Aby Ngana Diop LIITAL
Aby Ngana Diop LIITAL
Brilliant, bombastic and beautiful, this recording of Aby Ngana Diop’s only cassette is one of the most unique recordings I’ve ever heard. Senegalese music that combines mbalax, tassu (rap-like traditional stylings) and a dash of what sounds like drum n’ bass.
Senegalese griot Aby Ngana Diop was famous for her taasu, a form of oral poetry spoken to the rhythmic accompaniment of sabar and tama drums. Taasu is typically created and performed by griot women (a class of poets, storytellers and/or musicians), with a lead taasukat (practitioner of taasu) performing her distinct style of heightened, rhythmically declaimed speech in call-and-response with a small chorus of female vocalists. (Taasu is seen by some to be a predecessor to rap.)
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Diop developed a reputation for being one of the most sought-after taasukats in Dakar, performing with her backup singers, dancers and drummers at parties, weddings and baptisms of the Dakar elite, including government officials and dignitaries.
Known for her piercing, powerful voice, Diop was loved not only for her skills in taasu but for her “ngéwële,” or “art of being griot” – her speech, manner, facial expressions and hand gestures – all of which encapsulated the essence of griotness. When she performed, she commanded and captured everyone’s attention with her charismatic stage presence and humor.
Aby Ngana Diop was undisputedly the best taasukat of her generation.
Aby Ngana Diop LIITAL
Brillant, bombastisch und wunderschön - diese Aufnahme von Aby Ngana Diops einziger Kassette ist eine der einzigartigsten Aufnahmen, die ich je gehört habe. Senegalesische Musik, die Mbalax, Tassu (Rap-ähnliche traditionelle Stilistiken) und eine Prise Drum'n'Bass kombiniert.
Der senegalesische Griot Aby Ngana Diop war berühmt für sein Taasu, eine Form der mündlichen Poesie, die zur rhythmischen Begleitung von Sabar- und Tamatrommeln vorgetragen wird. Taasu wird in der Regel von Griot-Frauen (einer Klasse von Dichtern, Geschichtenerzählern und/oder Musikern) kreiert und vorgetragen, wobei eine führende Taasukat (Taasu-Praktikerin) ihren eigenen Stil der gesteigerten, rhythmisch deklamierten Rede im Call-and-Response-Verfahren mit einem kleinen Chor von Sängerinnen vorträgt. (Taasu wird von einigen als Vorläufer des Rap angesehen.)
In den 1980er und 1990er Jahren erwarb sich Diop den Ruf, eine der gefragtesten Taasukats in Dakar zu sein, die mit ihren Backgroundsängerinnen, Tänzerinnen und Trommlern auf Partys, Hochzeiten und Taufen der Dakarer Elite, darunter Regierungsbeamte und Würdenträger, auftrat.
Diop, die für ihre durchdringende, kraftvolle Stimme bekannt war, wurde nicht nur für ihre Taasu-Künste geliebt, sondern auch für ihre "ngéwële", die "Kunst, Griot zu sein" - ihre Sprache, ihr Auftreten, ihre Mimik und ihre Handgesten, die allesamt die Essenz des Griot-Seins verkörpern. Bei ihren Auftritten zog sie mit ihrer charismatischen Bühnenpräsenz und ihrem Humor die Aufmerksamkeit des Publikums auf sich.
Aby Ngana Diop war unbestreitbar die beste Taasukat ihrer Generation.
Awesome Tapes from Africa
Awesome Tapes From Africa is a record label and web site operated by Brian Shimkovitz.
The site was founded in 2006 in Brooklyn, New York.
The site was created as a way for Shimkovitz to share music he had come across while on a scholarship in Ghana.
He was interested in the variety of genres and artists he found, distributed largely on cassette tapes at markets, but that he had not come across outside West Africa.
In 2011 he transitioned the site from just a blog with posted recordings of collected tapes posted without the artists' permission to a commercial record label.
The goal of the company is to seed and expand an audience for the artists presented as well as provide opportunities to sell albums and tour.
Artists are paid every six months and receive 50% of the profits from an album.
Tapes presented on Awesome Tapes come from a variety of sources: gathered in Ghanaian street markets, purchased in stores in the US, or sent by others over the internet.
In addition to the website, Shimkovitz DJ's concerts, clubs and at festivals as Awesome Tapes From Africa, as well as hosts a show on Dublab.
Most Awesome Tapes From Africa releases are official rereleases of out-of-print cassettes from African musicians and bands.
SK Kakraba's Songs of Paapieye is the first album to consist of a new release. Although music is distributed in Africa via MP3 on mobile phones, Shimkovitz says the widest variety of music in West Africa is still available on cassette tape.
In the journal Public Culture, Awesome Tapes From Africa, along with record labels Sublime Frequencies and Parallel World, is discussed as being emblematic of "World Music 2.0" for combining the "open source ethics of online networks with long-standing countercultural networks of circulation" within cassette culture and music distribution in developing nations.