Dimanche à Bamako

by

Amadou & Mariam

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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.

Be forewarned: if you want to learn more about Malian music and listen to amazing duo Amadou and Mariam, look elsewhere! This is not really their music. I enjoy the music of Manu Chau, and I love Amadou and Mariam. However, I wish I had bought another one of their albums (such as Welcome to Mali) instead of this one, which I find to be overly influenced by Chau and his repetitive music. A few of the songs are okay , but as an album it doesn't sound much like Amadou and Mariam, lacks their joyful music and singing, and gives over entirely to nasal Chau who seems to sound the same on every song.