An old guitar, a new muse
Malian singer finds inspiration in a rockabilly twang
BERKELEY, Calif. - After a decade of championing traditional West African instruments, Rokia Traore found a potent muse in the sound of an old electric guitar.
The singer-songwriter had been focused on preserving Mali's rich musical heritage, creating a body of distinctly contemporary West African music set to ancient instruments such as the balafon (xylophone), kora (21-string harp), and n'goni (six-string lute). These days, however, she's finding inspiration in the serene twang of a Gretsch, a guitar made famous by Chet Atkins, Eddie Cochran, and George Harrison.
"For three albums my projects were based on classical acoustic instruments from West Africa, and I wasn't inspired anymore," Traore, 35, said in an interview at the Jazzschool in downtown Berkeley. She celebrates the release of her bluesy new CD "Tchamantche" (Nonesuch) tonight at the Somerville Theatre.
"I thought I would like a blues/rock sound, not punk, not totally electric, but strong and soft at the same time," she continued. "One day I tried the Gretsch and I said, yes of course, what I want is something like 1960s rockabilly, and I started really working on this album."
With a purple scarf draped casually around her long neck, Traore looked as if she had just stepped off the streets of Paris, which has been her home for the past decade. In many ways, "Tchamantche" is just the latest expression of her lifelong quest to balance the various cultural currents she navigated while growing up.
Though she hails from the Wassoulou region and sings mostly in Bambara, Traore was raised largely outside Mali. Her father's diplomatic postings took the family to Belgium, France, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia, which left her feeling out of place both at home and abroad. Music became not only a vehicle for self-expression, but an opportunity to embrace her homeland.
"I never cut my roots," Traore said. "Every holiday we'd go back to Mali, and between my father's assignments. When we were in Europe I could feel that I wouldn't sing like a European, and it was very odd, this isolation. In Mali I'm not Malian enough, and in France I'm not a French woman."
Entranced by her older brother's copy of Stevie Wonder's "Innervisions," and her father's Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Serge Gainsbourg records, she started playing guitar at 16. By 18 she was singing on a Malian TV show, accompanying herself on guitar, much to the distaste of Mali's male-dominated instrumental fraternity.
With support from kora master Toumani Diabate and the late guitar legend Ali Farka Toure (to whom Traore dedicated "Tchamantche"), she introduced a shimmering, precisely textured sound on her 1998 debut album, "Mouneissa" selling more than 40,000 copies in Europe.
Her third album, 2003's "Bowmboi," reached a wider audience, winning the BBC Radio 3 Award for album of the year. Even then, Traore was stretching beyond traditional West African instrumentation, collaborating with new music pioneers Kronos Quartet on several tracks.
"She's one of my favorite singers," Kronos violinist David Harrington said from the quartet's San Francisco studio. "Her voice is so beautiful and distinctive, and there's something very noble about Rokia and her songs. Her music is very handmade."
The only female instrumentalist and bandleader in West Africa who writes and arranges her own material, Traore shapes every aspect of her music. She didn't completely abandon traditional instruments on "Tchamantche." From track to track she alternates, for example, between n'goni, an ancient warrior's harp, and beat boxer Sly Johnson (a member of the French hip-hop collective Saian Supa Crew). In order to capture the gritty Gretsch sound she wanted, Traore ended up recording in France with a British production team.
"A lot of the songs are narrative," "Tchamantche" coproducer Calum McCall said from London. "I grew up with traditional Scots and American folk music, and those forms are a lot closer to what Rokia does than you would think. She had a very clear idea of where she wanted to take things, and one thing the Brits do really well is earthy rock 'n' roll."
While Traore's instrumentation evolved, her themes have remained constant. Her poetic lyrics return obsessively to the fragility of love, though she also delivers pointed social commentary, urging Africans to eschew immigration, for instance, and build civil society at home.
Traore is following her own advice. After many years in Paris, she has built a house for herself in Mali's capital, Bamako, where she's creating a school to provide training in music and stagecraft to aspiring musicians and techies, particularly young women who don't hail from a musical lineage.
"Music is not just for griots," said Traore, referring to West Africa's traditional caste of praise singers. "In the griot region they are musicians. Women sing and men play instruments. It's been this way for centuries. I'm unfortunately a unique example as a singer, songwriter, composer, and arranger, and I'd like to be more common." 