Miriya

We are blessed to have recently seen many releases by West African musicians who wish to retain the values of their Mande traditions. Seydou Diabaté, known as ‘Kanazoé’, is a balafon and kamalengoni player from Burkina Faso. Having learned his instrument in a traditional village environment, he progressed to performing and recording with several ensembles including his cousin Mamadou Diabaté’s group Percussion Mania, when they recorded Kanuya together. This is his first recording with his own band, the Kanazoé Orkestra, and it confirms his exceptional expertise and also the musicality of the group he has put together. The Orkestra is fronted by vocalist Zaky Diara, accompanied by Kanazoé’s own vocals and those of Mamadou Dembelé – all three coming from griot descent and singing in the Dioula language.

Dembelé plays ngoni and flute and the band is rounded out by saxophone, percussion, bass and drums. This creates a full sound with impressive interplay between balafon, ngoni, flute and sax – much of which is jazz-flavoured as much as it is rooted in the Mande tradition. Kanazoé’s rippling balafon is quite astounding, but it is the combined effort and musical prowess of the entire group that make this recording such an unmitigated joy.