Preserving music on film (or video) is a worthwhile calling, and it is always nice when professionals answer the call (as opposed to the bootleg domination of this particular form, as typified by the Grateful Dead "every concert available" syndrome of the collectors' circuit). This authorized short look at a Mali annual event proves to be uninteresting.
Instead of the usual concert or mass rally footage, the music is performed in fairly intimate settings, hence "The Tent Sessions" as subtitle. Popular musicians chat briefly and sing & strum their tunes, for posterity's sake.
Exception, which betrays the weakness of this effort as a whole, is a focus on Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant. Like so many Brits (both self-appointed musical scholars and world-famous musicians at the Eric Clapton level), Plant is yet another know-it-all who does not co-opt but rather absconds with the fruits of another culture (it's called colonialism, baby). I've always hated their latter-day appropriation of my favorite U.S. musical forms, jazz and blues, but here Plant tells us of his trips to Africa since around 1970 and his fascination with the music of the desert.
Plant performs with pal Justin Adams on guitar, and despite all his b.s. about his love of "the blue note" and local music, it comes out sounding like more bluesy Led Zeppelin tracks than anything else. Why bring Plant to sub-Saharan Africa to entertain the locals, and why bring the results back West to impress us? It's worse than merely a pointless exercise.
Other than Plant, I didn't learn much about the other performers here, and their music was uninspiring -hardly worth preserving. It all adds up to a musical dud, the usual TV filler.
Instead of the usual concert or mass rally footage, the music is performed in fairly intimate settings, hence "The Tent Sessions" as subtitle. Popular musicians chat briefly and sing & strum their tunes, for posterity's sake.
Exception, which betrays the weakness of this effort as a whole, is a focus on Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant. Like so many Brits (both self-appointed musical scholars and world-famous musicians at the Eric Clapton level), Plant is yet another know-it-all who does not co-opt but rather absconds with the fruits of another culture (it's called colonialism, baby). I've always hated their latter-day appropriation of my favorite U.S. musical forms, jazz and blues, but here Plant tells us of his trips to Africa since around 1970 and his fascination with the music of the desert.
Plant performs with pal Justin Adams on guitar, and despite all his b.s. about his love of "the blue note" and local music, it comes out sounding like more bluesy Led Zeppelin tracks than anything else. Why bring Plant to sub-Saharan Africa to entertain the locals, and why bring the results back West to impress us? It's worse than merely a pointless exercise.
Other than Plant, I didn't learn much about the other performers here, and their music was uninspiring -hardly worth preserving. It all adds up to a musical dud, the usual TV filler.
