We find it more interesting to do something that engages the tradition in a deep way but expands it, rather than working from a “music as artifact” position. It doesn’t work for a festival concert, where those elements would be entirely out of context. The songs played and lyrics sung relate to the people involved. The music heard at a wedding, for example, is specifically structured for that event. We have tried to distill its core elements and put them into a pop idiom. NMS: Music in traditional settings is quite different. WCP: Is the music you play at festivals and internationally in nightclubs the same as what you play at home? Mauritania now has a great number of refugees from Northern Mali. Ultimately all the shows were cancelled due to security concerns, in addition to a major concert we had planned at the Institut Français in Nouakchott, which was closed for several months after the French military intervention. The band was also booked for the 2013 Festival-au-Desert caravan which planned to have shows in Eastern Mauritania, Mali, and Burkina Faso. When the war broke out, soon after the festival, we had to cancel traveling to Bamako as the airport was closed. Everyone was very happy with our performance there and we felt like there was some new momentum developing with plans to return to Mali to collaborate with Bassekou Kouyate and Tinariwen. We performed at the last edition in 2012 in Timbuktu, at a moment when my career was starting to get re-energized. The Festival in the Desert, organized by Manny Ansar, is an event we have played at three times and has been a steady ally on promotion. NMS: Mauritania shares a sizable border with Northern Mali and the peoples overlap somewhat.
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WCP: How have the conflicts in Northern Mali impacted your lives? Ousmane also performs with many of the other major artists in Mauritania like Malouma and Ousmane Gangué.
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He was on all of my previous albums and has toured with me since the very beginning. We have known him forever and he started working with the band in our first formation back in 2004. Ousmane Touré is the premier bassist in Nouakchott.
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Since about 2012 he has also been managing the band, producing our last album, and booking our first U.S. We loved his drumming and invited him collaborate with us in Mauritania and have been working together ever since. We first heard him at a festival in Senegal, Banlieu Rhythme, where he was performing with a Senegalese soul singer. He lives in Dakar, Senegal, but comes to Nouakchott (in Mauritania) often for concerts and tours. NMS: Tinari has been working with us for the past several years as our drummer. WCP: When and how did you husband Jeiche Ould Chighaly learn to play guitar? Some of my father’s compositions were popularized and recorded by Dimi, songs which are still in my own repertoire today. Touring with Dimi was my first time on stage in Europe in front of an international audience.
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As “griot,” our family is blessed with many great musicians and from a young age I was always in the presence of music-at home, at weddings, and there were always occasions to sing.Īs a professional performing artist, singing as a backing vocalist with Dimi Mint Abba (my stepmother), was a very formative experience.
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It is she who taught me how to play the ardine, an instrument played only by women in Mauritania. My grandmother, Mounina, was also a great singer and influence.
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After his studies in Iraq he brought back a lot of knowledge about music theory and was the first to devise a way to notate Moorish music. He was a real scholar of music and instrumental in opening up Moorish tradition to new kinds of composition. Noura Mint Seymali: My father, “Seymali,” ( Seymali Ould Mouhamed Vall) was my greatest teacher and the person to whom I owe most of my musical education. Washington City Paper: How did you learn to sing?