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Concert review
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EUROPE: The Guardian (London) , Concert review >>
by Pascal Wyse
You could feel it coming. It started with singer Mamani Keita asking "Ca va?" a couple of times between numbers. Then she stopped mid-tune and complained that we weren't dancing enough. Later she slightly bullied us through one of the riffs so we could sing along. There are few things more annoying at a gig than being told how to behave, and feeling that you are being told off. It was a shame to highlight the crowd's lack of histrionics, because there was plenty of quiet enjoyment. Keita, joined by Marc Minelli on sampler and guitarist Djelly Moussa, performed tunes from their Electro Bamako album. But this was a skeleton crew of the 12-piece group that made the recording. Minelli had his drums, horn lines, piano parts, you name it, all lined up on his sampler. Hit one note and a whole section of music plays.
One of the most unexpected twists in this combination of Malian melody and rhythms with electronic European beats is jazz. The little bluesy trumpet smears (Laydou), brushes on a drum kit (Abdoulayi Djodo), clarinet riffs (Nani) and swinging saxes (N'Ka Willy) make this a really unusual sound. Sometimes it mirrored the blues in the scales of Keita's cutting, beautiful vocals, and at others made a satisfying cultural curdle. Her voice surfaces from below the sound of the band, soars for a while, then lands again - no vibrato, but little trills and shakes along the way.
One of the downsides of automated backing is that the music can become inflexible. This affected Djelly more than anyone else who, though fine when picking and riffing, felt a little hemmed in during solos. He needed a band that could follow him as he built up the drama. His loveliest moment was a passage in which he and Keita were left to play together. It was if someone had suddenly taken his stabilisers off and he could pull the music around at last.
These tunes do really work. They combine clubbing grooves with Malian expertise in a way that keeps them distinct, rather than blending them together into a generic "worldy" mush. The trio clearly needed a little more reassurance from the floor, but the more live it can be made, the better.
04/19/02
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