In the world of rock n roll, it s always cool to be a rebel. The guitar-toting, ex-guerilla fighters of one band aren t pretending.<\/p>\n
Formed in exile in Algeria, trained in Libyan military camps, tested on the battlefield, the Malian group Tinariwen has championed the plight of Mali s fierce desert nomads for decades with an electric array of hypnotic poet-warrior blues rooted in their own homegrown Tuareg twang.<\/p>\n
Once distributed hand to hand on cassette tapes banned by the government – British band manager Andy Morgan called it the ghetto-blaster grapevine – their music galvanized a disaffected generation and bound together a scattered culture without newspapers, radio or television stations in their native Tamashek language.<\/p>\n
These days, the turbaned musicians straight out of the Sahara are touring the likes of New York, Paris and Tokyo to promote their latest CD, Aman Iman: Water is Life – 12 tracks of 1960s-style wah-wah-pedal guitar riffs, driving African drum beats and hand-clapped Arabic rhythms laced with lyrics that navigate the epic river of modern-day Tuareg existence.<\/p>\n
Many of the tunes were written years ago, before the latest rebellions plaguing Mali and uranium-rich Niger sprung up this year and last. But as singer and guitarist Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni said in a recent interview in Dakar, the song remains the same.<\/p>\n
The problems of Tuaregs in Mali and Niger have never been solved, Alhousseyni said as several band members lay on a mat on the floor of their modest hotel room, heating Chinese tea on a miniature charcoal grill.<\/p>\n
Young Tuaregs are up in the mountains with arms, Alhousseyni said. They want peace, but not only that. To come down, they want to see development. <\/p>\n
Tinariwen – meaning deserts or empty places – was founded in 1979 in Tamanrasset, southern Algeria, where band members-to-be were living a hand-to-mouth existence in the wake of Mali s 1963 rebellion and the severe droughts that followed a decade later.<\/p>\n
Among them was Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, the tall, charismatic, shaggy-haired lead singer-guitarist who co-founded the group. Malian forces killed Alhabib s father and slaughtered his family s camels and cattle when he was four, inducing a wandering life that included jail time and plenty of downtime among masses of exiled, unemployed youth longing for home.<\/p>\n
According to Morgan s account, Alhabib learned to play on self-made bush guitars, which consisted mostly of a jerry can, a stick and some bicycle brake wire. <\/p>\n
It was a school of hard knocks that few Western musicians could imagine.<\/p>\n
Drawn into Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s training camps in the 1980s, the rockers practiced between military exercises. Eventually, six of them went on to fight in Mali s rebellion, which lasted from 1990 to 1996. Four ex-fighters remain in the dozen-strong band.<\/p>\n
One oft-told tale has former guitarist Kheddou Ag Ossad heading into battle with a Fender Stratocaster strung over one shoulder and a Kalashnikov rifle over the other. He was shot 17 times – and survived, so the legend goes.<\/p>\n
True or not, such stories have bolstered Tinariwen s mythical status. The group, though, plays down that past and no longer advocates violence.<\/p>\n
The idea that you can achieve your goals with arms is outdated. It s not worth it, said Hassan Ag Touhami, a mustachioed singer-guitarist-vibemaster. His own generation s rebellion was never a good idea, he said, but sometimes there are obligations. <\/p>\n
Tinariwen s audience began going global after they performed at Mali s 2001 Festival in the Desert, an annual Woodstock-like series of concerts that draws blue-turbaned nomads on camelback and foreign tourists under the stars.<\/p>\n
Their first album, The Radio Tisdas Sessions, was released the same year and followed by the 2004 world music hit, Amassakoul, meaning traveler. <\/p>\n
Since then, Tinariwen has performed with rock legends Santana and Led Zeppelin s Robert Plant, whose guitarist, Justin Adams, produced Aman Iman.<\/p>\n
The tracks on their latest work feature the group s signature offensive of six guitars, which lay the backdrop for poetic vocals expounding on exile, love, longing, war and the desert.<\/p>\n
Many of the tunes begin with slow, lingering solo guitar preludes that meld into trancelike traditional beats invoking Berber and Moroccan influences. Mesmerizing male chants are topped off with a pair of sweet-voiced female crooners that occasionally let loose quivering guttural tongue cries.<\/p>\n
On Mano Dayak, Alhousseyni sings of the 21st century s subtle intrusion into the shadeless desert, recounting his amazement upon seeing a Tuareg talking on a satellite telephone tied to a tree. <\/p>\n
What has fueled Tuareg unrest is what lacks in their lands today, Alhousseyni said: the basics of modern civilization. No development, no schools, no water, no teachers, he said. It s a forgotten world. Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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