October 04, 2008

Local

It is sad to see African artists rising to fame solely because a western producer thinks he has found a 'star'. And it is even sadder to see that, just because these artists have 'made it' (or are perceived to have made it) in Europe, the States and/or Japan, they rise to stardom in their own country, - where nobody wanted to know them before.

By contrast, there are many artists whose songs have been deeply rooted into the memories of vast amount of Africans, but who will always be considered as being too 'local' for global distribution. One of these is 'Tasidoni' Karamoko Keita. BIG in Bamako in the eighties. Children were singing his tunes.

I don't know where he is today. But his music shouldn't be forgotten.
Here is a video from Malian television, and this time in full colour.
Isn't he great?

5 comments:

aduna said...

I missed this video. Such a mistake.

Momo said...

Karamoko Keita died while ago

grooVemonzter said...

That video is awesome. Thanks.

Brian Shimkovitz said...

this video is amazing! thanks so much. i just posted one his cassettes over at http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com/, and someone linked to this page, glad i found this.

Tone said...

totally killer, made my day.