If anything at all exemplifies the shift in the popular music of the last century, it's the ascendancy of rhythm over melody. This electrifying album from Badenya les frères Coulibaly -- the Coulibaly Brothers -- draws from the deep African roots of this artistic change, while updating a musical and cultural tradition. Serving as more than just musicians, the Brothers play a role in continuing and rejuvenating the oral history of their West African nation, Burkina Faso. As ethnomusicologist Laurent Aubert says in the liner notes, "The Coulibaly Brothers are griots [and] sons of griots, which implies for them the duty to perpetuate the musical heritage of their clan... They are not only the guardians of the memory and lessons of the past, but more so the witnesses and actors of a society undergoing changes."
Related in more than just name, the musical Coulibaly family includes the twins Ousséni and Lassina, along with their older brother Souleymane, the group's leader; various nephews and nieces join to provide an ever-shifting sea of textures on which the brothers' drums can ride. Only two tracks add the new-fangled trickery of programmed beats; as lightning fast and exactingly precise as some of the drum patterns are, they are performed almost entirely by well-trained hands. Perhaps the most compelling sound comes from the big drum called the jembe, which can enslave both the pulse and the feet with its insistent call. Smaller drums, a guitar and bass, and an African xylophone are among the wealth of instruments used, along with chant-like vocals, to entice the listener. In fact, it's nearly impossible to not tap a foot or drum a finger on the desk when the Coulibaly Brothers begin the surge of their playing.
For a music of such primal force, Séniwè can also be surprisingly delicate. Songs like "Djanto" and "Sama" leaven powerful beats with the higher pitches of the xylophone and the voice of niece Mariam Coulibaly. Like most masterful musicians, the Coulibalys have as sure a grasp of silence as of sound: quiet passages and solo runs highlight the beauty of individual instruments while building and releasing a joyful tension. Western listeners may miss the social and cultural import of the lyrics, but Badenya les frères Coulibaly are proof (if any is needed at this late date) that music transcends the boundaries of both language and culture, aiming instead for the heart and the feet.
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