Al Bilali Soudan: Live from Timbuktu
Al Bilali Soudan from Timbuktu
“Desert blues raw and unmediated” Nigel Williamson Songlines # 159
AL BILALI SOUDAN’s improvisational tour de force is based on traditional repertoire, rhythms, and instrumentation. Dance music, trance music, healing music, at its core proud cultural roots. The group’s name derives from an ancient name for their home town, Tombouctou.
An extended family of forgeron, AL BILALI SOUDAN preserve their history from one generation to the next. The group’s leader is Abellow Yattara, a tehardant virtuoso. His is a traditional instrument called by some the precursor of the modern banjo.
Mr. Yattara can be heard on many recordings from Mali, such as the first cassette recordings of Ali Farka Toure, the 1970’s recordings of the Orchestre de Tombouctou, and many Radio Mali broadcasts as well as recordings by several contemporary Malian artists. He began to play the three-stringed fretless instrument when he was 10 years old. His father and uncles were musicians and his grandfather was known for forging the ceremonial swords used by traditional male Touareg dancers.
Instruments similar to the tehardent have accompanied griots, bards, dancers and vocalists for centuries. Although now considered folkloric, Mr Yattara dazzles with his mastery and demonstrates the true source of the desert blues electric guitar. Loops, flashes of punk, and shouts energize the group’s music with a contemporary charge.
Other members of the group include Aboubacrine Yattara, Mohamed Ag Abellow and Tchiale Ag Aboubacrine. AL BILALI SOUDAN are sought after musicians for celebrations and festivals in Mali.
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