Customer Reviews

Sabolan

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This disc was profiled on public radio's "The World", and I bought it on the strength of the snippets they played on the air. I own a few of Habib Koite's discs, and also the very fine Mali Lolo cd put out by the Smithsonian last year in conjunction with their Folklife Festival, so I am not a complete stranger to either the kora or West African rhythms. This disc, however, is a revelation. You aren't two minutes into the album before you realize that the liner notes aren't exagerating when they invoke the name of Jimi Hendrix, but it isn't all flash or virtuosity, this is just a tremendous disc, with tremendous songs. The kora playing is superb, of course, and it gets your attention before anything else. But the percussion holds it all together, and really, there is very little here to take exception with. I would say that the ninth and tenth songs on it are my current favorites, but they keep changing as I become more and more immersed in my new favorite record.

If sitar was the "strange sound" to come to popular prominence via namedropping the Beatles, then kora as played here certainly earns the Jimi Hendrix comparison.

I first heard of the instrument via synthesizer pioneers Moog, who showcased a kora player in their demonstration of the Multiple Resonance Filter Array (MuRF). Filtered kora sounded great (as it does here in spots, as well), but it was the curiously pleasing timbre of the instrument, not the filtering, which spurred me to learn more.

As a primer on the kora, "Sabolan" may have ruined me such that nothing else will live up to expectation. Tremendous musicianship is displayed by all the musicians on this recording. But the ear tends to focus most on the shimmery chime of the kora, a 21-string lute from West Africa, being played here with electricity (both literal and figurative). It's generally a high-energy recording. And highly-danceable (for those so inclined). Kora through a wah pedal ("Kounkouré") or distorted ("Sabolan") is out of this world. But 90% of the time, it's not even required in order to impress -- the self-assured complexity of the lightning-quick ostinato runs on faster pieces like "Dandala" and "Wawata" is mindblowing. That such pieces sit so nicely in among more contemplative tunes like "Likhirin" is also commendable.

Definitely a worthwhile "weirdo"/NPR find.

I was in Toronto this July and these guys performed at the Harbourfront Centre. I had never heard of them before but the buzz everywhere was that these guys were fantastic! And best of all it was a free concert. Well the buzz turned out to be all true! These guys are fantastic musicians and I honestly have to say its one of the best live concerts I've ever attended. Get this CD!