|
Rail Band
The Rail Band is a Malian band formed in 1970; it was later known as Super Rail Band, Bamako Rail Band or, most comprehensively and formally, Super Rail Band of the Buffet Hotel de la Gare, Bamako. Background Rail Band's fame was built upon the mid-20th century craze for Latin — especially Cuban — jazz music which came out of Congo in the 1940s. The Rail Band was one of the first West African acts to combine this mature Afro-Latin sound with traditional instruments and styles. In their case, this was built upon the Mande Griot praise singer tradition, along with Bambara and other Malian and Guinean musical traditions. Their distinctive sound came from combining electric guitar and jazz horns with soaring Mandinka and Bamabara lyrical lines, African and western drums, and local instruments such as the kora and the balafon. At their height of fame in the 1970s, the Rail Band played to sold-out venues and even stadia across West Africa, and launched solo careers for man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salif Keita
Salif Keïta () (born 25 August 1949) is a Malian singer-songwriter, referred to as the "Golden Voice of Africa". He is a member of the Keita royal family of Mali. Early life Salif Keita was born a traditional prince in the village of Djoliba. He was born to the Keita royal family, who trace their lineage to Sundiata Keita, founder of the Mali Empire. He was cast out by his family and ostracized by the community because of his albinism, a sign of bad luck in Mandinka culture. Raised in a Muslim family, he went to an Islamic school where he was influenced by his Qur'an teacher's singing. He decided to pursue music in his teenage years, further distancing him from his family as that was against occupational prohibitions of his noble status. In 1967, he left Djoliba for Bamako, where he joined the government-sponsored Super Rail Band de Bamako. In 1973, Keita joined the group ''Les Ambassadeurs (du Motel de Bamako)''. Keita and Les Ambassadeurs fled political unrest in Mali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ngoni (instrument)
The ngoni (also written ''ngɔni'', ''n'goni'', or ''nkoni'') is a traditional West African string instrument. Its body is made of wood or calabash with dried animal (often goat) skin head stretched over it. The ngoni, which can produce fast melodies, appears to be closely related to the '' akonting'' and the '' xalam''. This is called a ''jeli ngoni'' as it is played by griots at celebrations and special occasions in traditional songs called ''fasa''s in Mandingo. Another larger type, believed to have originated among the donso (a hunter and storyteller caste of the Wassoulou cultural region) is called the ''donso ngoni''. This is still largely reserved for ceremonial purposes. The donso ngoni, or "hunter's harp," has six strings. It is often accompanies singing along with the '' karagnan'', a serrated metal tube scraped with a metal stick. The donso ngoni was mentioned by Richard Jobson in the 1620s, describing it as the most commonly used instrument in the Gambia. He describe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Super Biton De Ségou
Super Biton de Ségou, Super Biton for short and also known as the Orchestre Régional de Segou and Super Biton National de Ségou, are an African jazz musical group. They were especially popular and influential in the 1970s, when they became the national orchestra of Mali, and in the first half of the 1980s. They formed in Ségou, Mali, in the 1960s, had up to 19 members at one point, but dwindled after 1986 after band leader Amadou Bâ left. After a hiatus, they re-formed with four new members and guitarist Mama Sissoko as band leader in 2001, and started playing the closing set at the Festival sur le Niger in Ségou each year. Background and style Super Biton de Ségou was founded in the 1960s in Ségou. They are Mali's oldest dance band, and one of the oldest African orchestras. Named after the leader of the Bamana kingdom, Bitòn Coulibaly, their music is based in the style of the Bambara people ("bambara jazz", incorporating a lot of brass instruments), but also touched by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Music Network
World Music Network is a UK-based record label specializing in world music. The World Music Network website features news, reviews, live music listings, and guide sections on world music. It also features an online "Battle of the Bands" competition. History Founded in 1994 by husband-and-wife team Phil Stanton and Colombian-born Sandra Alayón-Stanton, World Music Network consists of four record labels – Music Rough Guides, Riverboat Records, Introducing and Think Global. Accolades include a 2009 Grammy Award nomination for Debashish Bhattacharya – who was also awarded the BBC Best Asian Artist award in 2008 – a WMCE Top Label award and more Songlines (magazine) 'Top of the World’ releases than any other independent world music label. World Music Network, along with Riverboat Records, was presented with the WOMEX Label Award in 2013. Following on from the death of founder Phil Stanton in 2019, World Music Network has been managed by Neil Record, John Ditc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Rough Guide To West African Music
''The Rough Guide to West African Music'' is a world music compilation album originally released in 1995. The second release of the World Music Network Rough Guides series, it largely focuses on Malian music, with six of the twelve tracks coming from that country. This is followed by Senegal (two tracks), and Guinea, Niger, Ghana, and Mauritania (one track each). The compilation was produced by Phil Stanton, co-founder of the World Music Network. Chris Nickson of AllMusic gave the album four stars, but lamented the broadness of the topic, stating "the real problem with this album isn't the music, which is glorious throughout, but the fact that it suffers from the size of its ambition and the inability to fully realize it." Michaelangelo Matos, writing for the ''Chicago Reader'', praised the record's focus on slow to midtempo music, stating it "succeeds in sustaining a meditative, inner-gazing mood." Track listing References [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indigo Records
Indigo Records was an American pop record label formed in 1960. Within two years the label issued nearly 50 singles and five LPs. Origin Indigo Records was formed in Hollywood, California, in September 1960, by record promoters and producers Don Wayne and Vic Gargano. The year before, the two had entered the record business by partnering to form Inferno Records, which issued only a few releases. Gargano then formed Indigo as a pop label. Artist promoter and manager Jim Lee was brought on as head of A&R. The Innocents One of the label's earliest and most successful acts was the Innocents, a vocal trio from the Los Angeles neighborhood of Sun Valley. Starting out as the Echoes, they had been signed by Herb Alpert to Andex Records, where they recorded a couple of tracks. After more rehearsals, the Innocents took their composition "Honest I Do" to Kim Fowley and Gary Paxton at American Studios, who recorded it and sold the master to Indigo. A&R Director Jim Lee signed the grou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Google Arts & Culture
Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world, operated by Google. It utilizes high-resolution image technology that enables the viewer to tour partner organization collections and galleries and explore the artworks' physical and contextual information. The platform includes advanced search capabilities and educational tools. A part of the images are used within Wikimedia, see the c:Google Art Project works by collection, category Google Art Project works by collection. Features (first version) Virtual Gallery Tour : Through the Virtual Gallery Tour (also known as Gallery View) users can virtually 'walk through' the galleries of each partner cultural organization, using the same controls as Google Street View or by clicking on the gallery's floorplan. Artwork View : From the Gallery View (also known as Microscope Vi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timbuktu Renaissance
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global economy, and economic development. Brookings states that its staff "represent diverse points of view" and describes itself as nonpartisan. Media outlets have variously described Brookings as centrist, liberal, and center-left. The University of Pennsylvania's ''Global Go To Think Tank Index Report'' has named Brookings "Think Tank of the Year" and "Top Think Tank in the World" every year since 2008. History 20th century Brookings was founded in 1916 as the Institute for Government Research (IGR), with the mission of becoming "the first private organization devoted to analyzing public policy issues at the national level." The organization was founded on March 13, 1916, and began operations on October 1, 1916. Its stated mission is to "provid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chronic Illness
A chronic condition (also known as chronic disease or chronic illness) is a health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time. The term ''chronic'' is often applied when the course of the disease lasts for more than three months. Common chronic diseases include diabetes, functional gastrointestinal disorder, eczema, arthritis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, autoimmune diseases, genetic disorders and some viral diseases such as hepatitis C and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. An illness which is lifelong because it ends in death is a terminal illness. It is possible and not unexpected for an illness to change in definition from terminal to chronic as medicine progresses. Diabetes and HIV for example were once terminal yet are now considered chronic, due to the availability of insulin for diabetics and daily drug treatment for individuals with HIV, which allow these individuals to live wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Griot
A griot (; ; Manding languages, Manding: or (in N'Ko script, N'Ko: , or in French spelling); also spelt Djali; or / ; ) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician. Griots are masters of communicating stories and history orally, which is an African tradition. Instead of writing history books, List of oral repositories, oral historians tell stories of the past that they have memorized. Sometimes there are families of historians, and the oral histories are passed down from one generation to the next. Telling a story out loud allows the speaker to use poetic and musical conventions that entertain an audience. This has contributed to many oral histories surviving for hundreds of years without being written down. Through their storytelling, griots preserve and pass on the values of a tribe or people, such as the Senegalese, who are Muslims. The Wolof people in Senegal, many of whom cannot read or write, depend on griots to learn abou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dozo
The Dozo (also Donzo, Bambara for ''hunter'', pl. donzow) are traditional hunters in northern Côte d'Ivoire, southeast Mali, and Burkina Faso, and members of a co-fraternity containing initiated hunters and sons of Dozo, called a ''Donzo Ton''. Not an ethnic group, the Dozo are drawn mostly from Mandé-speaking groups, but are also found among Dyula-speaking communities, Dogon, and most other ethnic groups in Côte d'Ivoire. Dozo societies increased in the last decades of the twentieth century, and Dozo groups came into political prominence during the Ivorian Civil War. Donzo Ton The Donzo Ton (''tɔn'' is a Manding word for age-group, religious, or vocational associations) are one of a number of hunting fraternities common in Mandé-speaking areas of West Africa. Similar, and in the case of West Africa closely related groups, exist as the Kamajor in Sierra Leone, Poro in Liberia, the Mayi-Mayi in Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Karamojong in Uganda. Sons of Do ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
