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style taarab / traditional / ngoma festivals Sauti za Busara 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 website recordings Zanzibar (Retroafric, 1995), Machozi ya Huba (Heartbeat, 2003), Zanzibara 4: Bi Kidude (Buda, 2006) Feb 2009 Sat 14, 7:05pm Old Fort - Mambo Club | ||
Bi Kidude bint Baraka is Zanzibar’s most famous cultural ambassador and East Africa’s legendary barefoot diva of taarab and unyago traditional music. Bi Kidude’s exact date of birth is unknown, much of her life story is uncorroborated, giving her an almost mythical status. Kidude started out her musical career in the 1920s, and learnt many of her songs with Siti bint Saad. She has performed in countries all around Europe, Africa, Middle East and Japan and finally recorded her first solo album Zanzibar only ten years ago, whilst already in her mid-eighties. Having contributed tracks to many international compilations (on Retro-Afric, Piranha, Globestyle, Jahazi, even EMI/Virgin record labels), only recently did she release her own second locally-produced album (Machozi ya Huba, Heartbeat Records) with her traditional singing and drums influencing the burgeoning Zenji Flava local hiphop scene in one of the most remarkable juxtapositions of musical style in modern world music. As well as being East Africa’s most famous taarab singer, Bi Kidude performs traditional unyago music. In her 90s, she is still very much the island’s leading exponent of this ancient dance ritual, performed exclusively for teenage girls, which uses traditional rhythms to teach women to pleasure their husbands, while lecturing against the dangers of sexual abuse and oppression. In October 2005, Bi Kidude was presented with the World Music Expo (WOMEX) lifetime achievement award. Renowned African music expert Banning Eyre delivered a moving tribute, in which he informed delegates that “the singer, well in her nineties yet still sporting a bone-crushing handshake, received the honours in recognition of her more than 80 years of singing and serving as a cultural mediator and advisor of the younger generations, including on matters of sex and marriage - a proper symbol of World Music’s emancipatory, liberating and strengthening power.”
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I've been planning out a trip to Mali and Senegal for a few months and I'm getting ready to leave soon. I failed in persuading Amato to come along-- although I have a feeling if it was Maui instead of Mali, it might have worked. Meanwhile these two west African countries have incredibly rich musical traditions that have had immense impact on popular American music. I've been lucky to have introductions to musicians in both countries. I didn't know much about Bassekou Kouyate-- aside from the fact that he's a cool ngoni player, did some work with Dee Dee Bridgewater and Taj Mahal and that he is at the Royal Albert Hall in London tonight and has a killer My Space page and a wonderful EPK. I'll write back from Bamako after I see him play live in a few weeks. For now, I hope you enjoy his music as much as I do.
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