Ahmed Sidi Bella - Bundja (tidnit) Ahmed Sidi Bella - Wezen (guitar) I first met Ahmed Sidi Bella, way back in 2009, during my first field recordings. At the time, he only had a tidnit and a child's size nylon string guitar. With trepidation, I put the microphone in the…
Azna de L'Ader - Adawi Azna de L'Ader - Jan Marké There is something mysterious about the musical archive. It holds a lot of promise. Where live performance - the way music was existed for millennia prior to physical medium - is immediate and experiential, media rendered to medium (physical,…
We've just wrapped up the new album from Agadez wedding band Etran de L'Aïr. Recorded in 2014, and featured previously here on the blog, it's been a long time coming. Even longer, if you consider the history of the band. The music scene in Agadez is still dominated by weddings.…
This Spring 2018, Mdou Moctar is back on Tour across the USA. You can check out full dates here. It's a long tour with around 30 shows. We'll be back in the studio working on a new album. And if all goes well, they'll be a new film at the…
Takamba music is played on traditional guitar (tamashek: teheredent), with a remarkable distinctive rhythm tapped out on a calabash. It's always accompanied by a beautiful ghostly dance. I've written about the music previously and released a few records. The origin of the music remains somewhat shrouded in mystery. Suffice to…
I first wrote about Dire Straits popularity in the Sahara back in 2009 and later advised for an article in Africa is a Country. Though I've found lots of mp3s of "Sultans of Swing" on cellphone memory cards, and old cassettes buried in record stores, this was the extent of…