#4 - Africolor

I always loved the music of Wassoulou-ladies from Mali and visited a lot of concerts in the nineties. Somewhere in 1992 I saw Nahawa Doumbia, Djeneba Diakité and Safi Diawara on stage together in Melkweg, Amsterdam. It was an amazing performance and the place was going wild. When I was hunting for good cassette-music in Abidjan four years later, my eyes fell on this tape Africolor. It was later that I realised that this tape could possibly be a registration of that concert in Amsterdam.

#3 - Mathey

The music of this full-breasted lady from Ivory Coast sounds a bit like Monique Séka, but is more special. For me in particular. I remember when I bought it in Cocody, Abidjan, when I took a walk with my Ivorian girlfriend in the summer of 1996. Well, the relation didn't last long, but some years later I found another album of Mathey in Bruxelles, called Clépo. Still I find this old cassette Anzi sounds better than her later work. That counts for the visual on the pochette too.

#2 - Molobaly Traoré

This griot from the village Niono in Mali is one of the best voices Mali ever had. At multiple occasions that the Malian authorities visited the Kala region, she was also there. Earlier Worldservice wrote about the first tape from l'enfant de Macina, who sadly died of typhoid in 2009. I believe I bought Vol. 2 back in 1992.

#1 - Les Nawayou

It was in the glorious days of zouglou that Les Nawayou became popular in the streets of Abidjan. Just like other groups in those days (Les Poussins Chocs, Les Djigbo's, Les Youtou, Les Nawa Day's, Les Officiers Publics, but more about them in later posts) these young and enthusiastic people created a new generation of Ivorian musicians.
I stayed some weeks in Abidjan in the summer of 1996, while zouglou was the newest musical sensation. Les Nawayou (Boris, Tino and Elise) were on the radio all the time.
Afakaya, subtitle Nawa Danse, is the name of the tape and the titletrack. The song seems to appear on some compilations on Ivorian music and was released by the popular lable Showbiz.