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MARKUS
JAMES
Album Title: Timbuktoubab Producer(s): Markus James Genre: WORLD Label/Catalog Number: Firenze 00482 Release Date: Feb. 8 Source: Billboard Magazine Originally Reviewed: February 19, 2005 |
When Californian Markus James gets together with Malian musicians Hassi Sare (njarka violin, vocals), Solo Sidibe (kamele n'goni, vocals) and Hamma Sankare (calabash, vocals)—as he did for "Timbuktoubab"—what emerges is haunting music that conjures the very soul of the Sahara. Just as remarkable is the way James evokes the spirit of the blues in these tracks, connecting with a vibe that's as ancient as Timbuktu itself. He wrote all the songs with his Malian bandmates, and the lyrics are rife with evocative images of the Sahel that are metaphoric and literal. Every song on "Timbuktoubab" is a piece of magic that will draw in listeners and work its own spell. It is accompanied by a DVD, which is equally inspiring. The film offers an uncommon insight into the inhabitants and the music of Mali. This, in turn, goes a long way toward explaining James' passionate connection to these people and their music. Racked in the United States by Burnside.
-PVV, BILLBOARD MAGAZINE
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NIGHTBIRD |
Billboard Magazine, WIRED Magazine, OUTSIGHT, and HILLRAG!
Billboard Magazine, 3 / 16 / 02
Blues
Markus James Nightbird Producer: Markus James Firenze 768
First things first: Nightbird is easily one of the most conceptually inspired albums to come along in quite some time. James has taken his bluesy songs and his dusky voice to Mali, where he tracked this album with several outstanding Malian musicians, including Mama Sissoko (guitar), Hamma Sankare (calabash), Hassi Sare (njarka) and Solo Sidibe (kamele n'goni). Wassoulou vocalist Jeneba Diakite and American blues singer Sarah Baker also make their presence felt on several tracks. The music James created for this CD is as sparse and expansive as Mali itself. "Child See the Rider," "Rain," "Pharaoh's Daughter," "Nightbird" -each of these tunes is the most fascinating combination of intense groove and minimal arrangement. He gets a world of feeling from his voice, a guitar, and a one-stringed violin (Sare's njarka). Nightbird is one of the deepest listening experiences that will hit the U.S. market this year. Distributed in the U.S. by Musik International. - PVV
OUTSIGHT Magazine (FOUR Stars)
"...This puts
side-by-side the first whispers and a current voice of the blues. The
union of traditional and current sounds works together extremely well.
This is a singular and remarkable recording of songs by Markus James."
WIRED Magazine, Feb, 2002
"For his sixth album, American Markus James went to Mali to search for his music's soul. And there, where the rhythms of the calabash dance around his guitar picking, and the harp and talking drum punctuate and ornament his rasping voice, he found it. Sometimes stately, always raw, this is a hypnotic journey through time. It is a voyage beyond Robert Johnson and John Lee Hooker that goes all the way to the heart of the blues."
SEATTLE WEEKLY STAFF
CD Reviews
MARKUS JAMES Nightbird (Firenze) Taking the blues back home. On his sixth release, Markus James returns the blues to its homeland in Mali for a hypnotically sensual experience and touches something deep. While he's not the first to connect the musical dots between America and Africa--there's Ali Farka Toure's electric monochordal blues and Taj Mahal's Kulanjan, for example--but this acoustic outing seems to pierce to the root. James subsumes himself in Africa; the simple click of a calabash supplying a rhythm is as important to a song as his mesmerizing guitar riffs or vocals, with each layer fitting together to form the song. The kemele n'goni (young man's harp) of southern Mali plays stunning leads on "Are You Thirsty (Land of Plenty)," while the tama, or talking drum, offers its punctuations and speech on "Awo." The fact that the songs are all originals means they come without the baggage of history; they're built in Africa and thoroughly African--even the way James sings, in a slurred growl, makes the words seems like another instrument, another African language with its repeated images of night. A subtle, complex masterwork.
OUTSIGHT, (four stars)
"...This puts side-by-side the first whispers and a current voice of the blues. The union of traditional and current sounds works together extremely well. This is a singular and remarkable recording of songs by Markus James."
Bohemian
Out
of Africa: Two excellent--and opposite--examples of albums inspired
by Mali
By Sara Bir
"...Unlike Albarn, James went to Mali to record an album, not just stuff, and the result is much more involved and unified."
"On Nightbird,
James delivers what he calls "world blues," and his mournful
vocals, bare-bones guitar, and straightforward, unaffected lyrical narrative
do evoke the otherworldly spookiness of Delta Blues. The "world"
part of the equation comes into play with James' gang of Malian performers
(including Mamadou Sidibe, whom James was recently touring with), who
add an even deeper level. The Malian element here is not just interesting
surface decoration but integral and vital. Elegant and raw all at once,
Nightbird is amazingly evocative, as sweltering and haunting as an expanse
of sand dunes baking under the desert sun. (This is James' second album
recorded in Mali, and not his last; he returned there in 2001 and has
another album due out next year). "
"Either of these albums will expose listeners to Mali's rich musical world, which is a great thing. But Albarn's whirlwind musical tour and James' slow, lyrical creep are each strong enough albums to stand on their own merits. Call Mali Music digitized afropop, call Nightbird world blues, call them whatever. I'll call them good and well worth a listen for those who are happy to strike out into territory that strays from the path."
AMG EXPERT REVIEW
: "... On Nightbird, San Francisco singer/songwriter Markus James successfully finds the parallels between Malian pop, rock, and the blues, specifically, the sort of dusky, haunting blues that worked so well for John Lee Hooker and Lightnin' Hopkins. Recorded in Bamako, Mali, during the summer of 2000, this excellent CD isn't easy to categorize. Blues, rock, and Malian pop are all influences, and on Nightbird, slide guitar sounds perfectly natural alongside traditional African instruments like the calabash, the njarka and the tama. The people joining James (whose earthy vocals have a Mick Jagger-ish quality) range from Malian musicians (including Afro-pop artist Mama Sissoko) to American singer Sarah Baker. Bring all of these different artists and influences together and the end results are as enriching as they are intriguing. Nightbird could be described as Mick Jagger meets John Lee Hooker meets Habib Koite (who is one of Mali's top pop singers and is best known for his early-'90s hit "Cigarette a Bana"). Obviously, James sees the parallels between Hooker's blues and Malian pop: both can be very moody, not to mention soulful. And the word soulful certainly describes this excellent CD, which blues, rock, and Afro-pop enthusiasts should all be aware of."
HILLRAG (WASHINGTON, DC)
From the opening track "Goin Home" to the title track "Nightbird," this album is full of haunting melodic lines and sweet, provocative harmonies that build on the sultry, surreal and rhapsodic solo guitar lines of Markus James. A musician from San Francisco who grew up loving the blues, R&B, and rock, Mr. Markus has given us an album that is a true blend of the definitive African and traditional American blues. Impressive performance from Hamma Sankare (calabash) with notable support from Hassi Sare (njarka), Solo Sidibe (kamelengoni) and Massamba Diop (tama). Other favorites include "River Risin," and "Awo." Recorded in Bamako, Mali, West Africa, this is one of those CDs that offers an hour of untrammelled pleasure. HILLRAG (Washington, DC) 5 stars
ALL MUSIC GUIDE (4 1/2 stars)
June 2002
Markus James is a San Francisco minstrel fond of Malian music, producing Afropop WorldWide shows and doing well on African radio with his 5th album, Where you wnna be. He's also made amny friends. Recorded in Mali, Nightbird features James' blues-infused vocals and guitar with numerous Malian performers. Notable are Ali Farka Toure's calabash player Hamma Sankare and Baaba Mall's Senegalese toma (talking drum) master Massamba Diop. Both the title track (inspired by a chirpy Niger River beastie and recorded in one take) and "Midnight" showcase the calabash (a percussion instrument constructed from a large gourd) and a guitar. Other songs are lively tales about Biblical history ("Goin' Home"), love ("Paraoh's Daughter," "Awo"), and especially the importance of water. "Child See the Rider," "Are You Thirsty (Land of Plenty)," "Rain," "One Drop" and "River Risin'." More Malian instrumentalists include Manding-style guitarist Mama Sissoko (adored by Mali's president), kamelengoni (harp) player Solo Sidibe, and Hassi Sare on njorka (a one-stringed vioin). Guest vocalists include Wassoulou singer Jeneba Diakite and Tennessee blues vocalist Sarah Baker.
Stacy Meyn
Talking Leaves
Chris Roth
Recorded on location in Mali, West Africa, by San Francisco singer-songwriter Markus James and a group f accomplished Malian musicians on calabash, njarka, kamele n'goni, tama and Manding-style guitar, this disc feature haunting, bluesy performances of eleven original songs. Markus' music, perhaps best categorized as "World Blues," draws from traditional African roots and his own intrigueing "midnight visions." As he explains it, "In general, I have a difficult time talking about songs, maybe because I offen don't really have a sense of 'writing' them. I did experience hearing a bird singing in the night, as the river Niger was rising, and this, both literally and metaphorically, gave rise to the themes in Nightbird." This is and engaging journey through sometimes-hypnotic yet ever-changing inner and out landscapes.
AQUARIUS (ATLANTA)
The wild, brooding bluesy lyrics and the Malian rhythms and instrumentation make a fiery combination reminiscent of delta blues. James's voice is incredibly sexy as he delivers the poetic lyrics of "Are You Thirsty": "Lucy lost inside a mirror/lookin for somethin/she ain't never gonna see/she says I know it must be in here/but it ain't never gonna be" and leads into the chorus of "Are you thirsty/as the day is dry/are you thirsty/under an empty sky." This one is hot, spicy, and totally addictive!
Stereophile / tucson citizen
"Nightbird" (Firenze)
From its desert imagery and its deep-blues penetration of history-turned-sacred-mythology to its quirky but ethereal accompaniment by West African traditional musicians, this is a release that conjures a sense of continuity and timelessness across broad geographic and temporal expanses. James is a lyricist with the poetic power of Los Lobos, ably evoking the spiritual tug of war of old blues masters as he casts beautiful images of struggle and redemption from precious few words. He is also a masterful guitarist, unleashing stormy drama with this steely slide, or making the music dance gracefully with delicate touches of Afro-Celt fingerpicking. Likewise James' full-bodied voice, resonate and commanding with or without harmonization, carries the spare lyrics with soulful impact. The accompaniment is typically simple. The soft, muttering, funky dance rhythm of sticks on an overturned calabash, or the rough-hewn flute-like whine of a single-stringed fiddle, invigorate and add exotic color to James' timeless lyrics. Sometimes, as on "Child See the Rider", the fiddle sounds like the perfect sonic representation of a dust devil. On "Pharaoh's Daughter", a 'kamele n'goni' - the pentatonic harp of Mali's Wassoulou - shoots out dazzling speed bursts to mingle with James' jangling guitar. Largely the music is hypnotic, graceful, yet absorbing, resonating the deserts of West Africa and the human condition of longing with the mystical power of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western soundtracks. "Nightbird" is an enduring masterpiece that brings fresh meaning to each listen. And in a disposable musical world akin to an artistic desert, this disc is a cool oasis. Dive in!
Grade: Scorcher! Belongs in your permanent collection.
Soundscapes
Nightbird by Markus James This unusual World blues release features English lyrics, Blind Melon-type delivery, and soulful, finger-plucking, acoustic guitar riffs by Markus supported with various African tribal instruments. The music is sparse and yet penetrates deeply, like water wells on the West African desert. The lyrics are undiluted and direct, like the desert sun, leaving little doubt as to their burning desire. The interplay between voice, guitar, and tribal instrumentations contains a hidden complexity that becomes more apparent, more appreciated, only after successive listening and reveals true genius in its interwoven musical textures. Did I mention the exchange between slide guitar and African calabash is astounding? World Beat and Rhythm & Blues like no other release can offer, Nightbird is a dark, fantasy flight of surreal beauty and raw power that will grow on you like a warm friend in a cold country.
Daniel Buckley
New Age Voice January 2002
Markus James Nightbird
Nightbird is an immediately appealing blues album and is the collaboration between Markus James and a talented group of African musicians. It's right there in the same group as Taj Mahal's collaborations two years ago with Toumani Diabate. Savor this tasty world music collaborations featuring singer/songwriter James on acoustic guitar with Hamma Sankare on calabash (gourd percussion), Massamba Diop on talking drum, Solo Sidibe on 6-stringed harp, Hassi Sare on 1-string violin plus singers Jeneba Diakite and Sarah Baker (the only other American on the disc). What we hear are original blues songs sung in English with a distinctive African instrumentation. It has the primal energy of the blues infused with the wonderful colors and textures of tradtitional West African music, principally Mali & Senegal. We can appreciate where this distinctive form of American music ha its roots in the same way that country music evolved from the old English and Celtic folk songs and ballads. So after generations of evolving into separate branches, the two streams flow back together again in songs like "Child See the Rider," "are You Thirsty," "Pharaoh's Daughter," "Nightbird" and "Awo" (Yes). In recent years, there has been a greater appreciation of Afropop as evidenced by the attendance at Africa Fete and other concert appearances by contemporary African musicians. The new sounds we are hearing in world music, on albus like Nightbird, show both the fluidity and adaptability of the traditional musicians who have picked up quite a bit by listening to contemporary recordings of western music, as well as the adventurous spirit of someone like Markus James who will stray far away from traditional blues band formats to create something invigoratingly fresh. - DL
Victory Music Review
Richard Dorsett November 2001
Markus James:
4 songs from Nightbird
Now, more than ever, you've got to be a bit cautious about the overblown marketing copy for cross-cultural collaborations. There's an abundance of mediocre material available but also some of the best ever recorded. In the latter category comes this pre-release sampler from American singer-songwriter Markus James' collaboration with calabash player Hamma Sankare. These spare arrangements catch their groove quickly and meander through lovely blues melodies backed by Malian instruments and sensibilities. I don't usually rave about pre-release samplers, but these 'Nightbird' belections are phenomenal. I've been to the label website, e-mailed for information (no response) and just don't know any more about Markus James. Keep an eye out for Nightbird and grab a copy as soon as you see one. My guess is that it'll be a ready favorite.
Improvijazzation
December 2001
Markus James - Nightbird
Strangest "blues" album I've ever heard· recorded in Mali, West Africa, with Hassi Sare, Hamma Sankare, Solo Sidibe, Massamba Diop & (many) others, it features James' on some attractively haunting vocals & original compositions. Markus is listed as the "producer", & I didn't see any credits for his acoustic, tho' there are pictures of him with it. Comparisons may be made to folks like Ry Cooder or Taj Mahal· but they'd all be off-mark - Markus has a unique vocal style of his own! Some wonderfully intricate percussion is happening here (as you might expect), & some sweet backing vocals, too. We feel (as we often do) honored to have received an advance copy· the CD won't be out until February 2002. This might be filed under "world" music in some bins, but hunt it down· it's among the best I've listened to this year, & is guaranteed to enchant for years to come. Those who love vocals that convince gently, with rhythm pulsing throughout will agree with my MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED rating. A superb musical experience!
Creative expression
On the Beat with Dan Liss
Nightbird
An immediately appealing blues album is the collaboration between Markus James and a group of African musicians on his new album Nightbird. Savor this tasty world music collaboration featuring singer/songwriter James on acoustic guitar with Hamma Sankare on calabash (gourd percussion), Massamba Diop on talking drum, Solo Sidibe on 6-stringed harp, Hassa Sare on 1-string violin plus singers Jeneba Diakite and Sarah Baker (the only other American on the disc). What we hear are original blues songs sung in English with a distinctive African instrumentation. It has the primal energy of the blues infused with the wonderful colors and textures of traditional West African music, principally Mali & Senegal. So after generations of evolving into spearate branches, the two streams flow back together again in songs like "Child See the Rider," "are You Thirsty," "Pharaoh's Daughter," "Nightbird" and "Awo (Yes)."