Destruction: Habib Koité and Bamada with "Woulaba"

Habib Koité, a Senegalese singer, guitarist and songwriter based in Mali, brings us today's random tune. Koité's band, Bamada, is a West African supergroup made up of many well-known African musicians. Koité tunes his guitar to a pentatonic scale and plays it on open strings, much like the one would play the African ngoni. His music can be reminiscent of both blues and flamenco, two styles he has picked up in his musical career. He also has an intimate and relaxed vocal style that makes his music sound calm and even moody. Born to musician parents, he learned how to play by watching and listening. After graduation from the Bamako Institute of the Arts, he formed Bamada in 1988. He began touring outside of Africa in 1994, and his music got a huge boost when three of his songs were included with the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. He has released eight albums - his latest came out in 2014. This song, Woulaba, is from his 2001 CD Baro, and is about the destruction of the African countryside by humans.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habib_Koit%C3%A9

The Pain of Women: Habib Koité and Bamako with "Tere"

Today's random tune is by Habib Koité, a Senegalese singer, guitarist and songwriter based in Mali whose band, Bamada, is a West African supergroup made up of many well-known musicians. Koité tunes his guitar to a pentatonic scale and plays it on open strings, much like the one would play the African ngoni. His music can be reminiscent of both blues and flamenco, two styles he has picked up in his musical career. He also has an intimate and relaxed vocal style that makes his music sound calm and even moody. Born to musician parents, he learned how to play by watching and listening. After graduation from the Bamako Institute of the Arts, he formed Bamada in 1988. He began touring outside of Africa in 1994, and his music got a huge boost when three of his songs were included with the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. He has released eight albums - his latest came out in 2014. This song, Tere, is from his 2001 CD Baro. The song refers to bad luck, especially that of women.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habib_Koit%C3%A9

Preservation: Habib Koité and Bamada with "Sin Djen Djen"

Senegalese singer, guitarist and songwriter Habib Koité brings us our song today. Habib Koité is based in Mali and his band, Bamada, is a West African supergroup made up of many well-known musicians. Koité tunes his guitar to a pentatonic scale and plays it on open strings, much like the one would play the African ngoni. His music can be reminiscent of both blues and flamenco, two styles he has picked up in his musical career. He also has an intimate and relaxed vocal style that makes his music sound calm and even moody. Born to musician parents, he learned how to play by watching and listening. After graduation from the Bamako Institute of the Arts, he formed Bamada in 1988. He began touring outside of Africa in 1994, and his music got a huge boost when three of his songs were included with the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. He has released eight albums - his latest came out in 2014. This song, Sin Djen Djen, is from his 2001 CD Baro. The song celebrates Mali's musicians and efforts to preserve Mali's music for younger generations.

Bad Luck: Habib Koité and "Tere"

Today's random tune is by Habib Koité, a Senegalese singer, guitarist and songwriter based in Mali whose band, Bamada, is a West African supergroup made up of many well-known musicians. Koité tunes his guitar to a pentatonic scale and plays it on open strings, much like the one would play the African ngoni. His music can be reminiscent of both blues and flamenco, two styles he has picked up in his musical career. He also has an intimate and relaxed vocal style that makes his music sound calm and even moody. Born to musician parents, he learned how to play by watching and listening. After graduation from the Bamako Institute of the Arts, he formed Bamada in 1988. He began touring outside of Africa in 1994, and his music got a huge boost when three of his songs were included with the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. He has released eight albums - his latest came out in 2014. This song, Tere, is from his 2001 CD Baro. The song refers to bad luck, especially that of women.

Joking Around: Habib Koité and "Baro"

Today's song, Baro, comes to us from Mali. Habib Koité is a Sengalese singer, songwriter and guitarist based in Mali whose band, Bamada, is a supergroup of West African musicians. Koité is an unusual guitarist, tuning his guitar on a pentatonic scale and playing on open strings like one would play an African n'goni. His styles can often sound like blues and flamenco. His singing is more relaxed and intimate as compared with his contemporaries. Baro can be found on his 2001 album of the same name and on the Putumayo compilation CD Acoustic Africa. Title of the song means "The Chat," and talks about the Malian tradition of joking around with each other which in turn helps foster social peace and harmony between people and groups.

Quitting Cold Turkey: Habib Koité and Bamada with "Cigarette Abana"

Cigarette Abana, by Senegalese singer-songwriter Habib Koité, tops our list today. Based in Mali, Habib Koité leads a supergroup, Bamada, which consists of some of the best West African musicians. Koité tunes his guitar to a pentatonic scale and playing it on open strings, and his music can often sound like blues or flamenco, and he composes and arranges all songs for the band, which may be sung in English, French or Bambara. Cigarette Abana can be found on his 2001 album, Baro.

Afri-laxing: Habib Koité and Bamada with "Batoumambé"

Today's song, Batoumambé, comes to us from Africa. Habib Koité is a Sengalese singer, songwriter and guitarist whose band, Bamada, is a supergroup of West African musicians. Koité is an unusual guitarist, tuning his guitar on a pentatonic scale and playing on open strings like one would play an African n'goni. His styles can often sound like blues and flamenco. His singing is more relaxed and intimate as compared with his contemporaries. Batoumambé can be found on his 2001 album Baro.

African Signals: Habib Koite & Bamada with "Tere"

One of the things that has surprised me in my education into world music is the place that Senegal and Mali occupy presently in the music coming out of Africa. Partially, my surprise comes from my recent efforts to compile a directory of the world music that I have (these efforts have actually made these daily random tunes possible). When I catalog music from Africa, it is actually a surprise if the music isn't from Senegal or Mali or related to those countries in some way. Actually, that's not completely true - Algeria also has a thriving music scene (though it comes across as more Arabic/Middle Eastern music than what I would regard as African music), as does South Africa. And, in the 70s Nigeria and Ghana were the African music powerhouses. But Mali in particular seems to have a huge variety and depth of music, from the desert nomad traditions in the north of the country to the more African music traditions of the south. I just find myself typing Mali a lot. And Senegal's music tradition is also strong - a lot of this has to do with Youssou N'Dour but there are other fine musicians coming out of Senegal as well.

One musician that straddles both countries is Habib Koite. Koite is a Senegalese singer, guitarist and songwriter based in Mali whose band, Bamada, is a West African supergroup made up of many well-known musicians. Koite tunes his guitar to a pentatonic scale and plays it on open strings, much like the one would play the African ngoni. His music can be reminiscent of both blues and flamenco, two styles he has picked up in his musical career. He also has an intimate and relaxed vocal style that makes his music sound calm and even moody. Born to musician parents, he learned how to play by watching and listening. After graduation from the Bamako Institute of the Arts, he formed Bamada in 1988. He began touring outside of Africa in 1994, and his music got a huge boost when three of his songs were included with the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. He has released eight albums - his latest just came out in 2014. This song, Tere, is from his 2001 CD Baro.