Savane

The final release from late, great, African guitarist/singer/icon. And holy hell did he go out in style. Wicked guitar, “I know what pain’s like” vocals, and tight arrangements – all grounded firmly in his native Mali. Backed by cool traditional instruments but with some fabulous harmonica, sax, bass, and other more western sounds too. Great guest stars, including Mama Sissoko and Etienne Mbappe. It’s hard-edged blues and sweet African rhythms combined. I loved every track, it’s powerful, tough, and captivating. Play it all!

1. Serious, solid, downtempo African blues great guitar & harp.
2. Relaxed & downtemp w/cool use of chorus & great strings.
3. Sax, strings, perc, fem chorus. A cool, lazy groove. So smooth...
4. Great guitar & ngoni (lute) duets. Downtempo, slyly repetitive.
5. Slightly bouncy w/a cool vocals/strings and cool, thrumming perc
6. Midtempo w/cool use of harp/perc/chorus & great guitar.
7. Cool droning strings, nasally chorus, strong, downtempo bluesy.
8. Guitar/ngoni/harp/vox. Powerful, spare, lazy blues.
9. Upbeat violin/perc/foot taps instr w/a touch of North Africa.
10. Loping rhythm, soaring vox, downtempo ode to a lost friend.
11. Midtempo strings, percussion, spoken word. A cool sound.
12. Great flute/strings/perc mix w/big vocals & chorus. Midtempo.
13. Relaxed w/a sense of a late night jam session. Strings/sax/vox.