Welcome To Mali - Amadou & Mariam (2008)
Guitarist Amadou Bagayoko and vocalist Mariam Doumbia both lost their sight when they were young. They met at a school for the blind. They married and started making and releasing music around west Africa and eventually in France.
The duo’s sound is heavy on the influence of Mali’s “desert blues” as well as other folk traditions, but has always had a strong sense for western song structure that made them excellent ambassadors for the music of west Africa to the rest of the world.
It took roughly 20 years of effort to break out of their local scene and onto a world stage, but they eventually would. This was the first album of theirs that I listened to after hearing of them, and one that I go back to often.
The lead track is produced and co-written by world traveler and musical polyglot Damon Albarn, and sounds very much like it might be on a Gorillaz record with its slightly distant vocals and heavy keyboards
The rest of the album tracks much more closely to what had made Amadou & Mariam notable. The tracks are heavy on Amadou’s Ali Farka Toure-influenced psych blues guitar, along with a tight band featuring both electric and acoustic instruments.
It’s a great entry point for anyone interested in music from west end of Africa, but I have lots of others to recommend if you’re looking for more.
