close
 

Khaira Arby On Mountain Stage

Listen To The Show

[23 min 33 sec]
 
Khaira Arby performs on Mountain Stage.
Enlarge Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage

Khaira Arby performs on Mountain Stage.

Khaira Arby performs on Mountain Stage.
Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage

Khaira Arby performs on Mountain Stage.

Set List

  • "Salou"
  • "Tchini Tchini"
  • "Hala"
  • "Sourgou"
  • "Liliyoro
text size A A A
February 9, 2012

Khaira Arby, Timbuktu's reigning queen of Malian soul, makes her first visit to Mountain Stage, recorded live at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, W. Va. For 20 years Arby has sung in the ancient desert city of Timbuktu, where she has the following of a hometown heroine. Backed by the muscled grooves of an elite band, this is Arby's first extensive tour outside of her home country.

Born in the village of Abaradjou in the Sahara Desert, Arby is heavily influenced by a diverse ethnic background. She sings in the varied indigenous languages of her native Sahara, with instrumentation that often ranges from electric guitar and bass, to calabash, ngoni, traditional violin and percussion. Arby's full-throated, supple vocals carry her energetic, electric band between modern and traditional Malian desert blues for a sound rarely heard on Mountain Stage.

This segment originally ran on May 12, 2011.

Related NPR Stories

 

More From This Series

Podcast + RSS Feeds

Podcast RSS

  • Concerts
     
  • Mountain Stage
     
 
 
 

Comments

Please keep your community civil. All comments must follow the NPR.org Community rules and terms of use. See also the Community FAQ.

 

NPR reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the e-mails and letters that we receive. We may edit them for clarity or brevity and identify authors by name and location. For additional information, please consult our Terms of Use.

 

About The Show

Mountain Stage presents a live set every weekday from the award-winning public radio program.

NPR thanks our sponsors

Become an NPR Sponsor