K7-18: Bintou Sidibe

In place of an image of the Bintou cassette, which I don't have, is a picture my friend drew in one of my notebooks that I rediscovered the other day. Thanks Nicole!

Voici another wassoulou treasure. My brief searches for information on Bintou Sidibe were rather fruitless (although this was cool). The basic knowledge I already had, learned through brief conversations, was that Bintou is of the old school of wassoulou women, among Coumba Sidibe and Kagbe Sidibe. And you can hear the force in her voice, perhaps not as booming as that of Coumba but still the powerful style original to the music, unlike much of the more recent pop singers (which is not to say any one is better than the other, perhaps only a shift in aesthetic).

I like the long form of Neye Dounanye and especially the extended instrumental parts in Djigui. The relaxed tempo of all the music is quite pretty. The small ensemble allows the intricate and rhythmic playing of each instrument to blend very well; nothing is muddled (wait for Vol. 2, full of synthesizers and drum machine). Each musician is damn good.

Enjoy!

In the spirit of homemade art-work, below is a quick drawing of mine--a rather random, twisty staircase. Recently I decided I want to start using grey-scale (rather than just black ink or colors), so this is my first attempt to figure out how to use different shades of grey. But as I was browsing through an art store I discovered French Grey markers. I liked the ghostly brown hue to them so that's what the stairs are. The grassy weedy stuff is 'normal' grey. Why limit myself to one set of greys when I can have all the colors of the grey rainbow? We'll see how this project goes...


Is French vs 'normal' grey something like metric vs English units?