AS PART OF THE DOZEN OF RURALITY

Boubacar Traore

Blues Mandingo / Mali

+ DJ Ras Mali
Boubacar Traoré is the last Malian bluesman of his generation.

Guitarist, singer, songwriter, Boubacar Traoré has an inimitable and completely personal style. Self-taught, inspired by the Kassonké tradition – he was born in Kayes in northwestern Mali in 1942 – he, like all young people of his generation, discovered blues, rock, jazz, soul, music on the radio. Cuban and Congolese music. He has forged a musical universe unlike any other. Poetic, fluid, stripped down, his guitar playing is at the service of melancholy melodies inspired by everyday life, happy or unhappy love, the passage of time.

His voice, charged with emotion, with a warm and serious timbre, has not been altered by the years. His self-taught, unique, inimitable guitar playing owes a lot to the kora from which he was inspired. But there are colors and a phrasing reminiscent of those of the great black American bluesmen of the Deep South: Blind Willie McTell, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters... But it is on the banks of the Niger, in Bamako where he now lives, that he draws his inspiration.

For his new album Dounia Tabolo Boubacar invited musicians from the South of the United States crossed during his tours, Cedric Watson on violin and washboard and Corey Harris on guitar. And when he told them of his desire to add a cello and a female voice on the album, it was Cedric Watson who suggested Leyla McCalla to him. Boubacar's idea was to change the colors of his songs (standard or new) while keeping their original character. Between blues, folk, Creole, Cajun and Zydeco music, his new traveling companions bring a touch of madness and swing for Cedric Watson, the depth of the blues for Corey Harris and a discreet elegance for Leyla McCalla.

More than ever, Boubacar Traoré asserts himself as the living and lively link that still and always connects Mali and Mississippi.

www.bandsintown.com/BoubacarTraore

Distribution :

Boubacar: guitar voice
Baba Koné: calabash
Vincent Bucher: harmonica