WEST CHESTER, PA (Top40 Charts/ Leni Stern Official Website) Stripped Down African Trio Album by Leni Stern Manages to Create an Epic Austerity, Gets
Digital Single Preview via Powerful Track, 'Still Bleeding'
'Sabani' CD to Showcase Guitar, N'goni Ba, Calabash and Tama; Single is First Song Stern Has Ever Written on N'Goni Ba
On her upcoming, stripped down African trio EP 'Sabani', acclaimed Global Music artist Leni Stern creates an epic austerity evocative of U2's powerful ballads such as "One" and "Red Hill Mining Town".
Stern will preview the September EP with the digital single "Still Bleeding," set for release in late May. The song and the forthcoming album were recorded and mixed in Bamako, Mali, and showcase Stern on electric guitar, vocals and n'goni ba, Haruna Samake on camela n'goni, and Africa's Mamadou Kone dit Prince ('MK Called Prince') on calabash and tama. The digital single, the first song Stern has ever written on n'goni ba, will be available via CDBaby, iTunes, Amazon and other digital outlets. Download cards will be available at upcoming Leni Stern concerts.
'Sabani' means 'three' in Bambara, and all of the tracks on Stern's EP will be trio compositions - a stark departure from the multi-instrumental African/Indian/Global orchestrations she's delivered as her sound evolved on recent albums 'Sa Belle Belle Ba', 'Africa', 'Spirit in the Water', 'Alu Maye' and others. Watch this clip of Stern recording 'Sabani' in Salif Keita's Moffou Studio in Bamako: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgyKxVG8edQ
More about the musicians and the evolution of the project - notes written by Leni Stern:
I have been playing the n'goni since i first came to Mali in 2006 to perform at The Festival in the Dsert. I met Bassekou Kouyate there, Mali's most famous n'goni player. He and his whole family have been teaching me ever since. Last September we performed together at the presidential palace to celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence. 50 years - 50 n'gonies. In the 50 n'goni orchestra, I sat next to the n'goni ba, the instrument of Basskou's father, played by his bother Fousseni. I fell in love with it's warm, soft sound. The n'goni ba is tuned to C, a forth below the jelly n'goni in F hat I had played so far. 'Still Bleeding' is the first song I composed on this instrument.
Haruna Samake was born in a small village near Bamako, the capital of Mali in West Africa. His father was the imam and all the villagers came to pray in his mosque, at least once a week. The camela n'goni is the instrument of the hunters. Most hunters in West Africa are also doctors. By observing the animals they track, they learn about the plants in the forest. They see an injured dear rub his leg against a particular tree and cut the bark to make bandages for people's injuries, for example (penicillin is found in the bark of a tree). The wisdom of traditional African medicine is passed on through the hunters. They are also sorcerers, a belief that originated in their extraordinary courage. They faced a lion armed with only a spear, they caught poisonous snakes to milk the venom in their mouths and make heart medicine from it. Hunters spend days, even months in the forest, where it is believed the spirits live...and they learn from them. They communicate with the spirits with the help of cowrie shells or a blackboard with lines and spaces drawn in white flower. People speak about them in hushed voices. So it was highly inappropriate for the little son of the imam to sit in the large courtyard of their house and play with a small camela n'goni that he had carved himself out of a calebash half, a stick and some fishing line! The hunters however liked the little boy and started to teach him how to play the instrument and they gave him a real camela n'goni after a while. A famous Malian singer named Sidibe heard people talking about the imam's little son that played the hunters harp and hired him to play in her band. That's how Haruna came to Bamako and eventually joined Salif Keita's band, where I met him. The camela n'goni is a pentatonic instrument that is most popular in Wassoulou music from the south of Mali. Haruna has taken the instrument far past its origin and can play any style of music on it, from the mandingue scales of segou and guinne, to the Congolese guitars to American blues.
MK Called Prince was born in Mopti, the city of the 3 rivers, the West African center of trading since hundreds of years. Mopti is located in the middle of the country, halfway between Bamako and Timbuktu. 4 of the Malian ethnicities, the peul, the bamabara, the dogon and the bobos, meet in mopti. Prince knows all of their rhythms and dances. He is half peul, half bobo. The rhythm of this song comes from the bobo people.
Prince plays it on the calabash. One day before the recording he took me on his mo-ped to the market and we bought a calabash. They are used for so many things in Africa, instruments like the kora and the camela n'goni, household purposes like salad bowls and water containers.....they often get decorated with cowrie shells and used as shakers in wassoulou music. Prince uses his upside down, like a bass drum when he plays with his fists and a rimshot when he play with his rings. He can actually sound like a whole drum set on a calabash. The man that cleaned and carved the calabash while we where waiting was a samake, like haruna. Prince said that you can trust a samake.
More about Leni Stern and her recent releases:
Stern earned the most glowing reviews of her eclectic career with her Global ensemble project, 'Sa Belle Belle Ba'. iTunes Editorial raved about the album's "bewitching grooves," "sweltering rhythms" and "incantatory lyrics". Other recent press coverage has described Stern as "among the most adventurous musicians of her generation," and has noted, "Her CD is an eclectic collection of fused musical styles and genres." By showcasing multiple guest performers, highlighting indigenous instruments from Africa and elsewhere, and allowing the collaborative process to shine, Stern delivered a complex, hard-hitting, funky, international rocker. Listen to streaming tracks from the album, here: https://www.sethcohenpr.com/player/lenistern/. On September 15th, 2010, in an extraordinary example of the respect Stern has earned in Africa, she performed at the Presidential Palace in Bamako Mali, playing n'goni with Bassekou Kouyate's n'goni orchestra.
In M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE, the national glossy -
writer Lee Zimmerman included 'Sa Belle Belle Ba' in his INDIE SCENES column, and praised: "Virtuoso guitarist Leni Stern continues to explore her fascination with the rich culture of the African continent, deftly blending vibrant rhythms, communal chants and exotic instrumentation with Western styles like jazz, funk and R&B."
WNYC RADIO & NPR MUSIC featured Stern in "Culture," offered a free MP3 download, and praised: "there's a certain innocent joie-de-vivre present in her Malian infused funk (or perhaps, funk infused Malian music). You can't help but imagine she plays her guitar smiling." See the full write-up and hear the song, via this link: https://culture.wnyc.org/articles/music-hub/2010/nov/15/gig-alert-leni-stern/
iTUNES EDITORIAL REVIEW:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sa-belle-belle-ba/id378596381?i=378596406&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
BLOGCRITICS
8/10 by Jack Goodstein https://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-review-leni-stern-sa-belle/
METALJAZZ:
8/10 by Greg Burk https://www.metaljazz.com/2010/08/review_leni_stern_sa_belle_bel.php
EXAMINER.COM
7/16/10 BY NEIL TESSER
https://www.examiner.com/jazz-music-in-chicago/leni-stern-rides-new-album-and-a-white-horse-into-evanston-on-saturday
Leni Stern is a Global Music artist and electric guitarist whose stature has grown in the wake of her acclaimed CDs 'Alu Maye', 'Africa' and 'Spirit In The Water' - all were recorded in Mali, using local musicians, instruments and equipment, and integrating African and Western music forms with distinction. Critics embraced 'Africa' as "a significant new chapter in a career marked by bold changes," and ALLMUSIC described it as "one of the finest CDs of the...year, in any genre." 'Spirit In the Water' was praised as "a glorious triumph," and, in its wake, critics remarked that Stern's eclectic career had emerged as "one of modern music's great adventures." Recorded on analog tape, the EP's warm, soulful sound was evocative of jazz and rock albums of the 1960's. 'Sa Belle Belle Ba' is the full-length CD that evolved from the 'Spirit' sessions.
With a vocal style that has been compared to Rickie Lee Jones, Stern has wowed critics with her embrace of the many musical traditions the world has to offer - in fact, Stern recently had the honor of performing at the United Nations. She has been described by The New York Times' as "a guitarist and vocalist with an ethereal sensibility," and recently completed a series of international appearances with the legendary Salif Keita, including a set at the Festival on the Niger in Segou, the old capital of Mali. In January, Stern made a return performance at the famed Festival in the Desert in Essakane, Mali, and in March she performed in New Delhi and in Mumbai, India. In March, she performed at Zankel Hall in NYC as a guest of Basekou Kouyate, Ami Sacko and N'goni Ba. Stern's live shows deliver an African/Global musical experience to an American audience.
LENI STERN YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
https://www.youtube.com/user/lenistern#g/a
Stern regularly tours the U.S. with her 'Africa' band - check out this LIVE VIDEO SAMPLER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCwN-g_q0b4
