Rail Band
Belle Epoque Volume 1: Soundiata
Belle Epoque Volume 1: Soundiata. These 2 cds take you back time before 'world music'; before the music of Mali, Senegal, Guinea and other regions of the sahal, had much of an audience beyond their own borders. To a time when, as the liner notes put it, a penniless Salif Keita was "still plucking his old Chinese guitar under a tree, forlorn and desperate, lamenting the human condition..." But the Bational Railways of Mali had their hotel by the railway station in the heart of Bamako city and "a motley crew of businessman had flooded bamako; French and Chinese, Lebanese and German, Russians and Arabs...the nightlife was Bubbling" Into the nightlife, and for the Buffett Hotel, a band was formed. Their first singer was Salif Keita, their second Mory Kante. How good can it get? 2cds + 20 page booklet.