This weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I will be playing a supporting role in Hééé Mariamou, a play/dance performance written by, directed, and starring Maimouna Coulibaly, Malian dancer/actor from Paris.  It will be at the Dance Mission Theater on the corner of 24th and Mission in San Francisco.  There will be lot’s Coupe Decale, Kuduro, Dancehall, Zouk, dancing, singing, and more French Urban sounds, as well as music by Malian legends such as Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare.  The dancing is amazing, and the energy is really live.  She also deals with many issues of African immigrant identity and growing up with a diverse cultural background, ideas that are shared with threads in my own thoughts/work.

Check the video trailer from my previous post, and an excerpt from this article that appeared in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle.

“My little sister, she’s 20 years old now,” Coulibaly says, “and I know that she’s not really sure of what she is exactly (African, French or Afro-French).”

Through “Mariamou,” Coulibaly says she’s hoping to shed some light on the conflicts she and others face. Her performance mixes a play with African urban dance forms, like N’Dombolo (Congo), and other styles of dance, including modern ballet and street jazz.

The piece is Coulibaly’s way of taking the best of both worlds after years of trying to make everybody happy.

“Now,” she says. “I choose to take only the positive things in each culture.”

Last week Six Degrees records released a track that I did as part of a remix project for Malian Ngoni player and singer Issa Bagayogo.  Keep looking out for more projects under my own name, and under the name Banana Clipz, there are exciting things to come!

Download the track for 99 cents at the Six Degrees website, or check out the whole album for $6.99!

I’m uploading this mix to promote my regular Wednesday night gig here in San Francisco at the Tunnel Top (601 Bush Street.) It is a mix of African Pop, Caribbean and African American musics that are an indication of some of the styles I play at the night. I call the night African Booty Scratchers. That’s Americans’ derogatory word for African Immigrants in the United States. Being 2nd generational, people called me and my family that when I was growing up. But now since I’m a scratching DJ and I play African and Booty shaking music, I felt like the name finally fits.

I haven’t figured out how to embed music on WordPress so click on the tracklisting below (text version of tracklist at bottom) to listen:

I also am excited to announce that Benjamin from Akwaaba Music will be joining to dj on Wednesday July 23rd, and we plan to collaborate on the night for the foreseeable future. Akwaaba Music is a digital distribution label for artists from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Mali.

For those that are interested, I asked Ben about the business side of his venture and he wrote me with this:

“So Akwaaba means ‘welcome’ in twi, the language of the Ashanti people of Ghana. Spelled akwaba, it means the same in Côte d’Ivoire. I like the meaning, AND anyone can pronounce it!

My plan is to release the music digitally, I’m shooting for August 1 for the first release, which will be a compilation introducing the label. I’ll put out three themed compilations after that, one every month, then I will start to put out full artist albums.

I have exclusive 3 year deals with my artists, and I pay them every 3 months. For digital sales, I share the reports I get from iTunes and the other outlets. When needed I am registering the artists with ASCAP or BMI here, since they are not always registered with an authors society back home. And technically for the time being I am paying them via Western Union, since hardly any of the artists have a bank account. I also have local contacts in every country I work with handling things there.”

This is something that I’ve been wanting to do ever since I started digging more into African Music. I think this is pretty cool that Ben is doing this, and now folks will be able to get their hands on new music, when it comes out straight from the artist, and money goes back to them.

His website will be up soon.

Tracklisting for mAfromatics:

1. Unknown
2. El San Juanero-Nelson y Sus Estrellas
3. Chuchi Chuchi-Five Star
4. Decale Rap-Jeune Prodiges
5. Sant Yalla-Sérigne M’baye
6. Enseralen Gojo-Bole 2 Harlem
7. Soweto Funk-DJ Mbuso
8. Oya-Bantu feat. Ayuba
9. Decale Aladji-Ramatoulaye
10. Hi 2 D Sky-Saiko
11. Activate-Latin Fresh feat. Aldo Ranks
12. Ai Ai-Pussycat
13. No se Acaba el Mambo-Banda Gorda
14. Pat Malonthone-Sierra Leone Refugee Allstars
15. Ka-Bubu No. 1-Abdul Tee-Jay
16. Profitez-Mokobe feat. Yousou N’Dour
17. Changing Flows-Mr. Slaughter
18. War Bridge-Bounty Killer
19.Solidarité-Nder
20. El Que Llora No Mama-Comando Tiburón
21. No Era Por Ahí-Tego Calderón
22. I Luv Your Girl-The Dream