$10 Cover @ the Door / Start 8:15pm / Doors 7:45pm / Seated Show
Photo: Chris Nolan
“ primordial rock … thousands of years before the concept of rock was ever hatched.” - Dennis Rozanski
“The electronic buzz of plugged-in tehardent no longer sounds like the repetition of background music. Now, it starts a fire, fully energized, and with every member at full volume.” - Adriane Pontecorvo, popmatters.com
AL BILALI SOUDAN ‘s performances are an improvisational tour de force of traditional instruments, rhythms and scales sparked by the electricity of their passion. The group members all come from a well-known Tuareg griot family of master musicians who have been performing for generations. Aballau Yattara, the current group leader, his uncle Aboubacrine Yattara and their sons Mohamed Ag Abellaw and Tchiale Ag Aboubacrine make up the core group. Their instruments are known as tehardant in Tamashek, ngoni in Bambara, kourbou in Sonhrai, and tidinit in Arabic, is widely heard across West Africa. Some refer to it as precursor to the modern banjo but they just call them their guitars. With insistent percussion on a hollowed half gourd, Al Bilali Soudan represent the cultural foundations of a style that has evolved into the modern desert blues.
Contemporary masters of their instrument and genre, Al Bilali Soudan have released two albums. In 2012 an eponymous release and in 2020 the critically acclaimed “Tombouctou”. Performing regularly in Mali, Al Bilali Soudan were been invited to present a showcase at WOMEX 202 in Portugal as well as at globalFEST 2022 in New York City. Both those events were thwarted by pandemic restrictions to the great disappointment of the group. However, they were able to film video showcases which are available online. And WOMEX has invited them again to showcase in Lisbon in October 2022.
Abellow Yattara can be heard on early recordings by Ali Farka Toure, on 1970’s recordings of the Orchestre de Tombouctou, and many Radio Mali broadcasts. He accompanied the vocalist, Khaira Arby, on recordings and on tour. In 2010 he gave a master class at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Another uncle can be heard on the first recordings of traditional music in Northern Mali.
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