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1
Okwukwe Na Nchekwube
Celestine Ukwu & His Philosophers National
06:10
2
Acanadia
Sékouba Bambino
05:32
3
Kinrinjingbin
Victor Olaiya
04:27
4
Almany Bocoum
Mansour Seck
04:56
5
Boya Ye
Mbilia Bel, Tabu Ley Rochereau
07:35
6
Yedejih abeba negn (I am a flower at your yard)
Abyssinia Band
06:47
7
Uwa Bu Aja Medley
Chief Dr. Oliver De Coque
20:07
8
Henrietta
His Peace Makers International, Ali Chukwumah
04:38
9
Djelimady rumba
AfroCubism
03:10
10
Sogola Djigui
N'Gou Bagayoko
04:55
11
Kadia Blues
Orchestre de la Paillote
04:44
12
Tezeta
Mulatu Astatke
06:08
13
Musée
Sali Sidibe
05:21
14
Onye Amamife
Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe
16:13
15
Gilli Men
Baaba Maal
04:59
16
Damayele
Sidiki Conde, Fatou Abou Camara, Iba Bangoura, Yoyo Camara, Terre Roche, Suzzy Roche, Machan Taylor, Abdoulaye Diabaté, Danny Louis, Rick DePofi, Fatu Keita, Moussa Sissoko, Yacouba Sissoko, Pablo Sekou Dembele, Dalina Children
04:30
17
Ezinifite Star United Club Of Nigeria
Chief Dr. Oliver De Coque & His Expo '76 Ogene Sound Super of Africa
20:41
18
Obialu Be Onye Abiagbunia
Celestine Ukwu
04:28
19
Kulu
N'Gou Bagayoko
03:45
20
Au village
Chouchou Bienvenu, Bekono Roger, Les Vétérans, Effa Paul, Ebogo Emecent, Sala Bekono, Zélé le Bombardier, Taps, Ndedi Eyango
08:57
21
Sound Design
Ablaye Cissoko
03:17
22
Gnegno
Baaba Maal
07:13
23
Ibrahimi Conde
Sidiki Conde, Fatu Keita, Fatou Abou Camara, Iba Bangoura, Yoyo Camara, Terre Roche, Suzzy Roche, Machan Taylor, Abdoulaye Diabaté, Danny Louis, Rick DePofi, Moussa Sissoko, Yacouba Sissoko, Pablo Sekou Dembele, Dalina Children
06:00
24
Tere
Habib Koité
06:08
25
Kulo Eliema
Osei Korankye
06:11
26
Kognö Koura
Balla Et Ses Balladins
05:16
27
Woulaba
Habib Koité
03:40
28
Kourri
Sidiki Conde, Fatou Abou Camara, Iba Bangoura, Yoyo Camara, Terre Roche, Suzzy Roche, Machan Taylor, Abdoulaye Diabaté, Danny Louis, Rick DePofi, Fatu Keita, Bouba Sakou, Yacouba Sissoko, Pablo Sekou Dembele, Dalina Children
03:39
29
Igede
Celestine Ukwu
04:04
30
Alewa (Black and White)
Santrofi
05:30

My Autumn in Dakar

A delirium of African voices and sounds for an autumn evening.

With my head in jazz under Dakar’s stars, I remembered the psychedelic chatter and sounds that exalt the winter nights here as I travelled through different parts of Africa to wild rhythms.

Instead of the salsero of Africando, I preferred the Guinean griot Sékouba Bambino and his famous “Kassa”, and Sidiki Conde, the paraplegic singer and dancer who deals in both the profane and the mystical. In Mali, I let myself be carried away by Habib Koité and his companions from Bamada, as well as the Malian Fatoumata Tounkara, who, using her father Djelimady’s guitar, asks for forgiveness from ‘the beloved of Bamako’. I knocked at the door of N’gou Bakayoko and ended up bewitched as I experienced the art of Sali Sidibé.

Back in Dakar, I listened to the griot of Podor, Mansour Seck, Baaba Maal’s sidekick. In Saint-Louis, Senegal, I followed in the footsteps of griot and virtuoso korist Ablaye Cissoko. Then, I headed to Ghana for a trip with Osei Korankye, the master of the seperewa. Perhaps a bit of bikutsi in Cameroon with Roger Bekono? Then, back to the late 80s, I opted for a ballad in Lingala from the Congolese M’Bilia Bel. I even went into the 70s, to dance to the highlife Igbo rhythms of Celestine Ukwu and Chief Oliver de Coque – he of 93 albums! I even found some jazz – that of Batsumi, a South African band, who in 1974 recorded this bewitching “Itumeleng”. Add to all that the zest of some Ethiopian music with the great Mulatu and the Abyssinia Band. Before leaving, another diversion to my home, in Guinea, with L'Orchestre de la Paillotte and Balla et ses Balladins.

So here are some of the pieces that rocked me during my winter nights under the Dakar stars. These voices and sounds continued to twirl in my head until I found myself back in Paris, this time under autumn stars. Autumn is a multicoloured season, psychedelic and wild, much like this kind of music: skies of grey and blue; leaves of green, orange and brown; rain and wind. Quite a patchwork. And not to mention the great mix of warmth, softness, and freshness. A torrent of changing weather, like the fluctuations of the heart that make the instruments vibrate. 

Settled under the duvet, with an infusion of verbena at hand, I am about to watch Bertrand Tavernier’s Round Midnight, a film of rain, of greyness, of hoarse voices worn by the weather and by the autumn of life. I’m watching this film but I don’t (yet) hear its music because the delirium of timeless rhythms are still moving through me.

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