Track Listing

1. M'Bife
2. M'Bife Balafon
3. Coulibaly
4. La Realite
5. Senegal Fast Food
6. Artistiya
7. La Fete au Village
8. Camions Sauvages
9. Beaux Dimanches
10. La Paix
11. Djanfa
12. Taxi Bamako
13. Politic Amagni
14. Gnidjougouya
15. M'Bife Blues

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5511 in Music
• Released on: 2005-08-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Album Description
Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia, a blind married couple whose life story is as remarkable as its music, have long been stars in West Africa. They draw the musical traditions of their natice Mali and the neighboring Ivory Coast, while also embracing the Latin American salsa, Cuban son, reggae, American R&B, and English blues-rock that they discovered via long-distance broadcasts. Dimanche a Bamako, cut in both Paris and Bamako should instantly appeal to fans of Chao's easygoing, dance-oriented, multiethnic mix, as to admirers of Mailan stars Rokia Traore and Ali Farka Toure.

Amazon.com
Having issued a handful of excellent Afro-rock albums on small independent labels in the last few years, which have attracted attention within the world music community, Amadou and Miriam are poised to break out with Dimanche A Bamako, arguably the best album of a career that goes back 30 years. Produced by mischievous French/Spanish pop star Manu Chao (who even co-wrote and sings on a few tunes), the album fuses the couple's dynamic grooves with the producer's signature everything-and-the-kitchen sink backgrounds. This is truly a collaboration of like-minded individuals: Chao's own rabid multi-culti mix of styles enhances the blind couple's guitar-driven mix of blues-rock and African percussion, as well as Latin, dance and reggae grooves. Highlights include the impossibly catchy "Senegal Fast Food" and the percolating "Coulibaly," while the couple's political bent comes out on "Politic Amagni." Truly an album with a global perspective, there is something for everyone here, and rather than diluting the stew, it makes it all the more tasty. ­ --Tad Hendrickson

Customer Reviews

Amadou, Mariam, and Chao. And How!
It is our understanding that Amadou & Mariam, a married couple, both blind, from Mali have been recording for several decades and are stars in West Africa. We found our way to this cd because it was produced by and with Manu Chao-polyglot, multiculturist, musical collagist, kitchen-sink artist, and creator of one of the more smile-inducing albums of the past 5 years, `Proximo Estacion: Esperanza'. As much as we like that cd and find our way back to it every so often, this one may be better. We have always enjoyed the rhythms, the power and the sheer ebullience of African music, unadulterated, usually, due to our inability to understand the words. Amadou & Mariam, with the madcap inspiration of Mr. Chao, provide those virtues in spades on `Dimanche a Bamako'. The cd is a delightful mish-mash of tempos, beats, styles, cultural influences, languages, and musical sounds. It is a constant kick to be struck by an element-crowd noise, a police siren, mariachi horns (placed there, presumably, by Chao)-and find it the perfect choice. The songs are rife with riffs, catchy, joyful, and danceable. Chao was evidently unable to contain himself enough to remain behind the boards and joins the couple in front of the microphone on several tracks, to the benefit of the record. If you enjoy world music, especially African, we highly recommend this cd. And, if somehow you have not exposed yourself to African music before, this is a sure-fire place to start.

Rich, fresh, inventive world music from Mali
Modern African pop that'll really bend your ears sideways. What's most striking about this album is its remarkable tonal and textural palatte; producer and co-performer Manu Chao brings a powerful technical proficiency to bear, capturing and isolating individual sound sources and giving each element a distinctive coloration and feel. Rather than use studio multi-tracking to create the illusion of an organic live performance, Chao opts to use technology as an instrument in itself, a tool to amplify and expand the group's stylistic depth and variety... While the results may initially feel a bit rigid or overly artificial, bit by bit the underlaying fluidity of the music will begin to assert itself, and the album will win you over. Amadou and Mariam's earlier albums have all had a peculiar magical appeal, but Chao's inventive, kaleidoscopic production nudges their brand of Malian pop into new directions... This album will doubtless get great press and blow a lot of people's minds: this time you can believe the hype and check it out... It's pretty cool.

A Blind Couple From Mali and a Latin Alternative Musician Produce a Melting Pot of Musical Riches
"World music" has been the lazy moniker used in the US for any artist making music outside the dominion of the American-based recording industry. Unfortunately that's why a talented duo like Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia is unlikely to find themselves in the commercial mainstream here despite having a recording career that extends back three decades. They have a fascinating story behind them - both were blind students at Bamako's Institute for Young Blind People in Mali, who shared a passion for their native music. They married, started touring any venue in their part of the world and extending to European stops, all the while incorporating musical cues from the various locales into their compositions.

Their latest disc is an intoxicating blend of West African traditional sounds and a more European-style beat consciousness. The latter is due primarily to their association with Manu Chao, the eclectic French-Latin alternative music star, who helped with production duties. Both Amadou and Mariam are pleasing vocalists who perform the mostly French lyrics with aplomb. Several tracks showcase their melding beautifully - "La Fête Au Village" and "Beaux Dimanches" (with its mournful trumpet) have actual village sounds providing the background to the rhythmic music, and with its slightly dated siren samples and heavy use of organ, "La Réalité" has a reggae flavor that casts a spell. The harmonies, however, often take a backseat to Amadou's dexterous skill as a guitarist, especially as he attacks Dick Dale-style on the introduction to "Coulibaly" and strums sweetly on "Politic Amagni".

The standout performances here are the chaotic, harmonica-driven "Sénégal Fast Food", the multi-layered urban soundscape "Taxi Bamako", and the disc's centerpiece, "M'bifé", which they perform in three distinctly different versions - first as a plaintive folk song over exotic-sounding stringed instruments and a thumping bass, then as a more percolating reflection of the disc's borderless rhythms, and as the closing track with a spoken word track that deepens the lovelorn nature of the song. There are some less successful, out-of-left-field tracks, for example, "Gnidjougouya", which seems more heavily influenced by Indian rhythms to reflect the lyrics that speak of abandonment. Regardless, this is a fine disc that has crossover possibilities with the often thrilling sounds produced by not only Amadou and Mariam but Manu Chao as well.