: When did you discover and begin exploring sound healing? Heather Hannan: Ten years ago I was at a crossroads in my life and looking for a group of like-minded people with whom to explore my gifts and talents through meditation. Little did I know that via the meditation group I joined I would be invited to
Read more

Talking about Timbre

-
Image
Wikipedia As I mention in my book Whole Music , when I was a child I fell in love with timbre and the voices of the individual instruments we listened to in music class.  Each instrument conjured a specific emotions or feeling in me.  The French horn caused me to feel majestic and the cello invoked melancholy.  My moods would shift with each instrument that I heard and my moods would shift quickly. Today, I listen to more than timbre, but I have an understanding of how tone, frequencies of the tone and timbre (the color of the tone) affect me on all levels.  And I wonder what listening to an entire symphony does with its many voices, themes, keys, musical passages etc... In the concept of "whole music" I prefer not to separate musical components, but in the case of this post, I will present solo instruments for your listening and feeling pleasure. If you keep a music journal (and I hope that you do by now), write down the emotions that come up with each instrument.  R
Read more