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Amadou & Mariam
Welcome To Mali
BECAUSE/NONESUCH 517673
AAAA
With their previous album
Dimanche A Bamako (2005),
the Paris-based blind Malian
couple Amadou Bagayoko
and Mariam Doumbia lifted
themselves out of the world
music ghetto and became
international pop stars. With the help of producer Manu Chao, they
accomplished that trick without eschewing their West African roots. In
fact, those circular, bluesy grooves remained at the core of the music.
With Welcome To Mali, the pair continue to broaden their sound and
their reach, but even with the album’s opening track “Sabali”—a swirling
synth-pop confection produced by Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) that relegates
Bagayoko’s trademark guitar to the sidelines—they haven’t ditched
the template. While Amadou & Mariam also embrace electronics on “Ce
N’est Pas Bon,” collaborate with Somalian MC K’nann on “Africa,” take
a stab at their first English language tune on “I Follow You,” and groove
over a loping funk breakbeat on “Djuru,” they simultaneously incorporate
ancient sounds from Africa.
Cameos from Toumani Diabaté on kora, Zoumana Tereta on the violinlike
suku and Boubacar Dembélé on balafon link the music to the purest
sounds of the continent. Still, the couple’s easy, deeply soulful rapport on
vocals, Bagayoko’s stinging leads and their indelible melodies make the
record work. In this fashion they haven’t changed since they first started
making albums nearly two decades ago.
—Peter Margasak
Welcome To Mali: Sabali; Ce N’est Pas Bon; Magossa; Djama; Djuru; Je Te Kiffe; Masiteladi;
Africa; Compagnon De La Vie; Unissons Nous; Bozos; I Follow You (Nia Na Fin); Welcome To
Mali; Batoma; Sekebe. (57:39)
Personnel: Mariam Doumbia, voice; Amadou Bagayoko, guitar, voice; more.
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Ordering info: nonesuch.com
Tony DeSare
Radio Show
TELARC 83689
AAA 1 /2
Crooner Tony DeSare’s virtual
post-Korean War on-air broadcast
goes down smoother if
you’re riding in a vintage
Chevy, or tuning in on a Zenith
console. But the zesty sequence
of a dozen juicy tracks takes on
air life floating on a cloud of
AM pop ’n’ fizz. DeSare’s good at evoking young Frank Sinatra, sincere
and never pensive, and his spin on Hoagy Carmichael’s “Up A Lazy
River” interpolates Sinatra’s “I ain’t goin’ your way.”
Is this a memory lane cruise No. The set’s a three-way split between
’30s standards, pop covers and DeSare’s seamless, timeless originals.
Enriching the mix are a little pepper (trumpet solos by Dominick
Farinacci), honey (a high-point duet with Jane Monheit on a cover of New
Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle” gone Brazilian), and dabs of cheese (Joe
Piscopo’s adenoidal DJ squibs). Excepting a late-hour taper-off into a
dreamsville whim and cocktail piano, it’s a deft and effective concept date.
—Fred Bouchard
Radio Show: Get Happy; A Little Bit Closer; Bizarre Love Triangle; All Or Nothing At All; Lazy
River; Easy Lover; To Touch A Woman; Johnny B Goode; The Times They Are A-Changin’; A
Stranger’s Eyes; Hallelujah, I Love Her So; Dreaming My Life Away; Prelude. (50:49)
Ordering info: telarc.com
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Fly
Sky And Country
ECM 2067
AAA 1 /2
Mark Turner, Larry Grenadier and
Jeff Ballard have shared stage and studio
in different configurations for
years, with Sky And Country serving
as their second album as Fly. Formed
as Ballard’s trio in 2000, Fly contributed to Chick Corea’s Originations.
A cohesiveness and willingness to explore deep water set the group apart.
At times animating still-life canvasses as in “Transfigured,” other times
mining cerebral patterns that dance close to the flame without letting a fire
fully take hold, Fly is consistently of one spirit, but occasionally cautious.
When embracing an unbridled straightahead groove, as midway
through “Transfigured,” the trio is set free and the music leaps. Sometimes
the group stalls in analytical examinations at the expense of full-hearted
banter. With no lack of exploratory terrain, Fly fires drum-and-bass excursions
(“Super Sister”), balances a pensive Latin pulse with virtuosic
improvisation (“Lady B”) and dances over a simmering, ethereal funk
groove (“Elena Berenjena”). Ultimately, Fly conquers the challenge presented
to all trios in its ability to think as one, telepathically adjusting as
each member prods or pulls back, making space for a gorgeous tenor comment
or a perfectly chosen rim shot then undulating into another collective
form and shape. Fly’s ability to probe each member’s mind is its greatest
asset. The results often prove revelatory.
—Ken Micallef
Sky And Country: Lady B; Sky And Country; Elena Berenjena; CJ; Dharma Days; Anandananda;
Perla Morena; Transfigured; Super Sister. (67:43)
Personnel: Mark Turner, tenor and soprano saxophone; Larry Grenadier, bass; Jeff Ballard, drums.
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Ordering info: ecmrecords.com
White Rocket
DIATRIBE 007
AAA 1 /2
White Rocket has served up a dazzling
and promising debut. This
young trans-Atlantic trio first met
and bonded over a shared love for
Indian Carnatic music, Nick Drake
and Meshuggah while attending
Banff Centre for Jazz and Creative Music in 2005. Irish pianist Greg
Felton and drummer Sean Carpio create dense, full-formed rhythmic-harmonic
figurations—the lack of a bassist hardly matters—and New Yorkbased
trumpeter Jacob Wick, who’s one of the most exciting and curious
hornmen I’ve heard in the last few years, goes to town blowing over them.
But there’s much more going on than muscular improvisation.
This trio relishes using rhythm as its primary building blocks. Felton
never surrenders the insistent twitching pulse he establishes at the start of
his tune “His Story,” which establishes the group’s penchant for rigorous
narrative qualities, through its title and the rising and falling dramatic arc
of the tune. Wick’s turbulent “Recent Events” makes this tact more plain,
with a dark, episodic density inspired by a shuffle of short, depressing and
death-obsessed items from a cable news channel. A piece like “Hone”
ratchets up the intensity by building some freer sections into the imperturbable
structure, allowing Felton to unload some dazzling post-Cecil
Taylor banging. Considering that these guys are still in their 20s, I can
only imagine where they go from this auspicious beginning.
—Peter Margasak
White Rocket: Mutatis Mutandis; His Story; Recent Events; Hone; Lonely Toad; Susan Styra;
Symptoms; Sung Once; The Fisherman’s Song. (65:41)
Personnel: Greg Felton, piano; Sean Carpio, drums; Jacob Wick, trumpet.
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Ordering info: bottlenotemusic.com
70 DOWNBEAT June 2009