Dexter Story - Bahir (2019)

  • 15 Mar, 00:17
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Artist:
Title: Bahir
Year Of Release: 2019
Label: Soundway Records
Genre: world, ethiopian, jazz fusion, world beat
Quality: MP3 320 kbps / FLAC (tracks)
Total Time: 44:37 min
Total Size: 103; 286 MB
WebSite:

Dexter Story is an artistic spirit in the truest sense of the phrase. From his work as a multi-instrumentalist for acts like the Sa-Ra Creative Partners, to his management role with Snoop Dogg and his turn producing Daymé Arocena’s 2017 album Cubafonia, Story understands the business from every conceivable angle.

Initially inspired by the music and cultures pervasive throughout the Horn of Africa, Story translated his experiences there into his previous album Wondem, followed closely by the single Wejene Aola featuring jazz luminary Kamasi Washington, both on Soundway Records. If Wondem was a brief glance into Story’s new creative vision, Bahir is a pinpoint refinement of that purpose, the fine-tuning and expanding of the world he created on his Soundway debut.

On Bahir, Story steps in front of those influences and melds his world into the one he fell in love with so strongly while in Africa. One way in which he’s done so is by incorporating musicians from both sides of this coin. LA luminaries are featured throughout, as are African contemporaries he encountered throughout his travels. Sudan Archives gives a show-stealing vocal performance on “Gold”, while the Ethiopian producer Endeguena Mulu adds impenetrable and psychedelic texture to the album’s title track.

So Bahir finds the polymath musician not stuck between two worlds, but as a member of both. We get Ethiopian tonalities, Ethio-groove, eskista, gurage and North Sudanese shaygiya dance rhythms, Afro-funk, Somali soul and forays into more contemporary global rhythms, too. Angelenos like Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Josef Leimberg give the record its backbone, while African artists like the Ethiopian singer Hamelmal Abate give Bahir its glimmer and shine.

Tracklist:
01. Dexter Story - Techawit
02. Dexter Story - Bila
03. Dexter Story - Gold
04. Dexter Story - Ras
05. Dexter Story - Mamdooh
06. Dexter Story - Buna Be Chow
07. Dexter Story - Electric Gurage
08. Dexter Story - Jijiga Jijiya
09. Dexter Story - Chemin de fer
10. Dexter Story - Desta's Groove
11. Dexter Story - Shuruba Song
12. Dexter Story - Bahir
13. Dexter Story - Abebaye