"Malian musicians are all such virtuosos on their instruments - either that or they're really impressive vocalists. I feel like a trainee musician learning the ropes next to them!" Damon Albarn - mega pop star and media celebrity in the UK - speaks with touching respect and humility regarding his recent experience working with musicians from Mali. And when Albarn and his nine Malian counterparts took to the stage at London's Barbican Centre last month, the Britpop star seemed content to take a backseat. On 26 March the Barbican was packed to bursting with fans who had come to find out what Britpop's enfant terrible had got up to this time round.

Albarn, the baby-faced frontman of best-selling Britpop outfit Blur, recently surprised fans and music critics by stepping out of his safe pop pigeon-hole and taking the world by storm with innovative hip-hop/dub collective Gorillaz (featuring contributions from Specials's lead singer Terry Hall and Cuban music veteran Ibrahim Ferrer). Albarn's latest venture Mali Music, an album recorded between Mali and London, could not fail to pull curious crowds into the Barbican. But Albarn was in no mood for playing the superstar and lording it over his new-found Malian friends - "I'm here accompanying them and they're here accompanying me!" he announced to the audience pre-show.

A priori the British public are none too familiar with Malian music - "apart from maybe Ali Farka Touré and Salif Keita," says Nick Gold (the UK producer behind recent albums by Ali Farka Touré and Oumou Sangare). But when Albarn and his Malian crew took to the stage on 26 March, the audience seemed eager to soak up the vibes. Albarn (playing guitar and melodica) was joined on stage by a group of British musicians - two keyboard-players, a drummer, a bass-player and a guitarist - who all appeared visibly impressed by the talent of their Malian co-stars.

Meanwhile, the Malians looked a little bemused to find themselves playing in front of an audience used to the smooth running of a well-oiled rock machine. Indeed, Afel Bocum took it upon himself to apologise for the time the Malians needed to tune their instruments. "We have to pamper them a bit first, you know - they're not used to the cold here!" he announced. However, after a few last-minute adjustments the Malians were ready to roll and Neba Solo's balafon, Hama Sankare's calebasse, Ko Kan Ko Sata Doumbia's n’goni and Afel Bocum's vocals were soon echoing throughout the Barbican.

A Highly Original Mix

Snatching up his melodica, Albarn laid his enticing vocals over the Euro-Bamako melting-pot, delighting fans with a highly original sound. "This definitely isn't the normal Afro-Euro mix," commented Nick Gold, an habitué of Afro fusion sounds, "this album's got nothing to do with Ry Cooder's collaborations with Ali Farka Toure or a Taj Mahal album. I've honestly never heard anything like it before! This is a very personal work from Damon."

Perhaps one of the most interesting things about Mali Music - which, in fact, guarantees the album's authenticity, is that the album was not dreamt up by some commercially-minded producer eager to jump on the fusion bandwagon. The genesis of the album came from Oxfam's desire to send an 'ambassador' to Mali and the innovative approach Albarn took to his role.

"Over the past few years Oxfam has been trying to find new ways of getting in touch with a younger generation who've become increasingly less inclined to give money to the world's poorer countries," explains Albarn, "so the charity got in touch with me and asked me to go out and represent them in Mali. But I didn't feel very comfortable with the idea - I felt the whole thing was a bit paternalistic. So I told Oxfam that if I went out to Mali on their behalf what I wanted to do was make an album. The deal is that the Malian musicians involved in the project will be paid for their work and my share of the sales will go to Oxfam. But don't get me wrong, it's not a 'charity album'! I've tried to learn from the mistakes made in the past by celebrity fund-raising projects like Live Aid and Band Aid where people took a strictly short-term view of things!"

After locking himself away in his flat for endless listening sessions with stacks of albums by Malian artists, Albarn boarded a flight for Bamako armed with a couple of DAT tape recorders and a melodica. "I really like the melodica," he says, "it's a really sociable instrument - and highly practical too. Things would obviously have been a bit more complicated if I'd gone out to Mali with trunks of guitars and amps … And one thing's for sure, I spent an awful lot of time listening to everyone playing before joining in myself!"

When he finally headed back to London Albarn found himself with over forty hours' worth of musical recording which he then spent the next twelve months re-working and re-arranging on his computer. Thanks to the intervention of producer Nick Gold Albarn's demo tape eventually ended up at the Bogolan studio owned by Mali K7 (the sole record label in Bamako, run by a pair of Frenchmen). "There weren't really a lot of vocals on the album to start with," admits Albarn, "because I didn't understand the words. I was afraid I'd snip bits off in the editing studio and totally change the meaning of the songs!"
London to Bamako and back

The tape then fell into the hands of Yves Werner, a French sound engineer in Bamako (who has worked with the likes of Mali K7, Ali Farka Touré and Issa Bagayogo). Werner had been busy working with Malian singer Afel Bocum, who had just arrived in Bamako from Niafunké (a small village of some 3,000 inhabitants which lies on the banks of the river Niger a few hours' drive from Timbuktu). Werner immediately invited Bocum to work on the Mali Music project. According to Albarn, Werner's main role was to act as a "binding agent blending all the ingredients in the sauce together. He made sure the arrangements worked and the Malian musicians didn't have problems working with these new rhythms."

After Werner's interventions the precious tape was flown back to London again where Albarn added a few finishing touches before flying back to Bamako to work on a live version of Mali Music for the stage. "I really enjoyed all the to-ing and fro-ing and the constant dialogue between the two countries," says Albarn, "after all, that's pretty much what the project's all about." Afel Bocum admits that the Afro-Euro collaboration wasn't all plain sailing, however. "It wasn't always easy for us because we weren't used to being surrounded by so many instruments all being amplified at the same time! But I have to say I'm really happy with the result."

And rightly so Mali Music is an eclectic tour de force of an album, featuring everything from traditional African music, ragga dub and techno groove. In fact, it might best be described as Albarn's musical stream-of-consciousness as he travelled through the Malian landscape, recording tracks in Bamako, Niger and the traditional griot village Kela. All the tracks on the album are named after specific places ("l’Institut National des Arts", the Hogon) or local Bamako bars (Le Relax, Le Djembe etc). Questioned about the relevance of the bar references, Albarn breaks into a broad grin, declaring "I'm a musician and hanging out in bars is one of the perks of the job!".

Jammin'!

The only cloud on the musical horizon appears to have been a jam session recorded at Toumani Diabate's house at four in the morning. According to Diabate, he was most surprised to find an extract featured on Mali Music, complaining that to his ears the melodica and the kora were way out of tune with one another. However, despite Diabate's reservations, it appears to have been too late to take the track off the album. Besides Albarn, himself is more than happy with the track, commenting "I don't think it matters what it sounds like technically! What comes across is the atmosphere and the spontaneity of it all. That's what I like about it personally!"

Could Albarn be accused of having acted like a simple musical tourist in Mali, by passing the essential heart of things? "Well, I can't argue with the fact that I certainly spent far too little time in the country to get a handle on everything," Albarn admits, "but one thing I was really insistent on throughout the whole project and that was that I didn't want anyone to get exploited. I spent over a year of my life working on the project and I can assure you that every time I listen to those sounds I'm transported back to Mali in my head!" . One thing's for sure, the Blur/Gorillaz star has his heart firmly in the right place!

Article: Elodie Maillot

English adaptation: Julie Street

Damon Albarn and Friends Mali Music (EMI)
Afel Bocum Alkibar (World Circuit/Night and Day)