Radio Planet 3
by Cliff Furnald

If the heart of Mali is the kora, then its modern soul has been defined by the guitar. No one has spent more time studying the guitar music of Mali than Banning Eyre, an American journalist and musician. In Griot Time - String Music from Mali [Stern's] brings the real world of this music to life, in a collection of studio and live recordings. The studio pieces (from previously released CDs) are a who's-who of major names with few surprises: Guitarists Lobi Traoré, Ali Farka Touré, and Habib Koite lead the pack. There are also tracks from kora player Toumani Diabate and singers Oumou Sangare, Salif Keita, Sali Sidibe, and Kandia Kouyate that emphasize the guitar accompaniment. The Rail Band's 1995 "Silanidé" shows the electric guitar's place in the musical spectrum of the nation.

But the deeper value of this collection is in the recordings Eyre made while visiting the home of the legendary Djelimady Tounkara, the guitarist of The Rail Band who is virtually synonymous with the instrument in Mali. These range from frustratingly brief (20 to 60 second) clips of Tounkara playing solo to some absolutely stunning full songs. Most notable is "Kouyate/Dioura," a duet where Tounkara is joined by his nephew Adama Tounkara on the ngoni (a small lute) in a sinuous, slinky flurry of intertwined strings that pretty much defines both the structure and spirit of the music. There is an ensemble piece where the Djelimady and Adama are joined by singer Yayi Kouyaté and second guitar and ngoni players in a cacophonous rush of strings that leaves the head spinning. There is a short clip of a live performance by Lobi Traoré, a brief sample of the small doso ngoni (hunter's harp), and a trio of guitars that includes Eyre (who proves himself an apt student). The set closes with a duet between Basekou Kouyaté's ngoni and banjo player Dirk Westervelt, who slam out a short but amazing version of the Appalachian tune "Wild Goose Chase." While most compilations are a sampler or a promotional foray, this one is a study of how one instrument could come to mean so much to a culture it invaded not all that long ago. The CD was made to accompany Eyre's book, In Griot Time: An American Guitarist in Mali [Temple University Press], which looks at the culture, politics, and economics of the Mali music scene with insight, wit, and a deep regard for the people who make the music.

There are five more recordings reviewed in this article in Dirty Linen #90 (Oct/Nov '00).