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Artist: Baba Sissoko     Album: Griot Jazz     Label: Caligola Records     Code: Caligola 2295

Griot Jazz

  • Griot Jazz

  • Baba Sissoko

  • 06 August 2021

  • Caligola 2295

  • 8033433292959

  • Digital, Jazzos, Caligola Records

    • No covers downloadable for Guests

No tracks downloadable for Guests

  • Total views : 1056

  • Today views : 2

  • Created on : 29 January 2022

  • Total songs : 15

  • Total comments : 0

  • From: Caligola Records

Press Release

The «Griot Jazz» project was born during the residency for the production of the opera «Le Vol du Boli» at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, where three Malian musicians were involved, Baba Sissoko and Lansiné Kouyaté, already popular in Europe (the former lives in Italy, the latter in France) and the younger Madou Sidiki Diabate, who still dwells in Mali. The three of them always played together, every day, before rehearsing as well as during the intermissions, and a month later Sissoko had written material enough to feel the need to record it before everyone went back home. Lansiné, who lives in Paris, booked the studio of a friend musician, Jean–Philippe Rykiel, a French keyboardist blind since his birth in 1961 who, listening to them rehearse, felt the desire to sit at the piano and play with them. His keyboard blended perfectly well with the trio’s music, so much so that he was asked to join the group. The great freedom at interpreting African music, Rykiel’s creative keyboard as well as the wide space left for improvisation link Mali’s music with jazz, and it’s not by chance that the title track, Griot Jazz, is perhaps the best example of that fusion. Even though it was born by chance, the project doesn’t sound that casual. Rykiel, a pianist but also an arranger and producer, collaborated with Jon Hassell and Leonard Cohen but most of all with Salif Keita and Youssou N’Dour, with whom he co–produced three albums. Besides, he also recorded as a duo with Kouyaté, who in turn played with Keita and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Such experiences are analogous to the ones lived by Baba Sissoko, who has always been drawn to jazz, ever since his first experiences with the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Of all his previous works, this one seems the best and most balanced. The fifteen tracks flow smoothly, with no hitches, and the traditional African instruments look for new and original sounds, managing to find them with Rykiel’s keyboard.

 

Track List

01) Sini Ka Dja
02) Griot Jazz
03) Dala Manka
04) Angafoli
05) Abderrahmane
06) Griot Groove
07) Fatoumata
08) Gherena
09) Kamissoko
10) Uyaye
11) Thierno
12) Mamela
13) Dorcy
14) Nour
15) Castella.

All tunes composed by Baba Sissoko; tunes n. 11/12/13/14 with Jean–Philippe Rykiel and n. 4/6/8/10 with J.P.Rykiel, Madou Sidiki Diabate, Lansiné Kouyaté

Personnel

Baba Sissoko (ngoni, tama, vocals)
Jean–Philippe Rykiel (piano, keyboards)
Madou Sidiki Diabate (kora)
Lansiné Kouyaté (balafon)

Recording Data

Recorded at Jean–Philippe Rykiel Studio, Paris, in September 2020; mixed and mastered at KayaStudio, Quattromiglia (Cosenza), Italy, in April 2021 by Francesco Malizia

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