'' Mouneïssa '' is the 1998, first international CD release from

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...

an singer/songwriter

Rokia Traoré Rokia Traoré (born 24. January 1974) is a Malian-born singer, songwriter and guitarist. She made six albums between 1998 and 2016. ''Bowmboï'' (2003) won the Critics Award category at the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music in 2004 and ''Tcham ...

. Its release followed a time of meeting with and guidance from Ali Farka Touré, as well as the support of La Maison de la Culture d’Amiens pour Label Bleu, :fr:Label Bleu which produced the record for the Indigo label. The record is very traditional in its musicality and lyricism and touches upon many folk elements of the Malian people. Coming from a long history of Malian musicians, Rokia is able to combine

poetic Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

with the different musical elements of her country. For the first time, the balaba (the large

balafon The balafon is a gourd-resonated xylophone, a type of struck idiophone. It is closely associated with the neighbouring Mandé, Senoufo and Gur peoples of West Africa, particularly the Guinean branch of the Mandinka ethnic group, but is now f ...

of her region, has been paired with the

ngoni (instrument) The ngoni (also written ''ngɔni'', ''n'goni'', or ''nkoni'') is a string instrument and a traditional West African guitar. Its body is made of wood or calabash with dried animal (often goat) skin head stretched over it. The ngoni, which can pro ...

(the instrument favored by Bambara

griots A griot (; ; Manding: jali or jeli (in N'Ko: , ''djeli'' or ''djéli'' in French spelling); Serer: kevel or kewel / okawul; Wolof: gewel) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician. The griot is a repos ...

Release and availability

Originally released in 1998 on

HDCD High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) is a proprietary audio encode-decode process that claims to provide increased dynamic range over that of standard Compact Disc Digital Audio, while retaining backward compatibility with existing compact ...

, this recording is currently out of print and more expensive to acquire than the average used cd.

Track listing

# "Laidu" – 6:22 # " Mouneïssa " – 5:39 # "Finini" – 5:06 # "Dianguina" – 5:17 # "Sabali" – 5:04 # "Tchiwara" – 3:41 # "Fatalité" – 4:40 # "Sakanto" – 4:28 # "Sé" – 5:35

Personnel

* Rokia Traoré - Chants * Andra Kouyaté – N’goni *

Baba Sissoko Baba Sissoko (born 8 March 1963) is a percussionist from Mali. Career Born and raised in Bamako,Di Fazio, Di Maurizio (2015)Baba Sissoko: "La paura è una malattia. Quando cominci ad averla sei già spacciato", ''L'Espresso'', 21 November 2015. ...

– N’goni, petites percussions * Oumar Diallo (musician) – Guitarre basse * Abdoul Wahab Berthé – Guitare basse * Samba Diarra – Balafon * Dimba Camara – Percussions (guita) * Souleymane Ann – Percussions

Production

* Executive producer: Michel Orier * Collection director: Christian Mousset * Production assistant: Martine Patrice * Recording/Mixing studio: Studio

Gil Evans Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans (né Green; May 13, 1912 – March 20, 1988) was a Canadian–American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz, playing an important role i ...

d’Amiens * Recording/Mixing engineer: Philippe Teissier Du Cros * Recording/Mixing assistant: Pierre Guinot * Digital Editing: Jean-Pierre Bouquet (L’Autre Studio) * Front cover and layout: Christophe Rémy * Color photos: Antonin Potoski * Black & white photos: Dominique Lagnous * Liner notes: Fara C * Translations (French): Mariam Lainé * Translations (English): Stéphanie Carwin * English song summaries: Philippa Wehle * Special thanks: Ali Farka Touré, la Mission de Coopération et d’Action Culturelle de la France au Mali, l’Office de Radio Télévision du Mali, l’Institut National des Arts du Mali, toute l’equipe Label Blue/Indigo et le Centre Cultural Français de Bamako. Avec l’aimable contribution de Massambou Wellé Diallo.

Sales

References

External links

* Label Bleu official websit

* Rokia Traoré official websit

* Music of Mali on Wikipedia

Music of Mali The music of Mali is, like that of most African nations, ethnically diverse, but one influence predominates: that of the ancient Mali Empire of the Mandinka (from c. 1230 to c. 1600). Mande people (Bambara, Mandinka, Soninke) make up around 50 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mouneissa 1998 albums Rokia Traoré albums