“Mali” (Used 7 times)

A cousin of the Farka Touré family, Khaïra Arby took Mali's national music competition by storm in 1970 when she was just eleven years old. But despite her gift for song, she soon found herself given to marriage with a man who forbade singing. After years of frustration, Khaira Arby divorced to embark on a career in music. She joined Mali's national band and blossomed into a renowned solo artist in the 1990s, known as "The Nightingale of the North" to the south's "Songbird of Wassoulou," Oumou Sangaré.

On the heels of her first international release, Khaïra Arby visited the KEXP studios in Seattle for this live performance on The Best Ambiance with Jon Kertzer. She performed with her band from the deserts north of Tombouctou, Kevin Suggs with songs in the Sonrai, Arabic, Tamashek, and Bambara languages of the Sahara. Video after the jump, with more on KEXP's blog.

Khaira Arby is on Facebook & Twitter. MP3s @ iTunes

Lessazo's Soleil d'hiver is a collaboration between fifteen musicians from France and fifteen musicians from Mali. There is no shortage of voices and instruments, from guitar to kora, calabash to electric bass, horn sections to balafon, talking drum and n'goni lute.

These aren't jam sessions -- each composition is beautifully orchestrated with room to breathe and time to let the ideas play out. Over the course of the double album, a host of French and Malian folk and jazz traditions fuse with bambara rap and dub-worthy bass while field recordings mix in and out of mbox studio sessions.

The album was released in 2006 on Alter Musique. We discovered it through the French free music portal Dogmazic, who curate a selection for the FMA. Soleil d'hiver is shared under a Free Art / Art Libre license, which dates back to 2000 and precedes Creative Commons. Read the english version at artlibre.org/licence/lal/en

Lessazo was founded by Maya Diallo and Antoine Gonot, who continue to perform in France as the Lessazo Trio as well as in Mail with Lessazo Angata. Video from an intercontinental studio session after the jump:

Festi 40 is a music festival in Fada N'Gourma, Burkina Faso that brings together some of West Africa's most incredible musicians. Assif Tsahar, an avant jazz musician and founder of Hopscotch Records, is part of an international team of volunteers involved in putting the festival together. The same group -- which included Daniel of Halas Radio and the artist Cooper-Moore -- took part in the most recent 1000 Stars Festival in Arba Minch, Ethiopia, documented here (that's where the Coooper-Moore song "Banjo Arba Minch Garden" was recorded, inspired by the festival's incredible gathering of musicians from 50+ tribes).

Assif tells us that this year, 1000 Stars is not happening, and Fest-Tou has lost the funding it previously received from Europe. In landlocked Burkina Faso -- one of the poorest countries in West Africa let alone the world -- a little goes a very long way. As one of the few people involved with the festival who has any sort of web presence, Assif has taken it upon himself to create a Kickstarter online fundraiser to ensure that the festival can take place this December with proper sound and lighting equipment.

Hopscotch also maintains an incredible video archive from the past two years of Fest-Tou, including the performance (below) of Mali's legendary Khaira Arby.

A few previously unreleased live recordings -- including some collaborations between Assif (an accomplished free-jazz musician in his own right) and the musicians of Fest-Tou are available here on the Free Music Archive, including the track below.

These are incredible recordings from a vibrant music festival. We thank the musicians and organizers for sharing their music with the world. If the Kickstarter succeeds, it will not only sustain this year's festival, but fund the production of high-quality CDs and DVDs to help sustain future editions of Fest-Tou. Read more and chip in here.