Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and Bonnie Raitt are among the Westerners who’ve
collaborated with Malian musicians in recent times. Corey Harris was so intrigued
by his encounter with guitarist Ali Farka Toure (Martin Scorsese’s PBS
series The Blues) that he continued his exploratory roots odyssey by bridging
traditions from both continents to deliver 2003’s Memphis to Mali. Poised
to become “the next Cuba” in terms of potentially achieving a wider
audience, this collection uncovers what the enlightened have known for some
time: Mali possesses vast sonic diversity due to its proximity to Western Africa,
Islamic Arabs and the Sahara. Many selections feature the multi-stringed kora
(a lute-harp cross), the guitar-like n’goni and the bouncy balafón
(a wooden xylophone) that’s finely meshed with atmospheric electric guitar
piercing, nimbly-picked acoustic guitars and unobtrusive percussion. While
the aforementioned instrumentation may be at the arrangement’s core,
what’s intriguing is the subtly deployed ingenuity, i.e. Mamou Sidibé’s
hip-hop foundation (“Bassa Kele”) and Tom Diakité’s
lush, swirling background vocals (“Fala”). And instead of enlisting
marquee stars such as Oumou Sangaré and Toure, the future of Malian
music is represented by Sidibé and Issa Bagayogo as well as fortified
by late-blooming recording artists Idrissa Soumaoro and septuagenarian Kélétigui
Diabaté, who also serves as Habib Koité’s balafónist.
(Koité is featured here as well.) Peaceful, meditative and less intense
than its African counterparts, Malian music offers an organic celebration of
life in every sense of the word.