mudd up!

DIABATE’S MANDE VARIATIONS

a piece I wrote on Toumani Diabete is in the current issue of Frieze, a magazine whose cover looks like this:

click on the foto for a readable version:

posted by jace on May 6, 2008. you can subscribe to this post's comments via rss 2.0.

4 comments

1. alan:
   May 7, 2008

   Que onda JACEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!- Pues he leido ese articulo sobre Toumani Diabete y practicamente cuando lo lei crei q estabas exagerando un poco– jaja!!. asi q me lo acabo de bajar del emule y que puedo decir – es una JOYA!!!- me he sentado en mi mueble y he sentido cosas raras al escuchar este disco—- Saludos y ojala nos podemas ver pronto!!–

2. james gyre:
   May 9, 2008

   nice article… the britney spears reference made me jump a bit…hilarious. also, word on diabete “sampling” others music. on the oddly modern album “mali music” by toumani diabete & friends, i swear he quotes sting’s “fields of gold” in like, three tracks.

   i always have to put a disclaimer to people after i explain my dj style… it goes something like- not “world music smaltz fusion”, but a dustier undercurrent of eclecticism…

   your article (and blog) documents this phenomena quite deftly.

3. Pete:
   May 14, 2008

   Jace,
   Thanks for the perspective. It has all the nuance of a lengthier essay with all the accessibility of a magazine article, and the subject matter is perfect to illustrate your point. One thing: I wonder if both you and James trading could be trading in one binary (traditional vs. modern) for another (electronica/smaltz fusion vs. “dustier eclecticisms”) in your understanding of cosmopolitanism?

   pete

4. jace:
   May 16, 2008

   Thanks Pete! Where in my piece did you see that binary swap though, or are you referring to a more general attitude here on the blog? particularly in the case of Diabete, this record – a solo acoustic one – is a huge rarity for him, he’s usually much more in the band/hybrid/fusion world, generally speaking. i wonder how ‘smaltz’ and ‘cheese’ work, as adjectives or types of classification — in part b/c i’m getting pretty enamored of unequivocally CHEESY & SMALTZY mexican cumbia.

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