UNITED ONE. RECORDS ARGILE feat. Sona Diabaté, Famadou Konate and Aicha

Argile feat. Sona Diabaté, Famadou Konate and Aicha -Kouyate Mandingo Festival - BMV 9709-2 New songs and fresh performances by Sona Diabate, Famoudou Konate, Aicha Kouyate, and the international world music project from USA, Africa and Europe, Argile. Includes killer drum grooves, soaring West African vocals, outstanding Mande guitar work, and a bit of Afro-Pop. A tasty mix of colour -- each tune has its own flavour. “Mandingo Festival³ offers you the opportunity to meet famous artists of the Mandingo/Mande culture as well as to discover new and upcoming talents. Enjoy the amazing voice of one of Africa's greatest singers, Sona Diabate, who presents work completed last year in Guinea. After worldwide success with her last solo album, “garé-garé³, Sona's latest recordings show her wide musical range and expressive voice accompanied by the fine guitar work of Guinean guitarist Lenke Conde. For the first time, she has blended traditional djembe and dununba music with modern arrangements, all without leaving her Mandingo roots. As a bonus track the disc includes an interpretation of Miriam Makeba's Maleika, a song Sona learned in her youth while studying and working with Makeba, then in exile in Guinea. Sona spontaneously sang this tune a capella as an encore at an Argile concert at the Stuttgart African Film Festival in Germany, moving many in the audience with the song's purity and emotion. For those who weren't there to hear it live, Sona's version of Maleika has been added to the Mandingo Festival compilation. It is impossible to discuss Mandingo music and the djembe without mentioning Famoudou Konate. Reknowned for his work as both soloist and teacher all over the world, he is indeed one of the greatest djembe drummers today. Mandingo Festival includes an extraordinary arrangement by Konate based on a traditional song and created for Argile drummers Kassoum Traoré, Fiadelia King Sockuh and Charles Blackledge, and Guinean singer Aicha Koyate. Konate also contributes several artful solo passages on this CD. Aicha Kouyate, also a Guinean griot singer like Sona Diabate, has a very different style of singing. Her gentle and melodious voice is heard here not only on traditional tracks but also those showing World Music influences. This is her first recording in Europe, which was preceded by the release of „Bel Aicha Kouyate“ in Africa in 1997. The backing vocals of Djanka and Sayon Diabate add passion and soul to many of the songs. In addition to having contributed to recordings by such African greats as Mory Kante and Salif Keita, both are well-known in their own right as solo artists. The Argile musicians Fiadelia King Sockuh from Ghana and American drummer and djembe player Charles Blackledge composed the title track Mandingo Festival which is inspired by the Mandingo rhythm in bolokonondo and the work of other Guinean artists involved in this international music project. Sung by Aicha Kouyate, and African American singers Michael D. PoŒteat and B.B. Thompson, it invites everyone to take part in a festival in Mandingo Land where races meet and share human culture in an atmosphere without fear. Sona Diabaté traditional griot-singer and modern singer-songwriter, was born in Tiro, Guinea in 1959. Hadj Djeli Fodé Diabaté, passed on their family's music legacy by teaching Sona to sing and to play the balafon. Her music training included singing with and learning from Miriam Makeba, who was living in Guinea at the time.                                    She became worldwide popular with Africa's well-known and first all-female band, the "Amazones de Guinée" (CD "Les Amazones de Guinée - Au coeur de Paris“ (1976) published in the US as "Girls from Guinea" - Shanachie). She did so far 3 Solo-CDs "Sons de la Savanne“ (1983), "Kankele-Ti“ (1988) and "Garé-Garé“ (1996) which climbed to third place on the European World Music charts. Her new album "Tounkana" will be released in summer 2002. She performed worldwide including Europe's biggest Africa festival at Wurzburg /Germany. Sona Diabaté's presence is a must on every compilation of West African music and is part of many popular samplers of African music, like Network-Guide to African Music (UK), African World Beat Vol.2 (Germany), Amina Mundi (USA/together with Argile), along side Youssou N'Dour, Angelique Kidjo, Salif Keita and Oumou Sangare. "At the moment there is no better Afro-Fusion-Band from Germany. Only the vocals of Sona Diabaté would make it worth to buy the album." (FOLKER - German Folk- and Worldmusicmagazine - 2001 No.2. - Luigi Lauer) Listen to the CD the music is taking us to the astonishing ocean of sounds. The african polyrythmic weaving with drums, guitars and traditional "dununba", "djembe" fill our soul with peace and harmony and looks like the music conquer the time... In this meditation you'll hear covered with warmth, hollow voiced Sona Diabate story's about Guinean sacred masks (Kakamolo), ceremony of gods honouring (Talamba/Kebendo), destiny of man and love (Danja, Teme). These impressions are led by soft flute solo ornamentation (Dieter Weberpals) in compositions "Danja", "Mandingo Festival", "Trahison". Jazz-rock brass attacks not even make inconvenience or not even interrupt the flow of pulsation but with harmony cords flick exactly when musical-poetic phrase inhales new breathe (Kamakolo, Kilama, Mandingo Festival). Pure example of african musical tradition - honest and sincere talk between vocal of Aicha Kouyate and traditional percussions about everlasting friendship of musician and his instrument (Nama), the impact of music (Artisifola). Expressive is the invitation of Michael D.Poceteat to the "Mandingo Festival". It's change of rythms inspires and invites to dance even the most indifferent person. Antanas Fokas (Lithuanian National Radio 2nd program) Internet: www.bibiafrica.de