ALPHA YAYA DIALLO @ Kole Note

By Kelly Belfo - After Noon Roots - 07/14/2006

Guinean-born Juno award winner Alpha Yaya Diallo brought the world to Kola Note on Friday, July 14th, 2006 as part of the 20 year celebration of the wonderful Festival International Nuits D'Afrique de Montréal.

Traditional Guinean music plays a big part in Diallo's music. "Everyone in Guinea studies traditional music", but Diallo took it one step further and travelled around the country learning different styles of music from its four provinces. The audience might not have known the latter about Diallo but they did know that the sound was deliciously hypnotic and full of life.

While skillfully plucking, picking, and strumming on his guitar, Diallo's steady and talented band played instruments that included drums, djembe, bass, and my favorite, the balafon (a wooden xylophone). Two of the most energetic and playful dancers/back up singers got the crowd in an uproar. The audience would jump on stage for a friendly challenge mostly getting their behinds wipped by our dancer from the Ballet de Guinee. Wow! They knew what they were doing. And boy, can they ever fire up the crowd with flips and skirt throwing. Together they played music from the electrified griot songs of the Manding with all their sputtering rhytmic intricacies to the sunny lilt of Congolese soukous. My sister and I did not sit down.

After 3 hours and 3 encores of lively non-stop and mesmerizing pulse of beat and dance, Aplha Yaya Diallo, his band, and two of the most unforgettable dancers/singers said goodnight to Montreal's crowd of exhausted dancers. Us included.

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Diallo's CD The Message won the 1999 Juno award for Best Global Music recording. His latest album, The Journey, is slated for a September release, and there is also a film documentary, The Best of Both Worlds, shot in Guinea and Canada during the recording of the album, that is due to be broadcast this year on Bravo!, and on CBC TV in both English and French.