Ancestral Dance: Khaira Arby and "Djaba"

Today's random song, called Djaba, is performed by Khaira Arby. From the northern deserts of Mali, Arby resided in Timbuktu and had to flee after the fundamentalist Islamic takeover of that city. Often called the Queen of Desert Rock, she is a cousin to the great Ali Farka Touré. She uses a varied assortment of instrumentation, such as electric guitar, calabash, traditional violin, acoustic guitar and drumming, and she sings in languages such as Sonrai, Arabic and Tamashek. She is the only singer in her family, and started singing when she was eleven years old. Before working with her own band, she performed with the Troupe du Cercle de Tomboctou and later the Troupe Regionale de Gao. Djaba is from her 2013 release Timbuktu Tarab. The song is about a legendary ancestral Tamashek warrior and "djaba" is also a dance in its own right.

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.