Old Routes New Routes 2019 -World festival Amsterdam

From Saturday 5 January 2019, the second edition of Old Root New Routes will start with a festive New Year’s Concert in Amsterdam in the Amstel Church by Karima el Fillali with members of the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra.

This second edition of Old Roots New Routes again offers space for a new ‘underground’ with a series of concerts of remarkable semi-acoustic music companies. They are rooted in Africa, the Maghreb, the Middle East and South America and have blossomed in the Dutch clay in recent years. 

Tamala

Tamala, one of the performing groups blends Senegalese musical heritage with Western modern influences. Surely one of my favorites, a concert not to miss….

Tamala
Travelers between North and South

Barely one year old the group Tamala won two prestigious prizes for their debut album plus a performance at the famous British WOMAD Festival. The passionate trio brings an innovative repertoire, which propagates the Senegalese musical heritage and feeds on the eclectic input of Mola Sylla, Bao Sissoko and Wouter Vandenabeele. The texts of Tamala (‘traveler’ in Mandinka) are about personal questions, poetic journeys and a call to openness to others and respect for the environment. Tamala takes you on a journey where the sounds of violin and kora merge, and where Sylla’s voice is the guide that reveals the deepest of the soul.

Musicians:
Bao Sissoko (kora), Mola Sylla (vocals, xalam), Wouter Vandenabeele (violin)

Ticket sales for the concerts have now started. 

early 20th century Senegal portraits by Mama Casset

Dakar ca 1950-1960. Photo Mama Casset, studio African Photo. Courtesy Revue Noire

The history of Senegalese photography begins in Saint-Louis du Sénégal, capital of the French Sudan, with the first African photographers who began their trade in the studios originally operated by white Europeans.
The African pioneers gave a less exotic, more modern and prosperous image of their fellow citizens, away from the typical western imagery.

This unique exhibition includes thirty images taken in Saint Louis by the earliest African photographers like Mama Casset whose name is less known by the Western public than that of Seydou Keita.

see the exposition The elegant Senegal of the first half of the 20th century , until 26th August 2018.  Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid Spain

Saint Louis ca 1930, anonymous. Photograph courtesy Revue Noire

MAMA CASSET
AND THE PRECURSORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN SENEGAL

In 1870, in Saint-Louis, the former capital of Senegal, Meissa Gueye, Doudou Diop, Mama Casset and others photographed the bourgeoisie and the Senegalese people. In 1940, in Dakar, Mama Casset set up her new studio “African Photo” and became the undisputed master of the portrait, creating the stereotypes of the pose in the studio, often used in painting and studio photography across the continent. One of the first African masters of photography.

Dakar ca 1950-1960. Photo Mama Casset, studio African Photo. Courtesy Revue Noire

St. Louis ca 1930. Photo Mama Casset, studio African Photo. Courtesy Revue Noire

Mama Casset, born in 1908, died in 1992 after a life spent first in Saint-Louis-du-Senegal and then in Dakar, in the Medina.

Initiated to the photography of the time of the colonization by the French Oscar Lataque, he will be enlisted in the French army to make aerial photographs. In the 1940s, he set up his studio, “African Photo”, in the Medina, to become the fashionable photographer of Dakar.

more on Revue Noire

PORTFOLIO ‘MAMA CASSET STUDIO AFRICAN PHOTO’

an exclusive limited edition of 20 copies as box set containing 10 original photographs is for sale here

Globeat -a worlwide safari- by Stan Rijven

 

Globeat

Intro -Radio program Silver Apples (USA)

Hunting Song –Aka Pygmy (central Africa)

Super Djata Band -Super Djata (Mali)

Ray Mbele –Baobab (Senegal)

Pedro Padrilla Aquinaldo (Puerto Rico)

Kanis Edho Dhen –Glykeria (Greece)

A Statman Kletzer Orchestra -The Chaser (USA)

Leo Fuld –Doina (Netherlands)

Cheb Mami –Idha Enti Bkiti (Algeria)

 

Compiled & mixed by Stan Rijven

Stan Rijven is a popjournalist who ao worked for the national Dutch newspaper Trouw (1979-2014). During the 80s he was a regular dj at squad Radio 100 (Tam Tam International) and hosted for 2 years the VPRO Radio 3 program The World Receiver/ Mundial (1989/90).

Mid 80s he co-founded the magazine Afrika. Combined with his Radio 100-program Stan organised the monthly held Tam Tam Club at Cafe De Pieter in Amsterdam which became a well known spot to hear the latest African pop and World music. At the same time Stan was busy establishing IASPM-Benelux, a global music platform for the Benelux (Paradiso, march 1984). Hence the name IASPM, International Association for the Study of Popular Music. To encourage the ± 40 Benelux members to pay their annual membership fee, Stan compiled this tape Globeat in 1989 as a present. Very rudimentary mixed with one turntable and one double casssettedeck, mixing was purely by feel, without a mixing desk.

Globeat is constructed with a radio-show in mind, covering parts of Africa and some unexpected contributions from Latin-America, the USA and the Netherlands as well.

3 good intentions for 2011

1. Visit Bokoor House, Accra in Ghana

Partly museum dedicated to Ghanian Highlife on shellac 78’s, partly education cultural centre and music recording studio. Run by John Collins who collects photographs, newspaper clippings, old record covers, a unique collection of shellac records and an extensive selection of traditional and modern musical instruments. Bokoor House is also the home of a library and music practice rooms and a private label, ‘Bokoor Beats’ on which many original Highlife music treasures are been re-released.

2. See Ballaké Sissoko & Vincent Segal in concert

Together with the French cellist Vincent Segal, Ballaké Sissoko

pushes the limits of new musical territory at the intersection of Malian court music and jazz. The CD “ChamberMusic” is their joint effort and clearly  a good indication of what a live concert by the duo

and their musicians promises to be.

See a live registration at the Rhino Festival 2009, Lyon France

3. Visit ILAM, Grahamstown, South Africa

ILAM (International Library Of African Music) is the home of the Hugh Tracey archives and a vast collection of traditional African music instruments on show.  The small CD store on the grounds of the institute has a great selection of releases  like, ‘The Music Of Africa’ by Hugh Tracey , produced by him in the early 1960’s as on off-shoot of his 218 volumes ‘Sound Of Africa’ series, in order to present African music to a wider audience. ILAM has re-issued, without modifications, the original LP series in CD format.  SWP Records, the label of Michael Baird, is  also part of their catalogue.

For description of each CD, go to ILAM

Yuletide Griots Riot

last Christmas my review and mix of the past year represented the fertile music of South Africa, this year Soul Safari criss-crosses the whole continent in search of music treasures.

From Sub-Saharan Africa up to Algeria, with the accent on the stringed instrument; guitar, cora, the oud, sekhankula and the Nguni string bow. And poetic stories, in words and mood.

Traditional griot music meets the seductive charm from Algeria, cora from Senegal by Bakary Sissoko and Daouda Diabaté blends seamlessly with pure guitar poetry from Francis Bebey…a Nguni Christmas song by Princess Constance Magogo, jazz & happy Jive from South Africa, Congolese soukous and  rhumba by Orchestre Loga, Nigerian juju dub from Dele Abiodun.

A surprising discovery this year was this album from 1984, ‘Très Fâché, Très Fâché‘ by guitar player and singer Rémi Sah’lomon et Le Matanga from Brazzaville, Congo. Rémi was bassist, singer of varieties, arranger of the National Youth Orchestra of Congo, and at the same time the second bassist in L’ Orchestra Bantou. He made his debut in L’Orchestra Siza Kotoko Ya Gaby. Great soukous tracks on this album!

A selection of  recent finds from the past year mixed with a few timeless classics from the Soul Safari archives. Now, what more can one wish for the Yuletide season?

01. Francis Bebey -Jesu, que ma joie demeure

02. P. Ben Mouhamed & M. Idir -A Vava Inou Va

03. Bakary Sissoko & Daouda Diabaté -Diaka

04. Princess Constance Magogo KaDinuzulu -Bambulal’ uJesu yamaJuda (The Crucified Jesus of the Jews)

05. Raisse Omar Ouhrouche -M’sak Salkhir Awali Ghetella Nite

06. Remi Sah’lomon et le Matanga -Africa Matanga

07. Akendenuge -Aiyan

08. Vicky & L’Orchestre OK Jazz -Mwana Ponaka

09. Opic 17 -Orchestre Lago -Okoyoka Eloko Pona Zuwa

10. Mthunzini Girls -Uyangibiza

11. Elias Mathebula & The Chivani Sisters -Ntela A Tingangeni

12. Izintombi Zesi Manje Manje -Omzala Bakho

13. Dele Abiodun -Confrontation Adawa Super Dub

Yuletide Griots Riot / DivShare

Happy Holidays!

best wishes for the Yuletide season from Soul Safari

Sissoko Bakary & Daouda Diabaté -Des Ballets Africains De Keita Fodéba. Vogue EPL 7256

Bakary Sissoko and Daouda Diabaté, two griots  fed to the purest traditions of Africa. The first is from Senegal, the second came from Sudan.

Bakary and Daouda  met under the aegis of Keita Fodéba, the Guinean poet  who became the first to explore  black folklore in his famous Ballets Africains, formed in Paris in 1952

The music of the Mandinke people of the southern part of Senegal is being presented on this 4-track EP.

Sissoko Bakary et Daouda Diabaté  -des ballets Africains de Keita Fodéba.  Seven-inch 45 rpm EP disc. Vogue EPL 7256

A1 Boundessa with choir of men and women

A2 Sidiyela with choir of men and women

B1 -Alalake with choir of men and women

B2 Diaka

*

Composed By – Keita Fodéba

Cora – Daouda Diabaté

Maracas – Ambroise

Tom Tom [Tam-tam] – Raphaël Wigbert

Vocals, Cora – Bakary Sissoko