Muzikifan,
Album Review
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Ivory Coast is in the news with their team's progress in the Africa Cup of Nations. The elephants' success is being widely celebrated as giants like Senegal go out with a whimper. Today I am digging some Ivorienne music that is also global in its sweep. Half of Zieti is Yeoue Narcisse, singer, and Tiende Laurent, guitar, but the big sound of the album indicates there's more going on here. There's a pleasant 70s feel to the music, with organ, trap drums, live horns, and insistent bass. Apparently drummer Alex Owre and guitarist Michael Shereikis, the other half, met the two Ivoriens while living in Abidjan and developed a musical rapport with them. They jammed for a couple of years and performed on the beach adjoining Abidjan's shanty town, then finally went into the studio to record a ten-track album. Unfortunately those tapes vanished after the Americans had been repatriated in 1999 and the country descended into civil war in 2002. So they started over, by remote. After the Ivoriens' songs were recorded, the tapes were mailed to Silver Spring, Maryland and the other instruments were overdubbed. There is nevertheless a live feel, and it would be great to think this album will succeed and allow the musicians to actually play on the same stage at the same time. At Studio EZ, Owre's drums were added; at The Treehouse Brian Simms added keyboards and accordion. Then at Rootstock Studios we find Shereikis with his guitar, bass, and percussion, as well as djembes, saxophones, and other percussionists drawn from his bandmates in Chopteeth and emigrés in D.C. From a small stumbling start a grand opus has emerged. The full sound is rich, the songs go from lovelorn ballads to out and out jamdowns. The musical rapport is intact, across an ocean. And a wonderful side-project has developed, which is to send instruments to Abidjan to help the ever-evolving music scene there. 02/01/12
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