On Tchamantché, Rokia Traoré's recently released album, the Malian-born singer-songwriter "strikes out in a new direction while staying true to her African roots," says Dusted magazine. "The results are strikingly creative," producing "Traoré’s best work so far, and absolutely not to be missed." She performed last night at Sydney's Enmore Theatre in what Australian Stage describes as "two solid hours of groundbreaking, extra-African music ... by turns, startling, beguiling, seductive, spellbinding, exquisite, refined, rocking, intimate, infectious, affecting and 'funktional.' But, most of all, exciting, stirring the blood, vigourously."
On Tchamantché, Rokia Traoré's recent Tama/Nonesuch release, the Malian-born singer-songwriter "strikes out in a new direction while staying true to her African roots," says Dusted magazine reviewer Richard Miller. And, he says, "The results are strikingly creative." The album, he concludes, "is Traoré’s best work so far, and absolutely not to be missed." Read the review at dustedmagazine.com.
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Rokia performed last night at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney, Australia, where the record is out on lateralnote. Lloyd Bradford Syke, reviewing the concert for Australian Stage, describes it as "two solid hours of groundbreaking, extra-African music ... followed by what surely must have been a half-hour, tour de force encore, which saw Africans jump onstage, to sing, compliment, pay tribute and stage an incredible, impromptu dance-off."
Mali, the country of Rokia's birth, is not lacking for musical talent, and yet even in this "prolific music factory, dotted with divas," says Syke, Rokia stand apart, her musical interests ranging "far and wide, right across that vast territory, and further still." He references others' descriptions of her as "adventurous and experimental" and adds that, though her Malian roots come through, ultimately, her music "is by no means traditional, but very, very contemporary and all her own ... Her playing is distinctive and intricate; her vocals rendered haunting, by a striking vibrato."
After crediting "her apoplectically brilliant band," Syke offers this effusive description of the night's events:
Highlights are impossible to delineate as, for mine, there were so many irresistible riffs and grooves, so much finesse and such a good time had by all, throughout, on and offstage, that made it a night, from top to bottom, to remember. The whole effect was, by turns, startling, beguiling, seductive, spellbinding, exquisite, refined, rocking, intimate, infectious, affecting and "funktional." But, most of all, exciting, stirring the blood, vigourously.
Read the full concert review at australianstage.com.au.
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Up next for Rokia is a performance at Womad New Zealand in Taranki's Brooklands Park this weekend. She gave a closing-night performance at WOMADelaide this past Sunday that The Australian says "rocked the park." She participating in an interview backstage with the festival's organizers that can be heard online at womadelaide2009live.com.
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