Rokia Traoré was the closing act at this year's WOMADelaide, the Adelaide, Australia, leg of the global World of Music and Dance festival, last night. The Australian says that with her "distinctive, soulful voice" in full effect, "Traoré rocked the park. Traoré has successfully forged her Malian roots with western blues, funk and jazz elements and at times the energy was electrifying ..." The paper's review of her new album, Tchamantché, calls it "the epitome of intelligent, minimalist music, with sparse accompaniment, thoughtful arrangements and subtle percussion."
Rokia Traoré was the closing act at this year's WOMADelaide, the Adelaide, Australia, leg of the global World of Music and Dance festival, last night. The Australian's Iain Shedden says her "music has evolved considerably since she made her last appearance at WOMADelaide eight years ago," and with her "distinctive, soulful voice" in full effect, "she fully justified her position as the festival's closing act on the main stage." Shedden reports:
Singing in French, English (a delightful diversion into torch-song territory on George Gershwin's "The Man I Love") and her native Bambara, Traoré rocked the park. Traoré has successfully forged her Malian roots with western blues, funk and jazz elements and at times the energy was electrifying, particularly on the lengthy, intense "Tounka."
For more from WOMADelaide, visit theaustralian.news.com.au.
---
Shedden's colleague Tony Hillier reviews both Rokia's recent release, Tchamantché, which is out in the US on Nonesuch and on lateralnote in Australia, and that of Oumou Sangare, Seya, which is due out in the US later this year, and on which, he writes, "Sangare mines new emotional depths." With the concurrent Australian release of the two discs, he concludes, the two very different Malian singer-songwriters are "staking early claims for the status of world music album of the year."
Hillier describes Tchamantché as "the epitome of intelligent, minimalist music, with sparse accompaniment, thoughtful arrangements and subtle percussion." He writes:
Traoré sounds like an African Billie Holiday on "The Man I Love." She's as seductive as Françoise Hardy on the two songs she sings in French and is at her most mesmerising in a duet in her native Bamana tongue with hang, a melodic metallic percussion instrument, on "A Ou Ni Sou."
Read the reviews at theaustralian.news.com.au.
---
Rokia is the subject of a feature article in the Sydney Morning Herald, whose John Shand says that even with the changes she has made to the form and instrumentation of her music over the years, "underneath it was always her songs and her extraordinary voice." Rokia performs at Sydney's Enmore Theatre tomorrow night before heading to WOMAD New Zealand at the end of the week.
- Log in to post comments
