January 27, 2010

Grazy and Barretto

I was going to share this with you as a podcast, but I decided to 'promote' it to a real post.

They died within months of each other and I can't hear the one without thinking of the other: Baba 'Grazy' Sangaré and Ray Barretto.

I think I don't need to introduce the latter (but just in case: link, and I'm sure it won't be hard to find others). Ray Barretto died in February 2006, and Baba Sangaré, legendary presenter of Radio Mali, in August 2005.
Baba Sangaré featured in the documentary about Malian music in the UK series "Under African Skies", but was already well-known as a enthousiastic radio personality and promoter of latin and Cuban music in Mali.

Here he is in a radio show called "Jukebox", recorded on September 2, 1988 in Bamako:
Jukebox

I am sure you'll find it difficult not to associate Ray Barretto with Baba Sangaré after listening to this....

And if you like radio shows from Africa, I strongly advise you to visit the website of Lolaradio, where you can find some brilliant (and at times historic) selections recorded in not only Mali, but also in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Surinam and other countries.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

By following the link UNDER AFRICAN SKIES I discovered Kolly & ses Acolytes with a magic Kélétigui Diabate (which I repeated five times),could you offer us something more of Kolly or Baba Sangaré,please.

WrldServ said...

I wish I had more, but alas....