Bamako Jazz Festival

So in my last post, I mentioned the "music of Bamako." Most of the time, I under-utilize this tremendous resource. However, this weekend I took advantage of two wonderful live music shows! On Friday I went to see Moussa Diallo trio (http://www.moussadiallo.com/index.php) and Andra Kouyate and his wife Mah Bara Soumano (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0dXRoYhuzI). Moussa Diallo was probably around 50 something, but was in amazing shape and just exuding energy - jumping around the stage, laughing, and dancing. He was accompanied by a jazz guitarist and a percussion guy - they definitely played a type of fusion - jazz, calypso, malian, and pop. The husband group were very cute - they played more traditional malian fare, but she has this really interesting vacuous/scratchy voice. They both gave each other a lot of props throughout the show.

Then on Sat, I saw this amazing amazing outdoor spectacle. 110 Belgians traveled to Mali to perform with Mali's own Baba Sissoko in a collaborative endeavor called Mali-mali. They set up an outdoor stage at this large conference center, hung bogolan in the background and made a faux baobob tree out of sticks and hanging candles. Then they strung white lights around the whole stage. The Belgians were dressed in reds and oranges and browns. There was a chorus, huge horn section (french horn included), and a bunch of Belgians with African instruments (djembes, koras, tamani). I am guessing it was a mix of real musicians and people who had taken part in a 2 year long African music class learning how to play these things. The conductor/co author of this thing was a short, bouncy, smiling Belgian guy wit a skater (circa 1992) haircut- shaved on the sides and long down the middle. Baba Sissok is from a family of famous griots and didn't disappoint with either his singing or his tamani skills. The music was this quirky mix of Cuban big band, cheesy french 70s soundtrack, and Malian folk. I absolutely loved it and encourage you all to check out there music:http://www.malimali.be/pages/spectacle.html. Below the flashing add on the lower right had side you can click on the speaker icon and hear some of their stuff. It was fun because everyone on stage was totally into it. Another surreal Saturday in Bamako!