Habib Koite & Bamada - Africa

I first stumbled across Habib Koite's music at one of those evil listen-to-this stations at Borders... funny, how much money I saved when those things were inoperable, or, for selections not in one of the players or at other vendors, unable to be listened to...

(Retailers, please ignore that... allowing customers to hear music prior to purchasing is bad - they might buy something they otherwise would pass on and, inevitably, they will buy more! =)

Anyway, the album Afriki was one of those selections set up for listening ~ allegedly with the "World Music", but they often lined things up improperly, so this was with Blues, Jazz, or Classical. I do browse through the World section at times, but when I do it's for something specific.

The blurb posted above the album mentioned something about unique guitar stylings, and that caught my attention. It was the music in its entirety that caught me - yes, there are some great guitar bits, but I would say the percussion and the rhythms are what grabbed me. In any case, this is an exceptional album.

Here's the very-nearly-a-title-track off the album:

This song can also be found on MP3.