Wagadu Grooves Vol .2- The Hypnotic Sound of Camara 1991- 2014 / a RootsWorld review

Various Artists
Wagadu Grooves Vol .2- The Hypnotic Sound of Camara 1991- 2014
Hot Mule
Review by Bruce Miller

cd cover Like volume one of this series, the tracks here comes from Francophone West Africa’s Paris, France-based diaspora and the sounds they created using the city’s state-of-the-art recording facilities. Also like the first volume, these recordings are a celebration of Gaye Mody Camara, entrepreneurial shop owner and audio cassette production visionary, the format in which these recordings were initially released. However, Wagadu Grooves Vol .2- The Hypnotic Sound of Camara 1991- 2014 concentrates its focus on musicians originally from Mali, who have made up a large portion of Paris’s expat music scene since the 1970s. In fact, though Camara was born in Abidjan, he and his family made Mali home, which is where he began small-time hustles such as selling kola nuts or medicinal herbs before making his way to Paris and opening a still-operating shop in 1979 dealing in anything from kola to spices, shoes, hats or money transfers. Not surprisingly, the shop is also the largest hub for West African cassettes and videos recorded any time over the last 40 years.

Included in this volume are artists such as Souley Kante, Sonikara, and Bande Kone, all cranking out hypnotic dance music that often uses the harp-like kamalen ngoni as its pulse. Lassana Tamoura’s “Lassana Boubou N’kana Kè Kiye” is a case in point. An ngoni kicks the track off, but is soon engulfed by electric instruments and Tamoura’s voice, which often cracks, an effect that only serves to add to the tune’s insistence. Daughter of Nahawa Doumbia, Doussou Bagayoko’s “Taman” shows vocal phrasing that anyone who’s spent time with Malian superstar Oumou Sangare’s music will recognize immediately. Bagayoko’s voice jumps to high notes and then quickly drops for the rest of the phrase in a style that’s classic Wassalou-region. So, if it sounds like Sangare, that’s only because Sangare sounds like Wassalou. Then there’s the Cuban influence, something that’s been part of Malian pop music since Les Maravillas du Mali fused Cuba and Mali over a 60 years ago. Abdoulaye Brévété’s “Faalé Mokoba” may have a glossily modern pop sheen, but the underlying roots haven’t budged a bit, even if a synth replaces what had been the ubiquitous flute solo of the earlier recordings.

The Paris-based Hot Mule label has worked directly with Camara, combing through thousands of tracks for the 12 compiled here, music which demonstrates a variety of Malian roots as well as crossover rhythms with neighboring countries such as Guinea or Cote D’Ivoire. More importantly, they demonstrate sounds played by and for the Malian diaspora in Paris, music that takes on contemporary pop strains without ever losing sight of its origins. This collection, and volume one, serve as a statement about what African diasporic communities bring to colonizing countries and perhaps a reminder of the importance of openness in the face of growing Western fascism and the “other-ising” ugliness that is so often at the heart of the ignorance that becomes support for such cruelty.

Further reading:
Listen All Around: The Golden Age of Central and East African Music
Na Hawa Doumbia
Ghana Special 2- Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora- 1980-93
Dieuf-Dieul De Thiès

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