RAIL BAND. Discography
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| Cat# STCD3043-44 | BELLE EPOQUE VOLUME 3: DIOBA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
STERNS AFRICAReleased: 06 Apr 2009 Country: MALI  Sterns TOP VeteranDate/place on top Nov 2010 - 22Aug 2010 - 25Feb 2010 - 14Jan 2010 - 11Dec 2009 - 16Nov 2009 - 13Oct 2009 - 7Sep 2009 - 5Aug 2009 - 5Jul 2009 - 10Jun 2009 - 1May 2009 - 1 Price: £13.95  |
 • This is the final piece in the anarchic jigsaw that is the story - as told by world-renowned producer and entrepreneur, Ibrahim Sylla – of Mali’s legendary Rail Band. Once again we have the soaring guitars, impassioned vocals and long, compelling workouts such as “Wale Numa Lombaliya”, that were a trademark of this group. And again, in songs such as the chugging locomotive that is “Sinsimba”, we hear the powerful impact that Fela’s Afropop had throughout West Africa. "Malian modern-roots band—which featured world music stars-to-be Salif Keita and Mory Kante, both winningly represented—in a collection that is both as scholarly and as vibrant as the label's The Syliphone Years series, showcasing the contemporaneous bands of neighbouring Guinea." Chris May All About Jazz "Their roots were griot (celebrating the exploits of the 13th-century Malian king Sunjata), but they also drew on music from Latin America, Afro-beat, rock and pop. The result is a lovely double-CD, powered by guitar and trumpet, keyboards and balafon." Michael Church The Independent
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| : | Rail Band
Belle Epoque Vol. 3 - Dioba Sterns Africa 2009 With Belle Epoque Vol. 3 - Dioba, the estimable Sterns Africa label has completed another definitive archive project documenting West Africa's post-colonial "belle epoque" of the 1960s and 1970s. The three two-disc volumes in the series present the hits, highlights and lesser known treasures made by the Rail Band, the era's pre-eminent Malian modern-roots band—which featured world music stars-to-be Salif Keita and Mory Kante, both winningly represented—in a collection that is both as scholarly and as vibrant as the label's The Syliphone Years series, showcasing the contemporaneous bands of neighbouring Guinea. The "belle epoque" found West African musicians celebrating their cultural legacies with a confidence born of independence from colonial rule, and placing those legacies in contexts which combined traditional song forms, rhythms and instrumentation—notably koras, balafons, drums and percussion—with electric guitars, saxophones and brass introduced during the colonial era. The bands gave voice to the increasingly urbanised African societies from which they emerged, keen to preserve and refashion their heritages for modern times: the Rail Band called what they played "Mandingo classicism" or "modern folklore." Crucially, the "belle epoque" pre-dated the emergence of the world music movement, which created new markets for bands but which, inevitably, also led to aesthetic compromises, by no means all of them well-judged or enduring. The music of the "belle epoque" era was an explosion of creativity unfettered by market considerations beyond the purely local. The Rail Band has much in common with Senegal's more widely known Orchestra Baobab. Both bands were formed around 1970 and in their original incarnations were active until the mid 1980s, exploring similar, modern-roots terrains. But while the "belle epoque" Rail Band, particularly in the years when Keita was its lead vocalist, was at home with the stately and spacious, rolling savannah rhythms which typified Baobab's output, much of their music was wilder, more urgent, raw and intense, and included Malian spins on Nigerian Afrobeat and Congolese rumba. This rainbow of sounds was magnified by the differing styles of the band's chief songwriters and vocalists—Salif Keita from 1970-72, followed by Mory Kante and Magan Ganessy, who were featured alongside each other during the mid 1970s—each of whom brought his own, singular, ethnic folklore tradition with him. Like its predecessors Belle Epoque Vol. 1 - Soundiata (Sterns, 2007) and Belle Epoque Vol. 2 - Mansa (Sterns, 2008), Dioba presents a selection of tracks recorded by the Rail Band between 1970 and 1983. Two are from the Keita years, most are from the mid 1970s, with Kante featured on six tracks and Ganessy on five. An entrancing thread running through all the tracks recorded from 1972 onwards is lead guitarist Djelimady Tounkara, a brilliantly imaginative player whose style incorporates cascading, kora-like, single-note runs, jazzy chorded passages and laid back savannah rock, all of it fed through an echo chamber variously set between five and 11. Tounkara has the transporting lyricism of Baobab's lead guitarist, Barthelemy Attisso, but places it on a broader stylistic canvas. Dioba showcases the Rail Band in all its splendid moods and colours: from Keita's spiritualised and virtuosic "Maki" and "Soyomba," through Ganessy's fierce going on feral "Kadia Kandian" and "Djamban," the re-Africanised Stax-Volt soul of Kante's "Mariba Yassa" and his mesmeric take on Afrobeat, "Sinsimba," spacier and nimbler than originator Fela Kuti's style, on to the rumba-infused "Foliba" and "Talassa." Two 1982 tracks, "Diby" and "Diabate," feature the psychedelicised keyboards of Alfred Coulibaly, a late but valuable addition to the line-up, inhabiting adjacent territory to that being explored by the American keyboard player Marco Benevento on Me Not Me (The Royal Potato Family, 2009), two and a half decades later. Such sumptuous diversity makes it hard to stereotype the Rail Band, which creates an artistic bonus but a marketing challenge. Partly as a consequence, their cousins Orchestra Baobab have to date made the bigger impact, both with their heritage recordings and as a reformed band on the international festival and concert circuit. Anyone who loves Baobab, but who has yet to discover the Rail Band, should do themselves a favour and check Mali's "belle epoque" finest out. A feast of magnificent music awaits you. Tracks: CD1: Bedianomogo; Sinsimba; Kadia Kandian; Wale Numa Lombaliya; Diby; Maki; Djamban; Mady Guindo; Den Nadiya. CD2: Kibaru; Mariba Yassa; Dioba; Tidiane Kone; Diabate; Foliba; Soyomba; Karitea; Jurukan; Talassa. Personnel: Salif Keita: lead vocals (CD1: 6; CD2: 7) ; Mory Kante: lead vocals (CD1: 2, 4, 9; CD2: 2, 8, 9); Magan Ganessy: lead vocals (CD1: 3, 7, 8; CD2: 1, 3); Djelimady Sissoko: lead vocals (CD2: 4); Sekou Kante: lead vocals (CD1: 1; CD2: 6); Lanfia Diabate: lead vocals (CD2: 5, 10); Sekou Kouyate: lead vocals (CD1: 5). Collective instrumental personnel: Nabe Baba: solo guitar; Djelmady Tounkara: solo guitar; Cheik Traore: guitar; Mamoulou Diakite: guitar; Ousmane Sogodogo: guitar; Djelimoussa Kouyate: guitar; Tidiani Kone: trumpet, tenor and alto saxophone; Sourakata Cisse: trumpet; Moussa Kone: trumpet; Kabine Keita: saxophones; Ledi Youla: saxophones; Mory Kante: balafon; Marius: timbales; Abdouramane Koumare: percussion; Pacheco: drums; Korobala: bongos; Moussa Traore: percussion; Charrie: percussion; Alfred Coulibaly: keyboards; Issa Tounkara: bass; Cheik Traore: bass. (This review by Chris May originally appeared at AllAboutJazz.com) |
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| Cat# STCD3039-40 | BELLE EPOQUE VOLUME 2: MANSA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
STERNS AFRICAReleased: 07 Jul 2008 Country: MALI Sterns TOP VeteranDate/place on top Nov 2010 - 23Aug 2009 - 11Jun 2009 - 14May 2009 - 19Apr 2009 - 25Mar 2009 - 22Feb 2009 - 14Jan 2009 - 6Dec 2008 - 5Nov 2008 - 3Oct 2008 - 2Sep 2008 - 2Aug 2008 - 1Jul 2008 - 20 Price: £13.95 |
 • Following on from our earlier, critically-acclaimed “Belle Epoque - Vol. 1: Soundiata”, with Vol. 2 we go much deeper. Not least into the 11 minutes 56 seconds epic title track “Mansa” featuring Mory Kanté, or the formidable “Kaïra” which showcases Djelimady Sissoko, a singer critical to the Rail Band’s story, but one who has rarely received the attention he deserves.
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| Cat# STCD3033-34 | BELLE EPOQUE VOLUME 1: SOUNDIATA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
STERNS AFRICAReleased: 11 Jun 2007 Country: MALI Sterns TOP VeteranDate/place on top May 2009 - 17Jan 2009 - 22Oct 2008 - 23Mar 2008 - 12Feb 2008 - 13Jan 2008 - 22Dec 2007 - 12Nov 2007 - 22Oct 2007 - 13Sep 2007 - 4Aug 2007 - 2Jul 2007 - 2 Price: £13.95 |
 • Here we have a slice of history - the first recordings of artists and a music that went on to help change the way that African music was perceived outside of Africa. Great languid rolling epics, or short intense bursts of fervour - it's all here in the crucible of the 'Rail Band'. "this is not some dry musical history lesson for these recording still sound more vibrant and original than much of what has followed since. Essential" Nigel Williamson Songlines Magazine "A terrific first volume, then, that illuminates the formative years of the Rail Band with detailed liner notes and beautifully illustrated graphics of the orginal albums and evocative photos of the musicians from the 1970s era. " Tim Stenhouse Vibe Magazine
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| Cat# CDS7051 | MORY KANTE & SALIF KEITA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SYLLART/SONOReleased: 12 May 1999 Country: MALI Price: £12.95 |
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| Cat# 38750-2 | SALIF KEITA & MORY KANTE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SYLLARTReleased: 20 Oct 1988 Country: MALI Price: £12.95  |
 The first recordings (circa 1970) of two future stars and their seminal band |
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