Samba Touré - Albala - 1CD

When you meet Samba Touré in person, he comes off as a soft-spoken man, a man who easily charms you with his abundant smile and optimistic gait. But on his third album, Albala, which in the Songhai language means “danger” or “risk”, a weighted and at times defiant side of his personality emerges. To call Albala his darkest album is an understatement, but it is not a self-absorbed darkness. The cause of Touré’s worry is the crashing world around him, and more specifically the troubles echoing out from his beloved northern Mali homeland.

The last year has brought cataclysmic change and upheaval to northern Mali. The tragic details of this have been globally reported, so there is little point in sensationalizing them here. But the cumulative effect of these events on Samba’s music seems palpable. There is an added gravity to his voice and his words, an additional sting to his electric guitar; there are sharper edges and more complex undertones in his musical arrangements.

On “Fondora (Leave Our Road)” Samba sings with indignation:

I say, leave our road/ All killers leave our road/ Thieves leave our road

Looters, leave our road/ Rapists, leave our road/ Betrayers, leave...  more

LP-A1 Be Ki Don

LP-A2 Fondora

LP-A3 Ayé Go Mila

LP-A4 Awn Bè Ye Kelenye

LP-A5 Aye Sira Bila

LP-B1 Albala

LP-B2 Ago Djamba

LP-B3 Al Barka

LP-B4 Idjé Lalo

LP-B5 Bana