It's often said that every Touareg in the southern Sahara is a member of Tinariwen, such is the reach and importance of the band in their home territory. It’s true that dozens of different people have played, danced and sung with the band during their long history. Various crucial participants in the Tinariwen story are now for various reasons no longer permanent fixtures in the band. These include founder member Inteyeden, who died of a mysterious illness in 1994, legendary rebel and fearless desert groover Kheddou, who along with rhythm-guitarist extraordinaire Djarra have now formed a new band called Terakaft (‘The Caravan’), singer Wounou Wallet Oumar, sister of Mina, who died of a kidney infection in 2005 and bassist Sweiloum, who is taking vacation from music.
Meanwhile, here are the active members of Tinariwen:
Ibrahim AG ALHABIB aka ‘Abaraybone’ – Lead Vocals & Lead Guitar
The man who invented the Tamashek electric guitar style whilst a young exile in Tamanrasset in Southern Algeria. The inspiration and the source of the whole Tinariwen story.
Hassan AG TOUHAMI aka ‘Abin Abin’ aka ‘Le Lion du D..sert’ aka ‘Aharr’ – Lead Vocals, Guitar & Dance
The best dancer and vibemaster between Algiers and the banks of the Niger River, Hassan co-founded the group with Ibrahim back in 1979…favourite saying: “..a c’est pour les oiseaux ..a…n’a vaut rien!!”
Abdallah AG ALHOUSSEYNI aka ‘Catastrophe’ – Lead Vocals & Acoustic Guitar
Unlike Ibrahim and Hassan, who come from Tessalit, Abdallah is a from a clan of marabouts or holymen who live in nomad camps in the Tamesna, a vast arid desert east of Kidal. Abdallah joined Tinariwen in the late 1980s, when they were living in the military camp near Tripoli in Libya. He fought the Touareg rebellion of 1990-1 alongside Ibrahim, Hassan, Kheddou and Japonias.
Mohammed AG ITLALE aka ‘Japonais’
One of the most respected and revered poets in northeastern Mali, but too wild to be part of the touring party, Japonais contributed two tracks to the latest album ‘Aman Iman’ and spends his time with his three daughters in Tessalit.
Eyadou AG LECHE – Bass, Backing Vocals, Calabash
Eyadou has been Tinariwen’s bassist since 2003, and taking more of a central role in the creative process.
Said AG AYAD – Percussion & Backing Vocals
The man who can make a djembe sound like a fulll rock’n’roll drumkit.
Elaga AG HAMID – Rhythm Guitar & Backing Vocals
As self-effacing as his guitar chopping is cutting, and spot-on. You have to strain hard to see Elaga in concert, hiding behind Said and Eyadou.
Abdallah AG LAMIDA aka ‘Intidao’ – Guitar & Backing Vocals
The most recent addition to the Tinariwen line-up, and learning super-fast.
Mina WALET OUMAR – Backing vocals & Hand-claps
Since the sad loss of her sister Wounou, Mina has been treading the boards bravely as Tinariwen’s sole female member. She’s taking a break later in 2007 to have a baby (good luck).
Influences
The traditional music of the Kel Tamashek, Ali Farka Touré, Boubacar Traore, Takamba Super 11, Salif Keita, Nass El Ghiwane, Oum Khalthoum, Rabah Driassa, Khaled, Ait Menguellet, Idir, Elvis Presley, Santana, Bad Company, Motorhead, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, the blues, Led Zeppelin, Justin Adams, Robert Plant, Lo’Jo, Dire Straits, Don Williams & Blackfire.
Sounds Like
As if... Keith Richards, Santana, John Lee Hooker, various members of Primal Scream and the Grateful Dead had got lost in the Sahara for a decade and then returned as a fully-fledged desert band.
'Aman Iman' EPK
'Ammasakoul' - Live at the Montreaux Jazz Festival with Santana
Biography:
The Tinariwen story is already well marinated in startling myths; fierce nomadic desert tribesmen toting guns and guitars, Ghadaffi’s poet-soldiers spreading their gospel of freedom throughout the world, turbaned rock’n’roll troubadours, Stratocaster on one shoulder, Kalashnikov on the other, 17 bullet wounds and rawest desert blues on earth.
Like all myths, like all legends, there’s plenty of truth mixed in there with the wild fantasy and wishful thinking. But the real story is deeper, richer, more engrossing, and more universal. In the desert oasis of Tamanrasset, southern Algeria, three aimless teenage friends in exile – Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Hassan Ag Touhami aka ‘The Lion of the Desert’ and Inteyeden - fall in love with the guitar, and with all the dreams of modernity and freedom that it embodies. They write songs about their own lives and about those of their friends, the modern Touareg youth, no longer lording over the desert on their camels, but living the clandestino life far from home, surviving by any means necessary, longing for friends and family, dreaming of retribution, of freedom, of self-determination. They are Kel Tinariwen, the ‘desert boys’.
In the 1980s, all three become soldier-musicians, lured into military camps in Libya by Colonel Ghadaffi. Their songs become the soundtrack of a time and of a movement; the ishumar, the Sahara desert’s Generation X. They fight a brief, painful rebellion against the government of Mali. They accept peace. They become full-time musicians and meet LoJo, a group of musical adventurers from Angers in France. They stage the first Festival in the Desert, visit Europe for the first time, release two albums including the award winning ‘Amassakoul’ and tour the world. This whole epic story takes 28 years to unfold.
And now the third album, ‘Aman Iman: Water Is Life’. No difficulties here, apart from the 1,200-mile journey from their desert home in Kidal, north-eastern Mali, to the recording studio in the capital Bamako. Tinariwen simply delved into their seemingly inexhaustible trove of songs and dusted down 12 classics, which they worked up with the help of live sound engineer Jaja, producer Justin Adams (Robert Plant’s guitarist and producer of the first Tinariwen CD ‘Radio Tisdas Sessions’) and recording engineer Ben Findlay. It only took ten days at Bogolan studios to nail them down and freeze frame the raw power and tenderness of modern desert blues at its best.
So forget the myths, forget the ‘guns-and-guitars’ fantasies and tales of blue-men on their camels. The humanity, the wonder and the epic sweep of the real Tinariwen story doesn’t need any photoshopping or romantic embellishments. It is the raw tale of an everyman, who was cut off from history and embraced the modern world, who lost his home and found solace in the guitar, who through pain and exile invented a new style of music that could express who he is and where he’s going. Nothing mythical or exotic about that. You can find the same story the world over.
Tinariwen would like to dedicate ‘Aman Iman’ to “Peace, tolerance and development in the Sahara and in the world of the oppressed.”
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