Mande Guitar: African Guitar Series, Vol 1

This first release on a new label launched by Banning Eyre, presenter of the Afropop Worldwide radio show and all-round African music maven, is a gem. One would expect nothing less, for Eyre not only boasts an encyclopaedic knowledge of African musical styles but is no mean guitarist himself, having studied under the legendary Djelimady Tounkara in Bamako, where he first met Badian in 1995. Little known outside Mali, Badian makes his living performing at noisy wedding parties in Bamako but his private pleasure is playing the great instrumental tunes of the Mande repertoire on solo acoustic guitar. It’s a pleasure he shares here on this lyrical album pristinely recorded and produced by Eyre at Afropop Worldwide’s studio in Brooklyn. Badian’s brother Manfa accompanies him on second guitar on a few tracks and Eyre plays on one tune, but mostly it’s just the unaccompanied solo guitar-playing of one of West Africa’s great unsung guitar virtuosos. On some tracks, such as ‘Diyana Mogo’, one is reminded of Derek Gripper’s guitar transpositions of kora tunes. Elsewhere, as on ‘Bayani’, there’s more of a desert blues feel. In whatever style, though, this is a superb album from its first ringing note to its last.