Edition 45: Winter 2008/9

It’s been a great year for African music in the UK, with the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards honouring a host of the continent’s rising stars and Damon Albarn’s Africa Express gathering steam in Liverpool and London. Here Emma Gregg selects the pick of the year’s most enjoyable new releases.

Desert Crossroads
Etran Finatawa (Niger)
Riverboat Records
This band of Tuareg and Wodaabe musicians weave together the sounds of the Sahel, evoking long journeys, tea ceremonies and the calls of desert herdsmen.

Douga Mansa
Mamadou Diabaté (Mali/USA)
World Village
Effervescent melodies from a gifted young kora-player.

Mali Koura
Issa Bagayogo (Mali)
Six Degrees
Bagayogo’s daring style, blending desert blues with electronica, comes of age in this, his fourth international release.

Tchamantché
Rokia Traoré (Mali)
Nonesuch
Fans of Rokia Traoré’s sophisticated musical style have had to wait five long years since her last album, Bowmboï. In this triumphant return, her sound is stronger than ever. A delicious cover of Billie Holliday’s The Man I Love is an unexpected highlight alongside Malian blues tracks, but best of all is the beautiful closing song, A Ou Ni Sou, in which a steel drum partners Traoré’s delicate voice.

Many Things
Seun Kuti & Fela’s Egypt 80 (Nigeria)
Tôt ou Tard
Fela Kuti’s youngest son, who has been performing live in Lagos since he was nine years old, proves he has what it takes to keep the fire of Afrobeat ablaze.

Rebel Woman
Chiwoniso (Zimbabwe)
Cumbancha
Rippling mbira lends spice and substance to an uplifting collection of songs.

Ana Hina
Natacha Atlas and the Mazeeka Ensemble (Belgium/Egypt)
World Village
Classy vocals delivered by one of Egypt’s favourite songstresses.

3MA
Rajery, Sissoko & El Maloumi (Madagascar, Mali, Morocco)
Contre-Jour
An intriguing musical conversation from a trio playing Madagascan valiha, Malian kora and Moroccan oud.

Welcome to Mali
Amadou & Mariam (Mali)
Because
Once again, the unstoppable blind duo have hitched up with a pop maverick (previously, it was Manu Chao; this time, Damon Albarn) and produced something extraordinary: a set of thumping tunes which sound almost as global as they do Malian. This compelling offering comes within a hair’s-breadth of grabbing our album-of-the-year slot.

Album of the year -The Mandé Variations
Toumani Diabaté (Mali)
World Circuit
Toumani Diabaté, Mali’s much-travelled master of the kora, never seems to put a foot wrong. The last few years have seen him jamming with African greats such as the late Ali Farka Touré and joining forces with Western luminaries from Björk to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, gathering fresh accolades at every turn. In The Mandé Variations, we find him on home turf for a solo acoustic album which is tender, thoughtful and utterly sublime.