=================
 Les Amazones De GuinéeWamato (Stern's) Les Amazones de Guinée are a unique and quite amazing institution within African music. Since the early 60s they have criss-crossed the continent, with only occasional forays beyond, to help bring their particular brand of joy to the cause of women’s emancipation. Yet this is only their 2nd album, tight yet fluid, with the loping rhythms so particular to Guinea, bitter-sweet harmonies and vocals full of conviction. As the cry of “Retour en force des Amazones!” at the beginning of this album attests, these women demand to be heard. The Amazones are back with a vengeance. This is the gold-standard for female (or any other) bands in Africa and an enduring symbol of African women’s emancipation. Highly recommended
|
|
Yet “Wamato” is only their 2nd album. Tight yet fluid with the loping rhythms so particular to Guinea, bitter-sweet harmonies and vocals full of conviction; is there any other band like Les Amazones? As the cry at the beginning of this album attests: “Retour en force des Amazones!” (The Amazones - back with a vengeance!) – these women demand to be heard. “The Amazones - back with a vengeance!” is the cry at the opening of 'Wamato', the new recording from Les Amazones de Guinée, the gold-standard for female bands in Africa and an enduring symbol of African women's emancipation. During the 60s and 70s, they toured the world while representing Sekou Touré's Guinea. Newspaper headlines proclaimed them the “Goddesses of African music” or the “she-tigers of the stage”. And it's true, Les Amazones display a grace and magic on stage. But they are also militia women. Yet who would recognise these fifteen women when in their khaki combats? For their first, and still today unreleased, recording of 1961 made for the national public radio R.T.G., they were called the “Women's Orchestra of the Guinean Militia”. But for foreign tours it was felt that “Les Amazones de Guinée” would sound more glamorous. And so the women of the militia became 'Les Amazones'. In their early years they played unplugged: mandolin, violin, cello, double-bass, bongos, conga. With these instruments they wrote and performed, in their own unique and limpid style, songs that urged African women to rid themselves of the complexes inherited from a feudal system based on custom. “Woman of Africa”, “Long live African Women” were chants taken up by many women of the 60s. In 1965 came the great shift to electrical instruments; in came the bass guitar, guitar and drum kits, as well as the brass of trumpets, tenor and alto sax. For more than a decade Les Amazones criss-crossed the continent, hailed as the true 'Queens of Africa' while attempts by other similar groups failed. The high-spot of this period was 1977 and FESTAC held in Lagos, Nigeria. There the Afro-intelligentsia, who viewed this cultural summit as a landmark in the history of African music, were knocked out by both their presence and performances. 1982 was the year of their first recording as Les Amazones De Guinée. The album 'Au cœur de Paris' included the defiant work “Samba”, describing the life of a man who doesn't know what he wants, and “PDG” (Parti Démocratique de Guinée), an ode to Guinea's political party featuring the twirling guitar solos of their peerless Queen, Nyépou Haba. Today the Amazones return, 25 years after that album recorded in the very heart of Paris. Two albums in forty seven years! Is there any other group as popular yet with such a slim discography? Les Amazones have been the gold-standard for female groups in post-independent Africa; a symbol of African woman's emancipation and they remain a rarely imitated example. As women with experience of the army, they are no strangers to duty or hard work, and when you see these fifteen militiawomen concentrating on their final rehearsal before the album is presented to the public of Conakry, then you'd better believe it! In the overheated hangar next to the People's Palace, Commander Salématou Diallo's eyes are fixed on the neck of her bass, large pearls of sweat on her forehead. The fifteen Amazones have set aside their khaki combats for billowing boubous, and exchanged their army-issue guns for musical instruments. Despite the chaos of a minibus journey along the muddy roads from Conakry to Bogolan recording studios in Bamako, Mali, they remain focussed. This recording marks a new departure, integrating new “recruits” following the deaths of some of the original Amazones like Nyépou Haba, a.k.a. 'La Reine des Amazones', and the retirement of some of their oldest members. In this studio where the now deceased Ali Farka Touré, Damon Albarn, Rokia Traore, Oumou Sangaré, Idrissa Soumahoro and Mandekalou have recorded, Les Amazones rediscovered the fluidity of their guitar work, and created an album which justifies their reputation as artists from an African music history that you just can't ignore. Why Les Amazones? Their name derives from African history, the female warriors of King Behanzin of Benin who gave their lives for freedom, equality and peace: values that these Queens will be perpetuating on their forthcoming tour that marks a new chapter in a saga already old. - Pierre René Worms, Radio France Internationale L'Orchestre Les Amazones de Guinée
> via: http://www.cdroots.com/st-wamato.html |