Hip Deep is Afropop's media project dedicated to the idea that music is a key to understanding everything. Get hip deep into programs on how the music formed and informed cultures in Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas, plus companion interviews, features, discographies and more.
New York City, April 24, 2009
Text and photos by Banning Eyre
The group Tinariwen first formed in the Tuareg military camps of Libya and Algeria in the 1980s, the early days of the Tuareg’s armed struggle for support and recognition in the region.Much of the fighting occurred in Mali, where most of the group’s members come from, but being nomads, and people who have intertwined musical expression and political struggle in the vast expanse of the Sahara, the members of Tinariwen have far flung and complex lines of loyalty and association.Take for instance the fact that the group rarely tours with the exact same lineup.If you catch them in Mali, you might find a veritable clan on the stage.Some of their tours have included two female vocalists, and the guitar lineup can change from tour to tour.Tinariwen’s chief spokesman Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni has described the group as a family, a spiritual collective who deliver a deeply hypnotic dose of Tuareg reality wherever they are, even though the complete coterie of members is virtually never in the same place at the same time.
Now with three fine CDs, and a new DVD (Live in London on World Village) to their credit, Tinariwen has grown accustomed to a more extended nomadism, one that includes Europe, Japan, and during their current US tour, the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, and on April 24, Le Poisson Rouge in New York City.The six musicians who took the stage were clad as always in flowing robes and turbans, which combined with electric guitars creates a magically paradoxical visual effect. Included in the lineup were two of the group’s most familiar figures, Ag Alhousseyni with his acoustic guitar, his cool demeanor, and his friendly but limited English, and Alhassane Ag Touhami, the elder and animateur of the group.As the show progressed Ag Touhami engaged the crowd with his joyful, understated dance moves, while an irresistible smile crawled across his weathered face.
Tinariwen sound tighter and punchier than ever these days.Longtime fans may miss the sight of wild-haired lead guitarist Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, but there was nothing lacking in the sound at Le Poisson Rouge.The players passed guitars, and even the bass, around from tune to tune, creating a variety of sonic textures, from a single guitar set off by vocals and hand percussion, to a clanging, droning swirl of three electric guitars intertwining meandering, vaguely bluesy melodies and chanking chord rhythms.Electric guitar blues and rock flow so naturally into the tonalilties, rhythms, textures, and moods of Tuareg folk music that it is tempting to think they come from the same source.That’s a tough argument to make, but what is sure is that the mournful vocal melodies, often sung in unison, and earthy, ecstatic guitar play in Tinariwen’s music go down very easily for listeners raised on American blues and rock.
One gratifying aspect of the Poisson Rouge show was the number of younger fans in the audience.Thanks to groups like Extra Golden and Toubab Krewe, a new generation of fans is discovering African music not via dance, folk, or even pop music, but rock.That is not to say that Tinariwen has in any way changed their sound, or pandered to reach this new audience.They just do what they do, and gradually, more and more folks have grown hip to it.The guitar work in this music is not flashy or virtuosic, but it is deeply authentic and graced with expressiveness and phrasing found nowhere else.In the era of desert blues and Africanized American rock, Tinariwen remain standard bearers.Before a sold-out crowd in New York, they were at the top of their game, and left a palpable aura of joy and transcendence in their wake.
