SPOTLIGHT

BOMBINO BY JOHN ADAMIAN

ombino might have been a truck driver if he Groups like and videos, an influence that hadn’t been blessed with a musical gift. The Etran Finatawa have helped remains clear in the ornate 36-year-old guitarist and singer from connect this guitar-based percussive flourishes of his left B creates music that can evoke the stark beauty of music with listeners from hand. Later, the government in the vast desert, while conjuring images of guitar- beyond Africa. As with those Niger banned the guitar among god flamboyance. The extravagance is in the playing, not in groups—and related artists like the Tuareg, since it was viewed the presentation. At its core, the music is humble enough, Ali Farka Touré—Bombino’s as an instrument and symbol taking ornamental touches and elevating them to hypnotic music is often labeled “desert of rebellion. By this point, levels. On his new album, Azel—his third studio recording, blues,” with its loping rhythms, Bombino was making a living which was produced by Dirty Projectors’ David Longstreth— modal grooves and call-and- playing guitar. When two of his Bombino plays a mix of electric and acoustic, sometimes response structures. Bombino bandmates were executed, he backed by a band, sometimes accompanied by hand drumming initially found a wider audience moved again, to , or clapping. (’ produced when Hisham Mayet, the on the other side of the Sahara. Bombino’s last studio album, 2013’s Nomad.) co-founder of the Sublime He was featured, along with Frequencies label, recorded other Tuareg musicians, in the Born Goumar Almoctar, songs, like “Iyat Ninhay,” open him at a 2007 wedding in 2010 documentary , the Bombino has a guitar style that with astounding double-tracked Agadez. Music and the Rebellion. For is pyrotechnic without being electric guitar statements and “Even today, I play a lot of many years, hostilities against showy. On “Inar,” his acoustic slide into ominous riffs that, set weddings,” Bombino says in an the Tuareg had been a source sounds out—stuttering grace against more plodding beats, email, which was translated by of violence in these regions at notes that turn back on might be at home on a Black his manager. “Weddings are times, but in recent years, the themselves, bursting forward Sabbath tune. His singing is the main source of income for political climate has changed in cascades like the sound of a soulful, and the tricky offbeat musicians in Niger, effectively.” and Islamic radicals have kora. At other times, Bombino accents give the music a reggae Niger hasn’t always been so become a more pressing thrums out droning notes with feel in some places. welcoming to the Tuareg. security concern. his right hand, while the fingers It’s emblematic of the music Following a rebellion in 1990, “At this moment, things are of his left hand flutter and pull of the Tuareg, the traditionally Bombino, then a boy, and his basically peaceful in Niger, away at the strings in rapid nomadic ethnic group that family fled to and later despite the grave problems figures that can sound almost lives along the Sahara in parts to Libya. These were formative in Mali, Burkina, Nigeria and like a bagpipe—the phrases of Mali, Niger and Algeria. years for him as a musician, as others,” Bombino says. “Of hinge and pivot on these kinds (Bombino has called some of he picked up riffs and techniques course, there are still very big of accents and filigrees. Other their hybrid grooves “tuareggae.”) from watching problems, and there are regions in Niger that I would say are not safe for foreigners, but, at the same time, Niger is doing better politically than I can ever remember, in terms of integration and solidarity among all the ethnic groups of Niger. We Tuareg returned in 2009 and, since then, the society has become much more open to the and accepting of our rights and our culture. For me, this is a major victory, even if we continue to have serious problems.” Bombino has been able to return home, and he currently resides in Niamey with his wife and daughters. “There is a magical feeling in the [Sahara desert] that you cannot experience any- where else,” he says. “And what makes Agadez special is the people there who are so kind. Agadez is a poor town but the culture there is rich and beautiful.”

24 | APRIL_MAY 2016 | WWW.RELIX.COM