Live in America
Clermont Music (48 mins)
Over the last few years, Oumar Konaté has been making his own place on the Mali guitar scene, his guitar-bass-drums trio mixing traditional Songhai grooves with raucous Jimi Hendrix-esque solos.
For this album, three performances were recorded from Konaté’s US tour back in 2014. Given the year, it is no surprise that there are no as-yet-unheard tracks; all the pieces included are from his first two albums, 2014’s Addoh and 2016’s Maya Maya. Normally for a live album, that would be no problem, except here, although everything was recorded in-concert, it’s difficult to tell that just by listening. The high-quality recordings and the barely-audible crowd noise remove that electric atmosphere of being at a great concert, and make the album feel more like a set of alternate takes from past work.
Musically, Konaté’s skills as a guitarist are not in doubt, and he pulls off the different styles with ease, but what is lacking is any great originality that would take these particular performances from proficient to exciting. Maybe you had to be there.
It’s probably a better move to check out Konaté’s earlier studio albums and wait for some new material instead.