The Mpondas Family, The Bloody Rooster Band @ Telakka
Schedule
20.00 DJ Fidelis
20.30 Cheza Ngoma
21.00 DJ Fidelis
22.00 The Bloody Rooster Band
23.00 The Mpondas Family
Tickets: 10 €, only at the door
Mali
Songhoy Blues, Zakala Musica, Jali Madi
Songhoy Blues (Mali)
Songhoy Blues, the newest music sensation from Mali, will step onto a Finnish concert stage for the first time, of course at Fest Afrika!
The story of this young but extraordinary band began when the members of Songhoy Blues had to flee their homes in Northern Mali due to attack of radical Islamists in the region. After reaching the safety of the capital Bamako, they decided to form a band. In Bamako, they had the chance to meet a Damon Albarn and Brian Eno who were looking for young Malian musicians to record as part of their Africa Express project. Soon Songhoy Blues were collaborating with other artists as well, and now – only few months after the release of their debut album Music in Exile – they are already touring the world!
Songhoy Blues plays an original style of edgy and electric desert blues, both their own songs and reworkings of songs from the Songhoy tradition of Northern Mali.
Zakala Musica (Congo/Sweden)
Zakala Musica is a multicultural band based in Stockholm, Sweden. The band was formed in 2008 around singer Marcellin Kouakoua (Yaya Sella), solo guitarist Kristian Sjöblom (Apollo), bassist Joseph Semafumu and drummer Leonce Fanou (Lee), who were joined later by Jesper Kristoffersson on rhythm guitar.
Zakala Musica plays a mix of different African pop music styles, especially dance music from Congo such as ndombolo, soukous and Congolese rumba, but mixing in influences from other styles such as coupé decalé and reggae. They perform mainly their own material, singing in Lingala and Kikongo languages. If this band does make you dance, we really don’t know who can!
Jali Madi & K.O. Company (Gambia/Finland)
Jali Madi Kanuteh is one of his home country The Gambia’s young rising singer stars. His debut album Gambia was released last year and it was received with enthusiasm. The style Jali Madi’s music is sunny and danceable West African pop, but also some more melancholy tunes are part of his repertoire.
K.O. Company, the band that accompanies Jali Madi in Finland was created in spring 2014 when the singer came to perform at Waaw Africa festival in Jyväskylä and needed a band to play with him. Drummer Keijo Koskenharju, used to playing African rhythms, put the band together and after succesful gigs they decided to continue the collaboration also in the future.
Schedule
Doors open at 20.00
22.00 Jali Madi
23.30 Songhoy Blues
01.00 Zakala Musica
DJ’s
DJ Cliff
DJ George MTV
Age limit 18 years.
Advance tickets 22 € (from Tiketti), at the door 25 €.
Also combination tickets available from Tiketti:
Friday & Saturday 42,50 €
Thursday, Friday & Saturday 49,50 €
Mzungu Kichaa, Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble, Moussa Diallo
Mzungu Kichaa (Denmark/Tanzania)
Mzungu Kichaa, or “Crazy White Man”, was born in Denmark, but grew up in Tanzania, where he learned to speak swahili fluently and later got involved in music. He is well known in Tanzania and all around East Africa as one of the pioneers of Bongo Flava music style and has worked as part of the jury for Bongo Star Search, a talent search competition on TV (much like Idols or Talent).
Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble (Finland/Benin)
“Weather Report meets Fela, you might say. They are good enough.” This is how Rick Sanders of fRoots magazine wrote about Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble.
Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble impresses it’s listener not only with intense moods and joyful yet virtuoso performances, but also with fresh and carefully crafted songwriting. As composers Noel Sazonou and Janne Halonen are enough far apart to make the cocktail something completely new, yet they both possess enough musicianship to complement each other’s works.
Drawing inspiration from the roots of Afrobeat, they use their jazz experience to expand on Voodoo rhythms with a modern urban touch. In November their second Album “Fire, Sweat & Pastis” was released in Finland, and only few months later it received the Ethno Album of the Year award.
www.helsinkicotonouensemble.com
Moussa Diallo (Mali/Denmark)
The award-winning Malian-Danish bass player Moussa Diallo has a long career in playing pop and rock music in his other home country Denmark. In recent years, he has been using music from Mali, his other home country, as his main source of inspiration.
Schedule
Doors open 20.00
22.00 Moussa Diallo
23.30 Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble
01.00 Mzungu Kichaa
DJ’s
DJ Cliff
DJ George MTV
Age limit 18 years.
Advance tickets 22 € (from Tiketti), at the door 25 €.
Also combination tickets available from Tiketti:
Friday & Saturday 42,50 €
Thursday, Friday & Saturday 49,50 €
Salif Keita, Mama Longhorn
Salif Keita (Mali)
Salif Keita gave up a lot to pursue his dreams of a career in music. Born albinos, he was cast out by his family and ostracized by the community. In Mandinka culture albinism is seen as a sign of bad luck and there are beliefs that itʼs a mark of the devil. From a royal lineage, with ancestral roots going back to Soundjata Keita, the founder of the Malian Empire in 1240, Keita was disowned by his father after announcing his plans to play music.
Keitaʼs dreams, however, were too strong to be shattered. Moving to the capitol city of Bamako in 1967, he was soon playing in nightclubs with one of his brothers. Within two years, he was invited to join the Rail Band. Then he joined Kate Manfila and formed Les Ambassadeurs, one of the most important west african band that opens the way for the following generations of african musicians. The ʻgolden voice of Africaʼ Salif Keita has been at the forefront of modern Malian music for many years.
Keita has extended musical frontiers and carved out a distinctive musical voice, in which rock, funk and jazz combine with the deepest West African griot traditions. After a first decade spent travelling through Africa and building his reputation, he makes himself known on the French scene in the mid 80s.
He has received musical as well as political and humanitarian acknowledgements, and, throughout his life, has tried to transmit a message of peace through his stunning music which has dictated the standards of contemporary mandingo creation.The accoustic tour recounts Salif Keitaʼs career, picking up classics from his impressive repertoire. After a few years spent exploring new musical styles and mixing his music with electronics, he returns today to a more intimate and acoustic formula, a return to his roots, and offers a sensational retrospective on his entire career which demands utmost respect. Accompanied by four musicians (guitar, kora, nʼgoni and percussion) and two backing vocalist, Salif Keita presents an intimist show and plunges the audience in the heart of modern Mandinka soul.
Mama Longhorn
The Finnish-Guinean Mama Longhorn combines afrobeat, funk and psychedelia in their music. The band consists of many experienced musicians from such Finnish bands as Kuusumun profeetta, Magyar posse and many others as well as Faouzi Fawaz from Guinea, who sings and plays djembe. The band released its first album titled “Enter The Rhythm Tank” in 2014.
The band’s Facebook page.
Schedule
Doors open at 19.00
19.45 Mama Longhorn
21.00 Salif Keita
The concert is organized in collaboration with Tampereen Kulttuurikamari and Tampere-talo.
Age limit 18 years.
Advance tickets from 46,50 eur (from Tiketti and Lippupiste), at the door 48 eur.