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The Tuareg people have been desert
traders since prehistory, following the camel routes that connect the
Meditarranean with sub-Saharan Africa. Like them, the Wodaabe are nomads,
though they are more likely to trade cattle than camels. The two groups’
territories overlap in Niger and Nigeria, and it was in Niger that
representatives of these two very distinct groups (six Wodaabe and four
Tuareg) first met in 2004 to form Etran Finatawa or “Stars of
Tradition”. The band’s excellent first CD, Introducing Etran
Finatawa, was recorded in France during an European tour in the
summer of 2005 [...].
Fans of Tinawaren will immediately recognize the
hypnotic proto-blues grooves of Tuareg music, its plaintive
call-and-response structure that seems to anticipate everything from
field blues to American spirituals to Motown singles, its incorporation
of electric guitar and bass into traditional melodies. The Wodaabes’
music is less well known, less instrumentally based. It is characterized
by multilayered vocals and handclaps, and always accompanied by
slow-motion, costumed dance. Etran Finatawa merges the two traditions,
laying Tuareg beats under trance-inducing polyphonies, embellishing
communal reveries with blues-leaning electric guitar. [...] [From
PopMatters]
More about the
Wodaabe (in French) |
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