Mamar Kassey is a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

ethnic An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

band from

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

. It is named after

Askia Muhammad I Askia Muhammad Ture I (1443–1538), born Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Turi or Muhammad Ture, was the first ruler of the Askia dynasty of the Songhai Empire, reigning from 1493 to 1528. He is also known as Askia the Great, and his name in modern Son ...

, a legendary warrior who extended the

Songhai Empire The Songhai Empire was a state located in the western part of the Sahel during the 15th and 16th centuries. At its peak, it was one of the largest African empires in history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its lar ...

into the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

Mamar Kassey - Festival du Bout du Monde 2014 - 020

Style

The band's leader is singer and

flautist The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

Yacouba Moumouni Yacouba Moumouni is a Nigerien singer and flute, flautist. As the leader of the jazz-folk music, ethnic band Mamar Kassey, he is one of the best-known Music of Niger, Nigerien musicians outside Niger. He is from the Songhai proper, Songhai ethnic ...

. The group combines traditional Zarma- Songhai,

Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...

and

Fula Fula may refer to: *Fula people (or Fulani, Fulɓe) *Fula language (or Pulaar, Fulfulde, Fulani) **The Fula variety known as the Pulaar language **The Fula variety known as the Pular language **The Fula variety known as Maasina Fulfulde *Fula alpha ...

and rhythms, instruments such as the molo (a lute with a skin-covered body), and modern instruments such as the electric bass. Their sound also incorporates western jazz, Moroccan and

Latin music Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and ) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America, which encompasses Music of Latin America, Latin America, Music of Spain, Spain, Mu ...

Musical career

An eight-piece group formed by Moumouni and guitarist Abdallah Alhassane in 1995, Mamar Kassey have released two albums internationally and toured Europe and the United States multiple times. They came to attention in France after an appearance at the Festival des Nuits Atypiques in Langon in 1998. They are one of the few Nigerien musical acts known internationally, and much beloved in their home country.

Makida Palabre

In 2004–2005, musicians from Mamar Kassey toured with a group of

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally **Breton people **Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Gale ...

folk musicians under the name Makida Palabre. The collaboration included Breton musicians Pierre-Yves Prothais, Ronan Le Gourierec, Laurent Carré, and Youen Paranthoen playing Breton/Celtic, western jazz, and West African instruments.

Musicians

The members of the band have changed over the course of the group's existence. The group that performed at the ''Festival des nomades'' in

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

in 2000 included: *Abdoulaye ALASSANE, (ABDALLAH): guitar. *Adamou DAOUDA, (NAGOULI): kalangou. *Boubacar Souleyman MAIGA, (BARI): percussion,

calabash Calabash (; ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvest ...

. *Harouna ABDOU : electric bass guitar. *Housseïni Namata CHIBAKOU: ''molo'' lute. *Yacouba MOUMOUNI: flute, vocals.

Discography

*''Denké-Denké'', Daqui, Harmonia Mundi, (1999) *''Alatoumi'', Daqui (2000), Harmonia Mundi (2001), World Village WV470003 (2001) *''Via Campesina'', Daqui, Harmonia Mundi (2006) *''On va voir ça'', Daqui, Harmonia Mundi (forthcoming, 2008) *''Niger'', Innacor Records, (2013)

References

collection of reviews and interviews
for Mondomix program, at TV5Monde. Includes extensiv

Interview by Pierre René-Worms, 2006

Radio France International Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the State media, state-owned international radio news network of France. With 59.5 million listeners in 2022, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world ...

. At the ''Ferveur Gnaoua'' Festival in

Mogador Essaouira ( ; ), known until the 1960s as Mogador (, or ), is a port city in the western Morocco, Moroccan region of Marrakesh-Safi, on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. It has 77,966 inhabitants as of 2014. The foundation of the city of Essao ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

.
BBC: Mamar Kassey Alatoumi
Reviewed by Peter Marsh. 20 November 2002.
Afropop Worldwide: Mamar Kassey, Alatoumi
Reviewed by Banning Eyre, 2001.

Dan Maley, Macon Telegraph (Georgia, USA),2004-09-03, Page 3.
Video and biography
at TV5Monde.

External links

Performance at the Alliance Franco-Marocaine d'El Jadida
Morocco (2007).
Radio programs and performance photos, 2006
at

. {{Authority control Nigerien musical groups