More videos

I have updated a few videos. First I have collected all I have of the programme "L'artiste et sa musique" featuring the (unfortunately late) queen of kamalen ngoni music Coumba Sidibé into one video:

This is really all I have of this absolutely legendary performance. But I am still hoping, of course, that one day someone will come up with more and/or in a better quality.

Secondly I have redigitised the video of Oumou Sangaré's song "Yayoroba", to which I was referring in the last post. And I have added a second song, which you will no doubt recognise as "Saya Magnin". The dancer I was referring to comes in at about 8'50...


And finally, as a bonus, I am adding a video of less than a minute of a rare version of "Djama Kaissoumou", a song which was one of Oumou's first hits and featured on the cassette which launched her into stardom. Again, it's all I have.....

Isn't that lovely?

Saya magni

On Sunday May 10* Coumba Sidibé has passed away in her home in the Bronx, New York.
Coumba Sidibé was certainly one of the pioneers of kamalen n'goni music in Mali, but never got the international recognition for this. A reason for this may have be that she left Mali in the 1990s, and via Abidjan and Paris settled in the US.
Rumour has it that she won a lot of money in a lottery in France, which allowed her to make this move. I would like to stress that this rumour has its origin in Mali, - a country where rumour and jealousy go hand in hand...

Musically Coumba's heyday must be sought in the the 1970s and 1980s; first when she was a star with the Ensemble Instrumental National ("Diya Ye Bana", her greatest hit from that period can be heard here), and subsequently after her magnificent performance on Malian television (at the time called RTM) in the mid-1980s, of which I have posted two tracks earlier ("Tolo" and "Noumouna Koulouba"), and of which I am posting the first track here. In this track Coumba is addressing the president, - at that time 'Balla' Moussa Traoré.



The second video is from Coumba's stay in France in the 1990s. It shows a very different Coumba Saba, compared to the rather timid, but vocally brilliant artist of the RTM performance. There is an element of 'swagger' in her appearance and she takes her time to receive the praise. Vocally she has lost some of the intensity she had in the RTM video. The track "Yali Djamou" was originally released on the cassette I posted earlier.
I am told that one of the two dancers/chorus girls is a daughter of Coumba (but I don't know which one).

I had planned to post the track "Saya Magni" (litt. "Death is no good") which is also on this video, but this song is spoiled by too many people crowding the stage....



With the death of Coumba Sidibé Mali loses another of the pioneering stars of the kamalen n'goni music.

* Afropop reports it was on May 9.

Classic Coumba

This is the second post dedicated to Coumba Sidibé, who is one of the founders of the style which is too often called the Wassoulou style. The main reason for the reference to Wassoulou are, according to the late Alou Fané, the tracks 'borrowed' from dozo n'goni legends like (the -unfortunately also- late) Toumani Koné (I'll post plenty of his music later on). Like 'Noumouna Koulou(m)ba', the track in the video below.

The Sikasso region is, however, a source of a huge amount of musical styles, and Coumba Sidibé used several these in her kamalen n'goni music, which is a relatively new music form. Or, if you like, a tradition which has been started recently.

Here is the cassette I referred to in my first post. The cassette features two great musicians who currently reside in the Netherlands: Dramane Diarra and Zoumana Diarra. The cassette was released by Ibrahima Sylla, and his 'dedication' to the music can be detected on the sleeve: the titles are in the wrong order...

Coumba Saba

Like many of the great female singers in Mali Coumba Sidibé, nicknamed Coumba Saba, rose to fame when she joined the Ensemble Instrumental National du Mali in the early 1970s. She was, and still is, big in Mali. Coming from the Wassoulou region of Mali she grew up amidst many musical styles, which she blended together when she moved to the capital Bamako. As such she was one of the founders of the style which is sometimes known as the Wassoulou style.
Because the kamelan n'goni* plays a dominant role in this music it is often referred to in Mali as kamelan n'goni music.

Coumba Sidibé had a big hit in the 1980s with her cassette released by Ibrahima Sylla (a cassette which features - by the way - Zoumana and Dramane Diarra who I mentioned in my earlier post about Daouda Sangaré). In the 1990s she moved to the States where, if I am not mistaken, she is still living today. After her move she has, unfortunately, never risen to the level which she attained living in Mali, and certainly not to the superb level of singing which she demonstrates in this clip from Malian tv. I recorded this onto videotape in the late 1980s, but the clip itself is older.

* this instrument can be seen and heard in this clip