| [review w/ interview]
Habib Koité’s Bamada from Mali at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall, February 5, 2004 by Steven Mayers On a seemingly ordinary night of January 29th, Habib Koité and his five-piece band, Bamada, blessed the Great American Music Hall with mesmerizing blends of voice, strings, and drums. After the auditorium filled and music lovers found their seats, in front of which they would soon be dancing, the lights on stage faded on unhurriedly, and Bamada (which roughly means “a resident of Bamako,” Mali) appeared before us. Austere, crisp, five heads motionless as if cut into stone, and hands vibrating below in unison, striking skin and string, the beat began slowly, trance invoking, and then, slowly, the tempo and volume rise in unison and the song erupts into a volcano of light as they begin to dance, and Mahamadou Koné is running in circles while he leads the band into a call-and-response section, slapping furiously on a djembe hanging on a strap from his shoulder. This is the best way that I can describe the opening song that night. The slowness and naturalness in which the intensity of the song rose was analogous to the tide rising or the light rising at dawn, like a natural occurrence that we are fortunate enough to sit and gaze at in wonder. While Koité’s music incorporates a wide diversity of traditional rhythms and melodies from Mali in an array of styles popularly called Dansa Sonso, he unites his vision of future peace into his celebration of the past. At the same time as he envisions a time when all people come together though music and the technology that allows musicians to be flown over oceans and music and words to be recorded and transmitted around the world, he believes that world peace will come through understanding of our colorful past: folklore, mythology and history. He is truly one of the Earth’s rare musical treasures who possess this ability to look forwards and backwards simultaneously, envisioning the future by commemorating the past. Koité grew up singing and playing his guitar with his family, the descendants of a long line of noble Khassonké groits. He would listen to his grandfather strum the Kamale n’goni, a traditional four-stringed instrument of the Wassoulou hunters, and emulate the patterns on the guitar. It is this past of glorious hunts and an ascetic devotion to music that Habib Koité brings to venues around the world to share. Koité studied music at the National Institute for the Arts (I.N.A.) in Bamako and was made conductor of the school’s exalted band shortly after. Out of this focus and devotion have emerged four albums and an astounding musical career which has sent him orbiting the Earth on an eternal planetary tour. Interview F.T. (Felicite Tchaco): What do you think about the public in San Francisco? H.K. (Habib Koité): San Francisco’s public is the best of all I have seen so far. A band member: Out of ten, I would rate them a twenty! (Everyone in the room backstage is laughing.) F.T.: Is this your first time in San Francisco? H.K.: I have been to San Francisco before. This is my fourth time, which has permitted me to meet the wonderful and beautiful “Fely.” (After the show he jokes about wanting to marry Fely and to bring her back home to Mali! A band member reminds him that he is married and everyone laughs.) F.T.: What message would you like to give to Africans living in the San Francisco Bay Area? H.K.: First of all, I wish them a happy new year; I hope that we will know each other more. I would like them to gather together and come to support massively what African artists bring to America. I would like to see more Africans at my shows. F.T.: Is there a name for the particular type of music you play? H.K.: The kind of music I do is called “Dansa Sonso.” It is a mixture of different rhythms that we have in Mali. F.T.: Is this your first CD? H.K.: This is my fourth album but I have been doing music for many years. F.T.: Your music is so calm. H.K.: It comes from my character. It shows the kind of person I am. It reflects my personality. F.T.: Could you tell us the names of some African artists who have been your idols? H.K.: As I was growing, I watched Bosambo, Salif Keita, Ali Farka Toure, Djeli Medi Tunkara, and Sekou Bemba (Bemba Jazz). |