The Music of Mali Vol.8 - Rokia Traoré

In this sequel on Malian music we shift back to the future, to introduce to you one of the brightest stars of contemporary Mali music. Her name is Rokia Traore, and a man could fall in love just by watching her on the stage. Her gracious appearance and seductive moves are only the cherry on top of her incredible singing and mesmerizing compositions. It’s not for nothing that the great John Paul Jones ranks her among the best modern artists today. But not just him - here is a video (low-quality sound, sorry folks!) of Rokia playing with two of the greatest living legends of popular music, John Paul Jones and (the almighty) Paul McCartney:

Rokia Traore was born in Mali as a member of the Bambara ethnic group, but she was raised all around the world. Her father was a diplomat, and she traveled widely in her youth. In 1997, she linked with Mali legendary musician Ali Farka Touré, who raised her profile. She won a Radio France Internationale prize as "African Discovery" of 1997. Rokia released her debut album “Mouneïssa” in 1998 and received excellent reviews by the critics.

Discouraged by her family tradition to pursue a music career, Rokia decided to do it anyway. Although from a griot family, her musical style has little in common with the griottes. Her voice is smooth and gentle, and her arrangements make use of both traditional instruments like the balafon, n'goni, and kora, and the acoustic guitar and electric bass. That kind of sound is present on her debut release, but is most evident on her 2000 release “Wanita.” For “Wanita,“ Traore wrote and arranged the entire album, seizing the controls from a male engineer who believed that a young girl was incapable of handling the production of an album. The result shows a deeply personal and individual style that reflects both innovation and tradition. The album was widely acclaimed with The New York Times nominating it as one of its critics' albums of the year.

Her 2003 album “Bowmboï” has two tracks recorded with the Kronos Quartet but still sung in the Bamana language, and was awarded the prestigious BBC Radio 3 World Music Award. In 2008 “Tchamantché” was released as her fourth studio album, followed by “Beautiful Africa” in 2013 and “Né So” in 2016, one of the strongest studio releases by Rokia so far. With the six studio albums, thousands of live shows, and numerous international awards, Rokia Traore proved to be the pearl of Malian music, and it’s no wonder that she is one of the most sought after acts on the world music scene today.