RSSSona Diabate & M'mah Sylla [extended]
- Sahel [Triple Earth, 1988] B+
- Girls of Guinea [Shanachie, 1990] B+
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Sahel [Triple Earth, 1988]
Two singers from the storied policewomen's band Les Amazones de Guinée join a guitarist-marimbist and a flutist-saxophonist in Paris, where everybody plays folk music once removed. Falsetto intensifies the high-end voices and the flute is very prominent, so that the intrusions of saxophone and sometimes even guitar have the effect of male voices demanding confidently to be heard. Secure in their realm, the women continue to muse or chatter or make a joyful noise. B+
Sona Diabaté: Girls of Guinea [Shanachie, 1990]
Rather than romanticizing a righteous African sister, take her for a griot who's good at her job. In a nation where preserving musical treasure has been a point of socialist pride, her adept, folky elaborations avoid the appearance of self-consciousness--the closely related guitar figures underlying these songs are graceful, welcome, inevitable. But she's a trifle too dutiful to put much passion into her righteousness. And when we call music righteous, passionate is usually what we mean. B+