Festival in the Desert
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Category: Music CD
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Music CD Cover
Edition: Music CDFormat: Import, Live
CD Release Date: 2003-10-14
Music Label: World Village USA
Soundtracks:
- Super 11 - Takamba Super Onze
- Buri Baalal - Afel Bocoum
- Tihar Bayatin - Tartit
- Win My Train Fare Home - Robert Plant
- Ya Moulana - Sedoum Ehl Aida
- Jah Kas Cool Boy - Lo' Jo
- Wayena - Oumou Sangare
- Karaw - Ali Farka Toure
- Aldachan Manin - Tinariwen
- Politique - Adama Yalomba
- Ariyalan - Tidawt
- Chameaux - Ludovico, Einaudi & Ballake Sissoko
- Ihama - Kel Tin Lokiene
- Le Juge Ment - Kwal
- Wana - Tinde
- Koultouleili-Khalett La - Aicha Bint Chighaly
- Oubilalian - Igbayen
- Fady Yeina - Baba Salah
- What Do You See - Blackfire
- Laisse-Moi Dire - Django
Free Music Notes for Festival in the Desert
Free Music Review: An Oasis of Music from the Heart of the Sahel
Hit: 5 Stars
So you can't make it to Essakane for the Festival in the Desert this year? Well don't worry, because theres finally a recording of performances from the annual festival on CD. For those not familiar, the Festival in the Desert is an annual event in Mali where artists from across West Africa (and, increasingly, across the world) gather in the middle of the Sahel (Africa's great dust bowl, the hot, dry, dusty region immediately south of the Sahara desert) for a performance. Some of the greatest names in Mande and Tuareg music appear on this outstandingly cool compilation - desert rockers Tinariwen, legendary wassoulou singer Oumou Sangare, Kel Tin Lokiene of Timbuktu, Mauritanian jali (griot) Aicha bint Chighaly, the late Ali Farka Toure (Mali's famous 'desert bluesman') and his protege Afel Bocoum, amongst many others. Adding a more international flavor, there are also appearances by artists from beyond the Sahel. Theres a collaboration between Justin Adams and Robert Plant (yes, THE Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin), French multi-cultural outfit Lo'Jo, and (most interestingly) a Navajo band called Blackfire. Any of these artists would be well worth it by themselves, and I strongly encourage you to seek out their individual releases if you like this CD, but together the result is... incredible. It's raw, live, gritty and dusty - just like if you were actually attending. So if you can't actually make it to Mali to see the Festival for yourself, maybe you should check out this CD instead. It will make you into a fan of West African music.
Festival in the Desert Poster
Throwing an enormous Woodstock-style music festival in the middle of the Sahara desert--the gorgeous photos included in the booklet to Festival in the Desert make clear--isn't exactly easy. Held during the last three years in the shifting sands of northern Mali, the Festival in the Desert has brought together a mix of desert nomads and pop stars to play sublimely enchanting music in some of the harshest but most starkly beautiful conditions imaginable. Luckily for us, the 2003 Festival produced this impressive and varied CD, mixing together tracks from Malian superstars like Oumou Sangare and Ali Farka Toure with lesser knowns like the Mauritanian singer Aicha Bint Chinghaly and the desert nomads Tinariwen, who a few years ago traded their rifles in for electric guitars when the civil war in northern Mali abated. The biggest name here, of course, is Robert Plant, who turns in a wailing medley of old blues tunes. But Led Zeppelin-heads who buy the CD just for him--particularly those drawn to the Middle-Eastern strains of Plant's music from "Kashmir" through his recent collaborations with Jimmy Page--are in for quite a pleasant surprise when they hear the rest of the disc. What comes across the most, despite the star power present, is the energy of the live performances in such an extraordinary setting, making the Navajo rock band Blackfire, the gorgeous duet between Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi and the Malian kora player Ballake Sissoko, the otherworldly collaboration between French rappers Kwal and the Touareg (desert nomad) guitarist and singer Foy-Foy, and the French sisters Lo'Jo's duet with Malian guitarist Django all sound like natural pairings, unfolding together under the Saharan sky. --Ezra GaleInternational Music CDs
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