The music of Mali is old. But there is a gap in the tradition, called colonialism. For those who are not acquainted with the term, it’s a situation when someone comes to your homeland, makes you work for him without a salary, exploits your goods and your possibilities, telling you on top of all that you can’t sing or speak in your own language. Pretty nasty, but we’re not here to write about politics, sociology or history. Let’s just say that Mali was part of that colonized world for a long time, and the tradition of the peoples was put on hold for years, even centuries. But at the dawn of independence, came the urge to revive the forgotten, to emphasize the suppressed and to continue developing the culture that laid in the shadows of the enslaver for a long time.
After partial autonomy in 1956, as part of the Federation of French West Africa, Mali became independent on 20 June 1960. President Modibo Keita founded the National Orchestra A, led by Panga Dembélé and Kélétigui Diabaté, followed by Orchestras B and C. Music was state-sponsored, and the government created regional orchestras for all seven then regions. From 1962, the orchestras competed in the annual "Semaines Nationale de la Jeunesse" ("National Youth Weeks") held in Bamako. Based on a socialist model, these orchestras were heavily inspired by their Guinean neighbor Ahmed Sékou Touré, who a few years earlier made the African Ballet of Fodéba Keita his emblem and created the state label Syliphone in 1958. Unfortunately, the National Orchestra A only released one album in 1970 to ‘safeguard the Malian cultural heritage’, according to the sleeve notes. Economically fragile, Mali only followed the Syliphone example in 1970 with an ephemeral partnership between the Ministry of Information and the German label Bärenreiter Musicaphon, which led to the release of about 15 LPs, which have since virtually disappeared.
On 19 November 1968, Moussa Traoré overthrew Modibo Keita and took over the rule of Mali. He discontinued the support for the orchestras formed under Modibo and showed no appreciation for the Cuban influenced music that was prominent and popular in Mali. Instead, he called for a true revival of the traditional music of Mali, supporting those who played roots songs. In the spirit of national revival, two important bands were formed towards the end of the sixties - The Super Rail Band de Bamako and Les Ambassadeurs du Motel. These groups rose to become rivals over the title for the best national band. In October 1969, saxophonist Tidiane Koné from the National Orchestra A founded the Rail Band de Bamako. They became the first dance orchestra of the country and a talent factory where Kanté Manfila, Salif Keita, and Mory Kante started their careers and gained national fame.
In 191, Les Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako emerged from the ashes of Les Éléphants Noirs, a band from Bouaké in Ivory Coast. Les Ambassadeurs and Rail Band were the two biggest bands in the country, and a fierce rivalry developed. Salif Keita, perhaps the most popular singer of the time, defected to Les Ambassadeurs in 1972. This was followed by a major concert at which both bands performed. The audience fell into a frenzy of excitement and unity, and the concert is still remembered as one of the defining moments in 1970s Malian music.
Both the Rail Band and Les Ambassadeurs left for Abidjan at the end of the 1970s due to a poor economic climate in Mali. There, Les Ambassadeurs recorded ‘Mandjou’, an album which featured their most popular song, "Mandjou". The song helped make Salif Keita a solo star. In 1982 Salif Keita left the band and recorded an influential fusion album, Soro, which eliminated all Cuban influences and incorporated elements from rock and pop. But, we’ll talk about Salif Keita next time in the series on Mali music. Until then, enjoy “Soro” the album that made the transition from the early stages of the music revival to the internationally recognized Malian music scene nowadays.
