Welcome to Mali

african mande world fusion new jack swing african blues mali

Because Nonesuch

Recorded

2008

Released

2008

Guitarist Amadou Bagayoko and singer Mariam Doumbia met in a school for the blind as kids in Mali. They have been touring steadily for the past twenty years and their stock in trade is a kind of a loose synthesis, a taste for combining Mali guitar pop with whatever else appeals to them. The reggae and pop you sort of expect, but the forays into high energy dance feel unique. In the same rough cultural zone as Manu Chao and his various sandwiches of sound.

Sasha Frere-Jones