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.
Aurelio, Badian, Damily, and the Kid From Timbuktu
Aurelio, Badian, Damily and the Kid from Timbuktu
This guitar-focused program presents a series of mostly acoustic sessions with Garifuna star Aurelio Martinez, griot guitar master Aboubacar "Badian" Diabate, Malagasy tsapika phenom Damily, and Abdramane Toure, the 17-year-old guitarist for Khaira Arby of Timbuktu. These four uniquely talented players talk about their careers, their learning process, and their highly personal guitar styles. Along the way we catch up with a rich selection of beautifully guitar-filigreed music, from Honduran soul to Sahara desert blues and the uniquely boogieing funerals of southern Madagascar.
Aurelio
A personal and musical friend of late Garifuna star Andy Palacio, Aurelio (Martinez) has been a stalwart of Central American Garifuna tradition and language for decades. The Garifuna descend from African and Caribbean native peoples, and have a distinct and marginalized culture in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Aurelio spent 4 years advocating for his people as an elected representative to the Honduran congress. But now he has returned to music full time. He launched his new album, Laru Beya (Next Ambiance), at the 2011 globalFEST extravaganza in New York. The album includes elements of Senegalese music, introduced through Aurelio's Rolex-funded mentorship with Youssou N'Dour in 2009.
Aboubacar "Badian" Diabate was born to a griot family in Mali, but since his father was a civil administrator, Badian did not study music at home the way other young griots do. Rather he learned with his cousin, eventually settling on guitar and quickly proving himself one of the most nimble and creative among a rich crop of young guitarists in Bamako. Badian impressed many, including guitar giant Djelimady Tounkara (Super Rail Band), who introduced the young ace to Afropop's Banning Eyre back in 1996. Badian went on to play with many great griot singers, including Kandia Kouyate, Diallou Damba, Amy Koita, and his own wife, Nene Soumano. Badian's playing is a force of nature, and he has begun an instrumental recording career back home in Mali. His name is not widely known outside his country, but it will be. Watch www.afropop.org for an upcoming web video on this remarkable young talent.
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Damily
Damily is the king of the tsapika guitar. Tsapika (sometimes tsapiky) is vibrant, guitar-driven dance music from the Southwest of Madagascar. A combination of local traditions and dance rhythms from southern African pop, tsapika's true home is the rural dances or bals poussières (dusty dances) that accompany weddings, baptisms, funerals and other village celebrations. Damily came of age with tsapika, which began in the late 80s when he was still a teenager. In the tsapika tradition, Damily's band is named after him, not its singers, wonderful as they are. He is a finger picking monster who has moved the tsapika style from electric to acoustic guitar. Damily now lives in Paris, but returns often to Madagascar, and brings his group from there when it's time to tour abroad.
When the most celebrated singer of the Malian desert north, Khaira Arby, came to the US for her long overdue first tour in the summer of 2010, audiences were electrified by the power of her voice, the depth of her grooves, and the peeling riffs flowing from the hands of her astounding young guitarist. Not yet 20, Abdremane Toure plays with the touch, speed, nuance and subtlety of an old master. His father, Bastos Toure, has been part of Oumou Sangare's band for years now, and has served as an excellent model for his precociously talented son. Dramane, as colleagues call him, makes a marriage of Tuareg, Sonrai and other Malian traditions with the edgy blues rock of Hendrix and Clapton. He does this with arresting naturalness and ease. He is without a doubt one of the most exciting young African guitarists Afropop has encountered in many years.
A personal and musical friend of late Garifuna star Andy Palacio, Aurelio (Martinez) has been a stalwart of Central American Garifuna tradition and language for decades. The Garifuna descend from African and Caribbean native peoples, and have a distinct and marginalized culture in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Aurelio spent 4 years advocating for his people as an elected representative to the Honduran congress. But now he has returned to music full time. He launched his new album, Laru Beya (Next Ambiance), at the 2011 globalFEST extravaganza in New York. The album includes elements of Senegalese music, introduced through Aurelio's Rolex-funded mentorship with Youssou N'Dour in 2009. 
Aboubacar "Badian" Diabate was born to a griot family in Mali, but since his father was a civil administrator, Badian did not study music at home the way other young griots do. Rather he learned with his cousin, eventually settling on guitar and quickly proving himself one of the most nimble and creative among a rich crop of young guitarists in Bamako. Badian impressed many, including guitar giant Djelimady Tounkara (Super Rail Band), who introduced the young ace to Afropop's Banning Eyre back in 1996. Badian went on to play with many great griot singers, including Kandia Kouyate, Diallou Damba, Amy Koita, and his own wife, Nene Soumano. Badian's playing is a force of nature, and he has begun an instrumental recording career back home in Mali. His name is not widely known outside his country, but it will be. Watch 
