Amadou & Mariam, Daby Toure, Birdy Nam Nam
Sunday, July 16, 2006
From 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Central Park SummerStage
This is a Free Music Event. Doors at 1:30pm. Door times are subject to change without notice.
Known throughout West Africa as “the blind couple from Mali,” Amadou & Mariam are huge stars of the world music scene. The husband-and-wife team of Amadao Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia combine the blues, French folk music, Cuban rhythms and South Asian textures with a solid African music base for a truly international sound.
Singer and multi-instrumentalist Daby Toure represents an almost perfect fusion of West African and Anglo-American pop music traditions. The son of Hamidou Toure (a member of legendary group Toure Kunda), Daby is blessed with a powerful, multi-octave voice that’s been compared to everyone from Baaba Maal and Salif Keita to Nick Drake and Cat Stevens. The result of all this cultural cross-pollination is a charismatic performer who should not be missed.
French group Birdy Nam Nam makes music with nothing but turntables and vinyl—and while that’s not particularly unusual, few DJ crews have mastered the intense coordination and skill needed to sound like a real band. Depending on the song, each of the four turntablists handles the chores of an individual instrument—drums, bass, keyboards and melodies. BNN’s members— Little Mike, DJ Pone, DJ Need, and Crazy B—slice, dice and distort vintage hip-hop samples, classic rock tracks and electronic beats to conjure up a wall of sound as intense and spontaneous as any live band.
