may-2012

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Above left: Tinariwen, an ever-shifting collective, combine the electric guitar influences of Western rock with their traditional Tuareg roots
Above right: The band’s founder and lead singer, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, built his first guitar out of a tin can, a stick and bicycle brake cable
Tinawiren – whose barbed-haired lead singer Ibrahim Ag
Alhabib takes the stage flanked by an ever-evolving line-up of
fellow band members swathed in white tunics and traditional
nomadic headscarves – have become musical ambassadors for
the Tuareg people, in much the same way as Bob Marley was for
downtrodden Jamaicans. Ag Leche readily acknowledges that
their hypnotic songs, calling to mind early American blues, are
meant “to make you move while conveying a powerful message”.
The self-taught bass guitarist is part of the second wave of
members who joined the Tinariwen collective after 2001,
credited with contributing to their evolution and current
international fame. He tells me that the original
outfit performed at his baptism as a small child.
If I left, the
desert
would be
jealous.
I fear her
wrath
That’s how the collective originally got their start
around 1979, when Tuareg musicians who’d
spontaneously been playing traditional tunes
around campfires at weddings, baptisms or other
social occasions were brought together by Ag
Alhabib to record their own compositions: songs
that became anthems of rebellion following the
Tuareg upsurge against the Libyan, Malian and
Algerian authorities overseeing their traditional
homeland in the Southern Sahara. “Back then it was illegal to
even own a Tinariwen cassette,” Ag Leche reminds me.
Once the rebellion was quelled in the early 1990s the band
moved to Bamako and swapped their acoustic guitars for electric
ones, inspired by bootlegged copies of Western acts like Santana,
Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin.
Five albums later, the tables have turned and Carlos Santana,
Robert Plant, Bono and Thom Yorke of Radiohead are singing the
praises of these travelling musicians. Wilco’s Nels Cline and
members of US band TV on the Radio feature on Tinariwen’s
latest album Tassili (2011). Ag Leche says the band welcomes all
future such collaborations: “Our tent is wide open.”
Having made the move from traditional Tuareg music to
creating a modern voice for their people, the band returns to its
brussels airlines b.spirit! magazine may-jun
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roots with Tassili. This album was recorded in Djanet in the
Algerian desert with acoustic guitars in order to recapture the
intimacy of their campfire beginnings. Many of the songs are
calls for peace in uncertain times. As the words of Imidiwan Win
Sahara (My Friends From The Sahara) put it, “Let’s unite or we
shall vanish, not a single soul will be left in the desert.”
I ask Ag Leche whether, in light of the troubles at home and
the band’s growing fame abroad, he’d ever considered living
somewhere other than the Sahara.
“As a natural nomad I really enjoy the itinerant life of a
travelling musician, seeing the world. But eventually I find
myself missing my desert and my flock. Nature.
And you, know, if I left the desert would be
horribly jealous and I truly fear her wrath.” His
thoughts are echoed in the lyrics of another song,
Tenere Taqqim Tossam (Jealous Desert).
Perhaps Tinariwen gave its greatest love token to
its desert earlier this year. The band’s members did
not attend the Grammy Award Ceremony, where
they won the Best World Music Album gong,
preferring to remain at home after much touring.
“LA is a long way from the desert,” quips Ag
Leche.“However it was a great honour. It was really important as
it was the first Grammy ever awarded to Tuaregs, and an
opportunity to have the international spotlight on our cause.”
I ask where exactly the Grammy is right now. “It’s still in the
US with our representatives there, but you’re right, we need get
our hands on it soon,” he laughs. So which of the band’s many
members will keep the award? Ag Leche answers: “The lucky one
will.” On this point at least, the band are on the right track.
Tinariwen play London and New York in May, and Brussels and
Lyon in June. For full details visit tinariwen.com
Brussels Airlines flies to 20 African destinations and, as of 1 June, daily
to New York. Brussels Airlines also flies to Lyon, London and Brussels