Wednesday 26 December 2012

Toujours Afrique! & Solidarity With The Sahel

Cambridge's live music pub The Portland was the venue earlier this month for Toujours Afrique! the public announcement of the Rendez-vous à Bobo project, and our awarding of funding by The Arts Council England and British Council.


Singer songwriter Ben Avison opened the evening with songs from his impressive debut album Good Day Mr.Magpie, followed by the equally brilliant Dan Wilde introducing acoustic songs from his new album With fire in mind.


Bringing the sounds of the West African Sahel to Cambridge were Folignouma.  Mentored by Moussa Diabaté who gave the group its name translating as "music done well", we were joined by guest vocalist Makhou N'diaye.  The haunting sound of the Fula flute played by Chris Peckham began a set which included arrangements for balafon and kamele n'goni and concluded with "Lamoroya", a piece traditionaly played by Moussa and his group as the final tune at Poto Poto cabaret in Bobo Dioulasso. 

An eclectic night of music closed with everyone on their feet dancing to the sounds of Matoke, a joyful mix of kwela, lilting African guitar and ska.

Our earlier Toujours Afrique! event of this year was Solidarity with the Sahel, a night produced with Cambridge Oxfam group for the Sahel emergency.

 
 
With performances from Matoke, Folignouma and Africadabra, the night raised more than £300.



Wednesday 19 December 2012

Performing at the Cambridge African Film Festival

 
The Cambridge African Film Festival is the longest running celebration of African cinema in the UK. Marking it's 11th edition this year the programme included films from South Africa, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and of course Burkina Faso.

 
 
                                                  

Two short films from Burkina were screened, La Parrain (The godfather) by Lazare Sié Pale, and Hasaki Ya Suda (The three black samurai) by Cedric Ido.  After the films I performed a short set with Chris Peckham and Makhou N'diaye (Folignouma) in the Picturehouse bar.

Folignouma at The Cambridge African Film Festival of 2010 by Tom Catchesides http://www.catchesides.co.uk
 
Burkina Faso has become synonymous with cinema, thanks to the Festival panafricain du cinéma et  télévision de Ouagadougou, more commonly known as FESPACO. 
 
Inaugurated in 1969, the festival's aim is to "contribute to the expansion and development of African cinema as a means of expression, education and awareness-raising" and it has evolved into an internationally respected event. 
 
 
Held every two years, the next festival will take place in February 2013 and will bring together directors and films from across the continent.  The best film will be awarded the coveted Étalon de Yennenga (Stallion of Yennega) named in honour of the legendary founder of the Mossi empire.


Thursday 13 December 2012

Balafons of Bobo Dioulasso

At 4am one November morning back in 2008, my night bus from the Burkinabé capital Ouagadougou turned into the bus depot of Bobo Dioulasso.  Burkina Faso’s second city and capital of the arts, famous for its musicians, mud mosque and masquerades, Bobo Dioulasso had captured my imagination.  My association with the town and a group of musicians there began when I bought an instrument online from Baragnouma, a workshop in Bobo Dioulasso specialising in the manufacture of traditional West African musical instruments.

http://baragnouma.com/fr/
I arranged to visit the workshop with director Fabrice Berre who promised to introduce me to a balafon teacher.  With thoughts of these beginnings, I took a taxi, windows down to let in the cool early morning breeze, to the quarter of town where Fabrice lived.  The driver put on a cassette of hunters music played on the donso n’goni harp, the haunting sound echoing out of the savannah and through the taxi window into the deserted city streets of Bobo Dioulasso, still sleeping before the first call to prayer.
Later that day I met my teacher Moussa Pantio Diabaté, and tiredly accompanied him to his residency at Poto Poto cabaret, an open- air bar in a courtyard to which people come to drink a traditional millet beer called Chapalo, and to listen and sometimes dance to balafon music.
I’ve now made three visits to Bobo Dioulasso, continuing my apprenticeship and performing with Moussa at Poto Poto.  My trip in spring 2013 has been made possible with support from the Arts council England and The British Council’s Artists’ international development fund, and consolidates our work together so far through the recording of an album.
Since that first visit to Bobo in 2008 I have been collecting a repertoire of pieces for balafon. 

The Senoufo pentatonic balafon is traditionally played in pairs, with one player or bala fola playing an accompaniment part known as bala den, whilst the other plays a solo part referred to as balan ba. The soloist typically plays calls which initiate changes in the music, such as the common increase in tempo known by the French échauffement meaning to get hotter.
The pieces I have been learning since 2008 vary in style and originate with different ethnic groups.  The piece Orodara Sidiki for example, is a praise song for the chief of the town of Orodara in south western Burkina Faso.


Another song Yiri ba laments the felling of a big tree, a metaphor for death of an elder, whilst the piece Denko is a praise song for mothers and honours their sacrifice.
Perhaps my favourite is Kri coyo dafra coyo.  Dedicated to the Bobo Dioula the original inhabitants of Bobo Dioulasso from whom the city takes its name, the song speaks of the river Dafra which runs through the city and of the sacred fish that live in it.


Wednesday 12 December 2012

The origins of the balafon and the Sosso Bala

The balafon or simply `bala' is a West African musical instrument belonging to the xylophone family and present in many countries of the Sahel region.  In 2003 on my very first trip to West Africa I began studying the bala in the town of Boké, Guinea Conakry. My first teacher who passed away in 2005 I will forever know only as Diabaté, his family name and the only name by which I heard anyone address him.

                                          Diabaté (2nd left holding guitar)

I would come to understand that the family name Diabaté identified my first teacher as descending from a long and esteemed musical lineage and belonging to a caste of professional musicians known as `griot' or `jeli'. 

The griot whose presence in West African society has been well documented have existed for hundreds of years and first appear in the writings of the 14th century Morrocan explorer Ibn Battuta.  Much has been written about the role of the griot (particularly good books are Eric Charry's Mande Music and Thomas .A. Hale's Griot and Griottes)  Far more than just virtuoso musicians, the griot are historians, poets, genealogists, diplomats and arbiters, and their presence is essential for many social and life cycle occasions such as weddings and naming ceremonies.  Griot famalies are often considered the guardian of a particular musical instrument, thus the name Cissokho is often associated with the kora, the name Kouyaté with the jeli n'goni, and the name of my first teacher Diabaté with the balafon.

Typically beginning their apprenticeship of a musical instrument very young, a griot musician is expected to master a repertoire of dozens of traditional songs, learn to make their instrument, to travel, and to transmit their knowledge.

        My present teacher Moussa Pantio Diabaté 

The Sosso Bala

Xylophones can be found all over Sub Saharan Africa, from the Marimba of Zimbabwe and South Africa, to the Amadinda of Uganda where another xylophone is also created by placing banana tree trunks over a deep pit.  The West African balafon however is unique, with origins that can be traced back to the beginning of the ancient empire of Mali.  
In the 13th century epic of Sundiata which tells the story of the great hero Sundiata Keita (a narrative brilliantly retold in the film Keïta! l'Héritage du griot  by Burkinabé film maker Dani Kouyaté)
the first balafon is owned by the Sosso blacksmith sorcerer-king Sumanguru kante, and played by his griot Bala Faséké Kouyaté.  It's power is enhanced through this association with magic and djinns, spirits or genies.  After Sundiata defeats Sumanguru, he claims the balafon and makes Bala Kouyaté it's guardian.
This same instrument believed to be over 800 years old is preserved in the Guinean village of Niagassola, and is recognised by UNESCO as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Guarded by a specially appointed member of the Kouyaté family known as the balatigi,
the Sosso Bala is only seen and played on rare occasions and is viewed as a symbol of the unity of the Manding people of West Africa.
However, just as the diverse people of West Africa speak many languages,
so do balafons (the name balafon is in fact a European corruption of the word bala referring to the instrument, and the verb fo meaning both to speak and to play in Dioula.) 
Thus balafons exist in many different tunings across West Africa, from the diatonic balafon in which a complete scale consists of 7 notes which I first began learning in Guinea, to the pentatonic Senoufo bala in which a scale consists of 5 notes that I now play and study with Moussa in Bobo Dioulasso. 
Whilst varying in timbre and the notes they produce, balafons in West Africa share some common characteristics.  A bamboo frame supports wooden keys cut and shaped from a locally available hardwood suspended on a line of strong cord.  Each key must be smoked for several days in a traditional oven to remove all moisture and achieve the desired sonority.


Balafon keys being smoked at Baragnouma workshop in Bobo Dioulasso

The keys are then suspended on the frame above calabash gourds graduating in size to match the frequency of the key above.  Each calabash is open at the top to amplify the sound of the corresponding key and has two further holes in its side.  Over these is a thin membrane historically made of spider's web, but today more often cut from a plastic bag or cigarette paper.  This produces a nasal buzzing sound which makes this musical instrument so distinctive.

Sunday 9 December 2012

Welcome! bismillah and bienvenue to Rendez-vous à Bobo! A blog dedicated to West African folkloric music and a creative project between myself Lucas Keen and Moussa Pantio Diabaté.


For the last 10 years I have been travelling to West Africa to study traditional music and instruments, and since 2008 have pursued a musical apprenticeship in Burkina Faso with griot musician Moussa Pantio Diabaté.
 
A living library of traditional songs and music, Moussa also composes and performs his own songs speaking of contemporary issues in West Africa.  In the spring of 2013 with support from the Arts Council England, and The British Council's Artists' international development fund I will be recording and performing with Moussa in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.


This blog will document the journey, as well as celebrate and explore the richness of Burkinabé musical traditions.