{"id":6048,"date":"2016-03-24T11:00:18","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2016\/03\/24\/first-listen-bombino-azel\/"},"modified":"2016-03-24T11:00:18","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T11:00:18","slug":"first-listen-bombino-azel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/first-listen-bombino-azel\/","title":{"rendered":"First Listen: Bombino, 'Azel'"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anastasia Tsioulcas<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

\"Bombino's<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/strong> 46:53<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Bombino’s new album, Azel<\/em>, comes out April 1. Marije Kuiper\/Courtesy of the artist<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/strong> Marije Kuiper\/Courtesy of the artist<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

At this point, Bombino<\/a> \u2014 a.k.a. Omara Moctar, a Tuareg<\/a> guitarist and singer-songwriter from northern Niger \u2014 is an old hand on the international scene. It was more than a decade ago that cassettes of his music circulated in the Tuareg communities clustered around the Sahara Desert. Ten years ago, he traveled to the U.S. to record a session<\/a> (with The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards and Charlie Watts, no less) and then start touring<\/a> these shores as a sideman with a Tuareg band. But his career in the U.S. and Europe as a solo artist has been in full force for a while now; it was five years ago that NPR Music presented<\/a> him in a full concert from New York’s (Le) Poisson Rouge.<\/p>\n

Over that time, Bombino has more than found his groove, perfectly balanced between mastery and ease. Out of a well-documented<\/a> generation of talented Tuareg rockers<\/a>, he’s emerged as the most virtuosic and melodically innovative, as he’s layered his voice over sparkling guitar riffs. He hasn’t uprooted himself: He continues to sing in his native Tamashek about Tuareg issues<\/a>, and in his tunes you can still hear the feedback loop between West African sounds and music of the Americas, from rock, blues and R&B to Caribbean dancehall and reggae.<\/p>\n

But he’s also found room for experimentation over the course of three studio albums, from his first solo project, 2011’s Agadez<\/em>, to the buzzed-out garage vibe of 2013’s Nomad<\/em>, produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. Now comes Azel<\/em>, with Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors as producer; according to Bombino, Longstreth let him take the sonic lead, which was apparently not so much the case<\/a> with Auerbach.<\/p>\n

On Azel<\/em>, the details of Bombino’s extraordinary guitar playing come back into sharp focus \u2014 and that’s this album’s greatest pleasure, track to track. Other experiments emerge, too: Bombino and Longstreth intercut the loping rhythms of Tamashek tradition with the one-drop of reggae in “Timtar” (Memories). (Lest that seem strange: Bob Marley has been as much a hero<\/a> among generations of Tuareg musicians as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and Dire Straits.)<\/p>\n

But it’s in songs like the lilting “Naqqim Dagh Timshar” (We Are Left In This Abandoned Place) that Bombino’s artistry is on its brightest display. (Having spent a bit of time in the Sahara with Tuareg musicians from across their diaspora, I can say that that sort of slow burn feels exactly right.) The guitar is front-and-center. Bombino sings with passion, in that signature honey-and-sand<\/a> voice, about the currents of Tuareg identity and politics, as well as his people’s precarious position at this very moment<\/a>: “Everyone has left us \/ The world has evolved \/ And we’ve been abandoned,” he sings. “The whole world has evolved \/ Why haven’t we?”<\/p>\n

Bombino may be prodding others there, because no one can say that he’s content to rest with his prodigious gifts. Musically, he’s always moving on to some new destination.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bombino, ‘Azel’<\/h3>\n
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Akhar Zaman (This Moment)<\/a><\/h4>\n