Maliden by Sidy Maiga

[bubudi]

sidy maiga grew up in bamako. he played djembe and dunun with the troupe du district de bamako. he has also played with sali sidibe, toumani diabate, maimouna sidibe and tata pound, among others. sidi now lives on rhode island, where he teaches and performs, sometimes with our very own rachel nguyen

this cd was recorded in 2010/11 in bamako with members of his troupe as well as some members of the afro-cubism project that were there at the time.

combining traditional songs with the modern bamako percussion style and adding bass, guitar, kora, bala and drum kit, he comes up with a sound that is reminiscent of popular neo-traditional malian music, but with decidedly more focus on the djembe, and the drumkit playing is tastefully done. one gets a sense of how everything comes together, old and new, malian and western, djembe and balafon and drum kit. overall quite an impressive debut from this until now largely unknown djembefola.

but have a listen for yourselves...

01 Sidy Doonkan.mp3

Sidy Doonkan (Sogonikun)

(6.26 MiB) Downloaded 52 times

02 Mali Kadi.mp3

(6.06 MiB) Downloaded 56 times

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sidymaiga

Maliden (front cover)

sidymaiga.jpg (42.42 KiB) Viewed 237 times

tracks: sidy doonkan, mali kadi, sunu kaarta, sandia, madan, mazé

[rachelnguyen]

Ha ha, Bubudi,

I voted off the hook, but how could I NOT?!!?

Thanks for the nice write up. Interested to see how people feel about the album.

xoxo,
Rachel

[bubudi]

rachel, there have been a good number of downloads of the sample tracks so far, so there's enough interest to generate some decent ratings.

i should have also mentioned that at least some of the songs are traditional. like that song on the first track, which is a classic sogonikun song.

what was the recording equipment used?

[rachelnguyen]

He recorded in Sekou Bah's studio in Bamako. (Sekou is the band leader for Oumou Sangaré.) I am not sure what it was, but it is pretty high test equipment. The recording room is absolutely miniscule. It was amazing how many musicians they could cram in there. I was totally claustrophobic on the day I was there. But the sound is just beautiful, I think.

I was there the day they recorded Madan. It is a very exhilarating piece!

By the way, the song Mazé is about Sidy's friend Mazé Kouyaté, who was one of my teachers on my first trip to Mali. He died soon after and left a big hole in the hearts of all of us lucky enough to have known him. The song is quite moving, I think.