Friday 27 December 2013

At peace with Ballaké Sissoko

In the final Rendez-vous à Bobo podcast of the year I'm discussing peace with Malian Kora player Ballaké Sissoko in Cambridge earlier this month, and have Mandinka rap from Les Escrocs.




Tuesday 3 December 2013

Ballaké Sissoko - review

On Saturday 30th November the Malian kora player Ballaké Sissoko performed music from his new album At Peace at The Junction in Cambridge. I reviewed the gig for Local Secrets.

Ballaké Sissoko by Benoit Peverelli

My next radio show will feature an interview recorded with Ballaké before the concert, during which we spoke about Ballaké's musical adventures, and why music is so important in Mali.

Monday 2 December 2013

Millet beer and mobylettes

This is a piece of reportage I wrote for The Guardian Travel Writing Competition 2013. There were some very evocative pieces this year, and sadly my piece was not long listed.  All the same, I hope it is faithful to the people and place for which I have so much affection and that it takes you on a journey.  

“Ca va aller?” (How’s it going?) The Frenchman shouted over his shoulder, the question just audible over the engine of his ancient mobylette and the blast of Sahel wind as I followed nervously behind on an equally antique Peugeot.  It was another day in Burkina Faso, and we were on our way to meet a Griot.

The Frenchman lived here, and as particles of ochre dust danced in the early sunlight, rising with the lullabies of women sweeping compounds and exchanging greetings and blessings with neighbours, we joined the current of of hawkers balancing basins of fruit atop their heads, and school children in impossibly immaculate uniforms flowing into Bobo Dioulasso.  We found Moussa waiting cheerfully for us in a faded deckchair, and weaving between battered taxis and elders swinging beads on their way to mosque, the Frenchman, the Griot, and I continued our journey.   


Myself and Chris Peckham on the same mobylette 2009

Moussa’s band were warming up as we approached the `cabaret’. Competing with a chorus of sinewy cockerels and goats, the sound drifted over the crumbling mud wall of the large yard with the woody smoke of the millet beer known as chapalo brewing in large red oil drums within.  Inside, a patient audience lined the walls on wobbly benches drinking the fruity brew from half gourds, whilst Moussa’s apprentices played lightly on two large xylophones.  Elegantly dressed ladies in vibrant cotton prints sat upright next to slouching men in bizarrely juxtaposed outfits, including one man in a suit jacket three sizes too big, accessorised with a pair of ski goggles. These second hand clothes known locally as“au revoir France”, were combined with unquestionable style.    

With greetings observed and a casual nod from Moussa, the band began as one.  As the bleached light of day blushed rose and dissolved into a deep indigo, Moussa and his band introduced me to the art of the griot.  The custodians of an ancient tradition, the griot are a lineage of musicians who for centuries have served their communities as entertainers, bards and oral historians.  Accompanying their songs with the balafon, (a large xylophone amplified by dried gourds placed under each key) a West African proverb laments the death of a griot as comparable to a library burning down.  Drawing on a vast repertoire, they are virtuoso instrumentalists, the custodians of a rich oral culture and the collective memory of West Africa.

That afternoon Moussa bought to life the great empire of Mali predating the modern states of the Sahel.  He listed genealogies, sung jokes and riddles, and counselled his audience with proverbs and allegories that seemed to resonate with them as immediately as the reverberation of the band’s organic instruments.  As the last song ended in perfect syncopation and the last gourd of chapalo was emptied, we left the cabaret and dropped Moussa home, where this time his young son was waiting in the deckchair, feet barely touching the ground and cradling his own tiny balafon ready to learn the family profession.   


Moussa Pantio Diabaté and sons 2013

Thursday 28 November 2013

Why lions need historians

On Rendez-vous à Bobo this month I ask why lions need historians with artist Deanna Tyson whose exhibition "Until lions write their own history" is at the Centre of African Studies in Cambridge.


Baaba Maal by Deanna Tyson

Musical highlights include Fatoumata Diawara...  



Better known in Mali as an actress for her role in Burkinabé director Dani Kouyaté's film Sia le rêve du python, Fatou is one of the most exciting voices to emerge from Mali in recent years, and an outspoken advocate for Mali's culture of tolerance during the recent crisis.

We also hear from elder of South African music Sipho Mabuse, and kora player Ballaké Sissoko who performs with his quartet in Cambridge on Saturday 30th November.


Tuesday 5 November 2013

Écoutez!

One of my hopes for the Rendez-vous à Bobo project was to highlight the creative energy of a group of musicians in Burkina Faso who I'm also very lucky to call my friends.  

The ideas, innovation and resourcefulness that spring from Africa, offer an alternative narrative to what Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche has called `The single story' often told about the continent.

And so in this spirit, I'd like to invite you to pass an hour with me on the last Thursday of every month on Cambridge 105.  From Casablanca to Capetown, Dakar to Dar es Salaam, please join me for my new radio programme Rendez-vous à Bobo!


Sunday 1 September 2013

`Brilliant balafon'

Kamélé Yeleen reviewed in Songlines

Kamélé Yeleen has been reviewed in the October issue (#95) of leading music magazine Songlines. 

 
Martin Sinnock praised our album as "well-realised", showcasing Moussa's "prowess as a balafon player."  He also compliments Baragnouma as "a good backing unit of percussionists who ensure that the musical pace never flags."

The magazine is in the shops now, or can be bought digitally here

Sunday 25 August 2013

`Getting competitive' Le Triangle du Balafon

Sikasso is a typical West African junction town. A crossroads in the Sahel where ancient mini buses with benedictions in peeling paint or names like `Obama', rattle to a halt, small windows spilling open in a tangle of elbows and heads, roofs piled high with a cargo of mopeds, bleating goats and baskets brimming with ripe mangoes or dried fish.  For these stoic passengers, Sikasso is a brief rest on a long journey as they transit between Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. For another group of itinerant travellers though Sikasso is the destination to which they are heading. 
 
Once a year musicians from across West Africa arrive in the busy town on the border between Mali and Burkina Faso.  The occasion is Le Triangle du Balafon, a fraternal but fiercely competitive celebration of the West African xylophone.  For months, groups from Mali, Burkina Faso and as far as Guinea Conakry have been rehearsing and choreographing. Many have composed a new piece to debut at the festival, and are united in their hope of returning home with the small bronze statue awarded to best group. 
 
Last year, first prize was won by the group of Mamadou Diabaté.  In this video we can enjoy the virtuosity that ensured the little bronze statue was packed carefully into one of those Sikasso mini buses, and came home to Burkina Faso.        
            



 

Sunday 18 August 2013

Made in Burkina Faso

The Guardian recently published a nice photo story from Burkina Faso on the production of Bògòlanfini also known as `mud cloth'.

 
Photograph:
 

Sunday 11 August 2013

"In griot time" A book review

Banning Eyre is an American guitarist, writer and broadcaster, and a regular contributor to Afropop Worldwide http://www.afropop.org/wp/ . A lifelong student of African guitar styles, his curiosity for the unique playing styles found across the continent has taken him to West and Southern Africa, and he has generously shared the many lessons he has learnt in shady compounds in his book African guitar atlas.

In 1995 he packed his guitar, and shipped a Roland keyboard amp (the preferred amplifier of many African guitarists) to the Malian capital Bamako . The amplifier was both a gift and down payment for an intensive musical apprenticeship with the great Malian guitarist Djelimady Tounkara, with whom Banning was to live and study for seven months, a story told with humility, insight and honesty in his book In griot time.

Evoking a Bamako of late afternoon wedding parties where bright cotton clothes are softened by the deep ochre soil, In Griot Time follows the passage of the dry season as it progresses alongside Banning's understanding of Manding guitar towards the arrival of the first Bamako rains. 

Asserting that "to learn African music, you must immerse yourself in the social world that produced it, a world that encompasses ideas, beliefs, rituals and values", Banning's holistic approach unfolds in an engaging narrative that introduces us to the extended family of his host and mentor Djelimady Tounkara, as well as an all star cast of Malian musicians including Oumou Sangaré and Sali Sidibe.

The system of patronage that exists in West Africa and from which many griot earn an income is  frankly examined, and we learn the true story of the project that became Buena Vista Social Club,  originally conceived by World Circuit's Nick Gold as a collaboration Djelimady and Cuban musicians, later realised as AfroCubism.

Whether describing Djelimady's graceful and deft guitar playing; "a stately cycle of notes, bristling with a tough certainty", or a female praise singer "the jelimuso's first note scored the air like a steamship horn announcing entry to port", the story is told with an excitement and reverence for the music and musical culture that will resonate with anyone who has delved into this tradition and experienced the epiphanies, frustration, and joy of learning music in West Africa.


"In Griot time" by Banning Eyre - ISBN 1566397596


 

Sunday 4 August 2013

Le Festenal del serral

Translating as `The festival of the hill', Le festenal del serral was a celebration of Occitan music and culture organised by a friend in the south of France to which Folignouma were invited to play.


Set in an olive grove with a chorus of cicadas, polyphonic Occitan choirs, a ceilidh, barbershop trio, and us! it was all great fun and very eclectic.

 
We performed in a large tepee on Sunday, debuting new repertoire specially arranged for this performance, transposed from balafon to the more portable accordion and guitar
 
Aqueles - Occitan Barbershop Trio 
 
After our set we enjoyed a brilliant performance of a cappella harmony in Occitan.
 

Friday 12 July 2013

Balani show `village ambiance in the city'

Balani show is a musical phenomenon with it's roots in the Malian capital Bamako sometime around 1999/2000.  Unable to afford admission to a `boîte' or nightclub, young people began searching for an outlet to amuse themselves in the evenings.

Borrowing from the village tradition of gathering under a full moon to dance to musicians (in Burkina, balafon players or bala fola are called to play for weddings, funerals and even a lunar eclipse as Moussa told me recently), the urban youth of Bamako began organising their own street parties.

In the late afternoon, walls of battered speakers would be dragged out to form a road block in a Bamako neighbourhood, chairs hired, and set out in a wide circle on the ochre soil still holding the heat of the day's sun.  DJ's would play cassettes of balafon music such as Neba Solo, or perhaps MC or `ambiancer' the crowd a little.

As the fashion caught on, aspiring producers with access to a laptop and a sampler began performing live remixes, and then to create their own original `electro' balafon music.  The format of the parties also began to evolve, with emcees warming up the crowd and organising games such as musical chairs for the younger children who'd come out to see what was going on.  Then as night fell, teenagers would arrive in their dance crews to `battle' each other, and perform carefully choreographed routines and acrobatics.

Since then the Balani show has grown and grown, and on many a Bamako evening a party can be happened upon.  Many parents approve of the parties as they usually happen right in front of peoples house fronts, allowing elders to keep an eye on their children!

Others have argued the opposite though, citing examples of fights breaking out between fiercely competitive dance crews, and of `indecent' dancing. 

There is also the small matter of the balafon player being replaced by a sampler, and the loss of earning a few CFA!

In all cases, the balani show illustrates the D.I.Y aesthetic and talent in West Africa for re imagining and recycling.


Friday 5 July 2013

One Friday afternoon in Bobo Dioulasso...

Much of my time in Bobo Dioulasso and the early part of my apprenticeship has been spent at Baragnouma, a workshop established by Fabrice Berre employing artisan musical instrument makers from griot famalies.  http://baragnouma.com/en/

The workshop produces balafons, koras, djembes and more, and as you approach the compound shaded by a huge mango tree, you are greeted with the rhythmic sounds of sawing and sanding and an atmosphere of industriousness and friendship.

 
One Friday afternoon when work was finished for the day, I witnessed an incredible impromptu jam between Adama Diabaté and Ousmane Traoré who is the featured accompanist on our album Kamélé Yeleen.

Ousmane (on the left) plays the solo part first, and then Adama before picking up the tempo for an amazing echaufement.


 
 







 

Wednesday 26 June 2013

Album launch added to University archive

Our performance at The Centre of African Studies has been added to Cambridge University's online collection of audio and video!   


The full acoustic set is best listened to on headphones.



 

Friday 21 June 2013

We must dare to invent the future (podcast)

Since my first visit to Burkina Faso and beginning a musical apprenticeship with Moussa Diabaté, I have urgently wanted to introduce his beautiful music to a wider audience.


Moussa's moving personal story is one I have also wanted to help tell.  And so whilst we were recording the album in Bobo Dioulasso this March, we took a break and Moussa spoke about his life and music. 



You can hear Moussa's story, and music from the album in my podcast here

 https://soundcloud.com/folignouma/we-must-dare-to-invent-the

 

Saturday 15 June 2013

Cela s'est passé!

On a beautiful summers evening here in Cambridge we found ourselves once again guests of The Centre of African Studies.  In front of a warm and generous audience it was our honour to introduce the album Kamélé Yeleen, and perform arrangements of compositions by Moussa Pantio Diabaté as well as our own repertoire.

 
Accompanied by images of the recording of the album in Bobo Dioulasso and of the hugely talented Burkinabé musicians featured on the recording, we performed Moussa's song "Malfaiteurs" as well as Folignouma's new arrangement of "Yiri Ba" (The big tree) transposed from balafon onto accordion and guitar.
 
 
 This summer we will be travelling to France to perform at a festival, and busking on the streets of Cambridge. We hope to see some of you again soon!
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday 4 June 2013

Kamélé Yeleen album launch party!

Friday 14th June is the UK launch of Kamélé Yeleen!
 
Folignouma return to The Centre of African Studies to perform arrangements of songs from the album, and repertoire taught to us by Moussa Pantio Diabaté.
 
 
Join us from 7pm in The Alison Richards Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, for sounds and stories from the Sahel, accompanied by images of the recording of the album in Bobo Dioulasso. 
 
 

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Kamélé Yeleen is here!

We are thrilled to finally share all our hard work with you!

Recorded over 4 weeks in Bobo Dioulasso, Kamélé  Yeleen is the new album and first international release by Moussa Pantio Diabaté.  For this project, Moussa gathered together some of the finest musicians in town, creating the group Baragnouma to perform his original music.  
Translating as The light of youth, Kamélé Yeleen sees Moussa urgently addressing the youth of Africa and the world. 
Featuring lyrical balafon, simmering percussion, and passionate vocals, with these ten new compositions and two traditional pieces, Moussa cautions, counsels and encourages, inviting you to listen and dance to a sound both traditional and modern.

 
 Kamélé Yeleen is available to buy on CD at £10 To order please email lucaskeen@yahoo.co.uk
 
 Track listing
 
“Kamélé Yeleen”
Moussa Pantio Diabaté  & Baragnouma
1.Fadeya Kélè Civil war
2. Malfaiteurs Wrongdoers
3.Balanfolaw djgui Allah Yé  The hope of the balafonist
4. Sababou Opportunity
5. Togho tien Gossiping
6. Den fili To abandon a child
7. Mogho Gnouma A good person
8. Jeunesse du monde Youth of the world
9. Tien fo terri ye Be truthful with your friends
10. Nangaraba A bad person
11. Orodara Sidiki (Traditional)
12.Bè n’a diayen ko  Everyone has their pleasure
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 

 
 

Sunday 14 April 2013

The kamélé n'goni or youth's harp

The kamélé n'goni is a calabash harp of six or more strings, and a young instrument in the musical history of West Africa. 

Made from a 1/2 gourd or squash, nylon fishing line of different gauges is used for strings 

Stringed instruments made from gourds are found across the Sahel, and distant cousins of the kamélé n'goni include the three stringed bolon of Guinea, and 21 stringed kora. 

The story of the kamélé n'goni though begins in 1950's Mali, when Allata Brulaye Sidibé took a much older instrument, the donso n'goni or hunter's harp, and modified it to create a new instrument, the kamélé n'goni (youth's harp). 

The donso had for centuries been the musical instrument of the highly organised and secretive hunter's societies of Wassoulou, an area of forested Savannah in south west Mali near the border with Burkina Faso.  The music of the donso was revered for it's power to charm dangerous animals, and much like the music and instruments of the griot, could only be played by those born into or initiated into the tradition.

The kamélé n'goni thus developed amongst the youth from a desire for an instrument which required one neither to be a griot or donso, and an instrument with which one could compose ones own music. 

Allata Brulaye Sidibé was the first to record the instrument with his niece Coumba Sidibé, and modified the original by shortening the neck, adding further stings, and using a smaller calabash for a resonator. The result was a higher pitched instrument tuned to a pentatonic scale, played with just the fore finger and thumb of each hand.

A funky new sound was developed produced by quickly dampening and muting the open strings, creating staccato and syncopated rhythms.  When accompanied by a djembe drum or simple iron bell, the new music was so irresistible to dance to there were even attempts by conservative elders in Mali to ban the instrument! It was seen as encouraging the youth to dance all night without inhibitions, at exactly the same time as as rock and roll was worrying parents here in the UK.

However like rock and roll, the kamélé n'goni had come to stay, and a generation of musicians would follow who have made Malian music world famous by blending the instrument with electric guitars and drums. 

The great diva Oumou Sangaré has used the kamélé n'goni as the foundation of her sound.  Revolutionising Malian music she has used  the modernity of the youthful instrument to accompany her outspoken lyrics calling for change on social issues such as polygamy and forced marriage.

 
 Oumou Sangaré accompanied by Brehima Diakaté, considered one of the greatest living players of the kamélé n'goni
 
Sill other artists such as Issa Bagayogo nicknamed `techno Issa', have experimented blending the kamélé n'goni with electronic music.
 
 
 
 
 

Sunday 31 March 2013

Concert at Samanké


As the days in Bobo Dioulasso get hotter and hotter, the power cuts become more frequent, and so our first concert at Samanké was not to be.

 
Happily last Wednesday there was power, and after a nice introduction we took to the stage and played songs from the completed album. 
 
 
And so my stay in Bobo Dioulasso came to an end.  With just time for goodbyes and the exchanging of benedictions so important in Dioula, I left for Ouagadougou, and after 1 bus, 2 aeroplanes, and 3 trains found my way home to Cambridge.

Work now begins on the CD artwork and a U.K album launch coming soon!

Tuesday 26 March 2013

Coupé-Décalé

On any given evening here in Bobo Dioulasso, turn on the radio and across the airwaves you'll hear the insistent beat of Coupé-Décalé music.  Coupé-Décalé is a modern dance music which originated in Ivory Coast and with the Ivorian diaspora in Paris and is massively popular with the youth here in Bobo. 

In Ivorian slang Coupé-Décalé means to cut and run, effectively to cheat someone and get away with it, and the attitude and style of the music resembles U.S Hip Hop, with the same ostentacious celebration of cars, gold chains and designer labels.  The music itself draws on the soukous guitar sounds of Congo and Central Africa, accompanied by a driving rhumba rhythm provided by a drum machine, and lyrics in French and sometimes Dioula understood in both Ivory Coast and Burkina.   Much like some Jamaican music, the stars of Coupé-Décalé are the DJ's who 'version' existing backing tracks, singing their own lyrics over the top. 

Coupé-Décalé is all about fashion, and like any youth music new dances come and go which you simply have to learn.  On saturday night as I sat out with friends, we watched our neigbours who had bought out their little hi fi system to the front of the compound and were blasting distorted Coupé-Décalé music to a crowd of excited clapping children, imitating the frenetic dances of the latest Coupé-Décalé.  

Sunday 24 March 2013

Dimanche à Poto Poto

In the Dioula language spoken in Bobo Dioulasso 'Poto Poto' means puddle, something hard to imagine as we pass the fiercely hot days of the dry season.  Poto Poto is also the name of the cabaret, an open air bar where people drink the millet beer called chapalo where I presently spend my Sundays accompanying Moussa  for his musical residency. 

From early morning to dusk, Moussa plays for a mixed crowd who come to drink a calabash or two of chapalo and exchange greetings and jokes, whilst a parade of itinerant traders of second hand clothes, kola nuts, plastic combs, and hard boiled eggs pass by.  Elegant ladies in tailored African prints sit on wobbly wooden benches alongside sinewy men in bizarrely assembled outfits such as a suit jacket two sizes too big, accessorised  with a pair of ski goggles, a juxtaposition of the second hand clothes known as 'au revoir france' which somehow they carry off with great style.

The new 500CFA note   

When Moussa plays with great virtuosity or plays a piece praising a person, ethnicity or profession present at Poto Poto, a patron may tip Moussa.   Sometimes it's just a few coins but occasionally a patron might dance towards Moussa ostentatiously waving a 1000CFA note before pasting it onto his perspiring forehead.  

However at the beginning of 2013 a new 500CFA note was introduced in Burkina, better for the patron who wants to show off with a tip, but not for the artists! 

Tuesday 19 March 2013

Mixing the album!

Cycling into town this morning with the flow of women setting out hawking fruits from basins balanced high on their heads, buzzing mopeds, and school children in khaki school uniforms, I passed posters for our concert this Thursday stapled to the trunks of the mango trees which line the streets of Bobo Dioulasso.   


 We spent the day mixing the 12 original compositions we've recorded here in Bobo.  It has been a brilliant learning experience for us all during which we have shared some great jokes, and the special excitement and joy that only music brings.


Our engineer Herman, and executive producer, arranger and Bala Fola Moussa Pantio Diabaté!

Sunday 17 March 2013

ça va aller!

Bobo Dioulasso's l'école de musique  has been our home for the last week as we record the album.

Tomorrow we record the choir and will then begin mixing.
       Our engineer Monsieur Herman Ouattara.
Samadou recording his parts

We are also busy rehearsing for our concert this coming thursday at Samanke one of Bobo Dioulasso's hottest live music venues! 

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Recording begins!


 After a week of intensive rehearsals here in Bobo Dioulasso, recording began yesterday!


 





Friday 8 March 2013

La journée Internationale de la femme

The 8th of March is celebrated around the world as International Women's Day, and here in Burkina Faso la Journée internationale de la femme is a grand occasion! 

The theme chosen for 2013 is women's empowerment and economic participation, an urgent call that can be read on the specially produced cotton fabric which many women have had tailored to their own design and are proudly wearing today in the ochre coloured streets of Bobo Dioulasso.

The issue of gender equality is an important development issue here in the Sahel.  A less serious expression of today's fête is the tradition of men going to the market today to shop for the groceries.

Bon fête à tous!

Wednesday 6 March 2013

FESPACO

Arriving in Ouagadougou last Friday there was a nonchalant air of excitement in the dusty crowded streets, as on Saturday the 23rd edition of FESPACO the Pan African Film Festival came to a close.  The coveted Etalon d'or de Yennenga trophy was won by Senegalese filmmaker Alain Gomis for his film Tey, Ajourd'hui



The Burkinabé capital Ouagadougou usually shortened simply to 'Ouaga', always seems to be in a state of being demolished and rebuilt.  In contrast Bobo Dioulasso from where I write now, changes little and as I cycle through the sun bleached streets, people call out to me from their chairs leaning against family compound walls, shops and stalls, in the same place I saw them 2 years ago.

So the work begins! We have been rehearsing every evening and begin recording in the studio next week.  I've been busy working with Moussa on a new arrangement of his composition Les Malfaiteurs, a song urging people to live honestly, including new words in Dioula, French and English.

Saturday 23 February 2013

Café concert at The Centre of African Studies

A few years ago I went to see a performance of Ghanaian drumming and dance at the Faculty of Music here in Cambridge.  I left inspired by the Ewe rhythms and dances performed that night, feeling like I'd travelled without leaving the concert hall.

So it was real buzz to perform and share what I have learnt from Moussa of the music of Burkina Faso at The Centre of African Studies this week.


Folignouma performed in the Arc Café for students and academic staff whose present lecture series focuses on West Africa.


 I spoke about my experiences studying music in Burkina Faso, of Moussa and our project, and the origins of the kamele n'goni which I will be exploring in a future post.


Thanks to the Centre of African Studies and the Arc Café, and to Chris, Makhou, and Ken for the sound.


  Photos by Shameela Beeloo


Monday 28 January 2013

Live at the BBC

I had a great time talking about music, instruments and the Artists' International Development Fund with Antonia Brickell on BBC Radio Cambridge last night.
 
 
Myself and Chris Peckham played two songs, `Orodara Sidiki' as taught to us by Moussa Diabaté, and `Jaliya/Apollo' for kamele n'goni, a song I learnt from Mougnini Dembélé. 


 
Presenter Antonia Brickell was very excited to learn about the instruments and talk about the role of music in West Africa.
 
 
You can listen again to the show for a limited period here
 
 
 
Photos by Shameela Beeloo
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sunday 20 January 2013

Voices United For Mali

Last year during Baaba Maal's Africa Utopia festival at the Southbank Centre, Oumou Sangaré  spoke eloquently between songs of the deepening crisis in Mali.  She affirmed her belief in the duty of the musician to fight with the microphone, to promote unity, tolerance, and peace. 

It is nothing new for musicians in West Africa to act as arbiters, counsellors and diplomats.  As early as the 14th Century, itinerant griot musicians travelled through the Sahel helping settle disputes through their powers of oratory, and their knowledge of history and families.  The nomadic lifestyle of a griot musician also meant they were often fluent in several languages, a useful skill in a vast country such as Mali where many languages are spoken.

So continuing in this tradition some of Mali's most prominent musicians have recorded and released a song this week calling for peace in the country. 

Voices United For Mali features musicians from across Mali including; Fatoumata Diawara, Afel Bocoum, Habib Koité, Oumou Sangaré and Vieux Farka Touré.


 

Monday 14 January 2013

The orchestras of Independence

In just over a month myself and Moussa will go into the studio in Bobo Dioulasso to record the album. Twelve original compositions have been chosen to record with a lineup including two pentatonic balafon, Guinéenne balafon, the gourd rattle called yabara, and the distinctive calabash drum bara dunun.  I'm hoping to add some drum kit to a song or two, but otherwise the recording will be completely folkloric, deeply rooted in the regional traditions of Burkina.

Having played drums since the age of 10 and trained as a big band jazz drummer, I remember when I first encountered African drum kit playing.  The syncopation and intonation made the familiar jazz drum set sound like a completely new instrument, and I resolved to learn this style of playing.  With guidance from Makhou N'diaye who has taught me about Senegalese mbalax, and Rise Kagona who has taught me about jit and chimurenga music from Zimbabwe, I have learnt a new musical language and vocabulary to express myself with behind the drums.

In West Africa, traditional instruments such as the balafon have been influencing the playing style of imported instruments such as the electric guitar since the early 1950's.  West African musicians began transposing and imitating sounds and the scales of instruments such as the kora and jeli n'goni onto the electric guitar, whilst rhythms traditionally played on the djembe, dunun and yabara were transposed onto the newly arrived drum kit.  A distinct West African style thus began to evolve pioneered by musicians belonging to the new state dance bands created at the dawn of independence.

The new groups were the result of  policies of `authenticité'  favoured by politicians in the newly independent Francophone countries, and encouraged the creation of state sponsored groups known as orchestreGroups such as Bembeya Jazz performed and adapted a repertoire which drew on the rich cultural heritage of jeliya and the music of the griot, whilst fusing it with Cuban music many had learnt to play from listening to radio.

The style of guitar playing which evolved in Guinea was influenced by the highly ornamented style of playing the diatonic balafon.  Guitarists imitate the runs and trills of the Guinéenne balafon as can be heard on this recording of Bembeya Jazz.



In contrast a guitar style evolved in Mali and Burkina Faso influenced by the pentatonic balafon,  characterised more by repeated riffs and ostinato, as can be heard in the 2nd part of this film of Mali's `Super Biton De Segou'.


                                                             Super Biton De Segou

Note: the driving rhythm played by the drummer on the hi-hat which imitates the yabara gourd shaker