Sibiri Samake: Bamana Hunter Music

When was the last time the jacket notes for a CD proclaimed of the artist: “His music and presence as a man are not to be taken lightly”? James Brown, maybe? It's one reason to look into Sibiri Samake's music, but once inside the package, the music transcends any hint of hype. According to those same jacket notes, Samake is from an ancestral line of official hunters for a cluster of West African villages—spearing game and protecting their clans—and the music is associated with hunting rituals. The deep tradition of the call-and-response vocals and the mystery of string instruments with hollow gourd bodies accompanied by shaking percussion occasionally rise to a furious thrum. At those moments, one can say Samake rocks.