Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Kissima Diabate: Beug Fallou
Kissima Diabate: Beug Fallou
Consisting of twelve percussionists, five vocalists, and a kora/balafon player, Diabate combines original material with reworked traditional numbers for an album so viscerally energetic that it seems bursting at the seams. Over the course of the twelve tracks, Diabate shows again and again what real African drumming sounds like. This is no watered down world music presentation, but a refreshingly earnest attempt to present one's work to the world. Such a statement is cleansing, and the music inside thrives with urgent delight for it.
The album opens with an introduction, featuring Diabate solo, before the rest of the band joins in for the raucous "Komodou." With Diabate leading the way in call-and-response, the group builds into a thudding pulse of cross-rhythms pattering around one another. Diabate's soloing atop the ensemble rebounds the group again and again into deeper and faster rhythms, before sliding effortlessly into "Serigne Fallou," where the use of kora and balafon adds a beautiful and welcome melodic component to the pulse. When the vocalists enter, the piece breathes with a resolute beauty all its own.
The rest of the album essentially moves through variations on these approaches; melodically charged excursions interspersed with a few percussion-only displays. Yet Diabate is never limited by these two worlds. The hip-swaying dioun dioun line of "Thathibi," a piece written only for drums, has a sensuality far removed from the steadier, level-headed "Tata," while the hectic, cartoony play of the full ensemble on "Namenalaine" balances out the more poppy melodism of "Kanakassi." This is an album of deep emotional depth as well as virtuosic playing.
Though Diabate may not yet be known in the larger "world music" circle, his time is surely coming. With Beug Fallou, Diabate has placed his talent in the public arena. Now it's time for listeners to catch up.
Track Listing
Intro; Komodou; Serigne Fallou; Tata; Gazz Mame Bamba Nena; Namenalaine; Seourouba Mbolomoy Dole; Thathibi; Groupe Kiss; Maidiany Sante Borom Touba; Kanakassi; Outro.
Personnel
Babe Drame: percussion; Pape Mbaye: percussion; Babacar Toure: percussion; Moussa Mbaw: percussion; Amadou Balde: percussion; Baye Sogui: percussion; Lakharte Fall: percussion; Sidate: percussion; Moussee Mareme: percussion; Yatma Thiame Tama: percussion; Khalifa Konte: percussion; Aladji Noumou Kounda Sissokho: kora; Djibrie Diabate: balafon; Beno: vocals; Bousso: vocals; Eladjie: vocals; Goundo: vocals; Kiss: vocals; Kissima Diabate: composer, lead vocal, arrangement.
Album information
Title: Beug Fallou | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Xalli Bet
< Previous
Past Present