Ba's First Job Was to Play Covers of Songs by Phil Collins and Elton John

° B A C I S S O K O ° The kora group from Guinea are giving this most traditional of instruments the it’s still ripe with a playful, ambitious sound the Fouta Djalon’. ‘Adouna’ is an emotional Jimi Hendrix treatment. Rose Skelton talks to them about their new album that once again seeks to challenge people’s Ba’s first job was to play tribute to the place he holds dear in his heart – knowledge of kora music. covers of songs by Phil smooth background vocals accompanied by a nyone who’s familiar with the West African griots as they recount tales of play it. My father would say ‘Ba, you must “On this album,” says Ba “there isn’t so much steady reggae beat slipping into heavy base, delicate tones of the kora, the kings now long gone, but an instrument love the kora, you must love the music.’ But I electric distortion, but there are a lot of effects. Collins and Elton John dreamy kora effects and something that sounds 21-stringed instrument made that’s moving, changing, adapting, and above just thought, I’ll never be able to learn all Sékou has found some effects that give a very like an Indian tabla. It is a mature creation, from a calabash and cow skin, all, thriving. those strings. But he just said, ‘You must love different feeling. It’s much more calm.” both in style and production, and set to follow will know that its rippling Ba Cissoko’s debut album, Sabolan, was it like you are inside it. But most of all you Nestling amongst the reggae, the Sabolan as an album to grab the attention of Astrings and gentle repetitive rhythms are recorded in a single week so that it manages must be brave.’” collaborations with Somalian rapper K’naan both audiences and award-givers alike. above all, soothing. But there’s a new kind to retain the raw and confrontational feeling Things changed when his uncle, the and the R&B voices of female singers Les Back in Conakry, Ba has opened up a kora of kora sound on the block and it’s taken you get from seeing them live. The distorted famous kora player M’Bady Kouyaté, took Ba Nubians, there is a version of the old Mande school for anyone who wants to learn, everyone by surprise. kora sounds, the reggae rhythms, the use of to his home in Conakry to try to breathe favourite ‘Allah Lake’ which is sure to set regardless of ethnicity, sex or age. Even I, a Ba Cissoko are the four-piece kora band different tunings on the same track, energises some musical inspiration into him. Ba began griots and traditionalists bristling. woman, could come there to learn, he says, from Guinea. They’ve taken all the elements and challenges the whole notion of the to learn the instrument and was eventually ‘Allah Lake’ is the ABC of the kora laughing. It’s all part of Ba’s mission to of traditional kora music – the praise songs, Mande kora tradition – much as Mory gripped by the music of his ancestors when repertoire, and one of the first songs Ba ever modernise, in order to preserve a culture that the rolling rhythms, the honeyed melodies – Kanté’s song ‘Yéké Yéké’ did when it became he went to a kora school in the Casamance learnt. This version opens with a recording of he holds dear, yet isn’t afraid to experiment and applied go-faster stripes. The result is an an international dance anthem in the late 80s. region of Senegal. a rainstorm which moves into a slow, almost with. I ask him how his uncle reacted when electrifying, ear-piercing but wholly digestible “For ages our ancestors have been playing Ba’s first job playing the kora was at the dub-reggae sound. But with the wooden he first heard the music his nephews were sound that has made them one of the most the tradition, the tradition, the tradition. I said, Hotel Camayen in Conakry. The catch was xylophone, the balafon, maintaining the basic putting out. talked about groups from the region. why must I continue with this tradition? It’s not that he had to play covers of songs by people melody throughout the track as would be “At first he didn’t agree with it. He said, I first saw them at WOMAD in 2004. On bad, but we must try to modernise it, to spread like Phil Collins and Elton John for the standard in the traditional version, and Ba’s ‘We are the masters of the kora and the the stage was Ba, the leader of the group, it throughout the whole world,” says Ba. European tourists who frequented the hotel. deep voice singing the words, ‘It is God, not MARIS DAGNAUX kora is a traditional instrument and we playing a kora in the normal peaceful way. Despite this, Ba is not disrespectful of the “My boss gave me a pile of music cassettes man, who makes things happen,’ – it’s a (‘Silani’) is a bit Gypsy flamenco, then there’s must play traditional music.’ But I said, Beside him was his young cousin Sékou musical tradition in which he grew up. He is and told me to learn how to play them. I successful meeting of two worlds, traditions ‘Africa’ and ‘On Veut se Marier’ (‘We want to people must be able to experience not just Kouyaté, ripping into his instrument with simply, he says, trying to get the kora, in listened to the tapes but it’s not easy to play walking hand in hand like old friends. get married’) where we go into a reggae style. the kora, but jazz and blues through the vivacity, rolling his fingers up and down the danger of being lost in a world of hip-hop those songs on the kora! But there you go, I “‘Allah Lake’ was a song I loved ever since I Young people in Africa love reggae, so I kora. After that my uncle understood. He strings as he clenched his teeth, the and television, experienced by everybody so had a contract, so with a guitarist friend we started to learn the kora. But there are lots of wanted to give them a little of that,” says Ba. listened to the music and he encouraged distortion pedals at his feet helping to that it can flourish in the years to come. worked out the chords and started to play.” people who have played ‘Allah Lake’, so I said, A remarkable track on the latest album is me. Now he is really proud.” l produce this wild sound. Beside this young At school, in the mountainous north of Although we haven’t yet had the album why not do it in my own way, a little more ‘Adouna’, meaning ‘life’. Whereas Sabolan maverick stood Kourou Kouyaté, another Guinea, Ba was only ever interested in featuring ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ or modern. It’s the tradition mixed up.” seemed like the soundtrack to a city – the Electric Griot Land is reviewed on p74 cousin, thumbing away at the bass guitar and playing football. He remembers how he used ‘Candle in the Wind’, this musical training Whereas the first album, Sabolan, swung noisy, polluted rat race of Guinea’s capital, at the back of the stage, the lively drummer to feel when he saw his father, a griot and certainly gave birth to the style that Ba honed from the raw electric riffs to the distinctly Conakry – much of the second album seems You can hear a track Ibrahim Bah pounding on an upturned kora master, playing the music that he was for the first album, and developed for a traditional numbers, Electric Griot Land to look north, to the craggy peaks and verdant 8 from the album on calabash, the beat pulsing through the crowd. expected to learn and love. second. Electric Griot Land is a more toned- takes a more gentle, balanced, ground. plateaus of Ba’s home, the Fouta Djalon. the covermount CD The kora is, it seems, no longer just an “When I used to see my father playing the down creation – gone are the wild kora riffs “I said, why not touch on what’s going on ‘Life,’ shivers Ba’s voice from the hills of his and also on this issue’s podcast instrument to be played gently under trees by kora, I would wonder how I’d ever be able to that have become the band’s trademark – but around the world. So the second track homeland. ‘We are from Guinea, let’s go back to 42 Songlines November/December 2006 November/December 2006 Songlines 43.

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