December 30, 2003
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu
World music superstars Habib Koité and Hassan Hakmoun perform with their bands at UCSB Campbell Hall
Summary Facts:
- Habib Koité and Hassan Hakmoun
- Riveting Malian Habib Koité performs an exciting blend of Western African and American blues music
- Dynamic Moroccan Hassan Hakmoun is acclaimed for his funky and mesmerizing sintir (lute) playing
- Tuesday, February 3
- 8 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
- General public: $35, $30 / UCSB students: $19, $16
- Tickets & Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535
Two magnetic world music superstars play in one spectacular evening when Habib Koité and Hassan Hakmoun and their bands perform on Tuesday, February 3 at 8 pm at UCSB Campbell Hall. Coming from a long line of griots, Habib Koité developed a unique guitar style that mixes American blues with Malian sounds. Rhythm Magazine says Koité is “something so rare and wonderful that no world music think tank could conjure him up.” Hassan Hakmoun sings and plucks out propulsive, circular patterns on the lute-like sintir, playing in the ecstatic style of the Gnawa. The New York Times asserts, “He’ll slam out riffs that have an uncanny resemblance to American funk bass lines; at times, the group sounds like a Moroccan version of the James Brown band.”
In a 20-year career, Habib Koité has become a true emissary of the music of Mali and West Africa. His 1999 release Ma Ya (Putumayo) spent an unprecedented 20 weeks in the Top 20 of the College Music Journal New World Music chart, and even spent several months in regular rotation on commercial stations across the U.S. Known for his unique guitar approach, Koité tunes his instrument to the pentatonic scale and plays on open strings as one would on a kamale n’goni (the six-stringed youth’s harp of Mali). Koité’s music often sounds like a variation on the blues or flamenco, two styles he studied under Khalilou Traoré, a veteran of the legendary Afro-Cuban band Maravillas du Mali. “In concert,” the San Diego Union Tribune claims, “Koite commands attention with his 500-watt rock star charisma, playing intricate, flowing passages on his nylon-string guitar.”
Koité will perform with his incomparable band Bamada. A nickname for residents of Mali’s capital city Bamako, “bamada” roughly translates as “in the mouth of the crocodile.” Mali—three times the size of California—has rich and diverse musical traditions, unique regional variations and particular local cultures. Unlike most musicians from his country, Koité attempts to bring together all of Mali into one musical stew that he calls danssa doso. Danssa is the popular rhythm from his native city of Keyes, while doso is hunter’s music, one of Mali’s most powerful and ancient musical traditions.
In January 2004 Habib Koité & Bamada will release their long-awaited first live offering Fôly! Live Around the World on World Village. This double CD features eighteen cuts culled from performances throughout the group’s recent tours of Europe, and features many of Koité’s most popular hits, as well as expanded treatment of album favorites. Amazon.com asserts, “Koité is, without a doubt, a major talent.... Not only is he a superb songwriter and singer, he’s also a trained guitarist of remarkable style and invention.”
Hassan Hakmoun has been a commanding and intriguing figure on the world music scene since his 1992 debut Trance (Real World). He has fashioned an eclectic performing and recording career, exploring a plethora of musical realms from jazz and world music to neo-classical contemporary Western music to cerebral pop. He has engaged in startling collaborations with the likes of Don Cherry, Pharaoh Sanders and The Kronos Quartet (on Pieces of Africa), as well as Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Paula Cole (the two married in 2002). Hakmoun has long been championed by Peter Gabriel, who says, “I love his extraordinary voice and he has a fantastic way of blending his Moroccan roots with a variety of Western and African styles to produce music that is fresh, modern, yet familiar.”
Hakmoun is a master of the sintir, a three-stringed long-necked African bass lute that is played in the pentatonic scale and allows for driving rhythms. Hakmoun has succeeded in presenting this music outside of Morocco to widespread critical acclaim. He was the only world musician invited to play Woodstock ‘94, and has performed on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and on the WOMAD ‘94 tour. Hakmoun has become a regular fixture in New York’s rock, jazz and fusion scenes, and earned his following for spanning multiple genres with his spiritually charged voice and playing.
In March 2003 Hakmoun’s latest release The Gift won the prestigious Association for Independent Music (AFIM) Indie Award for Best Contemporary World Music. Amazon.com raves that The Gift “beautifully marries Western pop grooves and synths with ancestral anthems. This CD is his most accomplished to date; instead of a sterile superimposition of styles, it’s a true hybrid that produces something equally old and new.”
UCSB Arts & Lectures previously presented Habib Koité in November 2000.
Habib Koité and Hassan Hakmoun are presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by KCSB 91.9 FM and Borders Books. Tickets are $35 and $30 for the general public and $19 and $16 for UCSB students.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.