Friday, March 23, 2012

Zani Diabate & The Super Djata Band (1986)

As a military coup rocks Mali today, throwing the country into chaos, this ferocious music from The Super Djata band could be one choice for a soundtrack. Perhaps a melancholic ballad from Rokia Traoré would be a better choice, but that is a separate discussion.

Zani Diabate burst onto the international market with this record, and his fierce guitar became the focus of critic notice. He is compared on the album sleeve to Jimi Hendrix, T-Bone Walker, B.B. King and Freddie King, but his innovative accomplishment was providing a completely new interpretation of Malian guitar.

This album throbs with energy, though it is not all generated by Zani's guitar. Super Djata was co-founded by the great Daouda "Flani" Sangare, and his urgent singing is easily as remarkable as the guitar. You can read more about this extraordinary musician on Worldservice's very first post. Percussion is always up front on this session, with trap drums jousting with traditional Malinke drumming. The album rocks, from beginning to end, sounding just as fresh and modern now as it did a quarter century ago.

4 comments:

olepbr said...

Fantastic, big thanks from Norway!

Anonymous said...

I am glad you mentioned "Malian guitar" because this is one phenomenon that has not been given due attention

I have this LP I need to rehear this one

Apurva Bahadur said...

Excellent album. Many thanks. Apurva from Pune, India.

olepbr said...

In fact, I enjoyed this so much that I acquired it on vinyl today!