Amadou & Mariam

Often when I put something on my Amazon.com wishlist, I have no idea whatsoever what it is - I just found it somewhere and the album cover art looked cool, or the title was clever, or the genre was something I like.

Such as the case with Amadou & Mariam's album Dimanche a Bamako (ahem, cover art), a musical duo from Mali. Up until this week, I had no idea who they really were or what any of their music sounded like.

I then came across one of their songs (Coulybali) on Last.fm here at the store, and immediately fell in love. Amadou & Mariam both sing and play, but most importantly they create. This is not your typical folksy African music, or your standard new-agey pseudo-African filler. They really make fun music, interesting music, that has roots not only in Mali's folk, but in American blues and jazz, Latin music, eastern instruments, and good ol' rock and roll.

Now if the story ended there, it would be pretty damn good, but I fired up Wikipedia discovered a stunning fact about Amadou & Mariam: they are both blind. In fact, they apparently are commonly known as "the blind couple from Mali." They met at Mali's Institute for the Young Blind (who knew that Mali had such a thing?) and from there started to make music.

Their website is terribly fun. If you go to the Radio section, as I now have done, you can sign up and listen to their music interspersed with music that has influenced them. For instance, I just heard my favorite Coulibaly followed by Nina Simone's Sinnerman and now Diana Ross is singing.

PS - Yay Mali! These are not the first musicians from Mali I've come across and liked: Salif Keita is awesome, too. You might know his song Madan which has been remixed and featured in a Buddha Bar album (V, Disc 1) and in Techhouse Dance Parties. Salif Keita is not blind, but he is an albino. AND Malian royalty. His nickname is "the Golden Voice of Africa."