As the long European winter draws in record companies start to look towards the more "exotic" musical acts on their books in the hope of hotting up the dancefloors. 2002 is no exception to the rule. In fact, this year the multi-national giant Universal is aiming for the big time with Electro Bamako, an album fusing the individual talents of traditional Malian diva Mamani Keita and French electro star Marc Minelli. With all the musical 'pillaging' that has gone on on the African continent in recent years, African purists might well be forgiven for rejecting this new fusion venture outright. But they'd be wrong! Electro Bamako whips up an infectious mix of Afro-electro groove and deserves an attentive listen - as do other new releases uniting French electro producers and African singers and musicians.

Frédéric Galliano

One of the first electro producers to seek inspiration in Africa was Frédéric Galliano. Renowned as a pioneering spirit in the French music world, Galliano released a first EP on the What's Up label five years ago, entitled "Nangades Maafric", which paid musical tribute to the African continent. And, after opening up the independent electro label F-Com to jazz (together with fellow French electro star St Germain), Galliano was the first to focus his attention on Mali in the late 1990s. Heading out to Bamako, tape recorders and samplers in hand, Galliano embarked on a veritable voyage of discovery and brought back a stack of old vinyl LPs. Adding infectious electro beats to samples of traditional Malian music from these records, Galliano introduced fans to 'Bamako-electro fusion' on two albums entitled "Collection 1 & 2".

Galliano then pushed his fusion venture even further, setting up his own label, Frikyiwa. The label has brought us an interesting selection of electro remixes of African music to date, but Galliano has also released an album of traditional African music, "Manding-ko" (by Hadja Kouyate and Ali Boulo Santo). While Galliano is currently busy performing live dates with Guinean diva, Hadja Kouyate, and the Senegalese kora-player Ali Boulo Santo, he has still found time to travel extensively in Mali where he has played with a number of local stars such as Nahawa Doumbia (whose album Yaala recorded in collaboration with French jazz guitarist Claude Barthélemy caused such a sensation recently). Galliano has also accompanied the likes of Issa Bagayogo, Ramata Doussou Bagayogo, Lobi Traore and Mamou Sidibe. One of the first Malian female singers to experiment with electro beats in her work, Mamou Sidibe acknowledges the difficulty of 'marrying' the traditional with the modern, noting that "It's not always easy adapting my vocals to electro music because the beat's so different." But, judging by her recent success, the struggle was worth it in the end!

Despite having been the first musician to export a sampler to Bamako three years ago, Galliano warns that the electronic music industry in Europe should be wary of 'mistreating' Mali's traditional heritage, however. "When samplers, rhythm boxes and other bits and pieces of Western technology end up in the wrong hands," Galliano says, "When they're used by European producers who aren't particularly gifted or particularly scrupulous, they've ended up 'polluting' African music and cutting artists off from their rich traditional culture. Personally, I'm very close to club culture, but I love traditional African sounds too. And, when I work with artists from Mali or from Africa in general, I try to keep our collaboration as authentic as possible, you know, steer away from any kind of 'neo-colonialist' approach so that there's a real musical exchange between us."
Isaac et Dany‘o – the Madioko Mobile

Like Galliano, Isaac and Dany'o, the two halves of the duo Madioko, are equally concerned about not 'distorting' the Malian sound. "There's one thing we really don't want to do – and that's over-Westernise the music!" says Isaac (a former member of La Malka Family's brass section). However, despite his reservations, Isaac acknowledges that "Malian music lends itself particularly well to electronic experimentation because it's based on a lot of repeating and superposing loops. Four or five years ago I remember I went to see Mama Keita in concert at the "Hot Brass", he says, "I'd just bought my first machine at the time and I was completely blown away by how Malian music – much more than Senegalese music which has too many breaks – was absolutely made to be reworked electronically!"

Isaac is of Tunisian origin and Dany'o traces his roots back to the French West Indies, but both former members of the group La Malka Family have 'adopted' Paris as their home these days. The pair's musical adventures on the African continent began when they met Philippe Conrath, director of the Cobalt label and organiser of the "Africolor" festival. Thanks to Conrath's help and chock-a-block full address book, Isaac and Dany'o suddenly found themselves exchanging their machines and funky brass riffs with a host of different musicians from Mali, Zaire, Reunion and Central Africa.

The major turning-point of Madioko's project came in December 2000, however, when they were invited to accompany the Malian artist Issa Bagayogo live on stage at "Africolor". Bagayoko, a former farmer from the Wassoulou region south of Bamako, had moved up to the Malian capital to work as a bus driver. But a promising music career had blossomed from there. And when Isaac and Dany'o played with Bagayogo at "Africolor", they were blown away by his music. So much so that the pair promptly headed out to Mali with a mobile studio, transporting several dozen trunks and hundreds of kilos of recording equipment in their luggage. Their destination was Koutiala, in the south of Mali, where they hooked up with two local stars, Abdoulaye Diabaté and Modibo Diabaté.

Dany’o, Madioko's bass-player, fell instantly in love with the kamalé n'goni, a traditional Malian instrument made of a dried gourd cut in half, covered with an animal skin and fastened to a long neck with five or six strings. "The kamalé n'goni is the equivalent of the teenage guitar in Mali!" exclaims Dany’o, enthusiastically, "Musicians who play the kamalé n'goni use a pentatonic scale – the scale used in blues music – so their style is very close to the funk, blues and jazz stuff played by groups like The Malka Family and Taudis Symphony. As soon as we started working with machines and musical programmers we realised we were basically playing a lot of triple-time rhythms which are actually really close to traditional African rhythms. So the idea of mixing the two together was inevitable really!"

On their new album R’N Brousse Madioko cook up an infectious mélange, remixing traditional Malian songs or, in some cases 'restoring' them in their original versions and respecting traditional rhythms and verse-chorus structures. Indeed, Madioko have put a great deal of effort into keeping the meaning of the lyrics and not chopping up musical phrases, inserting their electro beats and funky rhythms around the Malian singers and musicians. The enterprising duo now intend to take their project one step further, sampling snatches of vocals and random musical phrases to use over a more intensely electro base.

But there's no question of the duo sticking a few standard beats under a traditional Malian song and creating an easy club hit! Dany’o insists that one of the main lessons the duo have learnt from their Mali experience is respect for the country's communal groove. "In Mali we really felt that One Nation under a Groove thing George Clinton was preaching about," he says, "The entire nation's caught up in the same groove. There's not one style for teenagers and another for old people. Music speaks to everybody – to grandfathers, fathers, sons, aunts and nieces. Music belongs to everyone out there!"

Mamani Keita and Marc Minelli - Two Unlikely Musical Bedfellows

The improbable pairing of Mamani Keita and Marc Minelli is a question of chance and a few clairvoyant decisions made by producers and friends working at Universal. Because, let's face it, nothing predestined the Malian diva and French electro wizard to cross paths in a studio.

Born in Bamako, Mamani Keita was raised according to the ancestral traditions of the Bambara tribe until the age of 22 when the adventurous young singer flew out to try her luck in Paris. And there she honed her vocal skills working alongside the likes of Salif Keita, Sory Bamba, Hank Jones and Cheikh Tidiane Seck. Meanwhile, Marc Minelli, born in Le Havre and raised in Paris, was busy evolving on the rock and punk scene. Then, a few years ago, Minelli invested in his first machines and began experimenting with electro beats and before long he was on the look-out for interesting collaborators. It was at this point that a friend of his came up with the idea of meeting Mamani Keita, who promptly handed Minelli a DAT cassette of her vocals recorded over a simple guitar.

"I must admit, I was a bit perplexed at first," Minelli says, "I didn't know much about African music apart from Fela or Mory Kante and I wondered what I could possibly bring to Mamani's music – I just felt everything was there already! Then when I got down to work on the project I realised what a magical mix it all was. Everything was there in Mamani's music and the electronic beats brought out the full richness of it all."

Mamani Keita's reaction on hearing Minelli's Electro-Bamako fusion? "I didn't recognise my voice at all!" But today the Malian diva says she is "really, really pleased with the result". And rightly so! The subtle fusion of Mamani's Bambara vocals and Minelli's vibrant electro-jazz is an absolute joy to listen to and a lesson in respecting one another's musical culture. Not surprisingly, music fans have rushed out in force to buy the album Electro Bamako. And, after a twelve-year absence in Paris, Mamani Keita finally returned to Bamako as a local heroine. Proof that musical exchanges and return trips between Paris and Bamako will continue for a long time to come!

Elodie Maillot
Translation: Julie Street

R’N Brousse volume 1 (Cobalt/Melodie)
Electro Bamako- (Universal Jazz)
Frédéric Galliano and the African Divas (F Com/Pias) – due for release in April 2002
Issa Bakayogo - Timbuktu (MaliK7/Sixdegrees) due for release in February 2002
Nahwa Doumbia Yaala(Cobalt/Melodie)
Mamou Sidibe - Nakan (Cobalt/Melodie)