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Written by Allison Kade
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Sunday, 07 June 2009 |
 Amadou & Mariam, the happy couple. Photo courtesy Amadou & Mariam official Web site.
iTunes informs me that their genre is, simply, “world.” I pause over this, because I don’t generally do “world music.” If records from the Himalayas and records from South America are both termed “world,” then it’s pretty clear that Britney Spears’ prancing is world music, too. Amadou & Mariam’s music is too good to be thrown into a generic genre used by the music industry to describe the everything-obscure-enough-that-no-one-will-know-the-difference category.
So let’s be clear. Amadou & Mariam have their roots in Mali. In some ways, I think of them as modern djeli, Malian storytellers who are both revered and somewhat feared by society. These descendants of a rich oral tradition met at a school for the blind. The most famous djeli tale is the epic of Sundiata, who founded the Malian Empire. Although Amadou & Mariam probably don’t think of themselves as downright djeli, they clearly have taken on the mantle of national identification. Much like the tale of Sundiata’s introduction of Mali, Amadou & Mariam’s most recent album is titled Welcome to Mali. From that album title to the (awesome) song entitled “Africa,” it’s fair to say that they’re not shying away from their regional identity.
Amadou and Mariam were born in Bamako, the capital city and the cosmopolitan soul of the country. For their album Dimanche e Bamako, or literally, "A Sunday in Bamako," they snapped photos of themselves in a manner obviously styled after the iconic photographs of Seydou Keita. Keita’s famous photos chronicle Bamako’s cosmopolitan awakening. His trademark photographs feature subjects posed against strongly patterned backgrounds, usually holding treasured objects that epitomized them. Appropriately, Amadou and Mariam pose against a similar backdrop — holding a guitar and each other’s hands.
The duo intermingles these clear references to Mali and Bamako with influences from around the globe. Dimanche e Bamako was produced by the King of Bongo Bong himself, Manu Chao, who has built his fame on infectious rhythms and lyrics that mix French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and even a smattering of Arabic, Galician and the West African language Wolof. The newer Welcome to Mali is both accessible and experimental, as it combines “traditional” sounds with electronic textures. The album features musical instrumentation from places as diverse as Cuba, Egypt, Colombia and India, making the regionally-specific album title all the more eyebrow-raising.
“World music” does not, or should not, be code for “sounds from somewhere I can’t find on a map.” The phrase connotes a genre that simultaneously embraces intense regionalism and exemplifies the global age. If, indeed, there is such a thing as “world music,” then Amadou & Mariam are it.
So fine, iTunes. You win.
[Amadou & Mariam official site]
Allison Kade, a TheSequitur.com contributor, is a recent graduate of Columbia University and a writer of both essays and fiction. She is a regular contributing writer for greenandsave.com and a blogger for patheos.com. |
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