Bamako Today (Buda Musique, 2015)
Under normal circumstances the first couple of months when musicians form a band it usually means working out a cohesive sound, balancing personalities and dynamics and getting gigs. It rarely involves a military coup, invading Islamist insurgents and hordes of refugees making a break for a safe zone. But that’s exactly what the members of Mali’s BKO Quintet did in 2012. The group released the recording Trad Actual Malian Sound in 2012 on the Athos Productions/Maraka label.
BKO Quintet’s percussionist and founding member Aymeric Krol recalls, “When there was a state of emergency in the country, even in Bamako we didn’t know what would happen.”
And a brave move it was, especially when facing a strict set of Islamists who would put an end to the music for good. Fortunately for music lovers, BKO Quintet kept going about the business of making music and the successes following the French military coming to the aid of President Diocounda Traore.
By all appearances and the March 10th release of Bamako Today, vocalist and dunun khassonke player Fassara Sako, vocalist and donsongoni player Nfali Diakite, jembe and backing vocalist Ibrahima Sarr, jelingoni and backing vocalist Abdoulaye Kone, percussionist and backing vocalist Aymeric Krol and jelingoni player Mbaba Sissoko would prevail.
Recorded somewhere in the Cevennes Mountains in France, really that’s what it says “somewhere in the Cevennes Mountains” in the liner notes, Bamako Today heartily blazes a new path in Malian music. Taking traditional Malian tunes, the group has broken down arrangements and transformed melodies to create a potent, powerful sound that comes across as sophisticated and fresh. Upon first listening, it’s apparent that this is no backyard bush recording with ragged, roughed over vocals or slack compositions. No, Bamako Today is overflowing with tight, neat compositions, plummy vocals and delicious percussion, donsongoni and jelingoni lines.
Mr. Krol states, “I hope we’ve turned the tradition upside down. That’s what we wanted to do, to create this mix of the past and the present. We call it the ‘Trad Actual Malian Sound,’ but what we want it to be is the new Tradition of Mali.”
Together with guest vocalist and guitarist Piers Faccini, guitarist Julien Raulet and producers and mixers David Kiledjian and Yoan Jauneaud, Bamako Today bowls the listener over with a nuanced vibrancy on the opening “Ntana” with its razor sharp vocals, guitar and a subterranean deliciousness fashioned out donsongoni, jelingoni and percussion. High octane tracks like “Beleba Chima” and “Kononale” prove to be just as carefully crafted and exciting.
Equally good are the bluesy “Comment Ca Va?,” “Djelike” and “Sacred Bird.” One of the standouts has to be “Donsolu” with Nfaly Diakite’s powerful vocals that will raise the hairs on the back of your neck.
Fans opting for the physical version get the goods with a booklet with some stunning photos and the bonus DVD BKO on Air by the filmmaker Cris Ubermann.
Mr. Krol remarks, “I met director Cris Ubermann and asked if he wanted to come along. He documented the real story of the band, even the hunter’s ceremony, and everything that was going on in the country at the time. We’re proud of it.”
BKO on Air is a wonderful look inside making of the BKO Quintet, the music and the life of Mali and shouldn’t be missed.
Buy Bamako Today
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
