Downtown Bamako

Some downhome West African blues from Lobi Traore on an album caled Mali Blue. Probably the funkiest and rawest of Malian bluesmen and the one who most reflects a cross influence back to Africa from the Mississippi, Traore is a bit of a rebel who goes against the more aristocratic and hereditary griot tradition. Having said that, one of the patriarchs of that tradition, the late Ali Farka Toure, is a supporter who produced four of the tracks in this disk. The difficulty that Traore has is illustrated by the fact that the recordings here were made over a period of eight years, the most recent back in 1998 and this album didn't see the light of day until 2004. The more commercial success recently of the final Ali Farka Toure album, of Amadou and Mariam and of Tinariwen make the outlook for Traore a bit more hopeful. His music is drenched in the sound of the bars of Bamako and although there are some acoustic tracks, a lot of the music has wah wah pedal, sustain and distortion in a dirty kind of south side Chicago sound. There is also a lot of impressive blues harmonica, which isn't exactly indigenous to the region. Sadly, the booklet gives no indication of the lyrical content of the songs but any lover of blues should check it out.