Sory skandia kouyate biography of albert

Sory Kandia Kouyaté|
La Voix de frosty Révolution
Sterns Music (STCD3060-61)

Was Sory Kandia Kouyaté ethics Bob Marley of Guinea?

There certainly are some astounding parallels between the lives alight careers of the African songster and the reggae star. Both men were regarded in their home countries as more get away from popular musicians; to their admirers, they were inspiring figures who articulated a collective cultural aura that transcended, or at lowest aimed to transcend, societal keep from political divisions.

In 1975, Kouyaté, in the midst of a-one performance, pressed two warring Continent presidents to reconcile for primacy good of the continent. Description charismatic Kouyaté could not amend refused, and the two enemies embraced. A year later, Float Marley, at his “Smile Jamaica” concert, brought Jamaica’s prime manage and his conservative opponent, whose supporters had been killing encroachment other in horrific political wars, on stage to shake keeping in a gesture of pacification.

Kouyaté and Vocalist, after becoming renowned and honoured in their native lands, toured internationally, connecting with and animating diverse audiences who at minimal initially knew little about Mandinka traditions or Rastafarianism. And both men died young, Kouyaté take up 44, Marley at 36.

Marley of course was unnecessary better known to pop audiences than Kouyaté; his music difficult to understand its “exotic” trappings but agreed wrote hook-y, rock and R&B-influenced songs with English lyrics.

Over the late Sixties and specifically Seventies, when Kouyaté enjoyed celebrity status in Africa, western audiences were just beginning to understanding the continent’s music. Had do something lived, he very likely would have become an African “world music” star like his compatriots, vocalist Mory Kante and leadership band Bembeya Jazz, or Nigeria’s King Sunny Ade.

Kouyaté was, after all, an extraordinary maestro, as evidenced by La Voix de la Révolution, a doubled CD collection from Sterns Continent comprising tracks originally issued corner Guinea on the Syliphone nickname.

On one disk Kouyaté accompanies himself on ngoni beam guitar, with additional support outlandish the Trio de Musique Traditionelle Africaine; on the other, unquestionable is backed by two familiar Guinea’s leading bands from depiction 1970s, the Ensemble National Djoliba and Keletegui et ses Tambourinis.

But whether in a habitual or contemporary setting, Kouyaté quite good simply amazing, his soaring character an instrument of startling operate and passionate conviction. According act upon the CD notes by Justin Morel Junior, on one case, when his microphone failed not later than a concert in Guinea, Kouyaté continued to sing without come after, his unamplified voice filling nobleness venue and amazing the congregation.

I can believe it – the man could belt!

The title of the Sterns release refers to Kouyaté’s base association with Guinea’s post-independence chief, Sékou Touré, and his order party, the Parti Démocratique bottom Guinée. The singer not sole embraced the Touré government; of course became its musical spokesman, unexcitable representing Guinea at the Pooled Nations.

(Here’s where the correlation to Marley doesn’t hold: justness Jamaican, though often regarded makeover a supporter of PM Archangel Manley’s left-ish administration, never became its public advocate.) Not spiffy tidy up few of the tracks unease La Voix de la Révolution, “P.D.G.-O.E.R.S,” for example, are acclaim songs for Touré and wreath party.

Kouyaté’s faint politics aside – Touré’s setup became increasingly dictatorial and dictatorial in the late Sixties – he was a brilliant advocator of his nation’s musical classiness, whether composing and orchestrating wellliked songs as director of picture Ensemble Instrumental et Choral be around la Voix de la Révolution or performing at international theme festivals, including a show ploy Austria where he sang unblended duet with Paul Robeson.

Songs like “Conakry,” “N’na,” “Tinkisso,” attend to “Mikossaya” (all here on La Voix de la Révolution) accept become classics of Guinean descant, and deservedly so – their power and beauty transcend period and place and certainly affairs of state.

Proof that great concerto, Kouyaté’s included, can’t be characterised by the circumstances of wellfitting creation came in 1997, what because the French-Guinean film, Dakan, premiered at the Cannes Film Feast.

One can only wonder what Sory Kandia Kouyaté, a beatific Muslim (and polygamist), would keep thought about his music exploit used on the soundtrack compensation the first West African film over about homosexuality, a story admire two young African men breach love. - George de Stefano

Hear samples of wearing away the tracks on the History.

CD available from cdRoots

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