Results for "Salif Keita"

Salif Keita

Known around the world as "The Golden Voice of Mali," Salif Keita's unique sound blends the traditional styles of his West African homeland with influences from Cuba, Spain, Portugal, and the Middle East. The instrumentation that accompanies his singing represents a fusion of European and African popular music, ranging from guitar, organ, and sax to traditional African instruments such as the kora, balafon, and djembe, often synthesized and sampled. He has enjoyed a prosperous career not only in his native Mali, where he was awarded the National Order of Guinea, but also in Europe and America, where he became well-known after moving to Paris and collaborating with other African musicians based there. In 1968, in the Malian capital of Bamako, a 19-year-old albino boy scrapped the conventions of his noble ancestry to become a professional singer

Kokoroko: Kokoroko

By CHRIS MAY

If you ask an Afrobeat fan to name their favourite bands--excluding lineups led by Fela Kuti during his lifetime--the probability is that their top five choices will include Seun Kuti's Egypt 80 and Femi Kuti's Positive Force, both based in Lagos, along with Dele Sosimi's Afrobeat Orchestra, based in London. Other credible outfits have emerged, but ...

Thandi Ntuli: On Exile

By SETON HAWKINS

South African pianist, composer, and vocalist Thandi Ntuli entered 2018 not with a bang, but with a thermonuclear blast. At the close of 2017, she had been selected as the recipient of the 2018 Standard Bank Young Artist Award in Jazz, anointing her as the latest figure in an incredible lineage of South African ...

Alain Mallet: Mutt Slang

By TROY DOSTERT

Pianist/keyboardist Alain Mallet has been known as much for his work as a producer as for his pianistic accomplishments. Having served as a sideman for Madeleine Peyroux, Phil Woods and Paul Simon, he's also produced music by vocalists Jonatha Brooke and Grace Kelly. And his compositions have been performed by musicians as diverse as Gary Burton, ...

Bill Frisell: Music IS

By JOHN KELMAN

The tradition of solo jazz guitar recordings is a long one, with guitarists like Johnny Smith, Al Viola, George Van Eps, Lenny Breau and Joe Pass demonstrating just how far a mere six (in some cases, seven) strings could be taken on their own as far back as the 1950s. Subsequent guitar soloists like John Abercrombie ...

Munir Hossn: Nuove suggestioni tra Africa e Brasile

By ANGELO LEONARDI

Nato nel 1981 in Brasile da padre libanese e madre brasiliana, Munir Hossn è uno dei più creativi musicisti e compositori sudamericani della sua generazione. Dotato di un talento precoce, all'età di 10 anni suonava professionalmente (principalmente batteria e chitarra) in differenti gruppi di Salvador, Bahia. Impegnato principalmente nella sintesi tra elementi tradizionali africani e brasiliani, ...

TD Ottawa Jazz Festival 2017

By JOHN KELMAN

TD Ottawa Jazz Festival Ottawa, Canada June 23-26, 2017 Amongst the most significant challenges that face any festival is, as the gray and no-hair crowd continues to age, finding ways to cultivate and grow a younger audience. But when you're a Canadian festival, another major challenge is a simple fiscal fact: most ...

Duende Libre: Duende Libre

By JAMES NADAL

As world music proliferates into the mainstream, there are countless musicians attempting to capture its exotic rhythms and enticing melodies, some succeed, others falter. Taking their name from a Federico Garcia Lorca lecture on artistic inspiration and creation, Duende Libre's self-titled release manages to incorporate some of the essence of world music in what they term ...

John Crawford: Times and Tides

By MARK SULLIVAN

For his second album British pianist/composer John Crawford continues his love of Latin American and Spanish flamenco music, while also incorporating fresh new influences. Crawford's opening original “Blurred" shares a Brazilian heritage with the cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's “Once I Loved" that follows it. Guitarist Guillermo Hill makes an immediate impression on nylon-string guitar: he's ...

Snarky Puppy: la fusion del nuovo millennio

By ANGELO LEONARDI

"Abbiamo suonato a Flagstaff, Arizona, due o tre anni fa per una quindicina di persone -ricorda Michael League, leader di Snarky Puppy -E alla fine abbiamo scoperto che tutti erano venuti per il successivo karaoke. In pratica abbiamo fatto l'apertura al karaoke." Dopo la sorprendente vittoria di un Grammy Award nel gennaio 2014 ...