Thursday, July 13, 2006  

Amadou & Mariam: When the Blues Feels Good

Washington Post, Thursday, July 13, 2006; Page C09

He may not look like Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page, but Amadou Bagayoko is a guitar hero just the same. He put on an African blues-rock clinic Tuesday when the world-pop sensation Amadou & Mariam hit the packed Birchmere for their premiere Washington area appearance.

In 1977 Bagayoko and singer Mariam Doumbia met at the Institute for the Blind in Bamako, Mali. They married in 1980 and started performing the same year. After almost 25 years, they became an overnight success because of the CD "Dimanche a Bamako," a hit in France in 2004 and worldwide in 2005. The album is a fantastic blend of African blues-rock, Latin-tinged percussion and psychedelic R&B, made sweet by the charming vocals of the husband-wife duo.

"Dimanche a Bamako" received universal raves, from beard-scratching indie-rockers to native Africans. That eclectic mix was represented at the Birchmere, which staged the show in its bandstand area so people could dance: For 15 songs during the course of 100 minutes, Amadou & Mariam Afro-funked it up for the lovably motley crew who shook their booties to the band's fierce syncopated rhythms and tornadolike guitar solos.

While songs from Amadou & Mariam's breakthrough album made up the bulk of the set -- including "Senegal Fast Food," "Beaux Dimanches," "La Realite" and "Coulibaly" -- the duo dipped into its rich back catalogue with "Chantez-Chantez," which sounds like Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" returned to its African roots, and the '70s-cop-rock funker "Nangaraba."

The polished group was tres, tres tight, deeply locking into the songs' hypnotic pulses, but Bagayoko was the star. His playing mixed garage-rock power with the delicate filigrees that define African guitar, but you could tell Amadou was happiest just ripping it like Jimi and Jimmy. --Christopher Porter

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