Genre
Flamenco and world music. Songhaï 2 deepens the fusion of flamenco and West African music pioneered by its predecessor, deploying kora, double bass, Romani guitar, and percussion in a conversation between the Andalusian and Malian musical traditions that remains one of the most celebrated intercultural encounters in world music history.
Release
Released in 1994 by Nuevos Medios in Spain and Hannibal Records internationally, co-published by Rykodisc. The album is credited to Ketama, Toumani Diabaté, José Soto, and Danny Thompson.
Production
Produced by Mario Pacheco, Joe Boyd, and Lucy Durán - the musicologist and broadcaster who had first encouraged the collaboration in 1987, when she introduced Ketama to Toumani Diabaté after the group's London concerts. The ensemble comprises Toumani Diabaté on kora, Danny Thompson on double bass, José Soto on vocals and guitar, Juan Carmona on guitar, Antonio Carmona on percussion and guitar, and José Miguel Carmona on guitar and emulator. Recording studio: AudioFilm, Madrid, Spain.
Reception
Critics praised its ability to synthesise two musical traditions - Andalusian Romani and West African Manding - that share deep historical connections. The Guardian described the original Songhaï project as one of the most successful cross-cultural collaborations in modern music.
Ketama
Ketama are a Spanish nuevo flamenco group formed in Granada in 1982, comprising members of two celebrated Romani musical families: the Carmonas - Juan, Antonio, and José Miguel - and the Sotos - vocalist José Soto "Sorderita." They took their name from the Moroccan town known for its hashish cultivation. Signed to Nuevos Medios in 1985, they became one of the principal vehicles for the renewal of flamenco in the 1980s, fusing Romani musical tradition with Latin pop, rumba, and — most famously — West African kora through the Songhaï project. Their encounter with Toumani Diabaté and Danny Thompson in London in October 1987, facilitated by musicologist Lucy Durán, led directly to the recording of Songhaï (1988) - produced by Joe Boyd - in Madrid in April of that year. Among their most celebrated solo albums are Ketama (1985) and De Akí a Ketama (1995). Antonio Carmona subsequently pursued a successful solo career.
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