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4. Example: “Matadjem Yinmixan”
The Mali-based group Tinariwen is part of modern Tuareg history. Its founder, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, fled the country as a child after his rebel father was killed by government forces in an uprising. For decades, Tinariwen set the standard for Tuareg bands with their tightly orchestrated rhythms led by Ag Alhabib. Ag Alhabib's electric guitars sometimes seem to humbly pray. “Matadjem Yinmixan,” a song about Tuareg solidarity, had a groove so intense it almost became a dance hit. When I saw the band at Coachella 15 years ago, every butt under the tent moved.
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5. Bombino: “Tarhani”
A Nigerian musician of roughly the same generation as Mdou Moctar, Bombino also entered the American rock world, recording with members of the Black Keys and Dirty Projectors. And while Bombino is certainly a more nuanced stylist than Moctar, he brings to mind lyrical performers like Ry Cooder.
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6. Orchestra Baobab: “Kumba”
In the 1970s and 80s, this Senegalese band epitomized the fascinating transatlantic cultural transfer. African musicians absorbed and refracted Afro-Cuban dance styles originally descended from enslaved Africans in the New World. Orchestra Baobab, led by guitarist Barthélémy Attisso, who turns complex arpeggiated sounds into sounds as simple and joyful as mambo steps, has a seemingly endless repertoire of sweet, melodic and irresistibly upbeat tracks like “Coumba.” . Seeing them playing in Central Park on a perfect summer day in 2002 is a precious memory for me.
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7. Sir Victor Uwaipo: “Igboroho (Ekassa 5)”
A Nigerian polymath, Uwaifo was not a star on the level of Fela Kuti or Oliver Mtukudzi, but he toured the West, reaching New York's Village Vanguard in 1970. In the 2000s, his work was rediscovered and anthologized, and remains eccentric and unique. It's a vibrant song with a touch of vintage African highlife style, raw R&B, and wildman guitar solos. The track is one of a series based on the traditional coronation dance called ekassa, but in the reissue notes, Uwaifo describes the song as a construction worker's song. Then the house will collapse.”
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8. Djelimady Tounkara: The best attraction in Fanta Bourama
One of Africa's most respected guitarists, virtuoso Tounkara was the longtime lead player of the Rail Band (aka Super Rail Band), a popular Malian group that, like Orchestra Baobab, emerged from the mid-20th century craze for Latin music in Africa. On this sparkling acoustic track, Tounkara shows off his chops for a minute and a half before his vocals emerge, performing a romantic flamenco-style lead. He could have gone on forever.
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9. Fela Kuti and Africa 70: “Zombies”
A giant of 20th-century African culture, Kuti was a musical and political revolutionary who used the brute force of a massive punk band to challenge Nigeria's military government in the 1970s. The Brawny Horns take melodic center stage in much of Fela's music, but like James Brown, he also uses the guitar very effectively as a sort of percussive element. Led by Oghene Kologbo, Fela's guitarist on “Zombie” (which mocks soldiers who blindly follow orders) plays sequences of riffs that constantly interlock like wheels that never stop.