photo World Circuit

MALIAN diva Oumou Sangare brings her take on the traditional Wassoulou
sound to the Commodore Sunday, Nov. 26.

Friday, November 17. 2000 - North Shore News - 29

lal! brings

Gan superstars

Oumou Sangare, Habib Koité set for Commodore

@ Oumou Sangare and Habib Koité and his
Bamada band at the Conimodore, Sunday,
Nov. 26, 9 p.m. $35/S32, 280-4444.

John Goodman

This Week Editor
jaoodman@nsuews.com

OUMOU Sangare, one of the
world’s great divas, returns to
Vancouver for a performance at the
Commodore Nov. 26.

Sangare, from the Wassoulou region of
southern Mali, svnthesizes the past. present and
future in her music. Basing her songs on tradi-
tional concepts she places the material ina
modem contest giving it a subtic radical cdge.
sven in West Africa, which has more than its
fair share of brilliant iconoclast musicians,
Sangare stands out. Her first recording, 1989's
Monssoalon A\Vinten ), set our a progressive
agenda of feminist lyrics sung with a band made
up of traditional and modern instrumentation.
Originally a cassette-only release it sofd hun-
dreds of thousands of copii
by Stern's World Circuit tor

In the
with mus
man Pee W ithout losing touch with
her origins. Sangre continues to sing ia
Wassoulou gradually integrating other elements
into the traditional African mix.

Currently on tour with Habib Koité Sangare
has completed recording a new album and
expects it to be eeicased in a few months.

As well as working with her own band she
continues to fight for women’s rights, the
Frenel-speaking Sangare told us through an
interpreter. “] have set up a group with other
performers called Women of Affica and we"
toured throughout Europe and South Africa.
We have had a lot of requests to perform but it
is difficult for us all to get together.

Malian musician Habib Koité comes
from a tong line of Khassonké griots.

The Matian musicians have covered the
continent on their current North American
tour inchiding several wintery dates in
Colorado, Sangare admires North American

siety and wishes that ists could

ss with as much freedom as

Habib Koité and his band Bamada, opening
2! tien wherever they
play. Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne
among the group’s admirers and joined the
ensemble on stage in California earlier this
month,

Koité, descending from a long line of
Khassonke griots, has adapted the traditional
music of the kamale n’yoni (vouth’s harp) to
the electric guitar. Like Ali Farka ‘Toure his
interpretation of traditional music (from the
Bambara, northern Takamba and Songhai
regions) shows us the roots of American blue: