Djilly Kawral

A highly-respected singer from the Fulani community of Mali, but little known outside of her own country and its diaspora, Inna Baba Coulibaly has performed with Afel Bocoum and Vieux Farka Touré; and a 1975 recording of four songs with Ali Farka Touré and ngoni player Amadou Djeliba was issued by World Circuit. Djilly Kawral is her first full album to be available internationally and it is an exceptional example of the beauty of West African call-and-response singing. The combination of her fierce and piercing vocals and her daughter Awa Poulo's responses is sensational, and particularly remarkable on ‘Yewtanakam’ and ‘N’Dinkiri’ in which it sounds almost as if they are vocally duelling. The two voices are backed by acoustic instrumentation of calabash, flute and two different traditional lutes with some subtle addition of guitar. The instrumentation is dry and emotive, perfectly suiting the vocal and lyrical styles and the album's sentiments (Many of Inna's compositions are devotional/praise singing; the title Djilly Kawral means Love and Peace). Powerful stuff and an artist worthy of wider exposure.