Madou Sidiki Diabate - Buru Ju

LISTEN: (Look at "isten Tracks")


There is so much music in Africa and how much of it stays hidden in the public squares or in the villages or in the streets of the suburbs of the city, in the courtyards, in the huts, between the bush in the countryside or in the sands of the desert!

Africa is close sometimes, even closer than what we expect, but yet it seems far, like another world another century . . .

We have already written much about Madou “fitini”. His father Sidiki Diabate – it is with this name that Mamadou wants to be known – left very young Bansang, in north Gambia, because he went to buy a mosquito net. This is how he ended up in Kita, Mali, city from where his family came from originally. During the following years Mali played an important role in the independence movement, close to Modibo Keita, and also close to the mandengue music revolution, which today made Mali famous also in the north of the Mediterranean and on the Atlantic coasts.

Mamadou’s greatness as a jeli and as an artist is obscured by that of his big brother Toumani, real world-beater and a real innovator of the modern kora, a natural fact in the African social context, into which age is a very important factor to determine respect. But in the minds of those who have perceived the beauty of Madou’s unpredictable art, it makes no sense to talk about ghierarchy between the two brothers, because both are a gift for us all and for music itself.

Bansang - Sidiki Diabate's Family
The extraordinary experience of Toumani and his numerous projects besides artists from all over has allowed presenting kora music in a way that it can be fully understood and appreciated in Europe and in USA. Mamadou is on the same road, but in some way he is more tied up to his land, and his musical history still the prevailing factor is the experience of all African music played during social events like weddings and birthdays.

One could say that while Toumani is projected onto the global market, Mamadou plays mainly in Africa and for Africa. For this reason his album – and Buru Ju is not an exception – maintaining all the flavour and odour of the streets of Badjalan 3, the zone of Bamako where he lives. The music produced in Africa is more imperfect than the precise productions targeted World Circuit, but in some way even more genuine and real, like a domestic fowl or a quince apple.

Recorded in the studio of Bogolan in Bamako, Buru Ju is distributed only in Africa from Mali K7. Don’t think you will find it for sale, at least not for now. The copy luckily arrived in our hands has no cover notes, only the titles of the songs, so we find ourselves forced to assume who the musicians playing are.

The vocals are those of Mangala Camara, Safi Diabate, Mamadou Kouyate and – we think – of Tiecoro Sissoko. Except from Safi – Mamadou’s wife who here sings the beautiful Mariam Diabate, dedicated to their little child – the other singers are all borrowed from Symmetric Orchestra. On kora other than Mamadou we think there is also Toumani, while on balafon we think there is Fassery Diabate, son of Keletigui. More difficult is to guess who is playing the guitar, the bass and the percussions. We will try to understand it and eventually will update this post. The Buru Ju Ensemble has been put together for the occasion and it includes for sure some of the most interesting griots of the scene in Bamako.

Buru Ju is a stage of the evolution of a great artist, and while we write Mamadou is busy in new projects. The release of Mali Latino is not far, the project where Madou is involved besides the piano player Alex Wilson – with whom Madou has been collaborating from some years – and Ahmed Fofana on percussions. We will follow him along his path, and not for the feelings which tie us together with him and his family but because we are sure about his unquestionable greatness and his enormous potentials like those of a secret soul explorer.




Listen Tracks:
2. Famadenke
4. Moussini_Boutiki
5. Kora Kan
7. Mariam Diabate


Author: Madou Sidiki Diabate
Title: Buru Ju
Year: 2010
Label: Mali K7

Tracks:
1. Hommage a Mamou Djeman
2. Famadenke
3. Dondaman
4. Moussini_Boutiki
5. Kora Kan
6. Garraba_mamah
7. Mariam Diabate
8. N'Konoufo
9. Fissiri wale
10. Teri baro
11. Donki Saly