We read that the balafon is being considered for inclusion on Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Lansiné Kouyaté knows how to play it.

Mamani Keita arrived in Paris in the late eighties as a backing vocalist for Salif Keita. And ended up staying. “Making French money isn’t easy,” she sings. It’s the title track of her new album with music by Parisian instrumentalist Nicolas Repac.

Easy listening. ‘Bassa’ is a song by the Côte d’Ivoire-born, Mali-raised and now France-based artist Fatoumate Diawara. We could use a translation — because maybe it’s no easy listening at all. Anyone?

By Dan Moshenberg Did you hear about Medea? You know, the woman who killed her two kids? It turns out, according to the Associated Press, she lives in Mali, and her name is Coumba, or maybe Tabita. At any rate, she’s 18, a domestic worker in Bamako, and she did the unthinkable. She killed her […]

The video for “All the Same” by Vieux Farka Toure, son of Ali, from his new album, “The Secret.” The song features the singer Dave Matthews (born in South Africa). Yes him.

I could listen to Tamikrest all day long. This is a new song from the Malian band’s album Toumastin. Now, my knowledge of Tamashek is non-existent, but something tells me the song title means “children of Tinariwen”. Whether they’re referring to the band they were brought up with or the actual deserts, I don’t know. […]

Watch out for Toumani Diabaté’s cousin, Sona Jobarteh.

[vodpod id=Video.5675225&w=500&h=411&fv=] Amoeba is a landmark record store in Berkeley (on Telegraph). Now they have branches in San Francisco and LA. They also hosts live concerts with artists, like Nneka above (we get a 38 minute set out of her), or Asa, Bassekou Koyate and Ngoni Ba, The Noisettes, etcetera.

Old Master Boubacar Traoré (also known as Kar Kar, “the one who dribbles too much”) has a new album out titled “Mali Denhou”. He has some advice for Mali’s youth in the above promo video. In the 2001 documentary I’ll Sing for You you’ll hear Ali Farka Touré say: “If the maximum is 5, I […]

I have this track (and video) on repeat. The Sway Machinery featuring Malian singer Khaira Arby, “Gawad Teriamou.” The video was filmed in and around the Malian capital Bamako, “… while the Sway Machinery was recording their [new] album [“The House of Friendly Ghosts, Vol. 1;” out February 8] with masters of African music including […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j7-T50Lr3A&w=500&h=307&rel=0] Salif Keita performs his standard “Folon” live on Dutch TV in March 2010.

Last month, Mali’s trio SMOD (consisting of DJ Sam, Ousco and Donski) released a second single, Les Dirigeants Africains, taken from their new self-titled album. Sure, producer Manu Chao’s stamp is all over it, but SMOD’s lyrics and director Chris Macari* make up for that. And if you think DJ Sam looks a bit like […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuHW3X5QKzY&w=500&h=300&rel=0] “I well remember hearing my first Tinariwen songs. I was about five. After the death of my mother, my father was obliged to take me to live with my grown-up sister. One morning I was sitting in front of the house and this guy walked by singing a song by Inteyeden called ‘Imidiwan Kel […]

This 60 minute radio program on the music and ideas of Oumou Sangare–known as “The Songbird of Wasuru”–is one of the 25 excellent episodes (at last count) with an African theme in the online archive of the BBC 3 Radio program, “World Routes.” h/t Tom DeVriendt

Singer Rokia Traoré speaking truth to The Times of London: “… Some Europeans who love Africa love it for exoticism … Anything modern doesn’t interest them. I don’t know why they don’t realize that the traditional and the modern can exist alongside each other. I think they have an image of Africa which they don’t […]