Bamana musow

I am still upset about the brusque (over)reaction by other filehost services to the injust and in my opinion illegal action taken against Megaupload. I sincerely hope the pause at the Global Groove blog will be a temporary one, and that all blogs dedicated to the unearthing of non-western music in general, and African and Latin music in particular, will carry on uncovering and promoting the artists which have not received the global recognition and acclaim they thoroughly deserve.

By way of an in-between post I would like to share with you these two great videos from Mali, both in a way related to Super Biton and Ségou.

The first is by a group fronted by three women, or girls if you like. I know absolutely nothing of this group, apart from the fact that they are (or were) called Balandzan, which at least suggests a connection with Biton (see my earlier post). I discovered this song on a tape with a mix of Malian artists, and immediately fell for the sheer joy and even cheekyness of the three girls. My guess is that they're singing about boys acting tough but not getting things done, which certainly seems an appropriate theme, - and not only in Mali.


The second video is another video by Assa Bagayogo, the daughter of Hawa Dramé, that grand dame of Bambara music. I have no idea why, but I am absolutely crazy about this music, plus that rather awkward, but strangely fitting way of dancing of Assa. It is, in my opinion, just as fitting and natural as the dancing of that girl in the Oumou Sangaré video.
Unfortunately I have just the two tracks, recorded by the RTM in 1990*, by Assa Bagayogo. If anyone has more, please step forward.....


*in my earlier post I suggested this was recorded in 1986. I should have studied the rest of the video better......