LIVE:
June 2: Summer Arts and Music Festival, Garberville, CA
May 11: Untapped Blues Festival, Kennewick, WA
May 3: Beale Street Music Festival / Memphis In May, Memphis, TN (duo with Kinney Kimbrough)
May 2: Rooster's Blues, Oxford MS (duo with Kinney Kimbrough)
April 26-27: Festival International, Lafayette LA
Markus James' West African happiness surplus
San Francisco Bay Guardian
In an age of endless crossover between most conceivable forms of music, it’s but small surprise that a Caucasian man from Virginia is making blues with West African witch doctors. What rarely gets discussed in these cross-ocean collaborations is the social aspect of the fusion. What did the artists eat for lunch the day they recorded that track? In what language was the “and-a-one” that started off the first take? (more…)
Markus James Vampire Weekend Namecheck
SF Weekly music news
Well-traveled sounds: Vampire Weekend has helped indie rockers get their African-inspired groove on over the past few years or, at the very least, convinced them to dust off their copies of Paul Simon’s Graceland but Ezra Koenig and his buddies… (more…)
Timbuktoubab
| "’Timbuktoubab’ is that rare film in which a Westerner ventures into another culture and actually illuminates it… Beautifully filmed, richly narrated, and genuinely moving" —Banning Eyre, Afropop Worldwide, author of “In Griot Time” “Few cross-cultural musical collaborations have been as pleasing and fruitful as Markus James’s Timbuktoubab project…. their music is a language whose grammar has been developing for centuries along the sandy banks of the Niger River and in the delta of the Mississippi River.” To order the DVD of the |
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"Excellent…4 stars" |
CINE Golden Eagle Award-
"Profound
world blues passage... extremely distinctive pieces,
driven by a seductive rhythmic circularity that's a
keystone of Malian traditional tunes and Delta blues." BILLBOARD MAGAZINE"In his most varied and satisfying album to date, James delivers 15 songs that range from brooding minimalism to rollicking fusions of African and American sensibilities...an artist who has done as much as anyone to kick open the doors too long separating American and West African roots music."
AFROPOP WORLDWIDE
"The mix of sounds, instruments, and influences spanning the program is mind-boggling" LIVING BLUES MAGAZINE
"Africa and Mississippi come together..." BLUES REVUE MAGAZINE
"This is an extremely powerful album"
—Ben Manilla, Executive Producer, House of Blues Radio Hour
"Snakey" —Elwood Blues
Calabash Blues
Afropop Worldwide's
"Highly Recommended" 2006
"A sublime evocation of a landscape stretching from the muddy Delta to sun-baked Sahara sand" DOWNBEAT
"An unbroken circle of centuries of history"
ROCK & RAP CONFIDENTIAL
Timbuktoubab
"... haunting music that conjures the very soul of the Sahara... James evokes the spirit of the blues in these tracks, connecting with a vibe that's as ancient as Timbuktu itself. Every song is a piece of magic that will work its own spell." BILLBOARD MAGAZINE
Nightbird
"Nightbird is one of the deepest listening experiences that will hit the U.S. market this year." BILLBOARD MAGAZINE
"Eerily atmospheric"
DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE
"A vital mix of the Mississippi Delta and Mali, a cultural exchange of haunting beauty and mystery."
BLUES REVUE MAGAZINE
"One of the most inspired and arresting world music/blues albums"
DIRTY LINEN MAGAZINE
"A hypnotic journey through time that goes all the way to the heart of the blues." WIRED MAGAZINE
"The word soulful certainly describes this excellent CD, which blues, rock, and Afro-pop enthusiasts should all be aware of."
ALL MUSIC GUIDE
"Spare, moody, and beautiful, it builds a bridge between continents, and takes the blues home." ROOTS MAGAZINE (UK)
