The Case of the Mostly Mali Mixtape

Today we return to some of my favorite music to share:  the remote and often obscure (to gringos) golden era music from Mali. 

Not everything today will be from Mali, and not everything will be "golden era" music of the 1970s. But the music today all flows from the same tradition:  traditional songs and oral history from the Mali Empire that stretched along the southern fringes of the Sahara desert and up the length of the Niger River. At its height, the Mali Empire encompassed territory from modern nations Mali, Guinea, Senegal, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, and Mauritania.

The culture of the Mali Empire included a caste of citizens (griots, pronounced "gree-o's") whose sole role in the community was to provide musical entertainment. Since these professionals did not learn to farm or hunt, they lived as beggars in their communities, relying on the largesse of others for their survival. And yet there was an esteem to this position in society, for they were a critical link to the history of the tribe. Without a written language, oral history was the sole method for preserving and propagating the exploits of dead hunters and rulers, along with other important local history. Griots learned ancient stories as songs from their fathers, and they passed those songs along to their own sons in turn. Some of the songs in today's shows are adapted from these ancient songs that still hold a key place in the Malian culture. Today the music of this ancient tradition is often referred to as "Manding Music," and the brilliant electric updates to this music that happened in the 70s became known as "Manding Swing."

We start today with modern Malian folk musician Bessekou Kouyate performing a duet with blues legend Taj Mahal... followed by Malian legend Ali Farka Toure. Then we begin a survey of vintage music from Malian orchestras including Rail Band, Sorry Bamba's Kanaga de Mopti, and Super Biton National de Segou, along with tracks from Guinea and Burkina Fasso.