Tuareg Tuesday

I have mentioned here before the excellent Sahel Sounds label, whose mission to promote the music of the Sahel region (obviously).

For those of you who don't know where that is, Wikipedia describes it snappily as "the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition in Africa between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian Savanna to the south".

Anyway, earlier this week Sahel Sounds had a one day sale over on Bandcamp, and I took advantage of it to grab a couple of excellent albums. We're featuring the first one today, the second will follow soon.

The first album is "Anou Malane" by the extravagantly named Abdallah Ag Oumbadougou from Niger. Made in 1995, it is apparently one of the first studio recordings of Tuareg guitar music. And, I would venture to say, still one of the best.

"Ifitalane" - Abdallah Ag Oumbadougou

"Anou Malane" - Abdallah Ag Oumbadougou

Turning to sadder news, the great Bob Andy died yesterday aged 75. I was lucky enough to see him perform a few years back. Probably best known in the UK as one half of Bob & Marcia, he was also a founder member of The Paragons and wrote many hits like "Too Experienced" and "Feel Like Jumping" as well as having a solo career. RIP Mr Andy.