Kanaga System Krush: promoting and producing fantastic new music from Mali
I was disappointed last month when Malian kora player Madou Sidiki Diabaté cancelled his appearance in Berkeley. But it looks like he has a new album out, from upstart producer Kanaga System Krush.
I first saw the website a few months ago, and decided it was something to keep an eye on. Near as I can tell, they are based in Grass Valley, California, in the hills northeast of Sacramento, famous (to me) as a setting of one of Wallace Stegner’s brilliant novel Angle of Repose).
They’re apparently working on a film about Malian music. And they’ve got a half-dozen CDs for sale. Based on the samples, the recordings are first rate and the production is lean and minimal. As musician and critic Banning Eyre pointed out in the book, In Griot Time, it is baffling why so many talented Malian musicians ruin their recordings with cheesy synthesizers and awful drum tracks. Better to go acoustic and let the music through without interference.
Among the albums for sale is a release by the kora player I mentioned above, Madou Sidiki Diabaté. It’s “‘the best solo kora album to date,’ according to his older brother, Grammy-Award winner Toumani Diabaté. … Rarely recorded songs, modified tunings, and an extreme level of virtuosity distinguish this 71st generation musician’s debut.”
There’s also an album from the incredibly talented Bamako Bluesman Lobi Traoré. Other gems include a disk by Zani Diabaté, who sounds like the heir apparent to “Kar Kar” Boubacar Traoré in a lot of ways: wonderful acoustic melodies, soulful singing, steeped in cultural heritage.
Update: It looks like most of the albums from Kanaga are also available on the fair-trade music service mondomix.com. Most of the albums that Kanaga sells for $14 plus shipping can be purchased as mp3 right away for $0.99 per song.