Some of the best music you will hear is coming out of Mali at the moment. Actually it may have been coming from there for quite some time however suddenly people are starting to pay attention. It’s possible that people started to notice the Delta blues of Ali Farka Toure (that’s the Niger Delta by the way), and then more recently the electric desert blues of Tinariwen who seem to effortlessly conjure up music that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck with alarming regularity. Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba have even won an award from the BBC thanks to their exceptional acoustic blues album Segu Blue which featured the West African lute of which Bassekou Kouyate is a virtuoso. And whilst all of the above artists appear, this collection also offers up some lesser known artists who haven’t collaborated with Bjork (Kora legend Tounami Diabate in case you’re wondering). Keletigui Diabate’s work on the Balafon echoes Roy Ayers mastery of the vibes, the piece here is all late night cheeky jazz, whilst Les Ambassadeurs Internationales big band jazz funk hybrid is something you never want to end. However it’s the acoustic strumming with fiddles, guitars, kora, even electric guitar, that captures the true Mali sound. You can actually tell a riff from a Mali musician a mile off. It is almost without exception deeply soulful often with heartfelt vocals that draw upon our experience of the blues yet with a distinctly Malian flavour.
Bob Baker Fish
