Nasty Sand from Sultan by Alune Wade

This title is a play on words: both malicious and evil. The seductive binary rhythm is not there by chance. It is there to hook you and focus your attention on the message the artist has decided to pass on. Accompanying Alune’s lyrics are the vocals of Mehdi Nassouri. A symbol of the ongoing struggle is the evil sand, that of petroleum, which brings no joy to the African continent. The melodies cross over between continuity and the mixing of cultures, a guitar and bass riff picks up on the Gnawa rhythms, as brass instruments play both the African and American blues. Wade designates the pianist as the storyteller who stitches together a link between the blues brought back by the deportees (ex-slaves) and their European instruments, and ancient African instruments, cordophones, idiophones and others which, as of now, they are deepening their research. A deconstruction, then reconstruction, which follows the movement of populations which migrate.