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| Ballad Of Manding |  | | Genre: | Unspecified | | Catalogue Number: | 4004241032 | | Availability: | Yes | | Price: | £15.99 |
| Format: | CD | | Release Date: | 1998-09-29 |
| Review: | Malian griot Diarra's solo debut is a rarity - modern instrumental music from a country best known for its vocalists. Though he's been trading stinging guitar and bass licks with the best for several decades, this wonderfully sophisticated outing finds him playing the traditional ngoni lute and electric guitars with equal aplomb, and his ace combo (which includes talking drums, balafon, acoustic piano and Afro-Cuban percussion) swings fervently. Most cuts are super-cosmopolitan (the influences range from Cape Verdean piano-bar music to French Gypsy jazz), but Diarra's lilting retakes of Malian folk and classical compositions are the album's most captivating tracks.
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