Christine Salem
 

Tiny Desk concerts might be the best way to get into someone quickly. 15 minutes, a few songs, and you can get something of an opinion.

This is the first thing I've heard from her period, but I really enjoy it. And its always weird to be how a lot of folk music of this nature seems to have common threads with Celtic music. More focus on percussion, but the melodies aren't so far removed from one another.

The rhythms are a little mono-rhythmic for having two drummers, but the vocals are pretty great. I could throw this on and enjoy it for awhile.

I spotted The Beatles A Hard Day's Night vinyl in the background. Yeah Beatles :)


Actually there are three percussionist. One is playing a skin-head drum with his hands, the guy is the Khaki's is playing some kind of make shift contraption that maybe a rubber mat which might have some compartment undernether filled with ball bearings (to give it an additional snare-like or sound) with drum sticks, and the singer is playing some kind of maracas-sounding shaker that is shaped like an abacus.

I don't see your complaint about being "mono-rhythmic" even though they are playing as a unit, they vary the rhythm ever so often.

Right, so we know what you think of my comments. What did you think of the video?

Seems quite a neat format to showcase an artist. Will you be showing us some others?

For me, one weakness of this performance is the repetitive nature of the vocals in the first two tracks. I thought things improved a lot @ 7 mins in, with the call-and-response song and then the slower tempo of the closer, where CS demonstrates that, with talent, you don´t need much to make a captivating song.

I suppose the same could be said of the instrument about which Neapolitan makes an interesting guess - it reminds me of a tv-stand that I once converted into a table by tacking on a sheet of plywood.

Christine Salem is from La Réunion (a province of France) which is an island east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. She speaks French and sings in various languages either (Réunion) Creole, Malagasy (Madagascar), Comoran or Swahili. The Style of music she performs is a mixture of African traditions also mixed with a traditional music of La Réunion called Maloya, which original come from slaves traded throught he Mozambique canal. Maloya was originally for religious ceremony, but it was also used for protest music and was banned by the French government in the 70's; the banned was lifted in the 80s.

http://www.clevacances.com/FR/images...nt_reunion.jpg

Her favorite instrument (I'm guessing because she is often seen playing it) is the "kayamb" which is made from bamboo with seeds inside, which goes by various names one which is called the "rosary pea" according to wikipedia.

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/ePtu3kv5jnc/h...jpg?feature=og

Her voice reminds me of the great South African singer Miriam Makeba....fantastic!