Oct. 15, 2007
Rock stars, rebels and the desert: Mali band takes nomad plight on world tour
By TODD PITMAN
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) _ In the world of rock and roll, it's always hip to be a rebel. The guitar-toting, ex-guerilla fighters of one band aren't pretending.
Formed in exile in Algeria, trained in Libyan military camps, tested on the battlefield, the Malian group Tinariwen has championed the plight of Mali's fierce desert nomads for decades with an electric array of hypnotic poet-warrior blues rooted in their own homegrown Tuareg twang.
Rebels and Rock Stars
The Kora Star
Cow-skin harps, griots and blood Malian kora star guards history, tradition with music
By TODD PITMAN
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) _ On a moonlit African night in a leafy open-air bar, kora virtuoso Toumani Diabate is peeling off an ethereal flood of kaleidoscopic riffs from a 21-string cow-skin covered harp like one his forefathers have played _ for more than 70 generations.
Past a motley array of modern-day musicians and a phalanx of traditional drummers, a twirling 2 a.m. crowd of Bamako's hippest has come to pay homage to a man many regard as the greatest kora player on the planet.
The music is East meets West, past meets present, a 21st century take on ancient Malian harmonies that smacks of flamenco, Far Eastern strings and the winding legato improvisations of freeform jazz.