BOUBACAR TRAORE
"Mali Denhou"
Boubacar Traoré carries within him all the beauty of African blues. A diamond among
the jewels of Mandingo music, he shines with the dark glow of exceptional purity. Only the
voice of "Kar Kar" (a footballing nickname meaning “The Dribbler” given him by his friends,
who also love the beautiful game) can blend Niger and Mississippi river alluvia with such
moving authenticity. His unique, inimitable, self-taught guitar technique owes a great deal to
his kora influences, but its shades and phrasing also suggest the great black bluesmen of the
deep South: Blind Willie McTell, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and others.
Back in the 60s when the euphoria of African independence reigned, the 20-year-old
Boubacar Traoré was Mali’s Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley. He was the first to play
Mandingo-based music on electric guitar, long before his junior, Ali Farka Touré. In those
days, Malians would wake to the sound of Boubacar’s poignant voice and saturated riffs. Hits
including "Mali Twist" (Children of independent Mali, we must stand on our feet / Let all the
young people return to their homeland / We must build the country together) and "Kayeba"
provided dance music for a generation who were enjoying freedom for the first time. But then
the celebrations and lyrical illusions ended. On the 19th November 1968, a bitter wind blew
across Mali when Modibo Keita’s socialist government was overthrown by a military coup.
Kar Kar and his songs were exiled from the airwaves. Returning penniless to Kayes, his
hometown in the Kassonké region (to the northeast of Bamako near the Senegalese border),
Boubacar became a farm worker, opened a shop with his elder brother - the one who had
introduced him to the guitar and given him his first one - and worked to feed his family.
He was rediscovered in 1987 when reporters from Malian national television visited
Kayes. “Kar, you have to come to Bamako. You’ve never been seen on television since it
began. Everyone should realise you’re not dead, you’re alive…” It was a renaissance for the
artist. “People were amazed to see me. Most of them had only heard me on the radio,” he
said at the time. Yet fate was to put a stop to Kar Kar’s musical rebirth. Pierrette, his beautiful
mixed-race wife, his muse, his love, died bringing their last child into the world. Despairing
and distraught, Kar Kar became a shadow of himself. It was then that he decided to look for
work in Paris, where he joined the community of Malian migrant workers and shared their
harsh life. “I was a building worker for two years,” is his only comment on this personal
experience, but one of his songs says it all: “You can be a king at home, but when you’re a
migrant, you’re a nobody.” The legacy of his time in the Barbès immigrant quarter of Paris
and the hostel in Montreuil where he sometimes performed is the flat cap the tall Malian
wears today.
In Paris, an English producer discovered him and took him to the studio to record his
first album, "Mariama", in 1990. Poignant, spare and melancholic, Kar Kar’s music had
changed since his youth in the 60s. Now it was more refined, the art of a mature man
expressing his heartaches and joys in song, his unique vocal timbre shrouded in nostalgia
and poetry. Boubacar Traoré’s life changed quickly after the record’s release. He recorded
another 6 albums: "Sécheresse" (Drought) in 1992; "Les enfants de Pierrette" (Pierrette’s
Children) in 1995, "Sa Golo" in 1996, "Maciré" in 1999, music from the eponymous film
directed by Jacques Sarasin: "Je chanterai pour toi" (I’ll Sing for You) in 2002, and "Kongo
Magni" in 2005. Kar Kar made up for lost time, triumphing on stage first in Europe and then
in the United States and Canada.
Boubacar Traoré is a discreet, exceptional artist. "Mali Denhou", his first album since
2005, was recorded in warm, friendly surroundings in June 2010 at Studio Moffou, set up by
Salif Keita on the outskirts of Bamako. Kar Kar worked with the same musical cast who had
performed with him all over the world for years. The first takes were laid down with his old
friend Madieye Niang on gourd and Vincent Bucher on harmonica, playing in live conditions.
Vincent Bucher is undoubtedly one of the best harmonicists around today. Influenced
by Little Walter, Big Walter Horton and Sonny Boy Williamson, he has toured with many
American bluesmen, including Eddie Shaw, Louisiana Red, Magic Slim, Melvin Taylor and
Robert Lockwood Junior. In France, Bucher formed a duo with the French-Malagasy Tao
Ravao and has played with many African artists, including Lobi Traoré (on 2 albums), Henri
Dikongué and Tom Diakité. An unsurpassed stylist with an intense, liquid technique, Vincent
fits perfectly into Kar Kar’s highly individual musical world. The Malian is full of praise for the
musician, who adds a touch of emotion and exceptional fluidity to his songs. Two of the most
highly-regarded young musicians on the Bamako scene - members of Ballaké Sissoko’s
group - also feature on several tracks. Mahamadou Kamissoko’s ngoni and Fassery
Diabaté’s balafon add a Mandingo ambience and a scent of the Sahel to Kar Kar’s universal,
timeless music.
Boubacar Traoré is respected and acclaimed in Mali, especially by young people.
They are rediscovering the artist, one of the founding fathers and great ambassadors of
modern Mandingo music. When his international tours end, Kar Kar returns to the piece of
land he has bought on a hill in Bamako. There, he raises sheep and works a vegetable plot,
his pride and joy. “In Mali, everyone is a farmer. It’s the most reliable way of making a living.”
(Biography written by Christian Mousset)
Discography available on Lusafrica
Je chanterai pour toi
(2002)
Lusafrica 562472
Kongo Magni
(2005)
Lusafrica 562482
New album MALI DENHOU
(released on February 2011)
Lusafrica 562492
promo@lusafrica.com
http://www.myspace.com/boubacartraoreofficiel