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The Great Unknown Mailian Musician Habib Koite Samples His Country's Traditions and Cultures
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Boston Globe, The Great Unknown Mailian Musician Habib Koite Samples His Country's Traditions and Cultures >>
NEW YORK - Oh, you jaded listener. You don't know the name Habib Koite, and you want to know why you should care about one more musician from someplace you've barely heard of. Well, maybe this will put him on your musical map:
On the opening night last month of his 37-city march across North America, fans repeatedly threw money - tens and twenties, real money - at his feet or, better yet, pasted the bills onto his brow, moist with the sweat of his labor. Battle that, Eminem.
To be fair, an African tradition explains the anecdote, but doesn't it make you even a bit curious about a performer who inspires such passion in his fans?
Born and still living in the West African country of Mali, Koite (pronounced KWA-tee) is a friendly bear of a man with a mane of dreadlocks that sometimes obscure his startling eyes when he leans over his guitar.
Some attribute his popularity to his playing, but when asked, he owns up to very little.
"I'm not a real guitarist," he objects, quite reflexively. A singer, then? "I don't really sing. I'm not a very good singer."
Well, what then? Performer? Songwriter? Musician? "I am little little, each," he says finally, in fractured English, during an interview before his first set at Joe's Pub here.
This is the fifth time Koite has toured in the States since 1997, when his sophisticated guitar- and percussion-based sound called out from among hundreds of acts at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. On Sunday night, he returns to Boston for a third time since 2000, when he stole the show from a fellow Malian, and a headliner, Oumou Sangare at Somerville Theatre.
His visit this time coincides with new evidence that he is emerging from the din of musical unknowns, African or otherwise: He and his band, Bamada, provide the backing for Bonnie Raitt on "Back Around," a cut from her latest album. The two met when she went on an Afropop tour of Mali three years ago.
"I was a big friend with my grandsister Bonnie. She never tire!" said Koite, who is now 44. They've hooked up musically several times since then, though Raitt says that on this tour, she only watched when she attended his gig in Santa Cruz, Calif.
"I didn't think the band could get any better," she said last week, "but they were even more extraordinary this time. The fact that they've been together 14 years has brought them to a level of intuition and depth that would garner them acclaim in any genre."
Genre is a complicated question for Koite and Bamada, whose music is as varied as their fan base. Their first international release, "Muso Ko" in 1995, had a rock feel to it, but the two succeeding albums - "Ma Ya" (1999) and "Baro" (2001) - are more acoustic and folklike.
Banning Eyre, a writer and musician whose seven months living among Malian musicians resulted in the book "In Griot Time," is impressed by the band's breadth. "He can appeal to a jazz audience, a folk audience, and he's obviously a huge hit with the world music and the Afropop junkies," Eyre said.
One reason for their versatility is that together, the six band members play almost 20 instruments. Keletigui Diabate, who mans the balafon (an African xylophone) and who recorded with Lionel Hampton in the '60s before throwing in with the much younger Koite, plays some violin. Koite can handle the flute. Practically everyone plays percussion, most notably the bubbly Mahamadou Kone on tama, or talking drum.
A more basic reason for that versatility can be found in Koite's whole approach. Mali, a nation three times the size of California, has many cultures and musical traditions, and Koite countrymen who have mounted the world stage - including Sangare and Ali Farka Toure - have generally been loyal to their native style.
"Habib doesn't start from that point of view, so it allows him to sample different Malian traditions, and perform them in his own way," Eyre said. It's not the path an opportunist would choose; Malians have historically identified more with their ethnicity than their nationality, and didn't immediately take to Koite's musical Mixmastering, though he is now experiencing some of his world success at home.
Koite's roots are in the griot caste of the Khassonke people. Centuries ago, griots were praise singers who served at the pleasure of emperors while keeping their people's oral history. "But now griots are for marriages, baptisms, and funerals," Koite said. They aren't so much hired as engaged for an event, and they earn their way by working the room (which explains the money offerings).
Koite's heritage may also explain his winning stage presence, which allows him to seduce his audiences, even when he can't use the African dialects he speaks, or his fluent French. "I come from a griot family, and can talk for many people. Maybe I have it in my blood to stand in front of many people," he said.
Though Koite did not follow his mother's traditional griot path, he has become an important voice in modern-day Mali nevertheless.
"He's popular with young Malians," Eyre said. "He's very aware that kids who listen to his music are being seduced by hip-hop and reggae and foreign culture. He's not an old scold telling them not to do that, but he's looking at tradition and helping people see what's good in it."
Perhaps one reason he is taken seriously is that, unlike some African musicians who've gained world acclaim, he still resides in his homeland, in the southern capital city of Bamako with his three children and his only wife ("I could take four, but I'm never home," he said).
Though he says Mali will always be his home, his view is considerably wider. "Maybe I will become griot for the world," he said. 02/07/03
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