It's Those Griots Again

Another free disk acquired with an annual subscription to Songlines magazine, this album by Kasse Mady Diabate is a fine recording by any standards. Titled Kassi Kasse - Mande Music From Mali, it occupies the same territory as the Mandekalou project but this time concentrating on one named artist rather than a large collaborative ensemble. Having said that, the musicians and singers with Diabate on this record do sterling work and are an essential part of the disk's success. Again like the Mandekalou project, this is acoustic music in the griot tradition and is distinct from the desert blues style often associated with Mali. Diabate is from one of the main griot clans and keeps to the long established forms here. The spacious production is courtesy of Radio 3 broadcaster Lucy Duran who also contributes extremely informative booklet notes. Diabate is the singer and storyteller while the instrumentation revolves around multiple acoustic guitars, kora, balaphone, double bass, occasional flute to add colour and very impressive percussion of various forms. It's fascinating to try to hear the roots of later music styles when listening to much west African music and while this disk doesn't show much connection to the blues, there seem to be definite snatches of what we know as Cuban music.