La canción de la semana #317

On Bibisa, Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca meets Mali singer Fatoumata Diawara. This beautiful song appears on Fonseca's latest album, Yo.

La canción de la semana #287

The Trio Chemirani are three Iranian percussionists, Bijan, Djamchid and Keyvan Chemirani. This week's song, Azadeh, is taken from their latest album, Invite, and features guest Malian kora player Ballaké Sissoko and Cuban pianist Omar Sosa.

La canción de la semana #250

Fifteen years ago, two Malian musicians, Bassekou Kouyate and Djelimady Tounkara, failed to get visas to Cuba. An unexpected result of that was... the phenomenally successful album Buena Vista Social Club, recorded with all-Cuban line-up. But last year, Nick Gold of World Circuit Records finally succeeded in bringing Cubans and Malians together as AfroCubism. No it is not Buena Vista Social Club #2 — it is much more interesting. Apart from Kouyate and Tounkara, AfroCubism features the BVSC veteran Eliades Ochoa and great Toumani Diabaté.

"Musically, the recording sessions worked very well, but we had some strange times when they asked each other what the songs are about," Gold says. "Eliades was asking me what one of Toumani's songs is about. Toumani said it was about a baby hippopotamus. Eliades raised his eyebrows, then Toumani said: 'Well, what's your song about?' 'It's about how when I get tired of the earth I'm going to live on the moon.' So Toumani's going: 'And you think my song is ridiculous?'"

The Guardian

Ridiculous or not, this week's song is Ochoa's A la luna yo me voy performed by AfroCubism!

La canción de la semana #162

According to the Wikipedia,

Africando is a musical project formed in 1992 to unite New York-based salsa musicians with Senegalese vocalists... the goal of Africando was to merge salsa rhythms from both sides of the Atlantic, mainly based on the African salsa tradition.

This week's song is Ntoman featuring the legendary Malian singer Salif Keita.

Kirill