duggup

Artist: Salif Keita
Website: salifkeita.artistes.universalmusic.fr/
Track Name: Bobo
Playback: mp3 – 29 second sample
Download?: Yes

The French website does pretty much diddly squat, or to the uninitiated, not a lot. So I direct your attention towards an alternative site which, while it doesn’t have too much info on the man, it does at least provide lots of brief samples of his music.

Salif Keita is a West African musician who endured ostracism from his community because as an albino he was considered bad luck and being of royal Malian lineage his desire to be a musician made him an outcast from his family. He followed his passion anyway and eventually settled in Paris to pursue a solo career and reach a wider audience.

Why should we care, hmmm? Well during the span of his 35 year career he has recorded numerous albums and written many fine songs, but it is principally for his singing that he has won popularity and fame. Not for nothing is he the Golden Voice of Africa. Gritty, full of pain and passion.

“No, music is the name for everybody. If it comes from your heart, people will love it because everyone has a heart too. It’s from one heart to another heart.” From Opiyo Oloya Interviews Salif Keita Tuesday, April 23 1996 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

From www.africanmusic.org

Keita’s music blends together the traditional griot music of his Malian childhood with other West African influences from Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and Senegal, along with influences from Cuba, Spain, and Portugal, and an unmistakably overall Islamic sound. Besides the aforementioned guitar, organ, and sax, Keita’s sound also includes traditional African instruments such as the kora, balafon, and djembe, often synthesized and sampled.

Go a little crazy and listen to the joyous rhythms. Salif Keita deserves a place on my mp3 player, maybe you will find a place for him too.

jools is a graphic designer who used to front a band on vocals and bass. All evidence of which have mercifully been obliterated or otherwise lost.
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