HAILED as one of the standard-bearers of new African music, Malian singer, guitarist and actor Fatoumata Diawara’s radical new set London K (Wagram Records) is co-produced by Diawara, Daniel Florestano and Blur/Gorillaz frontman and global music champion Damon Albarn, who also performs on six of the 14 tracks here.

Fatoumata says Albarn is “her protector.” She appeared on Albarn’s cross-cultural Africa Express collective in London’s King Cross in 2012 after Albarn and other musicians were angered by the 2005 London Live 8 charity concert’s inclusion of just one African artist in its line-up. 

Born in Côte d’Ivoire in 1982, one of 10 children, she was sent to live with an abusive aunt in Bamako, Mali after her parents blamed her for the death of five of their children. She fled Mali aged 14 to avoid a forced marriage. 

Influenced by Malian music giants Ali Farka Toure, Oumou Sangara and Toumani Diabate, she says: “I want to keep with my roots, to keep close to the Malian people so I can always go back to my kora and balafon.”

She eventually landed in Paris where she first heard jazz. She said that Billie Holiday “didn’t sound in tune” as she was only used to Malian singing — in two chords. 

She also became the first Malian woman electric guitar player by jamming and adapting blues, jazz, funk and rock.

On her new set London Ko she is joined by Ghanaian rapper M.anifest on Mogokan; Nigeria’s Yemi Alade on Tolon; contemporary soul singer Angie Stone on Somaw, and on Blues by Cuban piano virtuoso Roberto Fonseca.

It’s difficult to classify this set. Is it Afropop, Afrofunk, Afro futurism? Fatoumata says: “Nobody has done anything like this before in Mali.” 

London Ko is defiantly a new direction for African music.

Eliades Ochoas, an original member of Buena Vista Social Club, who duetted with Ibrahim Ferrer on the instantly recognisable opener Chan Chan on the Grammy Award winning Buena Vista album, has a new set, Guajiro, released on World Circuit.

Produced by Demetrio Muniz, who was the director of the touring version of Buena Vista Social Club, this is a largely self-penned album.  

“It’s a different stage of my life from when we made Buena Vista,” he says. “It’s different from the albums I’ve done before, taking me outside my comfort zone. I’ve been playing traditional son cubano for many years. At this point in my life I wanted to do something a little different. I’ve always loved collaborating and being open to other rhythms and working with different artists.”

Featuring three guest artists including legendary Panamanian singer, songwriter and political activist Ruben Blades on Pajarito Polo, Joan Wasser (aka Joan As Police Woman) on Creo En La Naturaleza, and veteran blues harmonica virtuoso Charlie Musselwhite on West Guajiro certainly takes Cuban music in a different direction.