Music

Want to Experience the Energy at Festival sur le Niger? Watch this

by phil February 20, 2012 Mali

I just returned to Bamako from the Festival sur le Niger in Segou. Most festivals are removed from reality in the best way possible, but this weekend was particularly incredible. I plan on returning every year. This is a clip from Salif Keita’s Saturday night performance. The stage is in the Niger River; the crowd [...]

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Bamako Balani Shows: Streetside Music, Theater and Dance

by phil February 16, 2012 Mali
balani show bamako

Please read this post if you haven’t already. I’m about to talk about block parties in Bamako, but there is still a refugee crisis in the Sahel. A few weeks ago I spent an evening on the most crowded street corner of the quinzambougou neighborhood in Bamako. Chris from Sahel Sounds had invited me to [...]

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2012 Festival au Désert in Words and Photos + Update from Bamako

by phil February 3, 2012 Mali

I recapped the Festival briefly in this post. The event was over two weeks ago. A lot has changed in northern Mali (and in Bamako, you could say) since then. I will address this to an extent later in the post. I will also list some resources for you to follow. I first traveled to [...]

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Brief Recap of 2012 Festival in the Desert

by phil January 19, 2012 Mali

I’ll have a more substantial post up in the next week. For now.. As of two weeks ago, I didn’t know whether or not I would be attending festival in the desert. Security concerns and cost weighed heavily. But a week or so before the festival, I found myself having some reassuring conversations. I was [...]

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Traveling from Accra to Bamako by Sound

by phil December 14, 2011 Music
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Last year, on a bus from Abidjan to Bamako, I fell asleep on the morning of our second travel day. The sun was coming up and coupe-decale was still squeezing its way through tired speakers. I woke up at noon and the coupe decale had been replaced by Coumba Sidibe, a matriarchal Wassoulou singer from [...]

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Sound Memories

by phil September 15, 2011 Music
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I travel with a canon s90 and a flip cam. I do most of my reflection with a notepad; some amount of that writing ends up on this site. I also travel with a digital field recorder, currently an Edirol R-09. I record a bit of everything with it. Music from car stereos and gasping [...]

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