I recently attended the wonderful Janjanbureh kankurang festival for the first time. As a musician and ‘old timer’ in the Gambia I was pleasantly surprised at how well organised it was. The power failure on Sat night slightly spoiled my … Continue reading Marvelous Masquerades: Kankurang
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve written anything here. So long, in fact, I’ve forgotten how to format anything and am struggling with technical ‘how-tos’, so this is even less ‘slick’ than usual! As a dyslexic wordsmith the whole digital presentation thing is quite a challenge (although it helps with spelling). Many things have happened since my last post in 2019 . One thing was a change of my ‘main focus’ – from musician to Family Carer, while I looked after my parents for 5 years up until my Dad’s death. I was quite naive about being able … Continue reading ToumarankeUK. Chris: the Community Musician
Mane is sometimes spelled Mane or Mane with an e acute (spelling not being all that important in an oral tradition), is a Susu (or Soussou depending on which colonial language you’re spelling that in) ‘classic’. It’s also quite difficult … Continue reading Toumaranke Song Series. Manet.
The second track on our debut album TAKHAUDI DÉKAU is Temedi – Baby. In Susu (spelt in various ways, Soussou or Soso, in French but I’m sticking to the English spelling as I’m used to it) the main language used on the CD. It means, literally, baby girl, but it’s a term of affection for a woman such as a sister, friend or lover. It’s not quite darling; if people want to say darling they generally say cherie or sometimes use the English word. Temedi seems to be exclusively used by men. I’ve never heard a woman call another woman temedi and no woman has ever said it to … Continue reading Toumaranke Song Series. Track 2: Temedi – Baby.
Sorsonet is the last track on our debut album Takhaudi Dekau When I first began to think about recording some of the music I was doing in Gambia what I wanted to do was something instrumental and balafon (West African xylophone) led. … Continue reading Toumaranke Song Series. Takhaudi Dekau: Inside The Chicken’s Mouth. Track 10: Sorsonet.
All our songs, like most good songs, have a story behind them. One of the hardest choices I had to make when producing our debut CD was which order to put the tracks in. In the end I went for … Continue reading Toumaranke Song Series. Track 1: Toumaranke – our ‘theme tune’….
Yamoussa Camara aka Kossy/Kossybilly or Camarakay (which simply signifies ‘man of the Camara family, Kay meaning man – although I’m just guessing about the spelling) has been a member of Toumaranke for over three years and is now pretty much a … Continue reading Toumaranke Band Profiles. Kossy in context. The family compound.
Moussa Sylla is the leader and main composer/creator/songwriter for the group Toumaranke as well as being the person I’m married to. Our musical association predates our sexual relationship and our partnership isn’t simply about playing together, but it’s hard to seperate that … Continue reading Toumaranke Band Profiles. Moussa Lengue Sylla: Portrait of my husband.
I originally intended to start this series with Moussa Sylla, bandleader of Toumaranke and my husband. However Okameo got married recently and I’ve been looking at my photos and thinking over our friendship, so writing about him first developed out of that. The three … Continue reading Toumaranke band profiles. Mohammed Bangoura aka Okameo: Portrait of a friend.
Thursday 27th November 2014 I It’s very nearly the actual end of this visit, back to England tomorrow. The recorded Toumaranke files are safely there already with Martin. All the kitchen equipment, the big pots/bowls/cups/cutlery/big flask and so on, is packed up and back in storage. Most of the instruments are there too, just 2 balafons left here with us. I was hoping to leave the laptop we used but Martin had to take it back for some technical reason I didn’t fully understand. This means Moussa is without an operational laptop, Kossy’s still works but neither M or Oka now have … Continue reading Toumaranke Recording Project Diaries. The Day Before Leaving.
Toumaranke UK 