Nahawa Doumbia :: “Vol 2” - Awesome Tapes From Africa
Awesome Tapes From Africa’s Brian Shimkovitz has been carefully collecting and eagerly excavating wonderfully brilliant music and archival anomalies from the esoteric entirety of the continent of Africa’s cosmic community and cultural crevasses for well over a decade. With releases ranging in genre, tonal tradition, rhythmic ritual, melodic mediation and language of the land, the label revisits a captivating classic from the mesmerizing mind of one of Mafélé’s musical masters and lyrical legends, Nahawa Doumbia. Born and raised in the Wassoulou region of Mali in the late 1950s, Doumbia’s relationship and initial connection with music, like most of her generation, wasn’t by coincidence or happenstance but more so by shattering the tragic taboos and empty expectations that were set in place for her at an early age as a blacksmith. After winning a contest on the French-based network Radio France Internationale as a young woman, Doumbia was discovered by local bureaucrats before setting her stellar sights on becoming not only a musician but a cultural concept in women’s fundamental freedoms and epicenter to express, explore and elaborate on the soul’s significant search for love and poetic peace within the confines of poverty, community chains and the iconic isolation of her land from the rest of the world. Between 1981 and 1982, Doumbia recorded and released a three-volume series of albums — “La Grande Cantatrice Malienne - Vol. 1”, “Vol. 2” and “La Grande Cantatrice Malienne - Vol. 3” on the Ivory Coast based label in Côte d’Ivoire, AS Records, which in recent years, have all seen proper reissues from the hive mind of ATFA in their most potent perfection for the masses, both familiar and unfamiliar with the legend’s blissed out collection of complex and delicate works.
“A lot of women sing love songs, but I’m a fighter. I fight for children’s education and for marriage—particularly for monogamy. Good relationships are very important. You have to work in order to succeed.”
Joined by various local musicians and composers such as Doumbia’s future husband N'Gou Bagayoko and percussionist Moussa Traoré, the preliminary princess surged through the lavish layers and levels of society, and cultural contemplation by prioritizing not only the strength of music, but by volunteering relentless energy and radical resources into the youth. After the release of her debut album “La Grande Cantatrice Malienne - Vol 1”, Doumbia found herself embracing the more broad sound of a full band, rather than her more typical stripped-down variations of voyaging vocals in the solo-vain. With various musicians and communal collaborators playing instruments such as synthesizers and electric guitars, the queen of quantum expression recorded fiercely in the 1980s and 1990s after singing with Syllart Records, a French label based on African and Afro-Latin music that was established in the late 1970s by the Senegalese producer Ibrahima Sylla, and other various labels, releasing a rapid firing body of work featuring titles like “Didadi”, “Nyama Toutou”, “Yaala” and many more as genres and generations began to shape-shift into the sifting sands of time and space like that of some lingering levitation during the practice of death. Expanding her epic sound, harmonious horizons and all around the lawless landscape of non-stop creation, Doumbia captured the sudden sun setting and moody moons burning white light into the perfected paths of demonstration and human greatness for all to hear, even during the most daunting of days.
For the first time since its cosmic conception in 1982, ATFA and longtime collaborator and audio engineer Jessica Thompson, have officially remastered the retro recordings of “Vol.2” with calculated care and leveling love for a whole new audience of listeners and ambassadors of archival obsession to enjoy for all eternity. Making this the label’s 50th release since its official launch in 2010, it was Doumbia’s “La Grande Cantatrice Malienne - Vol. 3” that set not only the label up in the beginning, but a whole new connection to the fascinatingly rich history and lyrical lineage of Africa and the ethereal talent and tradition from its prevailing people. Set for release on December 6th on all formats, “Vol 2” is both compelling and immersed in intimacy and a propelling personality.
