Cheb Mami Meli Meli CD

Drawing on various world music influences, Algerian pop artist Cheb Mami's MELI MELI features a collaboration with rapper K-Mel on "Parisien Du Nord." MELI MELI marks the beginning of wider notoriety and musical scope for the artist and includes the album's title track and "Bekatni."

Though Algerian king of Rai Cheb Mami first came to the attention of most U.S. listeners through his hit collaboration with Sting, he was building a substantive career long before "Desert Rose." In the aftermath of that tune, many new listeners will probably turn their attention to MELI MELI, and all the better both for them and for Mami. Though he maintains roots in traditional Algerian music, as exemplified by the acoustic guitar- and accordion-driven "Bledi," Mami is ultimately a modernist, who brings the sonorities and shadings of his country's musical history into the present day. Mami's keening, melismatic vocal style cascades over very contemporary, R&B-influenced arrangements full of drum loops, sequenced synthesizer lines, and sophisticated studiocraft. There's even a bit of rapping interspersed with the singing on "Parisien Du Nord." Still, no matter how updated the sound gets, there's enough Algerian flavor to keep MELI MELI sounding sufficiently exotic to American newcomers and familiar to Rai enthusiasts.

Rai in the 1980s was Algeria's punk and rap, a music of cultural revolution and youthful defiance. The many "Chebs" (cheb roughly means "the young") played a raw music, usually stripped down to voices; cheesy, cheap synthesizers; and drum machines, heavy on the bass and full of bad attitude. But Chebs grow up, make money, and become more mainstream. Cheb Mami was there at the beginning and has followed this growth pattern. Gone is the rough edge and in its place is a smooth sophistication, a more worldly blend of pop and folk music from Africa and Europe. Meli Meli is as much Paris as Oran, as much New York as Algiers. Mami's blend of hip-hop and rai has made him a hit maker in France and a symbol of wealth and success back home. Slick production and high energy dominate this music; it's global pop now. While the lyrics may speak of the streets of Paris, the sound is no longer from the streets.

European Import.

Engineers include: Dider Lemarchand, Gordon Cyrus, Bruno Le Pennec.

Personnel includes: Cheb Mami (vocals, accordion); Desmond Foster (various instruments); Pablo Cepela (guitar, percussion); Nguyen Le (guitar, programming); Eric Fernandez (guitar); Anello Capuano (banjo, dotara, saz); Mejdoub Ftati (violin); Santiago Jiminez (electric violin); Cecile Sarah Daroux, Christian Boissel (flute); Jean Pierre Arnaud (oboe); Alain Deboissat, Yannick Jory (saxophone); Christian Martinez (trumpet); Jean Claude Onesta (trombone); Virginie Maillard (horns); Chino Santiago (piano, keyboards); Karim Ziad (keyboards, tabla); Youcef Boukella, Renaud Garcia Fons, Alain Genty (bass); Rabah Khalfa (derbouka); Damian Fernandez (percussion); Akim Barika, Imhotep, Yves Calves (programming).

Producers include: Nguyen Le, Eric Fernandez, Imhotep, Gordon Cyrus, Christian Boissel, Desmond Foster.

Q (6/00, p.110) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Mami's voice attains a weightless state throughout, while musically he contributes accordian and qanoun (zither) to the inspired spread of rattling drums, flutes and even the odd burst of Scottish bagpipes."
Dirty Linen (12/99-1/00, p.90) - "...finds him wrapping his high, clear, flexible tenor around a number of genres, all with equal success....a refreshingly worldly, cosmopolitan mix."