Reviews

Music

On the beat

Arresting melodies

Wamato Les Amazones de Guinéée Sterns Cat STCD1106

After 25 years, Les Amazones de Guinéée have released their third album, Wamato. It has been a long wait but well worthwhile – this recording is evidence that this all-women ensemble has lost none of its silky elegance nor its original power. Formed in Conakry in 1960 – the same year as one of Guinea’s most venerable Manding big bands, Orchestra Bembeya – from the outset there has been a unique precondition to play in the Les Amazones de Guinéée ensemble. All the musicians had to be serving women police officers in the country’ gendarmerie. Known originally as l’Orchestre Feminin de la Gendarmerie de Guinéée, and numbering some 30 musicians, Les Amazones de Guinéée was the brainchild of the musician, composer and arranger Keletigui Traore. These musicians were drawn from the country’s frontline crime fighters found guarding the country’s ministry buildings, ports, banks and airport. One of the founding members of l’Orchestre Feminin de la Gendarmerie de Guinéée had a very direct link with Orchestra Bembeya – for Sona Diabate was the sister of the virtuoso guitarist Sekou ‘Diamond Fingers’ Diabate who, alongside lead singer and composer Aboucar Demba Camara, played such a pivotal role in Orchestra Bembeya’s meteoric rise to fame as one of Africa’s great national orchestras and most popular dance bands. Even if the l’Orchestre Feminin de la Gendarmerie de Guinéée personnel’s full-time occupation was to

foil thieves, chase down murderers and arrest gangsters and bring them all to justice, whatever leisure time they had was devoted to rehearsing and performing their music. They represented their profession and their country – touring the country and criss-crossing the continent to play concerts.

Diplomatic functions The government also called upon them to perform at home at diplomatic functions to entertain visiting dignitaries and heads of state. Presumably, their musical talents combined with their ability to provide a security detail made them the default choice for these occasions and served also to demonstrate to visitors Guinea’s progressive gender-equality policies. The band began by focusing on interpretations of the rich

by playing tribute to local tastes. They did this by incorporating into their repertoire popular styles such as soukous, afrobeat, rumba and reggae (but always alongside the loping, languorous and dignified melodies of their Manding roots) and learning local languages, to sing in Malinke, Fula, Lingala, Kiswahili and other African languages. Such was Les Amazones de Guinéée’s success and popularity that they were frequently chosen to represent Guinéée to play at major international events such as the legendary Festac festival of black arts held in Lagos in 1977 – alongside their compatriots Orchestra Bembeya.

folkloric music traditions of the Manding Empire, even if delivered with assorted Western-stringed instruments like the violin, cello, double bass, banjo and mandolin. Gradually, they also incorporated other instruments, including nontraditional percussion like congas and bongos, and formed a brass section and benefited from the decision of the country’s first president, Sekou Touréé, to subsidise the importation of Western instruments. As well as taking up electric guitars and amplifiers, the band also expanded their repertoire to reflect many of the musical influences they encountered during their extensive tours. Visiting other countries and regions of Africa – including Senegal, DR Congo (then Zaire) and Kenya, Les Amazones de Guinéée, would often delight their audiences

An African force Now, under the direction of the chef d’orchestre and bass player, Commandant Salematou Diallointer, Les Amazones de Guinéée are back as a true force in African music. They have packed a dozen tracks onto this new album, recorded last year in Bamako, Mali. And while Les Amazones de Guinéée cut the band’s size down in the 1980s from a force of 30 to a more manageable size of 15 or so members, to tour internationally, this album sees them back with 11 core band members and seven guest appearances – 18 in total including a trio of vocalists to back the three lead singers, Lieutenants M’mah Sylla, Fatoumata N’Gady Keita and Daloba Keita. A pair of electric guitars – Yaya Kouyatéé on lead and N’Sira Tounkara on rhythm, joins Commandant Salematou Diallointer on bass guitar, while the hallmark brass section provides that all-essential big band sound, and assorted percussion adds to the rich mix that has always been a hallmark of Les Amazones de Guinéée.

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African Business | February 2008