CITYFOLK MONTHLY - June 2005

West Africa is currently one of the hottest hot spots in world music. The fifteen countries that comprise the region are home to dozens of styles of music, from traditional instrumental music and vocal "praise music" to "Afro-pop" and ultra-modern dance music. The specifics of the styles vary widely, but most of the music from West Africa shares a traditional base upon which non-African elements have been grafted.

This region is especially blessed with kora players of unsurpassed skill and great singers--Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare, Baaba Maal and Angelique Kidjo come to mind--but in recent years, the guitar, a non-native instrument introduced during World War II, has become a central component of the sound.

The guitar seems especially popular in the countries that were formerly French colonies: Mali, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Niger, Togo and Benin. The acoustic guitar was introduced to the region in the 1940s, with the electric guitar coming along the following decade. Local musicians took to the instrument immediately and within a few years, a distinctively West African guitar style had developed.

This new guitar sound was a wonderfully cosmopolitan blend of Cuban dance rhythms, guitar licks and tricks learned from records by such American guitarists as Chuck Berry, Chet Atkins and especially Jimmy Nolen of the James Brown band, and techniques and playing styles borrowed from the local masters of such traditional African instruments as the kora and the ngoni, a lute-like forerunner of the banjo (pictured at right).

Guitar music was popular in the 1930s and 1940s, in such incarnations as "palm wine" music in Sierra Leone and "highlife" in Ghana, but a different approach evolved in the Francophone countries. The pioneering guitarists in the region included Kante Manfila and Sekou "Diamond Fingers" Diabate from Guinea and Keletigui Diabate and Jalimadi Tounkara from Mali. Several younger guitarists followed in their footsteps to world music stardom, including Ali Farka Toure, Habib Koite (Mali), Baaba Maal (Senegal), Sekouba Diabate and Alpha Yaya Diallo (Guinea).

Now based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Alpha Yaya Diallo is proficient on both acoustic and electric guitar, spinning out complex and fluid melodic lines and compelling grooves. Diallo is a former lead guitarist of the European-based West African band Fatala, which toured internationally and recorded for Peter Gabriel’s Real World label. He now leads his own highly entertaining five-piece band, Bafing. Diallo has showcased his unique neo-traditional guitar playing and singing on five albums since moving to Canada in 1991.

One thing to listen for in Diallo’s music and other West African guitar music is its similarity to American blues. Much has been made of the connections between these two styles of music, and many artists on both continents, including Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, Habib Koite and Ali Farka Toure, have explored the connections on recent recordings. From Mali To Memphis: An African-American Odyssey, an intriguing album released a few years ago on Putumayo, is a good place to start for anyone interested in the relationship between the two styles.

As you can imagine, the CITYFOLK Festival is a huge undertaking. Each year, several hundred volunteers pitch in to help make the event run smoothly. For most, volunteering means spending about three hours pouring beer, selling CDs, helping out in one of the programming areas, or providing another valuable service. But for about 30 people, it means spending the entire Festival weekend--and countless hours before the Festival--overseeing an important component of the event.

One of these volunteers is Sunni Russo. Sunni and her husband Mike--both employees of Festival sponsor Reynolds and Reynolds--have been a part of our volunteer corps from the beginning. A couple of years ago, their skill and dedication prompted the Festival Director to offer them a larger role. As Stage Staffing Director, Sunni hires the stage staff, orders backline (musical equipment like guitar amps and keyboards) and makes sure the stages run smoothly on Festival weekend. She learned the job quickly and provides invaluable assistance to the Cityfolk Staff.

Sunni volunteers her time to many other organizations throughout the year, including the Dayton Celtic Festival and the Jingle Bell Run.

RECORDING I'M LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW: Sam Bush, King of My World

LAST THREE BOOKS I'VE READ: I re-read the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkein

FAVORITE VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE: Without a doubt, being involved with the Cityfolk Festival - it's really fun for me to be involved at this level. And my reward is the opportunity to become immersed in 3 days of great live music! Can't beat it!

FAVORITE LIVE MUSIC EXPERIENCE: Now that's a tough one - SO many to choose from! In recent years, my favorites have been Crosby, Stills & Nash at the Fraze, Sam Bush at Miami University in Hamilton, and James Taylor anywhere I can see him.

FAVORITE COMFORT FOOD: Ice Cream

FAVORITE PASTIMES: Photography, video editing, hiking, rollerblading, going to the theater, and enjoying live music.

DREAM VACATION: A house on the beach, warm gulf waters, state of the art photography and video equipment, and lots of good music!

Want to volunteer at the CITYFOLK Festival?

THREADS AND YARNS: MILLINERY (HAT MAKING)

Hats have been worn since ancient man used leaves or skins to keep his head warm and dry. Hundreds of years ago, Asian nomads learned to make felt from sheep’s wool to craft hats, clothing and tents. As early as the heyday of the Egyptian and Roman empires, headgear was worn to denote rank and societal status.

Hats became more popular in the 15th century, when they were considered essential for all men and optional for women. There was little difference between hats for men and for women at this point, though the materials used to make them was broadening greatly: they began to use rich fabrics such as silk and velvet, and rugged materials such as leather and beaver skins. Hats continued to indicate status: formal top hats for the aristocracy, and softer caps for the working classes.

The term ‘milliner’ originated in Italy in the 1700s, when it referred to a supplier of fancy goods such as straw hats, gloves and other clothing accessories. Around the 1770s, the term became more specific to makers of fine hats.

Millinery became haute couture in the 1800s, around the same time that hats became an essential women’s fashion accessory. Hats were made specifically for one individual, often to accentuate their features or personality. Each hat seemed more elaborate than the next, adorned with lace, ribbons, semi-precious jewels, fake fruit and leaves, feathers (even whole birds!) and veils. They could be quite heavy, so were held on the head with hatpins several inches long. Styles came and went, and eventually hats became smaller and less ornate.

Around 1900, hats were an essential sign of class and breeding, and no well-dressed lady would dream of leaving their home without a one, no matter how mundane their errand. As the century progressed, hats continued to be important in women’s fashion, though limited materials available during two World Wars and the Depression, and the rise of Women’s Rights started their decline. By the 1960s, hats were usually just worn for special occasions, and fashion emphasis switched to hairstyles. Men’s fashion followed a similar, though generally less extravagant arc in popularity.

Today in America, it is the African-American community that is keeping millinery alive. The tradition is for African Americans to dress in their finest for Sunday church services. This trend began decades ago, when most African-American women held jobs in domestic service, for which they were required to wear a uniform. On Sunday, they broke out of this bland mold and showed their individuality by wearing bright colors, fine fabrics in the latest styles, and wonderfully fancy hats. Dressing in such finery was a source of pride for a population still struggling for independence and freedom. African-American milliners--such as Reverend Sam Winston, who will be at the CITYFOLK Festival this weekend--continue to make hats by hand, often for specific individuals. The hats are often referred to as ‘crowns’ and no two are exactly alike. The crowns pictured here were made by Reverend Winston. Several ladies from his church will join him in Threads and Yarns at 1 PM on Sunday to model his creations.

STAFF PICKS by Dave Barber

A cross pollinator who has stuck his toe in the water of nearly every tributary of American music, guitarist Ry Cooder first captured my attention in the 1970s with an LP called Paradise and Lunch. It was my first exposure to pioneering jazz pianist Earl Hines and I would later be lucky enough to see Hines at Gilly's, playing elegantly in his final years. Cooder has opened ears to all kinds of music with records such as Chicken Skin Music, which turned the world on to the beauty of Hawaiian guitar and conjunto accordion master Flaco Jimenez, Jazz, which offered up Bix Beiderbecke's ethereal masterpiece "In A Mist" and African-American gospel from the Golden Gate Quartet on up through his role in showcasing the elder Cuban masters of The Buena Vista Social Club. Cooder's albums (and film soundtracks), including collaborations with other guitarists such as Mali's Ali Farka Toure and India's Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, have lead countless music lovers to a bottomless well of American roots music while playing a significant role in establishing the market now known as "world music."

Album cover

His new record, Chavez Ravine, is an oddity, to say the least. It's essentially an opera set in the late 1950s about the Mexican neighborhood destroyed in Los Angeles to make way for the ballpark which would be home to baseball's recently arrived Dodgers (owner Walter O'Malley had absconded with the team from Brooklyn, leaving a permanent vaccum there several years earlier). Cooder throws a light on an elder generation of Mexican-American musicans like singer/songwriter Lalo Guerrrero and sets a backdrop of 50s Latino rock, polkas, boleros, ballads and bop. Characters ranging from corrupt real-estate developers to bulldozer operators appear and submerge while Cooder anchors the story with his fluid guitar work.

If you've never sampled his work, this should probably not be the first place to start (try Chicken Skin Music or Boomer's Story) but for anyone interested in exploring the next turn in the road with this creative musician, take a listen. You can find this title and many of Ry Cooder's best recordings at Gem City Records in the Oregon District.

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