^^^ That's a new link to go listen on Spotify! ^^^
Saturday, June 9th @12:15p
The Other Tent
Well, fun. No bio available via the Roo app. Nothing on Spotify. Wikipedia to the rescue!
Still not much, but we can at least learn a little about Ahmed Janka Nabay, this lead musician who has been a major figure in Bubu Music. This is traditionally a Muslim music, played by 20 or so people by blowing into different size bamboo pipes. He moved from Sierra-Leone to Philly in 2003, post the civil war there, and in 2010 formed this full band. They're now on a three-album record deal with Luaka Bop, David Byrne's record label.
We kick off this little three-track sampler of music with "En Mane Ah." I don't know if this recording is the same exact style as the music described above, but if this is all done on bamboo pipes, I'm already blown away. This sounds almost like a full on band, including drums and an electric guitar. I bet it is the pipe though, because the sound is just off enough to be something other than the aforementioned instruments. Of course, I can't understand the lyrics, but they carry pretty nicely.
Finally, we have "Ro Lungi," a little darker sounding of a song at the off-set, with some kind of metal sound along with it (a bell? hammer hitting a piece of steel?) The song gains some happiness as the pipes come in and give more major chords to enjoy. It's got a dancy little element throughout, kind of making for a fun, free song overall.
This was just a quick taste of what I'm sure the band's able to do on a larger scale. It was definitely an introduction to something just a little different than we're used to as well, and hey, that's always fun to try.