Fatour Seidi Ghali is surely not the first person to become enamored of an older sibling’s guitar. When she was about ten, her older brother, Ahmoudou Madassane (who currently plays rhythm guitar for Mdou Moctar), brought a guitar from Libya back to their home in Illighadad, Niger. Since Tuareg girls aren’t encouraged to pick up […]
Tag: Niger
Posted inMusic
Mdou Moctar is ready to rock
The story of Mdou Moctar’s early years reads like show-business boilerplate. Growing up in a conservative rural town in central Niger, he had neither money nor parental permission to buy a guitar, so he scavenged items such as bits of wood and bicycle brake cables until he had enough parts to build his own. Moctar […]
Posted inMusic
The brightest lights at the 2017 World Music Festival
The World Music Festival is a constellation of international stars—including Afrobeat scion Seun Kuti, rambunctious Cape Verdean accordionist Bitori, and Afro-Venezuelan flame keeper Betsayda Machado.
Posted inBlogs
Listen to Niger guitar band Tal National’s ebullient new music
A summery, hard-driving track from the band’s forthcoming new album Zoy Zoy
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best Producer of Bands From Niger
When he left for Africa, his portable rig amounted to a laptop, recording software, and eight microphones.
Posted inMusic
Jamie Carter: Nigerien hit maker
How a Chicago indie rocker helped make a West African guitar band a sensation in Niger
Posted inBlogs
Exclusive song premiere: “Tchana” by the Niger guitar band Tal National
An exclusive premiere from the forthcoming album Kaani.
Posted inBlogs
Jean Rouch in Chicago: An interview with Judy Hoffman and Gordon Quinn of Kartemquin Films, part one
Talking with some of Chicago’s most esteemed documentarians about the great French ethnographer and filmmaker