Comments on: Bambino, rocking the guitar, Tuareg style

Bambino, rocking the guitar, Tuareg style

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 18:45:14 -0800

The other day someone asked me "who's the most deeply grooving and truly exciting electric guitar player you've heard lately?" and I said "this guy".

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 18:46:41 -0800

Here's Bambino in a mellower but no less enjoyable mood.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 18:53:59 -0800

Also, note that the band in the first clip consists only of Bambino, one other guitarist (no bass) and a drummer. Kickass.

By: water bear

water bear — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:03:37 -0800

YES. This is AWESOME. I love this. Also, I am pretty drunk.

By: _dario

_dario — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:10:14 -0800

(I'm not drunk and) this is awesome. It's got such a... fresh, spontaneous quality to it, it's reminescent of Woodstock (maybe it's the photography, certainly it's the public), or the Rooftop Concert. It's 'down' there we should be looking.

By: waitingtoderail

waitingtoderail — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:12:01 -0800

Awesome.

By: Nattie

Nattie — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:15:41 -0800

I feel this.

By: Faze

Faze — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:25:34 -0800

Is this their culture?

By: Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:28:19 -0800

In that first clip, I think he's just playing pentatonic improvisational music through an overdriven amp, something that sounds very familiar. But playing it over an African beat he creates something completely new. I actually can't recall ever hearing anyone do this before, and it really works, this is great. He is very good. Someday I'd like to travel through Africa focusing entirely on seeing musicians, and I'd like to take flapjax with me. Thank you for another great post.

By: daniel9223

daniel9223 — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:36:22 -0800

The second guitar player needs to play bass. This is awesome.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:36:30 -0800

Is this their culture? Uh... what?

By: adamdschneider

adamdschneider — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:37:20 -0800

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yeah.

By: selfnoise

selfnoise — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:40:42 -0800

This immediately reminded me of Tinariwen, another group of Tuareg musicians with electric chops. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcqlOq1cjjc

By: fleacircus

fleacircus — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:43:29 -0800

Is this their culture? *punches nearest thing* Whoa how did that happen.

By: Keith Talent

Keith Talent — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:43:47 -0800

Hippie jam band dancing is the same the world over. (Sorry - 8 posts about a musician and no snark? I fear for the future of Metafilter.) Bambino does not exist until Damon Albarn tells me he does.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:44:47 -0800

Yeah, Tinariwen is a killer band, too.

By: fleacircus

fleacircus — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:45:05 -0800

I reallllly love the chugging along droning sound he's got going on.

By: odasaku

odasaku — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:47:30 -0800

Totally fresh.

By: daniel9223

daniel9223 — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:48:31 -0800

Hippie jam band dancing is every one's culture, or it should be.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:00:45 -0800

> Is this their culture? I will give you a definitive yes or no if you can briefly explain why it wouldn't be.

By: felix betachat

felix betachat — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:07:26 -0800

The 8 minute documentary video posted on his facebook page is seriously good. I'm not quite sure what's going on around 5:30, but it makes me very glad to be alive.

By: letitrain

letitrain — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:20:09 -0800

If you enjoy this, you must to listen to Cler Achel by Tinariwen.

By: rdone

rdone — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:29:24 -0800

Phenomenal, jax. The Tuareg have been royally screwed for a century. It is gratifying to hear that the powerful soul of the lords of the desert is alive and well. Leo Fender would be proud to hear what his Strat is doing these days. . .in North Africa. Oh, and listen to Tinariwen if you like Bambino.

By: beelzbubba

beelzbubba — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:34:11 -0800

Yes, Faze, it is their culture. The kora and narrative history have a long intertwining history in west Africa. Yes, there are circular influences and inferences. The music of Africa came to America hundreds of years ago and that music made it back to Africa via radio, recordings, and live music. flapjax, thanks for another fine lead toward more intriguing music. I too thought immediately of Tinariwen, and of Foday Musa Suso, and of Bambino's mentor Ali Farka Touré. And back to the west, where our culture adopts and adapts instruments & music from other cultures--and does it damn well, thank you, it reminded me of musicologist, musician, and banjoist extraordinaire, Otis Taylor.

By: daniel9223

daniel9223 — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:51:17 -0800

Throw Down Your Heart

By: francesca too

francesca too — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:07:41 -0800

Eye candy, ear candy, and candy for the soul.

By: clockzero

clockzero — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:11:36 -0800

Slarty Bartfast, there's a festival in the desert in Mali every year that you might be interested in.

By: grapefoot

grapefoot — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:18:53 -0800

I'm sure can catch Bambino this summer on Jam Band Cruise VI. Or hell on earth. Sorry, MFers.

By: caddis

caddis — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:28:03 -0800

You make a lot of great music posts. This is among the best, and that is saying a lot. This guy rocks, and rocks big.

By: snsranch

snsranch — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:29:00 -0800

Fucking awesome post. As a life long guitar player, I've always been interested in hearing the various cultural voices that can come from the instrument. As far as Africa is concerned I've been a fan of Sunny Ade, but man, Bambino leaves me a bit humbled. And yea, that's a good thing.

By: Splunge

Splunge — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:49:36 -0800

Excellent. Thank you.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:56:21 -0800

Is this their culture? i don't know man, but it's HIS tone he's got with that strat through a marshall amp, and it's a righteous one - who gives a fuck?

By: Seekerofsplendor

Seekerofsplendor — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 22:44:57 -0800

This had a unique passion and rhythmic freshness to it that I liked. I only wish I could hear him play over something other than just an A minor chord this repetitively. Although I also hear a taste of Hendrix a bit here, and don't know how or if that's even possible. Another great post, of course, from flapjax!

By: Tiresias

Tiresias — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 23:08:03 -0800

I'm so glad you posted this --- I randomly stumbled across him one night on the Internet, and just became completely entranced with this song...unfortunately misspelled as "Group Bombino" and thus was never able to properly follow up. It's kind of a humbling experience listening to this; I'd long ago given up on thinking of rock music as any kind of forward-thinking force in music, and given enough whiskey, would loudly complain about it's sad retreat into stultified tradition and twee...and then you hear something like this, that is still recognizable and placeable as "rock," but still so far out there as to be incomparable to what is commonly considered to be the experimental fringe of the genre. It's about as far from beardy indie-rock as you can get while still acknowledging a common ancestor. Modern Western pop music has more or less abandoned the genre and turned away from the aesthetic, but in some places, it's far from dead. Basically, it makes me embarrassed of the times I bragged loudly about throwing out my guitar. (I never did, of course; it sits at the foot of my bed, though it gets fed through a computer these days, rather than a Marshall stack.)

By: Tiresias

Tiresias — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 23:11:16 -0800

Also see the similarly incredible Group Doueh.

By: metaplectic

metaplectic — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 23:22:04 -0800

I'm gonna break this dusty stage... and run

By: gt2

gt2 — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 23:37:15 -0800

Is this their culture? Cultures do evolve and change. People are not static.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 23:43:42 -0800

the internet is pretty cool.

By: vanar sena

vanar sena — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:06:42 -0800

Thanks for this flapjax, like Tiresias I'm finding this particularly inspiring right now. Groovy as hell. Faze: "Is this their culture?" Some leading questions of my own: After thousands of years of contrary evidence, why do some people continue to believe that an individual culture is some hermetically sealed thing that accepts and renders no external influence? I mean, do we even have any idea which culture first discovered the pentatonic scale?

By: idiopath

idiopath — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:12:44 -0800

Regarding whose culture it is, the size of a culture is defined by the limits of communication - I hear Malagasi music via the American south in this (though I could be mistaken).

By: juiceCake

juiceCake — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 01:02:44 -0800

Hippie jam band dancing is every one's culture, or it should be. Christ fucking no. Music and dancing can be done by people other than hippies, thankfully.

By: peterkins

peterkins — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 01:26:49 -0800

nice! Although I also hear a taste of Hendrix a bit here, and don't know how or if that's even possible. i'm not sure that living in the desert means you're in a cultural vacuum, so it seems quite possible (though i'm not sure i hear hendrix in there meself). but there again it all comes from the same source... ali farka toure gets the blues.

By: ouke

ouke — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 01:29:21 -0800

Woah, flapjax. I'm watching this on a Sunday morning at 10 o'clock. Your post is the first I opened. 5 bars into that first clip and I'm stumbling to the fridge to reach for a beer, the kids start a pillow fight and the wife is pissed off. This is the best situational definition of rock'n'roll I've come across in a long time. Thanks (& cheers)!

By: The Mouthchew

The Mouthchew — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 02:17:33 -0800

Most excellent. Definitely a slight Voodoo Child taste in there. (Jimi's probably jamming in his grave.)

By: Duug

Duug — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 04:32:52 -0800

Bambino, not so much. But Tinariwen....just awesome. Love that Qawwalli beat. Thanks Letitrain.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 05:29:06 -0800

Cultures do evolve and change. People are not static. gt2 FTW. And you know what? It's not even all that changed, really. Just a little electricity added, mainly. Y'all get with the fuckin' global program alright?

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 05:34:36 -0800

Christ fucking no. Music and dancing can be done by people other than hippies, thankfully. Indeed. And have been done for a loooooong gaddam time by peoples all over the wooooorld, you ignant, see-everything through a twenty-something-years-old 'murikan lens babies. Edjucamate yaselves!

By: Damienmce

Damienmce — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 05:35:41 -0800

Epic. I hope this becomes a meme over fuckin' rainbows.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 06:06:05 -0800

Bambino, not so much. But Tinariwen ....just awesome. Love that Qawwalli beat. Thanks Letitrain. posted by Duug at 4:32 AM on April 11 [+] [!] Say what? Qawali is, um, Pakistani music, my friend. Like, say, about 6147.37 kilometers from Niger, where Bambino and Tinariwen are from? You might wanna stop throwing around names and genres of which you clearly know little to nothing about, there, mister Duug. Dig? Well, maybe you're just drunk... Also, there's only one L in Qawwali. Anyway, just listen to this guy, doing some qawwali, you see, and learn something. I say this with all due respect. All due.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 06:08:13 -0800

Yeah, and, two Ws in qawwali. Spelling's a bitch. I get it right most of the time...

By: JeffK

JeffK — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 06:46:36 -0800

I could have done without Extraneous Shouting Guy, but otherwise this was very cool indeed.

By: daniel9223

daniel9223 — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 06:47:22 -0800

Really Jax? Thanks for all the fish.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 06:51:41 -0800

I could have done without Extraneous Shouting Guy, but otherwise this was very cool indeed. He was just warming up the crowd. It's an old tradition in show biz. Really Jax? Thanks for all the fish. heh heh. Just straightening out summa the crooked angles.

By: LN

LN — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 07:06:01 -0800

Does this guy have an album I could purchase?

By: danb

danb — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 07:25:39 -0800

Just yesterday I was thinking "Man, I should get better with a pick so I can be a better lead player." Excuses, right? Thanks flapjax, as always!

By: ersatz

ersatz — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 07:26:11 -0800

Great thread!

By: Damienmce

Damienmce — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 07:44:03 -0800

I think he may have released a CD of some kind but under the name Group Bombino

By: clvrmnky

clvrmnky — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 09:29:15 -0800

One of those riffs totally reminds me of a Black Sabbath song.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 10:10:25 -0800

I am also concerned that he's lifting things from another culture - Niger is a frankophone country, but bambino is an Italian word.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 12:24:15 -0800

Is this their culture? Don't be dense, Faze.

By: vanar sena

vanar sena — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 12:33:31 -0800

UbuRoivas: "I am also concerned that he's lifting things from another culture - Niger is a frankophone country, but bambino is an Italian word." Not to mention that there is a kid in the audience who appears to be performing a variation of the Melbourne Shuffle. When I hear about the death of the last speaker of some language, or the last master of an ancient form of music, I get depressed and worried that the ongoing burst of cultural cross-pollination will turn all the various cultures into some homogeneous grey goo. But then I take heart in the hope that each artist's personal circumstances and community will add enough mutation to keep things interesting. Take a look at the guitar that he's playing, for example. The first guitar-like things are are currently understood to have appeared somewhere in or around North Africa. They went across Asia (taking on the suffix tar or wire, cf sitar - an instrument that gives me nightmares for what it did to my fingers), to Europe, and arrived in North America via Spain. Assuming this is a US-made strat (otherwise we make another stop in East Asia), it made its full circle to Bambino from North America. He is playing an instrument that is arguably a globe-trotting, barely-recognizable descendant of the same axe his folk rock star ancestors might have used 4000 years ago. I think that's pretty cool, even if purists might not be pleased. I don't think they had the equivalent of Shure mics back then though. If I've got any of this history wrong, I'd appreciate only educational berating

By: StrangerInAStrainedLand

StrangerInAStrainedLand — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 12:41:39 -0800

Is this their culture? There is nothing inherently wrong with this question, although I doubt Faze actually watched the video if he's still asking it. What he's getting at, I believe, is a valid question: is this culture being represented by those who have been brought up in it and live it, or is it Westerners badly aping (see Rainbow Arabia) and taking credit for another culture? Again, easily answered in the affirmative by watching the video. And now a question of my own, where can I find more Bambino?!

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 14:35:41 -0800

I think it's also worth noting that Niger is right next door to another fracophone (correct spelling, this time) central African country - Mali - that is the homeland of a number of incredibly talented & world-reputed guitarists, most notably, Grammy Award winning Ali Farka Toure. In face, upon seeing a guitarist in front of one of the region's distinctive mud-brick mosques, I initially assumed he was another Malian. one of the African continent's most internationally renowned musicians. His music is widely regarded as representing a point of intersection of traditional Malian music and its North American cousin, the blues. The belief that the latter is historically derived from the former is reflected in Martin Scorsese's often quoted characterization of Touré's tradition as constituting "the DNA of the blues". Touré was ranked number 76 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 14:36:47 -0800

in fact

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 16:40:03 -0800

"Extraneous Shouting Guy" was just like the "Give it up for Guy" that is at every blues concert I have ever gone to, ha. This was such joyful, awesome music - and a great thread too. Thanks for the post, Flapjax.

By: ovvl

ovvl — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 16:48:19 -0800

Must say, I was impressed. Swell percussionist, too. Is this their culture? Jimi was a big influence on guitarism all over the world. Touré was ranked number 76 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". I'd say top ten.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:38:01 -0800

Now that I think about it, if Bambino is Tuareg then his people are the ones who traditionally live way up in the Saharan north of Mali (and, I guess, Niger) with Timbuktu as their major trading centre. Ali Farka Toure was from Timbuktu. i'm not sure that living in the desert means you're in a cultural vacuum Heh, I remember being taken on a three-day trek of the Dogon region of Mali. Local Guides are mandatory, because the people are animist, and it would be extremely bad juju for the wrong kind of person to accidentally view a sacred object that they're not supposed to - various rocks & trees were pointed out to us as housing powerful spirits. Anyway, a couple of days into the trek, we were shown into a particularly traditional animist village, where the first person we met was a teenaged boy wearing a Rage Against the Machine t-shirt.

By: ovvl

ovvl — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:11:29 -0800

Tinariwen - Lulla

By: HP LaserJet P10006

HP LaserJet P10006 — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:22:41 -0800

Is this their culture? There is nothing inherently wrong with this question I agree there's nothing wrong with the question, but you would never know that from the way people have jumped all over faze for asking it. Perhaps he could have phrased his question better and fleshed it out more, but I'm not sure why the question itself is prima facie misguided or wrong-headed.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:59:37 -0800

To be fair to faze, it does like a bit incongruous - a guy in Tuareg robes jammin' out on an electric guitar in front of a mud-brick mosque. But asking if it's the guy's culture sounds less like a genuine question, and more like a rhetorical one, almost implying that it's not his culture so he shouldn't be doing it - as if rock guitar is the sole preserve of westerners or something.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:00:28 -0800

look, dammit, not like. why can't i write proper today?

By: dubitable

dubitable — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:02:32 -0800

Whatever, Lightning Bolt was doing stuff like this years ago! Played out. Um, I think this is super awesome music, seriously. Thanks for posting it.

By: idiopath

idiopath — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:15:04 -0800

The question was a shit stirring question. Seeing and African play rock and asking "whose culture is this" carries an entire agenda full of assumptions behind it. Assumptions that many of us (myself included) find objectionable. By asking that question, is he trying to imply that rock guitar is white or western music? It is derived from African traditional music, no matter how completely white Americans might identify it as our own. Modern practice of African music is undeniably influenced by American and British interpretations, via of the global slave trade and the western capitalist culture industry.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:51:44 -0800

No, it's just that Faze is a troll.

By: HP LaserJet P10006

HP LaserJet P10006 — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:54:35 -0800

The question was a shit stirring question. That's your opinion, and you may be right, but on the available evidence I have no way of knowing the intentions of the person who asked it: it might also have been a well-meaning question poorly phrased. Who knows.

By: invitapriore

invitapriore — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 21:03:20 -0800

I only wish I could hear him play over something other than just an A minor chord this repetitively. Seeker, man, I think you're missing the point. The sort of harmonic practice that you seem to want out of him isn't universally prized and there's no reason it should be. flapjax, this kicks every ass. I thought of Tinariwen too, but this is that turned up to 11. Thanks!

By: vanar sena

vanar sena — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:10:51 -0800

invitapriore: "The sort of harmonic practice that you seem to want out of him isn't universally prized and there's no reason it should be." In other words, Bambino was served up by nature as an antidote to this.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:32:13 -0800

There is nothing inherently wrong with this question Faze is free to go ahead and ask, but, to put it very simply, it's extremely condescending. I'm happy to spend some time parsing it out with anyone here to wishes to take a run at why and exactly how it's so, but I'd rather spend my time listening to Bambino and grooving.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:35:35 -0800

jokeefe: save it for when we do Ethiopian jazz.

By: JustAsItSounds

JustAsItSounds — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 01:32:29 -0800

Weird that someone mentioned Qawwali and someone else ripped them a new one for confusing Tuareg and Qawwali. When my girlfriend introduced me to Tinariwen a couple of months back I introduced her to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in exchange. I didn't consciously think of Tuareg music and Qawwali as being that similar, but I must have done at some level.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:50:26 -0800

UbuRoivas-- heh. Perhaps Ethiopian hip hop/funk?

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:52:27 -0800

D'oh.

By: empath

empath — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:46:44 -0800

Oh, I just saw this thread--- you all might be interested in the Kuduro links in my last thread if you didn't see them before. What's the beat called in this? It's pretty much what the Kuduro beat is based on.. Also, here is a good Japanese guitar player.