Much of my time in Bobo Dioulasso and the early part of my apprenticeship has been spent at Baragnouma, a workshop established by Fabrice Berre employing artisan musical instrument makers from griot famalies. http://baragnouma.com/en/
The workshop produces balafons, koras, djembes and more, and as you approach the compound shaded by a huge mango tree, you are greeted with the rhythmic sounds of sawing and sanding and an atmosphere of industriousness and friendship.
One Friday afternoon when work was finished for the day, I witnessed an incredible impromptu jam between Adama Diabaté and Ousmane Traoré who is the featured accompanist on our album Kamélé Yeleen.
Ousmane (on the left) plays the solo part first, and then Adama before picking up the tempo for an amazing echaufement.
Since my first visit to Burkina Faso and beginning a musical apprenticeship with Moussa Diabaté, I have urgently wanted to introduce his beautiful music to a wider audience.
Moussa's moving personal story is one I have also wanted to help tell. And so whilst we were recording the album in Bobo Dioulasso this March, we took a break and Moussa spoke about his life and music.
You can hear Moussa's story, and music from the album in my podcast here
On a beautiful summers evening here in Cambridge we found ourselves once again guests of The Centre of African Studies. In front of a warm and generous audience it was our honour to introduce the album Kamélé Yeleen, and perform arrangements of compositions by Moussa Pantio Diabaté as well as our own repertoire.
Accompanied by images of the recording of the album in Bobo Dioulasso and of the hugely talented Burkinabé musicians featured on the recording, we performed Moussa's song "Malfaiteurs" as well as Folignouma's new arrangement of "Yiri Ba" (The big tree) transposed from balafon onto accordion and guitar.
This summer we will be travelling to France to perform at a festival, and busking on the streets of Cambridge. We hope to see some of you again soon!
Friday 14th June is the UK launch of Kamélé Yeleen!
Folignouma return to The Centre of African Studies to perform arrangements of songs from the album, and repertoire taught to us by Moussa Pantio Diabaté.
Join us from 7pm in The Alison Richards Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, for sounds and stories from the Sahel, accompanied by images of the recording of the album in Bobo Dioulasso.
We are thrilled to finally share all our hard work with you!
Recorded over 4 weeks in Bobo Dioulasso, Kamélé Yeleen is the new album and first international release by Moussa Pantio Diabaté. For this project, Moussa gathered together some of the finest musicians in town, creating the group Baragnouma to perform his original music.
Translating as The light of youth, Kamélé Yeleen sees Moussa urgently addressing the youth of Africa and the world.
Featuring lyrical balafon, simmering percussion, and passionate vocals, with
these ten new compositions and two traditional pieces, Moussa cautions, counsels and
encourages, inviting you to listen and dance to a sound both traditional and
modern.
Kamélé Yeleen is available to buy on CD at £10 To order please email lucaskeen@yahoo.co.uk
Track listing
“Kamélé Yeleen”
Moussa Pantio Diabaté&
Baragnouma
1.Fadeya Kélè Civil war
2. Malfaiteurs Wrongdoers
3.Balanfolaw djgui Allah Yé The hope
of the balafonist
The kamélé n'goni is a calabash harp of six or more strings, and a young instrument in the musical history of West Africa.
Made from a 1/2 gourd or squash, nylon fishing line of different gauges is used for strings
Stringed instruments made from gourds are found across the Sahel, and distant cousins of the kamélé n'goni include the three stringed bolon of Guinea, and 21 stringed kora.
The story of the kamélé n'goni though begins in 1950's Mali, when Allata Brulaye Sidibé took a much older instrument, the donso n'goni or hunter's harp,and modified it to create a new instrument, the kamélé n'goni (youth's harp).
The donso had for centuries been the musical instrument of the highly organised and secretive hunter's societies of Wassoulou, an area of forested Savannah in south west Mali near the border with Burkina Faso. The music of the donso was revered for it's power to charm dangerous animals, and much like the music and instruments of the griot, could only be played by those born into or initiated into the tradition.
The kamélé n'goni thus developed amongst the youth from a desire for an instrument which required one neither to be a griot or donso, and an instrument with which one could compose ones own music.
Allata Brulaye Sidibé was the first to record the instrument with his niece Coumba Sidibé, and modified the original by shortening the neck, adding further stings, and using a smaller calabash for a resonator. The result was a higher pitched instrument tuned to a pentatonic scale, played with just the fore finger and thumb of each hand.
A funky new sound was developed produced by quickly dampening and muting the open strings, creating staccato and syncopated rhythms. When accompanied by a djembe drum or simple iron bell, the new music was so irresistible to dance to there were even attempts by conservative elders in Mali to ban the instrument! It was seen as encouraging the youth to dance all night without inhibitions, at exactly the same time as as rock and roll was worrying parents here in the UK.
However like rock and roll, the kamélé n'goni had come to stay, and a generation of musicians would follow who have made Malian music world famous by blending the instrument with electric guitars and drums.
The great diva Oumou Sangaré has used the kamélé n'goni as the foundation of her sound. Revolutionising Malian music she has used the modernity of the youthful instrument to accompany her outspoken lyrics calling for change on social issues such as polygamy and forced marriage.
Oumou Sangaré accompanied by Brehima Diakaté, considered one of the greatest living players of the kamélé n'goni
Sill other artists such as Issa Bagayogo nicknamed `techno Issa', have experimented blending the kamélé n'goni with electronic music.
One Friday afternoon when work was finished for the day, I witnessed an incredible impromptu jam between Adama Diabaté and Ousmane Traoré who is the featured accompanist on our album Kamélé Yeleen.
