Amadou & Mariam have been touring Europe all year and have made their way to the UK this week. The Scotsman's Scotland on Sunday spoke with "Mali's hottest exports" to discuss what "might just be the longest, most fruitful love affair in music," and how that relationship has contributed to their making "some of the most joyous, melodious funk and bluesy pop you're likely to encounter anywhere in the world." This Malian couple, says the paper, has "done for Mali what Buena Vista Social Club did for Cuba in the Nineties."
Amadou & Mariam recently announced the dates for their North American tour this summer. They've been touring Europe all year and have made their way to the UK, where they'll perform this week.
Scotland on Sunday's Chitra Ramaswamy spoke with the couple, "Mali's hottest exports," to discuss what "might just be the longest, most fruitful love affair in music," and how that relationship has contributed to their making "some of the most joyous, melodious funk and bluesy pop you're likely to encounter anywhere in the world."
The duo's latest release, Welcome To Mali, was released late last year in Europe—"one of last year's finest," says Ramaswamy—and is slated for a US release on Nonesuch March 24. Says Ramaswamy:
This is world music in the truest sense, mixed and mashed up from a lifetime of passing around old vinyl and cassettes from Europe whenever a load would show up in Bamako, and from Amadou tuning into local radio stations on whatever continent he happened to be ... The resulting deep, bluesy riffs that he combines with traditional Malian playing are remarkable.
This Malian couple, Ramaswamy concludes, "have done for Mali what Buena Vista Social Club did for Cuba in the Nineties."
Read the interview at scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com.
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Amadou spoke with the Sunday Mail as well, about the joys of combining his love of music and for Mariam, at sundaymail.co.uk. You can also read about his involvement with Sightsavers and The Blind Institute in Bamako.
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