Reviews
Voyageur
Ali Farka Touré | Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté
A new album of nine unheard studio cuts from the Malian legend comes 17 years after his death, but slip...
Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: April/2023
Homeland (Chapter 1)
With his latest album, it is nice to see that kora player Seckou Keita continues to push boundaries. For Homeland...
Reviewed by Alexandra Petropoulos in issue: January/2025
Que Beleza
Another summer, another Ipanemas album, and if the British weather stays anything like as sweet as Que Beleza sounds, a...
Reviewed by Brendon Griffin in issue: Aug/Sep/2010
Em Africa ao Vivo
Despite a career stretching back to the mid-80s, this is among the first of singer-songwriter and percussionist Mart’na’lia’s albums to...
Reviewed by Brendon Griffin in issue: Jan/Feb/2012
The Karindula Sessions: Tradi-Modern Sounds From Southeast Congo
A giant banjo, made out of an oil barrel, a goat skin, four strings and an empty bag of powdered...
Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: Apr/May/2011
Bermuda: Gombay & Calypso 1953-1960
This double CD follows other Frémeaux recordings of 50s Caribbean popular music. But whereas the previous compilations Jamaica Mento and...
Reviewed by Charles De Ledesma in issue: March/2013
The Beginners Guide to Timba
Not one, not two but three CDs destined to send lovers of timba – that hard-edged derivative of Cuban salsa...
Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: October/2011
The Road Never Travelled
Tzimmes translates in Yiddish a ‘big fuss.’ It’s also an Eastern European Jewish dish: a sweet, honeyed mix of root...
Reviewed by Celeste Cantor-Stephens in issue: December/2021
Albala
Like his compatriot Bassekou Kouyaté, it has taken Samba Touré a while to emerge as a star of Malian music....
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: July/2013
